There is not a day in my life that I do not watch movies :) or read books :) As per me - its criminal to not to watch movies & read books. Give me any good movie or a book any day and I will be more than glad to go through them. Be it an Indian, a Western, European, Japanese, British - anything but in English for now. Suggest a good one & you will see my take on the same within a week on this Blog :)
Saturday, August 30, 2025
The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman (Book & Movie).
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
The Autumn of the Patriarch - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Book).
Saturday, August 23, 2025
Love and Hot Chicken - Mary Liza Hartong (Book).
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Irrfan Khan - The Man, The Dreamer, The Star - Aseem Chhabra (Book).
Monday, August 18, 2025
The Forty Rules of Love - Elif Shafak (Book).
Book 35/52.
When I picked up this little gem of a book from our “The Book Elf Library Pune”, I thought this would be a teenage love story where the lovey-dovey couple will set up some rules for their love and all that. How wrong I was, as this one turned out to my pleasant shock and surprise to be a book full of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz’s philosophy and their 40 Rules of “Religion of Love”, how beautiful that sounds :) So you can imagine how fantastic this book must have been. Confession: I am not at all into poetry and stuff, but the way Rumi narrates his little gems in this one, especially following all of them with one-paragraph stories, was simply terrific to read. I wish I could read Urdu to read his original works in his language, that would be fantastic, but for now, we will make do with translations only. This one is a love story of a middle-aged woman, married with 3 kids (one set of twins included). She has her differences with her teenage daughter when she suddenly decides to get married to her boyfriend, the one that her mother doesn't like much. In the meantime, she too is going through her struggles with her husband, who is cheating on her unashamedly. She starts looking for work and gets hired by an agency that wants her to proofread, edit and provide feedback on a debutante’s book based on Rumi’s philosophy called “Sweet Blasphemy”. How the book turns out and the story of Rumi and Shams not only touches her but the reader in me, too. I want to keep going, but I will leave it to your imagination till you pick up this one, read and love it big time. This is a must-read for all, as those 40 rules are so heartening that I couldn’t agree more with the writer. Incredible read.
The most beautiful part of the entire book, and both the stories in parallel, is the way the author has captured various perspectives. She has written it from the point of view of not only Rumi and Shams as the main characters in what they were going through but even from some characters which are not directly related to either of them, i.e a Harlot that they both come across, a drunk guy, a security guard, both of Rumi’s sons who both have their own opinion on Rumi and Shams not only relationships but on teachings too. Making it a further engrossing read, the only regret is that the story is too short, hardly 350 pages. It was so good that I never wanted it to end.
Have you read this one and loved it too? Also, which one is your favourite Elif Shafak book? And I will be adding a few from Rumi too, short stories to start with :).
Friday, August 15, 2025
The Tenant - Freida McFadden (Book).
Bridgerton 5 - To Sir Philip with Love - Julia Quinn (Book).
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J K Rowling (Book).
Book 32/52.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J K Rowling.
My Rating: 5/5.
Wow! It has already ended, just can’t believe that the story of the Boy Who Lived and fought his entire teenage life with the man He Who Shall Not Be Named with that kind of ending. Hats off to J K Rowling for penning this amazing story, stretched over 7 books, yet it feels too short. I am just done with my second reading of the same, and the ending has seriously choked me beyond words. This is one heck of a book series that is getting better as I grow older, and I will definitely reread it a few years down the road, too. Harry Potter with two of his close friends since the first year of Hogwarts School of Magic - Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, with so many close confidantes who keep coming to his rescue in every part, and still stand tall with him when he takes Lord Voldemort one last time in a terrific finale to end it all. The books have everything: family drama, love, loss, learning, and the victory of good over evil, all happening at a breakneck pace. Still, after two helpings myself of the same, I maintain that The Half Blood Prince survives as my favourite of the seven. Incredible read.
Friday, August 08, 2025
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J K Rowling (Book).