I am not really a huge fan of self help books.I do come across them several times but I usually skip reading them.I feel they tell you stuff that you already know,but when you see it in print...it feels like a revelation.I picked up Robin Sharma's bestseller 'The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari' around seven years ago when I was in a completely different stage in life and gave up reading it midway.I dont really remember why I did that...but maybe the book did not captivate me at that time.So when my sis recommended this book to me saying that I would love it,I was a bit skeptical at first.I thought it was a sequel to the first and kept it lying on my desk for the longest time until one fine day I picked it up and read it without a break.
It is not a sequel but the book does have Julian (the monk) in the first book as the guide.The story is about Jonathan Landry,(Julian's distant cousin) a troubled man trapped in the inescapable rat race of modern life.With an over demanding job,a failing marriage and a disappointed son,Jonathan is a man in trouble.One day at the insistence of his old mother he agrees to meet his old cousin Julian who has expressed his desire to meet Jonathan . He is assigned with a task of collecting nine life-saving talismans from safe-keepers located across the globe from Istanbul to Japan to India. Thus begins his journey of rediscovering his life and the joys he had been missing in it as each talisman and its safe-keeper has an important message along with it.
We travel to various places with Jonathan and along the way learn important lessons in life,the importance of being true to ourselves and deriving pleasure from even the most simple things in life.
This book could not have come to me at a better time.I guess we need to be reminded time and again about what really is important in life and not get lost in the race.What made the book even more interesting was that it told us these truths while taking us on a long journey across the world.
I strongly recommend it.It provoked me to stop and think about where I was going.I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.
Title : The Devotion Of Suspect X
Author : Keigo Higashino
Price : Rs 350
I was looking for something new to read,after having read a couple of memoirs in a row,I wanted something different.Thanks to Blogadda for sending this book my way just when I needed it.Initially I was wary as it was a Japanese author but all my doubts were soon put to rest as I proceeded with the story.I finished reading the book in a single sitting and was totally impressed at the end of it.It is indeed a compulsive page turner.
This story is set in Japan,it tells us about a single mother Yasuko who lives with her daughter Misato.A chance encounter with Yasuko's ex-husband Togashi sets the story rolling and Togashi somehow finds a way to Yasukos house ,things get ugly,the situation escalates to violence and Togashi ends up dead in their home.Just as they are wondering what they should do next,help comes unexpectedly in the form of their next door neighbour Ishigami.Now,Ishigami is a mathematical genius who works as a school maths teacher and who comes to their aid because he secretly harbours feelings for Yasuko.The story progresses very rapidly from here on and goes on to tell us how Ishigami helps his neighbours get out of the mess they are in by using his intellect and muddling the detectives who are handling the case.
However this is not where it ends.There are numerous twists and turns as Ishigami has to contend with a very smart detective and his genius physicist friend Yukawa,who happens to be Ishigami's equal in university as they belong to the same school.Its a cat and mouse chase but with lots of emotions and feelings thrown in for good measure.I could not guess the ending and I doubt anyone will.It is so difficult to unravel the mystery that it does keep you glued to the pages.
There is a beautiful line which remained with me long after I finished reading it "Sometimes all you
had to do was exist in order to be someone's saviour". Also "Which is harder :devising an unsolvable problem or solving that problem?" This line pretty much sums up the entire plot.The story also talks about friendship,trust and unconditional love and it does pull at your heartstrings.It was initially a little difficult as the names were all Japanese and I had to turn back more than once to get the characters right.However it does not disturb the flow too much as there aren't too many characters in the story.It is a national best-seller in Japan with over 2 million copies sold and also the third book in the detective Galileo series,penned by the author.The writing is so lucid and simple that it keeps you turning the pages to see what next is in store.I could easily imagine it as a movie.
I enjoyed reading it and happily rate it 4 out of 5.
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