When Ashleigh Lowen comes across a man’s skull crushed, the few first words gave me an impression that it is going to be gory thriller. Later I realised it is a different one.
When Jeremy Crawford offers his shirt to Ashleigh in a public restroom, I thought it is going to be a romantic thriller. But then, it had clearly more to it.
I had known for a fact that it is going to be a thriller, for I come across when I was looking at a list of thriller books. Colleen Hoover, known for her, emotional romantics, made a good attempt to introduce her fanbase to something different on the plate.
For me, the names of the characters had a wonderful sense into who they were. Be it Ashleigh’s pen name Lauran Chase or Crew Crawford, the names, themselves had a good story behind them, which I loved. With just handful of characters, it is simply wonderful to think what Colleen could deliver.
It is not a grand book with a lot of characters, and you need not have a very tedious mind to grasp it. If you are like a slow reader like me, it would just cost you a day, maybe even less, because it is impossible to stop reading it once you had started to.
But, one thing that is quite questionable is that, how could Ashleigh take so long to read the manuscript, for it had just 19 chapters and being a writer herself, it is possible for her to have a good reading speed. Even if, she wasn’t capable of reading it fast enough, how could it take her weeks to stay away and read chapter by chapter. Though Colleen tries to justify this, by portraying that Lowen got overwhelmed with all that she read and was scared to continue reading it, anyone who picks such a manuscript would definitely find it hard to let their hands off it.
The intricacies in explaining how Verity’s mind worked, especially in the manuscript was breathtaking. It is really difficult to sketch the psychology of Verity and it was very well done. Just as when I got bored of the repetitive nature of the intimacy described, Colleen was quick enough to change it to a different plot.
I think that the whole perspective with the protagonist being a writer, might have helped Colleen to relate and she must have taken a safe sojourn into this new venture of hers, which is fabulous.
Colleen managed to justify her genre, I truly was intrigued about what is waiting in the next page.
All in all, it was a very good read and a definite page turner.
A beautifully narrated story of two girls, who grew up to be women on the part of the earth, where their lives are the least respected.
This might be the one line I would like to convey about the book.
A very touching story, brought with a very clear picture of the backdrop.
The way Khaled explains the nature of the land, throughout the years, with the Taliban on and off the throne doesn’t miss its chance of taking the reader to witness the lives of the two wonderful women.
Mariam, a girl born out of marriage, leads a peaceful life on the laps of her mother and nature. She likes her dad who visits once in a while because it is easy for him to be sweet and compensate for his absence in her life.
How Mariam loses this life and goes on to live with a man named Rashid, whose heart is too rigid to realize the boon of Mariam in his life, is a story that sure makes you long for a wonderful life that Mariam truly deserves.
The Two Minds
Khaled brings in Laila, a smart girl born to an educated father who believes in equality for women. Her childhood is an absolute bliss which every woman of Afghanistan truly deserves. But turns out, Afghan women were (are) so unlucky.
When Laila meets Mariam, how their life gets intertwined with each other and what is in store for both women is a heart whelming story that can cross and live through the years (unfortunately).
Tariq is a wonderful person, who seems to be a light in the dark endless coal mine. It is hard and satisfying to believe that the earth houses both Rashid and Tariq. And maybe less number of Tariq’s.
So?
Personally, this book kept me engaged, for they came with the historical events, along with the story of civilians and especially the ground reality of the state of women in Afghanistan.
It is very hard to not be disturbed by Khaled’s words.
If I need to give this a genre, you got me, it is a self-help book. But it is quite different, from all the books you read, that gives you this instant motivation and makes you think, you are unique and are here to perform massive tasks that none can perform. (Which is true)
The author states ‘four agreements’ as the title suggests.
So what is Agreement?
The talk you have with yourself or principles by which you live by. Principles can make concepts difficult to grasp, so I will deal with the first one.
“You can’t do that, you know”
“Hey, how can I forgive him for that?”
“Stop thinking too much”
Yeah all these talks, and how you talk with yourself depends on what agreements you have with yourself. You can have an agreement that dictates, ‘You can’t dance’ and also, ‘You can do anything if you give it a lot of time’.
These are the agreements, sort of things you have with yourself, you will live based on them, more than you think. So now, Ruiz proposes a plan. What if, you could change those agreements that can limit you or makes you take wrong decisions with respect to others. What if you can simply replace those agreements with agreements that definitely will guide you in a positive way.
How to overcome the old bad agreements you have with yourself?
As I said earlier, not just having the new agreements will help us. We need to get rid of those toxic relationship we have with ourselves.
You know how many times you abuse yourself? Sounds absurd? It is true. Think of times, when you thought it was all your fault. (I can hear you, but I just can’t believe you saying me, ‘It was all actually my fault, you know?’)
You know what, you can’t carry that guilt too far. It will drag you down. When someone stresses it’s your fault, you will likely believe them, than when they say, it was their fault. You will likely believe when those words when they come from people you love the most.
It’s fine, people most of the time, don’t utter the words they mean 100%. So, start searching for your own answers. Stop punishing yourself. Forgive yourself easily, it is no big deal. After all, you are always younger than tomorrow. Stop saying things to yourself, that you know, when you utter to others will break their heart. Don’t be harsh on yourself, you definitely don’t deserve that.
I know you are waiting to know what are those agreements
As I was when starting to read the book.
Be Impeccable with Your word
Don’t take anything personally
Don’t make Assumptions
Always do your Best
Aaah, this is what every self help book tells you, what’s the big deal?
Well, first off, I never saw a self-help book having contents this less. Telling ‘this is it, this is enough’ itself was such a great relief. (If you had known books with such less words in the contents page, go ahead comment it, I would love to read them too 🙂 )
Let me brief you on the first one. The word ‘impeccable’ is beautiful (or was it his explanation for it !?!?). It just means, ‘not capable of sinning’. I hear you, even I haven’t committed such ‘sins’, so hear me out. He says, sins are actions or beliefs, that affects you, the origin of those sins might be others or yourself. Don’t utter words you would clearly regret them later. It’s the most difficult agreement as he states. But the most important too.
When I was reading the next one, I felt I was constantly hit by a bullet. They were so true for me. I take everything personally so easily, that even sarcasm affects me (Yeah I know, it’s not the point of sarcasm). I was feeling so negative already, so I took in every cue that tells, you know what, you are trash. People most of the time, don’t even care about others’ actions, like about what dress you wear or how you laugh. The thing is, they are worried about themselves just like you, and they have no time to watch you and criticize you or have an opinion.
Have the courage. Yeah, don’t make assumptions. If in doubt, just ask questions, a lot of question if it needs. Just be brave enough to confront them and don’t end up making your own cloud of thoughts. You know, I love this, it reduces all the unnecessary stress you have. People will actually love to clarify than to know, you have got it all wrong. At the same time, don’t be annoying, just ask when you need to.
Now to this part, where you used to harass yourself. It’s just so simple. Give your best. Do all you can, the universe then catches up to you. The point is, even if the universe is a late bloomer, be happy and contented that you did all you can. I would like to add something here, even if you didn’t give your best. It’s fine. Forgive yourself and look for ways you can improvise. The most important thing of all this is, ‘don’t punish yourself, be a great friend to yourself”.
Do read the book, I can obviously, not state everything the author said or how he said. You will find very good moments when you read them. The book explains how we ended up like this, how to break those old agreements and how to form the new ones and live by them. To buy the book, click here
Rating: 4/5
I would love to know your thoughts if you had already read this book or you can come here anytime to tell about all that, once you read. I am all ears (well words, if comment section doesn’t support biomimicry)
Stephen Hawking, all I remember when I come across the name is, a geeky and humorous person with a machine voice. No wonder, even if you remember the same. I am not so much into science to know every scientist with path breaking innovations. I am just curious about science, so I read books who try to explain the world in simple terms to me. And Stephen Hawking does that work pretty neatly.
This book answers to 10 questions. As the title suggests they are 10 big questions in terms of the concepts and the scientist had done a wonderful job, explaining it without bringing in complex mathematics and making it simple.
If you had this nerdy friend, who has answers to every question you ask (like literally), you sometimes think, why can’t I know them? What is so big about that? Maybe, you are bad at analytical things (there are books that can help you with that too). But this book gives you a clear-cut idea without knowing much of the complex things. It gives you the concept. You need not have a prior knowledge to read this book. Even if you get stuck, googling it would set you on track.
I am going to brief on my favorite 5 questions.
Is there a God?
So, we all say God is the creator of the universe. In fact, it was his job, that gave birth to the sun, the earth and the humans. Scientists can’t acknowledge things that don’t fit under logic, so, without a logical explanation for existence of God, they look for other means for the creation of the universe.
So, there are 3 essentials that make up the universe.
energy
mass
space
Einstein has proved that mass and energy are same. So it is just 2 things now, energy and space. Big bang theory is to explain how energy and space can materialise out of nothing. The answer is negative energy: when big bang introduced lot of positive energy, it produced equal amount of negative energy simultaneously, that’s what makes the total energy of the universe to be 0.
If the universe adds up to nothing, you need a God to create it. At quantum level, it is possible for a proton to disappear and appear somewhere else. Since universe was once the size of proton, it is possible for the universe to appear where it is now, and the release of positive energy has created what we know today?
He brings an interesting question again, “So God created the quantum laws, right?”
Then he explains, there is no time at the beginning of the universe, so how can God exist when there is no time, to create them later.
It’s true that science does not answer all the questions we have, but we have come a long way and it won’t take much longer time for science to explain them.
2. Is there other Intelligent Life in the Universe?
This is the most interesting question. Obviously, with all the movies and fiction books out there, existence of aliens is believed by many people. (Don’t ask me what I believe in!)
We, humans, witness the world the way, that makes the human existence as indispensable at the end. The world, we survive has its own physical constants, that help our existence. So with a change in the physical constants, we can derive conclusions on what kind of lives that world can support.
Darwin’s evolution theory makes us humans, nothing but an admirable showcase of evolution. We are lucky to live in this planet for these long years, without the universe throwing at us anything violently. Because, universe is a violent place out there, and we are merely lucky for nothing has happened to us all these years.
So if aliens existed in some other universes, and if they were intelligent, they would have contacted us by now, is what he says.
But yeah recently, we have some governments telling us aliens had already established connections and a scientist claiming that an asteroid that passed by earth in 2017 is an alien vehicle. There are no scientific claims made to prove them right. They are merely rumors and speculations. So, let’s wait till they reach us 🙂
3. Is time travel possible?
To travel in time, we need a vehicle that can travel faster than the speed of light. So, warping space and time makes it possible. But warping it would give virtual particles real energy hindering the same possibility.
In other words, with current theories, scientists are still working on it, playing with the ideas of possibilities. So, not yet, maybe in future.
By the way, I thought of sharing this, Hawking threw a party on a day and gave invitations for the party on the next day. Since none turned up at the party, he concluded that maybe time travel is still not possible for future humans. This was interesting to share.
4. Should we colonise Space?
With NASA and beyond it, Elon Musk working actively to colonise Mars, since he utterly believes that we will destroy the earth someday, or if earth gets destroyed by other foreign entities, we need a place to continue the existence of human race. On the other hand, there is this question by humanitarians, what is the need to invest a lot in space colonisation, when there are billions of people who could make use of the money to get their food.
Hawking explains that, exploring space is an essential just like Columbus tried to explore. In 1000 years, earth would become uninhabitable, and it is essential we find some other entity to continue our race in future. He also says that as of now, Mars is the most prospect with moon as base and humans need to habitate by atleast 2070.
Quite interesting, what do you think?
5. Will AI outsmart us?
Musk said it would. So what does Hawking has to say?
Hawking brought an interesting concept. Genetic Engineering. By the time, when AI becomes capable of surpassing humans, we would have made great progress at genetic engineering and nations would have signed a pact for proper usage of it. So we humans can outsmart them using genetic engineering to manufacture us, bypassing the slow evolution and ensuring survival against AI.
This is was the most fascinating as well as intriguing concept I learnt about.
There are yet 5 questions and you must really read the book for wonderful journey into the answers for the above 5. I just gave a glimpse of it.
Lit Loom 