Travel With Books!

The fictitious town of “ Cranford ” is in possession of amazons, dominated by the genteel women comprising of widows and elderly spinsters. The novel is recited by Mary Smiths (which we eventually get to know as the novel progresses). Written as a collection of inter-woven short stories, Cranford is not based on a major-plot but I felt it to be a Victorian-era soap opera belonging to the aristocratic genteel class. This fictional city has an infallible religion of - abiding to the social-hierarchy and contempt for men. But the beauty of the novel is, though initially they speak of indifference towards men but nowhere there is a stern condemnation for men portrayed, rather in subtle gentle ways help towards their family is rendered and their wisdom/instruction is followed.   All the episodes are cited in a satirical and hysterical tenor. Even the poignant episodes ensue into a happy ending. The novel brims with emotions and lessons of friendship and kindness. Even foe...

Just like any other self-help book, it sounds like a cyclic-repetitive dance of words. Don't know if it intentional  or that's how all the self-help books end up sounding due to brimming plagiarism . But this too for me  was juvenile, banal and repetitive . This book is filled with platitudes about how one should go on condemning  the prevailing and existing to set onto the journey of betterment.  I am not against it, but was expecting this book more on S hamanism,  exposition of nature for self-healing and Toltec  wisdom from this erudite who was a surgeon and then turned into a Toltec spiritualist. Author Don Miguel Ruiz was born into a family of Shamans and went onto attending medical school to become a surgeon. His bloodline inspired him to explore more of his ancient ancestral wisdom.  Four Agreements is a synopsis of his findings and ancient wisdom. The concoction of the four agreements is -  1. Be impeccable with your word. 2. Don’t take a...

Being a poet myself, I have forever been in awe of Emily Dickenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, just to name a few. Ofcourse, I don't have the audacity to compare the modern day and age poets with these existing constellation of stars, but for me "Milk and Honey"  didn't work at all.  I am not deriding her efforts, but I consider being a poet/author, one holds a certain responsibility towards the readers and above all you, yourself. There are a lot of blank spaces(I didn't feel they were filled with silence at all! but mere contrived spaces ) which could have been filled up with  emotions unexplored but yet felt!  Keeping my poetic soul aside, I wish Rupi Kaur to look into all the reviews, and come up with a better  and inspiring one. 

I very well know that by giving this review, I am throwing myself to all the sharks and whales out there in awe of this book which has inspired a motion series. But I was dejected and confounded on how come we have a series on this unpleasant ordeal?? Not interested to invest my time on explaining about the trial and tribulation that I went through while reading this unpleasant narration. May be my old-school mentality and proclivity for decency found it to be  obnoxiously indignant with "not so-welcome" character-attributes. I am thoroughly confounded how come we have a series on the same?? Hope the series is better than the book(can't muster the courage to watch it post reading the novel)  Not my types at all. FULLSTOP. Please pardon me for the disparaging remarks, but I have to be candid with my review and take on it! 1- star

  Warning - I will be rambling a lot because of the after-effects of aether or in short, the after-effects of reading such a brilliant novel “ Legendborn ” (for me) is a story of bloodline, it is a story of inheritances! It is “quintessential” of YA fantasy! Period. Tracy Deonn nailed it. What an incredulously outstanding debut novel! Can't stay immune to her Mesmer! I am doused in Aether, and this experience can't be forgotten for long. I am mesmerized 😊 Tracy has all the right ingredients and recipe for making a concoction of sheer magic and dreams. A taut tale! A lyrical tale-telling, indisputable for me. The insurmountable task of including all the superfluous information in a taut package is indeed commendable, without compromising the pace. “ Legendborn ” totally ensnared me with it’s magic. I am still in trance! I had goosebumps throughout the read, Tracy didn't allow a moment for them to settle :D I was literally nibbling my lips intermittently durin...

A light-hearted read which takes you back in your comfort zone. My likeability for this book, made me to dream about myself setting on an expedition for pillaging, ransacking, you name it, "the seeing stone" from Jared :D Hope I don't sound like a goblin with a toad face and glass eyes :P A definite 5-star for this menagerie of goblins, fairies and humans.

I picked up this book with a lot of consternation , if it will be an arduous read, will it be laden with all fanciful and indiscernible words for me. But all my fears were mollified. The title of the book was misleading to me, I could not fathom that it isn't a catalogue of obsolete words but a full-fledged interesting narration from a female's perspective about the words omitted imperiously pertaining to females and common folks by the master-decider of a dictionary, the lexicographer, Mr. Murray and his team.  I was dazed to know that a word - Catamenia existed ! As Goodreads rating for this novel was brimming with stars, I was decoyed to invest my entire night to delve deep into it. It was indeed an endearing reading-excursion for 25 percent of the narration, but the rest went dreary and drab for me. Maybe my existing faster-paced reads have transcended such slower-paced reads of high morals. Let me be candid, I rambled through some 150 pages when our all grown-up protagonis...