Showing posts with label Nonfiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nonfiction. Show all posts

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

''The Story of My Life''- Book Review

Author: Helen Keller
Published: 1903

Genres: Memoirs

Rating: 5 out of 5

Review

''The Story of My Life'' was written when Helen Keller was just twenty-two years old. Keller, though she was born healthy, became deaf, mute, and blind, when she was nineteen months old, and was, as if, surrounded by darkness and despair. But then Anne Sullivan entered her life. Anne Sullivan was Helen's teacher, and it was Anne who brought Helen out of the darkness, and hopelessness. Anne Sullivan taught Helen to communicate, and Helen thus came out from the despair. 

Helen worked hard to gain knowledge. She vividly describes her preparation for college at the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, and her hard work at the Radcliffe College. Helen describes the people whom she met in her life, people who gave her hope and inspiration. She vividly describes her love for books and knowledge, and nature. She describes so wonderfully the days during which she first learned to speak, and the satisfaction she got after she learned how to talk to her dear family members. Helen worked hard to come out from the darkness, to communicate with the world.

Helen Keller was a great, inspirational woman. ''The Story of My Life'' was such a beautiful, memorable, thought-provoking, inspirational book!

5 out of 5

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

''Letters from a Father to His Daughter''- Book review

Author: Jawaharlal Nehru
Published: 1929

Genres: History, Letter collection 

Rating: 5 out of 5

Review

I have just finished reading this collection of letters by Jawaharlal Nehru and I absolutely LOVED it! This book is a collection of thirty letters that Nehru wrote to his daughter, Indira Gandhi, in 1928. In these letters, Nehru writes about the basic history of the world, the story of civilizations, the story of people. Nehru writes how the world was formed, how life evolved in this earth, about how there is a book of nature, where we can learn about the prehistoric times by observing rocks and fossils. He wrote about how people began forming tribes, how there are so many races and languages in the world, the story of how there are monarchs, how different classes came into being, about the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India and Crete, and about Aryans, Dravidian, Mongoloids, and about how trade started. Nehru describes the basic details about all these subjects. 

I thoroughly enjoyed and loved reading this book. It is such a wonderful, perfectly amazing book! The language is simple and there are often beautiful illustrations. It is not that this book is filled with so many details about history. Rather, this book contains the basic details about the subjects mentioned above. I enjoyed reading all these. This book would be GREAT for beginners and preteens who are interested to know about the basic details about history! Nehru's writing style is so simple yet beautiful, and filled with the basic details of the history of our Earth, the people on the Earth, the ancient civilizations.

This is absolutely a GREAT book!

5 out of 5

Friday, 21 June 2013

''Eat, Pray, Love''- Book Review

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Published: 2006

Genres: Memoir

Rating: 4 out of 5

Review

Eat, Pray, Love tells the story of author Elizabeth Gilbert's pursuit of pleasure, devotion, and the balance between pleasure and devotion. After a traumatic divorce and problematic relationship leave Gilbert heartbroken and miserable, she decides to engage a whole year traveling in Italy (for pleasure), India (for devotion) and Indonesia (for the balance between pleasure and devotion). And she does so. She becomes successful at her attempts to discover herself, find inner peace, find pleasure, and finally find the love she looks for. She enjoys the beautiful places, the beautiful food, and the beautiful language of Italy. In India, she finds the devotion and inner peace she had been looking for. In Indonesia, she helps a poor single mother and her children. And finally, she starts to fall in love again with a Brazilian man.

This book was tremendously inspirational! Gilbert's writing style and sense of humor are great. At one moment, she discusses some grave, intense and sad subject. But at the very next moment, she expresses her sense of humor in such a way that it makes us laugh out loud! I really enjoyed reading it, I enjoyed Gilbert's writing style. It is not just a travelogue, but in fact, keeping the travel stories as a background, Gilbert explains her attempt (and success) in discovering herself with great intensity, solemnity, and humor.

4 out of 5