Books have always been my favorite escape. I fell off the reading wagon for a couple of years but 2017 has been a sort of coming-back-to-my-roots year.The first book that sparked my interest in reading was Harry Potter. Oh what a way to start my reading adventure.. I then moved onto books by Jane Austen, Jeffrey Archer, Danielle Steele and Sydney Sheldon. I remember buying books from these street side ‘bhaiyyas’ and honing my bargaining skills like a pro.. My reading list always depended on what books they had. Ah such fun times. 😊 I also had and still have a Mill & boons phase. Ashamed, embarrassed and still doing it. 🤦🏽♀️
I have read some amazing and some not-so amazing books this year. Without further ado, let’s get started.
The Palace of Illusions – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Rating – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I read the first page. I was hooked. I couldn’t keep it down. I was mesmerized. I fell so hard in love. It is now one of my favorite books. Enough said.
I have been into off-beat Indian mythologies lately and this book was just the perfect entry into the world of Mahabharata. In a nutshell, this book is about Mahabharata BUT from Draupadi’s perspective. She isn’t merely a myth or an epitome of perfection.. She is flawed, makes mistakes, has desires, is in quest of her identity, suffers, wreaks havoc..yet she is strong, confident and skillful..ummmm… so.. human. And that’s what I love the most about this book.
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Rating – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I finished this book in 8 hours on our way back from London. Btw all travel details coming to the blog beginning next week! 💃🏽
Reading this book was an emotional rollercoaster. I cried ALOT and my heart felt extremely heavy but I am still so glad to have picked it up. The writing is extremely gripping and you can literally feel the pain of the characters. The story is about the journey of two friends from different strata of society set in Afghanistan and America. Read it but not on one of your bad days.. 😊
Sita – Amish
Rating – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the second book in the Ram Chandra series and follows the journey of Sita Ji from childhood to the time she is captured by Ravana. Again an off-beat version of the well known tale of Ramayana.
The first book in the series was alrite but this one is epic. The portrayal of Sita Ji is what feminist dreams are made of. She is strong, confident, balanced, at times even more skilled than Ram Ji, leading an army and being a total badass. LOVED IT!
Scion of Ikshvaku – Amish
Rating – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was the first book of the Ram Chandra series and it follows the life of Ram Ji from birth to the time Sita Ji is captured by Ravana.
Being honest, this was a tad bit boring. Even though it starts at a great pace, things slow down with time. There were still some surprising and interesting moments but overall, not as interesting as I expected it to be.
Do you need to read this book before picking the second one? Hmm yes and no. There are some facts that emerge in the first book and are intertwined with the second one. But again, 75% of the second book can be understood without reading this one. So mayyyybeeee you can cheat and read the wiki page. 🙈
Eat Pray Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
Rating – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The entire world read this highly rated book almost a decade back and here I am reading in 2017.🙄
This book follows the author on her journey to self-discovery. I enjoyed reading it but there were some parts that just went over my head. I loved loved her time in Italy and for the lack of a better word, it was delicious. But sadly or not-so sadly, her time in India was the one I found difficult to read and get through. Still a pretty good read.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and It’s All Small Stuff – Richard Carlson
Rating – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I am a huge self-help genre lover. Like what’s not to love? Ok I am sure I’ll get a thousand counter-arguments but I still love them. 🤷♀️
I read this book almost 4 years back and found myself reaching for it again this year. We all worry too much and most of the times what we stress about are all the small stuff. Like? Oh my roommate did not throw the trash, oh that person did not give me way in traffic, oh my friend never replied to the message so definitely he/she hates me, constantly interrupting people and inturn putting too much pressure on our minds to keep guessing and finishing sentences.. and so on..
This book is all about making the smallest changes for living a more mindful life. It’s not preachy at all and a great way to realize how we are letting small stuff take over without fully living. Give it a read and I am sure you won’t be sorry.
Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur
Rating – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚡️ (4.5)
Rupi Kaur is magic. Noone can deny that. I actually had great expectations from this small collection of poetry. I loved 90% of them with all my heart. Rest not so much. But I still recommend this book as most of the proses are breathtakingly stunning!
The Shiva Trilogy (3 books) – Amish
Rating – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Actually this series was the start of my love for off-beat Indian mythology stories. There are 3 books in total ( The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas, The Oath of the Vayuputras). Again, I love how every character and especially lord Shiva has been portrayed.. human, flawed yet a legend because of his actions. I really liked the first 2 books. The third one did stretch a little too much but still not a bad read.
And here you have everything I have read/enjoyed so far. Have you read any of these? I am sure you must have as most of these books are pretty old. Do you guys have any recommendations? I would love love to know.
Apart from the books already read, I plan to finish a couple of more before the year ends..
Books I plan to finish by end of 2017 –
1984 – George Orwell
The Inner Courtyard – Lakshi Holmstrom
The Secret – Rhonda Byrne (reading this again)
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
The Sun and Her Flowers – Rupi Kaur
Hope you enjoyed this post. Thank you so much for stopping by.. See ya all soon. – Love, M ❤️
3 comments
I am intrigued by the shiva series, definitely going to read. Thanks for the recommendations 😘😘
“The Palace of Illusions” is one of my favorites too! The viewpoint from which the author wrote was refreshing, portraying Sita as a woman with desires and deep-seated emotions. Feminist Indian mythology, I think which is one-of-a-kind. 🙂
There is one book that is not so popular but I would definitely recommend: 21 Things Every Girl Should Know by Sneha Mehta. It is fun, informational and so connecting, I bet you will fall in love with it.