Travel With Books!

"No-Spoiler-Alert" It was a pure delight to enjoy the atmospheric detailing of the Prince Edward Island. For someone like me, who gets deep into the non-tangible details of sight and smell of a setting before discerning the  personality perusal, Anne of Green Gables is a bulls-eye ! I personally related to Anne Shirley's character personification in totality. Her penchant for larger-than-life words, spark and zest for life, optimism and seeing the  glint in the worst, describes our protagonist. She is funny, curious and full-of-life.  Her style of answering to her own questions in the most flamboyant style possible, takes the reader deep into the atmospheric setting she builds-up. Before picking up the book, I was dubious if Anne is one of those hyperbolic characters which fades away as the novel progresses, but LM Montgomery  has woven her with grit and determination, vivacity and childishness. Anne deepens the interest of the reader, as the novel progress...

  Title of the book is apt " Falling in Love Again ", Ruskin Bond reminisces all the episodes of love in his life with a current-mature-mindset. Presumably, he wrote this one to heal himself through all his numerous life-episodes of unrequited love! Touching the delightful cover, with swarming colorful butterflies hovering all over, my search for Ruskin Bond's definition of love started. This evenly-paced book is all about love forbidden, so I couldn't take it as a tongue-in-cheek writing ! It is flooded with insidious emotions.  Again I presume, one cannot count Ruskin's financial strain as the only cause for him not taking the plunge into marriage, but the ache of unrequited love ! The introduction includes Ruskin Bond's favorite writer PG Wodehouse's quote - " You know, the way love can change a fellow, is truly frightful to contemplate ".  I agree, guess we all have undergone aggressive transformations in some way or the other. This ...

I am not a literature student but an engineer. I am someone who easily falls in love with books from fantasy and fiction genres, specifically magical realism. I love to dangle in both the primary and secondary worlds (trust me I do that whole day long, that's my happy space). Most of the reviews I have given till date are positive, be it for classics or the genres I mentioned. My heart melts like hot chocolate whenever I pick up books belonging to aforesaid genres , and not being a literature student or a stern critic, I overlook atmospheric, character or plot settings seldom going askew. ( I eat, drink, breathe the non-tangible before drifting to the tangible). This one is definitely not my taste. Maybe because greater emphasis was laid upon in the start for building the somber setting for justifying reasons of depression and suicide (and this eats away a greater part). The rest is breathable as it ensues into improvisations and meeting/rectifying/ justifying the old. But all in a...

A medicine for coping with the ineffable mysteries of the soul. From a life laden with romance in the teens, then battered with mishaps, Tagore turned towards embracing life in totality with zest. Instead of turning into an escapist, he cradled life with sweetness. Each and every word is a solution not only to daily perplexities, but also a catalyst to daily joys. It all depends on how the reader discerns. The mood, state of mind of the reader will help him perceive new meanings every time. " A lifelong read " I witnessed a lot of similarity between David in Bible (the psalms) and Tagore in Gitanjali. After reading Gitanjali, I can confirm that he was greatly inspired by David and his psalms, along with his personal pragmatic experiences. A definite 5-star for this. Each and every poem is special and cannot pick one, but for today I reverberate with -  "He came and sat by my side but I woke not. What a cursed sleep it was, O miserable me! He came when the night was stil...

  *No-spoiler Alert* Little Women is a classic allegorical novel written by Louisa May Alcott. MY FOREVER DRUG ! A definite 5-star. I prefer sitting all snug and warm with my hot-coffee mug and reading through the adventures of the adorable March family. March family is like a bower of evergreen prolific climbers (with a never give-up attitude), bearing four idiosyncratic perennial flowers (the March Sisters),  each having a distinct fragrance of their own.   Anyone can be easily beguiled by their charm, I am smitten ! (esp. Jo). Each has idiosyncratic talents and characteristics.  Love for the family keeps them bonded. One can find shelter in this bower anytime to relax and rejuvenate. Unambiguously, it is saccharine, endearing, professing principles of Christianity, oozing out tons of gratefulness, solidarity, respect and above all heart-touching sisterhood  (for someone like me without siblings, March sisters helped me to live this experience virtually!)...

  *No-spoiler Alert* An unconventional epistolary novel, depicting the vicissitudes of life from adolescence to adulthood. It is a story about the 15-year old Charlie, a freshman at high-school. A stand-offish Charlie, addresses each letter to his anonymous  friend using the greeting " Dear Friend" and wraps up with " Love Always". The recent deaths of his bosom-friend and beloved Aunt, leaves him traumatized.  Skittish about entering high-school, Charlie finds peace and acceptance from English teacher Bill and befriends Patrick. Charlie is deeply enamored by Patrick's stepsister Sam.  Instead of finding reasons to come out of his shell, he becomes more standoffish due to complications developing among  family and friends. He keeps reading "Catcher in the Rye" ( again personally I am not at all a fan of this novel, and found it too depressing) to find solace. I started losing interest in the second half of the novel, till I was introduced to the turbul...

"No-Spoiler Alert" For someone like me, who belongs to the Doon Valley, Ruskin Bond is a childhood favorite. But the Victorian Era authors transcended him during my formative years. Blue Umbrella's protagonist Biniya, a cowherd, leading the tedious life in her village, on her way back home stumbles upon a blue-umbrella, which defines her vanity in the rest of the book. She trades her lucky necklace for the blue umbrella, which has charmed her senses. She is eating, breathing, drinking, in short living the blue umbrella. Trading her long-possessed lucky charm wasn't an act of valor for her. The narrative includes the episodes of her on the verge of losing the blue umbrella, once in a deep slumber on the meadows and the umbrella  scudded away by the forceful gust of wind into the chasm. She heroically, rescues it. Though, torn and washed away in luster, still the umbrella is a possession of pride in the entire village. A priced possession of her vanity. As this review d...