Best Books of 2012

Its time for top 10 lists. Here i have compiled Top 10 books list from sources where i read about books.These are the sites which i read regularly to find out new books.I have read only 1 book in these lists and im reading another one now but i have bought some books in these lists, hopefully will read soon.

Top 10 books in Amazon

No.	Book	Author
1.	Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty  Shades Trilogy	E. L.James
2.	Gone Girl	Gillian Flynn
3.	Fifty Shades Trilogy: Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty  Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed 3-volume Boxed Set	E. L.James
4.	Bared to You: A Crossfire	Sylvia Day
5.	No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden	Mark Owen
6.	The Marriage Bargain (Marriage to a Billionaire)	Jennifer Probst
7.	Reflected in You: A Crossfire	Sylvia Day
8.	The Racketeer	John Grisham
9.	Defending Jacob	William Landay
10.	The Innocent	David Baldacci

Top books in iTunes 

No.	Book	Author
1.	Fifty Shades of Grey	E. L.James
2.	Fifty Shades Darker	E. L.James
3.	Fifty Shades Freed	E. L.James
4.	Gone Girl	Gillian Flynn
5.	Bared to You	Sylvia Day
6.	The Lucky One	Nicholas Sparks
7.	Kill Shot	Vince Flynn
8.	Reflected in You	Sylvia Day
9.	The Innocent	David Baldacci
10.	The Racketeer	John Grisham

Top books chosen by Publishers Weekly

No.	Book	Author
1.	Building Stories	Chris Ware
2.	Bring Up the Bodies	Hilary Mantel
3.	The Round House	Louise Erdrich
4.	Happiness is a Chemical in the Brain	Lucia Perillo
5.	The Devil in Silver	Victor LaValle
6.	Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis	Mark Binelli
7.	All We Know:Three Lives	Lisa Cohen
8.	People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo	Richard Lloyd Parry
9.	The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600–1675	Bernard Bailyn
10.	Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945–1956	Anne Applebaum

Top 10 books of  New York Times

Fiction

No.	Book	Author
1.	Bring Up the Bodies	Hilary Mantel
2.	Building Stories	Chris Ware
3.	A Hologram for the King	Dave Eggers
4.	NW	Zadie Smith
5.	The Yellow Birds	kevin Powers

Non-Fiction

No.	Book	Author
1.	Behind The Beautiful Forevers	katherine Boo
2.	Far From The Tree	Andrew Solomon
3.	The Passage of Power	Robert A Caro
4.	The Patriarch	David Nasaw
5.	Why does the World Exist?	Jim Holt

Top 10 Non -Fiction books chosen by Time magazine

No.	Book	Author
1.	Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945–1956	Anne Applebaum
2.	The Passage of Power	Robert A Caro
3.	Far From The Tree	Andrew Solomon
4.	My Friend Dahmer	Derf Backderf
5.	Are you my Mother?	Alison Beckdale
6.	Wild	Cheryl Strayed
7.	Dearie: The remarkable life of Julia Child	Bob Spitz
8.	People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo	Richard Lloyd Parry
9.	The First Four Notes: Beethoven’s Fifth and  the  Human Imagination	Matthew Guerrieri
10.	The Black Count	Tom Reiss

Top 10 Fiction books chosen by Time magazine

No.	Book	Author
1.	The Fault in our Stars	John Green
2.	Bring Up the Bodies	Hilary Mantel
3.	Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk	Ben Fountain
4.	At last	Edward St.Aubyn
5.	The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and  Led the Revels There	Catherynne Valente
6.	The Casual Vacancy	JK Rowling
7.	Building Stories	Chris Ware
8.	NW	Zadie Smith
9.	Where’d You Go, Bernadette?	Maria Semple
10.	This Is How You Lose Her	Junot Diaz

Slate Book Review Top 10

No.	Book	Author
1.	Behind The Beautiful Forevers	katherine Boo
2.	Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk	Ben Fountain
3.	Bring Up the Bodies	Hilary Mantel
4.	Every Love Story is a Ghost Story	D.T. Max
5.	Gone Girl	Gillian Flynn
6.	Journalism	Joe Sacco
7.	The Lifespan of a Fact	John D’Agata and Jim Fingal
8.	NW	Zadie Smith
9.	The Real and The Unreal	Ursula K. Le Guin
10.	Wild	Cheryl Strayed

Goodreads Choice Award 2012  - The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling

நடுவுல கொஞ்சம் பக்கத்த காணோம்

Atlast a full length clean comedy movie! Watch and laugh loudly! Its even more interesting when we realized that this story was based on real life of the director's friend, who was the cinematographer of this movie C.Premkumar.

The story is about a guy who loses his memory just before a day of his marriage.The series of events that unfolds during those three days will make us laugh like anything. The four friends Premkumar, Bagavathy(Bugs),Balaji and Saras were typical good today's friends who takes life easy and enjoy each other company.When Premkumar loses his memory while playing cricket , the other three decided not to inform to his family and go on with marriage.

The movie is full of serious scenes but the director bring the subtle humor out of it, hats off to director Balaji Tharaneetharan.Even though many dialogues repeating many times i did not get irritated rather i enjoyed those scenes and laughed.Vijay Sethupathy as Premkumar was awesome, his repetitive expression and dialogue modulations were big plus point for this movie.Rajkumar as Balaji with his innocent look and stupid questions was excellent-specially when he asks "why Prem is not listening to me but to you?".Bugavathy Perumal as Bugs with his 'punch' dialogues and looks was hilarious.Vigneswaran as Saras did his role neatly. Gayathri as Dhanalakshmi did not had much ,nevertheless she did her role perfectly.

Background score by Siddarth Vippin was good.Cinematography by "real" Premkumar was perfect in some scenes(slow motion scenes during cricket match) and not-so in some other scenes ,not bad.The director did not deviate from the story line, it was linear and perfect, there is no sub-story or unnecessary flashbacks etc including songs,well done director.

Overall a perfect comedy to relax...!!

Thattathin Marayathu - Malayalam Movie

The meaning  of the title "Thattathin Marayathu " is Behind the Veil... very opt title.Wikipedia says this movie is a genre -"Musical Romance", i completely agree that. Awesome music after a long time ,i was hooked to a malayalam movie's songs from the moment i heard it .This is director Vineeth Srinivasan's second movie after his successful first one "Malarvadi Arts Club"- a movie which i enjoyed a lot. 

This is a romantic story of Vinod , a middle class,an average Hindu student, who falls in love with Ayisha , wealthy girl from a influential Muslim family.Even though i guessed the flow of the  story after 15 minutes, i still enjoyed the movie, may be because of comedy and songs.The guy-next-door look hero is a big plus point for this movie, you can immediately feel for/with him.

Nivin Pauly as Vinod is perfect for this role and he really did justice to his selection.Aju Verghese as Abdu,Vinod's friend was excellent, he really brings laughter out of everything. Manoj K Vijayan as S.I Premkumar did his role neatly. Isha Talwar as Ayisha is gorgeous and did act well.

Even though the story is age old and lack intensity, the director with a help of cinematographer Jomon.T.John made this movie a watchable as well as likable one.Do not expect any logic, just immerse in love and beautiful and soothing music. Music by Shaan Rahman was excellent one of the best in recent times. The songs "Anuraagathin Velayil"  and "Muthuchippi" keep on playing in my iPod.The first song was sung by the director himself and he is really a good singer. He already won lots of accolades for his singing. 

Vineeth Srinivasan - Director

Overall watch it, even if you don't like these kind of stories..,watch just for music and cinematography...!!

நீர்ப்பறவை (Neerparavai)

I had high expectations on this movie, simply because the story happens in our place (Rameswaram Islands). After director Seenu Ramasamy's "Thenmaerkku Paruvakaatru" ,i hoped that this one will be even better.I was bit disappointed.

 The story is nothing new but the location and people are new. I believe that the director did not capture the livelihood of fishermen effectively, on the screen looked artificial.But the casting is spot on. I can see the familiarity with most of the characters with my own people .

Kudos to director for boldly telling the world about our fishermen's struggles against nature and more importantly against the Srilankan navy. No other countries fishermen faces this brutal enmity from neighboring country.

Vishnu had done a great job as a alcohol addict and latter as a good husband, he really brings the essence of fishing youths from our side- typical dress and the innocence. Its sadly true that many youths are addicted to alcohol and the elders do not know what to do except admit them in some hospitals, mostly hospitals run by nuns and priests in Tuticorin area. But only 2 out of 5 remains sober and leads healthy life. I have seen many youth running away from hospitals and readmitted as in this movie.

Typical meeting in church..

Nowadays the catholic church is not playing a big role in decision making as old days. Now people are separated by faith and there is no unity among us.As Samuthirakani says in this movie " We, the fishermen do not have unity among ourselves". Its very true.Most of the problems would have been solved and can be solved if we are united. But it does not look like that all the fishermen will unite and fight for their rights in near future.

Nandita Das ...

"poo" Ramu as Vishnu's father was awesome, he looks like one of us.As an angry father and latter as a loving father , he really varies his expression beautifully.Sunaina as Esther too , did her role to perfection.For me the most memorable character was of Samuthirakani, his dialogues are apt and essential for this story. Pandi, Thami Ramaih and Nandita Das did their role neatly.

Cinematography by Balasubramaniyam was excellent, he captured the beauty of sea and shore beautifully. Music by Ragunanthan was good.Lyrics by Vairamuthu also good specially "para para" and "Devan Magale:.

Overall not a great movie but a worth watching! 

Sunday Clicks - 1

A Path

A Scene At Airport

Singapore Marathon

A Canal

A Mushroom..

A Lost Bicycle

Empty Cans..

First Advent Sunday Candle

Sky