LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET

 

"If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place."

Since I have seen this book on readings I wanted to grab this one and read it real quickly. There are two books that I always feel a true treasure of wisdom are letters to a young poet and The Prophet. You can reread these two books again and again and will always find a new line, quote or paragraph to cherish. 

Letter to a young poet comprises of 10 letters written by Rainer Maria Rilke to a young poet Franz Kappus. While Franz Kappus was in the same military school as Rilke, he wrote letters to Rilke for his advice and guidance. These letters are not  just meant to be written to Kappus but they virtually have such deep meaning that it will intrigue anyone reading them.

These letters are more like deep and poetic and you fill feel like Rilke is referring you and not Kappus in his writing. This relatable feeling is what I guess made these letters so famous. Rilke not only share his views on aloneness, grief, joy, love and beauty but he has also written about how can face the difficult situations in your life with grace and integrity.

The book has only one side of letters as the book was published after Rilke died. Kappus has not published his side of letters but there is only a poem which Kappus shared with Rilke is in the book as he wrote it back to Kappus in his own writing. This book is a treasure of words and it would be a pleasure if we could read these letter sin Rilke's handwriting.

"A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it."

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

THE MOUNTAIN ECHOED

"The mountain echoed" is the third book written by Khaled Hosseini. It is one of the different books written by him in a different perspective. All nine chapters are written with the narration of each character. The story is told by nine different characters in each chapter and all the characters are related to each other.

The foundation of this book is built on the relationship of a 10 years old boy Abdullah and a 3 years old girl Pari. The siblings have a strong bond after their mother had died. Abdullah was more like a father to Pari than his brother.

In this book Khaled Hosseini focus on siblings and their relationship. The foundation of the story lies with the relationship of Abdullah and Pari, their step mother Parwana and her sister Masooma and an Afghan-American doctor Idris and his cousin Timur.

Every time I read Khaled Hosseini's book, the story made me into tears that how He and all the Afghans have suffered during the most difficult period of war. This book is not directly associated with Taliban and war instead it is written on how the families suffered after war.

The struggles of the characters in this book were personal and unrelated to the political turmoil in Afghanistan. And these lines of Hosseini turn me down into tears: " I hope a day will come when we write about Afghanistan, when we can speak about Afghanistan in a context outside of the wars and the struggles of the last 30 years. In some way I think this book is an attempt to do that."

The novel opens with the story of Abdullah and Pari's. As I already mentioned that Abdullah and Pari had a strong bond, after their mother had died it was Abdullah who has raised Pari like a father. Their father Saboor decided to sell her daughter to a wealthy childhood family in Kabul.

Saboor didn't want Abdullah to come with him and Pari but he insisted to come. On their way to Kabul Saboor told his children a story about another poor farmer who was forced to give up his beloved child and that the adopted child was happy in his life. The moral of the story was: "how at times of need, one has to sacrifice a finger to save the hand."

When Abdullah realizes what is happening to her sister he pleads and wails against Saboor's rule that he is not allowed to cry in Kabul. Mr's Wahdati the adopted mother assure him that it is best for Pari and he will understand it when he will be older.

Another chapter was narrated by Parwana and her beautiful sister Masooma. Parwana was a less favored child so in a flash of jealousy, she pushed Masooma out of the tree which made her paraplegic. After their parents death Parwana took care of her sister. Masooma asked Parwana to help her commit suicide so she would marry Saboor.

Parwana and Masooma had a brother Nabi who worked for Mr.Wahdati the adopted father of Pari. Nabi became infatuated with Mr.Wahdati's wife Nila. After Nila told him about his inability to have children, Nabi arranged for Pari to be sold to that childless couple. After Pari was sold to the couple Nabi was no longer welcomed to the village.

With the passing years several incidents happened that further drifted apart the two siblings. Abdullah leaves Afghanistan. Mr,Wahdati suffered a stroke and Nila took Pari and left him to Nabi and move to Paris, where her mother lives.

Before leaving Paris she found Mr,Wahdati's sketch books in which he had drawn Nabi several times which shows that he loved Nabi so much and he was so important to him than his own wife. Nabi took care of Mr,Wahdati for over 50 years. Mr,Wahdati even gave all his assets to Nabi.

 After Mr.Wahdati's death Nabi took his assets as a mandate and later before his death he named all his assets to Pari who was the real owner of all the things left by Mr.Wahdati. In this part of story you will also learn about the childhood of two cousins Idris and Timur.

One character that has stuck with me was Nila Wahadati, Pari's adopted mother. She was a well-known poet. The most interesting part was the opening of chapter VI opens with Nila Wahdati's interview. Khaled Hosseini portrays one the most amazing poets of Afghanistan in his novel to show that poetry is an asset of every Afghan women. In 1974, Nila Wahdati committed suicide.

With the broken threads which were started to emerge in the end Pari came to know that he was not Nila Wahdati's biological daughter and she had her own family in Afghanistan. She came to know about her brother whom she later found and gave him a visit.

Many times I found this novel disconnected because every character in this novel has a story to tell. The struggles they face and the heartbreaking challenges they have faced in their life. It is story of hope, hope of meeting your loved ones, hope of reuniting with your family.

I will recommend this novel to you as it is an epic tale of families suffering and facing hardhips at the most difficult time in their lives. Go ahead and read it.

Some amazing lines from this novel are:

" Nothing good came free, Even love. You paid for all things. And if you were poor, suffering was your currency."

"A story is like a moving train: no matter where you hop on board, you are bound to reach your destination sooner or later."

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

One of Paula Hawkins best novel is "The girl on the train." It is one of the psychological thriller novels. It is a story full of thrill and suspense. I really like this novel because thrilling novels are at their best caught your breath at every next scene that what is going to be happen next. You just keep on reading the novel in a single go. The girl on the train was one of 2016's best seller novels.

This novel is written as a first person narrative as the story is told by three women Rachel, Anna and Megan. The story begins with Rachel's narration. She was a 32 year old woman, reeling from the end of her marriage with Tom. Tom left Rachel for another woman, Anna Watson. 

Rachel has a habit of drinking which was the cause to lose her job. Because of her bad smoking habit she often faced severe blackouts too. She often harasses Tom as she has litter or no money once she sobers up.

 Rachel and Tom were friends and they were happily married but Rachel was unable to conceive and that inability of hers turns her into an alcoholic person. Tom too left her and married Anna. Tom and Anna were living happily with their daughter Evie.

The sight of Evie fuels Rachel's self-destructive tendencies as was unable to conceive because of her inability. Rachel has lost her job but she follows the same her same routine of taking the train to London every day. The train slowly passes from her old house where now Tom, Anna and Evie live happily.

The sight from the train was the best part. She watched from the train a beautiful and a very attractive couple living a few houses away from Tom's house. She idealizes their life and called them as Jason and Jess. She taught of them as a perfect couple and they were living a perfect life.

The second narrative of this story is Anna. Anna was a young and beautiful girl. She was a house wife. She loved to be at home with her daughter Evie. Anna firstly enjoyed the idea of showing off her beautiful life to Rachel that Tom chooses her over Rachel.

If we come back to Rachel's part while travelling on a train one day she saw Megan which she called as "Jess" with another man. It was not Scott (Jason), his husband. The next day Rachel found herself awakens as bloody and injured. She has no memories of last night that what happened to her.

At the same day she came to learn that Megan was missing and she was called by the police because Anna had reported her to the police. She told the police that she had seen Rachel drunk last night near their place when Megan went missing. She also told the police Rachel's harassment to her family.

Rachel told the police that she had seen Megan with a man and that she was having an affair. She got interested in that case as she had the feeling that that she had seen something the night she was drunk and Megan was missing. She also met Scott, Megan's husband as Megan's friend.

The third narrative of this novel is Megan. Megan had a troubled past. She found her life boring and she visited a therapist Dr Kamal Abdic and told him the darkest part of her life. Rachel thought that the man he saw that day with Megan was Kamal.

Rachel took a therapy session with Kamal. Her motive was to recall her memory of that day when she was blackout and to find the relationship of Kamal with Megan. A few days later Megan's body was found and she was reported pregnant. 

Rachel begin trusting her own memories more and she believed that many of the crazy things that Tom told her that she did while she was drunk really never happened. Rachel thought that it was Tom who killed Megan and she warns Anna as well.

Anna thought Rachel as a crazy person as she didn't wanted to believe what Rachel was telling her. She was scared at time that how Rachel harassed her in the past. Once Rachel came to her house and took Evie when Anna was not there. Rachel told Anna that she took Evie out of an act of love as she always wanted to be a mother but it was not possible for her.

I'm leaving the last part for you to read as a thriller or suspense. Do read this book to know who the real murderer is. What happens in Rachel's life in the end and also watch the movie. The movie was not as good as the novel for me but still I will recommend you to watch it after reading the novel.

Here is a glimpse from the movie "The girl on the train."

 

  

FRANKENSTEIN

Finally, I am writing something different from bestsellers. This is a different kind of genre before reading this book I was very curious that how will be the book? Is it purely a fiction or romance? But Mary Shelley wrote it so perfectly and I was deeply engraved in the book while reading that I finished this book within a day.

Many of you had already read this book but those who didn't read it yet and looking for a good fiction I surely recommend you to read this novel. It is basically a scientific romantic fiction and it is not a very long story and you can easily complete it within a day.

When I started reading books I only read romcoms and bestsellers and when I go through Frankenstein, it just changed my way of thinking about fictional novels. There are people like me who don't like fiction. But now my power of thoughts has changed. 

You should read Frankenstein because it is a scientific romantic fiction and I am sure it will not be you until the end. In fact, it will make you curious to read more. The story starts with a beautiful romance and that some scientific experiments leading to horror in itself.

Before coming towards the review I came through something very interesting about Frankenstein. Frankenstein is written by Mary Shelly. She is the wife of Percy Shelley, a renowned poet. The most interesting thing is that Frankenstein was written as a result of a bet. Mary, Percy and Lord Byron decided on a bet that who will write the best horror story.

Shelley travelled Europe and later on to the region of Geneva, where most of the story took place. The ideas about the story were discussed among her companions. After thinking for days, Shelley dreamt of a scientist who experimented and created a life and later was horrified by his own creation. Shelley's dream later evolved as a story of this novel.

As I was stuck on the name before reading the novel that why it is named Frankenstein and I came to know that Frankenstein itself refers to "MONSTER". And many commentators called it as acceptable. In this novel monster is identified by names such as "wretch", "creature", "daemon" and "monster".

The novel starts with Captain Robert Walton who was a failed writer and a captain. He set out to explore the North Pole. During the voyage, his crew spotted bells, dogs and a gigantic figure of which they were sure that it was not a human creature.

A few hours later they saw a man calling for help and rescued him, He was nearly frozen and his name was Victor Frankenstein. After when victors starts to recover from his exertion, he sees in Walton's eyes the same obsession that destroyed victor so, he decided to tell Walton the story of his life miseries that completely changed victor's life.

Victor started his story with his childhood that he was born in Naples into a very healthy Genevan family. Victor has two brothers Ernest and William. He was obsessed with studying outdated theories that focus on stimulating natural wonders. When Victor was young, his parents adopted a girl named Elizabeth Lavenza whom Victor later fall in love.

Victor was enrolled in the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. At the university, he studied chemistry and other sciences. He started to believe that the power of electricity can bring back a corpse to life and yet he was determined to do better than that "to create a thinking human being from scratch". He set up his laboratory and started his experiments.

With his experimentation, Victor created a giant creature. Giant would be the most appropriate word for that creature. Victor had created that creature with the shred of his own thighs. The creature was huge and horrific with white watery eyes and yellow skin that barely conceals muscles and blood vessels. Victor fled when the creature had awakened. When Victor again went to his apartment the creature already escaped.

Victor fell ill after all his experiment and was nursed by his friend Henry. After months of recovery he received a letter from his father that his brother William had died. Victor saw his creature near the crime scene which made him believe that it was the creature that killed his brother.

Victor was ravaged by grief and guilt at the same time. He wandered in the mountains to look for his creature. There he found the creature and the creature told victor about his tale. He told Victor that he was abandoned by his own father. 

He told Victor how badly he treated him on their first encounter and how he was badly treated by the society. People thought of him as a monster. He secretly lived for months with a family and helped him. I feel like you should read creature's narrative by your own so I'm not writing about it more.

The creature demanded a female companion from him as a living being he has a right to happiness too. The creature threatened him that will kill all his friends and loved once if he didn't fulfill his demand and ruin him completely. Yet in the end Victor was unable to fulfill his demand as he was scared and feel guilty for what he had done once.

Now the story turns at a very tragic point when Victor decided to fight the creature. He decided to fight a monster so something tragic happens in Victor's life that completely ruined him. Victor pursue the creature to the North Pole and was later rescued by Captain Robert Walton. Victor's last words to the Captain were to seek "happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition."

Frankenstein has a subtitle "The Modern Prometheus." This refers to an ancient Greek myth about Prometheus, a man who bought fire from the realm of Gods to human on earth, creating human life from clay models. Prometheus was punished by Gods for his arrogance, Victor also lived with regrets. This is the main idea of this novel.

This is an English editorial cartoonist picture of the creature by Victor Frankenstein.

                                                                                               Stay connected for more reviews......

THE KITE RUNNER

Recently, I came through a very amazing story of two boys by Khaled Hosseini. He is an immigrant Afghani writer. He started his writing career with this heart touching book. Khaled Hosseini is recognized as one of the bestselling author of all times. His books, the kite runner, a thousand splendid suns and the mountain echoed, has been published in over seventy countries.

This is an unforgettable and heartbreaking story about two boys, Amir and Hassan and the unlikely friendship between them too. Amir was the son of a wealthy businessman and Hassan was his servant, but they were more like friends. Amir's mother died in childbirth. Hassan lives with his father in the same house. Like them Amir and Hassan's father were also friends when they were young.

The boys played endlessly as their fathers did. The only discrimination between them was that Amir was a Pashtun, one of an ethnic majority in Afghanistan and Hassan was a Hazara, who had suffered discrimination and persecution for generations. The story twirls around the two boys and the unequal friendship they share.

Before the fall of Afghanistan monarchy, there were good days in Afghanistan. Amir and Hassan played together. Amir read Hassan books under their favorite pomegranate tree. They fly kites together. Amir's father love both the boys. He buy both the boys the same things, despite of Amir's annoyance.

Amir's father was rather critical of him considering him weak and lacking in courage. Amir finds a fatherly figure in Rahim Khan, his father's closet friend, who understands him and supports his interest in writing. Hassan is a successful kite runner for Amir, he knows where the kite will land without watching it.

Here the heart breaking part come in the novel, when there held a kite running tiurnament in Kabul. This is my favorite scene as I imagined the beautiful kites of different colors flying over the blue sky. The view of kites would be like sky lanterns on a dark sky. The ritual of kite running, the shredding of blood from hands, I leave this conversation for you to read. 

The day of kite tournament, something bad happened to Hassan that shatters both their lives. Amir witnessed what happened to Hassan but he had no courage to save his friend and after many years he regret that. The one thing that Amir couldn't grant was redemption. Assef act in the whole story as villain, he hated Hassan because he was a Hazara and what happened to Hassan that day was done by Assef.

Amir wins the kite tournament that day and earns his father's praise but he lost his friend, who was always there for him and who defended him when Assef threatened them and later Assef took revenge on Hassan. Hassan ran after the last cut kite, saying Amir: "For you, a thousand times over." After finding the kite he had an encounter with Assef, who took his revenge.

Amir witnessed every thing but because of his cowardice act he didn't tell anyone about that incident and his guilt prevent him from interacting with Hassan. Amir believes that his life would be much easier without Hassan so, he made Hassan and his father leave by putting a false act. 

Soon the soviet union military intervention made many Afghan's to escape Pakistan and United States. Both Amir and his father migrate to Pakistan and then to America. During their stay in California Amir studied his writing skills, while his father worked at a gas station.

In California Amir meet his fellow refugee Soraya Taheri and her family. They fall in love and get married. Amir and Soraya were happy with their marriage, but to their sorrow they found that they cannot have children. Amir's father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and after months of treatment he died. 

Here a turning point comes in the novel when Rahim Khan called Amir one day. He was ill and he wanted Amir to visit him in Peshawar. Later he told Amir that Hassan and his wife had died. The main reason to call Amir was that' Rahim Khan wanted Amir to rescue Hassan's son, who was in an orphanage.

The rescue of Hassan lead him once again to the roads of his country, Afghanistan. The streets of Kabul reminds Amir of the old days when he and Hassan run after each other, fly kites and the pomegranate tree, under its shelter Amir told stories to Hassan and Hassan had told Amir that one day he will be a greater writer.

I really wanted to write more about Sohrab, Hassan's son but I wanted you all to read it by yourself. Don't think of this book as an old fashioned one because the story really caught you when you started reading it and I truly believed that Khaled Hosseini is one the best story tellers who beautifully portrays what he and other Afghan's had faced. 

The story too has a beautiful ending but endings portrays different pictures in every one's mind. Some found it happy and some sad. If you really wanted to find what happens in the end do add this amazing novel in your reading list.

I found it recently that a movie is made in 2007, covering the story of Amir and Hassan also add that in your watching list. I don't know how it would be because books are always better that movies. Here is a picture from the movie "THE KITE RUNNER." 

Stay tuned for the next review..... 

FORTY RULES OF LOVE

On the seeker's path, wise men and fools are one.
In His love, brothers and strangers are one.
Go on! Drink the wine of the Beloved!
In that faith, Muslims and pagans are one.

A book that changes your ideas, thoughts and your way of thinking is the best book. Forty rules of love is like that kind of book to me. It changes my piece of thoughts about Sufism and the whirling dervishes. It is my most favorite of all reads, it is a book that I can read a thousand times and every time I learn something new from this amazing book.

The book, Forty rules of love is written by Elif Shafak she is an amazing Turkish writer. She is one of the most acknowledged authors and feminist of Turkey. Forty rules of love is her most amazing piece of work as it is one of the bestsellers.  In the forty rules of love, Elif Shafak has woven a wonderful tale of love and spirituality.

The story depicts two worlds, one the modern world and other shows thirteen century. The story starts with an unhappily married Jewish housewife Ella Rubinstein's life. She was living in Northampton, Massachusetts. She has to be grateful for a long stable marriage, three teenage children and a comfortable life in a pleasant home but something was missing in Ella's life. 

Talking a new challenge she started working as a reader at a literary agency. Her first assignment was to read a novel "Sweet Blasphemy" by a mysterious Scottish author, Aziz Z. Zahara. The sweet blasphemy is the second narrative of this novel and it was about a wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz. Shams was a mystic Sufi who was in search of a companion to whom he may deliver his knowledge to.

The thirteen century depicts the most beautiful part of this novel, a mystical era of Sufism. The two most important figures of thirteen century, Shams of Tabriz and Jalal-uddin-Rumi. The mystic era was enlightened by the most famous Islamic scholar and poet Jalal-uddin-Rumi who was called by his admirers as Maulana Rumi. He has thousands of disciples and admirers from all over the region and beyond, and was regarded as the beacon to all Muslims.

In 1244, Rumi met Shams, a wandering dervish with unconventional ways and heretical proclamations. Their encounter alter both their lives. As it marked the beginning of solid, unique friendship that Sufis in the centuries linked to the meeting of two oceans. After meeting Shams Rumi was transformed into a committed mystic, passionate poet, advocate of love and originator of the ecstatic dance of the whirling dervishes which is called 'sama'.

In the age of deeply embeded bigotries and clashes, Rumi stood for a universal spirituality, opening his door for to the people of all backgrounds Rumi stood for an inner oriented jihad where the aim was to struggle against our own ego, nafs. There were many people at that time who opposed him, they didn't open their hearts to love. The powerful bond between Shams and Rumi became the target of humor, slander and attack.

Three years after they met they separated but the story didn't end here but I this there is no end to this story even after many years have passed the spirits of Shams and Rumi are still alive today, whirling among us somewhere.... The novel of Aziz . Zahara goes round the story of Shams and Rumi as how Shams met Rumi, how they become friends, how Rumi starts to change and how people start to hate Shams including Rumi's family.

While Sweet Blasphemy changes Ella's life completely. She becomes acquainted to Aziz after she became highly affected by Sweet Blasphemy. The story of Sweet Blasphemy and bond between Shams and Rumi was very captive for Ella. She started connected to Aziz via emails. Over the course of few emails she finds out that she was ready to give up her life, her husband and children for the guy over the other end of email.

I like this novel because of Shams of Tabriz, his forty rules of love and the time he spent with Rumi. Shams had a strong belief in God. He had the urge to find the God in the most unlikely places. And that's what inspires me, that's what connect me to God. Shams character in this novel changed my perspective on life and my relation with God. And more specifically every other rule by Shams was life changing to me.

I really wanted to write some of my favorite rules from forty rules of love.

"How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we."

"Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighborhood of despair. Even when all doors remain closed, God will open up a new path only for you. Be thankful! It is easy to be thankful when all is well."

This is one of my most favorite of the forty rules:

"It's easy to love a perfect God, unblemished and infallible that He is. What is far more difficult is to love fellow human beings with all their imperfections and defects. Remember, one can only knew what one is capable of loving. There is no wisdom without love. Unless we learn to love God's creation, we can neither truly love nor truly know God." 

This book gives me a message too and that message is: "Never judge the way other people connect to God."  Because we never know who prays in the best way to God and who is beloved in the eyes of God.

" Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough."

ABOUT MY BLOG

                                                    

                                                      ABOUT MY BLOG          

                                                               
Um... What to write about my blog? There is so much to write but words have always been a problem to me, what to write and what not to? But today I really wanted to share my part of story why I am starting a blog? What inspires me? So lets start I know I can easily bore anyone with my boring story but I will try not to make it too boring. 

Being a medical student it is difficult for me to reads as many books as I wanted to read as i already had such a healthy and wealthy sum of medical books to read. I really wanted to setup a goal to read at least a book in a week but sometimes it's really very difficult. Now I'm going to give myself a challenge to at least finish a book within a month. Hope to except my own challenge.

There were several reasons for me to start a book blog first I am an ultimate bookworm since my school times. And secondly I wanted to escape from reality. Sometimes we all wanted to escape from our all day long usual activities, all our worries and problems and to me books have always been a source to escape from this world. They lead me into a different world, a world with no worries no hardships. I truly believe in the saying:

 "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives only one."

 Books are always been a source of joy to me. And I'm the most indulged kind of reader, when I started reading I just completely lost myself in a book. I imagine to be a part of the story and it is really good to be a part of a fictional story, to visit places you never visited to imagine something you have never seen before. Some people might think of me as a lunatic but I think that's how every bookworm is.

The second question was, what inspires me to start a blog there were many book bloggers who inspired me mainly from instagram platform and other bloggers too. I haven't read so many books but as I told earlier from now on I'm setting up a goal to read as many books as I can and accepting my own challenge to complete them on time. I believe in the saying by Mark Twain:

 "Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." 

Lastly, I wanted you tell you something. When I was in my school I donated many poetry books to my school library as I am interested in poetry and I do write them as well. In my school we have a library period once in a week and once my library teacher asked us a question: "Are books good friends or humans?" and we all answered humans, I too answered humans but at that time we were kids we don't know the politics of world, we haven't seen double faces of our society but now if someone asked me the same question I will definitely say books are always been best friends to me, at least books don't deceive you. They are always with you like a true companion and like a true friend. 

I don't know if someone thinks the same way but up till now my answer to this question has changed because books gives me an escape from reality, even if it's for a few minutes. I think I just wrote enough to easily bore a person and now it's time to say goodbye but I'm leaving you the same question my teacher asked  many years ago and my answer to that question has changed. What do you think: "Are books really good friends or human?" Stay connected with me because I will be posting some good book reviews asap InShaaAllah. Goodbye!