Books N Unicorns

Till We Meet Again is the story of Aryan, a zealous young man who is ready to nurture his passion and win the world when a personal tragedy weighs him down with family's responsibilities. The author has blended emotions, family relationships, vengeance, hope and love in a praiseworthy way in this book. The hidden highlight of the book is the way the protagonist learns life lessons; finding his purpose in life from his sister Rhea, passion and desire from landlady Kavya, sacrifice from his mother, and power of family from his brother Rohan. This is the story of a boy's journey of becoming a man while facing unexpected situations and meeting vivid people. The book starts a bit slow, majorly because of the wide range of vocabulary which might reduce the reading speed as well. The book gains pace after a while and the plot begins to take an interesting shape. This is the book if you are looking for one with a deeper human emotion perspective and feel the words describing so mu

 My Words Will Find You is a poem collection by Amit Kumar Srivastava who is an orthodontist by profession. The book comprises of 36 poems with beautiful two-liners introducing the theme of every poem. The paper quality is very good and the poem collection can be finished in a single go. The poems I liked the most are: "How well they play the game Stabbing With Surgical Precision, appearing in your friend's name Curtailing the backdrop of vision, they make salt and sugar look the same." "Brooding over past is like Taking medicine for the disease you have been cured for Anguishing over future is like Taking medicine for the disease you fear will have." The book does need a bit of proofreading since there are a few grammatical errors. Some poems are very deep and beautiful, while some sound as if the poet made more effort into rhyming the words than trying to bring the sense out of the words. I was hoping more from the book because the

The Stationery Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali is one of my first few books of the decade, and I'm so glad I came across this book at my local bookstore.  This is one of books that stay with you for a long, long time. Marjan Kamali has poured so much love and pain and emotions in this book, it's almost impossible to finish it without teary eyes. The protagonists Roya and Bahman are a young couple whose romance starts and grows in a stationery shop belonging to Mr. Fakhri, who too has a small yet powerful role in the story. The narration, particularly of the Iranian lifestyle and households is remarkable and the reader finds her/himself in the streets of Tehran. All the side characters, including Zari, Mrs. Aslan, Jahangir, and Mr. Walter have been given enough and perfect amount of text space and power in the story. There's always something happening in the story and it's really hard for the reader to out the book down. The dilemma of relationships between Roya

Sudha Murty's books have always been a delight to her readers, and The Serpent's Revenge: Unusual Tales from the Mahabharata is no exception. Fascinating, light, and smooth to read, this 200-page short- story collection comprises less-known folk tales from the epic Mahabharata. While some of them are popular in different parts of the country, some of the stories are a pleasant surprise to the readers. I have been a major fan of the Hindu epic Mahabharata since childhood and love reading every story and folk tale related to it. Dozens of titles have been released revolving around the lives of the main characters of the epic, most popularly of those including Draupadi (Princess of Panchal, wife of the five Pandavas), Karna (best friend of Duryodhana and son of Kunti and Lord Surya), and Arjuna (the mighty archer Pandav and Krishna's beloved.) Most of the stories in the book belong majorly to the above characters and some are quite unheard of. My personal favourit

  Moving ahead with his Hindu mythology genre, author Kevin Missal has laid hands on another Hindu deity trilogy, Narasimha. The first book of the trilogy introduces us to the mighty Narasimha, noble yet confused Prahalad, and the smart Asura king, Hiranyakashyap. The side characters including Andhaka, Anuhrada, and Holika have been given justified place in the first book of the Mahaavatar trilogy. The novel is quite gripping; there's just the perfect amount of action, emotion, and drama in the story, no less no more. Missal has made sure no incident or character is dragged too much for the author to get bored off of it. The character build-up and description is admirable. As a child who grew up listening to the tales of Prahlad, Holika, and other characters, it was refreshing to hear yet another story of the Devta versus Asura clans. Quite young in age, Missal has risen up to be a promising author and that reflects in his latest bestseller already. The USP of Narasi

Lakshmi Pamuntjak's refreshingly beautiful Amba - The Question of Red is the story of Amba and Bhishma, with the Communist insurgencies of Indonesia post-independence in the background. The protagonists, named after the Hindu epic Mahabharata characters, are inspired from the actual characters of the epic themselves, and so is their love-fate. Amidst violence, riots, and death threats, the blooming of Amba and Bhishma's profound love story, layer by layer, emotion post emotion, is paced yet believable.   The Mahabharata is widely read in the South Asian countries, and several folk tales have thus been told over the years. One of these folk tales quite popular in the Java islands is the forbidden love story of Amba, the princess of Kashi, and Bhishma, the celibate son of King Shantanu and Goddess Ganga. According to the Mahabharata, Bhisma abducted Amba and her two younger sisters, Ambika and Ambalika to wed them to his step-brother Vichitravirya. After learning t