Category: authors

Klara and the Sun

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BY KAZUO ISHIGURO

I have liked every Japanese story I have read. But they were only written by Haruki Murakami.

Kazuo Ishiguro won Nobel Prize in Literature 2017 and I have been trying to read one of his books and I had this urge to read a sci-fi novel recently. So, I went ahead and read Klara and the sun.

Klara is an Artificial Friend who is supposed to be companion of children. She is in a shop waiting to be bought and to be a friend to one of the children out there. Klara’s observation skills are remarkable compared to other AFs.

She then becomes AF of a child named Josie. Josie is smart, quirky and she loves Klara for who she is.

Ishiguro has wondered for all his part. When the people come across Klara, they often don’t know how to address her, should they treat her like one of the people, is that right or should she be treated for who she really is, as in a man made device.

Klara is solar-powered, so according to her conscience, everything comes from the sun, the energy for the day, the power to the world. The sun acts as the ultimate being to her, helping in all her needs and she assumes that the same energy is bestowed on all of the people on the earth.

Of course, a human heart is bound to be complex. But it must be limited. Josie’s heart may well resemble a strange house with rooms inside rooms.

Josie has a friend Rick. Rick lives beside her house. A couple of fifteen years old, hanging out, and they are very good friends, in fact they would like to have more than friendship when they grow up and have a world to conquer. Josie falls sick often, which her mother often points out, maybe because Josie was not lifted, it still makes her life more difficult. The term lifted, was not deliberately explained anywhere and I assumed it meant genetically modified at a young age, to increase a kid’s intelligence, immunity and overall state.

Josie, like other kids studies in her oblong, and the kids get together once in a while, in the form of a social interaction party, in order to make peer communication better when all of them go off to college.

This is the extent of the world that Ishiguro tries to portray. But since, Klara is the protagonist, we get to have an interesting peek of what’s on her mind, which is a wonderful speculative imagination that the author has displayed.

Klara wonders often, where she stays, more often like the confusion of the guests. Whether should she excel in what she was built to do and act as an excellent AF by a set of protocols or try to understand what humans think and feel in order to act as the perfect AF for Josie. She was exceptional in being Josie’s AF, with all the efforts she could pitch in.

All in all, it got pretty interesting when I was midway through the book. It’s all about questions and non stopping wonders of the world of humans.

Rating: 4/5

Norwegian Wood

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By HARUKI MURAKAMI

REVIEW AND THOUGHTS

This is one of the most beautiful books I have read. Before proceeding, there are very few works in the world that disturb you to the core. For me, it was Franz Kafka’s novels and the short stories of Haruki Murakami Men without Women. Hence, I wanted to read another novel of his. Norwegian Wood is a Japanese novel, but I read its English translation.

This page is going to be somewhat more than a review. It is going to be a culmination of my thoughts on this book and its characters.

The story is a nostalgia pondered by Toru Watanabe. In the 60s, Toru is a drama student with no idea of why he is doing the course and what he is about to do later. It is very relatable, especially when we are in our 20s, it is very easy to not know what we really want out of our life. And Toru was in the same position, except for his love for certain American classics, which earned him one of his friends, Nagasawa, who unlike Toru, very clear of what he wants to be. He is a diplomacy student and has an easy-going approach to life. Nagasawa’s girlfriend Hatsumi is very considerate but their needs from life differ.

To me, there are 3 important women in Toru’s life. Naoko, Midori, Reiko.

Naoko is Kizuki’s girlfriend. Toru was best friends with Kizuki. The three practically had only each other for most part of their life. Naoko’s sister committed suicide and it affected her a lot. But things were very bleak later too. Naoko is a very gentle person. At a very early age, when she is about to enter into the whole life ahead, the deaths did really affect her.

When something so shocking happens or when you have lost someone dear to you, words choke and eventually it feels like the words no more have any meaning to them; and question as to, what is the purpose of speaking them. We turn mute to the entire world. There is nothing to be conveyed. The world around seems so calm when there is a whole chaos happening in the heart and it feels like nature is being an imposter.

Sunday evenings, that Naoko and Toru spend together, walking, after Kizuki’s death feels the same to Naoko and, Toru can never find the right word to make Naoko open up.

The relationship between them changes on Naoko’s birthday. For most of the part, Naoko seeks help in a sanatorium.

It’s because I think of you when I’m in bed in the morning that I can wind my spring and tell myself I have to live another good day.

Midori is Toru’s classmate in his course. When they spend time together, a beautiful friendship springs between them. Midori is a vivid young woman. She is a straight-forward and a warm hearted person. She has a boyfriend who doesn’t understand who she is and most of the times, a quite narrow minded one. She takes care of her father Kobayashi, along with her sister. They run a bookstore together and her life takes a turn. There is so much Midori has got to say to the world and she found the right pair of ears in Toru.

Personally, I adored Midori. She was a very beautiful person on the face of the earth. And I have never felt this warmth towards a fictional character before.

Toru and Midori have a very special friendship, in which Toru sometimes acts hesitant, but Midori knows exactly what she wants and what she deserves.

Reiko is the woman who stays with Naoko in the sanatorium and who helps Toru and Naoko’s relationship stay intact, when Naoko is going through her difficult times and Toru can’t understand as well as he thought he had.

I can’t describe enough of this beautiful novel. It is very well written, with the right words and the amazing emotions it kindles. Haruki Murakami, sure has a way with the words.

The dead will always be dead, but we have to go on living.

The relationships among the people are the purest ones. Very gentle, pure, and humane. It was like looking into a whole other world, where everyone has their own set of problems, yet like an angel on the earth, their face to the other, always remain so gentle and warm.

I am very fortunate to get this out of this book and I wish the same for anyone who is about to read it. Hope I have not hyped it more. Please do give it a read without expectations.

Rating: 4.8/5

Featured Image credits: penguin

Everything I know about Love

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By Dolly Alderton

This is a memoir.

There were many times, when I was flabbergasted by the feelings portrayed by Dolly.

This book has sections as the cover of the book suggests – parties, dates, friends, jobs, life and finally love.

Dolly shares her 20s life in all of the above aspects, and how she grew as a person.

The parties

I can’t believe what I was reading whenever I come to this section. In simple words, she partied hard. She had a lot of fun in her high school and her college after spending her life in the all girls middle school. She did everything a partying person is supposed to do. She drinks like there is nothing left for tomorrow. Some of her drinking adventures are truly humorous and entertaining.

But later, as she grows, she realizes;

You have to choose which you’d rather be: the woman who parties harder than anyone else or the woman who works harder than anyone else. I decided to strive for the latter.

This all takes a major turn when she realizes that she doesn’t remember most of the conversations she has with her friends during drunken nights. But, I really wonder how she was able to write chapters in a book, especially hangover stories with such details.

Friends and Dates

I feel stories of her friends and her dates overlap in some aspects. It is very common to make mistakes while dating, and most of the times it is not because of incompatibility, rather it would be a mere lack of understanding. Dolly went through her break-ups in a very harsh manner, in one of which she developed an eating disorder. The way she explains how everyone reacts so differently for different scenarios of their life transforms the perspective. We can never truly understand what the other goes through clearly, but just try to support them the most we can.

There is so much she says I can’t possibly point them all and put forward what I felt through each of them. The plight of her best friend’s sister is truly heart warming. Times like these teach us that, everything will come to an end one day, be it a good one or a bad one. Whether we like it or not, it will have its time and that’s all there is to it.

The life and the love

Life is everything, especially in 20s, there is not a group of things we can point to and say, hey look, this is life. It is this now, and something later and life teaches us every moment that what we think, see and feel is just true to this moment and may not be the next.

Years later, I would discover that constantly behaving in a way that makes you feel shameful means you simply will not be able to take yourself seriously and your self-esteem will plummet lower and lower.

These words are true and there is always a hard way to understand and appreciate this.

I am right now in my 20s and I can’t imagine what tomorrow would be like. It is new and it is always new. Things are changing everyday and people around me are growing everyday. It is very hard to hold on to something and expect to reach the shore safe, when you don’t know what are you swimming in.

This memoir was very thought provocative, though I had a very less opinion of it when I started reading it. I guess, that’s how it was supposed to be.

Ending with another favorite quote from the book,

I am my own universe, a galaxy; a solar system. I am the warm-up act, the main event and the backing singers.

Rating: 4.5/5

Meet me at the Cupcake Cafe

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By Jenny Colgan

This book was a birthday gift to me. I love food. I love desserts. I love cupcakes. When the title contains cupcake, it is quite fascinating to know what this book has to say to me. And as suspected, I loved this book.

Issy had a job, though it was dull and boring, it paid her bills and let her have weekends with friends. Though the intimate relationship with Graeme, her boss, is best kept as a secret in the workplace, she had peace of mind that, she had a boyfriend.

Issy Randall, after she is made redundant (she was let off as part of layoffs carried out) by the Property Developers of London, she worries a lot about finding next job in the economy nearing recession. She is in her early thirties. Her beloved grandpa, who once owned 3 bakeries, had to sell all of them to pay the clinic that takes care of him.

She loved the 5 am smell of freshly baked bread of Grandpa Joe’s bakery when she was a child. She grew fond of baking eventually. Her cupcakes are always welcomed by her friends, people at her regular bus stop to work and her colleagues. When she is in search for her next job, something dawns on her and she sets out to sell her cupcakes for her living. Her heart goes for it and of course, she knows the intricacies involved in starting a business, let alone a slightly posh cafe in the locality.

Something in her pushes her to go forward. She gets support of her friends and works so hard to make it happen. But Graeme dares to make an entrance, just to laugh at her.

The rest of the book is about how does Issy Randall handles her life and the business.

It makes sense when your friends help you, but it is really touching when people you rarely know help you at times, when you doubt yourselves. When you could see a person smile because of you, it is the bliss of a lifetime. You feel pretty good, contented and happy for them. This book sure has lots of these moments.

It is very common to find a work of fiction all about romance these days, be it a book or a movie. I loved how Jenny concentrated on them lesser, while paying attention to Issy, her heart, thoughts and state of being, as it should be.

Jenny Colgen made it so light-hearted. The recipes at the start of the chapters, which Grandpa Joe writes to Issy, were tried and tested by Jenny herself.

It was a funny journey all along, with oh my god moments, and a hearty laugh here and there. I enjoyed the whole time being at the Cupcake Cafe 😉.

It’s hurting my brain to try to bring this amazing book into a genre. I think, so did Goodreads.

If you are looking for a fiction, that is light, funny, moving and focused on a woman in her early thirties, there you go, meet me at the Cupcake Cafe.

Rating: 4.8/5

12 RULES FOR LIFE

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BY JORDAN PETERSON

So, let me get this straight. This book sure has a lot of hypes. May it be in youtube or in instagram or in goodreads, any other bookstore that is open; I could see this everywhere.

Everyone says nothing but very good takeaways from this book. I wanted to be blown away by this book too. Unfortunately, I was not. I must be very honest before proceeding further.

I didn’t read the last 2 chapters of the 12 chapters book. Yes you guessed it right, each chapter is dedicated to one rule that is an antidote to the chaos. I also read only parts of chapter 6.

Now, if you are not ok with me telling anything about this book without giving a 100% percent read of it, go ahead; skip this post. But, if you are curious to know what I have in mind after reading the 10 chapters, well 9 and a half chapters of this book and stopped or for some reason rushed to write a review, please read on.

First of all, I didn’t rush to write this review. I had stopped reading this book back a month ago. But I was very hesitant to write about it, because it gave me a dilemma of, if it is even ethical for me to do so. So, I decided to go for it with a disclaimer.

I wanted to be enlightened to be honest. I read the author’s note, and Jordan Peterson explained that he went on writing this book after his quora response proved exemplary and turned out he had more to say than that.

Well, I guess, there is not a lot.

Every rule is quite good. I don’t find flaw in them. But the book, with a lot of pages for each rule, was not worth it. Each rule can be well made into a point within say 5 to 6 pages. If you are eloquent with your words, then maybe go ahead, be generous and take 10 pages, each.

I feel like the author went overboard with the biblical stories to make the rule come to life. But to me, they weren’t even going with the rule he was trying to establish. It seems to take a wide detour and the author desperately wants to make the point with the story. The reasoning was too vague and there was no proper justification.

Apart from this, as the book hold its name, the 12 rules are quite good. They will change your life? Maybe.

But I didn’t feel it.

The most fun part I enjoyed was about how he says about there is no order anywhere and we kind of try to bring in order to the chaos but we can’t solely do that. For me, it hit in a different way, the rules will atleast help us in that way.

My favorite of all was – Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.

It is a good read, if you don’t mind the long biblical stories or taking a detour.

Rating: 2/5

Featured image courtesy: ebay

The Bell Jar

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By Sylvia Plath

I must say, I usually find the books to read from various sources. Sometimes, it is the goodreads, or it is the instagram, or it is my friends’ recommendation. This book’s inspiration was interestingly drawn from a series called Sex Education. I like one of the characters in the series, Maeve. She is one of those people who read a lot of books that instill feministic and philosophical thoughts and she is so drawn to the literary side. So, one of the books she talks about was the Bell Jar.

courtesy: lithub.com

Anyway, the last book that I read was Darius the great deserves better. Darius was diagnosed with depression, and at this time of the world, it is no more a taboo or a sickness, it is understood and treated like any other disease with dignity, except in few cultures. And to my surprise, the Bell Jar was also about depression (because I didn’t know it at first), but it portrays a totally different light on the topic.

When everyone was talking how even if the Bell Jar was written in 1963, it is relatable till date, I had my suspicions. I thought, it might be so exciting for some and it would not be that great at this time.

But I was completely surprised how every word Sylvia writes are so true and relatable. She has written her first novel based on her own life. She also suffered from depression and she died by suicide. While all this is very sad on the outlook, Sylvia makes us feel every bit of it with her words. She shows the pain she suffered with the beautiful writing she has got.

The more hopeless you were, the further away they hid you.

Esther Greenword is doing her internship with a New York fashion magazine. She is an academically excellent student, she goes on receiving scholarships after scholarships. All she knows is to study hard and the narrative that life will be better, once you do that. She tries and works hard, but when she realises the bell jar pressing on her, she feels this emptiness, that Sylvia makes sure the reader understands.

There are certain societal norms. She lives by them very diligently without her seriously trying. When she finally scrutinizes all the things about her life, do they make any sense? Is it ever going to be really making sense?

The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence.

How she views her dating life to be pointless and all the confusions she has about being a partner to a man do make a lot of sense, even till date. Some things about the plight of women, sadly make sense even after half a century.

The fig tree passage, yes, when I read it for the first time, I just loved it. And the same way, everyone who I came across was so impressed by it, that it, on its own stands as an extraordinary writing piece. The way Sylvia compares life with a simple tree, every choice of the word, is truly remarkable. 

I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.

Bell Jar is a must-read book, for so many reasons.

  1. The true take on the depression and how it really makes the mind clueless and suffocating, inspite of the awareness.
  2. The life of a woman, when all she does is trying to make a living for herself and all she can do is toll hard, yet to be noticed barely, especially when in 1963.
  3. How some questions are never really answered and sometimes the ignorance makes sense, because the answers seldom make sense.
  4. Just to admire Sylvia’s writing and nothing else.

It is a timeless novel. Please let me know what you think of it.

Rating: 4.9/5

Featured image courtesy: surveymonkey

Darius the Great Deserves Better

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By Adib Khorram

This is the sequel to Darius the Great is not okay.

After Darius returns from Iran, his life seems to have witnessed a lot of changes. He is now friends with his soccer team back in the school. Chip, who used to be bullying or be with Trent when he is bullying Darius is also one of his friends.

Darius now has a boyfriend and he has got a haircut too!

Meanwhile, the book revolves around Darius’ sister Laleh, for whom school is unusually tough after her return from Iran. She is being bullied and passed on racist remarks from her childhood friends and none really understands except Darius, who tries to be of help whenever he could. I like this about Darius. He is one good brother as everyone keeps on hinting at.

Meanwhile, Darius is still in touch with Sohrab through Skype calls and Sohrab’s life has been a rollercoaster since his dad passed away. Sometimes, he talks about Darius suspecting that he might be depressed too, but he doesn’t really open up too much.

Darius is now an intern at his favorite tea shop. It seems like he is in a place where he has everything he ever wanted. Landon has been quite understanding and he connects with Dad, but who unfortunately stays away for his job to meet the grown expenses since their return from Iran.

Darius is doing good, but it only seems like for a while. And along the way, he sees all his loved ones going through their tough times and sometimes he feels he can’t be of any help to them and regards himself as selfish.

The character of Darius from being a wishing teenager to a responsible teenager who looks upon his own decision and doubts if he is making them all right is something that I found wholesome while going through the pages.

It is a justified sequel.

Rating: 4.5/5

Featured image courtesy: bookhub

Darius the great is not okay

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By Adib Khorram

This book is first of a series of 2 books.

It is about a teen named Darius Kellner, he is half Persian and half American. He suffers from clinical depression, a genetic one, passed from his father, Stephen Kellner. Speaking of it, though the son and dad can have this unique understanding of each other because what they are going through, it proves otherwise. Darius doesn’t have a very good relationship with his father.

Darius always becomes the ‘target’ of a bully named Trent Bolger, who makes sure passes some racist comment every time he walks past Darius. Though it irritates Darius and hurts him, he makes them get to him lesser by naming Trent and his friends with a comical nomenclature, which I love, soulless minions of orthodoxy.

When you can laugh about it, things seem less daunting.

And that is exactly how Darius copes with it, though it is not okay. He has a younger sister Laleh, who he loves a lot. Things change, when their family gets to know that Shirin’s father in Iran is suffering from an illness. The parents decide to take the children to see their grandparents in their native for the first time.

Though Darius talks to his grandparents in Skype, he is kind of overwhelmed and also he is not fluent in Farsi unlike his sister, which makes it easier for her to quickly connect with their relatives. Darius gets his first friend Sohrab in Iran. The road is not always smooth though for Darius.

I could go on and on about how this book highlights so many different aspects.

Be it the mentions of how depression makes you witness the world so differently everyday, be it the not knowing where do I fit in part, struggles with being a Fractional Persian, be it the beautiful friendship that blooms like a rose with its own thorns, be it the familial relationships and its complexities.

I loved how the author could portray all the beautiful things in very few pages and an etching story.

Oh yes, I did forget to mention Darius’s love for tea, which we share!

This was a totally new perspective I witnessed.

Rating: 4.8/5

Read the review of the sequel, Darius the Great deserves better

Featured image courtesy: penguinrandomhouse

ALL RHODES LEAD HERE

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BY MARIANA ZAPATA

It truly was an amazing journey for Aurora as well as me. When Aurora De La Torre breaks up with her popular boyfriend Kaden, she goes back to finding and doing things for herself and for her mom. The things which would have made her mom so proud.

The book tore me up at a particular instant.

Mariana justified every word of her writing. It feels like I had travelled with Aurora all along, all through her breakup, her return to her hometown, her hikes and her discoveries on so many good and bad stuffs.

I can literally quote everything in this book and admire Mariana for bringing them up. But I am biased and I am just going to quote one of my favorite set of words.

I think I’m more scared of the people I care about dying than I am of myself.

It takes a lot of heart to go on and take up a new life, after believing someone was going to be always by the side and they won’t be anymore. Incase of Aurora, it was a whopping fourteen years. The enormous heartbreaks she had to go through to accept what was happening and the courage with which she went through all the mess they made up with her parting can never be truly expressed.

With all the bits and pieces she had, aiming to have something for herself in her thirties, with a good heart, Aurora was truly a light in the dark sky. And there are many more warm sources of light in the same sky we live under is a warm feeling that the book leaves you with. Be it, Rhodes, Amos, Clara, Jackie, Mr. Nez, Walter and I am pretty sure I am not even listing all the names.

I was hesitant about this book, since it was kind of bigger than the books I usually read. And now, I am glad I did and it will always have a special place in my heart.

All Rhodes Lead here had an account of everything, resiliency after a break up, coping with grief, parenting and all the unjustifiable regrets we have of life.

It takes you to the world slowly that you can sit back relaxedly and allow it do the wonders. I would recommend reading this book even if you are not a fan of this genre (romance, fiction)

My rating: 4.9/5

Featured Image courtesy: https://ebooksduck.com/

Bad Blood

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By John Carreyrou

Elizabeth Holmes, and her ambitions, driven by a unquenchable zeal to be an impact on this world, guided by misinterpreted examples and accompanied by the fear of failure.

This is simply the one line description of how Holmes found her path to an epic scandal.

Bad blood – is John Carreyrou, WallStreet Jounal‘s attempt to accumulate and unleash the facts of Theranos, a startup that aims to performs most of the tests on blood with just a prick in the finger, rather than venous draws (using needle at the vein).

Holmes starts off as a Stanford dropout from chemical engineering. She wants to do big in business, and finds silicon valley as the perfect hub to work towards her dream. She draws inspiration from Steve Jobs, though he works in a completely different field, where unkept promises don’t cost lives of people.

With every chapter of the book, I was appalled to see what extent was Holmes ready to pursue when she was faced by a hurdle towards her goal.

The one that affected me the most was Ian Gibbons incident. It is brutal, how they brushed off Gibbons and continued to work as if nothing changed.

Like a ponzi scheme, forming a pyramid of lies, it is sometimes to see how Holmes and her ex-boyfriend Sunny were brave enough to go this far into deceiving investors with tons of money collected on promises that can never be delivered.

True to the name, the book was devastatingly portraying how a bit of confidence and some set up stereotypes can take you far enough, costing lives along the way.

Every page was something even more impactful than the earlier.

It is a must-read if you are more interested in corporate politics, how venture capitalists can fail and some background stories of lawsuits that are brought out in US courts. For me, it was Elizabeth Holmes’ mind that intrigued, how she managed to believe when clearly the world was against it.

Ironically, she stated the same in an interview.