The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

The Secret

Written by: Rhonda Byrne

Genre: Self-help book

The book is all about the law of attraction, a universal law which explains that we are the one who creates our universe. The thoughts inside our mind summons the things happening to us.

We attract what we think inside our heart and is manifested. We have to give up having negative thoughts so that negative things never come attracted to us. The book is an amazing eye-opener convincing us about the super secret of law attraction to make us unleash the infinite potential we have within us. The pages turn to a lot of ideas and a different angle of approaching life and to solve the mystery of “YOU”. The author has intentionally used the word “you” in many areas so that we may feel the author has written the book for us. The book is a very good page-turner.  

I summed up the idea given in this book like the treatment using the placebo effect. It is our mindset that determines everything and is the reason for every tragedy that we face. If we could change them, the results are may be different and better for sure.

- Samiksha Desai

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

 The Alchemist 

Written by: Paulo Coelho 

Genre: Fantasy & Adventure fiction

The Alchemist is one of those books which deserves a space on everyone's bookshelf. 

It is rich in fiction and crafted by Paulo Coelho to make it more perfect. It is about following your dream and goal and achieving it; while doing so the whole universe conspires for its happening. 

Its special feature is that it talks a lot about the 'Soul of the World' which attracts people towards their goals. The book has received the Niels Golden book award for its outstanding sales in the retail markets of the UK. 

It is a third-person narration and it tells about the story of a young shepherd boy, Santiago who wants to travel around the world. His greatest incident in life was his meeting with an old man Melchizedek, King of Salem who directs him towards his journey from the Andalusian plains to the exotic markets of Tangier and through the mighty Sahara deserts to the Al Famous oasis where his encounter with an Alchemist aw au t-shirts him and find a twin blessing besides his fiancee Fatima.

This story is not about the alchemist with whim Santiago meets but it is about the one who becomes an Alchemist and takes over.

-Nidhi pandey

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

 

"Her silence was like a mirror - reflecting yourself back at you.

And it was often an ugly site."

This is the story of Alicia Berenson who has everything in life - a desirable career as an artist, a perfect husband who is a celebrated fashion photographer, and a beautiful house overlooking a park in an expensive area of London. Everything seems picture perfect until one evening when her husband Gabriel returns home from work, she shoots him to death, five times in the face, and goes silent. Even during the trials in the court, she does not utter a word, no justifications, no explanations, nothing.

Alicia's enduring silence turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, an enigma that captures the public's attention and casts Alicia into notoriety. She's thus whisked away from the media glare and lodged in The Grove, a high security criminal psychiatric facility in North London. Here she becomes the 'Silent Patient'. 

In comes forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber, who is determined to break through her silence and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband. His determination leads him down to a twisting path into his own motivations, a search for the truth that threatens to consume him.

And thus begins the suspenseful saga, it is not a story that traces the journey of the protagonist from point A to B, but rather a mind gripping tale which traverses from minds of the both - the women convicted of killing her husband and the therapist who's determined to treat her. 

While unraveling the mystery around Alicia, the story also focuses on the personal life of Theo and many of his secrets.  The book makes us realize how powerful a weapon Silence is. 

Alicia whose now a blank canvas, owing to her Silence, forces us, readers, to draw our own conclusion's about her from the journal she keeps and what other characters in the story have to say about her. 

Of course, till the end, when she actually opens up... 

Or does she...

A tale where 'Only she knows what happened' and 'Only he can make her speak.'

- Nidhi Shetty

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis is considered one of the best works by Franz Kafka. Franz was always distant from his father, this book is a written letter to his father for emotional abuse. As his father always used to say that he's good for nothing. Most of the part of the book was a reflection of Franz's personal experiences.

Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa who wakes one morning and finds himself unexplainable transformation into a huge insect, subsequently struggling to adjust to this new condition. 

Greta, Gregor's sister at first tries to make the environment around Gregor more comfortable, she takes to supplying him with food, which they find he can only eat rotten. Gregor begins to accept his new identity and begins crawling on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Grete decides to remove some of the furniture to give Gregor more space. 

Gregor suffers from his injuries for several times and takes very little food. He was increasingly neglected by his family and his room becomes used for storage. Days after days it was becoming very difficult for Gregor's family to adjust to Gregor's condition as they didn't know what to do. One day, Gregor, attracted by Grete's violin-playing in the living room, crawls out of his room and is spotted by the unsuspecting tenants, who complain about the apartment's unhygienic conditions and cancel their tenancy. 

Grete, who has tired of taking care of Gregor and realizes the burden his existence puts on each one in the family, tells her parents they must get rid of "it", or they will all be ruined. 

“I only fear danger where I want to fear it.”

― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

                                                                                                                                -Aishwarya Sharma

Give and Take - Adam Grant

This book clearly explains about about how different people are where some are givers while others are only takers. We all have come across people who only like to care about themselves while disregarding the needs of others they always talk about themselves and their happiness or their wish. The name that is given for these people in the book is "Takers". They only look out for themselves.

While on the other hand there are people who help others and work together with others to reach to the point of success. These are called "Givers". They share their success and credit with all.

This book clearly explains about the two extremes and states that we need to balance between the two. We should neither be too much on the "Givers" side nor too much on the "takers" side.

In this book Adam Grant has beautifully explained how we can reach to success and lead a more happier life. He goes on to explain about how we receive back goodwill when we help others around us and in a practical approach. This book benefits both the corporate world as well as in personal life.

                                                                                                - Rhea Fernandes

The Power of your Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy.

 

 

Written in simple, lucid, coherent language this self-help book beautifully expresses the psychological aspects of our mind in an understandable manner. Your subconscious mind is a treasure house within you. The ideas, beliefs, thoughts heaped in our subconscious mind influence our behavior to a great extent. By understanding and harnessing the powers of our subconscious mind we can improve the quality of our daily life. If our conscious mind communicates positive thoughts to our subconscious mind, then the outcome will always be positive and vice-versa. Filled with inspiring real-life success stories, quoting techniques such as visualization, the thankyou technique, meditation, wonders of sleep, practical and proven effective exercises gives a positive outlook towards life in general. 

Some appealing quotes from the book:

1. For as a person thinketh in his subconscious mind, so is he,
2. Become a producer and not a prisoner of society, don't hide your light under a bushel.
3. The secret of youth is love, joy, inner peace and laughter. 
4.  Imagine your subconscious mind as a bed of rich soil that will help all kinds of seeds to sprout and flourish, whether good or bad.
5. Every thought is a cause, and every condition is an effect. This is the reason it is so essential that you take charge of your thoughts. In that way, you can bring forth only desirable conditions.
6. Your subconscious speaks to you in intuitions, impulses, hunches, intimations, urges and ideas, and it is always telling you to rise, transcend, grow, advance, adventure and move forward to greater heights.  
   
7. What you write on the inside, you will experience on the outside. You have two sides to your life, objective and subjective, visible and invisible, thought and its manifestation.  
8. You have the power to choose. Choose life! Choose love! Choose health! Choose happiness!

The book provides a different perspective of how you think and a great insight to how your own subconscious mind shapes your life, your environment, and most importantly, YOU.

The end will always bring a beautiful smile on the reader's face as it says,

"You are Wonderful !" 😊

Best of Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore and Jharna Basu (Translator and Compiler)

  This is a collection of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's short stories. These stories depict human nature through different interesting characters. The stories are poetic in nature and usually in the setting of contemporary Bengal rural and urban areas. This book has a compilation of 12 short stories by Rabindranath Tagore but I will write specifically about 3 short stories that I like the most. A must-read book.

 

1. The return of the little master is a story about a boy name Raincharan, who was a faithful and genuine employer of an upper-class family. His genuine effort and loyalty towards the family took a sad turn and did not come as better outcomes for him. In this story, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore had talked about social class, one's identity, and their duty and how people behave accordingly to the setting of the environment. This is one of my favourite stories from this book, it is deeply sad but talks about human relationships very beautifully.

2. Kabuliwala, this story is my favourite because this was my first ever story I read of the Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. It is the story of Kabuliwala who has been judged based on his looks and how human attitude changes based on the appearance of a person. This story also talks about a beautiful and pure friendship between a girl from an upper-class family and Kabuliwala. 

3. The Runaway is a story about a boy name Tarapada. He is a restless wanderer. During his self expedition, he met a Zamindar family. He settled with them and bonded a beautiful relationship but restless Tarapada vanishes leaving the bond and the comfort of life. This story has no moral meaning but simply expressing the nature of humans through different characters.

- Rishika Chatterjee

"How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnergie

 "How to win friends and influence people" is a self-help book written by Dale Carnegie first published in 1936! since then, there are various editions of this book and over 30 million copies have been sold over time making it the most bestselling books of all time. Dale Carnegie was a pioneer of personal business skills, self-confidence and motivational techniques.In Carnegie's exuberant, conversational style, he offers practical advice and techniques for how to get out of the mental rut and make your life more rewarding. The author starts out by entrusting us with 8 rules for getting the best out of the book. He has given a plethora of examples which makes it relatable and easy to apply at the same time staying very concise, concrete and relevant. His advice has stood the test of time and will tell you to:

• Make friends and win easily
• Win people over to your way of thinking
• Improve your conversational skills and become more entertaining
• Acquire new clients and customers.

 Dale Carnegie puts the deeply emotional nature of humans first, and the whole book is centred around two important concepts:

1. No matter what they say, men and women are above all emotional beings with a vital need to look kindly on themselves.
2. No matter how rational an argument might be, they will reject it most of the time if their self esteem is hurt.

Once you understand these two concepts, most of the principles of the book are simple to understand. All you have to do is apply them. As a book its brilliant, may change the way in which we look at human relationships and is easy to read.

                                                                  -Jasmita Oroskar 

Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by FBI agent John Douglas and his co-author Mark Olshaker

 

The book was published in 1995, a non fiction crime book. Author is retired FBI agent.

The book is about ‘criminal- personality profiling’ on serial killers and mass murders,

which he developed over decades of interviews with known killers.

The book includes profiles of the Atlanta child killer, Wayne Williams, Edmund Kemper,

Robert Hansen and Larry Gene Bell.

Special Agent John Douglas was curious to understand the motives of the murderers.

He wanted to get into their minds. The book is based on true stories.

-Rujuta Sahasrabudhe

"Wonder" by R J Palacio

'Wonder' tells us the heart touching story about a boy with facial deformity who enters school for the first time. The first day of school is always difficult but Auggie (pet name for the protagonist August) with his facial deformities heads straight into middle school, he has alway been home-schooled hitherto.

This book makes one introspect and realise how all our tall morals of kindness and passion disappear in front of those who need it the most. The line in the book that moved me the most was "You don't need to mean to hurt someone's feelings to hurt them".

Classmates avoid him and find him "repulsive", wash their hands if they happen to touch him, and act as though his face were contagious. 

He is offered real friendship by two of them who are eventually boycotted by the entire class.

Thus, courage is another theme of this book.

It also brings out the strength displayed by the entire family of the protagonist, who were his pillars of support. His sister who yelled at anyone who would make a face at him, his mother who spent sleepless nights wondering whether she had wronged her child by sending him to school, his father who couldn't bear his son trying to hide his face.

Despite all the difficulties, Auggie graduates from middle school and receives a standing ovation from all parents, students and staff, because his completing this journey was simply a WONDER!

- Shaelja Mishra