Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I got this book free with our first Kindle. It was just one of those books which my mind didn't find interesting enough to go past the first page. Several years later, I pulled this book out of the abyss of my kindle library, swiped off layers of electronic dust and read and read.

The reason I didn't find it appealing is because of Ishiguro's haphazard and non-explanatory writing style. It's not that he didn't explain key concepts of the book's ideology, it's just that he'd make up a chapter of memories to actually get to the point. And truthfully, most of the memories were trivial and disappointing once you got to them. However, after reading a third of the book, you have enough clues to understand what's going on in Kathy's world, without Miss Emily's big revelation at the end.

This book is just one those stories raining with the booktions when you reach the end:

1. Where do the "students" get money from? - Money which they spend on cars, fuel, trips, Judy Bridgewater's cassette.
2. Why oh why can't the clones just run away?! Why don't they ever think of leaving and starting a revolution.
3. Miss Emily mentions much worse places than Hailsham and similar institutes for the clones. How come the protagonist nor her friends ever mention or encounter people from these places, at centers or The Cottages?
4. How old are the "students" when they they start donating? What organs are taken at each donation? What does the timing and procedure depend on?
5. I really wish Ishiguro had added more detail on the whole cloning process. Who are the possibles? How else are clones different from us (apart from the kid thing)?
6. Speaking of which, why can't they have kids? Are they modified at birth or in their DNA?
7. What's with Ruth loosing certain memories? In the final chapter, Kathy also mentions loosing some of her memories. Is it a clone thing?
8. Miss Lucy tells Tommy that she was wrong and being creative is very important just before she leaves. From the final revelations, it's clear that individual talents don't matter. It's just about the best total output.
9. Who really took Kathy's lost cassette?
10. What exactly does a carer do? Is it just another name for nurse? Why is she always driving to the centers? Why can't she just stay at one?

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

The Husband's secret has been topping the NY Times Bestseller List for months now. The book description didn't appeal much to me, but I'm glad I took the plunge because I enjoyed reading about an interesting week of three families in Sydney. For me, the epilogue was the icing on the cake and gave a fresh take on how subjective life is.

I didn't garner much booktions as Moriarty gave complete endings to characters in the final chapters. This may be the least booktions I have after a book:

1. Whether the pathologist had a flu or not, Janie's death was a criminal case ensuring a full autopsy. How could the police be satisfied by a limited autopsy?
2. Will Rachel turn John-Paul in?
3. If Conner's alibi for him was a lie, where was he actually at the time of Janie's death?

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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Bombshell by Catherine Coulter

This book is simply a narration of an FBI investigation. Although the large number of characters and personas left me confused at moments, the new discoveries by the chapter leading to the fast pace of the story kept me going. As thorough as an FBI case can be, this book was still open to some booktions:

1. How was Anna's murdered partner really exposed by Salazar and Gabrielle? The reason for the murder taking place at Delsey's apartment was never confirmed. We only have Anna's assumption to go on, even though it baffles her.
2. What happens to Salazar after he recovers?
3. In chapter 63, how were they able to tip the gang that Delsey would be at the Bonhomie Club that night?
4. Stony's suicide: In what way does finding out that the photo was uploaded from his computer, indicate that Tommy's murderer is his father? Is this the real reason for his suicide? or did he know more.  
5. If Mrs Hart wanted her husband to be blamed for Peter's death, why did she so strongly cover for him asked about for his alibi?
6. Sherlock and Savich know that a person tells the truth when in shock, and hence wrung out all the details from Melissa Ivy at Peter's apartment. So then, why does she abruptly remember a person she can't describe a day later, and if she did it for the publicity as assumed and mocked for, why did the FBI take it seriously enough to pin it on to Mrs Hart?
7. The reason for Tommy's mothers suicide was never brought forward. 

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Wow. Just wow.. This is one of those books which makes you leave the world behind and act like a page turning addict, hungry to know what's next. I fell in love with the story and the authoress, Gillian Flynn, and just had to start reading her other two books immediately.

Nick's murderous thoughts, his affair and Amy's diary wrongly leads you to believe that he is responsible for Amy's disappearance, but any reader of crime fiction knows that the culprit is never the supposed "bad guy" with the mass of evidence piled against him. So when reading I was sure that Nick had nothing to do with it, but when the tables turned at the start of part two and Amy's alter ego is revealed.. . Whoa!

This book can not leave you without any booktions. Here's my list:

1. The book's cliffhanger ending has left everybody asking "What happens to Nick and Amy? Who kills who?!" Amy goes unpunished and Nick happily stays on to parent a child with his psycho wife. Personally I loved the ending; It describes their relationship perfectly. However it still doesn't give us a definitive "ending" to the story.
2. Nick's father. Why did Amy pull that trick on him? I don't understand how Nick's escapee father from his nursing home plays a part in Amy's elaborate plan.
3. If amazing Amy was able to think of every little detail in all her schemes, how come she wasn't wise enough to have a back-up plan when she was robbed?
4. What are the visions Nick sees of Amy crying out to him in pain with blood in her hair, scrapping herself across the kitchen floor? 
5. Desi? That was so unfair what happens to him and his mother.
6. If Amy's anger at everyone is stemmed from her hatred towards her parents, why are they the only ones going back to their normal life without any repercussions?

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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The Shining by Stephen King

I'm not one who easily gets scared by books and movies, and neither am I enthralled by the horror genre. But when you're a citizen of the reading world, you can not ignore a legend like Stephen King. His most popular book to date is unarguably The Shining, with large publicity coming from its movie adaption featuring Jack Nicholson in his Oscar winning role.

As I read this book, I was amazed by how King could make a fire hose lying on the corridor floor -which changes its position every time Danny glances back- make you look up to reassure yourself that your not alone. The silence of the Overlook hotel somehow seeps into your room and every step Danny takes, rings loud and clear. The hedge animals were definitely the most creepiest objects in the book, closely tied with the dead lady in Room 217. And that creaking elevator filled with confetti which turns on by itself in the middle of the night is enough to give you the goosebumps there and then.

Like any other book, I was once again left muddled by a few booktions:

1. What is Redrum? Tony warns Danny in a vision that "Redrum" is the sign of his impending doom, and the term is reverberated throughout the novel. Although much of Tony's visions do come true, Redrum does not make any sense till the end.
2. The Overlook has an extensive history of murders and tragic deaths. Despite which it still attracted high profile politicians and celebrities in the older days. Odd. But what really gets me is how was Mr. Ullman able to hide this dark past form the public eye? And who is Derwent? Why does it bother Ullman when Jack presses for details about Derwent?
3. Who's scrapbook did Jack Torrence find in the basement which outlines the hotel's history?
4. Did the caretaker Delbert Grady, who died and killed his family, also possesses the shining within his family? Why was that one family particularly targeted by the Overlook, and others left as they were?
5. What had happened to the previous caretaker? Why the sudden open position just before closing time.
6. If the Overlook was after Danny for his shining, why had it never bothered with Halloran? I know that he was less powerful than Danny, but something is better than nothing for the hotel before it was aware of Danny.
7. Overlook is owned by rich businessmen who are investing into it in every way. Why not get a new boiler?

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

I'd seen this book on bestseller lists everywhere, yet couldn't get my hands on it. Once I finally tracked it down on my treasure quest, I was pleasantly surprised to see how thick the book was. After reading a couple of chapters, a thick book can mean a Yes! What a great story. I don't want it to end. or a *Groan*. How many pages left? 

1Q84 clearly was the first emotion, however, towards the end I was panicking that the pages were thinning and yet the story was nowhere near finishing. Murakami abruptly ends the story, leaving the reader with a giant question mark over their head.

Here are my booktions for 1Q84:

1. Who is Tengo Kawana's biological father? His father takes his secret with him to the grave. What does he mean when he tells Tengo that, "You're nothing."
2. The woman in the family picture left to Tengo in his father's will does not resonate with his earliest memory of his (assumed) mother. If the woman in his memory isn't his mother, who was that woman?
3. What happened to Eriko Fukada's dohta? Or is Komatsu right when he wonders if the Fuka-Eri we know, the dohta escaped into the outside world.
4. Could the nurse Kumi from the cat town be his mother reincarnated? Who is the killer she remembers so well, and what secret does she want to know from him? It's also odd how Aomame's policewoman friend Ayumi dies in similar circumstances.
5. What does Tengo write about in his new novel which could damage Sakigake, and has the little people in a frenzy.
6. The little people from Ushikawa's dead body start to make an air chrysalis. Who is the new dohta, maza?
7. Towards the end, Sakigake are desperate to find and contact Aomame because she in some way she can reconnect them to the voice they lost. How?
8. Could Aomame have been the new prophet before she left 1Q84? I'm assuming this from the air chrysalis Tengo sees of her in his father's bed. Or could it be signifying something else.
9. Who was the NHK fee collector knocking on Aomame's, Tengo's and Ushikawa's doors?!! How could Murakami not answer this!
10. What happens to Tengo's older girlfriemd who is "irretrivably lost"?
11. Who and what are the little people? I kept on expecting the author to introduce them to us, yet he's left us as clueless as the readers of Air Chrysalis. 

Kindly leave a comment and let me know what you think. Cheers!

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

J.K. Rowling's latest book released under the pseudonym , Robert Galbraith, follows a private detective working on a three month old apparent suicide. The book is no edge-of-the-seat thriller; rather, it has a calm flow of feeding out new information every few pages or so, inviting you to read on. Until the final chapter, the reader remains clueless about whether it was a suicide or murder and if so, who was the murderer. A conversation in the final chapter reveals all the details and the case is solved.

Here are my Booktions:

1. If Alison was never in love with John Bristow and was secretly in alliance with Tony, why did she cover for his morning alibi?
2. John Bristow is purported to be a miser and in deep financial trouble, yet why is he throwing money away like paper for Strike's investigation?
3. How come the hoodie and gloves that Bristow swiped from Deeby Mac's flat were never noticed missing by the police? and how could Deeby Mac recount the items when he never visited the flat and saw Guy Somé's presents?
4. Wilson the security guard slips in a puddle of water. Strike assumes that the water is from the roses (which may have been quickly dried by Bristow). Even so, how much water can a few roses leave on the floor for a person to slip on it?
5. Why doesn't the infamous scene-creating Charlotte not meet Strike throughout the book? Especially, after (I assume) seeing his pictures with Ciara Porter in the media. Or after the engagement, if indeed as Strike thinks, she only did it to make him mad.
6. The bookition which bugs me the most is that if Brsitow was anyway going to inherit Lula and his mother's fortunes soon with his mother's imminent death, why would he go through the trouble of having Lula Lundry's death investigated? Especially when it could all end badly for him.

Thanks for reading and please tell me what you think happened in the comments below.