Book Review OF ' THE KITE RUNNER'

 

BOOK: THE KITE RUNNER

AUTHOR: KHALED HOSSEINI

PAGES: 327

BLURB:

Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realizes that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

 

MY TAKE ON THIS BOOK:

The first book I’ve read of Khaled Hosseini was ‘And the Mountains Echoed’ and I still remember the entire story. That’s the thing with the stories of Khaled Hosseini, they leave an imprint on you, perhaps the kind you will remember for a long time.

Amir’s father is a well known and respectable man in Kabul. He had always stood up against the wrongs but his son, Amir lack the qualities of his father. Whenever someone troubles Amir, he never stood up for himself. It was always Hassan who stood for him. Hassan considered Amir as his best friend but he was just the son of a servant for Amir. And when Hassan needed him the most, Amir left him alone. This guilt stayed with Amir for the rest of the life.

Amir’s father molded the world to his liking. The problem, of course, was that he saw the world in black and white. And he got to decide what was black and what was white. You can’t love a person who live that way without fearing him too. May be even hating him a little. Amir struggled to get love and affection from his father and it took him a long time to achieve so.

The only way to get Baba’s attention was by winning the kite flying tournament. There were no other viable options. Winning the tournament and running for the last kite to show Baba how competent his son was, was the only way Amir thought.

He won. But as he won, he lost something forever. (What he lost? Was it a person or a possession or anything else? That you have to find out from the book !) 

Ali, the servant who worked in Amir’s home had a congenital paralysis of his lower facial muscles, a condition that rendered him unable to smile and left him perpetually grim-faced. It was an odd thing to see the stone-faced Ali happy, or sad, because only his slanted brown eyes glinted with a smile or welled with sorrow. People say that eyes are the windows to the soul. Never was that more true than with Ali, who could only reveal himself through his eyes.

Hassan kept trying to rekindle things between him and Amir, but Amir doesn’t have the courage to face him. It hurts, when you try to get back the bond you shared, but what you get in return is only series of disappointments. Amir has always been harsh with Hassan but Hassan never took it the wrong way. He always stood for his Amir Agha. And when Amir told him to go away, to stop harassing him, he left.

Once, Amir took Hassan to a hill top where they climb and read stories. That day, Amir threw a pomegranate to Hassan shouting ‘what should you do when someone hits you?’ he repeated it again and again and then answered ‘you should hit them back’ sobbing in between. The love and brotherhood shared between the two can’t be explained. I wish Amir wasn’t that rude or harsh with Hassan. May be things would have been different if he never participated in the kite flying tournament.

Although Amir and Baba toil to create a new life for themselves in the US, the past is unable to stay burried. When it tears it's ugly head, Amir is forced to return to his homeland to face the demons and decisions of his youth, with only a slim hope to make amends.

"When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, Rob his children of a father. And when you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There's no act more wretched than stealing" The way Baba explained this lines to Amir couldn't have been more realistic and relatable. 

The final chapter of the book is perhaps my favourite, and one that I have found moving even when rereading it. The message behind the very ending could be interpreted differently by different readers, but personally I feel that it offers a small sense of hope for both the future of its characters, and perhaps for the war-torn Afghanistan as well.

I loved how the story kept unfolding with time and I assure you would love it too.

How Hassan and  Amir got separated? What made them do so? Did they ever meet again? Why Amir remained thirsty for the love and affection of his father? What happened the night following the kite flying tournament?

I am leaving these question for you.

P.S.: the books I've read of Khaled Hossein so far always had a connection with Afghanistan and so does this book.

Let me know if you liked this book as much as I loved it :)

Overall rating: 4.3/5  

 

Book Review of 'NEVER LET ME GO...'

 

BOOK: NEVER LET ME GO…

AUTHOR: SACHIN GARG

PAGES: 239

BLURB:

What made Samar abandon everything he had- an engineering degree and a drop dead gorgeous girlfriend- and flee to Goa instead to start life afresh?

On being kicked by life, harder than he could ever imagine, Samar had three options:

He could look life in the eye and fight back. He could succumb and do something that would haunt him forever. Or he could flee, to a place where there were no traces of the blow he had received.

So Goa it was. In search of solace, perhaps, by working in a small shack at an unknown beach.

Dealing with the local police, resurrecting a dying shack, and managing rowdy parties, risking having his bones and jaw-line broken, does Samar get what he was seeking?

 

MY TAKE ON THIS BOOK:

“SOMETIMES,  YOU JUST LOOK AT THINGS YOU KNOW YOU CAN NEVER HAVE”

The book begins with Samar being locked in his room.

The story is basically of Samar, Roy, Navya, Maansi and Kanika.

Based on my point of view, the beginning of the story truly doesn’t tell you what is there inside. You need to go deeper and deeper to unfold the reasons. And for me, I was truly satisfied with the story.

The way Navya confessed her feelings and asked Samar if he was too falling for her.  What Samar replied was a genuine one and at that one moment I fell for him :) . He compared what he felt for Navya to what he felt for Kanika. And he knew the answer. There was no comparison. He was definitely not in love with Navya and even though he barely even thought of Kanika, she was what would always rule his heart.

Samar made a promise to himself that whatever happens, for the rest of his life, he will take care of Navya no matter where he was. This girl was special. He felt the urge to tell her what the real reason was but then it would change the way she looked at him. He was happy being an outcast. And perhaps it was fine.

The way Samar turned and looked at Navya and his heart told him that she was special and she was who he waited for all the time, she was the one who he wanted to talk to, she was the one he thought about unceasingly. But she wasn’t someone he loved.  Samar was polite and knew his limits.But he was quite selfish, by wanting her to stay.

When Navya told that they should separate their ways if there was no future, and also when she told if he wanted her to stay or just tell her to ‘stay’ she might just stay and not leave. And the reply Samar gave is STAY.

If she left suddenly, quite frankly she was what Samar was living for then. He would have been clueless with the departure and being dependent of her, he had no other choice. He was being selfish for wanting her to stay. And he knew that it would be hard for her- to love him and know that he can never love her back. But he could not let her go. He couldn’t exist without her.

‘MAY BE SOME CHAPTERS SHOULD END IN LIFE, SO THAT THEY REMAIN A SPLENDID MEMORY FOREVER’

Navya leaving WoodStock Village was the moment Samar hated the most and the way things changed for him was so sudden that it began hurting him.

Thimappa’s character was also a strong one. The way he took up things on Christmas eve was commendable. And I pitied on him for his childhood bullying episodes. But where he was at last gave him satisfaction. What else do you need?  

Joseph, Zeeshan and Arshi too played a good role.

Go and read this book and know the reason Samar left Delhi and stayed somewhere else with zero penny in his pocket. How he stayed? What he did? What were the reasons? You have to find it out yourself.

Overall review: 4/5

Book Review of 'IKIGAI'

 

BOOK:  IKIGAI

AUTHOR: HECTOR GARCIA AND FRANCESC MIRALLES

PAGES:  196

BLURB:

The people of Japan believe that everyone has an ikigai- a reason to jump out of bed each morning.

Inspiring and comforting, this book will give you the life changing tools to uncover your personal ikigai. It will show you how to leave urgency behind, find your purpose, nurtutre friendships and throw yourself into your passions.

MY TAKE ON THIS BOOK:

“The things we love are like the leaves of tree: they can fall at any moment with a gust of wind.”

It is not a quote with which the book started off. 

I discovered this lines when I was almost on the verge of completing the book and it literally went deep into me. So, I thought of starting with this lines :)

IKIGAI is a book that talks about how to find the flow or the purpose of life. This book being a best-seller serves its purpose right. And to my opinion, whenever you feel low, whenever you feel distracted or a void in yourself, I guess this book is the best choice.

This book talks about psychoanalysis, logotherapy, happiness, longitivity and more. Psychoanalysis dwelves into the past while logotherapy looks into the future.

The process of logotherapy can be summarized in five steps:

1.          A person feels empty, frustrated, or anxious.

2.        The therapist shows him that what he is feeling is the desire to have a meaningful life.

3.       The patient discovers his life’s purpose (at that particular point in time)

4.       Of his own free will, the patient decides to accept or reject that destiny.

5.      This newfound passion for life helps him overcome obstacles and sorrows.

 

‘Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way’

If I ask you what is your IKIGAI? What will be your answer? 

Existential crisis is typical of modern societies in which people do what they are told to do, or what others do, rather than what they want to do. They often try to fill the gap between what is expected of them and what they want for themselves by numbing their senses.

Existential frustration arises when our life is without purpose, or when that purpose is skewed. And that is what we should overcome. According to logotherapy, discovering one’s purpose in life helps an individual fill that existential void.

And if you are in crisis, I think you should find someone to share with. Because in that way, you can make the crisis shallow. And that is the only escape.

In this book, the authors went to Okinawa and Ogini where they have interviewed more than hundred old people about their secret to longitivity because these are the places in Japan where men and women have lived for more then a century and some of them even held world record for being the oldest one in the world.

This book talks about the positivity, finding the purpose of life, being happy, the secrets of longitivity and more.

Some of the lines that I loved from the book-

‘We should never forget that everything we have and all the people we love will disappear at some point. This is something we should keep in mind, but without giving in pessimism.’

‘All things human are short lived and perishable’

‘It’s not what happens to you, but how you react that matters’

‘Worrying about things that are beyond our control accomplishes nothing. We should have a clear sense of what we can change and what we can’t, which in turn will allow us to resist giving in to negative emotions.’

Read this book and know the secrets which are shared by the authors.

P.S.- If you haven’t read this book, you should. I am sure you would love this piece of art.

 Recommended to you by ten folds ;)

Overall rating:  4.7/5

 

Book Review Of 'THE DIARY OF MY LOVE'

Book: The Diary of My Love

Author: Deesha Sangani

Pages: 166

 

BLURB:

IF YOU HAVE A HEARTBEAT, THERE’S STILL TIME FOR YOUR DREAMS.

Anushkaa is young, dynamic and deeply passionate, with her goals clearly set out. She has just stepped into the corporate world, chasing her dreams. Life seems perfect.

Ayush meets Anushkaa on her first day at work, and feels a spark of liking rush through him. A chance conversation with Anushkaa evokes emotions he hasn’t felt in years. She seems to be perfect.

But does a perfect life exist?

When they meet again four years later, their hearts are broken and their will to love is lost. They heal each other’s hearts and help each other achieve their dreams. Finally, when they start living for themselves and each other, life plays a cruel card.

Anushkaa’s diary is her only true companion, holding within the pages the secret that nobody else will ever know. Join Ayush and Anushkaa on this rollercoaster of emotions, and take a peek into the secret Anushkaa has buried in The Diary of My Love.

 

MY TAKE ON THIS BOOK:

In this busy life how many of us actually write a diary?

The book starts with Anushkaa scrolling through her phone gallery when her eyes spotted a picture. She wished she had not clicked that picture. The picture that bought back the memories, the pain and the hope of seeking an answer which can never be answered.

How life can change so suddenly is unbelievable. We hear and read about things changing drastically but it’s a struggle when it actually comes upon us.

Anushkaa was on the floor when her mother saw her and screamed. That’s when her father came and they rushed her to a hospital. She was given medicines for her panic attack.

Her parents and the doctor discussed about the onset and the cause of sudden attacks but nobody knew the reason.

Anushkaa worked for a marketing firm; she had her share of happiness and adventure in life. But life sometimes takes you to a cruel turn and that was what actually happened.

Ayush was Anushkaa’s colleague at the place she had joined. He had trained her and taken her through what would be her role in the team. He had layers of lies hiding his true nature. It generally happens to all of us, when surrounded by energies that contrast with our energies. We try to absorb whatever is around us, gradually hiding our true self.

Ayush is a character you would probably love. Why? – you have to find the answer J

Riya is a character you would abhor – because she isn’t loyal.

Ayush’s family was shocked when after so many years of being in a relationship and then marriage, Ayush and Riya were separating. Ayush did everything to save the marriage but Riya was adamant and filed a divorce. Ayush went into a bad shape of mind after divorce but even after separating, he wishes and believes that Riya is a good-hearted girl with a messed up mind.

Anushkaa didn’t know how to react to whatever he said. All she did was listen to whatever he was venting out. They spoke about mountains, his bad marriage, her relationship, health and also about friends and rejoiced some of the fun times they had while working in the same office.

Anushkaa left a message for Ayush, but had no response. She remembered him telling her that he could go into a shell and not respond for days. He wasn’t healed completely. Everyone has a different pace of healing, and they have a right to choose their pace. That’s the reason she thought she should give him some space and time to be himself.

Was it the right decision for her to not ping him when she didn’t get any response? Or was it just the destiny? – read the book and find it out.

When Anushkaa logged into her Facebook, the next day, she saw people commenting on Ayush’s picture with ‘Rest in peace’. She was in a state of complete shock and pinged almost all the people who commented there to tell her it was a prank. But, it wasn’t.  She called Ayush’s brother and broke down.

Ayush was her biggest secret—a secret that absolutely no one knew about. Everyone knew about his bad marriage, but no one knew how they started loving each other. Neither did Ayush confess nor did Anushkaa. Yet the dream to be with each other just remained another dream.

 

Sometimes, you shouldn’t leave things for destiny, when you feel something is not right, believe it. Sometimes, when you think it’s the end, try again. And live life without any regrets.

 

P.S.- This book contains some entries of diary which make it more engrossing.

Overall Rating: 3.4/5

Book Review of 'THE SILENT PATIENT'

 BOOK: THE SILENT PATIENT

AUTHOR: ALEX MICHAELIDES

PAGES: 341

BLURB:

Alicia

Alicia Brenson writes in her diary as a release, an outlet- and to prove to her beloved husband that everything is fine. She can’t bear the thought of worrying Gabriel, or causing him pain.

Until, late one evening, Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never speaks another word.

Theo

Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced he can successfully treat Alicia, where all others have failed. Obsessed with investigating her crime, his discoveries suggest Alicia’s silence goes deeper than he first thought.

And if she speaks, would he want to hear the truth?

MY TAKE ON THE BOOK:

‘The Silent Patient’ is a book I enjoyed reading from the start till the end. The main protagonist in the book is Alicia Brenson, who is the silent patient.

The book begins with Alicia’s diary and a few notes she had made about her day.

Alicia was thirty three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years and were both artists—Alicia was a painter and Gabriel was a well known fashion photographer.

It was Barbie Hellmann (Alicia’s neighbour) who phoned the police after she have heard several gunshots. The house was pitch-black dark, none of the light switches were working when the police arrived in the scene. A gun was on the floor. Next to it in the shadows, Gabriel was seated, motionless, bound to a chair with wire wrapped around his ankles and wrists. He was shot several times in the face, leaving a charred, blackened, bloody mess. 

Alicia was found with the gun and was arrested by the police. The police questioned her in the presence of her solicitor but she remained silent throughout her interview. She answered no questions. She could not, would not, speak. Nor did she speak when charged with Gabriel’s murder. She remained silent when she was placed under arrest, refusing to deny her guilt or confess it. 

Theo Faber, a psychotherapist, had a rough childhood memory which makes him feel terrible at moments. The unpredictable and arbitrary rages of his father made him feel vulnerable. He never got to know what he actually did to trigger anger of such kind. His only hope of survival, he realized, was to retreat—psychically as well as physically. He was eighteen when he left home to study further after he got the grades needed to secure a place at university. 

He got into a university he wanted but was he able to leave the memories he had back as a child? Was he able to forget the paralyzing pain that was bought because of his father’s rage? How things went after he left his home is something I would like you to discover yourself after you read this book.

Theo was married to Kathy. Kathy knew Gabriel. Theo and Alicia were unknown to each other until the murder of Gabriel happened. 

This story is basically the story of how after 6 years of murder, Alicia who didn’t speak a word, begins to speak. Speaks what? You have to find out.

The diary of Alicia reveals the entire conspiracy. And it is when you reach the end of the story you will know what the reason was, who provoked whom, who was the one who shot the bullets and everything. 

P.S.- Suggesting everyone to read it.  It is a book worth reading. 

Overall rating: 4.2/5

Book Review of 'DEAR STRANGER, I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL'

 

Book- Dear Stranger, I Know How You Feel

Author- Ashish Bagrecha

Pages-185

BLURB:

Dear Stranger,

I don’t know much about you, but I do know how you feel. You are feeling lost, lonely and misunderstood. You are tired of pain and suffering. Depression, anxiety and negativity chase you. You don’t know where to find hope and how to heal yourself. Trust me, I have been there myself, and I know it’s not easy.

So, I am writing these thirty letters and poems to you, to let you know that you are not alone, and that you are understood. You are still cared for.

I hope you will read one of these letters every day, and I promise you, together, we will get through this. Life is difficult, but not if we take it one day at a time. 

Trust the universe and never give up.

Love and Light,

A stranger who feels you

MY TAKE ON THIS BOOK:

‘Dear Stranger, I Know How You Feel’ is a self help book in which the author has written as many as thirty poems and letters dedicated to the people who need them. It starts with Day-1 and ends with Day-30.

When you start reading the book, you will know that the author wants you to read at least one letter a day (although I have read almost half in a  sitting). 

There are some poems that will touch your core and some letters that will make you wonder.

No matter if you are lost, no matter if you are defeated, no matter if you failed, no matter if you are left heartbroken, you will find light in your life again.

If you ask me which poem I loved the most in the book, it’s this one-

“maybe we will never meet

but we can still walk together

like parallel lines

to infinity and beyond”.

Some people just arrive uninvited in our life. When we least know about it. Some people leave us with a hope to meet somewhere someday under different circumstances. And that hope keeps us moving.

And that’s life… It keeps going no matter where you are, what you are!

You know, we all have chaos and constant whirlwind of our thoughts in our mind. Sometimes we sit in our room and allow that constant thought to overpower us. And to tell you the truth, this is where we should stop. Never let anything overpower you. Even if it’s your own thoughts.

There’s one more poem I loved from this book, it’s this one:

“you think

your dreams are dying

but here’s the truth

dreams never die.

they are simply leaving you

when they grow tired

they change homes.

they believe 

they deserve better 

because dreams love doers 

more than thinkers.”

Do you remember what it was like to dream? To believe with a wholehearted, burning passion that you dreamed would come to pass. Dreams. They were a part of your life as long as you can remember. When you were a child, you dreamed of floating amongst the stars, of walking on the moon, and of raindrops that danced as they fell. And as you grew, so did your dreams. Your dreams filled your head with ideas of what life would be like when you finally reached adulthood.

Life eventually catches up, and at some point, somewhere, you needed to be realistic.

And so, the skills you were taught as a child, to help break your future down into steps and stages, begin to slowly erode your dreams. Pretty soon, they are forgotten. They became stories of what you thought you would be when you grew up, and seem to be a distant memory.

This book tells us more about self- discovery, self appreciation and self-love. Also about dreams, love, hope and healing.

I have enjoyed reading this book and frankly, I won’t suggest you to read this. Because you yourself know what you should do. Everyone knows. This book is basically the written or printed form of your own thoughts. 

The author, ‘Ashish Bagrecha’  have written the book with a pure intension to help the people who are suffering. To help the people in healing. To give them a hope that everything will be fine one day. And I really appreciate the work done by the author in penning down the emotions.

P.S.- It is truly connected with reality of life. And I am sure you will be able to relate yourself as you go on reading this book.   

Overall Rating- 3/5

HOLD A LITTLE

 

Yet again,

Our eyes met

We didn’t talk, 

We didn’t nod.

It was just a few seconds 

that were enough 

to send a trigger 

‘you are in love’

Silence prevails

and I can’t hear a name,

when it’s you with whom 

I am there.

Every motion stops 

moving around, 

When you come walking by.

Yet again, 

I failed 

to express my feelings before you. 

I failed 

to let you know 

how much this heart wants you.

Listen to my eyes,

It’s screaming your name loud.

Talk to my heart,

And it will utter your name.

Hold my hand,

And it will hold you back.