There are very few genres that I don’t like, but I’ll admit that I tend to skip fantasy and sci-fi entirely for the most part. I picked up these books because none of them actually fall into that category, even though they may have a suspension of disbelief element to them. I like the kind of books that have a normal character in extraordinary circumstances, and while these three books are wildly different from each other, they all fall into that basic category of “there’s something more powerful than me out there and for some reason I’m connected.” Which is kinda neat.

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The Queen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The Mistress of Spices, the Queen of Dreams, I can’t wait to see what Divakaruni is going to come up with next. I haven’t read all her books yet, but I think this year I’ll get copies of them all and make my way through them.

I loved the structure of this book, one part story, one part dream journal. The dream journal felt so personal, as if I had discovered someone else’s diaries, to be read and treasured. The main character, who is dissatisfied with her life, does tend to look at the negative side more than the positive, and so it doesn’t make this book a very zippy read, but it also helps you connect a little more.

My only complaint about this book was the haphazard way the 9/11 plot was thrown in, which to me felt slightly contrived, unnecessary, and more a marketing tool than something that thickened the plot.

**

Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

How I love Murakami! I love his perspective, I love his imagery, I love his imagination, and I love his language. You’ve got minute details such as his character’s choice in sofas and why it’s so important to have a good one, you’ve got language likening chubby girls in pink to big strawberry shortcakes waltzing on a dance floor to his description of hearing Bob Dylan as “a kid standing at the window watching the rain.” And I haven’t even talked about the plot yet.

The worlds Murakami creates are peculiar, yet majestic. A city in which people are separated from their shadows, a world without sound. The book is structured so that there are two separate stories going on together, and only towards the middle do they start connecting through common phrases, objects, and (you think) even people.

I loved this book, devouring it bit by bit, promising myself another chapter each time I got some work done. You have to be patient with it though for the confusion it creates as it reveals layers and layers of secrets in every chapter and every page.

**

The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh

I didn’t expect to like this book, but picked it up because it looked like an easy read that I could get through over the course of the next couple of days as I deal with high-pressure work. I certainly wasn’t expecting that I’d get so hooked within ten pages that I’d read it in one sitting, totally ignoring all I have to do in my work day. Clearly, I loved it. There’s enough history, suspense, science and culture thrown in this book that it could become overkill, but it doesn’t. The pacing is fast, the characters likeable, and the plot intense. And who doesn’t love Calcutta? I have to say, also, that I love when there’s an Indian angle to a complex scientific plot. Set aside a few hours. You’re not going to be able to stop reading.