Crisp Reviews of Books On My Nightstand

An overwhelming story that touched me to the core 

A plot inspired by a true story for a woman who provided us a peek into the life of indigenous people of Papua New Guinea and the human emotions at their best even while facing so many adversities in life. Three anthropologists who embarked on separate missions somehow ended up together on a journey that they would not have planned to go this way. The female protagonist who believed in the true spirit of humans, her husband who was chasing only glory and a stranger who was searching for meaning of life itself, all brought in circumstances that would challenge their basic human instincts to survive emotionally and physically. A journey that started in the search of knowledge ends in a bitter place where none is winner. Because as said in The Bhagavad Gita,  "For the senses wander, and when one lets the mind follow them, it carries wisdom away like a windblown ship on the waters." And that's how those three end up at their destinies as we finish ...

A woman transcends through various roles and learnings in life. As a daughter, she learns to be a person responsible towards well-being of her family and society. As she grows, she gets into role of friend and learns to be a part of unit, a role of girlfriend/wife and learns to care for someone more than herself and ultimately as a mother she learns to live for someone else. But only sometimes she realizes that she has a responsibility of one more important person and that's her. She often forgets herself and becomes what her family, friends, colleagues or society wants her to be. Only a few realize that they need to embark on a search for who they really are and what do they really want from this wonderful gift from god i.e. The life. Elizabeth Gilroy was also educated, had a wonderful house that she and her husband together built into a home and a successful career as a writer. But by the age of 32, she realized that there was still some...

Inspiration is just a feeling that is ignited in your mind when you see someone like you have achieved what you had dreamt for. The dream is now achievable to you but the hardest part is to convince your own self that this is reachable to you too. The distance between ‘I can’ and ‘I will’ takes further thousand steps. Inspiration can convert in action only when you feel yourself reaching the dream. Most people spend their life inspired by the stories of successful persons but never feel that they too have to ability to do the same. Only thing missing is faith that they are special too and they can reach the dream too. ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’, yet another beautiful book by Richard Bach, brings the same essence through a story of a gull that thinks beyond simply eating and surviving, and seeks higher purpose in life to become the best at what he loves. This is a story of people who dare to follow their dreams and make their own rules; even if they run contrary to the no...

Human life is marked with a process of continuous learning through our surroundings. But there is a little difference in the way we learn things as we grow up. When we are young we tend to believe in whatever is taught to us by the closed ones who look after us but as we grow older, we learn to synthesize the information gathered and make our own beliefs.  Here is a tale of an Indian boy from   Pondicherry with wondrous story of how he got his name ‘Pi’, who explores issues of   spirituality   and practicality from an early age. His curiosity about various religions and their followers leads him to meet preachers of various religions. Being a non-orthodox family, his family appreciates his gesture and allows him to pursue his faith in all religions. His family-owned zoo in Pondicherry also has been a learning source for him. They decide to move to Canada with all the animals but unfortunately their ship meets with an accident on the way. Only survivors of...

If you believe in magic, not the one with tricks and illusions by magicians, but the one that life brings in for us, then you will definitely love the novel called Brida by a Brazilian   author   Paulo Coelho . It is the story of a beautiful young   Irish   girl and her quest for self-discovery, to the world far beyond our world and the one where magic is the truth of life. She knows she is different and she has to look for the answers to her questions. On her journey, she meets a wise man who teaches her to overcome her fears and a woman who teaches her how to dance to the hidden music of the world. She also discovers her soul mate and learns that love is the most divine emotion to be recognized and valued on the path to true wisdom and knowledge. The story is neatly woven around the ancient belief of witchcraft and is related to the present world in an interesting way. This magical treat by Paulo Coelho treasures the enthralling tale of love, passion...