Preeti Rajput's Blog, page 5

Heartbreak Sucks! How to Get Over Your Breakup in 30 Days – Jared Wood

Rating – 4/5 Stars

This is the first book I read on this kind of subject and would call it surprisingly practical. It is a guide for 30 days to those in grief and going through emotional turbulence. For each day, it suggests a task/idea to perform.

The book starts with an introduction by the author, and he shares the ordeal of his own breakup. Envisioning yourself in his situation is going to give you chills. The author has utilized his own experience to write this book. Among the ideas mentioned, most of them are distraction techniques like going out, meeting friends, pampering yourself. A few are cliché like deleting the phone number and blocking them from all social media as this is the first thing anyone does even when there is a minor scuffle. Some are really good, which may not heal your heart, however will definitely improve your lifestyle. A helpful trick is mentioned to deal with the urge to send a text or call to your ex, as I believe this is the weakest point for all after a breakup.

I am not going through the predicament of breakup agony currently, so I can’t say whether these techniques will heal your wound. Although one thing is guaranteed that you will come up as a better person with a better lifestyle if you perform all the tasks.

Claiming the effectiveness of the book is difficult once you come face to face with your ex after say 60 days. One weak moment is enough to shatter all the efforts you have been putting in making yourself strong. Still, it is worth a try. Overall, I liked the book and the idea.

Follow the author :-

https://www.instagram.com/legotrip

http://jaredwoodssavedmylife.com

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The Cat with three Passports by CJ Fentimen

Rating – 5/5 Stars

 As an avid traveler, I have numerous places on my bucket list to visit; Japan was never one of them. After reading this remarkable memoir by CJ, I am craving to go and visit this marvelous country of disciplined citizens, delightful festivals, and unique ethnicity. Going through every chapter, I have seen a part of Japan through the eyes of CJ. I sensed I am roaming around the city of Takayama with cute kittens around.

One of the main perks of travel is that you are a better person as the trip ends. CJ shared her journey of being a person who wants to run away from everything to a responsible person taking control of her life. She gave the credit for her transformation and finding her “ikigai” to her cat that she found on the streets. Being from an Asian country, I could relate to most cultural things like family bonding, yet many were surprising, like a common day to switch to summer attire, common baths, and extremely polite citizens.

CJ has excelled in her craft with her wondrous writing skills. The book is said to be a memoir, but it is as interesting as a fiction novel. Each chapter tells the story of a different place and a different episode. The reader gets immersed in the lanes and cities of Japan.

Generally, in my reviews, I mention a few points of improvement but with this book, I couldn’t find any. It is so perfect. Whether you are a traveler or not, memoir is your genre or not, you are a pet lover or not, still this book is recommended for all. It is not wrong to say this is not just a book but an elaborated experience in itself.

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Blood and Bones – Paula Dombrowiak

Rating – 4/5

“Blood and Bones” – is all about friendship, love, relationships, combined with a passion for music. Jack is a Rockstar who survived a violent and alienated childhood. Mia is that one friend who accompanied him through all thick and thins. They both wrote lyrics for songs together and fled to make up their career. Their relationship gets complicated, and these two, although inseparable, could not be together. But life goes on…

While reading the book, it never occurred to me that it is the work of a first-time author. Narration is up to the mark, and so is the storytelling. The story keeps on hopping between past and present without losing its fluidity. Jack’s character is deeply developed, and the reader gets connected to him. The same kind of characterization was required for Mia and Amber too. At places, I wanted to know the reason behind their strange relationship choices. Author takes you to a musical journey to cherish and enjoy.

At some point, Jack told Erin that he is the bad guy, and she will get to know him once she listens to the whole story. I expected a turn in the events, which didn’t happen. So much has been talked about how much Jack loves her daughter, and after some years, she started hating him. The required explanation wasn’t given as to how and when this relationship took a turn?

Overall, a good story and a good read. It is a gift for music and book lovers. I recommend this book. Kudos to Paula, who did such an excellent job in her first book.

Connect with Paula:
Twitter Facebook
Smashwords Goodreads Instagram Website
Blood and Bone can be purchased at:
B&NiBooks Amazon Kobo

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Blood and bones – Paula Dombrowiak

Rating – 4/5

“Blood and Bones” – is all about friendship, love, relationships, combined with a passion for music. Jack is a Rockstar who survived a violent and alienated childhood. Mia is that one friend who accompanied him through all thick and thins. They both wrote lyrics for songs together and fled to make up their career. Their relationship gets complicated, and these two, although inseparable, could not be together. But life goes on…

While reading the book, it never occurred to me that it is the work of a first-time author. Narration is up to the mark, and so is the storytelling. The story keeps on hopping between past and present without losing its fluidity. Jack’s character is deeply developed, and the reader gets connected to him. The same kind of characterization was required for Mia and Amber too. At places, I wanted to know the reason behind their strange relationship choices. Author takes you to a musical journey to cherish and enjoy.

At some point, Jack told Erin that he is the bad guy, and she will get to know him once she listens to the whole story. I expected a turn in the events, which didn’t happen. So much has been talked about how much Jack loves her daughter, and after some years, she started hating him. The required explanation wasn’t given as to how and when this relationship took a turn?

Overall, a good story and a good read. It is a gift for music and book lovers. I recommend this book. Kudos to Paula, who did such an excellent job in her first book.

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Silent Murder by Nupur Luthra

Rating – 2/5 stars

Length – 100 pages

The story revolves around Nick and the murder of his mother and her lover. The main convict is his grandfather Dwayne. One day the case gets reopened owing to a piece of new information. From here starts the bizarre sequence of events in his life. The storyline is good, and the author has managed to build up good suspense initially.

The major downside is that the book is filled with errors to the brim, starting from the first page making the reading experience an arduous journey. A reader cannot expect trivial punctuation and formatting errors from an author who has written five books.

There are so many inconsistencies in the plot itself. Nick has won the election for US president, but he is struggling in his life like that of a common man with no media focus on him. How can plastic surgery change a man, who is the father of 35 years old, into a teenage girl? In one paragraph, we are talking about Pratt. In the next two paragraphs, he becomes a mysterious lover and then again back to Pratt.

Dialogues are written in paragraphs, almost impossible to guess who is speaking to whom. From the next paragraph, the scene changes, and two totally different people are talking with no mention of the speaker.

I assume the book is written in haste without proper proofreading and is in serious need of editing. The book ends with an open thread hinting at a sequel. I hope in the sequel reading experience would be smooth.

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Connected to Me by Marc Kage

Length – 312 pages

Author – Marc Kage

Rating – 3.5/5

“Connected to me” is a story of two young people – Aoi and Christian who eventually falls for each other. Christian is well settled in his job, however, struggles often with an impossible boss. He is a lonely soul who returns to his empty apartment every night. Loneliness never registered his consciousness until one day when he finds himself stuck in Aoi’s body. As he starts to live Aoi’s life, he apprehends the essence of a family and the euphoria of having people around who care for you.

Aoi is a young woman who had suffered from paranoia. She suspects every other person’s intention especially when someone is being nice to her. When she meets Christian by some chance, she has the same feeling for this well behaved and handsome man. One day when she wakes up in his body and lives his life, she realizes what a gentleman he is.

Although they get to know each other’s life much better after the body switch, yet the mystery is to find the reason for this bizarre occurrence and how will they get back to their real bodies. This story revolves around this idea.

The book starts with a prologue, which I would tag as a cliché – a woman going to interview, a man following her, she is suspecting him and later on in the interview room, she finds out the interviewer is the same guy. Honestly, it was a bit disconcerting. Initial chapters mostly have dialogues and the story moves at a slow pace. Around chapter 7, the real action starts and keeps on happening. If the book had started from this point, it could have been a much better hook. From this chapter, I got engrossed in the story and it became a page turner. The best thing about this novel is a precise narrative. When two people with their bodies switched are together in a scene, it becomes complicated to guess whether the real person is talking or the switched one but here, the narration is clear.

I was too eager to know the reason behind this body switch but unfortunately, the author has concluded in a brief epilogue which was not satisfactory. It should have given good space.

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And the mountains echoed

Author:- Khaled Hosseini
Ratings – 3.5/5

This is the third novel by the author – Khaled Hosseini. To savor it to the fullest, you must forget his previous novels and read this one as a separate artwork. Otherwise, you would keep on comparing it with his other books and would be disappointed. Although it is not at all disappointing, but the author has set such high expectations for himself from his previous books, which this book fails to meet.

The story begins with a children’s story narrated by a father to his two kids, which roughly gives away the central theme. The main theme is about two siblings – Pari and Abdullah. Pari gets separated from her doting brother in childhood and forgets him as she grows up while Abdullah yearns for her every moment of his life. Much later in his life, she gets reunited with him.

The story doesn’t move in chronological order due to which reading experience is not fluid. Each chapter begins with a new character, in a totally new setting, and a new situation. In between the chapters, the author has left connectors here and there to link the ongoing chunk with the central story. It is a different way to write a novel. Although a bit scattered, yet it is interesting. As a downside, you will be exhausted while keeping track of characters and their roles.

The book is intriguing enough to keep you captivated. In-depth character building and expression of human emotions are the main strengths of his writing and he has maintained the same throughout. I was expecting an outburst of emotions at the reunion of siblings. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment as the author choose a different ending.

Overall, it’s a good read. For the time being, it will virtually transport you to Afghanistan, in the lanes of Kabul, among Kabuli folks. Such elaborated is his story setting.

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Usne Gandhi Ko Kyu Maara

Book Review : Usne Gandhi ko Kyun Maara
Author : Ashok Kumar Pandey
Rating : 5/5

This book is a severe blow to the alumni of Whatsapp university and is written around the conspiracy of the assassination of Gandhi. It blow by blow shatters the false narrative and propaganda about freedom fighters, be it Gandhi or Nehru. I have previously read “Kashmirnama” by the author, where he has eloquently narrated the history of Kashmir and how it reached its current state. He maintains the same standard of authenticity in this book as well. He doesn’t just fabricate the things out of thin air but provides bona fide sources behind the mentioned facts. To be precise, he has mentioned around 70 books and over 300 references including on-record speeches, letters, biographies, etc. The author only talks about truth.

The book is divided into three sections. First Section talks about the life of Godse, Narayan Apte, Karkare, Madanlal Pahwa, Savarkar, and others who were charged for conspiracy and killing of Gandhi.
The second section explains the chronology of the murder – How several attempts were made to kill him even before 30-Jan, How the plan to kill him was executed step by step. Then he talks about the life and morals of Gandhi in brief. The last chapter is about the court case and Kapoor committee.
The third section is mainly to burst the fake news being spread out throughout the country for showing Godse as a hero while Gandhi-Nehru as culprits.
The author raises and answers significant questions like – Gandhi had disagreements with communists and Muslim radicals too. Then why was it that the gun of right-wing ideologists was always pointed towards Gandhi rather than Britishers? In one of the chapters, he refers to a speech by Savarkar where he claimed that Hindu and Muslim are already two nations, so he had no disagreement in the matter of partition.

The content of the book is very logically placed. Writing is simple and impressive. The tone is pretty aggressive as if the author is screaming to tell the truth to cyber trolls.

In the end, my huge respect to the author for showing courage to go against the flow and to come up with an account of actual conspiracy. I recommend majorly all children to read this book so that they know the truth of partition and independence from legitimate sources rather than learning it from Whatsapp and fake websites. Group belonging to different ideologies can tag it as an attempt to polish the images of Gandhi but when the author is backed up with such a huge list of references, one can only blame, can’t debate or defeat him.

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Men Without Women

Woven across seven interestingly crafted tales, “Men without Women” is a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami. I am generally skeptical to pickup short stories as most of them are cliffhangers at the end. In this book as well, there are few stories like that but their plot is so intriguing that we enjoy pleasure of tales without caring to get a proper end.

As the title suggests, theme of stories is the ordeal faced by men when a woman leaves them. In all of them, central character loses a woman (wife, girlfriend or acquaintance) either to other men or circumstances. Content is a mixture of humor and melancholy. This book is particularly significant for women readers to understand the plight of a man, when a woman, whom he values a lot, is no longer a part of his life. Drenched with emotions, each story hit you straight on heart.

All 7 stories are so enriched that each of them deserve a seperate review. In short, its yet another masterpiece by Haruki Murakami.

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The Drama Queen

Author – Ashna Khan

Ratings – 3.5/5 stars

Any woman who holds strong opinions and can take stand against the general conception of society is tagged as a “Drama Queen” by society. This phrase is easily relatable by women of similar nature.

“Drama Queen” is based on the life of “Shreya” who falls in the above category. She is like most of us who bows down to the happiness of her family in the most important decision of her life and gets married to Ranvijay, who is a top Bollywood actor. Despite being a heartthrob, he isn’t her choice. As written in the novel – “She should have closed the tap tightly that day”. Anyways, she moves ahead with her married life only to get ignored and humiliated every other day. One day her volcano of patience erupts and she takes the decision, which even the fiercest of women hesitate to take. There starts the journey of a headstrong woman, controlling the steering wheel of her life herself.

This story demanded a strong central character which the author has artistically crafted. The story runs at a medium pace. There aren’t a lot of characters in the book so the storyline at times gets predictable. I liked how Shreya fights for everything she deserves.

As a downside, I can say that lesser efforts have been given to the setting. Throughout the book, I couldn’t imagine the place where Shreya lives and the physical appearance of Shreya or Ranvijay.

In short, it’s a light-hearted easy read. If you are looking for a women-centric novel to read then this is the right pick.

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