MAKE YOUR LIFE EXTRAORDINARY RIGHT NOW: Secrets to Better Living from the Supergurus (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

 

16^th Book of 2022

 

I remember reading a wonderful compilation of some beautiful chapters from bestselling books worked upon by Aleph publication house named “Become your best self right now” last year. I am very glad that Aleph is continuing with this series that has resulted in release of another book named “Make your life extra-ordinary right now” – the tagline of which says “Secrets of better living from the Supergurus”. I don’t think there’s any reason left for anyone to not pick this book up when another element on the cover page of the book mentions “Books by these authors have collectively sold over 100 million copies worldwide”.

 

The book has compilation of chapters from the bestselling books or articles from the following authors:

• Hector Garcia
• Sadhguru
• James Clear
• His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• Jeff Keller
• Grant Cardone
• Louise Hay
• Brene Brown
• Daniel H. Pink
• Napolean Hill
• Randy Pausch
• George Clason
• Joseph Murphy
• Paramhansa Yogananda
• Dale Carnegie
• Sheldon B. Kopp
• James Allen
• Viktor E. Frankl

 

The book has been divided into three different sections such as: The path to a good life, success and prosperity. The first section talks mainly about how we have to conceptually lead our life on daily basis to create long lasting impact which can give a positive tone to our life. An excerpt from the very famous book “Ikigai” tells us how to implement workout of our mind as it results in a youthful body in long term. Then there’s another extract from Sadhguru, a very popular spiritual guru who shares four practical tips to ensure that we wake up the right way, for a healthy and joyful life. Dalai Lama’s chapter teaches us to be compassionate towards everyone and treat the whole humanity as one. Brene Brown explains how to cultivate authenticity and letting go of what people think about us. I am glad the Aleph Editorial Board chose to include an extract from Paramhansa Yogananda’s transformational book which gives us insight on Yoga system that speaks of the Eightfold Path. Dale Carnegie, another popular author, tells us how our people skills can make many things easier for us to achieve than other efforts involved in it.

 

By the time you think that the book is speaking more about mindset and thoughts and less about actions required to achieve zenith performance, another section begins on Success which will just push you harder to take your hustle on a different level altogether. James Clear talks about the two-minute rule – that every time you find doing something tough just commit yourself for two minutes daily on it and eventually it will become a part of your routine with the amount of time it actually needs from you. Daniel Pink speaks of five steps that can bring us closer to mastery. Dale Carnegie who again appears in this section talks about how we like to excel against our peers naturally without requiring any extra push and also shares with us some tips on how to be an effective leader.

 

Finally, talking about the last section which talks on how to grow your wealth and prosperity – you will not be given exact advises on how to protect your money or multiply it but it will give you highlights that can make you think about money if you have yet not given much thought to it. The one chapter that I really liked in this section has been about putting 10x effort in order to achieve 10x success than our competitors written by Grant Cardone. Joseph Murphy’s chapter on how our mind can give us the access to the new sectors is a positive read.

 

Overall, this is yet again a light motivational and inspirational book that can help you achieve the mindset or that push you were waiting for. You can finish this book within 2-3 hours easily but I would advise reading it a page a day and apply the learnings in your life and journal your own experience after implementing it. There is a consistency in the way chapters are ordered as you can relate with the narrative editors have wanted to create for us to process the learnings easily. You will find many beautiful quotes and suggestions in this book which you’ll want to highlight hence keep a highlighter with you before even picking this book. I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA 

The Imperfect Deception: A Slow Burn Second Chance Romance by Shalini Ranjan (Book Review: 3.75*/5)

 

15^th Book of 2022

 

When I started reading books around a decade back, I was in college and loved the new love stories that were releasing back-to-back by many IIT pass-out authors. Later on, I lost interest in the love genre and moved to other non-fictions or mythological fiction but I still end up picking up exciting book by any Indian author from the same genre whom I have never read before. Hence, this time I picked up a book named “The Imperfection Deception” written by Shalini Ranjan which is probably her 3^rd release. This 264-pages book also has a tagline that says “A slow burn second chance romance” – it attracted me enough to choose it from the unlimited list of books that Amazon recommends.

 

This is not a typical love story but it has many layers to it. As you keep on reading, you identify that the two main characters just can’t get together so easily even when they keep on falling for each other at times. Every time they feel that everything is going to settle for them, author brings up in a twist which takes the story further for us to explore and know what and when will the moment arrive when both the characters will finally stop fighting their inner demons as well as external factors that keep on impacting their crawling romance.

 

Shalini has very successfully crafted this story which seems like a marathon divided into many laps – where every lap is like a piece of relay race – as exciting as the previous one. Her writing prowess can be felt as you will want to finish the story in a single sitting which is what I did. It has been a long time since I have read 250+ pages within 12 hours which this book has made it easier for me to achieve. The book is one of the interesting page-turners I have read in 2022. The book has released just in June and I am glad that I got my hands upon it quite early. Shalini’s command over the language is very good which is rare to find with the new Indian authors who get their book published through their own efforts.

 

I am glad to find how she was able to narrate a story in a manner where certain important facts are kept hidden without affecting our reading experience. The way she discloses and reveals certain flashbacks in the italic fonts just changes every thing in the story and as a reader, you jump on your seat and pace up your reading speed to know what will happen next with these new revelations that have taken place. Reading this book, I regularly felt as if I am watching some web-series which is getting interesting with each chapter and phase. Even when the book ends, there’s a relaxation that I am finally done with the story but you still wish that the story shouldn’t have ended. I don’t think there’s anything more to say about author’s storytelling skills than this.

 

I liked how Shalini didn’t give a feminist tone to her female characters who are actually very strong and determined in the book. She didn’t speak lowly of men in her story which is what many female authors do to state that women are stronger and better than men. Even when the book talks about failed marriages and unloving engaged couples, she ensures that she shows both sides of the story and tells confidently what went wrong from both the people involved in the relationship. It is very mature of Shalini to get onto this path rather than easy one to woo the newly woke feminist crowd.

 

How parenting is such an important aspect in modern society where a child deserves both the parents equally is very nicely portrayed. Parental alienation is a very big issue in our Indian system which is not spoken much in the society but I am glad authoress was able to throw a good amount of light even on this topic. This is quite a daring story, I must say. Similarly, author gives a very nice perspective on life on how to unapologetically live your life rather than regularly pissing yourself in regret and self-pity because of few big mistakes you make in life. Through her protagonists, she is able to display how they accept their wrongs but still keep moving on in their life dealing with new set of challenges.

 

Talking about the drawbacks – I must say that the book’s publishing quality – size, font, spacing etc. could have been better. The cover page could have been more exciting considering the multiple layers the story and its character had. The book could have been cut short by almost 25% for sure as there comes a time when you don’t want to read every expression or reaction of characters between the conversations. Hence, you have to fight the temptation of skipping sentences in between. I felt pre-climax and climax part was quite dragged and it wasn’t needed to be so lengthy. It just starts testing your patience by then.

 

Overall, this is a nice exciting read. Just because of the last 50 pages i.e. pre-climax which added unwanted pages to the book – I am deducting 0.25 stars and hence my rating is 3.75* out of 5 otherwise I definitely wanted to rate this book nothing less than 4 stars. Looking forward to reading more books from Shalini Ranjan now.

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WRITING BUDDHA 

A Dangerous Mind: Consciousness Belongs to God by Golam Maula (3.75*/5) !!!

 

14^th Book of 2022

 

I finally got a Kindle for myself this year and I was looking forward to read a completely new author’s book on it which has been released in Kindle edition only. After searching a lot, I choose to read Golam Maula’s A Dangerous Mind as my first Kindle book. It also has a tagline that says “Consciousness belongs to God”. This 356-pages book is quite a ride as author takes you on a journey which has a plot with many twists and turns. Though it is not a thriller but author manages to keep changing the theme of the story after every few chapters which keeps you interested and excited to know what’ll happen next. The book is quite a good page-turner which will make you finish it within 2-3 sittings itself; though it took little more time for me to complete due to my first Kindle reading experience.

 

Author’s writing style is cool – yes, I am using this term to define the way he writes because it makes you feel that you aren’t reading a book but watching it on a big screen. The narration is fast-paced and doesn’t bore you as author keeps his characters on toes always. Generally, as a reader, when you complete the first 50 pages of a book, you are able to guess on what tone the story will move ahead but here, I would really like to applaud author for choosing to write in a manner where you feel that you have read not one but many stories in a single book itself. The characterizations of both the main protagonists- John and Anjali is done so perfectly despite the fact that their background is from two different countries – US and India. I was quite impressed with the way their aesthetics and beliefs are portrayed in the book which makes you understand them so well that you feel you already know them.

 

The book starts quite romantically which made me imagine it all in a very Bollywood-ish manner – a boy trying to search a girl whom he found at a temple praying but her beauty mesmerized him. Then they keep on bumping or meeting each other at some places after which they finally get to have a conversation and know each other. The instant liking makes both of them fall in love. Till here, I really enjoyed how author defined the emotions of a boy who wants to get to the talking terms with the girl he has got attracted towards. Their initial conversations also make you fall in love with the characters and imagine yourself in a beautiful relationship.

 

Now, the tone of the book shifts again and author gives prominence to the casteism and belief system of parents and its impact on the children - How marriages are not seen as compatibility and love of two people for each other but it is made more about what castes they belong to. The whole struggle of the two characters will make you resonate with their pain as many people in our country go through this issue and end up suffering emotional damage for a long time because of losing someone for no reason at all just because they belonged to two different castes. The characters of parents are also nicely crafted which makes you understand where they are coming from and why they are so hell bent over their decision.

 

The main power of Golam’s writing gets revealed when the story proceeds after this where John meets an accident where some revolutionary medical experiment is performed on his treatment which changes his mind, his life and his perspectives forever. He is being referred to as the most intelligent person on the planet. He also ends up losing memory which keeps on coming back and losing again periodically. Now, in such scenarios, when Anjali finds John in a completely different zone and mindset, the real test of their relationship begins where she tries all her efforts to keep it up but John’s memory loss makes him explore life very differently. Here, I started imagining everything in quite a Hollywood-ish way which is a completely contrast to the first half of the book which I mentioned was quite Bollywood-ish till then.

 

I liked how Maula used philosophical aspects where there are many colours of life being explained through characters in their conversations. I liked one section in the 2^nd half of the book where John is reading Anjali’s diary paragraph by paragraph and she is explaining her point of view about why she wrote it and how things have changed since then. The climax is quite painful but predictive as I had guessed somewhere in middle of the story what would happen with the characters later on.

 

Now talking about the drawbacks- firstly, this is quite a lengthy book which I believe could have been cut short by 25% of its total length with good editing. Secondly, I believe author got quite preachy at places when he talks about religion, faith and other such aspects which somewhere makes you find Anjali’s character quite boring at times. Thirdly, the word “Ardhangini” is used so many times in the book to prove how serious and beautiful relationship a marriage is that you would want to give divorce finding this concept being pushed every once in ten pages.

 

Other than this, I believe author has done quite good research to make the whole medical scenario of John look natural. Similarly, his efforts to know about India, its culture, belief and religion is evident otherwise it’s not easy to describe the whole country and its people the way Golam Maula has done. I give this book 3.75 stars out of 5.

 

P.S. This book has been awarded the best novel of the year 2022 by APS Book Awards in Chicago, USA.

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WRITING BUDDHA