Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats #bookreview @matheikal #bookchatter #tbrchallenge @blogchatter #PebbleInWatersWrites #BlogchatterEBook

Stories become an integral part of the lives of all of us, right from our childhood. Not every story needs to have a happy ending. Many stories disappear by raising a question mark in our mind. Some end with a pleasant feeling. Whether the story is small or big, it doesn't matter. It matters how much and how deeply it affects us. A compilation of ten such intriguing and thought provoking stories I recently found in the book 'Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats' written by Tomichan Matheikal. And the credit for that goes to Blogchatter, where you can download this book for free as of now. Every story in this book is special. Every story has its own flavour. There is a certain kind of sharpness in each of the stories.

There is a special kind of flow in 'Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats' written by Tomichan Matheikal which holds the reader very firmly throughout. All the stories have a fresh plot. There is thrill in the stories, there is surprise, there is fear, there is hatred towards the sordid traditions of the society, there is anger, and in many places there is also a frustration. Tomichan Matheikal has a special style of writing, as I said earlier. He had been able to paint these stories on so many colors of emotions and thoughts. Many times it also happens that when a writer binds his style of writing with a particular style, then perhaps his flight of thinking and imagination becomes a little limited. It down not remain, then, so free and unlimited. And this probably happens to every writer, I believe.

Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats by Tomichan Matheikal is an interesting book. Stories or should I say short stories, all in all, I loved it. Every story is bundled with a different element of entertainment till the end. These are the stories which are capable of removing your boredom 100%, but at the same time inspire to think something new. If this is an interesting journey of ten stories then each story is a beautiful milestone. The first three stories made me realize that ghosts are not always dirty, terrifying, and dangerous. But can also be nice, beautiful, and friendly. While the fourth story introduces us to the political bitterness and restrictions of our country, and around the world, the fifth story reveals a disgusting face of our society and the sheepishness of the people.

Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats by Tomichan Matheikal is a tasteful and mindful platter of ten stories by a well-versed chef that you all must try.

You can download this book here for free.

I'm participating in the #TBRChallenge by Blogchatter.

HOLA SUMMER by @thatmadrasmom #bookreview #bookchatter #tbrchallenge @blogchatter #PebbleInWatersWrites #BlogchatterEBook

Summer is very closely related to skin related problems.  If I talk about myself, in summer my consumption of shampoo, body wash, face wash, etc. automatically increases. And for oils, body lotions, face cream etc decreases. Is it the same with you?  The direct reason for this is sweat.  If there is excessive sweating, then the skin will attract more dust due to it being sticky.  The accumulation of more dust on the skin means more germs getting produced.  And because of them, all the skin related diseases occur.  Sometimes, if not attended to, well in time, it goes very serious.  That is why it is important to take extra care of the skin in summer.  And for that it is necessary to have the necessary knowledge.  For this knowledge, it becomes necessary for everyone to read 'HOLA SUMMER Your go-to summer skincare guide by Sindhu Vinod Narayan'.

In this less than 30-page book, every page contains a lot of important information related to skin, skin care, and its health. It definitely has a lot of important information hidden in it. This is an e-book, by the way.  Its author has done a lot of research to write this and added to it comes her invaluable experience that is bundled in this fabulous e-book.  Despite its less number of pages, it will prove to be your inexhaustible helper every summer, I believe. Like, it is for me. It's good for a quick reference when in need of any skin related first hand information.  Yes, you must be aware that in summer, or by the way, in every season, it becomes more important to keep the skin healthy and hydrated.  If it done well so, the risk of skin related diseases goes very less.

'HOLA SUMMER Your go-to summer skincare guide by Sindhu Vinod Narayan' is indeed a beautiful gift for you from its author.  I am giving you the link to download it at the end of this post.  The good thing is that this book not only informs about the diseases and problems of the skin, but also explains the reason for the occurrence of each and every problem and disease and also tells the ways to avoid and recover from them.  These troubles seem small in the beginning, but if any of them worsens, then it takes a terrible form, from which it becomes impossible to get rid of it.  And many times, one has to make rounds and rounds of hospitals for years and years.

'HOLA SUMMER Your go-to summer skincare guide by Sindhu Vinod Narayan' explains almost all skin related ailments like acne, prickly heat, sunburn, dry skin, and body odour.  They occur due to what reasons, how to avoid them, and what is their treatment, if you read this book, then everything will be known. In this book 'HOLA SUMMER Your go-to summer skincare by Sindhu Vinod Narayan', one also gets to know what to eat in summers, what to wear, and what all to do to protect yourself from heat stress and keep your skin away from every difficulty and problem.  This fabulous guide by Sindhu Vinod Narayan is very important to read.

You can download this book here for free.

I'm participating in the #TBRChallenge by Blogchatter.

My Turn by Johan Cruyff #bookreview @panmacmillan #bookchatter #tbrchallenge @blogchatter

Pep Guardiola, 51, a Spanish football manager and former player, says he knew nothing about football before knowing Cyruff. So reading the autobiography My Turn by Johan Cruyff became quite important for me. If was only after reading this book that I came to know that I would not have known about this great player if I had not read this book. Johan Cruyff left this world on 24 March 2016. He wanted his funeral to be done in a very simple way. And the same happened, as per his wish. Only his close family members were there. But FC Barcelona did not approve of this. That is why his memorial was kept in the stadium with great respect. Johan was very dear to Ajax, Barcelona, ​​and the Dutch National Team. Bobby Charlton believes that Johan Cruyff was a very great football player and added a new thrill to the game whenever the ball hit him on the field.

Eric Cantona says that Johan was such a great player that he had the ability to perform the best game at any position on the field. Similarly, Gary Lineker tells about Johan Cruyff, the author of this autobiography My Turn, that Cruyff had the ability to do everything that made this beautiful game even more beautiful, and this specialty was more than any player in the history of football. In My Turn, Cruyff is talking about his life, which consisted of nothing but football. As a child, Johan got signed by Ajax merely at the age of 10 while playing football in the streets of Amsterdam. Here he won 3 European cups. In 1973 he was signed by Barcelona at the world's highest price. Here a new journey of his started in which he took the initiative to set record after record. In 1974, Johan took the Dutch National team to the world cup final.

During his tenure, he won many awards and brought a lot of fame to his team. My Turn by Johan Cruyff is a powerful autobiography.

You can buy this book from Amazon India here. 

You can buy this book from Amazon US here.

I'm participating in the #TBRChallenge by Blogchatter

the INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson #bookreview @WalterIsaacson #bookchatter @tbrchallenge #simonandschuster @Blogchatter

If you have a strong desire to know about the great inventions of this world and those who gave birth to those inventions, then this very thick 488 page book 'the INNOVATORS: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson' will prove to be a gold mine for you. This is my belief. This is the same author whose previous book 'STEVE JOBS', which is based on the biography of Steve Jobs, became famous all over the world. For the birth of digital revolution in the world, the credit goes to the world's famous hackers, talented people, and geeks. If all of them were not there and did not amaze the world with their astounding talent, then perhaps the world would have continued as it was. These are the people who accepted great challenges and laid the foundation for the creation of a new world with new discoveries and inventions. 'the INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson' very beautifully traverses the history of inventions and makes their debut in the digital world with the new inventions of the world.

The biggest truth of the world is that some credit for every invention goes to the inventions made earlier. If every new invention provides facilities to the world on a large scale, then it also brings with it a lot of new challenges. And then these challenges act as a catalyst in giving birth to new inventions. 'the INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson' is a very deeply written book. It will not only be able to thrill you, but will also make you think deeply. This book starts far back in the history of inventions. It takes us back to 1843, and gives us an intimate introduction to three great people of that era - Ada Byron (Countess of Lovelace), Lord Byron, and Charles Babbage. The specialty of this book is that every chapter of it is written in a very special way. If you read this, then only you will understand what I mean by special.

Then we move on to 1847 where we meet George Boole who first invented a great system of logical reasoning using algebra. Also, you will know its deep connection with the punch-card machines of Herman Hollerith. Similarly, invention after invention, and moving forward year after year, we get the knowledge of the world's great inventions and their superheroes.

'the INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson' is a book that has become an integral part of my personal library. This book is like that. Not that just read once and throw it. There is a lot of invaluable knowledge in this. It gives you a new incentive in every page. And also inspires you to do something new in life. There is a lot of power in the writing of this author. There is a different kind of energy. There is a flutter. There is an edge. Definitely, there's an unending flow in 'the INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson'.

You can buy this book from Amazon India here. 

You can buy this book from Amazon US here.

I'm participating in the #TBRChallenge by Blogchatter.

The Curse of Kuldhara #BookReview #TBRChallenge @richasmukherjee #TheCurseOfKuldhara #BookChatter @HarperCollinsIN @BlackInk_Books @blogchatter

'The Curse of Kuldhara' is a very interesting and entertaining fiction curated by Richa S. Mukherjee. It is so entertaining that a web series is going to be made on it soon, as the book cover reveals. When the style of writing the story is such that it binds the reader with the story in such a way that the reader is compelled to finish this 320-page novel in one, then the credit really goes to its author. Same happened with me. Once I started its first chapter, then I took my breath only after finishing its 64 chapters. So engrossing, entertaining, and binding the book is. Another great feature of this author is that the chapters of The Curse of Kuldhara have been kept very small. Each chapter is very crisp and specific. A lot is happening in this novel. From beginning to end.

The special thing is that its plot is not easy to guess. That is why perhaps it keeps a constant curiosity for its readers. I will not tell much about the story because I want everyone who reads it to enjoy it as much as I did. If the story is strong and its characters are well composed, then it is icing on the cake for a novel. Although I was not aware of KKPL (Kanpur Intelligence Pvt Ltd) before this novel but this story made me very well aware of the agency and its management. The main character of this story of The Curse of Kuldhara is Prachand Tripathi. This story begins with the joint Tripathi family and some everyday conflicts between its lively family members. Each character has its own style.

Prachand is the owner of his intelligence company KKPL, and his wife Vidya Tripathi is the CFO of his company i.e. the one who looks after the entire finance. Gwaltoli was not a very big place and Prachand could not get any exciting work here that could match his calibre and aspirations. In a way, he was getting bored because of not getting any exciting work. And then Paramveer Khattar came in their life with the proposal of a movie. He wanted to make this movie on Tripathi couple i.e. Prachand and Vidya. Prachand was not interested in this initially, though Vidya was very happy to hear about it. One small thing got Prachand very excited for this movie. That was the shooting location of this movie. Kuldhara ki Haveli (the haveli of a small village Kuldhara, in Rajasthan).

There was a huge mystery attached to this mansion. And Prachand now wanted to do this movie because he was eager to grab this challenge of solving the mystery of that mansion. This mystery had remained a mystery for so many years and Prachand was all excited visit that place to solve this mystery, although there could be a lot of risk in solving it. This movie was the best opportunity for that. Prachand was waiting for so many years for such kind of exciting work having so much risk and mystery. With Prachand I also went to that mansion and fought against all those risks to solve those mysteries. You too are welcome to know about it. For this you also have to pick up this book, The Curse of Kuldhara by Richa S. Mukherjee, to become Prachand' companion in this exciting, risky, and mysterious journey.

You can buy the book here .

I'm participating in the #TBRChallenge by Blogchatter.

Eye On You By Kanchana Banerjee @justkanchana #bookreview #MyFriendAlexa #pebbleinwaterswrites #books #bookchatter #SomeoneHasEyeOnYou #EyeonYou

The catchy prologue of Eye On You By Kanchana Banerjee starts with a worthy body description of a young girl. Worthy, because, it's quite interesting and more than that satisfying, evoking, provoking, building colourful imaginations and promising that this zingy beginning will not die down soon, and there's a lot more to come, so stay hooked. I was involved so much so that I read hip in place of lip in the line - 'a smile forming on the corner of her lip'. Looking at the theme of the book, I felt both the cover pages could be more illustrative, pointing crisply to it. That's okay. As far as winning a reader right in the beginning, with your excellent beginning, and through the first paragraph of the book itself, it's a big feat. More than 90% of authors fail on this parameter.

The front cover and back cover do a full justification to the theme of the story. Whereas the front cover depicts somebody unknown could know a lot more than You know about yourself, the back cover says Technology has its own boons and banes. Awareness is the key on today's digital world. Social media has a huge appetite to grab any kind of information entered by its users without imagining how much and how far it's reaching. At times in wrong hands. The story of Eye On You By Kanchana Banerjee is gripping, intense, and fits well in today's world having greater risks in the digital arena.

Myra, our protagonist in this quite interesting book Eye On You By Kanchana Banerjee, has a very shocking entry in the story. She had a night party at home. The next morning when she wakes or gains her consciousness she finds her whole body paining and with a mix of heaviness, uneasiness, pain, numbness, etc, she had to gather a lot of energy to move out of bed. Well, the interestingly sad part is she realizes, gradually, after 5 pages of the story, and almost after crossing a hurdle of almost 1,400 words, that she was sexed multiple times last night. But, she is not able to recollect by whom, and, one or many. If you look at the juice component in the story, it is more than sufficient. That is quite evident right in the beginning, merely after reading a few pages only. That clearly indicates, a lot of effort has gone into story building, raising curiosity level of the reader, and promising an exceptionally good flow and ending. 

The character building in the book Eye on You By Kanchana Banerjee is strong and crisp. Storyline is powerful. There's no scope of a reader getting bored at any moment while reading this book. In fact, after reading this book, I am planning to buy author's previous books. I am not going to discuss the story any further but can tell you there is a lot of drama with a number of expected and unexpected twists in it. The character and story belong to current era. But the time you finish this story, it will compel you to think and, of course, realize, how social media and our online presence has exposed, and is exposing us, with every passing post by us there. Also, how, at times, this exposure can go beyond danger level to create high risk and cause heavy damages. 

'You can buy the book here' 

I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s My Friend Alexa

This review is part of Blogchatter’s Book Review Programme.

How To Be A Responsible Book Reviewer #BlogchatterHalfMarathon

Please note that this is not a part of any fiction. The views are completely and purely mine. I am expressing them without going under any pressure or influence. This is my story. I have been reviewing books for decades (not centuries). Earlier, I used to be very punctual and sincere in reading and reviewing. Due to certain factors like age, popularity, pressure, I started noticing my punctuality is getting impacted. I found that I didn't develop a habit of saying 'No' to any publisher, PR, or author, whosoever contacted me directly for reviewing a book. Initially, it used to be my purchased, and my choice of books that I started reviewing. But gradually there started a larger inflow of books, including from overseas.

As a result my deficit started increasing. The pending books for review kept piling up. One thing was already, and is still sure, that, I won't review any book without reading it competely. This piling up started giving me a bad taste. There was a level of commitment given to every publisher, author, or PR for timely delivery. Because of my strong bonding with them and a good reputation in the world, mostly they would either silently keep waiting for me to get back to them with the review link or a few of them, especially PRs would ping me asking politely for it. I started feeling bad about it and decided to offload and stop this burden and guilt in a slow but consistent manner.

One, I started saying No to new offers. Two, I paced up my reading and reviewing to cover up the backlog. Despite both these efforts, I found my inventory of pending books to review almost touching 200. More than 50% were foreign authors. A couple of those from a very reputed publisher were of price tag more than Rs 5,000. I remember a not too good incident in this regard. I got a phone call from an author one fine day asking about the status of review and how did I like the book. I was completely blank and I asked her which book? Definitely, it didn't give her a good feel. So, I told her I will get back to her shortly. On the other hand there are a plenty of very interesting and memorable good incidents. My reviews have a mention in many Author's websites, mostly from UK, US, Australia, Holland, Hungary, and so on.

I still am passionate about reading books and ofcourse reviewing them. But now I have put a break in accepting new books. As every new book comes with a commitment from my end which I don't want to fail. Following are, based on my long journey in this field, my suggestions :

1. Discipline. A strict discipline is very important to adhere to timelines and commitments. 

2. Accept only what you like. Don't accept a genre you don't like that could cause a bit of disinterest and thus derail from plans. 

3. Be sincere in reviewing. Read complete book with full interest and actually find out what you liked most and what didn't. Biased reviews will haunt you more than anybody else. 

4. Apologise for delays in deliverables.

5. Read and review for your own sake. Not for anybody else. Write what convinces you most.

6. Encourage authors. They are creators. And creativity must go on. 

Do add any points I skipped. I would appreciate your feedback in comments section /email / on social media.

Thank you for reading the post.

This post is a part of #BlogchatterHalfMarathon hosted by Blogchatter