The Bookish Elf

Title: A Man Called Ove (En man som heter Ove) Author: Fredrik Backman Publisher (English): Washington Square Press, US Genre: Contemporary Fiction First Publication: The novel was first published in Sweden in 2012. The English translation was published in 2013. Language: English Setting Place: Sweden Protagonist: Ove Major Characters: Ove, Parvaneh, Sonja, Rune, Adrian, Nasanin, Mirsad, Jimmy Theme: Memory and Grief, Love, Family, Principles, Loyalty Narration: Third Person Limited Point of view. Book Summary : A Man Called Ove A Man Called Ove is a story of a grumpy old man who points at people he dislikes as if they are burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has steadfast principles, uncompromising routines and a short fuse. He doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time. People call him the harsh and bitter neighbor from the hell. Behind this cranky exterior of Ove, there is a story and sadness. This grumpy but loveable man, Ove’s solitary...

Science Fictions has a long history of being science facts. So many outlandish creations inspired real research. You may not immediately believe it, but future inventions and  technologies are a lot closer to science fiction than people think. We often presume that the technologies we are using daily came from inventions done by ingenious innovators working in research labs. But we are not completely correct in this assumption. In fact, several of the most pioneering ideas came from the people who had very little to do with science and technology. But they had the inspiration and talent to imagine future worlds. Several sci-fi novels have very accurately predicted many of the pieces of inventions and technologies we are using today. Those novels have paved the way to the future. The American engineer and physicist, Robert H Goddard, who created world’s first liquid-fuelled rocket was inspired by H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel War of the Worlds (1898). More recent examples include mo...

Usually most of the books we choose to read come from the recommendation from friends, family or from reviewing sites. Some of the books we read just because it’s everywhere you look for recommendation and we can’t resist ourselves picking up a copy. Often, we read popular and best-seller books by a popular author; but we don’t really check out other less popular book by those authors. An avid reader would know each novel written by their favorite authors but most of us have not heard about it even. So here is a list of underrated and less popular book by the famous authors you may not have heard or read. Kazuo Ishiguro Most Popular Books:  The Remains of the Day; Never Let Me Go Less Popular Book: An Artist of the Floating World Most of us fell in love with Ishiguro’s writing through Never Let me Go. It was a hauntingly beautiful story of free will and empty promises. The Book is narrated by Masuji Ono, an ageing painter and set in post-WWII Japan. Masuji looks back on his life a...

From recommending us on what to read, machines are now capable of writing poetry, screenplays and even stories. Computers have moved from only helping their human creator to become creative entities themselves using Artificial Intelligence. To  improve machine’s natural language , Google is also working with Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts. First step was to make software understand the variances of human language. For this purpose, researchers have introduced more than 11000 novels to their artificial intelligence software. After achievement of this goal, they gave it two sentences – a starting and a closing sentence – from which the machine wrote several poems. Once Artificial Intelligence software have all the understanding of language, it can be well coupled with the ability to synthesis. Then AI can write in appealing ways and can come up with plots and other things that can be quite intriguing. Artificial Intelligence has a big advantage over the human aut...

Title: The Warramunga's War Author:  Greg Kater Publisher:  Zeus Publications Genre: Historical Fiction First Publication: 2018 Language: English Setting places: Middle East, Asia, Australia. Protagonist:  Jamie Munro, Jack O'brien, MI6 and Australian CIS Antagonist: German Afrika Corps and criminals Main characters: Jamie Munro and Jack O’Brien Narration type: Third person Theme of book: War and the aftermath of war   Book Summary: The Warramunga's War The Warramunga’s War is a story of the friendship formed between Jamie Munro and Jack ‘Jacko’ O’brien during the Syrian Campaign against the Vichi French in WWII. After Jacko rescues wounded Jamie, MI6 conscripted them to Cairo. Here, Jamie and Jacko learn about the seamy side of war in counter-espionage as they track down German spies. The principal fictional characters interact with actual historical figures and events throughout the story. As desert war escalates to the west Cairo, the MI6 team confuses enemy with ...

To some people reading classic literature is a big challenge – an investment of time and mental energy. Usually classics are a big fat books full of wisdom and philosophies. However, here are few examples of short classic book that you can read in a day or in a single sitting; yet they are equally meaningful, emotionally challenging and beautifully written. The Outsider Author: Albert Camus This novel by French author, published in 1942, is often cited as Camus’ example of philosophy of the absurd and existentialism. The title character is Meursault, a French-Algerian man, who attends his mother’s funeral. He killed an Arab man in French Algiers after a few days of funeral. The Arab man was involved in a conflict with a friend. Meursault is sentenced to death after trial. The story of the book is divided in two parts. One part illustrates Meursault’s views before the murder and another after the murder. This short classic book ends as a meditation on the meaninglessness of existence. T...