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Author: Erich Segal Total Pages: 187 Total approximate words: 39,270 If you have fallen in love, ever in your life, you would love this book. It is exactly what the name of this book is, a love story. Although the sheer quantity of words, could actually make it a very long short story, instead of a full-fledged novel (personal opinion). But given that, there is no denying that it is a book worth reading if it gets into your hand. Kind of how actually I ended up reading this work of fiction. Thinking about it, I must have bought it in an airport during one of my transits, perhaps. And along with my other books I must have neatly put this one too, in my book shelve, to read later. Almost eight years later, as I was rearranging the entire lot in my room, at my parent’s house, I finally decided to give this ‘once a best seller’ during the 1970s, a chance. After all, a love story can never be disappointing. SYNOPSIS Oliver Barrett IV, 20, is from the very affluent family of Barretts who happen to be phenomenally wealthy and highly known for their aristocracy. Oliver, who is in Harvard, falls in love with Jennifer, an American with Italian descent and a music major in Radcliffe. Both young, twenty years old, a bit snobbish in the beginning towards each other, like most young lovers, and then madly in love with each other. So much so that, they get married, even without Oliver’s father’s consent. Not that he cared much for his family’s permission to marry the love of his life. Jennifer gives up her scholarship to pursue music in Paris to get married to Oliver who was preparing to go to law school. The couple goes through temporary hardships with only Jennifer’s salary of a school teacher as Oliver pursues his degree in Law. Once graduated, he bags an excellent offer from a reputed law firm in New York and the couple moves there. Their marital life was just at this exciting and romantic corner when things start to fall apart as Jennifer is diagnosed with a life-threatening sickness. Within a few weeks of diagnosis, and after four years of marriage, Jennifer dies of leukemia, leaving Oliver all by himself, with a heart that only longed to be with her, and nothing and no one. What I liked in the story? That it was a love story. That it was short and didn’t unnecessarily drag the story just for the sake of it. That the words used were easy to read and understand. The style of narration was simple and straightforward. What I didn’t like in the story? It was a flat story. Mediocre story line and narration. CONCLUSION It is a good one time read, if you are into love stories, only. Not essentially mind stimulating, or heart wrenching like Love stories usually are. But then again, every book is supposed to be different. Don’t expect to be surprised, keep an open mind and just enjoy the simplicity of the book. As much as it was the best seller during the 1970s, I would rate this book a 6.5/10. To break that down for you, Ease of reading: 7/10 Character/ Plot building: 6/10 World Building: 6/10 Do let me know your opinion about this ‘best seller’ book through an email or post it in the comments section. Best five responses will be featured in the website. Happy reading! PS This review is based on my personal reading of the book and understanding it with my own limited experiences.

Authors: Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo Total no. of pages: 402 Total approximate words: 1,08,540 My only source of getting information about the winners of Nobel Prize is the social media. Facebook, to be precise. Whoever is behind their social media presence, is doing a pretty good job! The page regularly updates not only about the laurates, and their inventions, but also share interesting backstories, about what led to certain inventions. Then there are these candid photos and stories, about the laurates, that adds the ‘color’ factor and makes it appealing to a mediocre like me. So, through this page of ‘Nobel Prize’, I came to know about Abhijit V. Banerjee, one of the three Nobel Prize winner for Economics in 2019, and the second Indian to receive it in the same field. The first one was Amartya Sen. Not disregarding the fact that Banerjee is probably an American citizen now, but him having roots in Bengal, intrigued me to know more about his research and studies. And my hungry eyes for books started looking for anything that this Bengali man wrote. And viola, I bumped into ‘Poor Economics’! SYNOPSIS The book focuses on the problem of poverty, in third world countries, majorly in Asia, and Africa. The authors, along with their teams and NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) in different countries have created exercises over the years and have implemented them at the grass root level. These included, education, microfinance, health, policies, and politics. The book explains the poverty trap, and how hunger and poverty go hand in hand. Because the poor cannot afford to eat enough, it makes them less productive and keeps them poor. The authors give live examples of such impoverished people, and puts light into their way of thinking and dealing with their poverty. Surprisingly, for a lot of hungry people, buying more calories is not the number one priority. In their eighteen-country data set on the lives of the poor, food represented from 36 to 79 percent of consumption among the rural extremely poor. And it wasn’t because of other necessities. A lot of households in fact spent on alcohol, tobacco, and festivals. It talks about how cheap prevention is easier to afford than an expensive cure. An example of how a disease like diarrhoea can be easily prevented in countries like India, and Zambia, with the usage of subsidized ingredients like chlorine and ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution), or Malaria, with the usage of just a bed net. Sadly, high absenteeism rates and low motivation among government health providers are certainly two reasons that this preventive care is not being delivered as expected. In India only, 56 percent of the time, the government facilities were found to be closed, and only 12 percent of the cases were because the nurse was on duty somewhere else near the center. The rest of the time, the employee was simply absent. Furthermore, even when the doctors and nurses were present, they did not treat their patients particularly well. The book also tackles questions on, if poverty comes down to top-down education policy, and the massive differences in the quality of education provided in government and privately owned schools. Also, if fertility rate is directly proportional to financial savings? And its relation to the difference in treatment that a boy child gets compared to a girl child. Why does the poor want large families? Why the poor people are like the hedge fund managers? And what can they do to cope with the risks that come with it? Why don’t they want insurance? Number of examples are seen through out the book about different grass root problems and their viable solutions. One such is microcredit and its importance for the poor. The authors share their experiments of microcredit success, as well as its limitations. They talk about the psychology behind savings and why the poor lack the self-control to save more and what can be done to encourage them to save more. Citing corruption at every level as one of the major causes of the fallacies in implementing the many policies, the authors give many examples of such shortcomings. Rulers who have the power to shape economic institutions do not necessarily find it in their interest to allow their citizens to thrive and prosper. They may personally be better off with an economy that imposes lots of restrictions on who can do what, and then selectively relaxing some of them to their own advantage, thereby weakening competitions, which would enable them to stay in power. The book also explains about why for the government, even the one with well intentions, it is still a challenge to do its job. Majorly because the government is trying to do what the free market could not do, which essentially makes it a fundamentally difficult job. What further makes it complicated, is that there is no easy way of assessing the performance of most people who work for the government, which is why there are so many rules for what the bureaucrats should and shouldn’t do. The result of which is an endemic corruption. The book shows many examples that actually throws direct light on such grave issues. The authors conclude the book, by stating how the economic growth of any nation is directly proportional to its manpower and brain power. The whole idea of ‘be at the right place at the right time’, is possible only when people are well fed, are educated, and healthy, which in turn would make them feel secure and confident to invest in their children and in their own creativity of nurturing wealth. Policies that specifically focuses on keeping people from striking out because of anger, frustrations, violence and the feeling that they have nothing to lose, might be a crucial step in protecting the future of many nations that aspire to leave the tags of ‘underdeveloped’. What I really liked in the book? Simple style of writing. Ease of reading. Despite being written by academics, the entire interphase of the book is designed in a way that the message reaches to all kinds of people. The many examples of people from different countries with impoverished background, which helps in identifying and pin point the actual grass root level problems. The other examples that show the relations between poverty, hunger, illiteracy, high fertility and corruption. The book is written in such simple style, that I would not mind calling it ‘economics for dummies’. What I didn’t like in the book? Lack of examples from developed countries, about how poverty (however minimal) is managed there. What kind of policies are made keeping in mind the poorer sections of the society and what ensures the almost non-existent corruption in such places? My favorite excerpts: ‘Instead of raging against their destiny, the poor have made things tolerable by reducing their standards.’ ‘Our typical reaction when we are confronted with problems like poverty, is to be generous. But our second thought is often that there is really no point, and that our contribution would be a drop in the bucket, and the bucket probably leaks.’ ‘Poor countries are poor because they are hot, infertile, malaria infested, often landlocked; this makes it hard for them to be productive without an initial large investment to help them deal with these endemic problems. But they cannot pay for these precisely because they are poor--- they are in what the economist call a “poverty trap”,’. ‘The combination of elevated expectations and little faith can be lethal.’ ‘Fertility decisions are made by a couple, but women end up paying most of the physical costs of bearing children. Not surprisingly, their preferences for fertility end up being quite different from those of men.’ ‘For many parents, children are their economic futures: an insurance policy, a savings product, and some lottery tickets, all rolled into a convenient pint size package.’ ‘Good policies can also help break the vicious cycle of low expectations: If the government starts to deliver, people will start taking politics more seriously and put pressure on the government to deliver more, rather than opting out or voting unthinkingly for their co-ethnics or taking up arms against the government.’ ‘The political constraints are real, and they make it difficult to find big solutions to big problems. But there is considerable slack to improve institutions and policy at the margin. Careful understanding of the motivations and the constraints of everyone (poor people, civil servants, tax payers, elected politicians, and so on) can lead to policies and institutions that are better designed, and less likely to be prevented by corruption or dereliction of duty. These changes will be incremental, but they will sustain and build on themselves. They can be the start of a quiet revolution.’ FINAL RATING Ease of reading: 8.5/10 Writing style (to keep the reader engaged): 8/10 Resonating to the reader (moving, and relatable): 7.5/10 Overall, I would definitely recommend this book if you are into thought provoking writings about the world economics, policies, corruption and poverty. Happy reading! Do let me know your opinion about this compassionately written book through an email or post it in the comments section. Best five responses will be featured in the website. PS This review is based on my personal reading of the book and understanding it with my own limited experiences.

Author: Suhail Mathur Total Pages: 308 Total approximate words: 72000 The Hunt for Rama’s Bow, is the ‘Adventure one’ from the series ‘The Vishnu Chronicles’. I got this book as a hand out from my sister, who in her own way love books, a selected few rather I would say. Other than dresses, books are what we exchange with each other as our way of saving the cost and still have more books and dresses. Classic book lovers right! Back to the book, the story is based on characters from the Hindu mythology Ramayana. If you are not from India, Ramayana is basically a long epic story like the ‘Lord of the Rings’, but is considered of religious significance. The main characters of the epic are worshipped on a massive scale by the Hindus all over the world. So, if you like reading mythological stories, you may dig into this one! SYNOPSIS The protagonist Mohan, studying in Delhi University, is the perfect bachelor... physically attractive, intelligent, teacher’s favorite and has the hottest girl of the University as his girlfriend. Samaria, every man's dream girl, is the girl friend, daughter of a minister and wears brands like Jimmy Choo and Versace to college. They both are history students. Out of the blue, Mohan gets a letter one day from his bed ridden grand father to come and visit him in a place called Sahastrapur. Around the same time, he also sees a hooded floating entity, more than once, who mysteriously disappeared every time after lurking around for some time. According to Mohan, his grandfather was long dead, before even his parents passed away. But nevertheless, he decides to take a bus to this village where his supposedly grandfather wants to see him before he leaves for the heavenly abode. His best friend Raj, a movie buff and an admirer of Mohan’s wit and intelligence accompanies him to this trip to Sahastrapur. Once at his grandfather’s palatial home, Mohan is told that he is destined to kill the evil king of the Asuras Dashavanakoka and marry princess Alankrita who is a captive of the demon king. With the help of random strangers who turn out to be possessed with magical powers, Mohan decides to take on the adventure by going back to time, seven thousand years ago. Once, the group reaches its destination, they figure out that they have to solve numerous puzzles, obtain celestial weapons, including a golden chariot and slay many powerful guards of the demon king to make it to the Fortress of Dashavanakoka. Throughout the mythical journey, Mohan saves the group, by solving puzzles with his ever-shining intelligence. In one such occasion, the group had to fight a demoness that had the power to turn any human into a statue of copper. Mohan uses the camera from his cell phone to trick the one-eyed demoness to see her own reflection and her own boon backfired on her as she turned into a copper statue herself. Later on, one of his friends from the group made Mohan an armor of the copper statue which happened to save Mohan’s life many times through out the journey by reversing the direction of the arrows directed at him back to his enemies who were shooting. In yet other occasion, Mohan kills a Tiger all by himself in the deep forests of Zahoba. He further solves a puzzle given by another demoness in the Thar desert all by himself using his intellect. Through out the journey, at various points, Mohan learns surprising yet significant information about the characters of Ramayana from his friends. He also learns that two of his friends Jayadev and Ranvijaya were in fact Raavan and Kubhkaran in their previous lives. These two friends use their magical powers to help Mohan defeat one of his enemy, the Jalasur, who was sent by Dashavanakoka. In a separate incident Mohan defeats three Ogres all by himself by the use of some Chili powder and the powerful sword of Bhavani that one of his friend stole from the National History museum in Mumbai. After many such fights with demons and creatures of magic, the group finally reaches the kingdom of Dasavankoka with all the celestial weapons needed to defeat the demon king. As the group rests for the night in an abandoned hut inside the jungle, three of Mohan’s friends are abducted by the Kaal Sarps who consisted the army of Dasavanakoka. By next morning, when the remaining three people including Mohan realised that there friends were abducted, he requests Jayadeva, and Ranvijaya, the ones with the magical powers to go and save them while he will look for the golden chariot which was the second last thing he had to find in order to defeat his enemy. As fate would have it, by the time Mohan comes back to the hut, he finds all the other celestial weapons missing from there. A dejected Mohan this time finds help from Vibhishan, who had the boon to walk on earth until the end of the time, also known as Chiranjeevi. Mohan finally finds the weapons and also comes to know the whereabouts of the golden chariot. Unable to find the abducted friends in the prison dungeon, the two friends return with another prisoner who was taken into captivity by Dasavanakoka after conquering the kingdom Virajaditya, father of Princess Alankrita. The prisoner shares information about the five remaining wheels for the golden chariot. The group declares war by the next morning. Once again with Mohan’s intelligence, many of the Kaal Sarps are killed by their own arrows after they bounced back from Mohan’s armor. But the sheer number of Kaal sarps outnumbered Mohan and his friends by thousands. In order to help Mohan continue the fight, Jayadev and Ranvijaya create a safety valve around them. All kinds of weapons were futile now as the safety valve protected them inside while letting Mohan shoot arrows to the enemy. Seeing this, the demon King orders the entire army to take their original form of snakes and attack the safety valve. Unfortunately, the transparent safety valve was rendered useless as soon as the snakes spit their venom onto it. Just at the right time, appeared the mighty bird and yet another mythological bird from the Ramayana, the Garuda. The gigantic bird who is the sworn enemy of the snakes, caught hundreds of snakes at once with its claws and took them to the other side of the forest. The bird continued doing so until it got rid of all the snakes. Jayadev exclaimed in happiness on the arrival of Garuda and thanked Lord Vishnu for sending the bird at the right time. Garuda then lifted Mohan’s chariot high up in the air to reach to the top of the five hundred feet high palace, where Dashavankoka’s heart was kept protected near a red flag. Since the demon King’s life was in that heart, all Mohan had to do was pierce the heart with the Kodanda, Lord Rama’s bow. Mohan further strikes the king with the sword of Bhavani, one last time before the lifeless body of the demon king fell in his chariot. Flowers pours from the sky on Mohan for defeating the Dasavankoka. The princess is saved and handed over to Akhand, the commander in chief of Virajaditya, as the duo were in love before fate divided them briefly from each other. After bidding their goodbyes, the group teleports themselves to their present time zone, outside the Safdarjung hospital in Delhi. As Jayadeva and Ranvijaya takes one of the friends to the hospital, Mohan and Raj, rushes to meet Samaira’s house. In her father’s helicopter, the four travel to Tamilnadu, to Mohan’s uncle who was a historian and archeologist to tell him about the whereabouts of the stones used to make the original Raam Setu. Mohan was informed about the stones by Vibhishan who narrated how Kumbhkaran’s gigantic dead body fell into the ocean and pushed the rocks further deep into the sea bed. Mohan’s uncle elated at the new piece of information seeks the permission of his superior to do the required investigations to find the rocks for real. With the combined initiative of both the Indian and the Sri Lankan government, hundreds of divers are sent in the ocean to look for the rocks. As expected, the rocks are found and Mohan and his friend Raj are awarded with a huge sum of money by the government for helping find and restore the stones of such historic evidence. What I liked in the story? Easy to understand, simple narration. Interesting camouflaging of mythological characters into present day mortals. The author’s attempt to create a story by combining the mythological aspects and the modern-day outlook, with usage of occasional humor through one of the characters Raj, the movie buff. A twist towards the end was quite unexpected. What I didn’t like about the story? Lack of depth in the characters. The characters were either from the mythological era, who already had a reputation of its own and didn’t need much introduction or understanding, or straight up modern-day people whose characterization wasn’t indulged as one would expect in any narration. Instead, the characterization was flat and there was no scope for the reader to really understand how the characters thought and why they thought so. Details were missing, in the characters and in the story. Even though there was time travel involved, but how that happened wasn’t described appropriately. Small gaps in the story line. Many, many challenges for the protagonist was described throughout the story to finally save the princess, which kind of made it monotonous and a bit boring. CONCLUSION Pick up this book if you don’t have very high expectations. Readers interested in mythological readings might enjoy the book, but honestly, I would personally prefer Amish Tripathi’s books any day if I want to read such story lines. I kind of dragged myself in finishing the book because that is one of my principles about reading; to finish what I started. I was tempted to close it once and for all after 30% of reading the book. So, for readers who have just started reading fictions, this book could be one of the books to read. It will at the least help inculcate the habit of reading into you. For readers looking to engage their minds, this is definitely not the pick. All in all, I would give this book, a 4/10. Below is my breakdown. Ease of reading: 6/10 Character/ Plot building: 4/10 World Building: 3/10 Do let me know your opinion about this book through an email or post it in the comments section. Best five responses will be featured in the website. Happy reading! PS This review is based on my personal reading of the book and understanding it with my own limited experiences.

Author: Robin Sharma Total Pages: Number of days in a year Total approximate words: 36000 I first read this book in my early twenties. Helped me kind of to understand and channel my energies productively. The first book I read of the great Robin Sharma was of course his classic, ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’, around the same time. Only because that book left a lasting impression on me, that I decided to buy this second book. And I have never regretted buying any of his books since then! Below is a short and sweet review of this wonderful book. SYNOPSIS The book has a total of 365 chapters, one for each day of the year. Each chapter has a wisdom for that particular day. Each month has a topic on human insights, and is written in details in its following 30/31 chapters. The chapters are half a page long at the most, making them convenient to understand and remember. That’s pretty much about it! Some of the wonderful quotes: "Everyone of us creates a story about his/her own life, even if he/she only tells it to himself/herself. For some the story is all about a victim. Playing the victim is easy. You do not have to assume any responsibility for the way your life looks. You can blame everyone else for what’s not working in your life, never having to look at yourself and make the changes required. But when you play victim, you give away your power to that which you allege is victimizing you. It’s a very impotent way to live." "Have fun while you are advancing along the path of your goals, purpose and dreams. Never forget the importance of living with unbridled exhilaration. Never neglect to see the exquisite beauty in all living things. Today and this very moment that you and I are sharing is a gift. Remain spirited, joyful and curious. Stay focused on your life work and on giving selfless service to others. Yet have a great time along the way, because your life is a treasure to be celebrated." "Remember that there are many forms of wealth, financial wealth being only one of them. One who has rich relationships and a loving community around him/her is, in my mind wealthy. One who has a life of excellent health, adventure, excitement and continuous learning has wealth of a different sort. And one who is deeply connected to all of life and wakes up every morning feeling deeply at peace and aware of the truth must certainly be considered to be one who has accumulated yet another form of riches. The crowd- our tribe called Society- has taught us that economic wealth is the only type of wealth we should chase. Not true." "The only people without problems and adversity are six feet under the ground. To live is to face problems, pain and suffering. These things are vehicles for growth, expansion and lifelong learning. They are part of the human experience." CONCLUSION The book is exactly what the title says, DAILY INSPIRATION. Everyone, and by that, I mean everyone, should have this book, or a book like this with them at all times. This book is like the wisdom book that we all need every now and then to remind us the basics of leading a simple and peaceful life. For a self-help book, this one is surely a star. I would give it an 8/10 rating. Below is the breakdown. Ease of reading: 8.5/10 Writing style (to keep the reader engaged): 8/10 Resonating to the reader (moving, and relatable): 7.5/10 I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Happy reading! Do let me know your opinion about this book full of wisdom, through an email or post it in the comments section. Best five responses will be featured in the website. PS This review is based on my personal reading of the book and understanding it with my own limited experiences.

Author: John Green Total Pages: 316 Total approximate words: 91000 Holding the book with an aquatic blue cover, I am trying hard to remember where did I buy this piece of art. Part of me is considering the possibility that it might have been a handed down book from my sister, and the other part of me is thinking that I might have brought it at a thrift store. Either way it was sheer luck that I discovered the book. Only after I read it, that I realised what a catch it was! From then, John Green has become one of my favorite authors to read light hearted romance fiction. SYNOPSIS Hazel, the narrator and the central character of the fiction, is a sixteen-year-old who suffers from terminal lung cancer. Though a teenager, her persona is relatively mature. She likes to be left alone with books, and TV for the most. Other than these, she slept a lot too. Worried that her teenage daughter was spending too much time alone, Hazel’s mother suggests that she join The Literal Heart of Jesus, a support group. Hazel unwillingly joins the support group, even though she resented the idea of such groups. She was content spending time on her bed, watching a little TV every now and then, reading, and pondering on the inevitable death. On her first day at the support group, she meets Isaac, who was suffering from eye cancer. He was the only kid with whom, Hazel sort of got along. After a few weeks at the Support Group, she meets Augustus Waters, a seventeen-year-old, incredibly romantic and a video game lover, boy, through Isaac, when the former accompanied the later to one of the sessions. Augustus had a past with cancer, and had to amputee one of his legs to get rid of it. Augustus and Hazel instantaneously like each other, and he invites her over to watch one of his favorite movies, V for Vendetta, at his place. In return, Augustus offers to read An Imperial Affliction, one of Hazel’s favorite books, where the protagonist was a cancer patient too. They continue seeing each other while pondering on the probable cause of the abrupt ending of the book. Since there was no other way to find out about it, other than to meet the author himself and ask him, who was residing in the Netherlands, Augustus decides to use his ‘Wish’ from the organization, The Genie Foundation, which is in the business of granting sick kids one wish, to go for a short trip to Amsterdam. He also found it amusing that Hazel used her only dying ‘Wish’ on a trip to the Disney World. The trip is almost finalized, until one night Hazel gets a throbbing pain in her head and shoulder, and is rushed to the Emergency room. She stayed in the hospital for almost a week, as they drained out the fluid from her lungs. Meanwhile, Augustus starts corresponding with Peter Van Houten, the author of An Imperial Affliction, in order for them to meet him. Hazel, is elated at the news and gets excited to read the hand written letter posted to Augustus Waters. Although the letter had almost nothing about the ending of the book, but reading Van Houten’s words about the living and the dead, and his brief but valuable insight on Hazel’s and Augustus’s love for each other, she asks her mother to ask the doctors if she can do an international trip. After much consultations and making sure that Hazel’s medical requirements are made through out the journey, the two along with Hazel’s mother set off to the city of freedom. As the airplane made its way to another continent, Augustus and Hazel sat together, hand in hand, watching the same movies in the entertainment system, while the clouds soared past them at 31000 feet in the sky. Before drifting to sleep, Augustus talks about how inevitable oblivion is, and how everything is meaningless from the universe’s perspective, but also, having said that, he was still convinced with the idea of being in love, and that he is in love with Hazel Grace. After resting for the day in the hotel, Hazel and Augustus go for a dinner, at a fancy restaurant, the type where they have round tables with white table cloth on it, and serve Don Perignon. The next morning, they finally go to meet Van Houten, with all their hopes up, about finally getting to know the book’s ending. However, they meet with disappointment when Van Houten turned out to be an alcoholic and a rather rude, obnoxious and unempathetic individual. He also tells them that his letter was just a gesture and that he never really expected them to fly all the way from another continent. Determined not to spoil their trip to an otherwise beautiful place, Hazel and Augustus with the assistance of Van Houten’s assistant, Lidewij, who profusely was apologizing for her boss’s behavior, go to see Anne Frank’s Museum. The museum had a whole lot of stairs to walk and by the time the duo made it to the top, Hazel was extremely tired and Augustus’s limp didn’t help much. Despite that, the tour turned out to be a nice experience. The two were chauffeured back to the hotel by Lidewij, and they go to Augustus room. Anxious that Hazel might not like how he looked without his prosthetic, he paused for sometime in the corridor outside the elevator, before he finally said the same to her. Hazel laughed it off by telling him to ‘get over it’. The two walk in Augustus’s hotel room and spend the afternoon together, before Hazel leaves a sleeping Augustus a love letter in the form of a Venn Diagram, to go to her room that she shared with her mother. Before the end of the trip, Hazel finds out that Augustus’s cancer has hit again, and this time it is all over everywhere, including the lining of his chest, left hip and liver. They both now know what was to become of Augustus; it was just a matter of time. Once they were back in Indianapolis, Hazel visited Augustus everyday at his place. Their friend Isaac, who had to operate his other eye in order to get rid of the cancer, is now completely blind. He was also heartbroken as his girlfriend dumped him just before his surgery, and did not even bother to do as much as call him afterwards to know how he was doing. In an attempt to take revenge on that, the three drive to her house, and do an act of mischief by throwing eggs on her car and all over the front yard. A few weeks followed after that with Augustus getting sicker than ever before. He is in a wheel chair, unable to eat without puking, and needs assistance in doing even the smallest things. Hazel feels bad to see Augustus pity his self-worth, but there was hardly anything that she could do, other than, to just be with him. He is eventually admitted to the hospital, and one late night Hazel gets the call from Augustus’s parents about him passing away during his sleep. After that, it was a series of endless crying and dealing with the pain of losing the love of her life for days and weeks that followed. Peter Van Houten, realizing that he was a douchebag, shows up discreetly at Augustus’s service. He tries to talk to Hazel, but only receives her ferocity of how much she despised him. When Van Houten didn’t give up and tried sneaking in the back seat of her car, outside Isaac’s place, Hazel mellowed down, and the two talked. She learnt that Van Houten’s own daughter died of cancer at the age of eight. Listening to his share of tragedy, Hazel softens up for him and forgives him. At Issac’s place, she also learns that Augustus wrote something for her. Hazel talks to Augustus’s parents but they didn’t seem to know anything, she also looks for it in his room, where his smell still lingered. Finally, she writes to Lidewij to ask if Augustus sent anything to Van Houten’s address. Lidewij says that she resigned from working for Van Houten, but she promises to find out about the papers. In a few days, Hazel gets an email from Lidewij, with the scanned copies of the papers that had Augustus writings about life, love, and them and a request to compile all that in the form of a eulogy for Hazel. He actually wrote to Van Houten to write a eulogy for her, because he could not. The book ends with Hazel reading Augustus’s writing about how he doesn’t have a choice about getting hurt, but he certainly can choose the person that hurts him. And he chose Hazel, and that he likes his choice, and he hopes Hazel likes hers too. Hazel silently says, that she does, she really does. What I really liked in the story? The depiction of the story itself, along with its characterization, and plot development. Since the protagonist is the narrator, it gives a lot of space to understand the mind of the central character, which is one of the fundamental things about fiction writing, from a reader’s perspective. The more the protagonist talks and mentions about the details, the more the reader is able to dive into the protagonist’s mind itself and eventually experience the story by himself/herself rather than just reading it. This specific characterization is done tremendously awesome in this book. The story is weaved so methodically that while reading, the sequence of events just seems so natural, and logical, and fall into the exact place where they should be, instead of being just put there for the sake of it or because may be the author got lazy or whatever (like tacky and patchy make up; if you know what I mean). The words used are simple and easy to understand. The plot keeps up as the story progresses. There were no unnecessary details that felt like a drag to the story. What I didn’t like about the story? Almost nothing. Hazel’s and Augustus’s parents seemed like the best parents in the world, especially because Asian parenting is the bang on opposite of that! So that was a bit unrelatable for me being an Indian kid. But that has less to do with the story line, and more to do with my personal perspective. Other than that, there is absolutely nothing that I didn’t like in the book. Lines that made me smile (more than I already was!) Out of nowhere Augustus asked, “Do you believe in an afterlife?” “I think forever is an incorrect concept,” I answered. He smirked. “You are an incorrect concept.” “I know. That’s why I am being taken out of the rotation.” ‘…..Always was a promise! How can you just break the promise?’ “Sometimes people don’t understand the promises they’re making when they make them,” I said. Isaac shot me a look. “Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That’s what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway. Don’t you believe in true love?” “I am in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simplest pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.” And many many more. CONCLUSION If your genre is romance, and teen, this is your book! If you don’t like any of these in particular, but you still like a good story, this is your book too. Despite the fact that I don’t usually like teen genre, I would still love to devour in the happy and sad lines of these wonderful heart-warming story more than once for sure. (I actually read it three times already!) I would give it an overall rating of 7.5/10. The breakdown as follows: Ease of reading: 9/10 Character/ Plot building: 8/10 World Building: 7/10 Do let me know your opinion about this book through an email or post it in the comments section. Best five responses will be featured in the website. Happy reading! Disclaimer This review is based on my personal reading of the book and understanding it with my own limited experiences.

Total pages: 209 Total approximate words: 53000 This book, I distinctively remember when I got my hands on it. Beginning of 2018, after one of the Australian layovers, at the airport, on the way to the boarding gate, at this huge book store. My job as a flying attendant, even though was pretty hectic and challenging with having to deal with vastly different time zones, and at times extremely difficult passengers, the time alone at a layover, in a different city did provide some kind of solace to my mind and soul. Mid of that year, I was getting married, and arranging a wedding was turning out to be an extremely stressful series of events, especially keeping in mind the number of people to please and the amount of money involved for that. Being an Indian, I felt obligated to please everyone, even when I didn’t want to! And seeing the title of the book on a fluorescent orange color, I felt that the book was made for me. I really needed to learn the subtle of not giving a fuck. SYNOPSIS The book cleverly starts with a brief philosophy from Charles Bukowski’s life. Bukowski was an alcoholic, womaniser, gambler, a cheapskate and a deadbeat broke who worked at a dead-end job. No one cared about what he wrote, and he kind of gave up and lived in depression. Until one day, a publisher took interest in his work. He was fifty by then. Copies of his writings were eventually sold for millions, but Bukowski didn’t change much as a person. He still chased after women, was an obnoxious rude person and drank alcohol like water. Despite all that he was still the loser that he was before. The take home from his story is that, Bukowski’s success did not stem from his determination to be a winner, but from his acceptance about himself as a loser, and then writing honestly about it. He never tried to be anything other than what he was. His comfort with himself as a failure made him a success. Bukowski didn’t give a fuck about success. Self-improvement and success don’t necessarily mean they’re the same thing. The book talks about how everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience, and how most of us don’t want the negative experience, which backfires and keeps us stagnated at where we are. Manson gives relatable examples about metrics or how we measure ourselves and how important it is to prioritize better values, choosing better things to give a fuck about. He writes profoundly about why confronting problems are important even if they are uncomfortable and unconventional. Through the book, Manson explains about the counterintuitive values and why are they important. Taking responsibility for everything; acknowledging one’s own ignorance; the willingness to discover one’s own flaws so that they can be improved; the ability to accept and offer rejection, build trust and set boundaries; and the final one, the contemplation of one’s own mortality. The book ends with Manson giving an example from his own life about the final counterintuitive value. Lines that made so much sense: “Honesty in a relationship is more important to me than feeling good all the time. The last person I should ever have to censor myself is the woman I love.” “If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because she has failed at it more than you have.” “There’s a certain comfort that comes with knowing how you fit in the world. Anything that shakes up that comfort- even if it could potentially make your life better- is inherently scary.” “Throughout my life, I’ve been flat out wrong about myself, others, society, culture, the world, the universe- everything. And I hope that will continue for the rest of my life.” “The key to a good life is not give a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less.” What I liked about the book? Mark Manson’s straight forward perspective, and his usage of simple yet extremely relevant examples. Despite being a ‘self-help’ book, the narration is in first person, which kind of makes it tremendously relatable and refreshing to read; it painted the author more as someone who was figuring out about life and sharing its lessons on the way, rather than some know it all guru. Tons of examples, comparisons to understand each outlook. A dash of humor every now and then. Less pretentious and more substance comparatively, for its genre. What I didn’t like about the book? Could have been a bit smaller. But that was not a deal breaker for me. CONCLUSION If you like indulging in ‘self-help’ books, with a refreshing narrative compared to the cliché contents of such books, THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A FUCK is for you. If you are tired of the bullshit around you, and want a different perspective, but you hate talking to people (for introverts), read this book. If you are a people pleaser, read this book. Every time I need some reality check, I read this book, which means I am going to be reading this book n number of times in the future, unless a better book comes out about, how not to give any fucks. Ratings Ease of reading: 7.5/10 Writing style (to keep the reader engaged): 8.5/10 Resonating to the reader (moving, and relatable): 8.5/10 Overall, I give this awesome book an 8/10. Do let me know your opinion about this book full of wisdom, through an email or post it in the comments section. Best five responses will be featured in the website. Happy reading! DISCLAIMER This review is based on my personal reading of the book and understanding it with my own limited experiences. This review is just a singular perspective and not the only one.

Author: Aseem Vadehra Total Pages: 171 Total approximate words: 62,073 I started reading this book a long time ago, perhaps a couple of years ago. But never finished it. In fact, never even read from the first chapter. Just randomly picked up one story and left it even before finishing it. When I picked it up again, after years of abandonment in the book shelve, the familiar feeling of reluctance crept in, and for a moment I hesitated to commit, to read it at one go, and not just leave it because one of its pages was boring. So, I dared. I use the word ‘dared’ because commitment to read a book from start to finish at one go and completely letting go of the temptation to pick a side book, is a big deal for me. It is almost like a promise of undivided attention to the book by the reader, to be with it, throughout its journey from the beginning to the end, no matter what. Read on to know, if it was worth the commitment, and if you should think about making one, with this one here at least! SYNOPSIS “A chance at happiness”, is a collection of 17 short stories. The stories have different narration styles, but the core writing style is similar, of course. For example, certain chapters have the protagonist as the narrator, and in others, the narration is in third person. Every story has a different plot, obviously, but the characterization in each is similar to an extent. For example, almost all the stories happen in one city; most of the protagonists have similar wants, desires, and regrets, come from similar background (wealthy businessman), is attracted towards female in one particular way, is miserable in his life in one way or the other. A brief about the stories below: 1. Mr. Alexander The protagonist Akshay, is a self-made man, who happens to meet his school teacher, Mr Alexander, and his mind goes back to his schooldays. 2. Tara The narrator is in love with the girl of his dreams, Tara, but his table tennis practice introduced him to his partner’s sister Pallavi, who is attracted to him. The two make out a couple of times, but Pallavi’s brother Ishan spill the beans to Tara. A heartbroken Tara eventually moves on and gets married to her drama school partner Shiv. 3. A Chance at Happiness Amit is a school going kid, and is from a wealthy family. He is sexually abused by one of the male servants at his house, who later is diagnosed with HIV, and is subsequently kicked out. Amit lives with fear for twelve years, before he gets the courage to actually do a test for himself. The test declares him HIV negative, but the thought of all those years, reminded him of how strangely, he enjoyed bits and pieces of it. 4. A Date in Paharganj Ankit is a spoiled brat from a wealthy family, and is working with his father in the family business. On his flight from Chennai to Delhi, he meets Annalisa, an Italian tourist, and tries to impress her with his fake American accent. When Ankit offers to drop her to her booked hotel room in Paharganj, she invites him for lunch the next day as a thank you gesture. Ankit gets his hopes high, and the two end up making love a week before Ankit’s arranged marriage. When Ankit’s father comes to know about it, he fires the driver for taking him to Annalisa’s address. 5. Bachelor The narrator is secretly in love with his best friend’s wife, and when the wife plays a game of questions about how well the spouses know each other, she is disappointed at both her husband, and his best friend, the narrator. 6. The Company Aman is trying to grow his family business after his father’s demise, but one visit from the Income tax officials, rob him from a fortune of money. 7. Dior Payal and Kapil are married for four years, but despite having a lavish lifestyle, Payal feels lonely, as apparently he is not the same guy that she fell for. Dressed up in their expensive attires, the couple go to a lavish party, where Kapil gets busy with others, leaving Payal on her own. While having drinks in the bar, she meets Gautam, Kapil’s friend and they make out in a secluded corner of the farmhouse. 8. Diwali The narrator Aditya, goes to a lavish Diwali party where he meets with an average looking woman and feels attracted towards her. As the two decide to go to a more isolated part of the party, he gets too close to Deepa and tries to kiss her, and is taken aback when she doesn’t reciprocate it. 9. At the Eye Doctor The narrator, with his loving wife visits an Ophthalmologist. While waiting for his turn, he rests his head on his wife’s shoulder, and thanks his lucky stars to bless him with a wife like her. On sudden appearance of the wife’s ex-fiancé, he feels a hint of uneasiness and slight change in his wife’s composure. Instead of waiting further for his turn, he tells the staff that he will visit later, and leaves the clinic with his wife. 10. In Bombay The protagonist architect, is an asexual who is incapable of falling in love with any gender. As he flies to Bombay to his best friend’s party, the company of a woman, over a moonlit night, makes him wonder, if that is what love felt like. Unfortunately for him, he would never know. 11. Karan and Maneck Karan, a wealthy businessman endures the grief of loosing his closest friend in a car accident. He lovingly goes back to the days of their first meet and the bountiful days after. 12. A Highway Deal The narrator is an established businessman who drives down to Ludhiana for work. On the way back, his site manager, Prakash Negi, accompanies him. During the drive on the highway, their car hits a passer-by who dies on the spot. With minor damage in the car, the duo makes a run from the scene on the site manager’s advice. From the next day onwards, Negi starts blackmailing the narrator for a hefty amount of 5 lakhs a month for the rest of his life, eventually costing him his marriage and the company. 13. Nitin and I Two friends have the time of their life in a bar, where they take rounds of a girl in blue, with silicon tits, and long legs. Eventually the girl’s boyfriend starts shooting and two bullets hit the friends. The following events happen in slow motion, until the two leave the bar and take a taxi to the nearest hospital. 14. A Fine Provenance Siddharth, son of a wealthy art dealer travels to London, to finalize a deal for an original art piece from its owner, an old English couple. Through the deal he experiences the warm hospitality of the friendly couple who assumed that the piece of art would go to another collector and not to a dealer. 15. A Contract of Dreams Kunal, the son of yet another wealthy businessman, is all set to take the contract for a big project. After the lengthy meeting and his constant regret about not being able to follow his dream of being a film maker, he finally bags the contract from the stingy client. As the meeting finishes, and everyone leaves the room, he tells the project director of his company, that the stingy budget of their clients have left them with no other option other than to cut cost by getting cheaper labor. 16. The House Gautam and Prateek have been friends from high school, and for the construction of his forty thousand square feet mansion, Gautam gives the contract to Prateek. But when Gautam invites Prateek for a party with cocaine and strippers, and encourages him to have sex with one of the females, he leaves the party. After that incident, Gautam holds his payment until Prateek invites himself over for a similar party like before. To mix in the crowd and hoping that Gautam will release the payment, Prateek cheats on his wife with one of the females in the party. 17. Thirty Seconds Aditya who has just stepped in his thirties, and is recovering from a heart break, falls for a ‘real life fairy’ who is only visible to him. They have short but interesting meet ups until one day she doesn’t show up anymore. What I liked about the book? Short stories. A different perspective. All the stories have the central character of men. Even as a victim, in certain stories, which was like a fresh perspective, considering usually ‘the woman’ is the ‘victim’. Certain characters stood out, like the asexual architect, who felt everything in detail, yet did not feel love. The average lines are longer in the narration, much different than the usual ‘short sentences’ used in most fictions. The length of the sentences, weaving the details of a scene or of the character’s mind, made them kind of lyrical. What I didn’t like about the book? Mediocre plot, and monotonous characters. The protagonist in most of the stories have similar characterization, wealthy, mostly not happy for some reason, wanting something different than what they already had. Also, almost all the stories happen in the same city, Delhi. CONCLUSION This book is not the best work of Aseem Vadehra, but I am hoping he writes more and creates his best work. The writing, in some sense has finesse and reminds of authors like Jhumpa Lahiri. A huge lot of Indian fiction books lacks this quality, which is a must for a rich writing. Majorly because, we are not native English speakers. If you like indulging exclusively in good writing, and by that I mean only the style, including the length of the sentences, the words used, the patience in describing a scene or a character’s intentions, all of that, despite not necessarily having a very strong story line, then this book is a gem. I may or may not read this same book again, but I would definitely read Aseem Vadehra's other books (if there are any). Ratings would be a 6/10. Ease of reading: 7/10 Character/ Plot building: 6/10 World Building: 6/10 Do let me know your opinion about this book, through an email or post it in the comments section. Best five responses will be featured in the website. Happy reading! DISCLAIMER This review is based on my personal reading of the book and understanding it with my own limited experiences. This review is just a singular perspective and not the only one.

Author: Virginia Vallejo Total Pages: 456 Total approximate words: 123,120 So, 2019 was a lot of binge watching for me. Thanks to my hectic job, and my sister’s generosity that I would be too tired to leave my room during my rest days, and ended up watching free Netflix, other than sleeping and eating. From those slumbering days, I discovered many hidden gems from this pandora box called the Netflix. There was this special section of series, based on real life events that really caught my eye. The Spy, When They See Us, Unbelievable, Ted Bundy Tapes, Narcos, Narcos Mexico, to name just a few of those gems. The kind of absolute nerd that I am, after watching such series or movies I usually look for the book with the same title. And guess what I found! Watching Narcos, the series, I was hoping to find a book written by one of its protagonists, but instead I found two books, ‘Sins of my Father’, by Juan Pablo Escobar, son of Pablo Escobar (the drug kingpin of Colombia) and ‘Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar’, by Virginia Vallejo, Colombia’s most famous Television host during the 1970s and 1980s, and one of Pablo Escober’s many lovers. The later was available in amazon for sale, and within the next two weeks, I got my own copy of a version of the ‘Narcos’, to be kept with the rest of my treasures, hopefully for the rest of my life. (Pro tip: Narcos is a pretty cool series to watch in Netflix, if you haven’t watched it yet.) SYNOPSIS Virginia Vallejo, meets Pablo for the first time in his place, Hacienda Napoles in 1982, when she visits the estate with her then fiancé, Anibal Turbay, the nephew of the ex-president of Columbia. A few weeks from then, Escobar invites Anibal to visit the Hacienda of Jorge Luis Ochoa, Escobar’s best friend. Through her cocaine snorting fiancé, Virginia comes to know that cocaine was the real deal, and weed was not even enough to pay for a private runway, and that was why the Davilas, king of Marijuana greased everyone’s palm to reopen the Santa Marta airport in the night, to dispatch planes loaded with what was famed as the world’s best marijuana. Now that Virginia and Pablo were secretly lovers, she was travelling between Bogota and Medellin for work and to be with him. She talks fondly of the next fifteen months as the two spend more and more time together. Through one of these meetings, that she meets Guastavo Gavieria, Pablo’s cousin and business partner. Unlike Pablo, Guastavo was inscrutable, silent, secretive, distant, and much more mature than him. Pablo tells her about his ambition, from the time he was a small kid, which was to be the richest man in Colombia, and then be the most popular political leader of all times. When Virginia interviews Pablo in one of the poorer neighborhoods, after he donated a number of basket ball courts to such neighborhoods, she sees Pablo’s twenty-three years old wife for the first time with him. Through Escobar, Virginia is acquainted with news that usually the media didn’t have access to. In 1983, Virginia was one of the first few people who came to know about the plane crash that killed the head of the M-19, an insurgent group, who was travelling with a cash of USD 600,000. While Escobar’s men found out the crash site in a few hours, the Colombian government took nine months to recover the bodies. Julio Mario Santo Domingo, one of Virginia’s ex, introduces her to David Metcalf, grandson of Lord Curzon. Virginia who was madly in love with Pablo, felt nothing for Metcalf, no matter how royal he was. Around the same time, the president appoints a new minister of justice, Rodrigo Lara, who immediately accuses Escobar of drug trafficking and having ties with the guerilla groups. Escobar’s parliamentary immunity is lifted, and an arrest warrant is issued. The American government revokes his tourist visa and the Colombian government seizes all the exotic animals from the zoo in Hycianda Napoles. All these leads Escobar into partial hiding. And then Virginia meets Rodriguez Orijuela, head of the Cali Cartel. The time that followed, the ‘palm greasing’ didn’t work anymore and the Colombian government, with the army’s help, confiscated planes, helicopters, yachts of drug dealers, and arrested hundreds of people involved in it. Meanwhile, Virginia meets Gilberto Rodriguez Orijuela, who she mentions as the friend of the bureaucrats and the elite, very unlike Escobar, also with whom she develops a fleeting affair. The new minister of Justice, Enrique Perejo enforces extradition of money launderers to the U.S., which leads the king of Cocaine to form Los Extraditables, a group whose only agenda was to oppose extradition of Colombian criminals to the States. The DEA goes full fledged into collecting evidence of drug trafficking, and becomes successful to do so. The U.S. government gets photographic evidence of Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha loading seven and half tons of coke into a plane. In the days that follow, Virginia gets more and more afraid for the love of her life, as Pablo Escobar becomes the most wanted man in the world. When Virginia gets an offer to work for a Miami based television channel for USD 5000, Escobar offers her USD 80,000 to just be at home until she finds a producer who knew her worth. He also introduces her to the founder of the M-19 insurgent group. As an effort to not be extradited, Escobar gives the man a million dollar to destroy all the evidences (six thousand files) against him at the Palace of Justice. By the end of 1985, Escobar becomes the reason for the one hundred killings in the Palace of Justice, and the massacre in Armero, killing twenty-five thousand people more, other than the many, many mores. Viginia finally decides to severe all ties with this man. In 1993, eleven years after they met for the first time, Pablo Escobar is killed in a shoot out with the police. Lines that I really loved “How marvelous people are to me when I leave Colombia, because in other countries, it is not a crime to always look radiant with happiness.” “But how could a man have such a beauty, such a queen, such a goddess, as a girlfriend? A woman like you is for marrying! You tend her needs every day and never look at another woman again for the rest of your life.” “What is the formula for cocaine, Gilberto?” “Yes, he has never accepted that in this business, like everything in life, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Someone steals two hundred kilos here, three hundred kilos there… and you resign yourself, because what else can you do? He, on the other hand…. every time someone steals five kilos, he leaves five people dead! At that rate, he’s going to kill off all of humanity!” “While it’s true his best quality is his unique ability to anticipate everything that’s bearing down on him and to prepare a crushing counterattack, his worst defect is an utter lack of humility in recognizing and correcting his mistakes, and an even greater inability to measure the consequences of his actions.” CONCLUSION If you like reading memoirs, this book is worth your time. Even though the book is a translation from its original published language Spanish, the narration isn’t lost in the transition, like one might assume. It is the memoir of one of the famous media personalities of Colombia and her links to the most dangerous man of the world; so the story is a lot about events happening in chronological order surrounding ministers, and famous men and women. May be that’s why it has less of a personal touch and more of the ‘glam’ quotient in it. Of all the memoirs that I have read of famous personalities, this one stands out differently, but in a good way. I would give it an overall rating of 7/10. Ease of reading: 7/10 Writing style (to keep the reader engaged): 7/10 Resonating to the reader (moving, and relatable): 6.5/10 Do let me know your opinion about this English translated Spanish best seller book through an email or post it in the comments section. Best five responses will be featured in the website. Happy reading! DISCLAIMER This review is based on my personal reading of the book and understanding it with my own limited experiences. This review is just a singular perspective and not the only one.