Showing posts with label international. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Quotes from book: ALCHEMIST


Quotes from Book “ALCHEMIST”


·        “Everything in life has its price.”
·        “Whoever has money is never really alone.”
·        “When you want something, all the universe conspire in helping you to achieve it.”
·        “Every blessing ignore become curse.”
·        “Making a decision is only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.”
·        “I want to know about the future because I’m a Man & Men always live their lives based on the future.”
·        To die tomorrow is no worse than dying on any other day. Every day is there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world.”
·        “It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil. It’s what comes out of their mouths that is.”
·        “Fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.”
·        “The Darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn.”
·        “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve; the fear of failure.”
·        “Usually the threat of death makes people a lot more aware of their lives.”
·        “When we strive to become better than what we are everything around us becomes better too.”

Author: Paulo Coehlo
Book: Alchemist (1988)










Saturday, April 9, 2011

Romerajya 1


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BOOK REVIEW “Romerajya – 1 Amsterdam Te Rome”


Author: Meena Prabhu
Genre: Travelogue
Language: Marathi
Pages: 343
Cost: 300 Rs.
Publisher: Mauj Prakashan
First Published: 1st May 2009

Meena Prabhu is my one of my most favorite authors. No one writes travelogues better than her at least in Marathi. Exploring new nations through her eyes, through her words is as entertaining and exciting as traveling by myself if not better. What I like about her writing style most is when she travels she covers all the aspects of the nation. She explains and explores the nation culturally, historically, artistically.

This book is about her traveling around Italy. Her exploration of Italy is divided in 2 parts ‘Romerajya 1’ and ‘Romerajya 2’. Romerajya 1 covers the area from Amsterdam to Rome itself. Italy today is heart of Christianity and it has been a case for centuries now. Italy is very rich Culturally, Historically, and Artistically. So after reading this book I think everyone must visit Italy at least once in their life time. But before visiting Italy you should read this book, it will open up new dimensions of travelling for you.

It is a Must Read Book. If I have to rate this book I will give it 10 out of 10.










Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Good Man Jesus & The Scoundrel Christ

Author: Philip Pullman
Genre: Fiction, Religious
Language: English
Pages: 245
Cost: 499 Rs.
Publisher: Penguin Books
First Published: 2010

“The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ” is a controversial novel with equally controversial title. Not surprisingly the author Philip Pullman has to bear the brunt of Christian fundamentalist and received lots of hate mails and death threats. Author Philip Pullman tries to retell the story of Jesus Christ in very different way than the holy bible. He portrayed Jesus Christ not as one person but two people. Two brothers with names "Jesus" & "Christ". These two have very contrasting personalities from each other. Jesus is a moral and godly man. And his brother Christ is a calculating figure who wishes to use Jesus' legacy to found a powerful institution of Church. So with this perspective and these two characters he retold the same story.

As expected the book has attracted lot of controversy and criticism from fundamentalist. Although I am not Christian and not an expert on Bible, I was aware of Christ story as many of us are. So reading this different perspective was interesting and I will suggest everyone to read this book. What author did in this book is highlighted the positives and negatives of Christianity. He is not denying Jesus being good noble man or godly person; but he is highlighting the deficiency in institution of Church. He is stressing the fact that all greats are defeated by their own followers.

It is a Must Read Book. If I have to rate this book I will give it 8 out of 10.













Monday, March 14, 2011

The Murder on The Links

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BOOK REVIEW “Murder on The Links”


Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Language: English
Pages: 319
Publisher: Harper Collins
First Published: 1923
“The Murder on the Links” is another detective fiction by Agatha Christie. It is as good as any of her work and must read for every Agatha Christie fans, even if you are not fan of her work you will surely enjoy this book. No one writes Mystery detective novels better than her.
Anyone who is familiar with Agatha Christie will be aware of her famous detective character Hercule Poirot. In this book, one day Poirot is visited by his friend Captain Hastings eager to tell him about a woman with whom he has fallen in love on the train from Paris. Meanwhile Poirot finds an extraordinary letter in his mails which came from France, requesting him to come immediately.  But when they reach France following the letter he finds the man who wrote him a letter Mr. Renauld is already dead. Poirot did not come on time to save the man; but now he takes it upon himself to unravel the mystery surrounding the death and find the responsible person.
As I said earlier no one is better in handling the mystery than Agatha Christie. She had put together this one so brilliantly that I enjoyed every page, every word of the novel and I was really eager to get through the pages as soon as possible. I could not keep the book down before finishing it. I am sure you will have the same experience. It is a Must Read Book. If I have to rate this book I will give it 10 out of 10.







Monday, October 25, 2010

Miss Marple's Final Cases


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BOOK REVIEW “Miss Marple’s Final Cases”


Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery, Short Stories
Language: English
Pages: 154
First Published: 1980

Agatha Christie undeniably the queen of Mysteries. As an avid lover of Mysteries I pounced on any Agatha Christie book comes my way. And none of them disappointed me yet. She must have written thousands of stories and created some fantastic characters. But two of her most famous characters are Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. Out of which Hercule Poirot is one of the best fictional detectives in world literature. But Miss Marple is as brilliant character as him.
In this book, ‘Miss Marple’s Final Cases’ there are seven stories included. Some are most brilliant, some are average and some are predictable. But all the twist and turns in the stories are enjoyable never the less. Story like ‘A Case of Buried Treasure’ shows the brilliance and detailing in her story telling. There are two supernatural stories which were different and refreshing from Agatha Christie’s usual style. Every time I read Agatha Christie Book my respect for her amplified. She is a legend in world of literature. If anyone still to read Agatha Christie he is missing the paradise of Mysteries.
As for this book, it may be not the best of Agatha Christie’s work but it’s still worth reading once. If I have to rate this book I will give it 7 out of 10. I will recommend you must read Hercule Poirot series by Agatha Christie.

















Friday, June 18, 2010

OMERTA


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BOOK REVIEW “OMERTA”

Author: Mario Puzo

Genre: Fiction, Crime

Language: English

Pages: 316

Cost: 195 Rs.

Publisher: Rupa & Co.

First Published: 2000

Mario Puzo is a bestselling author, best known for creation of ‘Godfather’. His forte is crime and underworld. All his books are based on underworld in America run by Sicilian families. All the novels are of similar kind of characters, similar layouts; but in different situations and different story to tell. But I still love his books. “OMERTA” is no different from his other novels.

Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honor, common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations like the Mafia, and Camorra are strong. A common definition is the "code of silence". Omertà implies “the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime.

This book is a story of a Don who wants to retire from underworld and he wants his children and descendants to have no relations with the black world and lives happy and serene life in white one. But will other underworld families will allow it? Certainly not the Don was killed and his family was in danger too. How they come out of it unscathed and who cover up for them is the story of the book.

The book is entertainer like all Mario Puzo books. But there are no surprising elements in his books if you already read some of his work earlier. Still you can have good time reading them as the characters in his books are very intimidating, nothing less than superheroes without supernatural powers.

If I have to rate this book I will give it 8 out of 10. Don’t miss it, do read it.

For more such Must Read Books - http://swapnil-bookreviews.blogspot.com/search/label/must%20read%20books











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