Into the Wild -Jon Krakauer

 January 2011 Pick.  Meeting on Jan 16th. 

 After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to live in the wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary, letters and two notes found at a remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury and slowly starving. They also reflect the posturing of a confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who self-consciously adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth and return to nature. Krakauer, a contributing editor to Outside and Men's Journal, retraces McCandless's ill-fated antagonism toward his father, Walt, an eminent aerospace engineer. Krakauer also draws parallels to his own reckless youthful exploit in 1977 when he climbed Devils Thumb, a mountain on the Alaska-British Columbia border, partly as a symbolic act of rebellion against his autocratic father. In a moving narrative, Krakauer probes the mystery of McCandless's death, which he attributes to logistical blunders and to accidental poisoning from eating toxic seed pods.

Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc- Publishers Weekly

 This is January 2011 Pick.  Meeting on Jan 16th.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel by Helen Simonson

December 2010- Reading. Meeting on Dec. 12th

Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: In her witty and wise debut novel, newcomer Helen Simonson introduces the unforgettable character of the widower Major Ernest Pettigrew.  The Major epitomizes the Englishman with the "stiff upper lip," who clings to traditional values and has tried (in vain) to pass these along to his yuppie son, Roger. The story centers around Pettigrew's fight to keep his greedy relatives (including his son) from selling a valuable family heirloom--a pair of hunting rifles that symbolizes much of what he stands for, or at least what he thinks he does. The embattled hero discovers an unexpected ally and source of consolation in his neighbor, the Pakistani shopkeeper Jasmina Ali. On the surface, Pettigrew and Ali's backgrounds and life experiences couldn't be more different, but they discover that they have the most important things in common. This wry, yet optimistic comedy of manners with a romantic twist will appeal to grown-up readers of both sexes. Kudos to Helen Simonson, who distinguishes herself with Major Pettigrew's Last Stand as a writer with the narrative range, stylistic chops, and poise of a veteran. --Lauren Nemroff

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - by Lisa See

 A language kept a secret for a thousand years forms the backdrop for an unforgettable novel of two Chinese women whose friendship and love sustains them through their lives.

This absorbing novel – with a storyline unlike anything Lisa See has written before – takes place in 19th century China when girls had their feet bound, then spent the rest of their lives in seclusion with only a single window from which to see.  Illiterate and isolated, they were not expected to think, be creative, or have emotions. But in one remote county, women developed their own secret code, nu shu – "women's writing" – the only gender-based written language to have been found in the world.  Some girls were paired as "old-sames" in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives.  They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their windows to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

An old woman tells of her relationship with her "old-same," their arranged marriages, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood—until a terrible misunderstanding written on their secret fan threatens to tear them apart. With the detail and emotional resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha , Snow Flower and the Secret Fan delves into one of the most mysterious and treasured relationships of all time—female friendship. (from Lisa See's Website)

Books By Chetan Bhagat

One Night @ the Call Center or ON@CC is a novel written by Chetan Bhagat and first published in 2005. The novel revolves around a group of six call center employees working in Connexions call center in Gurgaon, Haryana. It is filled with a lot of drama with unpleasant things happening to all of the leading characters. The story takes a dramatic and decisive turn when they get a phone call from God.
This is the second best-selling novel from the award winning author

Love marriages around the world are simple:
Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.
They get married.
In India, there are a few more steps:
Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.
Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.
Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don’t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it?

Ten Commandments of OSHO

1. Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from within you also.
2. There is no God other than life itself.
3. Truth is within you, do not search for it elsewhere.
4. Love is prayer.
5. To become a nothingness is the door to truth. Nothingness itself is the means, the goal and attainment.
6. Life is now and here.
7. Live wakefully.
8. Do not swim – float.
9. Die each moment so that you can be new each moment.
10. Do not search. That which is, is. Stop and see.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

BookBrowse Awards, 2007

Winner of the 2007 BookBrowse Diamond Award for Most Popular Book.

An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of Riding Lessons.

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.

Beautifully written, Water for Elephants is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford.

LOOK AGAIN - Lisa Scottoline

Starred Review. Bestseller Scottoline (Lady Killer) scores another bull's-eye with this terrifying thriller about an adoptive parent's worst fear—the threat of an undisclosed illegality overturning an adoption. The age-progressed picture of an abducted Florida boy, Timothy Braverman, on a have you seen this child? flyer looks alarmingly like Philadelphia journalist Ellen Gleeson's three-year-old son, Will, whom she adopted after working on a feature about a pediatric cardiac care unit. Ellen, who jeopardizes her newspaper job by secretly researching the Braverman case, becomes suspicious when she discovers the lawyer who handled her adoption of Will has committed suicide. Meanwhile, Will's supposed birth mother, Amy Martin, dies of a heroin overdose, and Amy's old boyfriend turns out to look like the man who kidnapped Timothy. Scottoline expertly ratchets up the tension as the desperate Ellen flies to Miami to get DNA samples from Timothy's biological parents. More shocks await her back home.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 

Book Lists- If you are looking for something to read

Books we have proposed in the past for the club but did not get to read it

• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin Nonfiction, Historical 
• My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk  
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Stieg Larsson 
• The monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin S Sharma
• Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
• Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
•  Life as we knew it  by Pfeffer, Susan Beth
•  A soft place to land by  White, Susan Rebecca

TIME magazine's Top 10 picks of 2009 in Fiction and Nonfiction:

Fiction:

• Wolf Hall
• The Financial Lives of Poets
• Swimming
• Catching Fire
• Everyting Ravaged, Everything Burned
• Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
• In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
• Beat the Reaper
• The Windup Girl
• The Kindly Ones

Nonfiction:

• The Age of Wonder
• D-day
• Lit
• Changing my Mind
• Lords of Finance
• Logicomix
• Manhood for Amateurs
• Strength in What Remains
• Cooking Dirty
• Cheever: A Life

The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Henry DeTamble, the hero of Audrey Niffenegger’s novel, has a curious disorder that he shares with several other heroes of fantasy fiction - he has a tendency to zigzag between Past, Present, and Future. But the author, who has a nifty knack for words, has inventively come up with a scientific label for his condition – he’s a CDP (Chrono Displaced Person).

But the science(fiction)-averse reader has nothing to fear. We’re not going to be bogged down by terminology here. This is first and foremost a romance. Our hero, is by profession a librarian, who also happens to be a multilingual scholar, lover of books, and dishy-looking, to boot. Traffic in the NPLs would increase considerably, if we had some like him here.

Henry’s not a very good boy though; he’s also a larcenous, hard-drinking womanizer, given to the use of recreational drugs. But all he needs is the love of a good woman to make over his life, and Clare Abshire happens to fit the bill. She’s spent most of her life grooming herself for the job, since she was 6 and Henry was 36, and since she was 13 and he was 35, and since she was 16 and he was 32, and since…whatever.

Niffenegger puts her own spin on an oft-told theme, and livens it with her painterly prose. Her writing skills are superb. Her few flaws include rambling filler-like conversation, a tendency to bloviate on her pet topics, and rather naive interpolation of ethnic stereotypes. I found the book reminiscent of Danielle Steele’s style – beautiful people lisping French and German, wallowing in art and culture, and living with an insouciant disregard of financial constraints. I probably shouldn’t carp on that – the world of romantic fiction makes no allowance for petty concerns like high mortgage or low libido. The hero and heroine are required to have interesting problems. They don’t fail us there.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this book, because the love that’s talked about is the real thing; it endures. Past, Present, or Future – it doesn’t matter, as long as you’re with the love of your life. Recommendation? Three hankies /one box of Kleenex.

The Giver by Lois Lowry.

The Giver is a 1993 soft science fiction novel by Lois Lowry.

 A young adult fiction highly recommend by Gayatri K.  Its a simple and direct style, with a futuristic, scientific bent.  Jonas the twelve year old lives in a society where "sameness" is the basis of their existence, where differences in the form of color, sound, relative knowledge, choice, emotions and memories are eliminated.  People are "assigned" their role in society, their spouse, their children (limit 2 per family unit) a boy and a girl, by a group of elders who monitor every citizen, resulting a peaceful, law abiding, strife free yet mechanical world.
At twelve Jonas is "selected" to be the "Receiver" of memories from the "Giver", who keeps all the memories of the past going back several generations.  The Elders of this society seek the advise of the "Receiver" on matters beyond their experience, as the Receiver has memories and wisdom that comes from it to guide them.  Jonas realizes that memories of color, music, joy, warmth of the sun, breeze from the ocean, death, starvation, war and love all enrich a person even though some of them cause pain. 

Nice concept, makes you appreciate the little things that are taken for granted, to appreciate that differences and diversities is what makes life interesting!!Yet, I wonder if it can keep children's attention through out the book..

The books ends abruptly leaving you dissatisfied and a few questions hanging in the air....

Blood from a Stone

Blood from a Stone by Donna Leon(a Commissario Guido Brunnetti Mystery)

I was looking forward to blissfully soaking myself in a good old-fashioned cloak and dagger novel, but initially found this one a little tepid. More used to the rat-a-tat pace of the American crime caper, or the sinister undercurrents of the English countryside, it took me a while to get used to the well-read, genial hero of this Venetian mystery.

Guido Brunnetti, devoted family man and lover of good food, is a far cry from the stereotypical hard-boiled, macho cop hero. The story is well written, with a thought-provoking plot that takes time to unravel.

My main quibble is that our hero is reduced to being a frustrated witness when the final pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Neither he, nor the reader, has the satisfaction of declaring whole-heartedly, “Case closed!” Still, I think the series holds promise. Next time, I might try one of the better-reviewed books of Ms. Leon’s like, “Doctored Evidence” or “Uniform Justice”. Until then, Ciao Guido!

The Tao Of Warren Buffet- Mary Buffett & David Clark

This is a short book for those with interest in investing and business.  Warren Buffett the icon for investment success is looked up to as a good person who is immensely wealthy.  

His mantra for big returns from the stock market are:

• Invest in a good solid company, which you believe will be around for at least 15 years, whose management is solid and ethical, and whose products are of great quality and value.
• Buy large number of stocks in a few great companies when the prices are low.. Keep watching for market scenarios where you can accomplish this. Don't listen to wall street!
• Sit on the stocks for a long time.  Long term investment. See your wealth accrue!

Simple eh!

Hindu Scriptures

In the word `Bhagavan' - `bhaga' signifies the six qualities of God. These are: jnana (wisdom), vairagyam (dispassion) kirti (fame), Sri (prosperity or wealth, divine aisvarya), sakti or bala (omnipotence) , and dharma (righteousness) .

According to the Prasnopanishad, there are fifteen kalas or rays of God. These are: prana (life), faith, sky, air, fire, water, earth, senses, mind, food, strength, penance, mantra (mystic formula), karma (action) and name.

 This was quoted by Dr. Abdul Kalam

Where there righteousness in the heart there is beauty in the character

When there is beauty in the character there is Harmony at home

When there is harmony at home there is Order in the nation

When there is Order in the nation there is Peace in the world

My Book Recommendations:

Book:Eat,Pray,Love
Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
Recommended to:Mala Srinath
Because:I think she'll enjoy it. It's a memoir that reads like easy fiction.

Book:The House of the Spirits
Author:Isabel Allende
Recommended to:Anyone who enjoyed 'The God of Small Things'.
Because:It's a lushly written, sweeping epic.

Book: To Kill a Mockingbird
Author:Harper Lee
Recommended to:Everyone
Because:It's a modern American classic. Beutiful, Simple, Powerful.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time By Mark Haddon

 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 novel by British writer Mark Haddon. It won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year^[1] and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book.

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.

Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind.

And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon's choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing is a mind that perceives the world literally.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the freshest debuts in years: a comedy, a heartbreaker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

In ‘Shadow of the Silk Road’, Colin Thubron retraces the route of the historic Silk Road, starting from China and wending his way through Tibet, the fractured republics of Central Asia, through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

Thubron’s prose is elegant and evocative in its unsentimental, yet compassionate telling of lands and people rendered remote by geography and cultural divides.

What I found particularly interesting was his exploration of the historic intermingling of various ethnicities, and the consequent racial anomalies that exist to this day, especially apparent in China and Central Asia.

The ruthless ambitions of early empire-builders are echoed in the brutal regimes of modern-day despots. There is little to rejoice in as we hear the grim accounts of lives shattered by war, ancient bigotries kept fervently alive, and dreams crushed underfoot by religious fanaticism, or authoritarian suppression.

Nevertheless, the book is oddly luminous. All along this silken swathe, despite the differences of customs and cultures, the common humanity of these impoverished people shines evident – be it in their aspirations for a better life, for freedom from persecution, for peace, for dignity; or in their hospitality to a wanderer who experiences first hand the kindness of strangers.

An eye-opener for those (like me) who, misguided by the media, would write off this Eurasian melting-pot as nothing more than a seething cauldron of religious fundamentalism.

This fascinating and erudite travelogue will delight alike lovers of history and archaeology, as well as those who merely revel in fine writing.

Real Love

What do I mean when I say 'really love'? I mean that just being in the presence of the other you feel suddenly happy, just being together you feel ecstatic, just the very presence of the other fulfills something deep in your heart... something starts singing in your heart, you fall into harmony. Just the very presence of the other helps you to be together; you become more individual, more centered, more grounded. Then it is love.

Love is not a passion, love is not an emotion. Love is a very deep understanding that somebody somehow completes you. Somebody makes you a full circle. The presence of the other enhances your presence. Love gives freedom to be yourself; it is not possessiveness.

(Osho) The discipline of Transcendence

Dignity/Self Respect VS Ego

"Dignity arises out of meditation.
Ego arises out of mind."
 
Dignity and ego are totally different phenomena. Dignity is non comparative whereas ego is comparative. Dignity comes from the innermost experience of one's being.
Dignity is a totally different phenomenon, it is self-respect. Ego is domination over others. Dignity is just standing on your own feet, independence, freedom; it is not domination over others. The moment you start thinking of dominating, you are falling into the trap of the ego. 

The power that depends on others creates the ego. The power that comes from within your own sources of life creates dignity. Meditation brings tremendous dignity, a great grace, but not even a shadow of ego is found in it.

Chocolat -Joanne Harris, 1999

Chocolat
Joanne Harris, 1999
Random House
320 pp.

In Brief

When the exotic stranger Vianne Rocher arrives in the old French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique called "La Celeste Praline" directly across the square from the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock. It is the beginning of Lent: the traditional season of self-denial. The priest says she'll be out of business by Easter.

To make matters worse, Vianne does not go to church and has a penchant for superstition. Like her mother, she can read Tarot cards. But she begins to win over customers with her smiles, her intuition for everyone's favourites, and her delightful confections. Her shop provides a place, too, for secrets to be whispered, grievances aired. She begins to shake up the rigid morality of the community. Vianne's plans for an Easter Chocolate Festival divide the whole community. Can the solemnity of the Church compare with the pagan passion of a chocolate éclair?

For the first time, here is a novel in which chocolate enjoys its true importance, emerging as an agent of transformation. Rich, clever, and mischievous, reminiscent of a folk tale or fable, this is a triumphant read with a memorable character at its heart.

Says Harris: "You might see [Vianne] as an archetype or a mythical figure. I prefer to see her as the lone gunslinger who blows into the town, has a showdown with the man in the black hat, then moves on relentless. But on another level she is a perfectly real person with real insecurities and a very human desire for love and acceptance. Her qualities too -- kindness, love, tolerance -- are very human." Vianne and her young daughter Anouk, come into town on Shrove Tuesday. "Carnivals make us uneasy," saysHarris, "because of what they represent: the residual memory of blood sacrifice (it is after all from the word "carne" that the term arises), of pagan celebration. And they represent a loss of inhibition; carnival time is a time at which almost anything is possible."

The book became an international best-seller, and was optioned to film quickly. The Oscar-nominated movie, with its star-studded cast including Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) and Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love), was directed by Lasse Hallstrom, whose previous film The Cider House Rules (based on a John Irving novel) also looks at issues of community and moral standards, though in a less lighthearted vein. (From the Publisher)

Meditation

If Love and Meditation are in conflict meditation will be defeated.  Love will be victorious because love is beautiful.  Meditation can be victorious only on the wings of love..Love is deeper than any Mantra. 

So meditate on love..Move to the natural attraction, then you are one.. You are whole..You are one piece.  When you move as one piece there is dance. Divine dance.  In the undivided whole meditation blossoms.  Meditation is the door to super conscious. 

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali


Meditation is not a method but a process; meditation is not a technique but an
understanding. It cannot be taught; it can only be indicated. You cannot be informed about it
because no information is really information. It is from the outside, and meditation comes from your
own inner depths.
--Osho 12/30/2010

Hurt Locker

Saw 'Hurt Locker' last week.Loved it.It's the story of US troops stationed in Iraq responsible for id-ing and disarming IEDs.Sans political overtones or the ethics of going to war,it shows

in stark documentary style the minutes leading up to a disarming operation,fraught with tension and in the verge of violence.

I loved how the director focused only on one component of war while exploring the physical demands and stress that the troops deal with.

Definitely Oscar worhy...

The Life of Pi - By Yann Martel

Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?

Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.

Sakhi Book Club Review Format

GENERAL REVIEW FORMAT:


* Plot/Story line:  what we liked about the plot/story; what was not so appealing; where we felt the author missed out (plot inconsistencies, whatever didn't add up etc.)

* Characterization:  our analysis of the story's characters one by one - what makes them tick; how well they have been depicted; their role in the story.

* Setting:  how well the author has succeeded in drawing us into the place/time period of the story, whether it has been convincing or not.

* Language/Stylistic elements: humor, style of writing

* The key message/philosophy underlying the story:  the main point that we think the author is trying to convey. This is just guesswork, since we don't really know what the writer intended. There are no right or wrong answers.

* Parallels with other books, or real life situations:  how do you relate to it.  Is it realistic, have you come across any of these situations in your life? This is just to share our experiences.

* Questions we may have:  whatever comes to mind - anything that has sparked our interest while reading this book.  Sometimes it could be what you did not understand, how it not fit in or any thing you would like clarified from the group.

The God of Small Things (1997) by Arundhati Roy

Sakhi Book Club Book for Jan-Feb 2010


Review Date Feb 14th 2010



(from Wiki)
The God of Small Things (1997) is a novel by Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of a pair of fraternal twins who become victims of circumstance. The book is a description of how the small things in life build up, translate into people's behavior and affect their lives. The book won the Booker Prize in 1997.

Three Idiots- Hindi Movie

From WIKI;
3 Idiots (Hindi: थ्री इडीयट्स) is a 2009 Bollywood comedy directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It is based on the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani.

Faith/Trust/Surrender

Doubt is a negative attitude towards something… Mind finds rationalizing to support this

Belief – Belief is just like doubt but standing upside down.. It is a 'Positive' attitude towards something. Mind finds rationalizing to support this.

Faith – Is love..It is deep trusting. There is no belief or doubt. There are no rationalization. It is complete.

With a master you are on a heart trip.. Heart knows only trust. Faith is like a child. It is total. When a disciple becomes just like a child then gift of peak of consciousness are given. It is absolutely feminine. Receptive like a womb.

It does not matter who the master is, it matters how deep and sincere the surrender is.