Book and Movie Reviews

  A book I recently read: Close To Me by Amanda Reynolds. I picked this book up from the library of a resort in Sri Lanka where we went for a vacation a couple of years back. I liked it right away as it’s very well written and flows nicely. The book is about a woman, Jo, who falls down from stairs and loses her memory. After treatment when she comes back home she realizes things are not the same and she tries to recollect her one year’s worth memories. She is shown to have a pleasant personality and is going through the empty nest syndrome along with her husband and 2 grown children. The book explores the changing relationship between husband and wife and between their children, and also the pain and frustration of losing one’s memory. It shifts between past and present, yet the events are not hard to follow. It gives a great feminine perspective on the suspense that’s built using good and effective dialogues. There is an instance when her daughter, who seems to be hiding secrets,...

  Just finished the book - Why We Sleep by UC Berkeley sleep scientist Mathew Walker. It’s a long book but really good and really important. We all believe that sleep is good for us but when it is backed by solid research and scientific evidence and data then it becomes a fact. The book has only one goal - to emphasize on the need of good quality, 7-9 hrs of sleep for each one of us or else we run into 100s of sleep disorders which lead to serious consequences and diseases. The part in the book which explains how every animal species studied to date sleeps is mind boggling. Eg: dolphins and whales sleep with a half brain at a time - other half brain is awake to maintain life necessary movements in the aquatic environment. Imagine if humans could do that! There are many amazing examples from the animal kingdom that prove that sleep is universal. Another mind boggling section is on Dreams which serve as overnight therapy. It can also give problem solving and creative advantage to so...

The autobiography I just finished reading ‘I am no Messiah,’ by Sonu Sood is so deeply moving and inspiring that I had to write about it. The actor + model became a National icon during the pandemic, first by helping 1000s of migrant workers reach their homes and then helping evacuate students, health workers, labourers stuck in the other countries back to India during the lockdown. He starts out by highlighting how his parents instilled a basic life lesson in him. They told him that no matter where he was, he should consider himself worthy only if he was able to help someone less privileged than him. He did take their advice quite literally, as we know. Then he explains how he was able to put together a team to help people all around the world - it started out with his family and then many qualified CAs and MBAs joined them. This way they were able to help maximum no. Of people in a highly organized manner in the quickest way possible. The impressive thing was the wide range of servi...