Books and more: Mum and Princess go spying – by Payel Bhattacharya...

Books and more: Mum and Princess go spying – by Payel Bhattacharya...: A few weeks back, a true-life Warrior asked me to read a book. I agreed and searched all over for the book. Being a hard copy person,...

Mum and Princess go spying – by Payel Bhattacharya

A few weeks back, a true-life Warrior asked me to read a book. I agreed and searched all over for the book. Being a hard copy person, I was disappointed to know that the book is available on Kindle.

Nonetheless, I ordered since I had made her a promise.

Today I am glad I did. The book ‘Mum and Princess go spying’ by Payel Bhattacharya is a sweet, innocent and surprisingly thrilling book. I say surprising because how can a sweet, innocent book also be a spy story and a thriller!

Written by Payel Bhattacharya, the book starts off with a birthday gift that the protagonist Princess receives from her brother who is not in town. She sets it up in her balcony and passes her time looking at people on the road, in the parks and in the buildings opposite her house. Following the lives of her neighbors or the people on the street, princess is able to help the police crack cases and solve mysteries with the help of her ever loving and caring mother.

The book is short and written well. It is filled with innocence and will make for a wonderful book for children to read. I recommend this book for its short narrative.

Payel Bhattacharya

What interests me more is the author Payel Bhattacharya. Payal was struck by a rare disease early on in her life known as VHL or von-Hippel Lindau disease. She underwent countless surgeries which interrupted her studies, despite which she studied and collected her degrees with pride. She has written a book on a long poem “The Warrior Princess” to describe the way she is combating the dire situations. She has also written an autobiography of the same name and has two more books to her credit. 

A true go-getter, she is an epitome of courage and strength and for that I bow down my head to her.  

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

If ever we take things for granted then we must read this book Still Alice by Lisa Genova. 

The book is about Dr. Alice Howland, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard. She is at the prime of her career, is extremely talented, well respected, has three children who are settled in their lives, has a husband who loves her and like her is a Professor; and well she has a perfect life. Or so we think!

When frequent bouts of forgetfulness disrupt her otherwise well scheduled life, she blames it all on menopause; till one day she forgets an out-of-town conference she was to speak at! Doctor visits and multiple tests later she is diagnosed with an early-onset of Alzheimer. Talk about the earth shattering or sky falling down!!

The book is a painful account of how an incredibly intelligent individual slowly forgets all that makes her who she is. From being an independent, opinionated woman she becomes a dependent, desperate and forgetful being. All that she worked for slowly gets erased from her memory and she struggles to keep her salinity intact till it matters no more!

Lisa Genova has very sensitively dealt with the disease and its fallout. As a reader we empathise and then sympathise and finally cry out in despair for this wonderful woman who was dealt a bad deal by her mind.

This is a must read for all those who have friends or family who suffer from the Alzheimer’s decease. It is a must read for all of us who take life, its pleasures and our family for granted.

I rate this book a high five stars because it is worth every star. 

The book has also been adapted into a movie starring Julianne Moore as Alice Daly Howland and Alec Baldwin as John Howland. While I do not really like watching movies adapted from books; this is one movie that I want to see.

Lisa Genova

Books and more: After the Crash by Michel Bussi

Books and more: After the Crash by Michel Bussi: If you are looking for a read that's interesting, keeps you hooked and keeps you asking for more; then this is it. After th...

After the Crash by Michel Bussi

If you are looking for a read that's interesting, keeps you hooked and keeps you asking for more; then this is it. After the Crash by Michel Bussi keeps you rooted to your couch or bed or wherever you love reading books from.

The story follows the events that followed a plane crash on the Franco-Swiss border on the night of 22 December 1980. Of the 169 passengers onboard only one survived – a tiny adorable three month old baby girl. The book revolves around the fight legal or not so too by two families who claim that the child is their granddaughter. Is the child Emilie, born to a financial poor family or is she Lyse-Rose, grandchild of an affluent and popular rich family?

The story unfolds through a book/diary written by private detective Credule Grand-Duc who has been appointed to unearth the truth. The child’s true identity is revealed only on her 18^th birthday through some twists and turns and major action towards the very end.  

For all those who love a good mystery, then this is it.

Michel Bussi 

Books and more: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Books and more: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: Elanor and Park is a book about two misfits who get drawn to each other despite their inhibitions. It is about two teenagers who c...

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Elanor and Park is a book about two misfits who get drawn to each other despite their inhibitions. It is about two teenagers who come together and find love amidst ridicule, bullying, troubled broken homes and mixed race families.

It is simple, engaging and touching to say the least. Set in Omaha, Nebraska from 1986 to 1987 it follows the lives and love of two youngsters Elenor and Park who find their first love in each other. Different from the rest of the kids in their school, each is a unique individual with likes, wants and desires of an average teenager.

It has a beautifully and simply told narrative and makes for a relaxing read.

It is a book for young adults and I am sure that people that age will relate to and definitely love the book. Many might even identify with the protagonists.

Elenor with her fiery red hair, curvy body, and men's clothing and Park with his mixed race upbringing in a family that consists of a Korean mom and an Army vet dad, his love for the colour black and his obsession with music and comic books. 

If I were a teenager today, I might have rated this as the best book ever, but I am not and hence all I can do is smile at it indulgently and sigh at all the memories of my teenage days.

I would not rate it as a ‘Must read’; but I’d definitely recommend it to those who love a simple love story.

Ahh be still my beating heart...be still!!

Rainbow Rowell 

Chinese Cinderella by Adelaine Yen Mah

Who does not know the story of Cinderella! A young motherless child who was driven to drudgery and despair by her evil stepmother and stepsisters. Till one day when a Fairly Godmother comes to her rescue and well...we know the rest.

The Chinese Cinderella by Adelaine Yen Mah too follows the same path with the only and biggest difference being that our Cinderella saves herself. Our Cinderella here is Adelaine Yen Mah, the author herself and that is why this book is such an inspiration and should be included in school libraries as a ‘must read’.

Through this book Adelaine describes her experiences while growing up in a conventional Chinese Family in China during the Second World War. Her mother dies soon after her birth and her siblings blame her for her mother’s death. Always the unwanted and unloved child, Adelaine seeks love and acceptance from her father, stepmother and siblings. When that is not forthcoming she searches for that in her academics. 

Adelaine Yen Mah as a baby

Excelling in studies and at making friends Adelaine shines albeit dimly under the watchful and loving care of her Aunt and her grandfather. Unfortunately that glow is shortlived and she is shunted off to a war struck Tianjin. Her feeling of hopelessness, loneliness, sorrow and her will to survive it all is what makes this book so wonderful.

It takes immense courage to revisit a sad childhood and write about it for the world to read. It’s like baring your soul to strangers. If in her book Falling Leaves, Adelaine wrote about a girl’s journey into adulthood; then in Chinese Cinderella she has focussed only on her childhood.

Adelaine Yen Mah

This is a beautifully written book that awakens deep emotions in the reader. A must read.

Books and more: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Books and more: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult: “a story will tell itself, when it’s ready ” - Jodi Picoult There are books on the Hitler, Concentration camps, Jews and Holoca...

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

“a story will tell itself, when it’s ready” - Jodi Picoult

There are books on the Hitler, Concentration camps, Jews and Holocaust and I unfortunately have barely read a few (I must admit I am ashamed). Of them the popular ones; Mein Kampf and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, are two books that I’ve read, reread and recommended to many friends.

Recently however I came across another book The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult and I honestly swear that this one takes the cake, the cream and the cherry (for lack of a better analogy). While Anne Frank described her life in terrifying and tiring times; we somewhere saw a glimmer of hope, a smile and sometimes joy in small things as she grew up. This one however makes your skin crawl.

The book has three separate stories running parallel or well intertwining all through the book. First the story of Ania and Aleks which is the story that is being written by a young girl; the second is the story of Sage Singer and her life, her friendship with a 90 year old Josef Weber and the last is that of Minka, the actual storyteller, the main protagonist, the victim, the survivor and the loving grandmother.

Jodi beautifully feeds us spoonfuls of captivating chapters as we follow the lives of Minka, Sage and Josef. There are chapters where tears ran down my cheeks, chapters where I shuddered and hated to be disturbed, chapters where I smiled and chapters where I shut my eyes imagined myself in that place and time.

The ending is shocking if not completely unexpected. I had a deep inkling about the identity of Josef somewhere towards the beginning of last chapter and yet I was shocked.

Jodi has outdone herself once again. She brilliantly keeps you glued to the book and long after you have kept it down you are still left wondering, thinking and introspecting.

I love books that make me want to go back to them long after I’ve closed them. This one sure is like a mother’s warm lap that cradles you and lulls you to sleep even through the worst of your nightmares. I know there are a few quotes that I am going to save for myself because they make complete sense to me and are so loaded with meaning.  

I would recommend this book to everyone who loves to read. It should be included in school syllabus too. This is not just a story book but a brilliant example of creative writing.

Jodi Picoult 

Once again thank you Bookelphia for sharing this book with me.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

A few years before my mom passed away she had a near death experience. I remember the day clearly like it was just yesterday. My mom was in hospital after a massive 4 hour long surgery with my brother and sister-in-law keeping vigil while dad and I were at home to catch some sleep. Somewhere around 3 in the morning my dad woke me up and said he wanted to go to the hospital. Groggy and tired, I persuaded him to go back to bed and promised that I’d go to the hospital as soon as the sun rose. As promised I went to the hospital at 6 am only to see an anxious brother and wife and frantic nurses running in and out of my mom’s room.

Things settled by around 9 and then the doctor told us that we were lucky to have my mom back because she had almost packed her bags and left. When we got to see her an hour later, she seemed drained and we decided not to talk about the scare she gave us. It took her almost a month to come home and after that too she was not her usual self. One day while drinking tea with her, she suddenly said “its exactly like they tell you..you know!”

I looked at her wondering what she was talking about. Seeing my puzzled look, she carried on..”Its like you read in the books. There is a dark tunnel, at the end of which is a bright blinding light. I felt weightless; I was drawn to that light. I walked and walked and had almost reached the end....”! With that she stopped and I realised much to my horror that she was talking about death! She was talking about walking the tunnel - the so called bridge between life and death!!

Chocking I tried to make light of the conversation and said; ‘yeh ..maybe the power failed and you could not see the end! Good thing it did, cause you are here and we have an inverter at home.”

She then looked up at me with a sad smile and said; “the power didn’t fail. I just didn’t want to go because I didn’t want to leave without finishing my duties. I have to see you married and only then can I rest.”

That was about 15 years ago. We did speak about the incident and over time we learnt to joke about it, laugh about it and even add bits to it. However deep down I shuddered at the thought of her going. But with all things inevitable, my mom finally did walk through the tunnel never to come back five years ago and I still struggle to come to terms with it.

Reading the book ‘If I Stay’ by Gayle Forman I went back to that day and time. This is a book about a young girl Mia Hall, whose hangs between life and death after a terrible car crash which kills her parents and younger brother. Suspended in this between life, she has to make a choice...to stay or to leave!

She follows her body from the accident site to the hospital and watches doctors, nurses, her family, friends and the love of her life hustle around her doing what they have to do to bring her back. But will she??

The book has also been adapted into a movie by the same name. Its been directed by R. J. Cutler and stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley, Joshua Leonard, Stacy Keach and Aisha Hinds...but I believe movies don’t do justice to the range of emotions, thoughts, imagination that a book can give. 

I’d recommend reading this book... if only to give a thought to appreciate what you have in life and what you would do if you lost it in an instant.

Thank you Bookelphia for sourcing and lending this book to me.

Wonder by R J Palacio

I’ve read books that made me think about them long after I closed the cover and moved onto another. This happens to me often so it’s not news; but then once in a while I read a book that makes me pause for days before I pick up the next. Why, you may ask!  Well because this book makes me wonder, makes me think, makes me imagine myself in such a situation, and makes me live the life of the protagonist or a character in the book. Last week I completed such a book and I’ve not been able to think of anything but that little boy ‘August’ – the hero of the book.

The book I’m talking about is ‘Wonder’ a children's novel by R. J. Palacio. It’s about the life of a kid August Pullman who has a medical condition wherein his face is deformed. He has gone through multiple corrective surgeries and despite that he does not have a perfect face (so to say).

As I read the book on Auggie’s life and those of his family and close friends, I felt I lived in the same house as Auggie. I saw his room, felt his sister’s feelings, chocked when his mom was upset and well basically lived every feeling and emotion they did in the book.

I won’t give away the plot of the book, because you have to read it, live it and feel it to enjoy it. So go ahead and pick up your copy today. Before I sign off, I want to leave you with two beautiful thoughts....  

“Everyone born of God overcometh the world.”

 “When given the choice between being Right or being Kind, choose KIND.”