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Next of A Twin

Next of a Twin is a debut novel of Jas Aujla who is a Canada based author. Two sisters seperated at birth. Riah Arora has traveled from Italy to San Francisco to find her twin. Anjali Murph, the other twin is a successful owner of a trendy café, married to a well established lawyer. When she and her sister finally meet, they feel an instant connection. Even so, Riah does con for a living. She is…

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The Maid by Nita Prose

“The truth is, I often have trouble with social situations; it’s as though everyone is playing an elaborate game with complex rules they all know, but I’m always playing for the first time,” says Molly Gray. Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules…

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Verity by Colleen Hoover

How does one describe Verity by Colleen Hoover ? Something different, difficult to fathom. Verity is a famous author , her books depict negative characters. As a result of a terrible accident , she is totally incapacitated. Due to her condition her husband Jeremy and her agent decide about getting a co author. Lowen Ashleigh is an author facing financial crisis is chosen to co author. Lowen…

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This is one of my audible reads, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a novel by Stuart Turton. It has won the Best First Novel prize in the 2018 Costa Book Awards and reached number one on The Saturday Times Bestseller list and number five on The Sunday Times Bestseller list.I found it interesting as I like the old world setting and mystery around it. The book is a mystery set in a country house, not long after the First World War, where a beautiful heiress is murdered during a party.Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m.There are eight days, and eight witnesses. Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others.The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive locked-room mystery that follows one man's race against time to find a killer, with an astonishing time-turning twist that means nothing and no one are quite what they seem.

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The Wordy Side by Shubhi Shrivastava

“The drink to kill” someone they say,

But they spread it in so many different ways.

By words, by deeds, by just your attitude

You can kill someone so easily anyway.

The above lines are from the poem “The Poison”

This is a book of poems by Shubhi Shrivastava. She is a student of medical science. Her sensitivity on various issues reflects in her writing. This book is in…

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Ahalya's Awakening by Kavita Kane

Ahalya’s Awakening by Kavita Kane

Ahalya. Created by Brahma; married to one of the greatest rishis of all time; desired by the king of gods, Indra. A woman maligned and cursed.

But who was Ahalya? What did she want? Did she have ambitions and desires?

In this sparkling retelling of the well-known legend, bestselling author Kavita Kané draws out the voice of a character that lacked one—even before she was turned to stone.…

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The Gift of reading

The best gift a parent can give to their child is the gift of reading. Books are the stepping stones for enriching our children’s lives and expanding their horizon and inspire them to shape their dreams into reality.

The best way to develop the habit of reading for your child is to read out to them. Soothing voice of a parent is what a child relates at a very early age. Babies at the age of 3…

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Christy Lefteri

Christy Lefteri

Christy Lefteri

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

In the midst of war, he found love In the midst of darkness, he found courage In the midst of tragedy, he found hope

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

What will you find from his story?

Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist.  They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo – until the unthinkable happens.  When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape.   But what Afra has seen is so terrible she has gone blind, and so they must embark on a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece towards an uncertain future in Britain.  On the way, Nuri is sustained by the knowledge that waiting for them is Mustafa, his cousin and business partner, who has started an apiary and is teaching fellow refugees in Yorkshire to keep bees.

As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss, but dangers that would overwhelm the bravest of souls.   Above all – and perhaps this is the hardest thing they face – they must journey to find each other again.

Moving, powerful, compassionate and beautifully written, The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit.  Told with deceptive simplicity, it is the kind of book that reminds us of the power of storytelling.

‘This is a novel of international significance. Courageous, provocative, haunting, it will open our eyes’

Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Quotes from the book :

But in Syria there is a saying: inside the person you know, there is a person you do not know.”

“She looked into my eyes, as if she could see me. In that moment I could see her too, the woman inside, the woman I’d lost. She was there with me, her soul open and present and clear as light. For those few seconds I was no longer afraid of the journey, of the road ahead.”

“Sometimes we create such powerful illusions, so that we do not get lost in the darkness.”

“They communicated without words from the most primitive part of the soul. I remembered her laughing about this, saying that she felt like an animal, and how she realized that we are less human in our times of greatest love and greatest fear.”

“I wish I could escape my mind, that I could be free of this world and everything I have seen in the last few years. And the children who have survived – what will become of them? How will they be able to live in this world?”

“It’s amazing, the way we love people from the day we are born, the way we hold on, as if we are holding on to life itself.”

“It took me years to understand them, and once I did, the world around me never looked or sounded the same”

My review :

A love story that leaves an impact on your mind. Story of Syrian refugees Nuri , a beekeeper and his wife Afra, an artist. Living happily in Aleppo, Syria and then suddenly their life takes a turn. Due to change in events, Arfa losing her eyesight and they travel from Syria to England as refugees to join their friend Mustafa. This book is about the perilous journey embarked by Noori and Afra. Both have lost so much, unspeakable pain and dangers they face in this journey, crossing various countries to reach England. The events that they face emotionally and physically during the journey are overwhelming. Both have lost an emotional connect and their effort to revive each other’s emotion with compassion is extremely touching.

It is one of those book which is emotionally powerful and soul searching. It is a beautifully written story of compassion, love triumph of human spirit. A book that always remains in your memory.

My ratings: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

THE BEEKEEPER OF ALLEPO By Christy Lefteri The Beekeeper of Aleppo In the midst of war, he found love In the midst of darkness, he found courage…

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Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

The story of Robert Kincaid, the photographer and free spirit searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting for the fulfillment of a girlhood dream, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY gives voice to the longings of men and women everywhere-and shows us what it is to love and be loved so intensely that life is never the same again.

This book had been…

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The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are. France, 1939 In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent.…

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PACHINOKO BY MIN JIN LEE

Yeongdo, Korea 1911. In a small fishing village on the banks of the East Sea, a club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja. When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then Isak, a Christian minister, offers her a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife.

Following a man she…

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POOR ECONOMICS By Abhijit V. Banerjee and Eshter Duflo

WINNERS OF THE 2019 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS

Imagine you have a few million dollars. You want to spend it on the poor. How do you go about it? Billions of government dollars, and thousands of charitable organizations and NGOs, are dedicated to helping the world’s poor. But much of their work is based on assumptions about the poor and the world that are untested generalizations at best, harmful…

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BORN A CRIME BY TREVOR NOAH

BORN A CRIME BY TREVOR NOAH

One of the comedy world’s fastest-rising stars tells his wild coming of age story during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. • Noah provides something deeper than traditional memorists: powerfully funny observations about how farcical political and social systems play out in our lives. • Trevor Noah is the host of the Emmy and Peabody…

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The Exile - A novel based on the life of Maharaja Duleep Singh by Navtej Sarna

The Exile – A novel based on the life of Maharaja Duleep Singh by Navtej Sarna

In 1839, Maharaja Ranjit Singhof Punjab, one of India’s greatest rulers, died and his empire was plunged into chaos. Less than a decade later, weakened by internecine rivalry and intrigue, Punjab fell into the waiting hands of the British. The ruler who signed away the kingdom and its treasures, including the famed Koh-i-noor diamond, was an eleven-year-old boy, Duleep Singh, the youngest of…

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The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times .

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RUMI TALES TO LIVE BY - KAMLA K. KAPUR

RUMI TALES TO LIVE BY – KAMLA K. KAPUR

“How we forget and inflate ourselves with the knowledge we think is absolute.”

“To accept and acknowledge that we are in trouble is the first step towards getting out of it. The second is to know that we have arrived here by our own lack of vigilance . The third is the determination to do what it takes to get out of it. The fourth is to remember that our suffering has a purpose, though we may not…

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A Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond

A Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond

A Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond

My first author signed book.

The Novel starts with the death of the father of Ruth Labadoor in front of her eyes in a church. This murder is committed by the Indian rebels who are a part of the 1857 mutiny and who have decided to kill all the Britishers of the small town Shahjahanpur. It is then that Mariam Labadoor, who is the mother of the narrator, Ruth…