Tughlaq

Author: Girish KarnadPublished: 2018Genre: HistoryRating: 4 out of 5Date Started: 12 June 2020Date Finished: 13 June 2020

My interest in this book is:

Growing up in India, any crazy person is nicknamed 'Mohammad Bin Tughlaq' or just 'Tughlaq' was interesting enough to read more about him. He was one of the kings in the Tughlaq dynasty and is famous for his eccentric method of ruling. For a long time, I had been planning to read the drama written by Girish Karnad in thirteen chapters.

Ideas Expressed/Message/Plot:

The book mostly talks about Tughlaq's political aspirations and reality.

Favorite Characters:

N/A

When I finished this book, I felt:

Tughlaq was a brilliant individual and had ideas that were farsighted and brilliant. But the steps he took to execute them made them a total failure and brought him the name of 'Crazy'! Karnad very well writes where the plans the reality collide, which leads to failure and results in bloodshed.

Favorite lines from the book:

N/A

An American Marriage

 

Title: An American Marriage

Author: Tayari Jones

Published: 2018

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 4 out of 5

Date Started: 7 June 2020

Date Finished: 11 June 2020

My interest in this book is:

I picked up this book after reading great reviews on Goodreads and that the book was also on Oprah's Book Club. The book also had a good rating on Amazon. And let me be honest, the cover looked good too! Yes, I judged the book by the cover!

Ideas Expressed/Message/Plot:

The story is about Celestial and Roy, who are newlyweds, trying to achieve their American dream in the south. Roy is an executive and she is a doll maker. They are trying to settle into their life together when the unimaginable incident rips them apart. Roy is sentenced to twelve years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The story revolves around Celestial and Roy's writing to each other and how things change outside when Roy is in prison. Andre, who is Celestial's childhood friend and best at their wedding comfort Celestial when Roy is away.

The lives of everyone around Roy change when he is in prison and when he is out of prison, it is hard for him to accept that everyone has moved on. This book is about the hearts and minds of three friends who are trying to make sense of whatever happened. Along with this, the story also covers the families of Roy, Celestial, and Andre and how the parents shaped their lives.

Favorite Characters:

I did not find any particular character as my favorite, but all of them had their own charm in the story. The one who left an impression on me even after I was done was Roys father Roy Sr. He stays true to his wife and to Roy.

When I finished this book, I felt:

It was a roller coaster ride of the emotions of all the characters. After I finished, I was still thinking about how things turned out even when no one was at fault, and was it fair on Roy's part to expect the same kind of love, affection, and acceptance as it was before he went to jail. But on everyone else's part, it was fair that they had to move on and make a living when Roy was away. Whatever happened to Roy, was it fair? - No, but was everyone else fair in moving on with their lives? - Yes!

Favorite lines from the book:

• For children, Thanksgiving is about turkey and Christmas is about presents. Grown-up, you learn that all holidays are about family, then few can win there.

• There is no weight like the burden of a body.

• I'll never forget the sound of the landing dirt.

• Even a dog can make a bunch of puppies, but a real man raises his kids.

• Weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

• If you need a kid to keep you together, then how together are you?

Dawn

 

Title: Dawn

Author: Selahattin Demirtaş

Published: 2017

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 4 out of 5

I picked up this book after I read the reviews about the author writing this book while being behind the bars. The book captures the lives of ordinary people being arrested while living through the political turmoil in Turkey and surrounding areas. The stories are about a five years old girl who tries to escape war-torn Syria with her mother on the boat, a suicide bombing shattering a neighborhood in Aleppo, and a young factory worker who is robbed of her dreams in an act of violence.

Demirtaş, the author has been imprisoned in Turkey. He is a politician fighting for freedom and equality and has written many short stories during times of turmoil, yet hopeful about the future.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Author : Khaled Hosseini

Published: 2007

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 4 out of 5

After hearing all the great things about Khaled Hosseini, and being unable to complete 'The Kite Runner', I was able to read 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' at last. The book about love, hate, sacrifice, compromise, revenge, and the rebound has been wonderfully written.

This is a story about two women in Afghanistan, who are married to the same man. The story starts with Mariam, who is 'haraami', an illegitimate daughter to a wealthy man in Herat. Her life as a child and wanting to be with her father makes her leave her home and makes her change her mind when she sees the reality. Laila, another main character in the book, is a daughter of a professor who believes in women's empowerment. Laila has two brothers who become martyrs in the Afghan-Russian war. She is in love with her friend Tariq, who has lost a leg to a landmine. Both Mariam and Laila end up marrying Rasheed, who is a shoe merchant and believes in Taliban rules.

The book illustrates Afghanistan's struggle through the political changes and brutality of a male-dominated society. The life in the refugee camps in Pakistan, the daily struggles of Afghan people make the reader wonder about the living conditions in a war-torn country. 

Favorite lines from the book :

• Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's finger always finds a woman. always. You remember that Mariam.
• A man's heart is wretched, wretched thing, Mariam. It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed, it won't stretch to make room for you.
• He told her of the superstitions people had about shoes: that putting them on a bed invited death into the family, that a quarrel would follow if one put on the left shoe first. "And did you know it is supposed to be a bad omen to tie shoes together and hang them from a nail?"
• Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated Laila. No chance.
• And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion.
• This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.
• "I'm sorry," Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on.

The Kite Runner

Title: The Kite Runner Author: Khaled Hosseini Published: 2004 Genre: Fiction Rating: 5 out of 5

This is one of my all-time favorite books. I was blown away by the experience of the roller coaster ride of the book. Khaled Hosseini takes the reader to Afghanistan where the reader wanders into the beautiful landscape, the rich culture, and then the war! I did not know what to expect from the book before I read it. The story is about the friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant. I was taken back to my childhood while reading about the carefree days of Amir and Hassan in the city of Kabul. Hassan is an expert in knowing where the kite lands is a successful kite runner for Amir. Both kids are motherless; while Amir's mother died during childbirth, Hassan's mother abandoned him and his father. Amir's father, who he calls Baba, treats the kids equally and buys both of them the same gift. One triumphant day, when Amir wins the kite tournament, Hassan encounters a tragedy while finding the kite. In the second part, Amir and his Baba escape to Peshawar, Pakistan, to escape the invasion of the Soviet Military, leaving Hassan and his father behind. The story continues with Amir makes his life, marrying, and becoming a successful novelist. The twist in the plot is when Amir receives a phone call from his father's old friend Rahim Khan, who talks about Hassan and the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The story is very gripping and shows us how Afghanistan went from a liberal society to being ruled by religious police. How the lives changed forever for everyone who lives in fear every day. In the end, the story resembles a Bollywood movie. Either way, the story, narration, the beauty of Afghanistan, and the struggle make the book worth reading. Favorite lines from the book:

• And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.

• When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

• It always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place.

• There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.

• That's how children deal with terror, they fall asleep.

The Longest Ride

Title: The Longest Ride

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Published: 2013

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 5 out of 5

What a wonderful book. Ira's feelings towards the love of his life and his wife of 73 years are very heartwarming. The story is about two couples Ira and Ruth and Luke and Sophia. 

Ira, a 91 years old driving on an icy road, loses control of his car and gets into a ditch. He hallucinates about Ruth sitting beside him and recollecting all the memories of their life from the day they met until Ruth died 9 years ago.

Luke is a cowboy who is managing a ranch with his mother after his father died. Sophia, who is a senior in Wake Forest College meets Luke in a local rodeo show.  They meet as friends and then fall in love with each other.

Both couples who have nothing in common, separated by years, yet somehow their lives converge with an expected ending.

Favorite lines from the book:

• After all, if there is a heaven, we will find each other again, for there is no heaven without you.
•  Trust people, until they give you a reason not to. And then never turn your back.
• If we’d never met, I think I would have known that my life wasn’t complete. And I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn’t know who I was looking for.

The Language Of Flowers

Title: The Language Of Flowers

Author: Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Published: 2012

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 1 out of 5

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what’s been missing in her life. And when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness. (Goodreads)

I started this book with great enthusiasm, but the book never kept me glued! Completed about half of the book, but the story failed to captivate me!

The Ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment

Title: The Ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment

Author: Deepak Chopra

Published: 2009

Genre: Spirituality

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Ultimate Happiness Prescription shares spiritual principles for a life based on a sense of your “true self” lying beyond the ebb and flow of daily living. Simple daily exercises lead to eliminating the root causes of unhappiness and letting a deeper level of bliss unfold. (Goodreads)

Dear John

Title: Dear John

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Published: 2006

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 3 out of 5

For once, the movie was better than the book! Though chick lit, the movie narration was good and it was very fast-paced. 

This book about an angry rebel named John Tyree, who doesn't get along with his father, dropped out of school and is enlisted in the army. He is on a vacation and meets Savannah Curtis. Both of them fall in love with each other and John promises to attend her college graduation after a year when he finishes his tour. They promise to write to each other so that they feel they are together every day.

But the incident on 9/11 makes John feel that he needs to re-enlist. John returns home to meet Savannah now married and still is his true love, which is the hardest decision of his life to meet her!

The part I really did not understand was when John meets Savannah after his dad's death, she talks to him and asks him if he can help her clean the dens! Seriously....???

Favorite lines from the book :

• I finally understood what true love meant...love meant that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.
• Our story has three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. And although this is the way all stories unfold, I still can't believe that ours didn't go on forever.
• Regrets about the journey, maybe, but not the destination.

The Lucky One

Title: The Lucky One

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Published: 2008

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 3 out of 5

This book was a chick-lit and an easy read (easy-listen rather). This was my second book by Nicholas Sparks. A very good beach read.

This book is about a soldier Logan serving in Iraq, who finds a picture of a woman. No one claims the picture and he keeps the picture and like a lucky charm, he believes that that picture saves him through tough times, or at least all the other soldiers say so. After retiring from the Armed Forces, he is determined to find the lady in the picture. He walks all the way to Hampton, NC. Logan finds that the name of the woman in the picture is Elizabeth. He gets a job at a Dog Training Center which is run by Elizabeth's grandmother. Elizabeth is a divorcee and her ex-husband Keith is a law enforcement officer. She also has a son Ben.

Long story short, Logan becomes their best friend with Ben and falls in love with Elizabeth. It iss all romance for a while and Keith finds that Elizabeth is dating Logan and tries to stop. The end was really curious, but it was definitely predictable. As with any other chick-lit by Sparks, I would read more books by him. This was an audiobook and kept me thinking during the daily commute.

Favorite lines from the book :

• He was the toast to her butter.
• Most people don’t know how to appreciate the silence. They can’t help talking.
• There is nothing like love. You should try it.
• Always stick to the story. It was when you started backtracking that people got in trouble. Interrogation 101.
• And believe it or not, she has a phone and everything. She stopped using smoking signals last year.