Tag: Bestseller

How do you choose a book to read?

I don’t read or buy a book because it’s a best-seller, I only pick up a book that interests me.
Some of the questions I ask myself! You also too might consider while reading your next.
Am I interested in reading this book, because someone famous recommended it? Because of a friend who recommended or is it because I like the Story?
Normally with the Bestselling books of authors. The expectations from their other books rise high. But if you read a book that interests you and you liked it. The curiosity of what the bestseller author might Offer increases and his other work would then be considered. I tried doing these with multiple authors and it was one of the most effective of choosing your next read. Right from Murakami’s to Keigo Higashino to Malcolm Gladwell books.

The Subtle Art of not giving a F***K & Think like a Monk – Book Review !!

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**K
A book, That I had heard a lot about. But, never did I find out what it was about. Maybe because it had become such a big sensation and had hit the best-selling charts. That I was slightly sceptical to read at that time, So this year… In The Bookclub we decided to read “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**K” And literally within two days, I was done reading this book. 
Let’s start with what I liked about this book. 
The tone is very conversational, with examples for explanations, so that it becomes very relatable, unlike other self-help books the language is easy to understand. 
The authors refer to his situations in his life, this makes the book trustworthy and gives the confidence to be the change. 
the chapters too are captioned with the doubts or questions we always come across or have come across that makes it a fun read. 
Yes! Happiness is a problem, We always do have a choice, Why we must say “No” and We are always wrong about everything.
This book is like you have always heard someone say those same things, but this time you are not listening, but you have understood his argument. 
CHAPTER 1: Don’t Try
CHAPTER 2: Happiness Is a Problem
CHAPTER 3: You Are Not Special
CHAPTER 4: The Value of Suffering 
CHAPTER 5: You Are Always Choosing 
CHAPTER 6: You’re Wrong About Everything (But So Am I) 
CHAPTER 7: Failure Is the Way Forward 
CHAPTER 8: The Importance of Saying No 
CHAPTER 9: . . . And Then You Die 

 

Think Like Monk – Jay Shetty.

You might think, If you have read a book on spirituality, Zen, Buddhism all are the same. Yes, Most of them are very similar to a great extent. But giving relevant examples that one can connect to the current generation, can install the belief and practice of enlightenment yet again.

Whether it was Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse to finding out the secret by Rhonda Byrne or To know about the Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma to Learning The Art of not giving a F**K Mark Manson to Thinking like a Monk by Jay Shetty.

All have their way of telling you the same thing, But they use the relevant examples to keep the practice going- If Think as a monk spoke about Brain Acton’s rejection to not giving up and come up with WhatsApp to giving each of us simple practices to practices to live a life of detachment.

Jay Shetty’s this  book, one should read today if they want to connect and change their way of living.

The book is written in three parts – Let Go the first part, Grow second and Give the last part…With some practical applications.

Thrillers Books Worth Reading!

It’s very difficult to find thriller books, that keep you engrossed till the last page. And if you have found it by the same author twice, it couldn’t be better. 

Keigo Higashino a Japanese Author! Ah! Yes, another Japanese author. 

Journey under the midnight sun is about A group of children playing inside the building have found the body of a pawnshop owner, 

Detective Sasagaki’s investigation unearths more questions, but never reaches any conclusions. One of his chief suspects, the partner of a woman who the pawnshop owner visited on the day of his death, dies in a car crash soon afterwards. 

Though Sasagaki’s suspects there is more to the deaths, the case is abandoned. But, Twenty years later there are some leads that hints sasagaski that he could finally solve the mystery. 

This is one Book, I came across after enjoying reading “Midsummer Equation by Keigo Higanshino” 

  and what surprises me most about the author and his books is that when you are searching for “Best Thriller Books” You only come across American authors & British Authors, but none of the  Japanese authors, in the first few links and in the first few reviews. And I wonder why? “Japanese authors” are really underrated. This whole curiosity for “Japan” For me grew after I visited the country, it was a place I wanted to know more about? 

Keigo Higanshio is best known for his book “The Devotion of Suspect X” 

Yasuko Hanaoka accidentally kills her ex-husband, when circumstances rose to an unendurable level of ghastly behaviour from him. What follows is an elongated and witty brain-game between the investigator and her accomplice, Ishigami, who aided Yasuko in covering up the murder. ”The Devotion Of Suspect X”is the story about an ingenious plotter, and clever Dr Manabu Yukawa, who helps in solving the case.

In case you are looking to read a nice page-turner and are finding it difficult which one to start with you could surely start with “Journey Under The Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashnio” 

Plotters By Un-Su-Kim 

I have been in a frame of mind, where I am enjoying some nice thrilling stories, 

That is a quick read, written in a way, where you want to know what happens next. 

And after reading Keigo Higanshino’s ”Midsummer Equation ”last year and Under the midnight sun, I found Plotters by Un-Su-Kim a South Korean writer. And having watched some really good thriller movies by Korean Filmmakers, Maybe I had high expectations from Plotters, And as the story unfolds it becomes a predictable story, with not much material to keep you holding to know why, Whereas Books like “Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins” “Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn” Keeps you engrossed. 

While I am not saying  “Plotters”  wasn’t a good read, It certainly wasn’t as good as these, But very much alike like a series I just watched on the streaming platform “Giri/Haji” where The main underworld boss, hires people to do the damage (Assassins/HitMan)  But surely questions if we continue behaving like Assassins/Hitman all for that chair to be the boss for a reason, That we might think we hold the power, Power to continue the same racket/Practice where nobody gains anything, but only losses.

Plotters are read for those, who enjoy a little cliche story and someone who just would like to enjoy a crime story of how the Mafia works in a very simple, plain and easy to understand read. 

2018 Dairies !!

2018 has been a Journey filled with lots of travel Stories. Right From Jaipur to Jodhpur in India to Monoco and Morocco for Work. And not to forget the highlight –  Japan for Family Holiday. 
Culture
Experiencing the Rajasthan culture in India to experiencing the Japanese culture and living the  Moroccan life. 
All these places either had Food, lifestyle or architecture. And these  Culture  became another Journey in itself.
Books worth the Read In 2018. 
Journeys through the books. 
Starting from Exiting West to Landing at the port of Mokha and Many reads in between from open by Andre Agassi to “Killing Commendatore by Murakami  below are the top 5 reads of 2018.
1.Exit West – by Mohsin Hamid  stories of immigrants. 
2.Homo Deus – by Yuval Harari  How the Technology  is collecting data and using it. 
3.Born a Crime – by Trevor Noah A true story of a comedian born in South Africa with a mother being a black and father a white. 
4.Monk of Mokha –  by Dave  Eggers – Story of how The port of Mocha coffee travelled across the international waters.
5.Killing Commendatore – by Murakami
Noteworthy Movies of 2018 
1.Puzzle -How a simple gift of a puzzle changes the perspective of one individual 
2.Crazy Rich Asians – The Big fat Indian wedding going global 
3.Searching – How technology helps track down a father daughter and her murderer. 
4.Ben is Back – A  young drug addict and his mother’s story to come in terms with reality. 
And the Hindi film industry had many movies to choose to watch this year! 
But there a few out there you couldn’t miss at all . 
1.Pad Man by R.Balki was one of the great stories the year began with and continued till Raid, The income tax issue can sometime come as a surprise-Ajay Devgn needs to experiment.
2.Hichki -Though a inspiration from the west.Brought Rani Mukherji Back as a actor and the production house for their content. 
3.Missing the only missing from this psychology thriller was the audience who missed one of the best thrillers of the year.
4.October – Simple stories are the most difficult to tell.And October by Shoojit Sircar was one such story.
5.Beyond the cloud by Majid Majidi -Had the world  take notice of Ishan Khattar as an actor & performer 
Raazi,Soorma,Parmanu,Andhadhun,Badhaai Ho ! And Manmarziyaan were a few movies to watch out. 

Past & Future of Humans !!

Sapiens & Homo Deus – By Yuval Noah Harari.

These Two Books,Had been  on my mind since the beginning of 2017 .And Just when the 1st Quarter of 2018 comes to an End. I did finish my Journey of a The Brief History of HumanKind and A Brief History of tomorrow.It was A wonderful tedious read. Yuval Harari Tells us some  things  that we might already be aware about and  tell us  things which we might be completely unaware of, Since our Media personalities must have never spoken about these issues.

Facts such as the Chinese exchanging rice production with weapons that resulted in one of the most deadliest famine in the history in 1958.

6 Million people in France suffer from nutritional security.that means these   people  do not have asses to the  nutrional food, in order to be able to live a healthy and active life.

Sapiens is a Book that gets you thinking about so much,Even after you are done reading there are so many questions you still want to know about, even though you know a lot more about Humankind after reading the  book then  you would have known.

Phara phrasing some quotes from “Sapiens”

“Our language evolved as a way of gossiping.”

― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“This is the essence of the Agricultural Revolution: the ability to keep more people alive under worse conditions.” 

― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Evolution has made Homo sapiens, like other social mammals, a xenophobic creature. Sapiens instinctively divide humanity into two parts, ‘we’ and ‘they’.” 

― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

I also truly believe,Every season has a trend of similar books now being published. Ever since these two books have become a global phenomenon.You are now getting more books on similar lines being published.Making it difficult to choose which books to read next.

The Third book  coming from Yuval ’21 lessons from 21st Century’ this August 2018. A book on Issues that need to be tackled

Fake News,Terrorism and  from resilience and humility to meditation.

Yuval Noah Harari is a author worth reading.