Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Title: The Fault in Our Stars

Author: John Green

Publishers: Dutton Books

Date of Publication: January 10th, 2012

Genre: YA, Contemporary

Format: Hardcover

Length: 313 pages

My Source: Ebook

Synopsis

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Review

Hazel is a 16 year old girl with stage IV thyroid cancer, and has been living with an oxygen tank since she was first diagnosed at 12. She realizes she is going to die, but she is on a drug that is keeping the tumors at bay. At a support group meeting she meets hottie Augustus Waters, who is in remission. They immediately hit it off and change each others lives drastically.

The Fault in Our Stars is another beautifully written book by John Green. A few months ago John made a video on his youtube channel, and in this video he read the first two chapter of this book. I was hooked instantly. I wanted to know everything there was to know about Hazel and Augustus. I'm not going to say that this was the most original cancer book out there, but it felt more personal.

Let's start with the characters. John Green wrote the same exact character over and over again in his previous books. This is one complaint I've always had, but you won't find that here. Hazel is no Alaska Young, she is no Margot. She's just Hazel, and she's lovely. Same with Augustus. He's unlike all of John Greens male characters, and I adore him.

There is simply one complaint I have about this book. John needs to make his 17 year old characters sound more like 17 year old teens than 35 year old men. Most of the dialog in this book and sweet and enjoyable, but then the characters come out with these crazy words and there are other ways to show your characters are intelligent people without always making them spout out these weird, random words. In all honesty it's a bit annoying, but it doesn't bother me too much, because I understand that his younger readers will build a much better vocabulary if they pay attention. Also, his book is full of quotable lines as you can clearly see from everyone else's reviews. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. John is a phenomenal writer. He's great at building suspense when needed, and also at hitting you in the gut with a healthy dose of raw emotion. Almost everyone I know who has read this book cried. At least a little. He also throws in lots of humor which is usually appreciated to break up sad moments.

As far as John writing a female voice for the first time, I thought he did a good job. This book wasn't life-changing for me, but I easily could see how others could be affected by this book in an astounding way. It tackles cancer, death, loss of sight, loss of loved ones, love, thoughts of the afterlife and shows vividly from one girls perspective what it may feel like to know you are dying. This book may not suit everyone, but if you don't have issues reading about those things I would recommend this book to you. It was quite depressing at times, but I'm sure you would know that just by reading the synopsis. 

About The Author

John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.

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Review: And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Title: And The Mountains Echoed

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Publishers: Riverhead Hardcover

Date of Publication: 21st May, 2013

Genre: Literary Fiction

Format: Hardcover

Length: 404 pages for hardcover.

My Source: Ebook (Epub)

A Short Synopsis: Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. 

In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. 

Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

My Review: Within the first few pages of this book, the reader knows s/he’s in the hands of a master storyteller. In a village in rural Afghanistan, mid 1940s, a father tells a folk tale to his two young children. On the next day, they will travel to Kabul and start a chain of events that will take the reader on a journey across the world and through the decades.

The novel is made up of a series of linked and interlinked stories about members of this one family, their descendants and people whose lives they touch. Hosseini takes us back and forwards in time but each episode tells a whole story of one of the characters. This made the book feel in some ways like a collection of short stories rather than a novel, but Hosseini brings us round in a perfect circle and the last few chapters bring all these disparate episodes into one immensely moving whole.

The beauty of the writing is only matched by the humanity of the characters. Hosseini takes us inside their minds and their hearts and we see them laid bare, essentially good people but with their flaws and weaknesses exposed, to us and to themselves. Although much of the book takes place in Europe and America, Afghanistan remains at the heart of it because it remains in the hearts of the characters, even though they may have become part of the war- and poverty-driven diaspora.

A beautiful and very moving book that brought me to tears on several occasions, this isn’t fundamentally about politics or war; it is about the unforgettable people who populate its pages – about humanity. And though there is sadness and sorrow here, there is also love and joy and a deep sense of hope. Highly recommended.

About the Author: Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. In 1970 Hosseini and his family moved to Iran where his father worked for the Embassy of Afghanistan in Tehran. In 1973 Hosseini's family returned to Kabul, and Hosseini's youngest brother was born in July of that year.
In 1976, when Hosseini was 11 years old, Hosseini's father obtained a job in Paris, France, and moved the family there. They were unable to return to Afghanistan because of the Saur Revolution in which the PDPA communist party seized power through a bloody coup in April 1978. Instead, a year after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in 1980 they sought political asylum in the United States and made their residence in San Jose, California.
Hosseini graduated from Independence High School in San Jose in 1984 and enrolled at Santa Clara University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1988. The following year, he entered the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, where he earned his M.D. in 1993. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1996. He practiced medicine for over ten years, until a year and a half after the release of The Kite Runner.
Hosseini is currently a Goodwill Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He has been working to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan through the Khaled Hosseini Foundation. The concept for the foundation was inspired by the trip to Afghanistan that Hosseini made in 2007 with UNHCR.
He lives in Northern California with his wife, Roya, and their two children (Harris and Farah).

Contact Information: 

Official Website: http://www.khaledhosseini.com/

Goodreads: Link to Khaled Hosseini's author page.

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Review: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

How I Came to Know About This Book: I borrowed it from a friend.


Format of The Book: Paperback


Genre: Philosophy/ Spirituality/ Inspirational.


Length of The Book: 197 pages (Paperback).


A Short Synopsis: The Alchemist follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago, believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, decides to travel to a Romani in a nearby town to discover its meaning. The gypsy tells him that there is a treasure in the Pyramids in Egypt.

Early into his journey, he meets an old king, Melchizedek, who tells him to sell his sheep to travel to Egypt and introduces the idea of a Personal Legend (which is always capitalized in the book). Your Personal Legend "is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is". He adds that "when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it". This is the core theme of the book.

The Pyramids of Giza

Along the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity, disaster and learns a lot about himself and the ways of the world. During his travels, he meets a beautiful Arabian woman named Fatima, who explains to him that if he follows his heart, he shall find what it is he seeks.

Santiago then encounters a lone alchemist who also teaches him about personal legends. He says that people want to find only the treasure of their personal legends but not the personal legend itself. Santiago feels unsure about himself as he listens to the alchemist's teachings. The alchemist states: "Those who don't understand their personal legends will fail to comprehend its teachings". It also states that treasure is more worthy than gold.(Wikipedia Page).

Characters of The Book: 

• Santiago
• Melchizedek
• The Shopkeeper
• The Englishman
• Fatima
• The Alchemist
• The Coptic Monk

My Review: 

"when you really want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it"

This book has crossed the boundaries of books, and has taken a life of its own, creating a movement all around the globe.

Santiago's journey and spiritual quest, the people he meets, the dreams he has, the omens he encounters, and the nature he speaks to, are all things that we can relate to..things that we've either forgotten about or simply dismissed as childhood fantasies. It is all about finding your Personal Legend and pursuing your dream regardless of any hurdles, and about being spiritually connected to the universe, which is part of us, and part of God. we are all one.

Reading this book always sets me back on the right path towards achieving the dreams I have put on hold. We always try to do what everyone expects of us like pursuing a career that you hate just because that is what everyone does. Recognizing my personal legend, being able to talk to the trees, sky, ants, the core of the earth, the air particles, and to my heart, feeling a deeper spiritual connection with everything/everyone that is around me, feeling God inside me, and not being afraid of failing or facing challenges are just some of the few things this book has given me.

It is maktub that Coelho writes this book, shares it with the world, and affect so many lives. This masterwork is a legend and a precious treasure.








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Review: Cinder (Lunar Chronicles: Book One) by Marissa Meyer

How I Came to Know About This Book: Through Goodreads

Format of The Book: Ebook (pdf version).

Genre: Young Adult/ Fantasy/ Retelling.

Length of The Book: 387 Pages (Hardcover).

A Short Synopsis: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future. (Goodreads Description).

Characters of The Book: 

• Linh Cinder
• Prince Kai
• Dr. Erland
• Linh Peony
• Linh Pearl
• Linh Garan
• Linh Adri
• Iko
• Queen Levana
• Emperor Rikan
• Chang Sacha
• Konn Torin
• Cress
• Sybil Mira
• Nainsi
• Li 
• Fateen 
• Queen Camila 
• President Vargas 
• Princess Winter

My Review: 

I started reading Cinder with the expectation that it was going to be pretty much a straight retelling of Cinderella but with the whole Cyborg twist to it. I was surprised to find however, that it is basically a story on it's own with the fairytale inspirations sprinkled throughout it. Fair enough, there's an Asian Prince, a ball, an evil stepmother, but there's also the New Beijing setting! An evil Lunar Queen! Prince Kai! And there's also Cinder, who is just so charming, witty, kind, and head-strong. 

The characters within this book are so incredibly charming that you can't help but love them. Iko is a stand out for me, she's a cute little robot that believes she's a human. Prince Kai is persistent, honest, caring, and handsome. The evil stepmother and step sister played their parts well, but did not grate so much as the evil Lunar Queen. 

Rather than a glass slipper, we have a poorly fitted foot--an android foot. In this very distant future, androids and humans roam the earth where the plague is a thing to fear in every day life. The world building in this book is fantastic. It's unimaginably creative with a way of telling that completely grips you and never lets go. The Lunars and the abilities they possess, along with the fear of death at every corner, is perfectly mixed in with classic elements of Cinderella. It's ingenious. I have never been as satisfied with a fairy tale retelling as I am with Cinder. The characters are witty and fresh, with a love story that has it all: a swoon-worthy prince, a charming personality, great chemistry--a true fairy tale romance. 

Even though it's essentially a retelling, the originality in this novel is outstanding. From the futuristic concepts to the interesting turns to the plot, we have a whole new enchanting world to get introduced to. While there are new spins added to the story, these are not especially unpredictable. From the very start it's obvious what the big twist is going to be. However, it's obvious in a way that makes me think this was the author's intention. As if she wants the reader to know what Cinder does not, making us feel wistful; if only everyone knew, things would be so different for her. 

Despite all of that, there are a few downfalls to this book. Firstly, the predictable storyline kind of ruins any sort of major reveal later on. Being inspired by fairy tales sort of chains you in a certain corner, where certain things need to happen in the book. There's also an incredible lack of world building, considering the amazing world that Marissa has created. I did find that there were a few details missing, which I'm glad the free prequel has filled in for me. 

These however, won't decrease my love of the book. I'm just left with such a feeling of warmth upon finishing it. It's such a charming little tale, with so much love put into it. I definitely recommend it for anyone who loves a good read. 

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Review: Ababar Yadi Ichchha Koro (আবার যদি ইচ্ছা কর) by Narayan Sanyal

How I Came to Know About This Book: I got it as a prize in school.

Format of The Book: Paperback

Genre: Biographical Fiction

Length of The Book: 126 pages

A Short Synopsis: It is basically the story of two famous painters, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, but the author describes their lives in Indian background naming them Chandravan Gorg (who was later baptized to Christianity and named Vincent Van Gorg) and Gaganbihari Paul (who would call himself Paul Gauguin). Quite obviously he had to change some of the incidents of the lives of the original painters and add some to make them realistic. 
It is an extremely interesting read from the beginning till the end. Their childhood, how their lives took turn and they decided to become painters-everything is portrayed brilliantly, the narration is simple yet beautiful! Interesting thing is that none of their paintings were sold during their lifetime (though one of Vincent's was sold, he was unaware of it). The last few years of their lives were pretty tragic.


Characters of The Book: Naren (the narrater), Daipayan Lahiri, Chandravan Gorg, Gaganbihari Paul, Batukeshwar Dutta and other subsidiary characters.


My Review: After reading "Biswasghatak" and "Aantarleena" I fell in love with Narayan Sanyal's writings. His versatility, the ease with which he writes about widely varying subject matters left me spellbound. And this book had completely different story line from the other two books I've read, so, as soon as I got the book, I grabbed it and finished reading within an hour or so.

Initially, I wasn't very sure whether I'm going to like this book as much as the previous two since the genre, biographical fiction that is, was not something I prefer reading too much. But once I began reading, I didn't even realize when I was dragged into the story, immersed into the lives of the characters. The way the author has portrayed the lives of the two great painters in Indian, or to be precise, in Bengal's background, it never felt unreal- not a single time.

The best part of the book, for me, was the time Vincent (i.e., Chandravan Gorg) spent in the coaliary (coal mine area). His involvement with the common people there was heart-warming. And after several failures and betrayal he faced, how his will for painting grew eventually was described beautifully. The man whose life is so full of tragedies, died a tragic death as well. And this part of the book left me in tears.

On the contrary, I wasn't much admirable about the life of Paul Gauguin(Ganganbihari Paul). His art forms, paintings(especially the one he draw at the slum was amazing) were no doubt immensely valuable, but I failed to adore him as a person. The facts that he deprived his own family, betrayed his friend Batukeshwar and his wife Sulekha (who happened to save his life when he was almost dead and cheated on her own husband to be with Gauguin), can't be ignored just because he excelled in his art. Or at least, I couldn't ignore those things. Though he died a pathetic and suffering death, I somehow didn't feel much pity for him.

Beyond doubt, this is one of the masterpieces created by Narayan Sanyal and I love this book. I'd definitely recommend it for everybody, even to those readers who doesn't like reading Biographies because I'm sure they'll love it equally as I did.  

(P.S.- I'm not aware of the lives of the two extremely famous painters, hence, my review is purely based on what the book describes about their lives.)


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