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Book Review- The Ocean at the end of the lane

The ocean at the end of the lane

Book Review Ocean at the end of the lane   Magic realism is a style in literature that is not only difficult to write but even more difficult to understand as a reader. There are characters with superpowers and human limitations. The plot is more about what a reader can interpret as compared to what the author has narrated. Ocean at the end of the lane was my first book on magic realism and it made the reader in me go on a adventure ride in a fantasy world. It was like watching one of Christopher Nolan’s movies where you spend more time reading about it than reading into it. This is a novel that manages to balance frenetic action with wistful...

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Book Review-Love in the time of affluenza

Love in the time of Affluenza Review

Book Review Love in time of Affluenza Bring in love, designer brands, “struggles” of south Mumbai people, healthy flirting, some witty writing, sinful adultery, mother’s guilt, daughter in law’s whine and you have a book which you may not remember for its story but its feel, for the nomenclature of brands and its italicized snippets before each chapter. Something you cannot resist discussing over your next soiree. What is it about- The book is a sneak peek into Natasha’s life. She like most women in their late thirties is in a phase where she has checked all the tick boxes of a woman but is still trying to discover her spark. Sadly, that particular spark is not something anti-aging creams or yoga...

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Book Review- The Bastard of Istanbul

Book Review- The conservative yet progressive Turkey is just like its geographical location- somewhere between east and west is the land that bears the burden of its past and is still marching into a new future. The magical realist descriptions of Istanbul and Asya's home are powerful: these are places where djinns comfortably coexist in the plot. Asya's articles highlighted in bold letters in the book give a clever view of the politics and culture of Turkey. The gives a perspective that while Armenians and Turkish are so close to each other culturally, they have an unexplained hatred for each other which has built over years. The book made me google all about the genocide!  Very heavy dose history there....

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Book Review- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Dear Ijeawele-A feminist manifesto in fifteen suggestions.

Have you wondered that how you want to raise you daughter? What are the values and opinions you want to instil in her? I often wonder about these things and this book came in so handy to put my thoughts in my words. This is a very slim book and something I did not read in one go. There is so much to absorb from the book that I found it unfair to gulp it down at once. I sipped it like a fine wine last week and I already feel like a better person. This was gifted to me by my sister when my daughter was born and now I think, this has been the most valuable gift. What is...

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Book Review- Gopi Diaries by Sudha Murthy

Gopi Diaries By Sudha Murthy Gopi Diaries is a book about the dog Gopi who is adopted into the Murthy household by Rohan. There are three books in the series Gopi Diaries. This week I got a chance to read it to my daughter, who is still very young to understand the words but, she enjoyed the illustrations and got an idea about the story. My daughter has a dog sibling and, she loves the company of pets, but I know that a lot of children find dogs scary or intimidating. This book explains to them in simple expression that pets can be part of the family. I plan to gift this book to my six-year-old nephew, who is pestering his...

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Book Review-My Best Friend’s Son’s wedding by Zarreen Khan

We all have been missing the wedding season for too long now and if you are a reader with imagination then grab a copy and enjoy being part of the grand wedding (s) Zarreen is a gifted writer. She writes humor with so much ease and no sleaze. She makes her characters so real and relatable and as a reader, you can’t help but associate them with at least one person in your friend circle. This is a great read for those who like romantic comedies as a genre in novels. This is a story of Minty Sood and her friend Kriti Vasani who represent the elite Delhi women. Minty is the widowed daughter in law of the super-rich Sood household and...

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Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

Bedtime for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo What is the kind of bedtime story you would want to read out to your children? The ones where a man has to rescue the princess or where the woman is the hero of her story? If the latter is what interests you then this is the book you need to buy for your child's library. Good night stories for Rebel Girls.  I bought this book as a gift for a nine-year-old girl. Interestingly, that is the age when kids are finding their role models in cartoon figures and I thought it is always better to open a child’s mind to real-life heroes. After all, there are more chances of a...

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A daugh­ter’s last good­bye to her Babaji

Vis­it­ing an old age home on a spe­cial occasion has been a prac­tice in­stilled in me by my mother ever since I was a teenager. She in­sisted that any joy­ous occasion must be cel­e­brated with mem­bers of the nearby old age home first, be­fore cel­e­brat­ing it with friends. It was dur­ing one of my birth­day vis­its that I met Babaji in the old age home. A tall and a fit gen­tle­man, wear­ing a crisp, white cot­ton kurta-py­jama with a flow­ing white beard and a neat tur­ban, he stood with folded hands when I met him for the first time. Since I was a reg­u­lar, my eyes never missed out a new face. But his face couldn’t have been missed be­cause he looked...

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BOOK REVIEW- THIS IS NOT YOUR STORY

This is definitely not your story because it is too gooey to chew.  This is close to a fairytale romance with no villains. This is not your story By Savi Sharma Publisher- Westland Ltd 222 Pages Fiction What to expect-  The book narrates a story of four people, Shaurya, Miraya, Anubhav and Kasturi, how they are all struggling in their life to follow their dreams, living with the ghosts of their past and how they all motivate each other about following the forgotten dreams and in the whole process they get motivated to follow their own. The story is more like the nineties love stories, where the guys are scared to express their love and the women have an element of shyness in their character. The story...

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