The Soul Of Books

 Sea Prayer by   Khaled Hosseini ,  Dan Williams   (Illustrator) My Rating: 5/5 Genre: Poetry Fiction, War Finished on: 31st Dec, 2020 Sea Prayer By Khaled Hosseini There isn't much to say about this book. A few pages. A short story. One can only glide over the poetic words, skim over the illustrations. And once done, we can pull our head back, close our eyes, and feel the rhythm of our broken hearts. This book is dedicated to the thousands of refugees who have perished at sea fleeing war and persecution. As said earlier, there isn't much to say about this book. There isn't much to do either. The one thing which we can do is pray. All I can do is pray.  ‌Because you, you are precious cargo, Marwan, the most precious there ever was. I pray the sea knows this. Inshallah. We pray the sea knows this. All we can do is pray.

 Unexploded By   Alison MacLeod My Rating: 3 Genre: Historical Fiction, War Finished on: 10th Nov, 2020 I have rated it 3/5. Now, why am I giving it a 3? Let me try to give a reasonable explanation here. Usually when I rate any book 3, it's either because the plot wasn't good, or this book didn't get enough attention from my side for me to finish this book in few sittings. So was it the former or latter? It was.. kinda both :| Usually when I take time to 'read' a book, I totally blame myself because maybe it's me who has to get 'used' to such writing, and for most part of reading, this was true. But later I'm not sure even the plot took a different turn, and it got me wondering.. yes, this indeed does deserve a 3. So there's this Beaumont family. Evelyn, Geoffrey and Phillip. The war has started, and Geoffrey becomes superintendent of the enemy alien camp. Geoffrey is prepared for everything, he even lets Evelyn know that he may have to leave the...

 Hearts of Stone By   Simon Scarrow My Rating: 5 Genre: Historical Fiction, War Finished on: Jan 29th, 2020 Beautiful. Simply Beautiful.  Whenever I pick up any book based on war, it is me wanting my conscious self to have a realization of what has happened in the world, what has been happening in the world, and what could still happen in this world. How the war changes things, changes people, changes your priorities.  And this book did not disappoint me regarding that at all.  The war based books which I've read so far, the setting was either in France or Russia or Poland or Germany. And the brutal, horrifying things which occurred were pretty much the same. But the Greece's account in this book was a new insight to my existing knowledge. A complete new picture of how this war was dealt with. The fights in the hills, near the cliff, and amazing account of the submarine battle under the water, was beautifully described. Though I am not sure if I should...

 The Tattooist of Auschwitz By Heather Morris My Rating: 4 Genre: Historical fiction, War Finished on: Jan 4th, 2020 Yet another story, a  true  story of WWII which moved me. Yet another insight I've got from another Holocaust survivor of how the war has been. Reading is the only way I can visualize the past through their eyes. Through their memories. The only way we can ever empathize ( or remotely close to empathizing)  what they truly felt. Though some parts truly surprised me. I'll admit I never thought the officers guarding the camps could be considerate to anyone, I mean  anyone  , like how they had been with Lale. Them choosing who gets to live and who gets to die was all so random. The survivors are truly luckily in every sense. And this story throws light on how the war changes people. You see so much of death, that it doesn't move you anymore. And you do what you have to, to survive. You become selfish, if that's the way you survive. I simply...

 All the Light We Cannot See By   Anthony Doerr My Rating: 5 Genre: Historical Fiction, War Finished On: Dec 28th, 2019 Yet, another heartbreakingly beautiful story of the life during war. I am not sure what to write in this review, so I'm simply writing down how I felt about each character.  I actually could do only one thing. I mourned for each and every character in this book.  For Werner :  Who was trapped in an unavoidable circumstance, wherein he had to do things he despised doing, avert his eyes when he sees something wrong happening, all in the name of fighting for your country. At what cost?  I mourned when he died. But considering the number of innocent lives he witnessed being taken while not being in a position to do anything for them, I don't think he would have been able to live with that guilt.  For Jutta :  Who got separated from her brother, and couldn't even see him before he passed away. War does that. It did to all those f...

 A Fort of Nine Towers An Afghan Family Story By  Qais Akbar Omar My Rating: 5 Genre: Non fiction, Memoir, War Finished on: Aug 9th. 2018 "I have long carried this load of griefs in the cage of my heart. Now I have given them to you. I hope you are strong enough to hold them." -  Qais Akbar Omar I have no idea how strong I really was throughout the time I spend reading this wonderful piece. I picked this one up because Khaled Hosseini's review on the cover caught my eyes. And I knew, this is going to be equally as wonderful, amazing, and heartbreaking as Khaled Hosseini's books are. And honestly, this did not disappoint me. Living in another country I almost got a first hand experience of how life in Afghanistan has been. And Qais very thoughtfully divided his memoir into parts, wherein each part will give the reader a different experience altogether. Part one:   The Holy Warriors Describing their happiness of the arrivals of Mujahedeen who were supposed to brin...

 The Book Thief By  Markus Zusak My Rating: 5 Genre: Historical Fiction, YA Finished on: 5th Mar, 2015 Beautiful. Synonyms? Attractive, Fair, Pleasant. That's how I'd call this book. Beautiful. However.. Was it attractive? Was it fair? Was it pleasant? Not at all. Ohh, wait a moment. This was attractive, fair and pleasant. In a bitter way, in an ugly way. Yes, the book was fair in an ugly way, and that's how makes it a beautiful one. Confused? You just won't understand. Let's begin the story of how I decided to read this book. It's predictable, the title attracted me. The idea borned in my mind was of stealing. Probably the book must be about stealing. And people steal when they crave things. When they crave things which don't belong to them. But then, why to steal a book when you can have it in your possession? When it can belong to you? Yes, I read the book to find out, to get my answers. From the beginning, from the start.. I was deeply attracted to the n...