“The Bookseller of Kabul ” by Åsne Seierstad

“In Afghanistan a woman’s longing for love is taboo. It is forbidden by the tribes’ notion of honor and by the mullahs. Young people have no right to meet, to love, or to choose. Love has little to do with romance; on the contrary, love can be interpreted as committing a serious crime, punishable by death.” – Asne Seirstad, The Bookseller of Kabul
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In the spring of 2002, following the Taliban’s fall, the author spends four months living in Kabul with a bookseller’s family. Sultan Khan, the owner of the bookshop has defied the authorities time and again to protect his books, sometimes hiding them to prevent the illiterate soldiers from burning them. 🍂
As an outsider, Asne gets an in-depth view of the status of woman in Afghan society and the family structure that reinforces the age-old traditions and patriarchy deep-rooted in the society.
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The narration is fairly easy to follow, but with a lot of characters, the storylines kind of mixes up at places. The men might bore you, but the women’s stories stick with you.
Having read and loved “A thousand splendid suns” I was hoping for more, but the book somewhat disappointed me.
I just couldn’t connect with the characters the same way.
But with all that said, the story does create awareness about the situation in Afghanistan, especially the treatment meted out to women, to some extent.
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Genre: non-fiction, memoir, biography
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5

“The Help” by Kathryn Stockett

“You is kind. You are smart. You are important.”

– Kathryn Stockett, The Help

Three wonderful women, Skeeter, Minny, and Aibileen, are set to change the course of history by bringing out a change in their small town of Jackson, Mississippi.

In a time when black women work as domestic help for white women, Skeeter, the white lady, decides to pen down the experiences of the ‘help’ to the white society in the hopes of exposing the white folk’s hypocrisy and stirring the already brewing black rights movement at that time.

What will she have to go through by turning against her own people?

How is Minny’s and Aibileen’s experience going to change the air of racism in their town?

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The narrative style is so fast-paced and dramatic that one finds it hard to put the book down. Although the characterization was simple and the writing style easy to read, the way the various characters were woven and how well the characters take forward the plot, demands applause for the author.

The only downside to the story was that the book was the stories of the black woman were narrated by the point of view of a white woman. It would have been better if the actual stories were elaborately told in the novel.

But that aside it was a riveting read, a story of not just racism but the bond between one’s househelp and oneself.

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Genre: fiction, historical-fiction #contemporary, black-history

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5

“Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden

“At the temple, there is a poem called ‘Loss’ carved into the stone. It has three words, but the power has scratched them out. You cannot read loss, only feel it”

– Arthur Golden, The memoirs of a geisha

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A historical fiction that talks of the loves of geishas in the Japanese town of Gion, a world where appearances are important, where woman are taught the art of enchanting men by their mannerism, art, and the skill to hold conversations.

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Chiyo and her sister are taken away from their poverty-stricken fishing village and sold to an okiya at a young age. Thus began Chiyo’s journey of becoming a geisha in the true sense. The hard realities and pains that she had to take on her journey take you on a bittersweet ride.

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While the author’s style of narrating the tale in a conversational style is really engaging and interesting, the book gets dull in the latter half.

One would expect more to learn of the Japanese culture and the history and lives of geishas, but in the end, it was just another fictional tale intended to weave a dramatic story, which ultimately failed to spike any interest.

Overall a pretty decent read, and I recommend it if you want to get started on learning about the Geisha culture.

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Genre: fiction, historical-fiction, memoir, Japanese-literature

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Reading difficulty:⭐⭐⭐/5

“The power of your subconscious mind” by Joseph Murphy

“The only path by which another person can upset you is through your own thought.”
– Joseph Murphy, The power of your subconscious mind
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The power of your subconscious mind, as is clear from the title, dwells on the importance of one’s consciousness and its power to heal, create and make one’s life better. The power of positive affirmations and optimal thinking, and how it can work wonders in practical life where one might find themselves going through hard times on more occasions than once.
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The books present various examples of people from different walks of life, who have tapped into the power of the subconscious and found themselves a better life, some who have even cured themselves of diseases.
True, if one puts their heart and soul in a task and overcome a mental block wherein one can see beyond the fear and focus on just reaching the goal, victory is sure to come.
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The writing is easy to read but the examples seemed redundant and sometimes outright unsubstantiated.
I am all for the power of the mind but propagating an idea that a disease can be cured just by constantly thinking about a healthy life over and over again, seems a bit outlandish. Apart from the lack of evidence about the claims that the book makes, I found the underlying idea of cutting off the negative thoughts and focus on the task at hand, really sound.
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Genre: #selfhelp, #nonfiction, #psychology
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5