“Engineering a Life” by Krishan K. Bedi

“Engineering a life” by Krishna K. Bedi is a memoir that takes you through the protagonists journey of trying to build a life in the United States of America, having left his small village in Punjab at a very young age, landing in New York with only 300$ in his pocket but a will to study engineering in the land of opportunities.

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As we progress through the voyage that constitutes the struggles of a young Krishna trying to travel to America, a bewildered and confused man working odd jobs to make money all the while juggling studies to maintain good grades, we find an older Krishna torn between his promise of returning back to his homeland or staying in a country that made all his dreams come true.

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The book is written in a simple and easy to understand manner but the narration falls flat even though the premise of the book being so promising. I wish there was more depth to the anecdotes shared and at times they were told in a manner that fails to evoke any emotion while reading them.
Some of the situations that are portrayed as ‘adventures’ came off as callow and juvenile and I didn’t find them as inspiring as I expected.

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It is definitely a good attempt at describing ups and downs in one’s life but I found it hard to be inspired by.
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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre:#nonfiction, #memoir, #biography
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐/5

“Becoming” by Michelle Obama

Becoming by Michelle Obama, an account of the first lady’s life before and in White House, her marriage with one of the most favorite presidents of the United States, and a, for the most part, a safe narrative of the Obama’s achievements that fail to evoke inspiration.
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While the book started great with depicting Michelle Obama’s as an ambitious young lady, talented and hardworking, somewhere with the start of Barak Obama’s political career, it all seemed to fade away.
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I felt, in the end, it was an attempt to portray her as someone much more than a First Lady and although the book describes her as deriving her self worth not only as an accessory to her husband’s career, it felt more of a political memoir where the focus was on the achievement’s of the Obamas in their tenure. In a way, I was disappointed in seeing so less of Michelle Obama as an inspiring person with her own ambitions and aspirations.
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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: Non-Fiction, Politics, Memoir, Black-History
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5

“Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom

“Death ends a life, not a relationship”
– Mitch Albom, Tuesday’s with Morrie.
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Mitch Albom’s college professor from twenty years ago, Morrie Schwartz, is diagnosed with ALS – a neurological disease that is bound to cause his neurons to deteriorate over time and cause his muscles and in turn his mobility to die slowly.
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It is then the disconnected student, gets a chance to reconnect with his old teacher in his last days and ask him bigger questions, about life and death.
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His teacher, Morrie, in turn, does not disappoint him. He answers every question with so much clarity, bringing in insights about the larger meaning of life and even when his health worsened, he was in the same spirits, helping and counseling others with love and care.
Goes on to show how great a person Morrie was and even in death his memoir goes on to inspire hundreds.
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Told as a first-person account of the author’s experience of his interviews with his teacher, the books goes on smoothly and fluidity, yet aims to bring an impact on the reader.
Highly recommend this short read.
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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: memoir, nonfiction, biography
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐/5

“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

“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