I am always suspicious of current “bestsellers” and would rather prefer an old classic that has been tested by the tides and turns of time and has still withered them handsomely. This book however, surprised me with its pace, character build up and unexpected climax!

There’s so much pain everywhere, and we just close our eyes to it. The truth is we’re all scared. We’re terrified of each other.

A painter, a psychotherapist and an actor caught in a swirling maze of murder, love and betrayal : what else could you ask for in a thriller? There are a few better hooks for a novel than the murder of a seemingly perfect husband by a doting wife who has now turned completely silent with a painting being the only clue to her mind! This book starts off with a bang and rarely slacks. The journey of a therapist cum detective while he is trying to look into the deepest crevices of the murderer’s mind is fascinating. The Freudian imprint is unmistakable as we travel deep into childhood to understand the unconscious drivers behind criminal behaviour of the characters.

This is a psychological thriller that also touches upon greek tragedy and poetic justice while maintaining its frenetic pace. The gory, graphic description of murder scene that the book keeps coming back to paints the whole thriller in a veil of mysterious red making it extremely difficult to put this book down until you have lifted the veil to uncover the mystery!

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I have no idea how I missed this Dan Brown novel but it was probably because I felt nothing could surpass the historical signficance of Da Vinci Code and the inimitable theatrics of Angels & Demons. It was only weeks back when I chanced upon this title in my mom’s almirah that Robert Langdon nostalgia swept all over me and the pull to pick this up was irresistible.

Well, science and religion are not competitors, they’re two different languages trying to tell the same story. There’s room in this world for both.

Is this the best Dan Brown can get? I don’t think so (I don’t think any fictional thriller (historical or otherwise) could trump Angels & Demons), but goddamn, he is good! The central question in this book (about humanity’s origins and where we are headed) is perhaps a bit too vast and out of the core Robert Langdon’s competencies but by invoking Tesla, Harari, AI and Darwin all at once: he makes a veritable sumptuous meal out of it!

The book begins like a classic joke with a rabbi, a catholic priest and an islamic scholar all gathered at once to be an audience of a prominent technocratic athiest! Only that, far from a joke, the content of the meeting is deadly serious and is poised to tip the scales in favour of science (as opposed to religious mythology). The set up is too big and the climax not entirely unexpected or shocking but that is the peril when you begin with such an earth shattering premise.

As always, Brown dazzles with art, history, symbology and architecture (almost too much of architecture). What is fascinating about Dan Brown’s novels are that sometimes the most interesting things are not essentially a part of the main plot but those that are delicately interwoven in Langdon’s digressions, for example the tidbit about the orgins of “&”! All in all, not the best to come out of Dan Brown but still a masterpiece in its own right.

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This is the kind of book that makes being a patient, silent reader of fiction worth it in this age of content avalanche from Netflix, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube you name it!

“If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn’t spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.”

The hurt, the humour, the love, loneliness, awkwardness and a rainbow of other emotions that you may have thought have ceased to be felt anymore in this plastic, consumerist, digital age – this novel brings all of it alive. In many senses, I think it tells us what it takes to be a kind, feeling human being.

Essentially, the plot focuses on Miss Eleanor, her lonely present, her traumatic past and how she eventually comes out of her stunted stupor slowly, gradually, drawn out by kindness, empathy and therapy. There’s a lot of charming wit, just the right bit of humour and an interesting mix of characters to keep you hooked and amused while also trying to hold back your tears.

We all have a little Eleanor inside us – dealing alone with ghosts of our past, unbearable loneliness and trying somehow to fit into the tyranny of our mechanistic lives. But there’s always hope (and help available) and there’s a Raymond to all our Eleanors, showing us the beauty in little imperfections of daily life.

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Every time I complete a Murakami novel, I resolve to never read him again. His novels don’t ever really make sense, at the very least, they lack a realistic coherence and I’m always left disoriented at the end.

But then I go back to him, ever so often because nothing hits you like he does!

“I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.”

A typical Murakami novel – this has it all- weird cat stories, out of body experiences, dreams and reality overlapping into each other- in short the kind of magical realism that makes you question your own bearings.

I’m still not sure if I understand all his metaphors. But what I am sure of is how genuine and raw the emotions are, how much you feel for the characters and the writing is so powerful that you might eventually end up not just feeling for but feeling as the characters themselves.

There is of course, a plot, a story so to speak but don’t expect a proper beginning and a proper end here or even well-defined contours of characters. There is more intangible than tangible over here which is why it’s mind boggling that Murakami is able to put it into words. How can anyone manage to communicate to someone else just through words, emotions that are just so indescribable!?

This book has loneliness, unrequited love, longing and sexual tension interspersed with forbidden desires and physically impossible events that may only be explained as psycho-emotional allegories or outright losing touch of any physical realism. But then, that wouldn’t surprise you if you read the author enough.

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It was years ago that I had come across a graphic titled fixed vs growth mindset. It fascinated me and had set me thinking about the kind of mindset it takes to succeed. However, I did not dive further into it and was happy with a single graphic summary up until now when I finally picked up ‘Mindset’ by Carol S Dweck.

In many ways, it is a pretty broad based book, afterall, isn’t the way you think going to change almost everything in your life? Taking examples of various super achievers (and failures), Dr Carol tries to drive home the point that beyond talent and luck, your mindset plays an extremely critical and crucial part in being succesfull and in helping you sustain success for a long period of time.

As success is not a single point in the journey of life and because there are innumerable moments when people lose it all after thinking they have achieved “it all”, it is important that success comes about through the right processes and it continues to be about those processes. This process based approach helps avoid egocentrism, fear of failure and the morbid desire of trying to look smart each and every time rather than trying to learn.

Dr Carol tells stories of CEOs, athletes, coaches and students while also talking about her personal growth story which makes for a good book as it seems to be less pedantic and more friendly in nature. There are several noteworthy ideas and quotes strewn all over the pages throughout the book and one that I particularly liked was when the author quoted Benjamin Barber-

“I divide the world into learners and nonlearners”

This way of thinking about life – that it is a learning experience rather than an exam is particularly useful for someone like me who often gets examination fright and is not particularly excited about evaluations and keeping scores. I think it is going to be one of my most re-read books as I feel this competitive world full of smart-looking people often makes me forget the right reasons to learn, work and even exist in the first place.

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The first book I picked up this new year is titled: “The Psychology of Money” and surprisingly it has more to say on life, success and happiness than money and investment. There are gems strewn all over the pages and each observation is worth a book on its own.

Here are a few brilliant insights on wealth, greed and happiness:

1. At some point, you need the goalpost to stop moving
2. There are many things never worth risking, no matter the potential gain
3. Controlling your time is the highest dividend money pays
4. History is the study of change, ironically used as a map for the future
5. Progress is too slow to notice, setbacks- too quick to ignore

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This is the second book Camus’ book I read after ‘The Plague’, and Camus is direct (and damning) in a non-sensical way in both these books. From what I understand of Camus, he comes across as someone who does not exaggerate anything, instead focusing on the mundane and the usual to fish out the quirky nature of human behaviour and uncertainty or tragedy in life. Of course, there are extraordinary events that take place but the focus is not so much on the event as is on the reflection of man’s nature and character.

If a man choses to be his normal or usual self instead of confirming to the socially accepted behaviour that is expected of him in a society, does that make him a criminal? There are several social and moral dilemma in the book and I’m still trying to wrap my head around them. What really makes a man criminal: a lie based on a friend’s version of truth, a socially unacceptable behaviour, indifference to a personal shock or losing sanity in response to unfavourable weather?

Seemingly a simple story, there are facets and layers of the book that remain to be explored by the observant reader. Albert Camus is a masterful artist in decoding the vagaries of human life and depicting the real and the ordinary as it is.

I am generally a kindle reader but a couple of months back, in the middle of the pandemic pandemonium, I decided to go back to the conventional format. I finished ‘ The Best We Could Do’ more than a month back but the pathos lingers on in my heart. Make no mistake, the book is essentially one of hope, courage and triumph but somehow the pain described in the book struck me hard and has stuck with me ever since. I hope this write up may be able to place some of the emotions in the right spots.

Through brilliant illustrations and succcint laguage Thi bhui describes the heart wrenching scenes in Vietnam. A dash of humour lightens the dark events just a bit and not a lot of time is spent on discussing the painfulness of the situation. Each illustration gives you a sneak into the past of the author or rather of her parents. This book is as much about immigration and its travesties as it is about trying to understand where we come from, in the hope of getting a better perpective about the present.

Thi weaves together the story of her life and her family by connecting dots going back deep into the dark past and uncomortable history of her parents, their parents and of a country caught in the throes of gruesome bloody war. The story begins with Thi experiencing labour pain and delivering a baby and how she washes over in admiration towards her mother once she realises the enormity of the responisibilty of raising a family on your own. We also see a glimpse of the difficult father-daughter relationship when she finds her hsuband close to her and realizes that her father was never there for her mother in that way.

The journey to look into the past is always a difficult one, it opens up new wounds and black boxes. In an admirable display of strength, Thi braves all that and even heals in the process, gaining a better understanding of her society, a more layered appreciation of her parents and a greater acknowledgement of the difficulties of parenthood. As a reader, I am more aware of the emotions and politics of refugee crises and how remarkable the human spirit of struggle is in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

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This is a book filled with pictures that describe and add colour to short little stories about the everyday struggles that the author goes through and some extraordinary events that have occured in her life. Also, it is filled up with tid bits about how dogs think and act (especially the off beat ones). It is a brutally honest account of the events that occur in the author’s life and the emotions she experiences, in detail (and in pictures) that most of us would never admit to even to our best of friends much less to the world at large.

In the process, the book ends up lending deep insights into the psychology of depression and greatly helps by being relatable to other people struggling with such thoughts. Pathos and humour intermingle effortlessly in this uncanny comic memoir. Allie Brosh describes her most terrible feelings and the most horrid times in graphic (literally) details leaving you awestruck as to how clearly and easily have such complex (and generally undescribable) feelings been expressed.

There are several parts of the book that I could especially connect to and relate. The disconnect with what reality is and how it behaves vis a vis how I expect it to behave and the resulting disappointment.The constant expectation of the superlative or the extreme and the suprise at not finding it so. Awkwardness and impulse are recurring themes throughout the book and again something that I could identify with on a personal level. Because I am not a dog owner I wasn’t all that excited about the dog part but reading those sections too was firstly: amusing and secondly, strangely enough gave a whole lot of perspective!

The pictures in the book are mostly illustrations with stick figures caught in the middle of strange situations or weird emotions. Some stories in the book are also present on the blog: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/, spending some time on the blog will give you a sense of whether you are comfortable with the illustrations and the style of storytelling that Allie adopts to express herself. Even after finishing the book, I often find myself flipping through the pages and looking at the illustrations and it is always an uplifting experience even though there are absolutely no advices or How-Tos or any expert or motivational talk throughout the book.

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“The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me.”

Hellen Keller captured my fantasy way back in my school days. It was difficult for me to grasp how someone unable to see and hear can go on to make such a difference in the world and just to simply have such a fulfilling life. The fact that she and I shared the same birth date heightened my curiousity about her and I am really disappointed in the fact that I picked up this book so late in my life but also happy that I did read her eventually!

The first thing that struck me about Hellen Keller while reading the book was her brimming energy and indomitable hope. The fact that she never gave up or felt dejected in spite of the obvious unlucky cards that life dealt her was probably the biggest of her assets. While of course, as in everyone’s life, there were moments of frustration and irritability, her firm belief that she can always make her life better through sheer hardwork, education and by just spreading goodness, shines through her personality.

She strikes a soulful chord with her love of the natural world, the deep influence of literature on her and her sensitivity towards people’s conditions. The way she describes nature; talking at length about the scented air, the feeling of sun on the face and the grass beneath her feet, her tree friends, violent winds and refreshing snow, it paints a vivid picture in your mind and you can almost share her enthusiasm and participate in her joy. References of books, authors and characters are strewn all over the pages and embedded in her personality while also percolating through her choice of words and expressions. She connects so deeply with her books that you’d wonder at times, if she’s talking about some fictitious character or her close friend! What also fascinated me were her observations on formal education and college. She dreamt all her life to go to Harvard and when she finally got admitted into Radcliffe (female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard back in those days), she was disullusioned in good measure writing at one point in the book: “One seems to go to college to learn, it seems, not to think.” She lamented the fact that there was scarcely any time for reflection, solitude, imagination and books.

It would be terribly amiss not to mention Miss Sullivan and the role she played in the life of Hellen Keller. She introduced Hellen to the world of words and through that to a whole gamut of ideas, emotions and sensibilities. The close correlation between words that identify something and the emotions that it evokes can be grasped by this particular instance that occured shortly after Miss Sullivan entered her life: “..every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. This was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. On entering the door, I remembered the doll that I had broken..Then my eyes filled with tears for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow.” Hellen’s story is a deeply moving one and is a testament to the irrepressible human spirit that refuses to be crushed in the face of seemingly insurmountable and steep cliff-faces.

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