Turning Pages !!!

Finding Cinderella (Hopeless, #2.5) By C olleen Hoover Finding Cinderella is the last part of the Hopeless series by Colleen Hoover. Hopeless and Losing hope focussed upon the story of Hope (aka Sky) and Dean Holder, with Hopeless being written from Hope’s perspective and Losing Hope being written from Dean’s perspective. Whereas this third part is about the lives of Hope’s and Dean’s best friends aka Six and Daniel respectively. Amid life journeys’ of Hope and Dean seeking each other, Colleen introduced us to Six and Daniel but left us wondering what happened to them. Thus, she came with up Finding Cinderella . Please see the below links if you want to get familiar with the characters and stories of Hope and Dean. Hopeless Losing Hope Plot of the story: Daniel wasn’t assigned any class in the fifth period and instead of informing the school admin about this, he used to hide in the closet every day for an hour as his nap time. During one such day, while he was lying ...

Shikhandi and Other Queer Tales They Don't Tell You  By Devdutt Pattanaik As the word ‘Queer’ which means unconventional or unusual so is this book which is a collection of unorthodox tales from Hindu Mythology. After reading this book you will realize what seems unusual and unconventional to us in present has always existed in Hinduism since ages but have been overlooked by everyone as we cannot accept our deities whom we bound our heads to, are part of these tales. Yes, I am talking about those tales of our traditional history where the relationship between 2 men or 2 women, or where a man becoming a woman, or a woman becoming a man were not considered unconventional, were not demeaned, were not looked down upon by the society, rather were well accepted and worshipped at times. Queer stories are not restricted to Hindu mythology. Arctic regions have a different tale, as per them the first couple on earth were two men, they got married, made love but child conceived coul...

The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan It’s the second book in the trilogy. The first one was ‘The twentieth wife’ which focussed upon how Jahangir (aka Salim) became the emperor and Nurjahan(aka Mehrunissa) became his twentieth and last wife. Though it’s a trilogy, the way books are written they have their existence. It’s not a mandate to read ‘The Twentieth Wife’ before reading ‘Feast of Roses’. You won’t feel any disconnection or lost while reading ‘Feast of Roses’. Even I read ‘Feast of Roses’ two years later after reading ‘The Twentieth Wife’. Being a lover of history, this book is no less than a gift as it has served the dish of history with the right quantity of fiction. Feast of Roses is about Mehrunissa, how she ruled the heart of Jahangir and thus ruled the empire behind the veil for 16 years which no other Empress could do. She was envied not only by other wives and concubines in Jahangir’s harem but by the men of Jahangir’s court. Mehrunissa was a woman of substance,...

Hippie by Paulo Coelho As per the dictionary meaning, ’Hippie’ is a person of unconventional appearance, typically having long hair, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values and the taking of hallucinogenic drugs. And that's how Paulo led his life, as a 'Hippie' before he met Karla and started-off his journey on 'Magic Bus'. In this book, Paulo tells his own life stories, his own experience, in a third-person style of writing. Plot of the Story: Paulo, a Brazilian boy, who wanted to become a writer started his journey to explore himself and his life. He reached Dam Square in Amsterdam after he had done several Hippie trails in the past. Paulo was headed towards Piccadilly Circus in London from Amsterdam where he met a girl named Karla who was looking for a companion in her journey to Nepal via Magic Bus. Karla got successful in convincing Paulo to come along with her on the journey to Nepal. Other than Karla and Paulo, Magi...

The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Someone has very well said ‘Only a woman can understand a woman better.’ That’s the reason Chitra never fails in expressing the women side of the story and once again she proved this. She has re-written India’s epic saga, previously Mahabharata and now Ramayana, from a woman's perspective. In the patriarchal society, very few bother about writing emotional turmoil a woman goes through when she is being wronged. Her writing style portrays a visual in front of the reader’s eyes. It’s always a delight to read her books, they have never disappointed me, and this one has taken a special place in my heart and is one of my favorites now. When I was reading this book I was so mesmerised, I felt as if I am in that era. And all this is happening in front of my eyes. This is one of the very few books where I was waiting for the end but at the same time sad when it's ended. Now I am eagerly waiting when Chitra will write ...

Elephant Prince By Amy Novesky Once I was randomly going through the books recommended by Goodreads, I encountered Elephant Prince and seeing it was related to Ganesh about whom I was already looking for a book to read, so I added this one in my reading list. Neither did I read the synopsis nor any review. It’s the title and the book cover which made me excited to read it. Then and there, I searched this book on Amazon and added it in my wishlist. I didn’t order though, it stayed in my wishlist for almost a year. It’s recently I bought it and read. And realized its a folklore and not the kinda I was actually looking for. :D I know it sounds silly but the truth is I was not aware that Amy is a children’s book editor based out of America, and even by the book cover on good reads I couldn’t figure it out that it’s a children book. But after reading the book, I didn’t regret buying it as I enjoyed it. Its the illustrations (by Belgin) in the book which further added to my happy feel...

Famous Stories of Akbar Birbal By Shanti Publications Akbar Birbal folk tales are very well known, especially in India, so they don’t need an introduction. They are liked by all. Even today, if we have to teach kids how to deal with difficult situations we land up citing the tale from this collection. So here I am excited not mainly to review but to tell you briefly how I landed up buying this classic. I went to the World book fair’19 held in Delhi. And while exploring, I came across the kids' section and was curious to explore what kind of books are there for children nowadays. And there when I saw this book, I was overwhelmed as this gem is still loved by. And that very moment I put it in my cart. I realized how much I missed reading these books. And not only this, I ended up buying two other classics from this section. Blog posts about them will soon come. Those who are not aware, who was Akbar and Birbal. Here’s the brief: Akbar was the Mughal Emperor who ruled o...