The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom.

Author – Mitch Albom.

Synopsis.

On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his – and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden but place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. There people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed his path forever.

Words of AT.

The book starts with Eddie, the worker in an Amusement Park i.e. Ruby Pier. He dies saving a little girl of whose name he is unsure of. He dies and wakes up in a different place. He there, meets a big Blue Man who is the First Person he meets in Heaven.

                                                      There are some parts in all books, the ones you want to read again and again, adore it and just quote them up in your notebooks and all. This book has only one part as such and the one part is whole Book. Its so beautiful. The only right word to define it is Beautiful. Even though it has lot of philosophical pieces its not put in one grand soliloquy to get bored. Its steered through dialogues. The plot and the idea of afterlife itself is one of the greatest heights of the book. Eddie's five people are most unexpected and the lessons they teach are the lessons which life     teaches us. The end products of Anger, Love and Care are projected in it.

                                                            If you love fables with just great things packed in it, this one's perfect for you. The connectivity of the five members, their lives and Eddie's is like really God's work. None of the five would be there if Eddie wasn't. Eddie wouldn't be there if the five wouldn't. Its really a great network of beautiful things.

                        This has no Particular Religious claim. I would just go one talking about this one because it's really worth. A very great book which every one must read.

My Rating – 4.6/5.

Tall Man Small Shadow by Vipin Behari Goyal

Salil loves a shadow which transforms into many characters to reveal the secrets of life. Aalya, his neighbor, is doing research in English literature. Her guide Seema is a childless lesbian. Paul, husband of Seema, is a drama director. I am the protagonist, who coins philosophies for day to day events and my wife Sulekha is the second protagonist who makes coincidences happen with her artful manipulations. Read on to learn what happens next ..

Nimue Says : Vipin bihari's debut novel deal is a story based on "existentialism" which I came to know later means that the "individual" choices  , living and thoughts define his place and role in society. 

So we have the author introduce us to a voice [ I often assume it to be the author himself / an extension of his thoughts ] of a man who lives with his wife and daughter. Salil is the guy next door who is both intriguing and a bit mature beyond his years. We meet Alya , the daughter who secretly likes Salil . Now , you can imagine the reason for the cover design !

Before this book , I was reading this book which had a story on shadows. How shadows love to hide and be left to plot their own life rather than being dragged all places with the binding human. This book again talked of shadows and in a much amusing way. I loved the scene where Salil asked Alya to give him her shadow in return for a favor she asks.

The story plot is quite simple for this 152 pages book but what made it a long read for me was the need to pause , ponder , assimilate the philosophy and wonder if this is how the threads tie each one of us to number of people in real life. I can mention a few of the conversations and the gist here but that will ruin the beauty of the thought process you might be engaged into when you read. I shared a few with my best friends and it was so nice to have that perspective in life. 

Each character has his /her grey shades , the curiosity , the knowledge and the wisdom to use that knowledge to best is something the author and his wife are most capable of. We hear the wife's voice and ultimately know the name of the old guy. It is amusing to know the story from her point of view and that kind of fills a lot of holes in the narration too.

The book is a different read , an interesting one too. Definitely recommended by me.

Rating : 4/5

The Bottom Line - Sonu V C

I am not much of a fan of self help and philosophy books to be honest. I would not pick a self help book if given a choice, but if a book of this genre comes for review, I never say no to it. Sonu V C got in touch with me through a common friend and asked me if I can read and review his book and in no time I said yes. He gave me a brief about the book over phone and sent the book in a couple of days. 

The Bottom Line, is not a guidebook or it is not going to help you in any way. The book is written to understand the mere existence of your life and "Why" you should do things and "Why" you shouldn't. A lot of self help books tell people how and what about life and various other things but The Bottom Line focuses on "Why" part of things which most of us miss out on pondering over. This is the debut book of the author and Sonu being a novice has focussed on the key points of basic philosophies of life in a short, simple and straight forward way. 

The book is of 104 pages and is divided into 4 sections. My favourite part of the book is section 3 and section 4 namely Practical Line and Bottom Line respectively. People often say that they are practical, they know how things work, they have seen the world, but trust me those who say this, they have no clue what they are talking about. The author has kind of managed to give you an insight about what practicality is all about. 

Section 4 of the book, Bottom Line, is further divided into four parts namely, what is in our control ?, love and forgiveness, strong value system and selfless life. Each of the four sections give you a lot of food for thought. The book has been written keeping in mind that it won't solve your problems related to life. Life is a concept that one cannot understand on the whole but there are tits and bits of it, if you introspect can be resolved and broken down into various small things which can be resolved easily.

Overall, I liked the book. I felt that there could have been more examples to explain things mentioned in the book, but considering the fact that it is author's first book, I would not highlight more things. Give it a shot.

Book Source : Author
Publisher : World Book Company
Genre : Self Help/Philosophy
ISBN : 978-93-82417-19-4 

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

Title : Outliers

Author : Malcolm Gladwell

Publisher : Penguin Books

Pages : 309

Genre : Philosophy

ISBN : 978-0-14103-625-0

Outliers happened to me out of nowhere. I never intended to read this book and also psychology is something that gets over my head, but still I thought lets give it a try. The book was given to me by my friend Tarun and I am so thankful to him. It is an international bestseller and the feedback given by the top notch editorials is something impeccable. I picked it up this morning and finished it in the evening. The book is divided into two parts, Opportunity and Legacy. Some 309 pages spread over 9 chapters that are further sub divided into smaller sections overall giving a very balanced structure to the book. 

Outliers opens up with The Roseto Mystery, the introduction of the book, explaining the term Outlier with an real life example. The book is written in such a way that it attacks your psychology in an unusual way. The stuff is not boring and keeps you hooked. I would definitely want to say something here, if you are an impatient reader, this book is definitely not for you. 

Part 1, Opportunity, deals with success stories where people have turned a small opportunity into something big and have left a mark on the society. The 5 chapters in this part are dedicated to Canadian Hockey, IT, two chapters on education and law. This part of the book tells you a simple fact that there is nothing called big or small in the society. The line which has been drawn between these two sections of the society is all imaginary. The examples given in this part would definitely make you think about various things and  would boost your morale too. 

Part 2, Legacy  is all about people and examples where people have inherited their stuff from their ancestors. It is extremely tough to keep up with legacy. It tests your guts and patience from time to time and the challenges you encounter frequently makes sure that you are always on your toes. There are four chapters in these parts and all of them are super interesting. This part of the book counter balances Part 1 really well and covers almost all aspects one can think of.

All and all, reading outliers was a pleasant experience. Gladwell has surely impressed me with his writing. The language is simple and captivating and once you get the hang of the book it is a complete page turner. Give it a try if you want some food for thought. 

Book Source - Personal Copy                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Publisher : Penguin Books