New year 2023 has been great so far, finished reading 2 books already. Actually, these were spillovers from last year. But never mind
#1 Curious Tales from the Desert
Folklore narrated from the sands of the desert. These are stories of wisdom, common sense and of humans. So practically true from any part of the world but the flavour of the desert is distinct.
While some of the stories I was already aware of, it was refreshing to experience being lost in the dunes of the desert and feel the narration. The stories are simple yet powerful. Hope, faith, struggle and perseverance are nicely woven in the narration. The author’s snippets at the end of the story were quite interesting. A reminder of “the moral of the story”
Stories are always more interesting to hear than getting a general dose of advice. That’s why folklore and anecdotes have been a good means of passing of the learnings and pearls of wisdom from generation to generation. Of course, as the generation progresses and their way of living changes, the stories need adaptation and also revamp in some cases. The stories we would leave for the future generation surely will have a lot of “techno-dotes”
Overall, a nice book to pick-up for the heart-warming experience and the nostalgic feeling it leaves you with.
#2 Freckles
Cecelia Ahern is one of my favourite authors. She is like a kaleidoscope. The components and underlying theme are more or less the same but every time when put together the output is different and magical.
Freckles is a physical trait and like many others (say body shape, skin colour etc.) when it becomes part of identity difficult to say. The physical being is what one sees first, but what lies beneath defines the person. Being comfortable in one’s own skin is the underlying storyline in this book. In the quest of doing so, one needs to know oneself first, discover the people around us and identify the ones who really matter.
“You are the average of 5 people you spend time most with”, it does make you introspect who are the 5 ones in your life? And while the protagonist took up the task of consciously thinking and approaching the ones who wanted to be her 5, would we want to do that too?
You are who you want to be
And you who want to be
Is influenced by people around you
And what in them you see
A book that again somewhat starts with curiosity and ends with a feeling of comfort and being comfortable with self.
Simply me 