New Delhi–Know some fabulous and easy techniques to handle stress with a smile; unravel one of the world’s greatest conspiracies and the haunting story of a lost, ancient civilization; read the story of a detective who takes on one of the most powerful men in the US government and uncovers a conspiracy of almost unimaginable evil; and read how trees are silent observers and keepers of secrets.
These are the reads on the IANS bookshelf this weekend.
1. Book: Your Search For Happiness Ends Here; Author: Anubha Gupta; Publisher: Bookswagon; Price: Rs 395; Pages: 188
The book is a motivating book which draws out nine mantras to help people living in any society to look for happiness within themselves.
In this complex life, there are more than hundred solutions that confront the reader with some of the most complicated, yet day-to-day situations they are facing in life. The book also reveals some fabulous and easy techniques to handle stress with a smile, nurture relationships and overcome anger problems, while also gaining inner peace.
The separate sections of the book can be read and imbibed individually depending on one’s needs. Some of the text does turn into self Question and Answer format that the reader will cherish for a long time, but has been written in simple language.
2. Book: Pralay; Author: Vineet Bajpai; Publisher: VB Performance LLP; Price: Rs 250; Pages: 331
“Even death is afraid of the White Mask”
1700 BCE, Harappa The devta of Harappa has fallen tortured and condemned to the dungeons of the dead. His murdered wife’s pious blood falls on the sands of the metropolis, sealing the black fate of Harappa forever.
2017, Banaras A master assassin bites into cyanide, but not before pronouncing the arrival of an unstoppable, dark force. A maha-taantric offers a chilling sacrifice.
325 AD, Bithynian City (modern-day Turkey) Unable to foresee the monster he was untethering, an extraordinary monarch commissions a terrifying world-vision spanning millennia.
1700 BCE, East of Harappa A mystical fish-man proclaims the onset of Pralay — the extinction of mankind. The Blood River rises to avenge her divine sons.
What happens to the devta of Harappa? Is Vidyut truly the prophesied saviour? Who are the veiled overlords behind the sinister World Order? What was the macabre blueprint of the mysterious emperor at Bithynian City? Turn the pages to unravel one of the world’s greatest conspiracies and the haunting story of a lost, ancient civilization.”
3. Book: Livia Lone; Author: Barry Eisler; Publisher: Thomas and Mercher; Price: Rs 399; Pages: 358
Seattle PD sex-crimes detective Livia Lone knows the monsters she hunts. Sold by her Thai parents along with her little sister, Nason — marooned in America, abused by the men who trafficked them the only thing that kept Livia alive as a teenager was her determination to find Nason.
Livia has never stopped looking. And she copes with her failure to protect her sister by doing everything she can to put predators in prison.
Or, when that fails, by putting them in the ground.
But when a fresh lead offers new hope of finding Nason and the men who trafficked them both, Livia will have to go beyond just being a cop — beyond even being a vigilante — she’ll have to relive the horrors of the past, take on one of the most powerful men in the US government, and uncover a conspiracy of almost unimaginable evil.
In every way, it’s an unfair fight. But Livia has two advantages: her unending love for Nason.
And a lifelong lust for vengeance.
4. Book: The Trees Told Me So; Author: Purva Grover; Publisher: Niyogi Books; Price: Rs 395; Pages: 190
If trees could talk, they would have so much to tell — the story of two broken hearts, that stolen first kiss, those last words of a mother to her son, endless cups of tea and never-ending chatter, of nostalgia, an act of brutality and a tale of passion.
In this collection of short stories — “The Trees Told Me So” — Grover draws a beautiful and poignant picture of love, life and loss, with an honest voice.
And the common thread running through the stories is that nature stands witness like an old soulful of wisdom and compassion. A silent observer, a keeper of secrets, yet the tree is always an integral part of the character’s very being. (IANS)
