Title: Sannaz

Author: Sagar Datta

Pages: 270

Genre: Poetry

Sannaz is a composition of shyaris of hindi and urdu. There themes revolve around love, relationships,friendships and heartbreak. they are presented in a beautiful way. The shyaris have a mordern touch to them. They are presented in simple language and yet have depth in them,they are elegant and leaves a deep impact on the reader. This book can be a good weekend read. It is a quick read.The cover can easily attract the reader. The title “sannaz” meaning “full of grace” justifies the book. Some of my favourites were: “Waade”,”Dosti”,”Safha”,”Toh Kya Hua”,”Noor”, “Zamana Kharab Hai”,”Kisi Ki Zindagi”,”khoobseerat”,”Unhone Pucha”, “Jo Paas Yun Hai Mere”, “Kaas Kuch Aisa Ho Jaye”, “Koi Kaise Tujhe Samajhata”, ” Aab-e-Chashm”, “Jinse tu mila hai ab tak”, “Kyu zindagi ko dhuyein mein udate ho roz”,”Teri Dosti Hum”

3.5/5

2018 had been a great reading year for me! I made new reading habits. Some authors stole my heart with their books!

1. Anjali Kirpalani: I just loved her writing style. She writes in such a fun and quirky manner. Her covers never fail to attract me.https://avniijain.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/19-till-i-die-by-anjali-kirpalani-book-review/
2. Stuti Changle: Her debut book “On The Open Road” was an amazing read. I loved how she mixed fiction and self-help. I am so eagerly waiting for her second book to release!!https://avniijain.wordpress.com/2018/04/26/on-the-open-road-by-stuti-changle-book-review/
3. John Green: I can’t just blabber enough about how much I love his writing♡https://avniijain.wordpress.com/2018/07/13/turtles-all-the-way-down-book-review/
4. Jenny Han: I.LOVED. “TO ALL THE BOYS I HAVE LOVED BEFORE” ♡. I love light reads and Young Adult Contemporary novels and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was a perfect example for it! Looking forward to reading more books by her!
5. Khushwant Singh: I loved the themes of his books and how he slowly unfolds the stories in his book. He has magic in his writing ♡

 

 

 

 

Title: A Fool’s Circle
Author: Suzzane Seddon
Pages: 328

Kate is suffering from an abusive marriage with Alan. She is only living to save her eight-year-old daughter. She also has her “bestie” Jill Reynolds. The book is filled with twists and turns. It is filled with lies and betrayal. It is not an easy read. The character developments are great and writing makes it more powerful. The topic of domestic violence is amazingly described and how it makes one’s life worst. The cover says a lot about the book of seeing abuse from someone’s eyes. The book is highly emotional and how their daughter had to suffer. It is a great thrilling, emotional and gripping read!

5/5

 

Title: Jasmine Days
Author: Benyamin
Translator: Shanaz Habib
Pages: 264

Genre: Fiction

The narrator of the story who moves to an unnamed middle eastern country to live with her father and relatives. She worked in a radio station. Her world was happy with supporting friends, caring family until a revolution hits the country, She meets Ali from the radio station. Their friendship bonds over facebook through music. They attend music sessions ” String Walkers” together. The whole book is from the perspective of Sameera who is narrating her story to Javed. She is an “outsider” getting to know her perspective is beautiful, which adds more grace to the book. Ali living in the same country is a “second class”. The book has many characters which allow the reader to get different perspectives. Politics, inequality, religion, war are the major topics revolving in the story. I am not a huge fan of politics but the writing kept me gripped throughout the story. Writing style being effective is also easy to read. The characters are built well and how they lead to an important part of the story. The emotions and how the protagonist feels at a certain point of time are displayed beautifully. The ending could have been better is the only downside of the book for me. Overall, a great emotional read!

5/5

Title: You Begin Where I End

Author: Sarang Jairaj

Pages: 135

Genre: Fiction

The cover is quirky and beautiful. It shows different aspects of the protagonist’s life. In the whole Nafisa (the protagonist) is shown as an overweight girl and uses “panda” to describe herself but the girl on the cover isn’t shown like that. While reading this book, the cover turns disappointing and not accurate for the plot.

The book starts with Nafisa having a terrible breakup which is hard for her to deal with. She ends up with jealousy and starts using a dating app which ” rhymes with hinder”. The book is filled with texts like “rhymes with” which becomes quite irritating. Through the dating app, she meets Amar which resulted in love and lust. She then meets Kiaan through Quora and they become penpals. Then sudden death of her mother leads her into extreme sadness for her. After this, the plot becomes interesting when her mother’s diary entries are introduced and one is able to explore the love story of her mother. Through each chapter, Nafisa is trying to heal herself while Kiaan unknowingly helps her in this, which results in Nafisa getting attracted towards him. The writing style could have been better as the author is trying to convey something but if the writing style would have been enriched it could leave an impact on the reader. The latter part catches the attention when different circumstances are introduced. It describes different problems her mother had to deal with.

Overall, it was a disappointing read for me.

Thanks @thatinsonomiac.reader and @powerpuffwords for the review copy!

2/5