I MA English - Reading File

S.No	Name	Book	Author
1.	AGNES EUNICE JASPER	Jesus > Religion	Jefferson Bethke
2.	AISWARYA SUSAN SAMUEL	The Diary of a Young Girl	Anne Frank
3.	ANNMARIA SEBASTIAN	Randaamoozham	M. T. Vasudevan Nair
4.	ANU M. VARGHESE	The Kite Runner	Khaled Hosseini
5.	APARNA R.	A Thousand Splendid Suns	Khaled Hosseini
6.	CHITRA S.	The Unexpected Guest	Agatha Christie
7.	CHRISTINA MARY GEORGE	Memories	Lang Leav
8.	FRAGRANCE PRAISY GEORGE	Hostage of the Sea	Cherith Baldry
9.	HANNAH CHANDRAN	Wide Sargasso Sea	Jean Rhys
10.	HARIPRIYA SREEKUMAR	True Believer	Nicholas Sparks
11.	HELEN ANN JOSEPH	Lord of the Flies	William Golding
12.	HELEN GLORY ROBERT	Tit for tat to Treat for tat	Dr. Pal
13.	INDUMATHI	Countdown	Amitav Ghosh
14.	IRENE SHILPA S.	The Cross and the Switchblade	David Wilkerson
15.	JAYASHREE RAJAN	Asura	Anand Neelakanthan
16.	JOANNA SHALOM JOHN	Bad Ground	Joanna Shalom John
17.	JOLENE CANDICE	Roadside Crosses	Jeffery Deaver
18.	JOSE MARY JENIFER A.	The Case for Christ	Lee Strobel
19.	MAANINIJAYAL V.	Midnight’s Children	Salman Rushdie
20.	MAGDELENE ANEETEE BROWN H.	The Last Wave	Pankaj Sekhsaria
21.	MERRIL MARY MATHEW	The Namesake	Jumpha Lahiri
22.	MOHANA PRIYA	The Rainbow	D. H. Lawrence
23.	NISSY SARA GEORGE	The Book Thief	Markus Zusak
24.	PHEBA K PAUL	Night	Elie Wiesel
25.	PRIYANKA TOMY	Mahashweta	Sudha Murty
26.	REBECCA JACOB	Animal Farm	George Orwell
27.	SADEPALLI JHANSI RANI	How to Win Friends and Influence People	Dale Carnegie
28.	SALEENA S.	En Kadha
29.	VIJAYALAKSHMI INDIRAN	Don’t Delay Enlightenment	Sri Bhagavath
30.	Abhishek I Singh	The Whale Rider	Witi Ihimaera
31.	Akash Saji Kumar	Such a Long Journey	Rohinton Mistry
32.	Akil Raj G.	The Dead Heart	Douglas Kennedy
33.	Andrew Titus Jasper	Three Men in a Boat	Jerome K Jerome
34.	Bhuvanesh Kumar	The White Tiger	Aravind Adiga
35.	Kumara Sethupathi R.	Evidence for Truth: Science	Viktor Pearce
36.	Manu Kuriakose Zachariah	?	?
37.	Oswin Barnabas	The Kite Runner	Khaled Hosseini
38.	Phinehash R.	The Sacred Wood	T S Eliot
39.	Ravi Shankar	Digital Fortress	Dan Brown
40.	Sampaul C.L.	The Home and the World	Rabindranath Tagore
41.	Sivakumar	Jane Eyre	Charlotte Bronte
42.	Veillakshmikanth	Karna’s Wife	Kavita Kane
43.	A. M. Arun Kumar	The Light of Asia	Sir Edwin Arnold

Book Review: The Hermit's Story

The Hermit's story: By Rick Bass

Rick Bass (born March 7, 1958) is an American writer and an environmental activist.

“The Hermit's story: stories” is a collection of short stories by Rick Bass. The stories includes in “The Hermit's story: stories” are The Hermit's story, Swans, The prisoners, the fireman, The cave, Presidents day, Real town, Eating, The distance and The deer. These short stories actually appeared in several magazines and "Mariner Books" compiled it as on book.

Every story in this book is remarkable in its own way. Conflict in most stories is survival, but the main theme deals with "nature", that is, Nature- the surrounding and the nature of one self. That is; the twofold of Nature and are mostly melancholy tales.

From the title story “The Hermit's story”, we can understand that he is a writer of great landscapes. he starts the story by ushering the reader to a magical fantasy world. He starts the story by a great magical description:

"AN ICE STORM, following seven days of snow; the vast fields and drifts of snow turning to sheets of glazed ice that shine and shimmer blue in the moonlight, as if the color is being fabricated not by the bending and absorption of light but by some chemical reaction within the glossy ice; as if the source of all blueness lies somewhere up here in the north - the core of it beneath one of those frozen fields; as if the blue is a thing that emerges, in some parts of the world, from the soil itself, after the sun goes down."

The description of every aspect in the story is so elaborated, that there is a description about, beneath the frozen ice in the title story, which is so huge and lavish. The mystery of walking beneath a frozen dry lake, it evokes strong magical mysterious images of the place author created.  It also suggests that the world is much more magical and mysterious than it is usually believed to be.  Why the title is so.? (The Hermit's story). And I think, that A Hermit is someone who lives in seclusion from the society, the character Ann does this in a different way, (she is an animal trainer and lives away from the society), that maybe the reason for giving the name“The Hermit's story” to it.

Author also has given a clear outline of the animal within us, which could be seen in the second story "Swans"."swans" not only deals with nature but also with love too, where he speaks about love, which I found is very true, it enchants the reader, I really enjoyedit.

"I know the best way for a man to love a woman, or woman to love a man, is not to bring gifts, but to simply understand that other person : to understand as much (and with as much passion and concern) as is possible."

Though most are rich with melancholy, they also give a glimpse into lives and places that we have'nt seen. This could be seen from his certain lines in “Presidents day”

"Maybe when I get home it will be different, he thought, Maybe she will have decided she loves me again, or that even if she doesn't, she will work toward getting to that place again. Maybe."

"The Cave" is a stunning story of a man and woman lost in abandoned mine. It blends eroticism, exploitation and death. the language and imagery is crisp and clean. Same as, is the case with "Distance" too, and it once again deals with realism of nature.

"If I could beseech favor from an opportune heaven, it would be to live to see the sight of these trees I have planted fully mature, their leaves brilliant in autumn, bare and elegant in winter, lush emeralds in spring, and deep-shaped during the shimmering roar of summer."

And he also says that cutting down trees are "nothing less than murder".

It is more the poetic and rhythmic description and the portrayal of each and every aspect of the story attracted me. The characters and the well-developed stories land with a lot of punch. If I were to give marks separately for the story and the portrayal or the narrative style, I would give 3.0 (out of 5) for the stories and 4.0 (out of 5) for the poetic description and the portrayal or the narrative style.

If you enjoy stories with the natural world as a main character, you will love this.

- A.M ARUN KUMAR