This is my January book, I picked it randomly.

Eve, the 34 year old daughter of recently deceased conman Alexander Weston, knows a good deal when she sees it – and this one doesn’t even come close. However, with vulnerable brother Terry being beaten in jail, she can’t afford to be fussy. She needs to organise protection for him, and fast. The intimidating and powerful con Cavelli seems the perfect solution, but how high a price is he going to exact? She may as well be forming a pact with the Devil. A break-in, followed by a vicious assault, soon makes Eve question the wisdom of her choice. Cavelli is leading her straight into Hell. Suddenly, her own life is in jeopardy; there’s a psychopath lurking in the shadows and he’s prepared to kill to get what he wants. With two men dead already Eve is forced to turn to the past to find the answers she so desperately needs. There’s only one problem. Time is running out.

This is one boring book, chapters and chapters of nonsense that I can sum up in a paragraph. Around 600 pages of pure agony and the ending WTH! I hated this book and I hated the main character Eve! I remembered the last time I hated a character in a book, it was “East of Eden” because the character was pure evil but at least I liked the book!

All Eve did was emotionally analyse every damn thing! Smoke cigarettes or as the British call them fags and drink. Think about something for ages, do something else in an instant… lawe3at chabdeee offfff.

I was waiting for the story to begin, terrible details, so many characters in the book, it takes me time just to remember who’s who and what the hell is their role in this awful novel.

I was glad I finished this terrible book and it is the last time I pick anything for this writer!

My friend advised me to throw the book when I was complaining to her about it and she said see how far a 600 pages novel will fly

I picked up this book because I wanted something different and indeed I found it when reading Kitchen by Japanese writer, Banana Yoshimoto.

It contains two short stories mainly about the loss of loved ones. It deals with the emotions of it all and human relations in a strange way that I am not familiar with which I found intriguing maybe because of the Japanese culture or something got lost in translation.

I became familiar with a new word, nostalgic and nostalgia,  it is widely used in this small book. I’m not sure if it was a direct translation of a single Japanese word used originally by the writer or it is the closest translation to different synonyms in Japanese that the author wrote.

It is a very light book and refreshing that I do recommend to read.

I find myself picking up books without any prior knowledge about its content nor about the author, actually I chose this book after I saw J.M. Coetzee comment on the back and he’s the author of one of my favourite books, Age of Iron.

‘A beautiful and often harrowing story.’ Observer Books of the Year ‘A sensitive and touching story of a child exposed too early to religious intolerance and the uglier side of the Nigerian state.’ J. M. Coetzee ‘Political brutality and domestic violence, religion and witchcraft all merge with subtle force in this memorable novel. Chimammanda Ngozi Adichie uses childhood innocence to write Nigerian history with the eye of a family insider.’ Hugo Hamilton ‘Purple Hibiscus is the best debut I’ve read since Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things.’ Jason Cowley, Times journalist, literary editor of the New Statesman ‘This debut ensnares the reader from the first page and lingers in the memory!in soft, searing voice, Adichie examines the complexities of family, faith and country through the haunted but hopeful eyes of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood.’ Publishers Weekly

It is set in Nigeria about a family of four, a strict Christian religious father, an obedient mother, and two siblings Jaja and Kambili. The story is in three sections, when an extreme event changes things at home, then how things were, and finally how it continues.

A poor orphan, Ram Mohammad Thomas, participates on a game show and answers all 12 questions correctly to win one billion rupees, which is approximately six million KD! The show producers did not expect anyone to win this amount of money at this stage of the show, so he is arrested by the police on account of cheating his way. Ram begins explaining how he knew the answer to the questions by telling his life stories to a young lawyer who came to his rescue.

I really enjoyed this fast paced novel to the end. Each question is a chapter, that begins with a snippet of Ram’s life and ends with the show’s question and how he came to answer it. The surprises and unexpected turns are in each story line that keeps you flipping through each and every chapter to reach the show’s question answer roundup.

The great thing, it really added to my knowledge about the Indian culture and way of living. I do recommend this novel and maybe I’ll manage to see the movie, but I’ve always enjoyed the book version everytime.

I continued reading Maya Angelou’s book, Letter To My Daughter, on the plane. I managed to finish it on our way back. It is an amazing light book that touched me in different ways. She is a magnifienct writer, that I went on and bought other books by her!

She starts off by a simple introduction to why this book and writes her life stories and leaves it to the reader to conclude and learn from the incident. Her upbringings, travels, work, friends, her life so far, her gains and losses.

I tried to quote many things I liked in this book, but most probably I’ll end up posting it all, so I do recommend it to those who like reading this kind of book genre.

I’ve seen this book a couple of years back when I was in Jarir and didn’t want to read a book about someone’s pet! But few months back, I saw it’s going for 4 KD and said why not.

I’m really glad I picked it up. It’s about a dog called Marley that two newly weds got to prepare them for the resposibilty that comes along with kids.

It’s a very light enjoyable book that I highly recommened. I did laugh and tear up while reading it.

I’ve lots of books lined up that I didn’t read, I don’t think I’ll go book shopping until I finish what I have, but if I go to Jarir to pick up anything, I have to passby their books shelves and select a few, sit down and breeze quickly through them!

Been waiting for this … Finally I got it … can’t wait to begin reading it … Hope it doesn’t disappoint me … I believe this is the first novel I read after seeing the movie … All that was before, I usually read the novel and then watch the movie and of course always end up loving the novel more …

I read three books by Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist, By the River Piedra I sat Down and Wept and Veronika Decided to Die.

After reading several books by the same author you kind of know his style, the way they think, express, writes … they kind of establish a foundation of reference so you would compare with other authors or within their books.

For me, I believe I kind of got Paulo by the time I read a third novel of his.

His writings are mostly philosophical and raise questions and pay answers in a way I have never thought of. Though I disagree with the spiritual part which relates to believing in the existence of GOD, but I am always open to hear other opinions on that matter and whatever they say never affects my beliefs. On the contrary make me thankful that I have mine. I love the way he explores human ideas, challenges and questions them, provide another perspective … sometimes takes you so far … in the mad zone …

The last novel, Veronika Decided to Die, what amazed me is the concept. The fact that she decided to let go because her life has fallen into a pattern, though perfect it may seem to others, and she believed that nothing new will come along and it will be downhill from this point on, so she decides to take matters in her own hands. She wasn’t mad, sick or anything she was sane and aware of everything.

I didn’t expect the ending, I laughed. But if it were to continue, to extend the novel to see how all the characters lives will continue, I say it will be portrayed in a different way than what the author would have liked us to believe.

I must say that by far, this is the best novel I read by the author.

I simply loved this book, I was intrigued by the title, it is a spiritual memoir by Sidney Poitier.

I have this vision of my life. When people see their future they see themselves, their significant other, their kids, etc. what pops in my head, is me in my seventies. Just peacefully reminiscing about my life. It really is the basis of lots of my decisions and the way I live my life. I always see myself at that age looking back at my journey, so when I hesitate, get scared or even lazy, I imagine myself in my seventies looking at this precise moment and thinking what I could have done if I had the chance again. So I put my fears aside, reluctance, disappointment and go ahead. It works most of the times.

This book is truly so unpretentious and I related to it a lot. He details his life and significant moments. The obstacles he faced and what life taught him. I discovered that I shared with him a lot of life’s perspective. You’ll feel that he’s so honest, open, confident, stubborn, arrogant, selfish, committed, has his own principles and I love that. People who are transparent and don’t give a damn about what other people think as long as they are doing what they believe is right.

The thing that got me thinking is I always believed that after I reach my golden age, 70 – if I live that long-, I would be resting preparing for the afterlife, but he, at a much later part of his life still had challenges and fears to overcome and goals to achieve and passions to fulfill. I guess that changed my view a bit. I might stumble on a few things before deciding to shutdown.

I believe one should read this book to really feel it because I am not doing it any justice. To really capture what I want to say, I would have to quote from the book itself. I do highly recommend reading this book. It’s light, easy and spiritually powerful.