Historically, we have had some very strong and brave women who have tried to change the world. We have come a long way. We find that women are in every field of expertise. Forward countries like USA, Italy, Japan, China, and Russia haven’t had a single woman president. In this modern era, we still find women being abused both physically and sexually, uneducated, and not being given enough opportunities. Chastity and virginity are clauses applicable only to women not to men? We, humans, the so-called evolved species cannot behave like animals. We should all be feminists and change the outlook of everybody (both men and women), to bring out the best in every woman.

A point that I noted was the house of mirth was published in 1905 and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was published in 1813, almost a hundred-year difference but still women’s only aim in life was to get married and I find it rather depressing. Though the women’s suffrage movement started around the mid of 19th century, New Zealand was the first country to give women voting rights in 1893.
The house of mirth is a story about an extremely beautiful Miss Lily Bart. A rich young lady, who cannot leave her wealthy habits even after she is rendered penniless and who wishes to marry a rich guy. I found Lily to be like Marie Antoinette. When women aren’t exposed to the outside world and they have been brought up in a closed community and are uneducated, they cannot be expected to have foresight or worldly wisdom. Though Lily moves in glamorous party circles and socialites, what goes through the mind of Lily Bart amidst all this is depressing. A young girl who has nobody to guide her, who has been brought up with wealthy materialistic habits cannot suddenly change her ways of life and her outlook (and outfits!). The society of that era looked at women as marriable objects who would later bear children. Moreover, women are easily labelled, blamed, accused, and ostracised. In the current era women, if educated, can get some jobs. But in that era when women didn’t even go to schools and weren’t allowed to work the scene is deplorable
I recommend this book to one and all as one needs to be aware of women's life, historically, be it rich or poor.
HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY!!

****SPOILER ALERT****
After having read a classic, Verity came across as an easy read with no difficult words or mind-boggling phrases. Verity is a fast-paced, mystery/thriller/ romance fiction. It is a soul-stirring yet gripping novel. I cannot dissect the novel without the spoilers.
The story revolves around a budding but financially broke writer LOWEN ASHLEIGH. She has been asked to ghost-write for a famous author, VERITY CRAWFORD, who is paralysed/ bedridden after an accident. Verity is married to Jeremy and has twins, Chastin and Harper, and a son Crew.
Lowen decides to move into their house and comes across a manuscript that reads like Verity’s bio. As she reads through the manuscript, she is stunned by the revelations. The exposes are upsetting.
The story was great, so was the built-up. I didn’t understand a few points
·       If an author does write an autobiography, why would she ever write horrific details about her plot to kill somebody?
·       Even if she was trying to do antagonistic journaling, nobody would write a story with their own names.
·       Why didn’t Jeremy tell Lowen that he knew about the manuscript?
·       Why did Jeremy take care of Verity if he was the one who caused her car crash?
·       Why would Verity lie on the bed for months pretending to be a paralysed patient?
Often what we see, we assume to be true. People take everything at its face value.
I will stand by the assumption that Verity could not have killed someone. I would like to believe that the letter that Lowen digs out of the floor was the real thing.
Though the whole narration is quite riveting, some points are a bit ambiguous. The dictionary meaning of the word Verity is ‘the quality or state of being true or real.’ If that is the title of the book my assumption that verity was telling the truth, in the end, is not incorrect. A mother’s nature is that of a selfless protector of her children who will even sacrifice her own life for theirs, unless verity was mentally unwell, she could never have killed her child.
I would recommend this book to everyone, but it has some heart wrenching events and some graphic scenes, so BEWARE!!

How do you react/feel when you have read a book that is about a positive, determined, and persevering lady?
The henna artist is a story about such a lady. The story revolves around Lakshmi and her younger sister Radha. Lakshmi is a henna artist who also is well versed in herbal remedies for various ailments. She not only does fabulous intricate and elaborate henna designs but is also a keen observer, outgoing and empathetic. She has worked very hard and made a niche for herself among the ladies of the upper class. She is aware of who wants what. She is considered as a person with a solution for any difficulty. Because of her network and charming personality, she gets the opportunity to attend to a princess. Hence her demand increases. Her sister who has joined her after 13 years finds everything mesmerising and because of Lakshmi’s connections, she gets admitted to a school meant for royalties. But events turn sour, but Lakshmi doesn’t give up and faces every situation bravely and cleverly. She paves her way through many difficulties.
The book is historical fiction of the post-independence era based in Jaipur.
It covers many aspects of life: emotion, empathy, jealousy, love between sisters, social disparities.
A very interesting aspect of the book was that many proverbs have been translated verbatim from Hindi proverbs.
There are a few small write-ups at the end of the book which are very interesting, recipes for making yummy dishes and concocting mehndi, the story of henna, and a small note on the Indian caste system.
It’s a captivating novel from the beginning and I couldn't put it down till I finished. It made me want to know what happened next, so I kept reading. I am keen on starting the next book in the series, ‘The secret keeper of Jaipur’
A very well-written book with a beautiful storyline. It’s a must-read!

⁸This is the second book in the Jaipur trilogy. Though the first book was mostly about Lakshmi and her sister Radha, this book is mostly about Lakshmi’s protégé Malik. Having studied in Shimla, he returns to Jaipur as an apprentice. Here is where there is an unexpected turn of events. A few new characters pop in but the storyline is again very interesting.
The book portrays the author's love for jewellery and Indian cuisine.
I loved the character Lakshmi in ‘The henna artist’ and in ‘The secret keeper of Jaipur.’ She is a strong and an empathetic person with foresight and always knows what the other person wants.
I am impressed by the herbs listed in the book. Ayurveda is very interesting and most households in India have home remedies for small ailments like cold, cough, stomach aches, etc.
It’s interesting to read about tribals and their lives. A character who is new and from the tribe is Nimmi and she knows about the herbs available in the hilly areas of Shimla and their usage. Nimmi and Lakshmi put together their knowledge and they develop a healing garden.
Gold smuggling is woven into the story and the way it is carried out is very upsetting. The author has written at the end of the book, about her research on this topic.
The effervescent nature of the book makes it a wonderful read, highlighting Shimla’s greenery, the hills as well as Jaipur’s royalty, and grandeur.
Again, at the end of the book, there are some delicious recipes, an essay on gold and Indian food.
This book can be read as a standalone, as the author gives a brief outline of the henna artist here and there.
The prose is fabulous, the writing eloquent, and has multiple narratives. It’s an easy read and I recommend it to everyone.
Eagerly looking forward to the third part of the trilogy.

This book is a non-fiction about the world in the current times. Elif Shafak has beautifully captured its flaws and shortcomings. I love to watch her videos, ‘Say your Word’. After having read this book, the word that comes to my mind is ‘Bridge.’ We might now visualise the London Bridge or the Golden gate Bridge. We can associate the word with the phrase ‘bridge the gap.’ Gaps in our understanding, gaps in our relationships, gaps in our knowledge, etc. this book is about bridging all these gaps. A small yet insightful self-help book. She has dealt with so many situations with great aplomb.
A very interesting story was about how she was forcibly made to write with her right hand when she was left-handed. I felt very bad because why undo what a person naturally is!
The chapters on Anger, Anxiety, and Apathy are very interesting and reflective. She talks about channelizing our anger for more productive missions.
Another chapter brilliantly discusses information, knowledge, and wisdom. How we are inundated by information overload and how we need to sieve through it and acquire accurate knowledge and get wiser.
Although surrounded by virtual people online, how people feel lonely. The feeling of being disconnected although we are in a linked network. How people need to listen to others and learn. She writes about accepting diversity and accepting people for who they are.
The part about narcissism, narcissistic existence, and group narcissism was very interesting.
Often people leave their own country (by birth) in search of better jobs and often settle down in that country, but people tend to have a lost feeling, a feeling of not belonging. But the author lived in so many countries and finally settled in the UK. What do you call such a person - a global citizen, a citizen of the world?
A quote that is close to my heart is “Stories brings us together; untold stories keep us apart”
I would have loved to have a teacher like @shafakelif, who is a great storyteller and makes every solution positive and heart-warming, although it might deal with difficult or heartrending problems.
In a world where there are people who look down upon you if they have a big degree and you don’t or are millionaires and you aren’t, they are of a higher class and you aren’t, they are fair complexioned, and you aren’t, they are from a different clan, they are a tight knit group, etc., this book makes us aware about much more.
It is an optimistic, powerful, discernment of the contemporary world. I am enamoured by any book Elif Shafak writes and I am sure everybody would get enlightened, reading this book!

A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, PETER HANDKE (Nobel prize for literature, 2019)
This is a semi-autobiographical novella, about Peter Handke’s mom. He writes whatever he remembers about her. It is not a detailed but a brief description of her difficult life. She suicides at 51. After his mother’s death, he says that he has an apathetic feeling about death. I felt as though he was relieved because his mom had a difficult life and ended up with a mental illness. He was relieved because he couldn’t see her suffering.
As a young woman, she is not allowed to study a lot but still, she joins a cooking class. She later falls in love with a married man and gives birth to Peter. Then she gets married to a guy but doesn’t love him, with whom she has a few more children and many abortions. She is bound by her duties at home; cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. but from the novella, one gets a feeling that she didn’t want to be tied down. Facing the hardships of poverty and life as such, having had almost nothing to eat at times, she faces a lot of difficulties. The period being the Nazi era or war.
What if she had wishes and desires to be someone or to do something else? The fact that she didn’t talk much off and on, makes it even more difficult to understand her true wants.
I found this novella tough. It’s a grim, moving tale of a lady, almost invisible.
It is a must read and I think I will have to reread it to understand it better.

In life, people always desire for something more or something else, although they have everything they need. Sometimes the food that we eat daily becomes tastier because of some good company. After having walked miles, it is only the humble colourless, tasteless, odourless water that tastes like the elixir of life. We admire its sweetness, savour its taste, and thoroughly relish its flavour, thus quenching our thirst.
An aviator crashes his plane in an African desert and suddenly comes across this prince. This prince comes from a little planet, which the aviator feels is an asteroid. The little prince has nobody on the planet except a rose plant.
Many of the discussions that take place between them are about perspectives, which is quite interesting. Sometimes what adults perceive is not as beautiful as children do. The author elucidates this with drawings which give us a clearer picture of how people think and grasp.
Before reaching the earth, the prince goes to many planets and sees many people and observes their behaviour.
The book can be read by children as well as adults, but adults must read it as it explains most simplistically what adults ignore and take for granted in their daily lives. Though written in a simple fluid style, the book is very symbolic. It portrays love, friendship, greed, loneliness, life, appreciation etc.

It was all Greek to me!! The book has a lot of content related to Ancient Greek as its story revolves around six students pursuing the same. The narrator is a scholarship secured, a working-class boy who tries to fit in with a group of five other better-off, pretentious students. The story begins with the murder of one of the six students and the whole book is woven around the how and why the murder took place and the effects of the murder on the other students. Parts of it felt like Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky), where Rodion goes through a mental trauma due to the murders he commits. What is the atonement?
Right at the beginning we are told that Bunny/Edmund is murdered. I liked this character. He was irritating, but he was affected by some traumatic events. His upbringing was flawed. He had issues and if one looks at it from a psychological aspect, one feels bad for this character.
The book talks about the university life of students, classicism, cult, drugs, alcohol, relationships, murder, lifestyle, influence, peer pressure, and much more.
How much would you delve into a subject to understand it? How much would you read, to say that you are well-read? Where does one draw a line? To dive into unchartered territories of water to experience what someone else felt is foolishness. Do parents completely cut off ties with their children once they are at a university?
University is where one blossoms into a wholesome personality. Though purely academics, one gets wordly-wise too - both ways, one learns. But taking anything to extremes is what puts students at risk. Under peer pressure or to show off, some students can take extreme steps, unaware of the repercussions it might have on themselves or others. Highly mouldable, flexible, impressionable, a stage where opinions and ideologies are inbuilt for a lifetime.  

A quote By Milton is quoted in the book: ‘THE MIND IS ITS OWN PLACE AND IN ITSELF CAN MAKE A HEAVEN OF HELL AND SO FORTH,’ can summarise the book to a large extent.

Though the book is brilliantly written, the characters are beautifully developed, but the storyline is stretched out and can get boring in some parts. Some events have been described too vividly which I felt did not have any relevance. The Greek grammar part went way above my head.
Many have expressed their admiration for this book, I am not sure of what I feel, it's dark and the theme is probably not close to my heart, hence I am unable to rate this book.

Malice is a mystery, more of a detective novel. A murder takes place at the beginning. Within a few pages, the author points out the murderer. The whole story is more of a journal of the investigator, detective Kaga. The detective leaves no stones unturned. He thoroughly investigates the ifs and the buts and logically deduces the motive behind the murder. He doesn’t accept anything at its face value and probes deep into the matter.
This wasn’t nail-biting, spine-chilling suspense but was a well-worked-out, analysed interpretation of the motive behind the murder. It is not a ‘whodunit’ but more of ‘why he did it.’
Like the way one should not judge the book by its cover, sometimes in life what appears, as a matter of fact, need not be. It covers topics like bullying, rape, preconceived notions, and the nature of people.
A Well written plot with dual narration, it has loads of twists and turns, more of a psychological mystery. The aspect of the book that I loved the most was that it was about books and authors. It also has a cat, probably a feature associated with every book by Japanese authors, at least in the ones that I have read.
Overall, an easy read, a quick read, and anyone wanting to shake off their reading slump can go for it.

Firefly Lane is a story about best friends, Kate, and Tully. They have been friends since they were teenagers and the story spans 30 years or so. Tully moves into the place where Kate lives and that’s where their friendship begins, and they become inseparable. These two friends who grew up on firefly lane, although they are somewhat different yet similar, their upbringing is completely different, yet they gel. A very interesting aspect of the book is that it mentions various hit songs of that era, Songs by ABBA, Madonna, Queen, Led Zeppelin, etc. there is a short note by the author at the end of the book reminiscing her past and music.
It's very difficult to find friends who understand you as they understand themselves. A small misunderstanding can ruin the friendship. True friends are those who even after a misunderstanding reach out and return to their friends. Sometimes we befriend people very superficially because we have been hurt by people earlier in life. Friendship is about building trust, letting go, caring, sacrificing, sharing, and loving. All these qualities take time to seep through the relationship. But sometimes it just clicks. My mother says that there is an aura about people and when auras match people connect. Only Strong people can ask for forgiveness after making mistakes. When we commit an unpardonable mistake, we cannot just walk away from it. We must have the gumption to apologise without which life stagnates. The guilt pangs gnaw at us from within.
The characters in this book are well developed, and many parts of the story resonate with us. One can actually relate to it. One can picture the whole story in one’s head or visualize it. Their friendship is so beautifully formed, that we can feel the ups, and downs, their moments of happiness, their tribulations, when they drift apart or come together, or in other words, one gets emotionally involved with these characters as though they are your own family.
Firefly Lane is a very well-written coming-of-age novel. It’s an easy read. I recommend it to one and all.