Migration

I have 16 followers. I thank each one of you for being so faithful. I have decided to migrate from Blogger to Wordpress and my new page is https://gaussreviews.wordpress.com/. I hope you people will still want to read my writings and hope that you will keep your undying spirit in encouraging me.
See you at Wordpress.

Book Review - 13: On The Open Road by Stuti Changle

As the tagline says, the book is about three lives, their stay in five cities where their paths meet and how it culminates in forming a start-up company.

It is the story of Myra, who is contemplating to make the jump into entrepreneurship but has other choices, Kabir who wants to be an entrepreneur though he lives a good life and Sandy who is living an half entrepreneur life. They all cherish to start a company, but how and when? The initial part of the book explains how these characters go on with life unable to push themselves to make the jump. A sudden change in the situation and they grab the opportunity to tread into unknown waters. How the tread is and what all obstacles they face, form the rest of the book.

The events in the story span for about five months and so I feel that a long story has been cut short to pull in audience. The story has much more to deliver but the author keeps it straight digressing in very few instances.

The book is written as the mind voice of Myra and Kabir. The writing is simple and inspiring too. The role played by the fourth character, Ramy, stands out and remains in the back of your mind, though it has only brief mentions. Kudos to the author for creating this impression. The climax of the story has a hint of a Bollywood movie making the entire story unbelievable. I like the small twist at the end, though it does not make any difference to the story.

Overall, it is somewhere between okay and good and can be read when you are in a reading slump. I also recommend it for those who have the entrepreneurial trait; it definitely has something to inspire. I would suggest that the cover design could have been better.

 A book, worthy of chewing and digestible in parts.

Book Review - 12: The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson

This was one of those books which created curiosity in me. Alas, I was left disappointed.

For anybody who has read a lot of self help books, this book is not going to make any difference. It is one of those books which can be termed as a primer for those who have not been initiated into self help genre.

The book is roughly divided into two parts. The first tries to establish the author’s ideas and the second grows further on this establishment. 

The book says that failure is normal and asks us to not corrupt it with positivity. The author argues that we are all comforting ourselves in an attempt to cover up failures. Its crux is about not alleviating the problems but trying to understand and sort them. The book explains that the most significant thing which occupies anybody’s thoughts is unhappiness. And we find solace in denial and victim mentality ending up asking for entitlement. The author says that we are all living in a delusion that we are special and to come out of it we need to redefine the metrics against which we measure life.

This book is devoid of any mysticism, spiritualism and saintly stories. It takes you through the process of breaking your mental picture of things and approaches the cube from a different side. As a matter of fact, it explains what all other books have been advocating in the positive manner, through a negative approach; a kind of anti therapy. Having read this much, it also explains how best these negative approach can be tackled and a normal life can be lead without hassles. A welcome offer, when we consider most of us being normal people. (I find a hint of the book’s influence in this line.)

For me this book did not connect but for the last chapter. I believe that one of the main reasons the book owes to for its success is the language which comes as interesting and admonishing in an attempt to drive home the point. At some instances, the language used gives you the feeling of given a tight slap.

Overall, it was an okay read for me and would recommend to those who have just ventured into the self help genre. Certainly a book to be chewed but whether it is digestible depends upon each one’s gut.

Book Review - 11: Love A Little Stronger by Preeti Shenoy

I liked the author’s book A Hundred Little Flames and decided on this book hoping that it would be good. So how does it turn out to be?

Love a Little Stronger is a set of jottings about the author’s family across generations knit together by love. The author narrates small instances from her own life and how she learnt wonderful snippets in each of them.

Written in the style of daily journal entries, the book is divided into five parts. There are no clear demarcations about the content of these parts. The first part is about parenting, the second, about personal experiences, the third about the relationship between her children, the fourth about how each member of her family support each other in the wake of adversities and the fifth summaries for life.

The stories are written in no chronological order and revolve around her father’s death. The initial stories are funny and would be appreciated better if you are a parent. The stories give a good insight into the author’s personal life and would be interesting for a reader who has read her other books and is interested in her writings. The chapters of the last part are mostly summaries, listing out different lessons and qualities. As in her earlier book, she emphasizes on the necessity of maintaining a daily journal.

I particularly liked the author’s take on children,

“The toys they play with might have changed but the qualities inherent in children – a curious nature, a playful attitude and most importantly being unafraid to try out new things, unafraid to fail and the ability to quickly forgive and not carry grudges – still remain the same.”

And her musing

“It made me wonder why we adults do not have the enthusiasm that children do, to try out new things.”

I will recommend that the introduction and the epilogue of the book should be read along with the main part of the book, because they themselves are a delight to read and will highly recommend the book to aspiring writers for its style.

Overall, the book is worth chewing and digesting.

Book Review - 10: Galore by Michael Crummey

“The complications and disappointments and modest epiphanies of those disparate lives seemed part of a single all-encompassing story that had swallowed him whole.”

In Galore, the author narrates how the whole world is going around in full circles. It takes off when there is a new entrant to an otherwise unknown land and how he joins in the flow of life. Largely narrating the family members of two families, who are connected together by love and hate, it also speaks about other inhabitants of the place.

Set against a fishermen community in Canada, the book is divided into two parts, covering almost two centuries.  The people are mostly English or Irish who either migrated or were brought. While the first part ushers the reader into the lives of the local community and takes it into the hinterlands, the second part brings the reader back where it all started, though it breaches the borders of the country.

The reader really needs the family chart of the protagonist families in the initial pages, to keep track of the characters in the book. Still, the characters in the other families, who do play significant roles in different instances, can leave the reader confused, if he tries to map the relations.

I found the first part slightly lethargic as compared to the second part. The reader may find the narration tiring in the initial chapters but I assure that it picks up pace to keep the reader engaged. But for the big picture, nothing is concentrated upon in the narration. Just when you feel that a certain character maybe the central point, the focus shifts. This can be initially tiring and distracting until the reader finds the groove for such fiction. However, the deft handling of change in focus, subtle and oblivious is something to watch out for in the book. This is a well - planned book, for if otherwise, the book could have extended to infinite pages.

I like the descriptions like

“That eating the bounty of the sea was a choice rather than a necessity.”

“…left her staring out the window, the stars being choked by frost creeping across the pane.”

“It was the oddest expression he’d learned on the shore. Now the once. The present twined with the past to mean soon, a bit later, some unspecified point in the future. As if it was all the same finally, as if time was a single moment endlessly circling on itself.”

I feel the entire meaning of the book lies in the lines,

“Alone he could turn his back on the absence, look at the world as if there was nothing to it but surface, the endless present moment. A trick of shadow and light.”

I did not understand the idea behind the title, but I guess it was an indication that it was a story of people when there were fishes galore and otherwise. The language is not straight forward and needs careful reading lest you may miss context or detail.

Overall, it is a good read with enough to chew and digest.

Book Review - 9 : A Hundred Little Flames by Preeti Shenoy

This is my first book written by this author. A Hundred Little Flames is a story of a young man who finds meaning in his life when he goes through a period of time which seems worst otherwise. After a freak fiasco in which the protagonist ends up losing his job, he is sent to his ancestral home in Kerala to cool off, though other intentions do persist. How he finds his rhythm in this new scenario, facing a man of an older generation, forms the initial part. As he finds comfort in this new setup, he is forced into action by a sudden turn of events and he does not hesitate to rise up to the situation and to go to the extremes, thereby helping him to understand himself.

The story involving family members of three generations is fast paced and has a good flow. At certain instances, the narration feels trite though. The book leaves you with a hangover of a well - made movie. It is quite a simple read and will keep you engaged till the last page.

I read this book at my ancestral home and that added to the pleasure I got from this book. I also found that the good amount of research has been done in writing this book, since there are chapters dedicated to furnish details of yesteryears. Overall, it is a book to be tasted and swallowed. I would recommend this book as a one - time read and suggest reading this at your ancestral home.