Book review: 45 days in a cancer hospital

Publisher: Leadstart Publishing

ISBN-13: 9789381576823

ISBN-10: 9381576823

No. of Pages: 298

Format: Paperback

Language: English

About The Book:

I have been reading quite a number of feedbacks on Alka Dimri Saklani’s 45 Days in a Cancer Hospital, as soon as I finished reading it. My eldest daughter is a book bug (she finds “book- worm” a clichéd term). A couple of days ago she suggested- I should read books with the aim to analyze them in different ways. Now most of the reader feedbacks about this book are theme oriented. People have spoken at length about- suspense, mystery and even believed it to be a bordering medical drama. I would like to look at the book from the feminine point of view.

A Book Review - The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

Author: Anita Amirrezvani
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 464
Price: Rs. 325
Publishers: HEADLINE BOOK PUBLISHING
ISBN Number: 0755341422

Book Blurb:

Set in seventeenth-century Iran, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS is the powerful and haunting story of a young girl's journey from innocence to adulthood. A village girl's dreams of marriage end on the death of her father. Cast on the mercy of relatives in fabled Isfahan, she and her mother are reduced to servitude until she reveals a talent for designing carpets – an invaluable skill. Hope is short-lived, for a disastrous, headstrong act results in the girl's disgrace. Caught between forces she can barely comprehend, she faces a life lived at the whim of others – unless she is prepared to risk everything and choose a future based on her own strength and will.

Paulo Coelho's The Winner Stands Alone - A Book Review

Book:  The Winner Stands Alone

Author: Paulo Coelho (Translated by Margaret Jull Costa)

ISBN:  0061750522

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Pages: 343

Language: English

Size: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1 inches

About the Book:

'The Winner Stands Alone' is a contemporary psychological thriller written by a renowned Brazilian author, Paulo Coelho. The event is set during the Cannes Film Festival and the target venue has been the Hotel Martinez throughout the story. The novel begins and ends with the clock ticking showing the day hours gradually shifting to the evening time and finally the night hours, and completing a full 24-hours time period. Within this period, the author has very tactfully sketched the minds of people through his protagonists' thoughts and mannerisms.

A Book Review - The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Author: Sue Monk KiddFormat: Paperback

Language: English

Pages: 384

Price: Rs. 395

Publishers: HEADLINE BOOK PUBLISHING

ISBN Number: 0755330021

About the Book: 

I have been a passionate novel reader since my school days and this habit has lingered even after my marriage. I have been a member of the book library in my city for many years from now. For this month, I chose the book, 'The Secret Life of Bees' written by Sue Monk Kidd for my daughters to read. Guess what, I also read this book and find it simply awesome. The crisp story lines and the style of narration made me to ponder into the depth of this book. 

A Review - The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)

Book: The Time Traveler's Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Price: Rs. 720
Publishers: Vintage Books USA
ISBN: 0099464462

Book Blurb:

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is a dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion. It is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.

An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, "The Time Traveler's Wife" is destined to captivate readers for years to come.

Maxim Gorky's Mother - A Review

Book:  Mother: Maxim Gorky

Author: Maxim Gorky

Language: English

Format: Paperback

Pages: 400

ISBN:  8183520715

Publisher: Mahaveer Publishers

Price: 175

Book Blurb:

Mother, the immortal classic of Maxim Gorky, gives a broad and generalized picture of life in Russia on the eve of the Revolution of 1905. Pelageya is the wife of a factory worker who ignores the political upheaval in her country in favor of caring for her personal life. She represents hundreds of workers who are concerned with living their lives. Her son Paval takes a different path and joins the revolution inspiring many Russians who were living under a capitalistic society in Russia. She also takes an active participation in her people's struggle for justice. Through her work, she frees herself from the cowed state into which she has been beaten, and her simple motherly concern for her son becomes a motherly concern for all oppressed.

A Book Review of the Story of Cinderella (Charles Perrault)

Book: Cinderella (Ladybird Tales Mini)

Format: Hardcover

ISBN:  9781846469763

Size: 179 cm

Pages: 48

Published: September 4, 2008

Publisher: Ladybird

Language: English

About the Book:

The story of Cinderella, authored by the French author Charles Perrault and later translated into the English version by Anthea Bell, is one of the super classic stories I have ever read in my lifetime. I feel that this story is an all-time read. This story will remain a classic even if you want to read it in the later years of your life. 

What Young India Wants (by Chetan Bhagat) - A Book Review

Book: What Young India Wants

Author: Chetan Bhagat

Format: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 181
Price: Rs. 140
Publishers: Rupa Publications
ISBN Number: 8129120216

About the Book:

'What Young India Wants' is a recent creative non-fiction book written and published by a contemporary and popular Indian author Chetan Bhagat. Being an Indian himself, he has faced many ups and downs in his lifetime and has questioned several Indian youth-based, economical, and social issues, such as the poor education system, poverty, corruption, and poor rural and urban development. His grief and anguish is about the grave contemporary Indian issues that are not been taken seriously by the Indian Government and top-ranked officials and politicians. His hope towards every single problem is to be considered first and to find out some solution to lessen or if possible eradicate those issues. 

Book Review: Piyush Jha's Mumbaistan

Mumbaistan by Piyush Jha

I had been a mother and a chance reader for all these years. Thanks to the AABG team efforts- I could now take a step towards speaking up about my views on a book. The quote from Ekta Kapoor on the cover page of the Piyush Jha’s Mumbaistan- had captivated me. I am not ashamed to confess- once even I was addicted to her marathon serials, much to the chagrin of my husband. But this book is beyond the realm of complexities knotted together.

Talking Relationships

Relationships are around us have names like parents, siblings, relatives and friends. We are always surrounded by relationship. Everyone needs some time, energy and emotions to invest in their relationships.

There is a famous saying “Tell me who your best friends are, and I will tell you who you are”. Being surrounded by good, motivating and positive friends would only make you successful and motivated in whatever you do. Similarly, being surrounded by unhealthy and negative friends would yield the same bad qualities in you. So always make sure you are around good friends .This doesn’t mean you have to completely ignore the bad ones. You can still make them better only if have good qualities that would have an effect on your friend. Also, today in the Facebook and Twitter era, most of us have 100’s to 500’s or even more friends. Yet only your close and real friends can be counted by fingers. Thus make sure that your close friends are always attended to.

There is no guide book for parenting

A lot has been said and written about parenting. Choices have been weighed, styles have been defined, the dos and don’ts have been brought to light and even the ideal route has been set. However, nowhere it has been discussed about parenting being subjective. Nobody never really focused on the thought that there isn’t any book or self help that works for everyone. That everyone who first becomes a parent is as new to the experience of parenting as a baby is, while she takes her first step. It is a world of uncertainties and it is definitely not easy.

Helping Baby Learn to Sleep

It’s easy to guess that when there is a baby in a family – the members of that family, especially the father and mother of the child, look harassed and tired. Until a baby is trained to eat and sleep at regular times, parents suffer sleepless nights.

In an Abusive Relationship? It's Time You Got Out

Abusive relationships are becoming increasingly common in today’s times. Their worst victims are the teenagers and young adults. Teenage is a vulnerable age when love and relationships become a prominent part of our lives. Sadly, this is also the age when many young adults fall prey to abusive relationships.

Parenting – An Art

Parenting is indeed an art which must be mastered. Gone are the days when parenting was considered a responsibility to be borne rather than an art. Modern parents are well aware of the importance of smart parenting which differs from child to child and which focuses primarily on the child’s psyche.

Bonding With Your Child: What You Must Do

Being a Parent brings in the responsibility of good parenting. Good parenting means how effectively one brings up their child in this competitive world with healthy ways of living. A mother plays a significant role affecting about 80% in the growth of their child in respect of physical and mental growth. As a mother, we always want the best for our kid .

The Idea Behind Open Relationships

Whether we are in a relationship or not, it is safe to say that most of us have at least wondered about open relationships once in a while. It mainly describes the kind of relationship where one has a stable partner but is allowed to date and sleep with others as well. Lured in by the idea, many have had the urge to give open relationships a try. Among them, few actually dare to, and even fewer can make it last.

Do’s and Don’ts in Childcare

As parenting books will tell you-- Trial and error is a method that just cannot be used in bringing up a child.  For effective parenting you have to keep reminding yourself that a child does not have the sturdiness to withstand certain things which pose no hardship to an adult. A child is like a flower, a tender little seedling, and he or she needs attention.

           Attention is exactly what a child craves and he will do anything to get it. Babies cry and toddlers throw tantrums. Why? For Mommy’s attention of course! An infant who has not yet learnt to crawl is easily satisfied by a cuddle or by being rocked in his cradle or by toys dangled above his cradle.Babies, less than three months, usually cry when they are hungry or uncomfortable,  and a feed or a diaper change will quieten them. It’s different when they grow a little older. It is very important to give your child companionship and love.

 In India mothers like to have their babies sleep beside them at night. This habit is frowned on in the West. The Indian mother is well aware that the gentle weight of her hand on the baby’s body will make him feel secure even while he sleeps. If not in the same bed, a child could sleep in a cot beside the bed, within touching distance. This would be a positive parenting skill.

           Summer months in India are killing. It is advisable to never ever leave a child out in the open in the sun. Protect a child from dehydration by making him drink water.  Small children should   be given unchilled water rather than aerated drinks. Babies and toddlers under six (and in fact the whole family!) should be given water that has been boiled first and then cooled. The paediatric doctor should be consulted over food and liquid intake. It is best to follow the doctor for parenting advice.

              I remember shifting all breakable things from shelves that my son could reach as soon as he learned to crawl. The glass and china were replaced by stainless steel utensils. Scissors, knives, forks,needles were consigned to locked cupboards.

        I kept the flat clutter-free and saved myself worry. Prevention is always better than cure. Above all be alert – the safest environment can have hidden dangers! Mothers are guardian angels –so stay on guard.