Stories that Shape you...(Books and Beyond)

I did not read any books in the first half of the year as my monkey mind had different interests and was jumping all over. But in the second half of 2024, I was immersed in reading and managed to read a few books.  As the new year kicked in with new excitement, if you desire to start the hobby of reading do check these out.

The Last Queen by my favvvvv Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni:

This book made me stay away from social media for three weeks and all I did when I had some time after work was read this book. I was so obsessed with the plot that I took breaks from work to read this book. I immersed myself in this book as I love the style of Chitra Banerjees's work since 2020. 

This is the story of a young queen with the aura of a courageous, powerful woman in Indian history fighting against the British. This depicts the valour of being the daughter of a person who maintained the King's dogs to marry the King. Though the love plot might seem unreasonable to many I feel only the person walking the path knows how reasonable their decisions are. There are many figures in history whose lives did not come to light which made me question the desire - to "leave the legacy behind". Living a life working towards our goal is all that matters and leaving the rest to the universe.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors:

I decided to try something out of my comfort zone. This book proved again that I am not a fan of just love/romance novels.

This book shows how a life partner that you choose can influence you. The 2 characters of Cleopatra and Frankenstein marry but they are not connected to the emotional level. The couple had everything but they could not understand each other's priority and effort. I feel it is due to a very huge age gap and each of them was in a different phase of life. They were very superficial and the relationship ends with reasons that could be resolved if they were emotionally involved from the very beginning. Frankenstein after the separation falls in love with the person with whom he felt comfortable and Cleopatra lives life as an artist. 

How Business Storytelling Works by Sandeep Das:

I loved this book and enjoyed the psychological reasoning for strategies used by different companies. I knew a few parts of this book before reading it which I learnt in a webinar. I purchased the physical copy to read it considering it an interesting gist. If you want to start a business or be involved in that segment this is a delightful read. This is a non-fictional genre but I never felt it boring or that is just giving the gyan.

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa:

Reading a book is considered a glorified hobby. Many desire to read. The reasons to pursue this hobby can be various but this book hit me hard by emphasizing what should be the reasons to read a book. This is a culmination of amazing storytelling and deep-induced meaning to it. 

A book is not a piece of decoration. It is of no use if books are locked in your cupboard. We should not read a book to show off but to connect with each page. The number of books we read does not determine our knowledge but the process of savoring it makes the difference. These points hit me the hardest and this is a must-read...

The wise and otherwise by Sudha Murthy:

This is a book of short stories that Sudha Murthy faced in her day-to-day life. I love "Mahaswetha" and "Three Thousand Stitches" by Sudha Murthy and picked up this book with a different expectation.

 I felt this to be very basic and did not find it mentally stimulating. I might have not enjoyed this book because I picked it up in 2024 and not when it was fresh out in the market which can give you the experience.