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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It's not often that your mind is blown away by a book/writer. It's not often that what you were thinking consciously and unconsciously, you find written in a book in a coherent manner. You tend to get blown away when you realise that you knew this but just never discussed it deeply with someone or gave it the amount of thought it needed.
'Sapiens' does that to you. Mr Harari is a Historian with undoubtedly astounding credentials. He is an even better storyteller though. Conveying almost whole of the human history and the subtle grey intricacies which are there for you to see but we, as a society, choose to ignore, is an art more than science. There wasn't a passage in this book where my mind diverted and I was bored. Science was never this interesting because it wasn't just science. It is a complex web of the social, economic, political and cultural history of humans, the demigods of this planet.
There are so many points in this book where you pause to think, "Holy shit! So, true! I never really thought about this, though this is completely logical." That's a very weird but good feeling.
I recommend this book to experience those feelings multiple times. Just be careful not to get yourself down with cynicism because this book could do that to you!
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It by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I had been skipping writing reviews past few months as my reading has dwindled to dismal levels compared to last year. Also, I had decided not to write reviews unless I really feel like it. This book has made me wake up from my deep metaphorical review related sleep.
This 1400 page mammoth felt daunting when I started it, but does it grip you like a leech! The seven children/adults, the protagonists, some given more space than others but equal importance overall, touch you at all the right chords. There are multiple moments in the book where you stop and take a moment to admire the sheer beauty of writing. Mr. King is a legend, no wonder he is such a rock star. I feel his strength as a writer shines the most when he verbalizes the feelings of children, merely 12 years old. It is an extremely difficult thing to do according to me.
After every few pages, I used to feel that I relate to this. Every one of us has a Bill, a Ben, a Bev, a Rich, a Mike, an Eddie and a Stan inside us. I related to every character on some level.
Though the whole book is an adrenaline filled roller-coaster ride, what I absolutely loved is the way he ended his book, the part after the climax. It was so sad, poignant but at the same time felt correct.
I think after reading such pieces, a part of you dies inside and another takes birth!
I could go on and on but don't let me spoil this book for you. have a go at it. It is worth each of the 1400 pages of "It" (pun intended)!
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Four stars, because I couldn't fathom the whole meaning of some of its stories. I understood they were deep but maybe one needs to graduate to a certain level of EQ to understand stories like this. At first, till 2 or 3 stories, I felt that these stories were obscure. But then I read some stories which went very deep, you know, the kind of stories where the characters do something but it means something else entirely! I reread the earlier stories and I let them seep in. They started making sense. I felt the utter incompatibility about feeling and sensing deepest of the emotions. What a fool I was, feeling superior after reading some books that I understood human emotions and mind. Raymond Carver was a genius who understood darkness and loneliness. Don't get fooled by the title of the book. It's not about just love, it's about other things which we try to ignore which come with love, like insecurity, celestial loneliness, feeling that no one will really understand you, jealousy, boredom, acceptance of the things the way they are and death of romance. Time does that to love. There are great philosophies underlying in the book, not the kind which you use to enhance your happiness, but the kind which makes you put away the veil that society advises you to put on dark issues. Mind you, that veil is necessary to go through life without being constantly depressed and should be encouraged in my view, but not without understanding what lies below, in the dark, lonely alleys of the mind.
I still haven't understood some stories fully. It's like knowing someone is there but not knowing who. I'll keep rereading till I feel I have understood them at least a little.
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
After reading this book, I can say confidently that Murakami is my "soul-author", if there is such a term. While reading Murakami novels, I had tried imagining the personality of the author based on his protagonists. I had thought him to be this calm, slightly introvert, shy with display of emotions and one who has accepted the insignificance of human existence, ambitions, actions, etc in this wider sense of cosmos. After reading this book, which he says is as close it gets to an autobiography, I can say that most of my predictions were right. I feel happy reading an author whose beliefs are similar to mine. He is an author whose books I can go on reading without getting bored. This book also talks about running and his need for a physical pursuit. "An unhealthy soul requires a healthy body", he says, pointing out that a writer has to go through a lot of dark patches while writing and a healthy body gives him that stamina to endure it for a long time to come. This book is a beautifully written diary of sorts. It's a must read for all Murakami fans and running amateurs too.
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The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I didn't expect the ending as it is due to a lot of fanfare around this book. It was certainly ahead of it's time. It fit perfectly in my current reading phase i.e. dark, gloomy, slightly depressing subjects. The psychoanalysis of the protagonist seems very real but as we know about the author's life, it had to be surreal. Depression and mental illnesses are serious issues, which have been ignored since beginning. We only consider physical ailments as "respectable" and mental illnesses are "unholy" for us. This needs to change. This book depicts the world though eyes of a depressed person and I could see how tough and colourless it gets. Sometimes in narrative, I could almost feel what she must be feeling. That is the strength of the author and this book.
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Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits by Rahul Pandita
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Rare are those books which hold you and vigorously shake the apathy out of you! In this fast world of materialistic ambitions and pleasures, we try to ignore pain; pain, which is dancing naked in streets, homes, offices and our eyes. We develop philosophies and mind-tricks to help us tackle the drudgery of day to day existence. We convince ourselves that we're happy and everything is OK. But then, somehow, somewhere, something slips through the cracks created due to our inherent empathy. In those cracks, We see glimpses of the barbarity, gratuity, and just blind cruelty of humans. It may leave us hopelessness and gloomy depression but some rise and stand. They fight, many times unsuccessfully and the next one takes the baton. There are undying hope and optimism in humans which separates us from animals and it can be a boon as well as a bane. We try to imagine and strive towards a better tomorrow.
This book proves that fact is stranger than fiction. I paused reading many times to digest the gory and devastating incidences that are depicted graphically in this book. It will reveal to you the other side of the Kashmir conflict, the one which is often ignored and suppressed. It will make you be thankful for all the privileges you have had that you didn't find special. It will make you stop whining about flimsy problems in daily life. It will make you thankful for living in your home and being alive.
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The Mountain Shadow by Gregory David Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read 'Shantaram' four years ago. It was an enlightening experience for me, in terms of literary beauty as well as philosophy. But four years is a long time in which your inclinations, beliefs, degrees of innocence change. With more than faint memories of 'Shantaram' I started this book and admired GDR's style of writing very much, but I got stuck and irritated at parts where he professes philosophy like it's the only right way of life and there could be no alternative theories. I agree that he has done a massive reading and research in the philosophical field, but I'm just not in that phase of accepting philosophies as the bible. So, due to that attitude, I couldn't fully enjoy the book.
But, that's just a small part. The whole book is written beautifully with very elegant prose. Sometimes, you have to reread a paragraph to fully understand it and sometimes you just have to accept that you won't be able to get it. Yes, it happens. There were more than one instances in the book when I wondered what this dude was smoking while writing this. It's maddeningly complex and beautiful. Some sentences are written in a very show-offy way but one could discount it as the author's harmless ego.
Overall, I'm glad I read this sequel and would recommend it to people who liked 'Shantaram'.
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