September Reads!

Hi Readers! Going to make a quick one out of this. As you all know, I have read ONLY THREE BOOKS this month. I have also reviewed all of them, so you can check them out if you haven’t already!

 

~~THE GREAT ALONE by KRISTIN HANNAH~~

My Rating: 4/5

Number of Pages: 435

Full Review Here!

The Great Alone is about the Allbright family living their complicated life in the wilderness of Alaska. Ernt Allbright served in Vietnam & returned with a darkness in him. Cora Allbright, his wife, is madly in love with him, no matter what. And, their daughter Leni Allbright is someone who has been the adult in the family from the age of thirteen. The book starts in 1974 when the Allbright family moves to Alaska. They move in a small community in Kaneq. They decide to live away from the rest of the world, in their own place, making their own food by growing vegetables, keeping chickens & goats, learning hunting & so on.

 

~~THE FAR FIELD by MADHURI VIJAY~~

My Rating: 3.5/5

Number of Pages: 432

Full Review Here!

This is a debut novel & honestly seems like reading a 3^rd draft at its best. There was a scope of improving it at multiple places. There needs to be content that needs to be added & a lot of it that could be removed. It was a good experience to read an Indian author who did not write about love stories, but also it could have been a LOT BETTER. There were many lose ends that never connected. But, there were also a few things that hit right on spot. Overall, if I have to think about this novel, I’d say it’s a story written by a sheltered person herself who knows very little or pretends to know only one side of things.

 

~~THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by MATT HAIG~~

My Rating: 4/5

Number of Pages: 388

Full Review Here!

The Midnight Library is the story of Nora Seed. At a time in her life when her parents have died, her brother refuses to talk to her, her boss fires her, her best friend goes to another continent & her cat dies, she finally decides that it is too much & decides to die. After taking an overdoes of pills, she lands in The Midnight Library where she is between life & death. And what better between life-and-death experience can it be than infinite shelves stacked with infinite books? At this place, she can choose to ‘try on’ different lives of Nora Seed, aka, alternate universes. Now you see why this much was enough for a book geek like me to lure into the story?

Throughout the book, we see Nora try on different lives. From choosing poorly in the initial few lives to choosing something meaningful, we see how Nora grows. The Midnight Library, in its simplicity has achieved a different level of poignance. It is unbelievably magical & whimsical, but at the same time insightful & thought provoking. I simply enjoyed reading it & this might not be the last time that I read it. 

 

Given the increase of workload, I am finding it tough to take time out to read. All I get are a couple of hours per day. Currently, I am reading ‘The Whisper Man’ by Alex North! I have again shelved ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles because I just cannot make myself to read more than 5 pages of it at a time. Come to think of it, that book might be the reason why my reading speed has declined. Anyway, here’s hoping to read more books in October! 11 more books to read to reach the target of 75 BOOKS!!

Until next time,

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Book Review!

Hi Readers! How was your September? For me, reading wise, it was awfully pathetic. I just finished reading the THIRD book for the month. I had been seeing a lot of buzz around Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library. Having never read anything of Matt Haig’s before, I started the book with no expectations. I was amazed by the premise of the novel already & so I spent little time thinking if I should or shouldn’t read it & just began reading it. Check out the review!

 

~~INTRODUCTION~~

The Midnight Library is the story of Nora Seed. At a time in her life when her parents have died, her brother refuses to talk to her, her boss fires her, her best friend goes to another continent & her cat dies, she finally decides that it is too much & decides to die. After taking an overdoes of pills, she lands in The Midnight Library where she is between life & death. And what better between life-and-death experience can it be than infinite shelves stacked with infinite books? At this place, she can choose to ‘try on’ different lives of Nora Seed, aka, alternate universes. Now you see why this much was enough for a book geek like me to lure into the story?

Throughout the book, we see Nora try on different lives. From choosing poorly in the initial few lives to choosing something meaningful, we see how Nora grows.

From wanting to die to wanting to live.

From living for others to living for herself.

From pursuing others’ dreams to choosing her own dream.

From thinking only about herself to thinking about all the close ones in her life.

Within a second, she goes through so many universes. Within a second, she changed into an entirely different person.

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

The minute I started reading the book, I knew I’d like it. This happens a lot with me. I can tell within a matter of one page, if it will be among my favourites. For a 325-page book, it sure has a lot to offer.

 

~~NARRATION~~

Starting with the narration of the book. It starts with the number of hours till Nora decides to die. For the first 20 pages it goes on like that. During that time, it sets a great foundation of Nora’s life. After this, it’s all about setting the foundation about The Midnight Library, which for us readers, is absolutely fascinating. In between all these there are some letters or tweets that Nora writes. We also see a song she has written in her musician life. Also, that letter toward the end ‘A Thing I Have Learned’ was so amazing. That is something I will always come back to read. All these different types of narrations connect so well & collectively form exciting content! I loved this little thing about the book quite a lot.

~~IMPORTANT TOPICS~~

Once I got into the book, it was very clear to me how self-aware the author is. From the beginning I knew Nora had depression. We see how her boss fired her for different reasons but didn’t ignore her ‘mental health stuff’ while at it. Even further along the book, we see how much the author has talked about mental health in an indirect manner. He has also talked a great deal about climate change because Nora was a glaciologist in one of her lives. Even if it is subtle, he mentioned about the melting glaciers & the impact of climate change & how serious it is.

There was also a mention about our obsession with social media. I’m guilty in this too, but still his words resonated with me. Lastly, by writing the fact that Nora’s brother Joe was gay, he made the book inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community.

They are not OUT THERE in the book, but all these things ARE THERE. A keen reader’s eye is always quick to notice the important things.

~~LIFE LESSONS~~

As you all know, I am not a fan of non-fiction books. But when there are nonfiction bits in a fiction book, I go nuts! Such is the case with this book. Because the story itself is so powerful, there are a lot of life lessons thrown along the way. Some are obvious. Some even boring. But you just need the one that is custom-made for you. I love how the book is so uplifting even when the protagonist has tried to kill herself. It is also reassuring.

Because no matter what life we are in, there will always be good & bad. Nothing is all good or all bad.

This one is the one that will always stay with me.

 

~~ALTERNATE UNIVERSES~~

Initially, I was perplexed to read how Nora was talented in so many different things. Her passions included being an Olympic Swimmer, being a glaciologist, being a musician in a band, philosophy. At first it felt a bit far-fetched, but when I got to thinking, I realized just how normal that was. I mean, all of us have a variety of interests; some we pursue, other remain forgotten. We might have the potential for all of them, but somehow we only stick to something for reasons we may or may not know. When I got to thinking, I thought how my alternate universes would be. Just for fun, I visualized a life as an author, a successful Badminton player, maybe someone with high level OCD, a solo traveller with a popular YouTube channel, a teacher in a college. Who knows? The possibilities are truly endless.

~~QUOTES~~

•  Never underestimate the big importance of small things.
• I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
• Success isn’t something you measure, and life isn’t a race you can win.
• ‘You’re overthinking it.’ ‘I have anxiety. I have no other type of thinking available.’

~~CONCLUSION~~

The Midnight Library, in its simplicity has achieved a different level of poignance. It is unbelievably magical & whimsical, but at the same time insightful & thought provoking. I simply enjoyed reading it & this might not be the last time that I read it. According to me, it is a modern-day ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’! You should definitely read it!! I have rated it at 4/5!

Until next time,

The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay Book Review.

Hi Readers! In the past 6 years, I have honestly said this so many times that even I am bored of writing that ‘it’s been a while.’ A solid 12 days gap this time, all thanks to the brutality of the reading slump. It’s the 19^th day of the month & I have managed to read only 2 BOOKS! Sounds almost like a crime to me. I hope this number adds up to at least 4. Anyway, trying hard to move on from that. I recently found out about the JCB Prize which is the highest literary award in India which started in 2018. The first year the book Jasmine Days by Benyamin won that award. Last year, The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay won the award. Naturally, I decided to read both these books. Here goes the book review of The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay!

 

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

“Gorgeously tactile and sweeping in historical and socio-political scope, Pushcart Prize-winner Madhuri Vijay's The Far Field follows a complicated flaneuse across the Indian subcontinent as she reckons with her past, her desires, and the tumultuous present.

In the wake of her mother's death, Shalini, a privileged and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote Himalayan village in the troubled northern region of Kashmir. Certain that the loss of her mother is somehow connected to the decade-old disappearance of Bashir Ahmed, a charming Kashmiri salesman who frequented her childhood home, she is determined to confront him. But upon her arrival, Shalini is brought face to face with Kashmir's politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. And when life in the village turns volatile and old hatreds threaten to erupt into violence, Shalini finds herself forced to make a series of choices that could hold dangerous repercussions for the very people she has come to love.

With rare acumen and evocative prose, in The Far Field Madhuri Vijay masterfully examines Indian politics, class prejudice, and sexuality through the lens of an outsider, offering a profound meditation on grief, guilt, and the limits of compassion.”

 

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

I almost laughed out loud at that last paragraph of the description because what is made out to be an extraordinary story is merely something that could pass as above average. Now, I know this book won the JCB prize & I can see why, but below are also all the reasons why it should not have. Don’t worry, the Goodreads description intimidated me as well. It sounds full of promise & potential. Too bad it’s not.

 

~~MISSED POTENTIAL~~

I feel like I write about missed potential in all of my reviews lately. It’s just incredibly sad to me as a reader when the premise of the book lures me in only to disappoint later. I thought that this book will be about the reality of Kashmir – the lives of locals & soldiers & how it impacts both their lives, how the militants impact their lives & so much more. Instead, it took one angle & stayed on it. The angle of putting the Indian Soldiers in bad light. That was what most of the book was about. A coin has 2 sides & I never got to hear about the other side or in this case, you can say the 365 angle about the problems in Kashmir & how dire the situation is. The author picked a narrator similar to herself; a privileged woman based from Bangalore, which must have made it easier for her to write about the things none of them know about.

Not only were the problems in Kashmir talked about only on the surface, but on the other hand, the beauty of Kashmir was also only talked about on the surface. The part of Kashmir that tourists like me have seen & the part of Kashmir that the author has described are completely different. This gave her a lot of scope to describe it beautifully to us. Instead, what I read about was a shallow description hitting just the tip of the literal snow-clad mountain & never going deeper than that.

An Indian writing a novel like this already has a huge responsibility on their shoulders. Yes, it is fiction, but the facts of the matter always remain to be true. I have come to 2 conclusions – either the author did less research or that she herself thinks the way her protagonist does. Either way, it fails the premise of the book.

 

~~BORN OF PRIVILEGE~~

Initially I liked that the narrator Shalini was shown gullible, quite like most youth of India. She decided to go to Kashmir to find Bashir Ahmed, which is also too much of a stretch. The way she was unaware of the situation in Kashmir felt relatable to me. Shalini was born & brought up in Bangalore which is the other end of the country. She comes from a place of privilege with everything being handed to her easily. Having lived such a lifestyle, it is impossible to imagine her being self-aware of everything that happens in the country.

This was a good way to start the story, but it also made the rest of it a bit unbelievable. Such a girl goes & lives with a family in the mountains of Kashmir, milking their cow, caring for elders, teaching English to the Sarpanch’s daughter & what not. Your average screwed up woman in her 20s who cannot move on from grief, who uses other people to her benefit suddenly goes north & changes her whole personality in the blink of an eye. A bit much, no?

 

~~NARRATIVE STYLE~~

The story is divided into 2 parts – Shalini’s past & present. The past starts when she was a little girl & how this handsome stranger from Kashmir used to visit her home & how he struck a friendship with her mother. To be honest, I thought that this part of the story was a bit stretched with many unnecessary parts in it. This unusual relationship shared between Shalini’s mother & Bashir Ahmed & then later between Shalini & Riyaz was so unnecessary. I didn’t see any point in it.

Apart from the faults in the writing itself, there were SO MANY TYPOS throughout the book. This is the first book in which I must have seen so many typing errors & I absolutely hate those.

~~CONCLUSION~~

I have rated The Far Field at 3.5/5. This is a debut novel & honestly seems like reading a 3^rd draft at its best. There was a scope of improving it at multiple places. There needs to be content that needs to be added & a lot of it that could be removed. It was a good experience to read an Indian author who did not write about love stories, but also it could have been a LOT BETTER. There were many lose ends that never connected. But, there were also a few things that hit right on spot. Overall, if I have to think about this novel, I’d say it’s a story written by a sheltered person herself who knows very little or pretends to know only one side of things.

 

Until next time,

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah Book Review!

 

Hello Readers! I already told you the posts here are going to be few till I get out of my reading slump. Now, I don’t want to jinx anything, but I just might be out of it. After many weeks, I have finally completed reading Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone. Once I got back the desire to read, I finished it in about 4 days or so. This book was good, but I won’t recommend it as a book to read to get out of the slump. But, I will recommend it if you are looking to get lost in a beautiful place. I have rated The Great Alone at 4/5!

~~INTRODUCTION~~

The Great Alone is about the Allbright family living their complicated life in the wilderness of Alaska. Ernt Allbright served in Vietnam & returned with a darkness in him. Cora Allbright, his wife, is madly in love with him, no matter what. And, their daughter Leni Allbright is someone who has been the adult in the family from the age of thirteen. The book starts in 1974 when the Allbright family moves to Alaska. They move in a small community in Kaneq. They decide to live away from the rest of the world, in their own place, making their own food by growing vegetables, keeping chickens & goats, learning hunting & so on. They are warned by everyone to prepare for the winter because winters in Alaska are something else.

The book is divided into 3 parts as per the years – 1974, 1978 & 1986. In 1974, we see how the Allbrights move to Kaneq, settle in & manage to make a life. They have a lot of help from their neighbours. I won’t say anything about 1978 & 1986 because that will ruin the story.

~~CHARACTERS~~

Ernt Allbright is a POW veteran from the Vietnam War which made him into an abusive husband. His violence gets worse during the winter, which is the toughest period in Alaska. Because of the war, he has this urge of living in seclusion only with his family. Ironically, he has this thing about protecting his family when he is the one they need protection from. He loves his family in his own way. But, to the reader he soon becomes the villain of the story.

Cora Allbright is probably worse than Ernt, because no matter how many times he hits her, she refuses to leave him. They have a toxic relationship which is unbearably difficult to read. She goes along with everything that Ernt says, so much so that she moves to a faraway place cut out from basic resources. Not only did she allow herself getting bullied by her husband, she also gave Leni a traumatized childhood with a constant fear.

Leni Allbright is a brilliant young girl who was scarred from her childhood. She had to constantly stay on her toes in fear that something minor will set her father off. She had to stay away from a boy she loved because her father actively hated that boy’s father. She had to console her own mother. At such a young age, she had to be a grown-up because her parents refused to. But, despite everything that happened to her, she grew up to be an independent woman, a single mother & a positive person.

 

There are other characters who are all well wishers of Cora & Leni & are always ready to help them protect from Ernt. Large Marge, Tom Walker, Matthew Walker, the Harlans are all a united family of Kaneq. It was wonderful to read about this community where everyone is helpful & genuinely cared about others. Matthew is Leni’s love interest & honestly, I haven’t read about a more kind, brave yet delicate soul in any other book.

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

~~The Toxic Allbright Family~~

Usually when you have one flawed protagonist, it becomes interesting to read the story. But, when the whole family is deeply flawed, it becomes almost impossible to continue reading. Firstly, the toxic relationship between Ernt & Cora is so twisted & complicated. Cora’s self-delusion that he is sick when he has his violence episodes, is something beyond comprehension. The fact that Cora stays with Ernt year after year was grossly horrific. Secondly, Leni staying for Cora is another toxic thing. While it may seem daughterly, but in reality, it is not good for her to stay or even for Cora to allow that. At 13, she can give courage to her mother, but somehow she cannot convince her mother to leave her father. And because Leni can’t leave her mother, she stays in this family making it more toxic by the minute.

Probably because of this, whatever happens to Cora happens, which is basically karma in its simplest form. Giving Cora cancer because she was such a bad mother earlier did not go well with me. Also, because of this the ending felt dragged out.

 

~~Repetitive Writing~~

Winter arrives in Alaska. Husband goes berserk. Hits wife. Apologizes later. Wife is convinced he won’t hit her again. Repeat.

This kind of narrative has been repeated so many times in the book that it becomes disappointing & takes away the merit of the story as a whole. Leni wanting to run away with her mom leaving her father behind also becomes a bit repetitive.

~~Missed Potential~~

I absolutely LOVED the beginning when the Allbrights move to Alaska & how the beauty of the place just shines from the pages. In the end, the author has mentioned – “This state, this place, is like no other. It is beauty and horror; savior and destroyer. All of this set the perfect scene to what could have been an exceptional novel. But, using this amazing buildup only to talk about a man’s post-war violence or a teenage love story or a boy’s accident leading to brain damage, all collectively did not match the scene set in the beginning.

 

~~Important Topics~~

This book being set in 1970s – 1980s also sent important messages. We read in depth about domestic violence. How it can tear apart a family. How it can traumatize children. How it is to live in constant fear. It also talks about how the law is never kind to battered women. It is justifiable that the man abused his wife. But it is not justifiable when the woman raises a complaint against her abusive husband.  It was important to talk about it in a way that would reach the readers outside of the scope of the story & it sure accomplished to do that.

The book also talks about PTSD post-war & its effects on a family. Mental Health is so important & without getting the right resources, a person can change into a whole other human. The book brought out these matters in such a way that it would really reach the readers.

~~The Ending~~

Despite everything I have said above, the ending really got to me. Throughout the ups & downs in the book, there were times when I felt hope when Leni & Cora run away for the first time. I felt horror when they got into an accident. I felt hopelessly sad for Matthew when he lost his mother right in front of his eyes. I felt sadness when Leni & Matthew said their goodbyes & absolute joy when they reunite in 1978. I felt gratitude toward Large Marge & Tom Walker for sending Ernt away for 4 good years. I felt such bright anger towards Enrt, but also felt a sense of sadness when he realized that Cora had shot him. I felt such an emotion of stupidity for Leni when she confessed her crime. I felt a loss when Cora died. I felt miraculous about MJ. And finally, when I read about Matthew, I was speechless. The ending was when I let my emotions come to the surface for all the things that happened throughout the course of this book. There were loopholes or unsatisfactory bits in all these factors, but just towards the end I let those all go & only embraced the feelings.

Until next time,

6th Blogoversary!

Hello my dear readers!! Thank you for sticking with Mindscape in Words for SIX LONG YEARS! I owe you a BIG THANK YOU! You have seen this blog grow along with me. From writing short book reviews to writing detailed 2000-word BOOK REVIEWS. From liking books to being passionate about them. Those amazing four-part TRAVEL SERIES  now & then for which I was excited the whole year round. The glorious MONDAY MOMENTS series where I wrote ONE HUNDRED short stories. And, not forgetting the few bigger short stories & DIARY LOGS. Also not forgetting the short series I wrote titled DAILY COMMUTE. I have done so much experimenting on here but you all are still here reading. Thank You for that! In the past year, Mindscape in Words had 73000 Views! Just how mindblowingly fantastic is that!?

For the 6^th Blogoversary, I thought of sharing the TOP 6 POSTS in different areas on the blog. Before heading into the top sixes, here is a bit of the celebration I did at home! After doing a full-on celebration last year for the 5^th Blogoversary, I decided to keep it mellow. I made chocolates!!

~~TOP 6 BOOKS I READ THIS YEAR~~

I don’t really have a strict pattern of reading. I don’t read only the books published in the same year. I don’t stick to the books that are nominated for awards. At times I don’t even stick to just one genre. After reading my fair share of poor books, I now research. Some books are well researched while some books are written by the authors I have read frequently. So, the Top 6 books that I read are not necessarily the books of the Year 2020. Have a look! You must read these!

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

~~TOP 6 BOOK POSTS THIS YEAR~~

You all know how I don’t always write reviews of all the books that I read. But for the books for which I plan to write a review, I always make sure to give my 100%!  Writing a book blog means writing more than just book reviews. And, so my most viewed top 6 posts are a mix of reviews + other book stuff! Check them out below!

2020 Reading Challenge.

What Glennon Doyle’s UNTAMED taught me.

My Top 10 All Time Favourite Books.

Chaos Walking Trilogy.

A Little Life – To Read or Not to Read?

Top 5 Authors.

~~TOP 6 TRIPS I PLANNED~~

Once the pandemic hit hard, I knew I wouldn’t be travelling for a LONG TIME! Just thinking about it made me miserable. Also, a lot of other little things were downright depressing. If I have an idle mind, it leads me to dark places which isn’t good for me or anyone close to me. So, I finally decided to plan trips! So what if I can’t actually go for trips? I sure can plan them! I get more happiness in the planning stage anyway. And so, I have shortlisted a few places & have planned to prepare proper itineraries including places to visit, where to stay, best restaurants & so on. It’s such a FUN PROJECT & I’m completely obsessed with it! Check out the Top 6 places I am making plans for!

Chandigarh, Shimla & Manali

Kolkata

Hampi

Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Jodhpur & Jaisalmer

Meghalaya

 

~~TOP 6 PINS~~

Turns out I have a bit of a following on Pinterest. You can say about a 100k monthly viewers. Isn’t that great? If you aren’t one of those, go follow me now! Check out the Top 6 pins below! These are mainly quotes from different books!

The Nickel Boys

1984

Untamed

Untamed

The Woman in the Window

The Nickel Boys

 

~~TOP 6 RECIPES I COOKED THIS YEAR~~

Now, I know this is purely a books + travel blog. But, I had to brag the amazing things I learnt to make in this lockdown of 5+ months! I won’t get too much into it. But just check out the photo & feel proud for me, pretty please?

Brownies

Mini Cheesecake

Coffee Walnut Cake

Cheese Chilli Toast

Rava Dhokla

Caramel Custard

That is about it! Hope you enjoyed this post & also these past six years! Here’s to many more years full of books & travel!

 

Until next time,