And then there were done by Agatha Christie and published by @harpercollinsin
Yet another amazing mystery novel by Agatha Christie. She has an charm of writing an thriller which makes for a gripping read.
Ten strangers were invited to soldier island which is cut off from the mainland. The host is absent for some mysterious reason from the island.
On their arrival in the island, each one is accused of murder that they were directly or indirectly responsible for. A copy of rhyme is place in each room of the guests. Over the course of time, one of the ten guests dies in mysterious way. It doesn’t stop there,the Murderer strikes again.This brings about fear and self-doubt against each other. The Murderer was successful in inventing a murder mystery that provides no clue or whatsoever to solve the crime. The police is left baffled at the crime scene with ten bodies and with no way proceed or no clues to solve
I do what I do is authored by Raghuram Rajan, an economist and former RBI governor. He came up with the title of the book from one the statement he made in his initial speeches when he took over as the governor
I am Raghuram Rajan and I do What I do”
– I do What I do, Raghuram Rajan
The book is collection of the speeches given by him on various policies that were implemented by RBI and work and reasoning behind the what he did during his tenure. He set various framework around which various policy making were done, committee set by him to give recommendation on various critical issues such as inflation, monetary stability, stabilizing the Indian rupee value etc. He did modify, implement the recommendation and suggestion given to him and make sure he communicated about the new and modified policies to public.
He is a person with proper clarity and clear intent. Has practical approach towards issues.He also gave importance to communication and made sure to put across his opinions to the press. It also gave insight on how various issues were looked into by various committees set up and he and the team came up with solutions. The decision were based on sound reasoning, not only brought the issues under control and help growth of the country.
Set in backdrop of Kolkata, Winter poems by Sabarna Roy is collection of poetry. The poems are a take on various facets of life including death. The message the each poem is trying to convey is deep. Language and words used by the author is amazing and convey the right emotions.
The poems talks about cherishing the memories of past, looking into future for hope. Trauma and pain which are part and parcel of life and how people try to live with it. They also about how the environment and world has changed due to the advent of technology and has changed for drastically and how they caused serious damage to the environment.
The books comprises a short story and collection of poems. It deals with complexities of love, relationship and companionship in this complex world. The author has expressed all the emotions in the story very well. But with the short story I am curious to know to what happens with the relationship between Rohini and Mr Sen? Also his relationship with seemanti ghosh. Does he meet his mom and how life changes after that?
The poems and story covers various aspects such loneliness, failure in love, trauma faced by son after mom leaves him and father away. The trauma faced by people due circumstances in Thier life and how they struggle to deal with it. The author has covered all the aspects and complexities faced in life and relationships with ease.
The short story had an abrupt ending leaving with questions unanswered. I would have preferred a better ending. The poems conveyed a lot of emotions and each one was a story. The author has a good flow in writing and English. I would rate the book 3.5/5
About the Author: Martina Cole is a British crime writer, businesswoman and occasional television presenter. As of 2015 she has released twenty-two novels about crime, most of which examine London’s gangster underworld. Four of her novels,Dangerous Lady, The Jump, The Take and The Runaway have been adapted into high-rating television dramas. She has achieved sales of over fourteen million in the UK alone and her tenth novel, The Know, spent seven weeks on The Sunday Times hardback best-sellers list.
Danielle Crosby was pretty and had a body to die for. She used it to her benefit and sold it to the highest bidder, only to be murdered in most atrocious way. Kate Burrow, consultant and former employee with the police and Annie Carr the current DCI took this case. The Murderer made sure he left no clue in the scene.
The Culprit did not stop with the Danielle, he did continue his spree with other girls as well and yet managed to consistent with MO of killing and not leave single clue. The flats were rented out by Peter Bates in properties co-owned by Patrick.
What was the motive behind the murders? Who was the mastermind behind the murders ? How do they the solve the case of these perfectly committed crimes makes the storyline
The story line was promising,but the writing was bad. There was no surprise element in the story. The characterisation could have been better. The few things that were told about characters were repeated over and over again. There were no twist and turns to the story and I had to force myself to finish the book. The ending of the story was abrupt and did not do justice to the story at all.
” To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books.”
Dan brown, The lost symbol
The lost symbol
The story begin with Robert Langdon recieving a call from the secretary of his mentor Peter Solomon to give a lecture in a conference organised by Peter. But when arrived at the capitol for the lecture, there were no audience except for visitors
He recieves a shock when he encounters a hand with a finger pointed upward in corridor. He suddenly realises that it belongs to his friend Peter Solomon and recieves a call from stranger asking him to help solving the mason pyramid and what it reveals. The stranger has Peter Solomon alive and uses him as a bait
Katherine, Peter Solomon sister, a scientist in neuotic science is also being targeted by the stranger for information and plans to destroy her research.
Sato, the director of CIA wants to prevent national calamity , along with Robert and Katherine try to save Peter and also catch the culprit. How the story proceeds makes the rest of the story
The story writing could have been more thrilling and exciting. I loved angel and demon much better, there was thrill to keep reading which I felt missing on this book. I would rate the book 3/5
Samantha Shannon is a British writer of dystopian and paranormal fiction.
Tane a orphan who lost her parents to a fire take training to become a dragon ride in a “city of learning” in cape hisan. The day before the ceremony she encounters a stranger and instead of notifying him to the authorities, with help of her friend Susa, she ensures the stranger reaches the island called Orishima
Ead Duryan an outsider to kingdom of Inys, keeps a watchful on Sabran, the queen and ensures she safe and secure from cuttroats and others who intent to kill. With the rising of the nameless one, the queen has to stay alive, as it is believed it the bloodline of her family is protecting the people from the Nameless one. She has to give to hier a daughter, to not only to continue the kingdom,but to protect from the Nameless One.
The Nameless one rose from the below the earth and took to kill the entire human kind and that was prevented by queen cleolind and Nepuro over a thousand years ago. Now it is arising and Yscalin once part of the virtuedom has surrendered thier loyalty to the nameless one.
It is believed that the bloodline of queen Sabran is protecting the people from Insys and a hier could prevent the his rod. With her loss of child and inability to have other one one, rise of the nameless one on the other, will Ead Duryan and Tane the rider from east be able to kill him and protect the humankind?
I am reading fantasy genre after few years and I loved reading this one. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and could not put the book down. There were twist through the course of the story and always kept me on toe to know what happens next
Most of the lead characters in the book were women who were taking lead, were strong and courageous. They had the power to create a good impact on people, who were leading thier people in war and win in whatever tasks they undertook.
Social media has become part and parcel of life. It is a phenomenon which affects both personal users and businesses. They have become a triggering point of growth for various companies. The emergence of various social media platform has provided marketers and firms an opportunity to increase the brand visibility.
Nowadays, consumers are using social media to explore and get to know
more about new products. From businesses perspective, social media helps
understand customers in their natural habitat.
Thus, with the sudden explosion of social media, the brand-consumer
relationship has changed dramatically.
Few traits of
Social Media
Chance to meet new people/customer and interact
with them
User-friendly
Free
Offers exposure to businesses
Reach among people is higher
Some fun facts of Social Media
There are about 4.4 billion users of Internet
People on average have 7.6 social media accounts
The daily average time spent on social media by
users is 142 minutes a day
81 % of the young population feel social media
has positive impact
In terms of business
91% of the retail brands
81% of the SME
Use some or other social media platform and they use 2 or more social media channels to promote their brand.
Statistics of
Social Media
In 2015, social media networks earned
around $8.3 million from advertising
In 2018, $74 bn was spent on advertising
through social media
In it noted that 78% of the consumers who
post their complain about or to a brand via twitter expect a response within
an hour
Google
Statistics
100 bn searches every month
Little more than 90% of the searches happen through
google which are carried out by 1.17 billion unique users
15% of the enquires through google are unique
searches
The benefits of social media are countless and has had great impact on both business and consumers
Importance of social media
Help boost targeted traffic
Help business boost the site’s Search Engine
Optimization
They help understand the audience
Help find customers who aren’t aware of the brand
Increase revenue through social media
Guidelines and effective ways to use social media
We usually spend time in analyzing, researching to create compelling
content that will not align with the firm objectives, but also with its
marketing goals. It is important to keep a balance with the content and
promoting it with presence of social media at our fingertips. Thus, the need of
effective usage of social media for increasing the visibility and sales
Visuals play a very important role. Embrace the
visuals – Apart from Facebook, LinkedIn where images help get maximum
engagement, Pinterest, Instagram and snapchat are other platforms which are
based entirely on images/visuals
Caption
for any post help attract people. So, HEADLINES MATTER.
Select better title
Create a new title
Timing of the posts is the essence for social
media marketing, and it is usually overlooked. For maximum engagement or better
brand visibility, we need to post in social media when the crowd is both online
and active. Hence it is important to schedule posts during certain time of the
day. So, Share at the right time
Engaging the social media users increase the
visibility. Make the page more interactive by asking questions or feedback.
Simply asking a response or feedback question will help in both public relation
and marketing
There are many social media platforms and it is
important to concentrate on a few where we can get maximum engagement and get
more leads. Use promotion option
available on the platform used to promote the content and widen the reach
To conclude, any marketing activity needs to be specific to the business’s target audience. With rise of social media, the money spent on marketing has now been reduced. By using social media as part of marketing campaign, help reach wider target audiences and increase business. They help achieve brand awareness and attract potential clients.
About the Author:John Ray Grisham Jr. is an American novelist, attorney, politician, and activist, best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide.
Gray mountain is yet another legal thriller by John Grisham set the Appalachia, a coal mining county in Virginia. Samantha a third year legal associate in one of the top law firm is furloughed for year and works for legal clinic in Appalachia. The story is set in the year 2008 and the entire world hit hard by the recession and so is the firm Samantha worked for in New York have been giving pink slips or are being furloughed.
The legal aid clinic is run by Mattie and Annette, although Donovan(Trial lawyer) is also a board member and funds the clinic. The clinic provides free legal services to people who cannot afford to have a lawyer fighting for them in crisis situation. Most of the cases that they handle are divorces, abuse, sexual harassment, so on and forth. Samantha has never been kind of lawyer who have never fought cases, real cases in court. Being a city girl and from different background, she had her own doubts, if she would fit along with crowd in Brady, Appalachia.
Donovan a trail lawyer fights against the coal companies who not only destroy the mountains, its nature, but also affects the livelihood of the people. The water bodies are dumped with waste from the mining, mine workers who breathe in the polluted air have lungs severely affected. Although health affected mine workers can claim for their benefits from coal companies, they are denied and are not able fight in the court. Donovan has won quite a few cases against few coal companies, yet the fight was difficult. Donovan has erratic ways to gains evidence for his cases and is always on trouble with the coal companies. Hence he always has to be very careful. Samantha gets caught whirlwind of his world and his gang of lawyers.
Donovan has a solid evidence against one of the major coal companies which is run by Russians mob and are very dangerous. After the death of Donovan, Samantha, his brother Jeff have been followed and threatened by thugs who work for the coal company and want to get hold of the evidence before they handed over to government authorities. Jeff, Donovan’s brother has been living in shadows and somehow manages to give the hidden documents to another lawyer Mr London, a friend of Donovan, who is going to fight against the companies for justice
My Opinion: The story-line deals with malpractice of the coal companies, how it affects the environment and livelihood of the people in these areas, but the ending didn’t do justice. Samantha, the protagonist of the story, although being a lawyer who can bring a major change by fighting against injustice done by these companies, yet at every danger, she tried to evade away from it. She tries to run away from her responsibility and duck way from the situation rather than facing it with confidence and bring the coal companies down.
The ending could have been better and several questions were left un-answered. Hence. I would rate the book 3/5.
A matter of honour by Jeffery Archer Leonid Ilyich(minister of Russia) comes to Zaborski(head of KGB) with strange request. The Tsar icon in the winter palace is fake and Leonid needs KGB to find the original icon. The icon hold a secret that is of great national and political importance and it has be found within a month. Alex Romanov was selected to help find the original iconAdam Scott after the death of his father, visits the lawyer with his mother and sister. Although he knew there will not be much of financial benefit, he comes in possession of a letter that can change his life around. It the letter that caused disgraced to his father who worked for the armyHis father worked in the army, but left due a consiparcy. Although never proved in involved in it, yet he left as a Matter of Honour. Adam was also in army, who also left after nine years in service. Despite being the best, when it come to promotion, he was delayed in getting due to his father history.The letter has ability to clear his father ne or bring more dishonor to his family. Yet he opens the letter and finds that he is in possession of the Russian icon St George and the dragon that belong to the last Tsar.For Russian, having the icon back can bring about change in the balance of Power.Thus, story begins with such thrilling storyline and makes a book a gripping read. I would rate the book 4/5
A matter of honour by Jeffery Archer
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