You know how sometimes you’re reading a classic Russian novel about existential crisis, loneliness, ek tarfa pyaar and you suddenly think, wait a minute… I know this from somewhere. That’s exactly what happened when I read White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s a sad, four-night-long torment of unrequited love, hopeful delusions, and one very lonely man who just wants to be seen. Argh! The number of Nice-Guy-Syndrome and Friend-Zone memes I witnessed when reading reviews of the book had me roll up laughing. As I finished reading, I couldn’t stop but think that the book reminds me of some Bollywood movie that I know of. It took me right about 5 minutes to pin-point, and…
-
-
Finding Comfort and Connection with Days at the Morisaki Bookshop — Reading After-Thoughts :)
When I picked up Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, I was craving something light — a fiction that didn’t need me to intensely analysis the passages or use my intellectual muscles too much. After being deeply immersed in Sanjay Gupta’s Keep Sharp, which is a science-driven guide to protecting your brain from cognitive decline, I needed a gentler read. And this book turned out to be exactly that: a soothing, binge-worthy read that pulls you into short bursts of life and literature. Blurb Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, is a booklover’s paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books. Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked…
-
Why I Researched on Beth Kempton After Reading 09 Chapters of Kokoro
Okay so… here’s a confession: I picked up Kokoro by Beth Kempton in February 2025 thinking it would be a calm, aesthetic, soul-soothing, finding my inner journey kinda read. Something like “let me sip my coffee and romanticize my life” vibe. And it is that book for sure — but also, somewhere between Chapter 1, Chapter 9 and my untimely afternoon existential crisis, I decided I had to know everything about the woman who wrote this book. And yes, I mean everything. I went full reader-stalker mode (and ended up calling it research). So, here’s something we should know about Beth Kempton. Beth is a Japanologist (which is a super…
-
Book Review: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
There are some books you pick up with intention, and then there are books that pick you. For me, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was a little bit of both. I found it sitting at my safe space — the Krishna Curve Crossword — a.k.a. my comfort place where caffeine, aesthetic books, and occasional emotional breakdowns come together for me. Back in October 2024, I bought the book for a book club meet (bless my social self for trying). But the universe had other plans. I got too caught up in another book I was reading and abandoned Vuong’s masterpiece for a few months. Fast forward to January 2025, I…
-
Book Review | The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Can a book make you feel emotions that you’ve never experienced, and connect you to struggles that you’ve never faced? That’s exactly what Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water did for me. Spanning over three generations of a family and knit together by a mysterious “condition” of the water, this 720-page literary art is as huge as the waters from which it draws its inspiration. Meh, I know it’s a bad attempt at being metaphorical, but let’s ignore that and dive straight into the review: If you’re short on time, you can go through this 2-minute summary on the Book Review for The Covenant of Water on my Instagram handle…
-
Must-Read Quotes from “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying” by Bronnie Ware
Blurb After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or experience, she found herself working in palliative care. Over the years she spent tending to the needs of those who were dying, Bronnie’s life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog about the most common regrets expressed to her by the people she had cared for. The article, also called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, gained so much momentum that it was read by more than three million people around the globe in its first year. At the requests of many, Bronnie now shares…
-
Book Review & Quotes | Acts of God by Kanan Gill
To all my book friends, I recently finished reading Acts of God by Kanan Gill, and wow, it was quite the journey! This book isn’t your typical sci-fi adventure—it’s a deep dive into philosophical musings that made me pause, reflect, and question the very fabric of life. Let’s start with my favorite part: the storage instructions. I know, it sounds mundane, but Kanan Gill’s whimsical take on how to cherish and store a book left me smiling and nodding in agreement. He writes, “Or, if you’d rather love, then love this book with all your might, trace your fingertips gently over its jacket, literally, digitally and spiritually. Take this book…
-
Echoes of Existence
About the Book Title: Echoes of Existence Author: Ritika Das a.k.a. Readably Yours Genre: Poetry Summary: “Echoes of Existence” is a captivating poetry collection that invites readers to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Through a series of heartfelt verses, this book unveils the hidden magic within life’s mundane moments and emotional journeys. Immerse yourself in the essence of the everyday as these poems encourage you to rediscover the joy in simple pleasures—from the aroma of morning coffee to the peace found within the pages of a book. Inspired by the ordinary moments of the writer’s life, these verses resonate with the ebbs and flows that define our existence. With…
-
Book Review | She’ll Never Make It by Masoom Minawala
In a world where ambitious, young women often undergo a lot of skepticism, Masoom Minawala’s new book, “She’ll Never Make It,” is a light-hearted guide on resilience and empowerment. The book not only challenges those who have it in themselves to venture in uncharted territories but also mirrors Masoom’s struggles and wins across the years of her entering the influencer industry. Blurb: ‘She’ll never make it’ is something many ambitious, driven and entrepreneurial young women hear, especially if they want to do something totally different. And Masoom Minawala was no exception. Ridiculed and derided, Masoom decided to prove everyone wrong. Today she’s one of the top influencer-creators in India and…
-
Book Review: A Woman Is No Man – Etaf Rum
Synopsis: PALESTINE, 1990 Seventeen-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining suitors her father has chosen for her. Over the course of a week, the naive and dreamy girl finds herself quickly betrothed and married, and is soon living in Brooklyn. There Isra struggles to adapt to the expectations of her oppressive mother-in-law Fareeda and strange new husband Adam, a pressure that intensifies as she begins to have children – four daughters instead of the sons Fareeda tells Isra she must bear. BROOKLYN, 2008 Eighteen-year-old Deya, Isra’s oldest daughter, must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother Fareeda’s instance, though her only desire is to go to college. But her grandmother…
