Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

”I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It’s all a question of how I view my life.”  - Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

I am totally in love with Paulo Coelho’s books. He takes simple subjects to write a book and once you are done reading you know you have different prospective towards the same simple subject. philosophical and inspiring thoughts with simple yet interesting story line is his specialty.  I have read 6 books from this author till now including this book. All are wonderful master pieces, I should say for some books I might have rated less, but it depends how you like the subject in the book.

”Eleven minutes” is a story of young Brazilian girl Maria, who is heartbroken over first innocent crush. And then she believes that she will never get her true love and decides that love is a terrible thing which will make you suffer. In Rio on her first real vacation she meets this man who gives her chance to go to Geneva for work. But this work which will make her rich is prostitution. She has 2 choices, one to go back to her village and live as if nothing happened and marry this gentle man who said he will wait for her to come back, even though she is not in love with him. And the second choice is to live the life here make money by giving sexual pleasure and go back to village after making enough money to buy a farm and be happy with her parents.  Yes, she chose the second one, it may seem easy but it is not. Maria meets this 2 different people while she is in Geneva, who wants to show her 2 different ways of pleasure.  One is pleasure by pain and sex and another one is pleasure of sacred sex, but the choice is Maria’s weather to search pleasure in pain or pleasure in finding the inner light.

This is quite different topic. I would not prefer this book for young adults. Even though it is lacking lot of inspiring things I kinda liked this book. But some philosophies are good to read but not to follow. As they say everyone has their own way to explore their life and take chances, this is a different way of knowing the ups and downs of life and finding the love. My rating 3 out of 5.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

“Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn’t know a thing about life.” - Sue Monk Kidd ”The Secret Life of Bees”

I just love this sentence. Death must be scary but living is not easy either. Then when you have guilty feeling that you have killed someone and have to deal with it every minute. Its the story of Lily, who remembers nothing about killing her mother, everyday deals with the fact that she killed her mother. Her dad shows no love, no feelings for her and she has nothing interesting happening in her life.  Lilly has a few clues as to go along with and find what her mom was like. The clues lead Lily and Rosaleen to Tiburon, South Carolina where they meet the `calendar sisters’, May, June, and August Boatwright. The Boatwright sisters operate a successful Bee farm. Lily and Rosaleen escape to this farm where they find love, food and shelter. Slowly Lily learns everything about her mother she learns what is life.

I loved this book. It took quite sometime to read this book but I really enjoyed reading. This book gives a lot to think about. Its good to take a break from reading Paranormal romance, young adult books once in a while to read this kind of books My rating: 4 out of 5, now all set to watch the movie.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

“The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains.”

Memoirs of a Geisha is an amazing novel that discusses the life of a Geisha, a Japanese artist-entertainer. I’d been wanting to read this one for a very long time. I got mixed feelings while reading this book, so many emotions passed through me. I read this book last month and for almost 2 weeks I had hangover!

A slave, sold by your own family, and trained for the sole purpose of pleasuring men, whether you like it or not. Imagine living such a life where you don’t have enough happiness left inside you but still you have to make others happy.Geisha are not prostitutes, the happiness they give is purely from hanging around in tea house with gentlemen who seek their company and poring them tea, Sake and listening to their stories, telling them stories and jokes.

This is a story of a girl Chiyo who was sold into geisha training in Japan. Her struggles to achieve the goal and turn into a geisha. But this story is so unpredictable. Chiyo’s love for Chairman and Nobu’s interest in Chiyo, their customs and traditions to become Geisha is so complicated. I loved all characters even though some characters were real trouble to the main character.

I have watched the movie right after reading the book. In movie they haven’t changed much may be that’s why I liked the movie too. My rating is 4 out of 5 for this book. I recommend this book to fiction lovers.

The God Father by Mario Puzo

‘‘Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family”- Don Corleone

”The God Father” is a classic of underworld mafia. I don’t know what to say about this book. It is excellent,well written nothing can be compared to this. This is epic!  This book started my long running obsession with Mafia.I haven’t watched the movie yet, I heard it is good too.

Everyone already knows the general plot of the Godfather so I am not going to drag it. Its about a man with power and a clear motive, Don Vito Corleone, totally love him. Sonny, Michael, Vito, Lucca Brazzi, Peter Clemenza were also great. This book is a moving puzzle. You are so confused about who is back biting who. Puzo’s novel brings to life the Corleone family and their tradition.

The Godfather is, in many ways, not just a novel – it is an experience. If you haven’t read it please read it. I am planning to watch the movie soon to give it some extra effect. My rating is 4 out of 5. I wanted to give 5 but then in some places I felt the story is been dragged too much!

Some Dashing dialogues from the book:

• “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
• “Revenge is a dish that tastes best when served cold.”
• “Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.”
• “The man with the briefcase can steal more money than the man with the gun.”
• “Italians have a little joke, that the world is so hard a man must have two fathers to look after him, and that’s why they have godfathers.”

The Liar if the White Worm by Bram Stoker

Being a Bram Stoker’s Dracula fan how can I leave this book unread. But now I wish I could have just left it untouched. This was written one year before Stoker’s death. This is a weird book, With a strange set of characters that get involved in dangerous adventures and later talk about it as nothing happened at all. There is a total lack of feeling or emotion between the characters.

Adam Salton comes from Austria to meet his uncle where he finds strange pale, white lady- Arabella March, coldblooded monster dwelling in the bowls of earth. There are two lovely ladies who have some supernatural powers, to whom evil Edgar Caswall developes attraction for and ends up with hypnotic battles. In strange way animals are dying and children are getting bitten by something. Adam Salton discovers some white snake like monster who is responsible for this and developes passion for snake-killing mongooses.

This is a little strange book filled with all supernatural powers. I was expecting this book to be like Dracula but from the starting it was strange! But wanted to read it because Bram Stoker is the author. My rating is 1 out of 5.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

History was my favorite subject back in high school. But I couldn’t continue with it as I took up science my another passion, for higher studies. The book’s title being Historian and the concept being Count Dracula I could’t say no to it.

In this novel half of the story contains letters written by different people. I wanted to love this book so much, but some how I could’t!  Six hundred and fifty pages.. I can’t believe I read it I mean I really can’t believe that I read it. The concept was interesting but same time the story was boring too. Historian brings a new and old take on Dracula. It says that the Dracula was real and it is real Prince Vlad Tepes III, who even exists some where in far away place.  It made me read more and more about this particular person in wiki. Its about a book with a wooden Dragon inside it passing through people and Dracula choosing them for his works. Its a long journey with lots of suspense and twists. One good thing about this book is you will come to know a lot about history and wars. I did lot of research on net about these wars after reading the book.

Its a good read if you are ready to spend a lot of time on it. I am warning  because its quite lengthy read  and you will need to read extra information in between. My rating: 3 out of 5. It is a serious history mixed up with vampires. But I didn’t like the ending it was kind of easy ending for horror novel.

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

“People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves.” 

-Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to die.

God!I love his writing. When I read his books I transfer into another world. I can feel his books! I would like to read all his books. ”Veronika Decides to Die” has got simple story line but there are lots of lessons to learn.

The protagonist, a young woman named Veronika, attempts to kill herself because she just doesn’t see life getting any more interesting. She doesn’t succeed right away, and ends up in an insane asylum. Where she meets different people suffering fro different kind of mental problems. But slowly she realizes that all of them are not insane, but trying to act like one because they don’t want to go to the out side world where no one agrees with their ideas. She meets this boy who is  schizophrenic son of rich dad and a group of people pretending to be insane. Soon she realizes that there is not much time for her, she is dying soon. Instead of feeling happy she feels confused and sad. Now Veronika doesn’t want to die because she is in love with schizophrenic guy and more than anything she found a way to fall in love with her life.

World always doesn’t welcome new ideas. Some people are called out of their mind or insane for thinking out of the box.   It is very interesting concept. but I predicted the ending So Paulo Coelho fans, if you haven’t read this yet, you are really missing a good book. So go ahead and treat yourself with this book.

And The Mountains Echoed, new book from KHALED HOSSEINI

I never posted about up comings books or new books in the market. But this time I couldn’t control myself. Khaled Hosseini’s new book ”And The Mountains Echoed” is releasing on 5/21/2013. I am so excited. I started dancing when I saw this news on his face book page *** opan gangnam style***!

I loved his previous books, ”The Kite Runner” & ” Thousand splendid suns”. I have lot of expectations on this book. I can’t wait to read this book.

OMG OMG!  Look at the cover page Who else is excited about  ” AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED”?

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

It had been a busy week, new job, lots of travelling to reach office and come back home and a long ride with fun camping at Musandam Peninsula on Thursday and Friday due to Eid holidays! Didn’t get time to even touch a book  But I have to review a lot of books, which are long back read and waiting to be reviewed.
Books can be disappointing.  You expect so much and when you start reading you cant wait to quit reading is what I call dissapointment in case of books. I faced it when I read Interview with the Vampire by Anna Rice.I picked this book because it is well known Vampire series and had good ratings. I was excited to see 10 books in the Vampire chronicle series, but when I finished reading the first book I was wondering what can be there in 9 more books! Slow moving stories are not my type, may be it is a good book but I found it less interesting.

It is bit hard to review because it is a  milestone in fantasy genre but development of characters are very poor. I was waiting  for something exciting to come but nothing happened till the end. There is a vampire giving an interview to a mortal “boy”, telling his life story, about his life before he turned into a vampire and after he turned into a vampire. Throughout the life he struggled to understand the meaning of  life but failed to do so till the end. You may ask me why he is giving this interview, I am clueless why this boy sat all night listening to this vampire’s boring life history! This vampire called Louis is the narrator here, he tells the boy how he was turned into a vampire  by a jerk called Lestat ( who continued to be a jerk till the end, I think the second book is about him, may be he gives his interview ) There is a mortal child turned into vampire by Lestat and she is destined to stay young forever, this two doesn’t like Lestat ( remember he is a jerk ) and wants to get their freedom and find more of their kind. 

This is the first vampire book I finished reading with sheer determination rather than enjoyment. I prefer romantic, kissing vampires who fall in love with human or witch, than boring, jerkfaced vampires. My rating is 1 out of 5. 

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

”For this land, India, has never been free, First the Muslims, then the British bossed us around. In 1947 the British left, but only a moron would think that we became free then”.

- Aravind Adiga ( The white Tiger)

Oh! exactly what I have been thinking from many years. I just loved this sentence, it made perfect sense to me. I should warn my all   patriotic Indian brothers and sisters that this book is India bashing, if you are the type who get angry on even small criticism on your country then please do not read this book.

The moment I started reading this book I knew it is going to be a great read and when I reached 10th page I was sure I was going to rate it 5 out of 5. There are no words to say how much I liked this book, because when I read I could easily recognize these people and understand their emotions. When I said this book bashes India, it doesn’t say anything which is not true. A honest reader will not dispute at the picturisation of India given in this book.

This is a story of Balram Halwai who grew up in darkness( rural India) where he was victim of all social problems like Dowry, Cast system, corruption, child labor etc. But when he goes to city as every adult do, to earn money he finds drivers job at Delhi with the landlord’s Westernized son, Mr. Ashok, and his modern wife, Pinky. But this story starts by a letter written by Balram to Chines premier Wen Jiabao, who is about to visit India and complete book is in the form of letters he write after that. Through these letters Balram shares his childhood life and adult life as a driver and  a crime that enabled him to move to Bangalore and set himself up as an entrepreneur and made him rich person. This is  first-person confession of a murderer.You may think it is some crazy psycho telling his murder story, no it is different.You will know it when you read it. It won  Man Booker Prize and I think it deserves it.

Some of my favorite quotes:

1. “The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave”
2.  ”See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of??  Losing weight and looking like the poor.”
3. ”It’s amazing. The moment you show cash, everyone knows your language.”
4. ”Iqbal, that great poet, was so right. The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave. To hell with the Naxals and their guns shipped from China. If you taught every poor boy how to paint, that would be the end of the rich in India.”

This is Aravind Adiga’s debut novel, he wrote 2 more books,  Last Man in Tower and Between the Assassinations which I am definitely going to read