Select Edition - Reader's Digest

Reader's Digest - Select Editions

1) The Murder Artist by John Case
2) Start From Here by Sean French
3) At Risk by Stella Riminton
4) The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

All the above stories are selected by Reader's Digest & printed as Select Editions.

I wish to write few things as under :-

The Murder Artist
by John Case

This is one of the gripping story I have ever read. It has kept me wondering what will happen next. It is the story of father, who's twin sons got lost in carnival. On learning that he is divorce, police suspects him. They also found some sort of evidence in the house. Even when he declared innocent, his problems do not finish as police were unable to trace his twins. He decided to take the investigation into his own hands. This starts his journey to various parts of world & he discover that his children are in grave danger. He has to act very fast & to fight a lone battle to save his children. Story has important angle & element of voodoo & magic. It is very terrifying & unnerving some times.

Start From Here
by Sean French

This is very different story explaining & wondering too, the role of Actuary (statistician) who based on some mathematical formula decide the trend of events. I am sure you do not understand what I am talking about.

The story has a thin line & basically play around with insurance fraud claims & free life of hero.

At Risk
by Stella Riminton

In this story, the pace is very slow & things do not get connected very clearly in first reading. Lots of things happening & slow pace reduces the impact. The story is about 2 terrorist planning a attack & group of British police countering them.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith

The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency is story about a lady detective Mma Ramotswe, who opens the detective agency & solves the mysteries around her neighborhood.

The story details the initial years of her life & goes on with her story of cracking cases to the satisfaction of her clients. Story is very interesting & I like reading it.

--

Khushal
19/06/2009

Books - Kahani & Manjarnama - By Gulzar

Dear Friends,
I have recently read 3 books in Hindi titled
Libaas – Kahani & Manjarnama
Aandhi -Kahani & Manjarnama
Meera - Kahani & Manjarnama

Manjarnama in Hindi refers to Situation as seen, it also refers to screen play or scenerio.

This books are actually the script of the movies made by Gulzar. The actual screen play & script, scene by scene is given in the book.

Earlier I have read Hututu – Kahani & Manjarnama also.

I have not seen movie Libaas, Aandhi or Meera.

All the movies made by Gulzar are known for realistic story, good songs, fine performances & flowing story narration.

I like to share my experience of reading,

Libaas is story of theatre artist couple & how their life changes when one friend enter into their life.

While reading the book, I felt that story is moving with each & every scene, the scenes are carring forward the story, actually not the story but to next scene / situation. It is also mentioned in the book itself that screen play was written even before the story finalised.

I like the concept in all & would love to see the movie for its lead Naseerudin Shah, Shabana Azami & Raj Babbar & it also have good songs.

Aandhi is story with politics background.

The leading lady breaks her marriage to pursue her political ambitions. After few years the man & woman meet each other in the middle of pre- election high drama. It leads to various events which ultimately bridge the gap between them. The main cast includes Sanjeev Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Om Prakash etc.

I had chance to see some glimpses of movie scenes, I really enjoyed watching Sanjeev Kumar in action. He was very brilliant actor & seeing him acting, with screen play in my hand, was delight.

Meera- Kahani & Manjarnama book contains the interview of Gulzar.It is must read for the persons who are interested to pursue their carrier in direction / film making.

Meera's story we all know, Gulzar has tried to cover important part of her life in the movie & reading the script (i.e. Book) I felt he has done justice. I would like to see the movie for Hema Malini (Meera) & Vinod Khanna.

On reading the above books I learn some thing about story telling (Meera). It has widen my horizon to think differently (Libaas) & see the things from other perspective(Aandhi).

Khushal

18/06/2009.

गुड जोक

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