Kevein Books and Reviews

The Ganges and Other Poems by Mahathi is a brilliant poetry cum prose book on the River Ganges, with many other devotional poems inside. It’s inclined towards Bhakti, and seems emanating from Hinduism. The book is religious in its narrative and stirs a sense of spiritual mystery, awe, and fascination in readers’ hearts. The book starts with an extensive, yet brilliant, forward. As it progresses, we see the book is divided into three sections. Starting with the first section, it’s about Prayer – it has some 4 prose/eulogies dedicated to the lord Rama. The following lines briefly sums up the love of the poet towards his faith in the lord Rama: “SiaRam, SiaRam – their names as Holy Pslams, and forms as frozen Om, I say Pranaaams.” The second section (The Ganges) is about the great river Ganga. It consists 7 short prose cum poetry work. This section is purely read like literature juice. The poet introduces us to the mythological and religious history of the river Ganga. Through the p

Pandemic Aftermath (How Coronavirus Changes Global Society) by Trond Undheim is a well-thought-out and well-researched book on the current crises of Covid 19, also known as Coronavirus. Mixed with facts, stats, and future scenarios – at times the book sounds part dystopian, and many a time it looks like a futuristic book. Be it any time or era, one of the peculiar characteristics of any pandemic is that it creates an environment of fear, grief, hopelessness, and tension for a longer time. Therefore, societies are bound to change. This book (Pandemic Aftermath) that runs over 450 pages is basically about Coronavirus. The book counts all possibilities that this pandemic is bound to leave on us. However, Trond is not anxious about future predictions, in fact he has done a tremendous research to recount the previous pandemics, as in how they changed the world’s all layers. The book kick starts with a solid introduction about pandemics of yesteryears like the Black Death of 13 th cent

This is the first book in the Gamed trilogy; it’s a sort of adult romance. The story features Kristina, Smith, and Craig as major character. There are others as well, but in limited roles. Kristina is a young lady, successful at her career. She is married to Smith. Soon after the marriage to Kristina, Smith leaves for the UK for better job opportunities. Kristina waits for him in her hometown but to no avail. She longs for him and misses the pre-marriage romance. But after marriage Smith changes drastically. He becomes so career and money inclined that he takes his family and its allied values for granted. The novel focuses on post marriage life and what relationship facts one should check before getting married. Kristina’s biggest worry is the test of time, along with loneliness. She finds it hard to determine what is running inside Smith’s heart. Has his love changed for her or did he get along with someone else? The author used flashback technique to rope in the situations perfect

A few months back I had read Silhouette and Other Poems by Tasnima Yasmin. It was a great and contemplative collection. It was much suited for regular readers than kids. Well, but there were a few poems that indicated her orientation towards kids. So, now I finally got a book that is totally for kids of around 4 to 10. I personally love children's literature , as it does not burden one with rules and expectations. You like what you get. Coming to her new book that is entirely for kids, I loved the book and read it over 5 times in last one month. Even I showed the beautiful pictures put with each poem to kids at my home, they were so engrossed and got excited that I had to take a colour printout of the PDF book for their reading, basically fun. It’s a short 75 page book, with having 24 very short poems. I must say that the illustrations sketched by Sadia Sultana are simply superb and great. Children stared at them whenever they get time to go through the book. Talking about cont

Faith and the Beloved by Kochery C Shibu is a riveting crime thriller novel set in the contemporary time. The novel has detailed character development and a rich dose of history when connecting all the characters in future. The story is not about one victim or person or a detective playing hide and seek with his suspects, rather it’s more about circumstances in life, and how some people take on that extra leap to fight for their beloved ones while trying to keep their faith on religion/god intact. I loved how the author started the novel with fast-pacing yet descriptive family backdrop of Prem and Naithy. In Prem’s case, it’s his grandfather who got the curse on the family by stealing someone’s gold. And in Naithy’s case, her lineage goes back to far beyond 18 th century and the time of Britishers in India, one of her ancestors got into tea business owing to a favour by a British man. Anyway, the author covered a lot from that time to when we see Alice Cherokil and Prem Rollands.

The Flute Player by Ruskin Bond is a short story. Probably, this is the first story by Ruskin which is not staged against the backdrop of the Himalayan foothills. It’s set in Jaipur. The story starts with Kamla. She has come to Jaipur from England on summer vacation to live with her grandmother. Her parents live in the UK, where her father works as a doctor. After the summer vacation , she will go back to them in the UK and resume studies in the school. Kamla’s vacation in Jaipur are numbering out, in a few days she will be going back, but she is captivated by the life portrayed on the other side of the main highway road, this road divides the city into parts – urban and village landscape. She lives in the city part but wants to see that side of the road which looks green and swaying with the fields and farms – a sort of countryside for her. Like many other Ruskin Bond books where the child protagonist gets curious to know more about other than his/her immediate premise, in this st

Skeins by Richa Gupta is a powerful women-centric contemporary fiction. The book is about 16 women that travel to Spain and Portugal for a period of 13 days; they come from Delhi, Mumbai, Dubai, and Chennai. It's one of the unique novels where there is no specific protagonist; rather all 16 women have been highlighted in proper light during and after the trip. Another dazzling aspect is the combination of age group – there were unmarried young spinsters to women settled in the society with kids and husbands, and a few over fifty grappling with senile isolation and solitude. This is one good book that has neither feminism nor sensuality, suitable to all sorts of readers. As a reader you may connect to some women personally, it totally depends on your social ambience, and there would be some women whose life story may sound odd to you! On a broader note, it's a collection of experience – interlaced with sorrow and aspirations dull and bright like skeins. The title is perfect

Writing a book and becoming a literature sensation overnight is a rarity – it happened only with a handful of writers like Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner) and J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter). Well, but it doesn’t mean that others didn’t achieve success with books. Writing a book and getting it published, and selling it like a bestseller calls for a proper channelization and deep insights about publishing and much more. As a matter of fact, a new writer has to be equipped with the proper knowledge of the publishing industry trends to make the most of his/her writing caliber. Knowledge is important! Knowledge is power! Same goes everywhere and applies to all fields. Know-how of publishing and book marketing is a must-have factor to all aspiring writers. Without this, it would be difficult to find the correct reader base. Well, the good news is that gaining publishing knowledge is not a rocket science – couple of good books from the industry experts and you are done. One such book, publ

Cheap Flights on Your Phone by Steven Jones is a good and meaningful book for a gamut of people that often fly for various reasons. The book is like a travel blogger’s diary – the author has spent many decades in the aviation industry, flies often, and is an entrepreneur. Thus, the tips and guidance presented in the book are first-hand information for new and seasoned fliers. The book is a short read with just 12 useful chapters, ranging from history of ticket booking to how book tickets using the African Tours Guide website and the app to taking advantage of overbooking and much in between. Just after the history of air ticket booking, the author shifts focus to African Tours Guide’s special tricks and tips that can save substantial money on each booking. It’s a sort of company like Make My Trip and Trip Advisor. Steven then dedicatedly shows how to book tickets on the android app, the website, and on iphone and how to save money with low-cost to premium airlines. What’s really

I have read many novels based on Western America, all promise sanguinary adventure and heroic deeds of a common man in the lap of nature. This one, too, was good. I hoped for a full-fledged story of one person with some substantial motto in life; however, in the story one man keeps changing his name and he is not a hero. He wore many hats in his life, such as outlaw, war fighter, cattle herder, rancher, Sherriff, detective, and above all an independent man. He didn’t care much of etiquette or sins that a man ought not to commit. Whatever he did with fewer protocols, he did to fit best in the game of world’s survival. Often stories from Western, like Wanted Dead or Alive, The Big Sky and so on give outsiders like us a different picture of the USA . The earlier shades of civilization were not grey but black. Even in this book, the guy Corky Vance, found himself a misfit in the settling civilization. He wanted to be a man of law but fearless and forthright. However, his time – the book