Book Review: Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

Rating: 4 Stars

Bold subject…even bolder narration…still there is no object of obscenity in the whole book.

Review of Eleven Minutes: Book by Paulo Coelho

Dreams do come true but live your dreams and endeavor to realize them.

Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho sails smooth like a stream in plains, a candle in calm weather and a kite in favorable wind.

It’s been a decade since this novel of Paulo Coelho, whose books are believed to have a life enhancing effect, was published and I think it is too late to write a review but I am still writing this because more than the name of the author, it is a good literary work that needs to be promoted and it is the responsibility of a voracious reader who comes across some real good work of words, to pass on the words of wisdom or advice to the the avid readers, the inquisitive minds that hunt for knowledge, worth exploring.

Eleven Minutes is a story of a prostitute (really…I don’t think so) or a dreamer (who dares to dream something unimaginable to people of her kind) or a believer (who never stopped believing she can achieve what she aspires for) or a learner (who welcomes new thoughts as one welcomes life), or I am not sure as she was everything for me…a mother…a teacher or a guide…a beautiful, vulnerable… sometimes helpless girl.

I won’t reveal the story as I don’t want you to miss the magic the story will spell around you and if you have already read it then there is no need either.

All I would say is read this book if you haven’t read it yet and discover the sacred love that is born and bred in the most ignoble place on the face of earth.

Paulo Coelho through the protagonist, a prostitute named Maria, conveys the message that no matter what you are and what circumstances you are into, dream your way through hard times without letting your hopes and endeavors die.

Take away from Eleven Minutes

Dreams do come true…live your dreams and endeavor to realize them.

About Paulo Coelho (Source: Wikipedia)

Paulo Coelho (born August 24, 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He has become one of the most widely read authors in the world today. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, amongst them the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum and France’s Légion d’honneur.

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a soul-shaking saga of sobs and sorrows with a happy but tear-soaked climax.

It is the second novel of Khaled Hosseini who has accumulated worldwide acclaim and recognition with his debut novel, The Kite Runner which has been standing in the bestsellers’ chart since the time of its release.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Summary

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a story of two women, Mariam and Laila from Herat and Kabul respectively in Afganistan. Set between 1979 and 2003, the phase of political turmoil in Afganistan, ranging from the Soviet rule to Taliban taking reigns in its hand; it is a heart-wrenching tale revolving around the worlds of two Afgani women, whose destinies or rather the misfortune, filled with sufferings, unbearable pain and miseries, brought them under one roof.

Book Review: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Winner of The Man Booker Prize 2008)

‘MEET BALRAM HALWAI, THE ‘WHITE TIGER’:

SERVANT, PHILOSOPHER, ENTREPRENEUR, MURDERER…’

That’s how the back cover (the Indian version) introduces you to this captivating work of words, The White Tiger – Winner of the The Man Booker prize 2008; and believe me there couldn’t have been a better introduction to the novel.

About The White Tiger

Let’s start with the story that sprouts at Laxmangarh, a small village situated on the bank of Ganga, the holy river of India (though the protagonist doesn’t think so); where Balram alias Munna, the protagonist in the story, was borne as a underprivileged child who could not even finish his elementary education.

Book Review: LIKE IT HAPPENED YESTERDAY by Bestselling Author Ravinder Singh

Author: Ravinder Singh
Rating: 1.5 Star

The first thing I felt while and after reading this book:

I wish if it had never happened, I mean the book – Like it Happened Yesterday by bestselling author Ravinder  Singh.

‘I Too Had A Love Story’ was Spontaneous and Sincere, ‘Can Love Happen Twice?’ was Deliberate and (overly) Dramatic, and here comes the worst – ‘Like It Happened Yesterday’, a Forced and Failed attempt.

It seems somebody has made Ravinder Singh to write this book on the gunpoint.

Author just picked some episodes from his or others’ childhood which he could remember and penned them down in worst possible English for the sake of writing a novel.

Narration falls flat though it is something that I’d expected from him considering his previous works). The plot…sorry there isn’t any. The story strongly misses a common idea that weave the different episodes in a thread called plot.  There is no connection between the consecutive chapters.

Book Review: The Oath of the Vayuputras by Amish Tripathi

The first book, The Immortals of Meluha, presented the transformation of a Tibetan barbarian (Shiva) into Neelkanth, the Mahadev, who had had a tough job in his hands – elimination of evil.

The second, The Secret of Nagas, unexpectedly changed the face of the Evil turning good into Evil and Evil into Good with Shiva, the living God Neelkanth, leading from the front.

The third and the last installment of Shiva Triology, The Oath of the Vayuputras, goes a leap ahead and challenges what the earlier books had proclaimed avowedly – the reincarnation of Shiva (don’t worry I won’t reveal the suspense).

Book Review: I Too Had a Love Story by Ravinder Singh

Author: Ravinder Singh

Pages: 206

Rating: 3 stars

‘I Too Had a Love Story’ is a memoir of a courtship that didn’t reach its ultimate destination – marriage. The so-called true love story of Ravinder Singh, who debuted in the world of storytelling through this novel, is written in a diary-writing form that is innocent, touching, honest and heart-rending.

The narration style is amateurish but pleasant and fresh.  The story begins with Ravin (Ravinder Singh, the author himself) deciding to marry and registering himself at a matrimonial website. His search for a suitable profile ends at Khushi, a Punjabi girl, whom he tries to contact and after some struggle (as you must have seen in a Bollywood movie) finally he is able to contact her.

Book Review: The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (Nominated for Man Booker Prize)

Rating: 4 Stars

The Lowland is the latest novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, the author of bestselling novel The Namesake, adapted for a movie by the same name, starring Irrfan Khan and Konkana Sen.

The Lowland is based on the relationship between two brothers, born in Tollygunj, Bengal; and a lady living in Rhode Island, USA presenting how their lives entangled with each others’ before experiencing miseries in their own forms.

The two brothers, who were poles apart in their thoughts, temperament, behavior and aspirations, share a special bond that was deep and strong. The story takes place during the course of the events that took place during the period after Independence when the heat of Darjeeling issue were burning Bengal in its backdrop causing un-reparable losses and damages to the lives of protagonists as the case with people from that era would have been.

Book Review: Can Love Happen Twice

A Romantic Novel by Ravinder Singh
Ratings: 2.5

A sequel to the ‘I Too Had a Love Story‘, ‘Can Love Happen Twice’ is the story of Ravinder Singh’s (fiction this time) second attempt at love with an Indian girl, he finds in Belgium when he visits the foreign land for a company project.

While the first book was loved for its honesty and innocence, the second one appears to be deliberate and way too dramatic, something that doesn’t go well with literature.Though the author is able to create some really wonderful scenes, the storyline is ordinary. Language is very simple which has already worked wonders for him. 

The story begins with Ravin’s friends meeting at Red FM’s office in Chandigarh, a popular FM radio station (I wonder if they have sponsored the novel), where they were supposed to narrate the second book of Ravin who was admitted to a mental asylum where he was being treated for depression caused due to the heartbreak for his second break-up.