The Bestseller She Wrote, by Ravi Subramanian – Book Review

There are times when I buy a book just looking at the name of the author. The entire concept of familiarity and also the fact that somewhere I know that I will like the book. The same happened with this one. I have read almost all the books by Ravi Subramanian and have loved most of them, actually all of them.

The Bestseller She Wrote is a story of a banker turned author, Aditya, who loves attention and limelight. He is married to Maya and has a 6 year old son.   He meets a girl, Shreya, during a speech at IIM Bangalore and then also gets a chance to meet her again at a book launch. Shreya is an avid reader and aspires to be an author. She feels that Indian authors are no good till she reads Aditya’s books.  Aditya gets attracted to her and pulls strings to hire her in the bank as a part of campus placement and eventually falls in love with her. The story moves on and a few characters like Sanjay, who is Aditya’s friend gets added.

Menaka’s Choice by Kavita Kane – Book Review

Kavita Kane is an author who writes about the less spoken about women in Indian mythology. In her latest book she speaks about Menaka, an apsara, who is a strong, beautiful, smart, talented, warm, caring woman.

I’ll be honest, the only thing I knew about Menaka before I read this book was that she was sent by Indra, the King of Gods to seduce and disturb Vishwamitra’s penance. Vishwamitra, who was an ambitious king and later took to the path of becoming a sage to become the Brahmarishi. This book was an eye opener. It made me more knowledgeable about the celestial beings called the Apsara.

The Tantric Curse by Anupama Garg – Book Review

I will start the year with a book review. I bought this book at the airport while travelling to Delhi. What pulled me towards it was the title of the book. I have not read any book on Tantra, which is a topic which is not spoken about much and is really mysterious.

The Tantric Curse is a love story set in a Tantric ashram at Varanasi. Its about an orphan girl called Rhea. Rhea is an orphan who lost her parents in a car accident and get drawn towards the ashram. Satya, the guru of the ashram adopts her and takes care of her like a daughter. Satya has a biological son Krish, who is few years older than Rhea. Krish and Rhea grow up together and over a period of time moved from being friends to lovers. This story talks about the ups and downs Rhea went through to be with Krish.

Rhea uses her learning from the Sadhana and her guru Satya.

The way Anupama speaks about Tantra is amazing. It teaches all of us the real way to lead our life. I would say it’s a great book which teaches us the way of life intermingled in a love story. I completely loved the book and I’m really happy that I read it in the New Year! A great start to a year! I will try and use at least 10% of what I have read in my daily life!!

Sita’s Sister by Kavita Kane – Book Review

Kavita Kane brings one of the characters of the epic Ramayana, who we have read or heard about but don’t necessarily know about. The princess who is known as Sita’s sister, King Janak’s daughter or Lakshman’s wife. Authors have written a lot about the sacrifices that the main characters make but a very few people have spoken about all the people who supported the main characters.

This book is a really thought provoking book. I had a lot of question after reading this book..what really is dharma, is it to follow the roles of the society or is it to manage the personal self. What is love? Is it someone’s weakness or strength? Is love bigger than duty or it’s the other way round.

The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan – Book Review

Its been a long time since I did a book review. I’m going to review the sequel of the ‘The Twentieth Wife’.

Mehrunnisa, who is the central character of the book is a girl from the 16th century. It’s a time when women were not allowed a lot of things. Mehrunnisa was too intelligent for her times. It’s a story of Salim (Jahangir) and his love Mehrunnisa. It’s about how a simple girl called Mehrunnisa gets the name of Noor Jaha.

The love story of Mehrunnisa and Jahangir continues in this novel. Mehrunnisa who became Jahangir’s wife at the age of 34 (which was way too old for those days to get married) and was his 20^th wife.