Review #710: Lean Days by Manish Gaekwad

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city”

----Roman Payne

Manish Gaekwad, an Indian journalist turned writer, has penned a heart touching travel-fiction book called, Lean Days which is a very personal journey of an artist/writer across the country through multiple cities and myriad of souls, food, culture, customs and religions to find love, all the while reminiscing about his past, along with that city's significance in his life. A journey that will not only touch millions of souls but will also inspire the souls to express their individuality and sexuality without any fear and also to wander to find oneself.

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Review #693: The Nine-Chambered Heart by Janice Pariat

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal”

----Gayle Forman

Janice Pariat, an award winning Indian writer, has penned an evocative and mesmerizing "fictional" biography through love called, The Nine-Chambered Heart that narrates the life story of a woman through nine characters, who has previously loved her or whom she has loved, either briefly or longwindedly in her life. The readers will only get to know this woman through the varied perspectives of the nine characters. And the one thing is clear from reading this book, that love never stays permanently in reality, but it lives on inside one's heart for as long as time goes on, and that is aptly captured by the author in this book.

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Review #646: Victoria & Abdul by Shrabani Basu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.”

----Alfred Tennyson

Shrabani Basu, an Indian author has penned an honest memoir about a forgotten man who mattered the most in the life of Queen Victoria in her book called, Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant. Abdul Karim was just a young man when he first met the British monarch, Queen Victoria and since that day, till the day, the queen died, their friendship stayed invaluable and that reached beyond the walls of Osborne House to Buckingham Palace to India thereby creating an uproar amongst the royals and the British Empire. Very predictably, after the death of the Queen, her family erased every single proof of the Queen and her munshi's friendship, yet somehow and mostly through hard work, dedication and by miracle, author, Shrabani Basu, has successfully resurrected the forgotten Indian Muslim man who became an integral part of Queen Victoria's life through this memoir.

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Review #638: The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad, Ingrid Christophersen (Translator)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“She couldn't survey the wreck of the world with an air of casual unconcern.”

----Margaret Mitchell

Åsne Seierstad, an Award winning journalist-turned-Norwegian-author, has penned a delectable and slightly captivating account of her stay with an Afghan family, who owned a bookshop in a terror-stricken and on-the-verge-of-a-civil-war type Kabul in the year 2002, in the book called, The Bookseller of Kabul. This is the personal story of almost every human being, mainly women of the household, from the bookseller family, with two wives and tons of children and an equally great number of siblings, the bookseller is a subtly liberal man of his times, that only demanded women of each and every household to stay indoors and keep giving birth until their last dying breath.

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Review #575: Lost in Terror by Nayeema Mahjoor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”

----Anne Bradstreet

Nayeema Mahjoor, an Indian writer, pens a terrific and gripping tale of one woman and an Indian state fighting against injustice of the government and the so-called society's norms that oppressed the freedom of both, in her new book, Lost in Terror. Here the author weaves a sad and heart breaking story of a daughter of the valley disrupted by war and this woman gets caught up between the crossfires from both ends, one fighting for freedom and the other oppressing the rebellions.

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Review #466: Curfewed Night: A Frontline Memoir of Life, Love and War in Kashmir by Basharat Peer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”

----Robin Hobb

Basharat Peer, an Indian author, has penned his poignant memoir, Curfewed Night where he flawlessly captures the conflicted as well as forgotten pain of the pastoral state of India through his childhood days till adulthood and the author has also captivated the strong sense of one's own "home" be it idyllic or broken or tortured. Through this memoir, the author has walked down into the memory lane of his childhood days in Kashmir.

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Review #223: Out from the Underworld by Heather Siegel with giveaway and author interview

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



“To those who are struggling. To talk about a struggle, you're likely to forget about it. To be shown a struggle, you're likely not to forget it. But, to live through a struggle, you'll understand it.”

----Valerie Owens

Heather Siegel, an American author, pens her memoir called, Out from the Underworld where she narrates about her mother's sudden disappearance, living under shabby conditions, abandonment, foster care and finally standing strong through all the challenges in her life.

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Review #222: Life Outside the Box by Marilyn R Wilson with giveaway and author interview

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

----Winston S. Churchill

Marilyn R Wilson, an American freelance writer/editor, pens her debut book, Life Outside the Box: The Extraordinary Journeys of 10 Unique Individuals that is based on the lives of ten inspiring as well as successful personalities who have given a definition to the meaning of the word, success, in their own terms.

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