"Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill

currently reading

"Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills" by Minakshi Chaudhry

"Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills" by Minakshi Chaudhry is a collection of ghost stories that originated in Shimla Hills.

Shimla - is a popular summer vacation spot loved by Indians as well as the British during their colonial rule. 

The city has many neo-gothic buildings, churches, bridges and temples that create a spooky antique atmosphere. I've never been to Shimla but I've heard about the good weather and beautiful views. 

"15 believable ghost stories collected from Shimla Hills, suitable for children."

There are 15 stories in the book and the book is about 140 pages. The stories are printed in a larger font and is meant for school students (I bought it in my daughter's school during the parents meeting). 

The stories are written in a very simple language and it's very easy to read for an adult. The author writes in the style similar to someone telling an actual story. The stories are not too scary or too disgusting (as in some horror genres), they're actually pretty believable and seem like true stories (I think they are true collected stories collected during the author's travels in Shimla). 

The stories include: "The Angrez Churail (The English Witch)", "The Spirit Takes Revenge", "Bhoot Bangla (Haunted House)", "Enduring Love", "The Grave of an English Lady", "The Lady on the Rikshaw" and the others.

As you can see, the book dwells of the British colonial spirit and most of the witches and ghosts are actually "angrez" (English). The book is nostalgic, cozy and suitable for younger children. 

"Best Stories from Around the World" by Deepa Agarwal

currently reading

"Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah

I've just finished reading the book by Trevor Noah - "Born a Crime". 

I was looking for a book that talked about racism and how other people dealt with it.

I had no idea whatsoever what the book will be about and I didn't even know about Trevor Noah as a comedian and a celebrity. I also didn't know anything about South Africa before I decided to read this book.

"This biography is life changing, eye-opening and inspiring. I am very happy to have read this book and learnt what I've learnt."

The book had so much in it - it was an autobiography, it contained so many stories on race and racism - a very unique experience of the author being neither black nor white. 

It has so many lessons on history and apartheid (which I've never heard of before). I was truly shocked by it and the only thing from my life that it reminded me of was the regime of Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy and the Cold War - spies, poverty, not being able to trust anyone, helplessness and hopelessness and not being able to survive, being forced to break the irrational rules just to survive.

The book is written in a very reader friendly language, very easy to read and if not for the author's humor, it would be a very sad book to read. I liked it how this book felt like life, how much wisdom it had on different topics - family, women, religion, culture, language, crime, life, equality, violence, ability to adapt, business. 

A very important character of this book was author's mother and it felt like this was the autobiography of them both. I was able to feel her energy, I was also learning from her lessons and she shocked me as well with her optimism and courage. You never know such people exist until you read a book like this. 

It was also a book about god and religion and actually it showed how miracles happened after miracles and how author's mother's belief in god helped her get through life in a proud way that she did. And it's a big inspiration and an example of faith and god.

The author mentions in the book that we should not be judgmental towards people because there is a very fine line between good and bad and between "criminal and a civilian" and I guess he proved his point later in the book.

The narrative was subtle, so unique that you just cannot judge people in this book. But it was very very intense, I actually cried at several parts of this autobiography and there were bits where I laughed a lot too.

It was very hard and painful to read some other parts, especially the ending, but the author and his mom made me laugh again.

So it was an amazing read and nothing like I've ever read before. It was a life changing and eye opening book and I'm happy it explained to me about what is "hood", apartheid and other things I didn't know. Sometimes it felt very humorous and then suddenly it would become extremely serious and wise.

"Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse

This book is Buddha's autobiography - the story of his life. It's written in a very energetic, powerful way, and it feels very artistic, sophisticated and educated.

Reading this book I though "how did this writer know what Buddha felt, what he thought, what happened"? It felt as though Buddha himself wrote the book.

I was amazed at every single word, phrase and sentence in this book - it all seemed so artistically perfect. 

"A story of a Buddha - a story of you!"

Every location, every description, every person, every feeling, everything in this book was so vivid, easy to imagine and took me to those times when Buddha was alive.

I totally could relate with Buddha, his doubts, his experiences and, I'm sure, everyone would. This book teaches so many lessons about life, about the nature of life (like a forever flowing river).

I am writing this review after a few months after having read the book and I remember it took me two years to read this book. I found it to be a very hard read in the beginning, so I stopped after a few pages. 

Later, I was looking for some answers in my own life and wanted to know what happened to Siddharta next. Then I picked up the book again and finished it in a coupled of days. 

I think this book is a spiritual experience and one should take time reading it. One shouldn't force themselves if they think they're not ready or something in the book is "hard to digest".

So overall it doesn't feel like this book is written by a human being, it feels like it's written by a divine being and I totally see how this work is so famous and so important.

I would definitely advice to read this work for anyone considering themselves intellectuals, bohemians, seekers and curious human beings. You might find some answers to your life's questions there!

"The Book of Hindu Imagery" by Eva Rudy Jansen

This is a book about Hindu symbolism in art and sculpture. It is a reference book and is heavily illustrated in black and white images and drawings.

It is a thin book but is extremely concise, well-organized and informative.

"A great reference book of Hindu symbols and imagery and a great introduction to Hinduism".

This book can help artists to understand different symbolism of Hindu gods. 

It explains the meaning of gods' body positions, hand and arm positions, hair-dress and hairstyle, garments and items that are usually held by gods and goddesses. 

Also it explains the symbolism of animals and briefly introduces the main epics (Ramayana, Mahabharata) and gods.

The book is well written and researched and it has a great introduction to every chapter in the book. I think this book is dedicated to the people who do not have much knowledge on Hindu mythology, so this can be a beginner's guide as well.

It's a bit boring to read it as a novel but if you need to look up for a certain symbol or a meaning of an animal - it's a great source! I would definitely recommend this book for anyone interested. 

"I am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai

This book is an autobiography of a teenage girl - Malala Yousafzai. She is definitely famous all around the world, but I never actually knew why. 

This book is her story, it tells who Malala is and where is she from and why she's special and what is her message.

The book starts with Malala's childhood in a beautiful valley in Pakistan and then it takes us through the events of her life, including the experience of Taliban.

"It's a story of courage, faith and optimist - one of the most inspiring books I've ever read!"

The book that I read was a teenage edition and was written in a very simple language and in many ways, I found it very heart warming and cute.

If I could compare a book to a movie, I would compare it to  the Italian classic "Life is Beautiful" by Roberto Benigni and Vincenzo Cerami. 

It is about optimism, faith, courage, dreams and the love of humanity. I loved this book because it actually showed that no matter how hard and hopeless the situation seems, there is hope. 

No matter how impossible it seems, if you pray for it, if you wish for it - it happens. 

It's about seeing a vision and praying for it. It's about not being afraid to die and knowing that death will happen one day, so why be afraid? 

It's about being who you are and doing what you want and believing in yourself. It's also a book of selflessness and love and family.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone - child or grown-up, because it's on of the most inspiring books that I've read in my life.

"Grandmother's Tale" by R. K. Narayan

R. K. Narayan is the writer who wrote "Malgudi Days" but it's my first book by him.

I bought this book at my daughter's school and it's meant for children, I guess. However, the book was a lot of fun to read for an adult as well.

It's a grandma telling a story to her grandson (R.K. Narayan) about how her parents got married. That was a child marriage a century  ago in the part of India where they speak Tamil.

"A grandma is telling a story to her grandson from the old India - a true and exciting story."

It was really interesting to read about how the children felt getting married, what customs and traditions were there.
There was a lot of drama in this book and there were bits that made me laugh a lot.

The grandma telling the tale was also like a "typical traditional grandma" who would get angry about small things like her grandson questioning her.

The book, in the end, felt very much like an autobiography of the authors' grand-grandparents and it showed how life just passes by and that we should cherish every moment and enjoy it as much as we can. It also taught how to be stubborn and never give up and keep following your goals no matter how impossible to achieve they may seem.

I would recommend this book for everyone - children and grown-ups because it's a book about life and everyone could relate to it. (It is also comically illustrated).

"Crime Patrol - The Most Thrilling Stories" by Annup Sonii/Oswald Pereira

After the weekend TV show "Crime Patrol Satark" closed down, I was really missing it and I was very happy when this book came out. I just had to read it and see what is it about. 

So, first of all, all of the eight stories seemed heard or seen somewhere (I'm sure that would be the "Crime Patrol" TV show). So I could recognize which story is which and there was no "suspense". 

Some stories were written more like scripts or like the police confessions or reports. So they sounded very technical and unemotional, like someone is saying what happened on the news. Plus it was very hard to follow the story because of so many names and people and places and dates etc.

"Eight engaging crime stories that you've probably already seen on TV."

Some stories were written more dramatically and in a more descriptive manner - I found these a lot easier to read and to be a lot more engaging. 

So when I was buying this book I was very curious what will the authors choose to do with it. Will it be the series of Agatha Christie like detective stories or will it be the new crimes that happened and that "Crime Patrol" didn't broadcast on the TV or will it be just the selection of already aired stories. So it happened to be a selection of the stories that already aired on the TV and therefore you might recognize them.

I overall enjoyed the book. I think it was written very well, in a very clear and easy to read language. The stories unfolded just like they unfold on the TV, but I wanted more drama, more descriptions of people's appearances, more suspense, more "dragging", the "who did it" element could have lasted longer. Basically I thought this could be turned into some amazing "Byomkesh Bakshi" or "Agatha Christie" or even "Bond" type of series. I think "The Adventures of Constable's Favorite Khabri" with some humor and street dialogues would be do an amazing book! Because, I think, every viewers favorite personage is always a khabri.

So I would definitely recommend this book to all "Crime Patrol" fans, to those who are sad that "Satark" series is finished and to all those who want to see how scripts were written, what your favorite stories look like when typed in a book....

"My Story" by Kamala Das

I was very excited to read this book because I heard it was extremely "controversial". Controversial can be good and bad, and I found this book to be "controversial in a good way".

It's an autobiography of a Malayalam (India) poet, writer and a woman - Kamala Das. I've never heard of Kamala Das before, and I just wanted to see what made this book so controversial. 

I was slightly disappointed because there was nothing very shocking except for some lesbian break-through at a high school and the way this lady thought she was not beautiful and had "body image issues" while in real life she had quite a few male fans. I was actually shocked by how "liberal" her husband was (from my perspective).

"An exciting, sensual and deep - autobiography of a woman who was who she was and shared her every bit in her writings."

After reading this book I felt I learnt so much about Kamala Das background, her caste, her home, her relatives, family and the lifestyle and believes of those people. It was amazing to read what happened decades ago somewhere in South India, what where the customs of Nair family - I read about it for the first time. 

Also it was very exciting to read about the British Raj times where there were so many Anglo-Indians and how they differed from the locals, about clothes, food and things that people did. Of course, all of the writer's life is described in the book and it's a very strange feeling to see all that life just start and finish so fast in nearly only 200 pages. It makes you really think "what is life", "what's the point" at the very end of it...A little bit spiritual, happy and depressing at the same time.

I also found the language that the writer used to be a little hard to read. I couldn't understand why exactly because I understood every single word, but I'm guessing she had her own very interesting way of combining and choosing words.

There were some poems in the book as well but I am not a fan of poems, so I will not comment on that.

This book made me cry and laugh and I found it to be overall inspiring. I would recommend everyone to read it as it's a high quality literary work and I can see why it was translated to so many foreign languages. It is a very entertaining autobiography and it feels super modern and very up-to-date. I think young people, women and men would love this book.