KhepiAri

Book Review: Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan Quote: He leans in and kisses. He says he's missed me too. I know this is right. I know he's not going to be amazing all the time, but there's more amazingness in him than in anyone else I've known. He makes me want to be amazing too. June was an interesting month, I read up various kinds of books from non-fiction to rom-com to writing for children despite my lack of reviews here. I wanted to do a pride month reading list, but I got occupied. So I want to end the month with an LGBTQIA book. Paul grew up gay in a town that's accepting, where the gender boundaries have blurred. The homecoming queen is star Quarterback and a drag-queen by day. Paul is popular, loved and has two best friends Joni the quintessential girl best friend prone to fall for red-flag boys, and Tony a gay boy living with his conservative family. And there is Kyle Paul's ex-boyfriend Paul meets Noah in a bookstore, a newbie sophom...

Webcomic Review: Your Letter by Hyeon A Cho Quote: The letter contained the key to the rabbit hutch along with a note asking me to visit early in the morning. Sori-Lee a brave and kind middle-schooler moves to a new school in her old city from her grandmother's, after she stood up to bullies for someone, and facing bullying herself. In her new school, assigned to an unoccupied desk, soon she finds a letter addressed to her; containing names of her new classmates, school map and a clue for the next letter. From one letter to another Sori moves into a world that she can't explain. There is a witch gardener in school who offers her tea. She walks seven and a half steps with closed eyes and ends up finding a magical hideout. From ordering delicious food to school to jumping into the pond to retrieve the letter she and befriends Eugene Park. Eugene an archer is having a hard time concentrating on his sport. So they become partners to un...

Book Review: Rashomon and Other Stories by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and translated by Takashi Kojima Quote: Flocks of crows flew in from somewhere. During the daytime, these cawing birds circled round the ridgepole of the gate. When the sky overhead turned red in the afterlight of the departed sun, they looked like so many grains of sesame flung across the gate. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa the father of Japanese short stories, has been on my to-be-read-list for years. This is an old translation, which has distilled down the stories to their literal translation instead of the 'transliteration' that present-day readers look for. How to make murder mystery frustratingly interesting? Throw in unreliable narrators and witnesses and watch it unfold, is how I found In a Grove. Though day by day I am getting critical about the use of rape in the story as a plot device, I am glad the author didn't use rapist-robber's confession to describe his heinous crime. The famous Rashomo...

Graphic Novel Review: Habibi by Craig Thompson Quote: -afloat on the ocean of sand. The desert is a graveyard for man and beast and man-made refuse. Habibi found this stranded boat and we made it our home. Lot of 'nothings' happen at the same time in this mockepic 600 plus pages hardbound graphic novel! It's dipped in orientalism that's exoticized to the point of melodrama. A wide-eyed fair-skinned girl child, Dodala is sold to marriage for water, from one master to another she is raped and abused and consumed like a commodity. She runs away with a toddler boy slave, Zam, of African origin and eventually they are separated by Sultan's scavengers. The art is ambitious but the story a failure. In an imaginary middle-eastern country, Wanatolia, where all the stereotypical notions about Arab world gets illustrated. The pot-bellied lusty sultan with golden harem and private zoo, the hairy legged broad shoulder gold chain wea...

Book Review: The Power To Forgive: And Other Stories by Avinuo Kire Quote: Kevinei-ü ran back to the forest, this time shouting all the way. She spotted wild raspberry bushes in woods, dark green and unadorned, without any trace of the familiar orange. It was then that Kevinei-ü actually felt her heart plummet. It was not yet the season for the little berries which her daughter loved. A dozen stories from my neighbouring state of Nagaland. Avinuo Kire tells tales known to all with clarity and elegance. She almost touches upon all the literary indicators that people expect from the literature of North East India. Though I felt she had toned down the complexities of Nagaland politics and society for her readers to ease into the narratives.   The stories are primarily told from the female perspective. The book opens with The Power to Forgive, the story of a rape survivor's who takes control of her life like Meena Kandaswamy asks in When I Hit You, and it bittersweetly unfo...

Book Review: Whom Can I Tell? How Can I Explain? By Saroj Pathak Quote: But Poorbi was impatient. She was a woman alone, and men were never very trustworthy. If she could once and for all wear the wedding sari that would bind Sambal to her for good! She didn't care about caste or class. The trouble was that she had lost all joy in the red of wedding sari; there was no other reason why she felt h esitant. An anthology of twelve translated stories that Stree published almost two decades back. My interest grew in the book when one story, The Vow was selected for an upcoming Reader. But due to space and budget crunch, we had to drop it later. Originally written in Gujarati, Saroj Pathak remains one of the first Indian authors to delve into the psychological and social strains the men, the women and the society go through. From divorced women to unmarried women to women in an extramarital affair, all sorts of character from lower to upper-middle-class society get a glimpse. Sh...