As the title suggests, the book centers around the character Kabir, seamlessly integrating the teachings of the great poet-saint Kabir Das into the storyline.
The narrative takes the form of a first-person account of Kabir's life events - twists and turns involving incidents, people, and places - revealing significant philosophical truths that are typically hidden from ordinary eyes.
Kabir's life serves as a wake-up call for individuals entangled in the pride and luxury of materialism on Earth. The narrative powerfully illustrates the impermanence of comfort and love throughout the plot.
Kabir - An Inward Journey is author Smita Tiwari's first book. As a debut author, her adept creation of characters and the flawless execution of the plot are truly commendable.
An ‘Ex’ Ordeal: A Short Story is my first eBook that is based on the emotional reflections of an ex-relationship. In ten pages, we get to read a short account of a woman in her sixties, addressing the scars her ex-marriage had left on her.
The book can come under contemporary literary fiction, for it is more of a contemplative self-conversation she has with herself than a narration of events. Separation being one of the most difficult personal life experiences, readers can feel a realistic connect to the protagonist’s complex thoughts.
Quick details of the book
Format: Kindle Edition
Genre: Contemporary Literary Fiction
No. of Pages: 10
Maximum Reading Time: 30 minutes
Price: Book is on a free promotion, that is, it is available for free reading for all currently, (Jan 10th – 15th 1.30 pm IST). At other times, it is free for Kindle Unlimited Subscribers, Rs. 49 for others.
Book Description & Book Cover: At the end of the post
Just another small step in my writing pursuit!
I didn’t plan to publish a short story in the eBook format; neither was it something like a long-time dream. It just happened. There came a swift flash of an idea and it got manifested in no time.
I consider this as a small step in my writing pursuits. The few days of my involvement in this work has brought important learnings for me – from getting to understand how self-publishing works to understanding the real pillars of my life. It is a beginning, and I am glad this happened for it has added to my interest to grow as a writer.
Request to readers
I know I am yet to evolve a lot more as a writer and a thinker to claim an authorship tag. I am at a point where sincere feedback is critical for my growth. To everyone who got to land on this page, this is my humble request to please have a read of An Ex Ordeal and give me your opinions.
I’ve made the eBook available for free from Jan 10th 1.30 pm IST to Jan 15th 1.30 pm IST. For kindle unlimited subscribers, it is free anytime.
It will be a great help if I can get a feedback by any or all of the options below:
As a comment to this post
To my email, nandhini.pfs@gmail.com
As an Amazon review
A review on Goodreads
A blog post on your blog/social media.
Book Description
Neeraja’s recurrent dream was a perfect reflection of her subconscious angst. In her dream, she would see Ravi, her ex-husband, from far and desperately wait for him to eye on her diamond wedding ring. There would be a compelling need in her to make him feel jealous of her precious possession.
The fact that she was once unsuccessful in her role as a wife defeated her self-pride. Her dreams echoed her longing need to prove Ravi her stance as a valuable partner. Witnessing him feel guilty for what he did in the past can only perhaps bring her subconscious anxiety to peace.
Strangely, when Neeraja and Ravi meet after thirty years, their chance encounter makes her to see through the layers of her buried emotions which leaves her baffled with the important insights she discovers in the process.
An ‘Ex’ Ordeal is a reflective short story on separation and the trajectory of its scars over time. D
This review is also published at my Personal Blog, Pages from Serendipity. I could not have written this review on a better day for it's Gurupurnima tonight! As the cover image and book title reveals, the tantric curse is about tantra, one of the spiritual practices originating from India. The word 'Tantra' is most often associated with the fear of an unknown realm of mysticism. Another common mis-association with tantric rituals is sex. Author Anupama, a tantric herself, writes with deliberate sincerity the reality behind the concept, practices and rituals of tantra, in her debut fiction, the tantric curse. At the end of the book, one can certainly attain a clarity on the subject, not by enforcement or judgement but by acceptance of the truthfulness in the author's words. Irrespective of whether a reader has an inclination towards tantra or not, this book can offer profound knowledge about the basics of spirituality.
300 Days is a simple love story of Jai and Sravani. While Sravani is struggling within a confined relationship with Sai, Jai hopes to win Sravani's love. In contrary to the usual, complicated triangular love stories, 300 days sets off with a smooth sail between the two main characters. Following cycles of love and separation, whether Jai finally wins her love is the rest of the story.
The book stands out in realistically depicting the emotions beneath seven gradual stages of love as enumerated in Arabic literature, namely,
Hub - Attraction
Uns - Infatuation
Ishq - Love
Aqeedat - Reverence
Ibaadat - Worship
Junoon - Obsession
Maut - Death
(Though the course of the novel is subtitled according to the seven stages, one cannot find a brief explanation about the same in the book. However, the author, in his blog, shares his inspiration behind adapting the concept).
300 Days is author Bragadeesh Prasanna's first book. As a debut author, he has proved his stand as a writer and as an earnest narrator.
How often do we hear people fret about stressful life situations! So were the characters of the Songs of the Mist, to begin with. However, how often do we hear such people making a journey towards the Himalayas, the abode of self-realization? That's where our characters make a difference.
If you are in the process of finding a book written with practical wisdom to aid your spiritual quests, be sure you've already reached the first step in your quest. Songs of the mist shall clear the initial mental anxieties that a seeker faces, shall make one feel consoled that after all, there are several others who are struggling with similar uncertainties of life.
Songs of the Mist: Volume I is the first of the three-part Monk Key series.
Just You, Me and a Secret marks a history in my book reading experience for two reasons: This is the first complete book I've read in the digital format through Amazon Kindle Unlimited. And the first book I've read without taking a break because I just couldn't.
Just You, Me and a Secret is a psychological romantic thriller in which the protagonist, after losing her memory in an accident, tries to regain her lost identity. Shuttling in between whether to trust or not the stories told by people around her, she finally arrives at a point where she understands what has been done to her while she remained unconscious.
Author Ganga Bharani, as a debutante, has proved to the literary world, "Man, I have a great plot and I can write in flawless English. That was all it required to write a fantastic book."
KLASS is a sports school in Pune where our protagonist, Jolene Jordan, is forced to join, by her father. Jo is determined to behave as bad as she could at her new school, hoping she will be soon expelled by the school authorities. However, the events that follow bring unexpected turns in her life and the book temporarily ends at the end of the first year of her schooling, making the readers curious for the next in the KLASS series.
Halfway through the book, without the reader’s realization, she/he would be watching a vivid movie about KLASS. The narration is so full of life that the reading experience surpasses beyond words to render an in-depth visualization of the scenes. Friendship, rivalry, hatred, love, passion – human emotions have been well-placed throughout the plot.
Most part of the book is in the form of conversation between the n number of characters of students and teachers at KLASS. Yet, each character is marked as a unique personality. And that’s where author Prita stands out as an extraordinary debut author.
Two girls being friends since childhood is a unique relationship. They would hold hands while walking on the road; they would feel jealous when the other gets closer to a new acquaintance and they can't blurt their hearts out better to anybody else.
There hasn't been a formal proposal yet between the boy and the girl. But their relationship is apparently heading a romantic way. They know that it's only a matter of time before the ice gets broken and they are relishing the best phase of their love story.
All of a sudden, after a train journey, the would-be boyfriend becomes a question mark, the job that she's been dedicated to, slips away and eventually, the best friend walks away from her life. To add to her misery, she is confused without the missing links which she suspects to be connecting the circumstances. And she ends up in a neurotic state.
I don't wear Sunscreen is a fast-paced tale of Lakshya which carries, till its last page, emotions and suspense of a myriad of things that could happen to a young Indian girl.
Passed university with distinction? Good, you are well enough a bride material now.
Thirty and unmarried? Bad, you've almost reached your expiry date.
Did your father take your virginity? It's okay. Keep quiet.
Do you love someone of another religion? Beware,you might be soon ostracized from your society.
Are you attracted towards the same sex as your's? Worse, control yourself, get married and have children.
Author Fadi Zaghmout shares such social taboos that have confined young Arab men and women to the deepest corners of their beings. The Bride of Amman is a tale of five young dwellers of Amman, the capital city of Jordan where gender inequality and gender discrimination, make them struggle through their everyday lives. Published originally in Arabic, the book is translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp.
Most of us including me, if asked which Hindu texts we are aware of, would have Mahabharata and Ramayana in our answers. If asked twice, we may answer Vedas but then we wouldn't know any other word about the Vedas.
For centuries, we have cornered ancient Hindu scriptures to temple priests. Of course, unfortunately, not all of us are permitted to acquire and practice the knowledge of Vedas. However, isn't it good to learn what in the first place Vedas and Upanishads are?
That's what Author Anju Saha does in her book, Our Heritage Revisited! She takes us through an easy and comfortable ride into the world of ancient Hindu scriptures. If you've felt guilty for being ignorant of them all these years, here's the right tool for you.
25 years past schooling, the author and his friends think about a reunion of their school classmates. A few of them travel from Chennai to Tirupattur, a town in Vellore district, Tamil Nadu and the place where their school is located. Grey & White Day Scholar is all about the memories the author recollects as he travels to his old school. They travel in search of their other classmates and eventually discover the whereabouts of a few of them.
The author has realistically brought out the little joys, that towns in Tamil Nadu would have offered its school boys in the 1980s. Readers who did schooling in the same period in a similar town can not only relate to the author's experiences but also can drench in beautiful memory showers.
This review is also posted at my personal blog, Pages from Serendipity. The Rigveda Code is an interesting mythological fiction based on the after-effects of the Mahabharata war. The plot centers around Rikshavi, a warrior princess of the Vrij kingdom (in present-day Bihar). Thirty years post the war, Lord Krishna wishes for a new system of governance for the future of Bharatkhanda. However, instead of establishing the new system by himself, he chooses to pass the secret code to the Pandavs’ legacy which the warrior princess is destined to fulfill.
The circumstances that lead Rikshavi, since her birth and childhood, to unfold her destiny form the The Rigveda Code. What stands out throughout the book is the suspense factor. It has a gripping flow that makes it a compelling read. The narration is rather straight forward and does not divert the attention of the readers to the intricacies of anything that’s unimportant.
An epilogue describing the background of the archaeological excavation and discussion, enlightens the readers about the subtle conception of The Rigveda Code which was both informative and admirable.
Leela is a bored, frustrated, humiliated and childless housewife. She did have romantic dreams about her marital life and an ardent aspiration to become a RJ. However, with time, her dreams and aspirations get diluted by the constant pressures of her suffocating marriage.
At a point when her days move without anything to look forward to, she lets her heart and mind waver in the direction of shallow gratifications until something happens that changes her life forever. The dormant warrior in her gets revived and she is no more the woman who worships her husband's feet.
Author Rebecca Pillsbury, Prize Winner of "The Christine Kloser's Transformational Author Writing Contest", pens down the most intimate moments of her life in her debut book and a transformational memoir, Finding Ecstasy.
A Candid Memoir!
Conditioned by her family upbringing, religious beliefs and childhood ideologies, Rebecca grows up to an introvert girl carrying unidentifiable shame, guilt and fear about her womanhood and sexuality. Consequently, she faces trouble being in relationship with a partner, both emotionally and physically. The repressed state of her emotions also shows up in her body as disturbed menstruation patterns and poly cystic ovaries. In Finding Ecstasy, author Rebecca discloses her inner-most secrets of how she felt confined within the spaces of her body and mind and how a visit to Buenos Aires and meeting a Brazilian, life-changing books, travels, retreats, opening up with a group of women, blues dancing, yoga and a five-year relationship with her boy friend bring about a transformation not just about her body and sexuality but rather a holistic upliftment, which is truly spiritual in nature.
What Finding Ecstasy is?
From a broader perspective, Finding Ecstasy is not a tale of just one woman. Perhaps, every woman, at some point in time goes through the emotional confinements that the author does in her memoir. By the example of her own life, author Rebecca helps women to identify their emotional and sexual needs and connect with their inner beings with greater depths. It also offers men, a walk through the conflicting inner world of a woman which otherwise remains ever-elusive to their eyes.
The Archers Revenge is a a dramatic story linewhich is quite close to that of a few inspirational Indian films. The protagonist, Aryan, has a strong motive to take revenge on one of the leading political leaders of the country.As he prepares ardently for the D-day, he is taken aback to discover a new ally, Divya, who has been training for the same mission as his. The rest of the plot is their inter-mutual efforts to charge their common target at every possible event. The end of the story, however, unlike Indian films, has taken an interesting twist that would leave the readers light and easy.
Abridged!
The narration is kept precise which is rather unusual, especially for this genre of a crime fiction that usually involves vivid descriptions. It seemed like the nutshell scenes from the lengthy version of the story were extracted to frame this book.
Alvin, the twenty-one year old director of the British Museum is worried as the security of the Royal Incan Diamond is at stake after the recent robbery attempt at the museum. The museum was built by his ancestor over two hundred years ago and after his father's death, he inherited the Incan Diamond.
The plot begins with Alvin's uncle trying to protect the Diamond from the thieves. He hides the Diamond at a safe spot and sends a conundrum to Alvin, decoding which would unveil the Diamond's place. He gets killed soon after. The rest of the book is about Alvin's thrilling experiences while solving his uncle's puzzle during which he also discovers important ancestral secrets connected with the Diamond.
I am astonished why throughout my school history texts, the name Jahanara didn’t get a mention at all. Unless you are too good at Indian history, you wouldn’t have heard this name either. The daughter of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal and the elder sister of Aurangazeb – Jahanara – had played a significant role both within her family and in the country matters. Ironically, her name had remained silent for the most part. Author Ruchir Gupta has rightly brought her out of her veil through his debut book.
Yet
another energetic write-up of man’s search for meaning!
The Plot
Aditya Saxena lives a quite decent life as an investment banker with a loving girlfriend and nice friends in the most happening city of Mumbai until one day:
when he finds himself thrown out of the company because of his boss' clever politics
when he finds his girl friend's secret relationship with another man
when he realizes that friends are helpful but not to the extent he had expected them to
when Mumbai can no longer accommodate him jobless
when he realizes his parents don't trust him now after all of the above
Fury From Hell is a paranormal thriller about good vs. evil. Here, the
good is in the form of Detective Jennifer Holden, a homocide cop that is
haunted by her own personal demons of a murder she committed when she
was just a teenager. The trauma she suffered at the hands of social
agency after agency hardened Jennifer into a staunch atheist making her
gun and her bank account the only things she truly believes in.
We meet Detective Holden, shortly before she begins working on her
first solo murder case. The victim is Kyma Barnes who was brutally
raped and killed. As Kyma’s soul leaves her body, a demon being called
by a coven of dark witches at nearby Prospect Park, is drawn to the
dying woman by her death throes.
Fury Abatu offers to avenge Kyma’s
death. The price? The dying woman’s soul. Kyma gives it gladly to
ensure the man who killed her pays dearly.
