The Moony Girl

  (18 of 2021) 📚 'tuesdays with Morrie' with Mitch Albom 📚 This one really taught me that you don't need to be bald to be a star of your trade. Hey! I am talking about Robin Sharma and the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. 😉 When it comes to life lessons, this book is way more realistic and way less cringe. Bonus : it's a True Story.  📚 To summarise in one line, I'll tell you the complete title - 'tuesdays with Morrie - an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson' 😎 The book is a memoir of Author's Professor at Brandeis University Mr Morrie Schwartz. SPOILER ALERT : The book talks about Positive and Energetic Morrie's Tryst with ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease. It's a disease that we know from Stephen Hawking and the Ice Bucket Challenge but this book will tell you so much more - how it affects the body, taking over part by part. Sounds heartbreaking? Don't worry - Morrie's Positivity Lessons with Mitch every Tuesday will keep you

  (17 of 2021) 📚 'Modern Romance' by Aziz Ansari 📚 Well, here's is how the flowchart for this one goes- About to start Dating? Read it. No? Dating already? Read it.  No? In a relation and going/not going steady? Read it.  Married already? Read it.  Past marriage and all the social shenanigans? Still Read It!  📚  Aziz has taken a very detailed and entertaining tour of the modern love and dating scenario. This book compiles everything related to romance under the sun - from asking for that first date to Online Dating AKA swipe left-right scenario (well, in a country where Conscription isn't mandatory, that's the only Left and Right we do).  Not only that, it does your handholding into old school issues even when you've found your the One or getting in and out (ugh, not a euphemism) of relations (see!) - Sexting, Cheating, Snooping and Break ups (Jerk Trap : it even has a chapter on breaking up over Phone Calls and Texts (You Gen Z You 🙄)). My fav chapter is Ch

  (16 of 2021) 📚  'स्वयंसिद्धा' शिवानी द्वारा 📚 राधाकृष्ण पेपरबैक्स द्वारा प्रकाशित 'स्वयंसिद्धा' 6 लघुकथाओं - स्वयंसिद्धा, अभिनय, कौन, गैंडा, बदला और दर्पण - का संग्रह है. यह किताब शिवानी द्वारा कृत शृंखला की इस साल की मेरी पांचवीं किताब है. ज़ाहिर है, इतने ओवर-एक्सपोज़र से एक समय पर मन भरने या मोहभंग जैसी स्थिति बनने लगती है. कहीं-कहीं शिवानी जी की रूढ़िवादी सोच ने भी आहत किया है. परंतु इस किताब ने मुझे फिर स्मरण करवा दिया - कि मैं ने क्यूं शिवानी जी को पढ़ना शुरू किया था. 📚 ना इस किताब में आपको 'कस्तूरी मृग' में वर्णित पहाड़ और वनस्पतियां मिलेंगी, और ना ही 'भैरवी' जैसा भारतीय आध्यात्म का मंगलगान. सारी कहानियां बड़ी तरोताज़ा और नवीन हैं - मॉडर्न भी कह सकते हैं. 📚 जहां 'स्वयंसिद्धा' एक विख्यात अविवाहित प्रौढ़ा प्रशासनिक अधिकारी माधवी की कहानी है, वहीं 'अभिनय' दिलफेंक शेखर और भोली जिवंती का प्रेमप्रसंग.  'कौन' कुछ ऐसे बेनाम रिश्तों की बात कहती है जिन्हें सामाजिक स्वीकृति ना मिलने पर भी वह प्रासंगिक और प्रिय रहते हैं, चाहे समय

  15.2 of 2021 📚  'The Overcoat' by Nikolai Gogol - If you have read my last review, then you would know from where this Short Story came into the picture. Dostoevsky might believe that "We all came out of Gogol's 'Overcoat'", but Gogol's Overcoat came to me out of Ashoke's life story.  🧥 Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin is a poor Copying Clerk, but depsite his low-paid conditions and a lukewarm social life, he is a happy man. Happy until one day, he finds that his Overcoat has worn out beyond repair and now, he would need to buy a new one - something that will burn a hole in his impoverished pocket. What happens after that is.. What I won't tell you!! (Nobody likes a spoiler-bomber :p) But the point to be noted is that this way of story telling, the event lineup and presentation is unique to Russian Literature. And that is why, we may read stories from around the world, but we return to Russian Authors in the doldrums of white, freezing post-Chr

(15 of 2021) 📚 'The Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri - "For being a foreigner, Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy—a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts." - the best phrase to summarise the book. 📚 As I hail from Doaba - the 'phoren' crazy land of Punjab, the lives of the acquaintances sprinkled far and wide on the world map has always been intriguing. Hence, this book.  📚  The Namesake is the story of a Bengali couple Ashoke and Ashima and their world that they set up in America as young migrants. With big dreams in their eyes, Ms Lahiri also doesn't miss out on the dilemmas and difficulty that they face in a country much foreign to them in culture and cuisine, sans many Bongbhashis. 📚 SPOILER ALERT - Though Ashoke and Ashima may feel pariahs, the family offshoots Nikhil née Gogol and Sonia don't feel that way. Stuck somewhere on an island between their Desi looks and American hearts, the stor

 (13 of 2021) 📚 `Ghosts of the Silent Hills - Stories based on true hauntings' by Anita Krishan ft. The Scary Photosession 📚 You know you're doing well in marriage when husband goes to Simla for work and doesnt forget to get you a book. From competing with my Kindle for attention to encouraging my romance with mountain-horror (yes it's a genre and I made it! 🙄), I think hubby dear has come a long way. 🧿 📚 Coming to the book, Gin and Tonic might do it for many, but Hills and Horror is my fav cocktail. As this one claims to be based on true hauntings, it stimulated me even more. But I'm happy to tell you - the book did complete justice to my anticipation. 😍  📚 Comprised of 10 short stories, most of the tales are based in small hill towns, from Mashobra to Shimla, Chamba to Dibrugarh, this book takes you places. Some stories are fresh and urban, but the best ones, like 'An Uncanny Attachment' and 'Shadow in the Dark' will remind you of the Pahadi fol