The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

I picked up this book after reading about the tragic life of the author.

I never heard about this particular war atrocity but than we never know everything, and I'm glad that Iris put a sincere effort to bring out the story.

Of course, this is not a story that anyone would like to remember but forgetting it will be a bigger crime. This book is a record of what the people of Nanjing went through during the Sino-Japanese war. The crimes are unspeakable and there were some convictions too. There were a lot of stronger ones who got away with their wrong doing.

When I finished it my first reaction was that all the wars are dirty, and their real reasons dirtier. But this can't be the reason for not knowing the history of these wars. In fact, these are more of a reason to know this so that we remember it in future even if we all have a failing memory.

Peace

No Turning Back by Rania Abouzeid

A serious one after so much soft reading.

This is about wartime Syria but unlike a commentary it talks more through the real people who have been in different situations since this all started.

War is bad and the worst thing about it is that it puts the humanity out of all the equations, and everything sounds like a number.

I'll not try to put the details here but I believe one thing that nobody comes unscarred out of it irrespective of being a part of it or not.

May those scars heal, and only peace remain.

Peace

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

I picked this up for a light read, and as expected it was.

The author is best known of his plays so reading this one gives you the feel of a play. There is a smaller set up, and all the characters keep moving in and out of the same place as the story moves ahead.

This is also similar to those dream like romantic Japanese movies, and in a lot of places it feels like repetitive.

However, the best thing is that it keeps you engaged, and curious to know what happens next. And yes it does leave a lot of things unanswered which I think is a good thing.

Quick and fancy read if you're into romantic things.

Love

A Burning by Megha Majumdar

I picked up this one because this was recommended by Amitav Ghosh not that I'm blaming him for his recommendation. You always hear it from somebody and pick up the book. If it lives up to your expectations or not depends on the dynamic between the writer and the reader because somebody who is recommending had been a reader once but a different reader.

This is a debut novel and you can see it in the first ten pages.

It felt like the whole plot is taken from the recent headlines, and was put together to get this. If you follow the news you can see the connection with most of the characters.

Megha has a long way to go and it is definitely not the best debut novel but I'll be looking forward to more.

Peace