Review: Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson

James Patterson

Title: Confessions of a Murder Suspect (Confessions #1)

Author: James Patterson, Maxine Paetro

Published: 2012 by Little, Brown and Company

Pages: 372

Find it at: Amazon

My Rating: 3.5/5

Goodreads Blurb

James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family... and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: She was the last person to see her parents alive. The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. She can't trust anyone -— maybe not even herself. 

Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous -- and revealing -- game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?

My Thoughts

I've read several James Patterson mysteries, but few have as exciting and intriguing a set up as the first book in the Confessions series has. The last book by the same author I read was called Invisible, and it turned out to be my favourite James Patterson so far. I had really high hopes on this one just as the story began, but it did not live up to those high expectations.

It's a good story, actually. The Angels have always been high achievers, above normal, exceedingly smart. Malcolm and Maud Angel are demanding, strict parents, but they have their children's best interests at heart. With their careful and calculated manner of parenting - watching strictly educational movies, learning foreign languages and geography, having exceedingly high IQ levels. The children excelled in their fields, but they didn't know what it was to be normal. What would happen when their ultimate support system is ruined? Are they strong enough to handle that?

Tandy Angel, the sixteen year old daughter of Malcolm and Maud, addresses the reader and gives the story from her perspective, beginning from the night her parents were found dead in their room. She realizes that apart from the Angel kids and Maud's personal assistant Samantha, no one was in the house. That is a terrorizing thought, and soon enough, the Angel kids, especially Tandy (Tandoori) Angel, are suspects in their parents' murder.

Among uncertainty and doubting each other, the kids grieve in their own ways, strange to an outsider but perfectly normal to each other. Uncle Peter, their guardian, arrives at the scene, now the sole owner of Angel Pharmaceuticals, previously co-owned by his brother, Malcolm. Maud was a high profile financial agent. Tandy is distrustful of everyone around her - her twin Harry, her younger brother Hugo, her elder brother and NFL superstar Matthew, Uncle Peter, Samantha, their neighbours, and even herself. She's been raised in a way that made her emotions nearly non-existent, a good thing according to Malcolm and Maud, for it improved focus. Her memory of certain events of the past is hazy, thanks to countless sessions with their counsellor.

The atrocity of her parents' deaths, the rude intrusion into their apartment, and their life, makes Tandy pledge that she would find out the killer, even if her siblings hate her for asking such questions. She begins her very own investigation, throwing into focus the dysfunctional manner of the Angel family, the past and many hidden secrets. She discovers her own secrets in the process, trying to figure out the identity of the real Tandoori Angel.

Even though the ending was a bummer, it was a good story with respect to a family driven into the quest for perfection, and going to any limit to achieve it. What was disappointing was the manner of narration and writing. Regular questions that seemed familiar, delaying information consistently by saying 'that's for later', hinting that the killer could be Tandy herself, are things that somewhat marred the fun of reading. I get that those hints were meant to keep the reader guessing, but because it happened very frequently, it succeeded in pissing me off instead. Not a very impressive tool, really. Perhaps it would have been more effective had it been used only a couple of times.

I liked how the story involves a personal history and development of the siblings along with solving the mystery. Even though for a crime thriller, it should have been more focused on solving the crime with lots of twists. There were twists, but very few of them. I would see this more as a mystery intertwined with emotions and family drama than a thriller. It is the first book in a thrilling teen detective series. At the end of the book, Tandy decides she wants to become a detective, so I guess more stories are in progress. I'm hoping they would be better and up to their potential. Nevertheless, it is an entertaining read for when you have nothing else. At least till the end, it keeps your heart pacing. 

“Anne Frank wrote, ‘How true Daddy’s words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.'” 

Thank you Random House publishers for this book. :)

Book Talk: Across Many Mountains by Yangzom Brauen

Yangzom Brauen

Title: Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters of Tibet

Author: Yangzom Brauen

Published: 2011 by Harvill Secker (Random House)

Pages: 312

Find it at: Amazon

Genre: Memoir

My Rating: 4/5

There was very little about Tibet that I had known until a few weeks ago. It’s strange how little we really see in the world around us, even when we’re surrounded by so many things, each a different story. I’ve come across people originally from Tibet in my own city, but apart from the fact that they were refugees, I knew little, and didn’t even pause to reflect why they were here. I was aware of the Chinese invasion, but what I’m trying to say is that even when we have our facts right, we might not have considered the reality behind it.

Across Many Mountains is a memoir, written by actor and activist Yangzom Brauen, a Swiss-Tibetan young woman. This book chronicles the lives of three Tibetan women belonging to three different generations, their relationship with Tibet, their homeland, and how their lives revolve around it.

Kunsang is six years old when she lost her mother to food poisoning in old Tibet. There are no doctors, only self-quarantine and prayers. Sonam, Kunsang’s daughter, is six years old when her parents realize it is no longer safe for monks and nuns to stay in Tibet, because the Chinese are destroying their culture, and lives. They travel with a secret group through the treacherous Himalayas for the safety of the land that gave refuge to the Dalai Lama, their guru. Kunsang carries her smaller daughter on her back while her husband Tsering carries their belongings. Little Sonam treks alongside, trying to keep up. Yangzom, Sonam’s daughter, is six when the three women return to old Tibet for the first time, a deeply moving experience for them.

This story does a lot more than talk about a girl, her mother and her grandmother hailing from Tibet. It is an attempt to capture the full magnitude of an event of the past, and how it has affected not just thousands of Tibetans and their future, but also the world. Vivid descriptions of Kunsang’s life as a nun in the high mountains, her beliefs similar to those of her fellow Tibetans, rituals and traditions, and simplistic lifestyles and beliefs make a reader aware of a long-lost world, a world that was real for thousands of people but was crudely wrenched away from them.

Kunsang is a figure of bravery, strength and perseverance. She’s also my favourite person in this book. No matter where life takes her, she has continued believing in her faith. Sonam represents a person who’s always in search of something bigger than herself. Since she left Tibet when she was six, stayed at refugee camps in India and different places like Shimla and Mussoorie, she had grown up trying to find a place to call home. When young Martin Brauen, who had fallen in love with her, wanted to take her and Kunsang to Switzerland, Sonam wanted to buy their own home, a place she could confidently call her very own.

Yangzom’s life was spent learning Swiss German and Tibetan at home, living in a family with mixed cultural values, and finding her family actively participating in peaceful protests for liberation of Tibet. All these early influences, along with a trip to Tibet, influenced her deeply. When she became an actor, she realized that she wanted to do something else too, something that would be meaningful. There was nothing better than dear, old Tibet, so Yangzom found herself leading the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe and anchoring in The Tibet Connection.

The language of the book is simple and easy to comprehend. It might seem a little difficult if you’re completely unacquainted with the culture of Tibet, but it will get better with careful reading. I finished the book on the second attempt, after I had done a bit of research on the Dalai Lama and Tibet for work. It seemed quite simple and very interesting the second time around. If you are keen on learning more about the people who practice Buddhism, or about Tibet and its culture, or simply because you like a good, real-life story, this book will give you a lot to learn and appreciate.

"'Being reincarnated as a human is as rare as gold,' she always says. 'If you are born a human, you must not waste your existence.'"

Thank you Random House publishers for this book! :)

Selected Short Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto

Saadat Hasan Manto

Popularly known as Manto, this short story writer is one of the greatest, as well as the most controversial, writers of India (shifted to Pakistan after Partition, so became popular as a Pakistani writer). His stories, originally written in Urdu, are simply narrated, having an essence of lyricism, metaphors and deep insight into human nature. This collection of stories has been  carefully translated by Aatish Taseer, and done in a way that is said to have maintained Manto's original style and its effect. 

Title: Selected Short Stories by Manto

Translated into English by Aatish Taseer

Published: 2008 by Random House India

Pages: 158

Find it at: Amazon

This collection has twelve translated stories, covering a variety of themes including partition, dogmas, women and society, sexuality, politics, and religion. The book begins with the author's introduction, which is a must-read if you are (like me) a first-time reader of Manto's stories, and wish to get an insight into the relationship between his Urdu stories and its translations. He has talked about his own experience and the declining fate of Urdu language. It greatly enhanced my reading experience as it gave a glimpse into Manto's literary life, influences and ideas. I have personally been fascinated with short stories that narrate stories worth telling in a novel, in just a few pages. Those stories have memorable characters, places and habits that come back to you at a later time. Manto's stories have that quality, and a lot more that's hard to describe in words.

The first story, Toba Tek Singh, is a well-known story. People in an asylum have spent years together in that enclosed space, and have absolutely no idea about what's happening outside. They don't know about the partition or what it means, so when a ridiculous proposition comes for some of the inhabitants to leave the asylum and go to 'India', they're pained by the thought of leaving home. It's the story of a man in the asylum who mutters a distinct string of words ending with random phrases, who cannot find his identity. Imagine my surprise when I mentioned the story's title to my dad, he immediately narrated the distinct phrase used by that man! 

Another story that struck me the most was For Freedom, that describes the travails of young blood during the freedom struggle, the hopelessness of politics and what it meant to the common man. Khaled Mian is one story that struck me as intense, cleverly invoking deep and hidden fears in the reader as it implicitly brings out the deep fears (fear of a loved one dying, or coming to harm, for example) in the main character and make him act the way he does. There are other such stories, all of which have been written in simple, yet metaphorical language that you would want to read slowly, word by word, because each word has meaning. This is one of the amazing things that good short stories do. To add to that, the impressive way in which Manto seems to understand human sentiments at the basic level, and is able to narrate those around a gripping, simple story, is sure to make you want to read more of him. That's because he doesn't talk about human sentiments like others, he chooses the most basic ones, and ones that many writers shy away from. He's also true in his stories, for not many have 'happy endings'. He tells a story as it is. 

Manto has been called a storyteller of Bombay. That was the city he supposedly loved the most, and wrote about the most. Capturing the essence of the place and the people, he has written numerous stories, a small portion of which have been translated and presented in this collection. Another thing that strikes you is that while India and Pakistan remain bitter about the partition, Manto's stories (as well as those of other writers like Ismat Chughtai and Parveen Talha) evoke the real feeling of loss that real people suffered. 

Saadat Hasan Manto has been tried for obscenity in his stories numerous times, but his open acceptance of human nature, choice of equality over orthodoxy, and compelling stories of people who identify themselves as humans, has always won over those issues. These stories are certainly powerful and inspire a reader to think. I admit to not really understanding the real meanings of some stories as they ended, or understanding the meanings of implied language, but that led me to look up Manto on Google, and am I impressed or what! If you'd like to make a foray into Urdu literature, old Indian stories, Manto is a must-read. Some stories are suitable for everyone, while some I would categorize into the mature category.  

 "What I have learned is that going against nature is in no way, under no circumstance, bravery. It's no achievement to kill yourself through abstinence, or to endure it. To dig your grave and get in it, holding your breath for days, to sleep for months on a bed of sharp nails... - stunts like these would bring neither God nor freedom. And from what I understand, the only reason India is still not free is that we've had too few leaders and too many stuntmen... They've found a politics that stifles truth and goodness of character and it's this same politics that has made the struggle for Independence so blinkered."

Thank you Random House Publishers for this book! :)

Reading list for 2015!

Here's proof!

When I think about the past year with respect to reading, the dominant thought is about somehow completing the Goodreads Reading Challenge. Midway I'd realized that it'd be difficult to achieve that goal, but I was stubborn about not reducing it, and hence ended up scouring for tiny books to make it happen. Of course, I also loved reading those books, tiny or large, but it didn't feel right. Plus, it's been three years of quantitative reading goals, so this year, I've planned a change. I'll read a lot, of course, but I wouldn't count the number of books. I would make choices based on what I 'feel' like reading, and not because it's a bestseller and I 'have' to try it. I wouldn't look at the size either. 

~ 2014 Review ~

It was a good year for books and reading. Not only did I read more classics and different genres, I looked at books and stories with an even wider perspective. Beginning my professional life that's also centered on books, I had more exposure to the different kinds of books, themes and readership. It was incredible, and it was fun. Now that the base has been set, I'm sure the coming year would be mature and super exciting with books.

Some noteworthy books from what I read the past year would include:

1. Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. I hadn't read Poe before, and it was a nice surprise to discover the genre in which he wrote. It was just so different, and remarkably crazy, from what I'd ever read. The Tell Tale Heart would be my favourite of the lot! 

2. More classics. I finally got down to reading Dracula by Bram Stoker, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and a few others. These were mostly because of an online course I undertook, but still. They were just so worth it!

3. The Quilt and other stories by Ismat Chughtai. A well-known Urdu writer, Ismat Chughtai writes about women in bold prose and clever writing. It was great to read a writer like her. ^_^

4. The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey. So wonderfully different in terms of story and writing style!

5. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith. Successor to Robert aka J.K. Rowling's The Cuckoo's Calling. Cormoran Strike is as incredibly observant as ever.

6. Fida-e-Lucknow by Parveen Talha. A heart-warming collection of stories based around the partition of India. It recounts stories from Lucknow, the culturally rich city in UP, India. If you've been wondering what it was like for those whose families were forced to move to Pakistan, you could pick up this book.

7. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. Among those rare books whose movies are just as good! :D

8. Wonder by R.J. Palacio. A heart-warming story of a boy with a facial deformity, Wonder talks about kindness, childhood, tolerance, family and human relationships. 

These were majorly the books I remember with utmost vividness and fondness. Funny that only around 10 books of 61 made it to this list. I hope going the qualitative way would give better results.

~ 2015 List ~

Considering the piling number of books that lie unread at home, my reading goals this year would be to:

Some of 'em!

# 1. Reread favourite books

Until a few years ago, I used to read the same, good books over and over again, getting new ones sparingly. Although reading variety and different genres has been amazing, and I'd still continue that, I'd also be rereading those books I've read so far and loved. These would include:

1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (Started with The Philosopher's Stone. The awesome feel! *_*)

2. Wonder by R.J. Palacio (this time, with The Julian Chapter)

3. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

4. A secret book I share with a friend.

# 2. The forever-been-pending books

Those books I'd always meant to read but so far haven't. It is seriously worrisome when you see unread books going yellow. Yikes!

1. Magic Flutes by Eva Ibbotson 

2. Short Stories by Anton Chekov (Plus, this is a borrowed book. It should be a priority.)

3. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult (Gifted ^_^)

4. His Dark Materials trilogy (Gifted again! ^_^ This would be read with great enthusiasm. It seems very cool.)

5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Note to self: Don't be scared. I've heard it's slightly more manageable than A Thousand Splendid Suns when it comes to the emotions department.)

6. And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (Depending on whether or not I survived The Kite Runner. And depending on the time gap between the two.)

7. The Hundred Names of Darkness by Nilanjana Roy. Have I gushed enough about how I got a chance to meet this author and found out she's just so sweet a person? Being a fan of her debut novel The Wildings, I attended the launch event of her second book. That's a different matter that it's been just over a year since then and I haven't read it yet. This will be one of the books I'll be picking up really soon.

8. 365 Days of Wonder. This cute collectible has 365 brilliant precepts and quotes to make life meaningful and easy to understand. It's based around Wonder, and it's wonderful!
9. The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam. Saw it once in a fabulous bookstore, then found it after months at a great price somewhere else.
10. Love Among the Bookshelves by Ruskin Bond. It's an autobiographical sort of book, it seems, talking about how Ruskin Bond fell in love with reading and what inspired him. This was a thoughtful gift from a friend. ^_^

# 3. Classics

This will include the unread books in the TBR pile, plus a select few, popular books. I haven't yet decided on the titles for the latter category, because I want to make that choice whenever I feel up to it, or when I come across something that really excites me. For the former category:

1. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (bought on impulse)

2. Rip Wan Winkle and other stories. I've had this book since forever, but never got down to reading it. Let's just get this over with!

3. 1001 Arabian Nights. The edition I have is pretty cool. It doesn't seem much to look at, but when you find it written in non-simplified English, almost like (or exactly like) the original, with footnotes for explanations, it's hard not to feel excited. I mean, I didn't even know the background of these stories until I got the book. It's a big book, so I might be keeping it for bedtime reading. It'll take months if read purely for pleasure.
4. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Frankly, it was Cormoran Strike who made me want to read Sherlock after years!

# 4. The for-review pile

This one would be the hardest to get through, but it has to be done. Those pending books won't let me be unless I write about them. There isn't a list for those either. It'll be pick-and-choose! 

# 5. Listen to 'em
I think I'll listen to at least five audiobooks. I've so far experienced just one, The Secret Garden. Though I still don't consider it in the same league as reading, I'd like to try some. Any recommendations?

This is it for now. Do you find yourself associated with any of these? Would you recommend something to me? :) What are your reading goals for this year?

The Quilt and Other Stories by Ismat Chughtai

Sometimes as readers, we’re so enamoured by stories, books, themes and writing styles that are foreign to us, and to our culture, that we spend less time digging into the literary scene of our own country. Perhaps that’s because we choose those contemporary books that go super-popular and have snazzy titles, but later realize that they’re not even close to our preferences. So we avoid it altogether, not trying too hard to experiment. But then in between those rare trials, we find a book(s) that’s not on a bestseller list in the present scene, but is relatively well-known to a small section of people who’ve read it. We realize that digging deep and experimenting aren’t all that bad, and we give it more chances, and most of the times when we’ve got a hang of the kind of thing that’d be good for us, we come across more such titles and stories. We love them!

Ismat Chughtai

One such book I read is called The Quilt, Stories by Ismat Chughtai. She was a courageous Indian Urdu writer who was also a fierce feminist, and in her stories, explored themes of female sexuality, middle-class gentility and other areas of social reality.  

This collection has ten short stories, nearly all of them centred on feminism or having female characters bravely depicted just as they really are. These stories do not create fantasies or promote wishful thinking, but are descriptions of people and life as we all might have seen around us. One might think that the absence of a ‘happily ever after’ would make the stories depressing or non-hopeful, but the effect is opposite. You would be left thinking about them for a long time afterwards, and probably would feel even more close to them, just for the realness of them.

Be it the story of a child bride, getting beaten up and abused by the in-laws, yet having her own innocent ideas, or that of a woman scared of childbirth; be it a story of a woman who spent thirty years not getting over the man she loved, or that of a domestic worker thinking of the Englishman as her man – the stories do not shy away from presenting stories of people who’re very much real, very much messed up and whose stories are looked down on.

The beauty in Ismat Chughtai’s stories is in the writing style and the realism, the frankness and light-heartedness with which they’ve been narrated. If the translation manages to make a reader love those stories, no doubt the original Urdu version would be amazing! I’m finding it a little hard to describe the writing style. It’s simple, yet the stories are narrated in a way that you just cannot stop reading! Half the things are not direct, but implied, and that makes this narration just so unique.

One of my favourite stories in this collection is called Roots, and is about two families from different religions, living next to each other with utmost friendship that spanned three generations. That was a time when partition was limited only to a joke, but then it started becoming a reality, extended family and relatives started flocking in to the two houses, and a deep chasm was created in between them. After many, many years when the lady of the house refuses to leave for Pakistan along with her children, the story reflects her pain, confusion and memories associated with the place. Where is home? What is this stupid thing called ‘our land’? Is it not here, where she was married, where her children were born and where her husband lay buried after fifty years of marriage? This, and other stories like these do not talk about politics or superficial ideas, but the small lives of real people who just want to live a love-filled and happy life.

I’d recommend this book if you’re interested in stories that explore women and their lives, Urdu literature, popular classical authors, or Indian stories. It’s a light-read that would definitely leave you with something to remember.

Find it at: Amazon

Translated by M. Asaduddin in 2001. Published by Penguin Books in 2011.
Recommended to me by a super-duper friend!