Book reviews

I have had the pleasure and honour of reading Rani Manicka's books these past weeks. The first: the rice mother

I picked up this book and wanted to read it...I wasn't ecstatic about it. When I flipped through it, I recognised it as the book I hadn't finished. Weird thing is I felt like this book really wanted me to read it and I think I wasn't ready to read it the first time I picked it up. What a trip!
This book sent me into another worl in the East that I hadn't tapped into.
More than anything else the way this woman wrote this book was insane! She basically unpacks a family and the individuals in it and puts it back together in your face. This book has lead me to look at my own family and how our individual connections are through own own Rice mother.

The second(I couldn't stop myself): Touching Earth.

Wow,wow,wow! This book shatters any thoughts about reading an extention of the Rice mother but keeps the same sort of voice.  If you ever thought about how innocence has been corrupted in your life or other peoples lives...this book might shed some light and help piece some stuff together.

I was a bit traumatised by this book and found myself in the deep dark pit these characters are in...but towards the end, I came to certain conclusions about the bad habits I need to break in my life which could send me into that dark pit.
This book is not shy and lays it all on the table...but what was the writer doing in her own story?

These books are thick...and I was a bit agitated when I finished them cause I was used to reading two books at the same time. I have developed a habit of reading only big thick books and two at a time. The one I have been time-sharing with these two has been....Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
Shantaram is thick, has small print and is a work of art. I have been reading this book for months...at first I would put it down....about 300 pages later the constant reading and addiction kicked in. I can't put the book down and it has become my companion.

I pick up this book from this brother who sells books in the street in Newtown, if you have been to Newtown you know who I am talking about. A R50 well spent. This book has got me on my toes and every page is an adventure. The story goes that the character...which seems to be the writer...was jailed in Australia and broke out. He eventually made it to India illegally and there he falls in love, realises a few things about himself...and has misadventures for days.
I am strill reading it and I have about a third of the book left. I am not looking forward to finishing this book , although there were moments in the book that scared the hell out of me, but Shantaram is damn good. Sadly, the writer has not written anything after this. I actually just read his website...he is busy with another novel...The Mountain Shadow which seems to be a sequel to Shantaram.

If ever you were hungry for a book to inspire you, make you cry, teach you some rules about street fighting, love and and life in general...this is it. This is a book to have on your list this year!

Some words that hit me in this book:
" I couln't explain that love to Karla, or anyone else, including myself.  I never believed in love at first sight until it happened to me.  Then, when it did happen, it was as if every atom in my body had been changed, somehow: as if I'd become charged with light and heat. I was different, forever, just for the sight of her.  And the love that opened in my heart seemed to drag the rest of my life behind it, from that moment onward"

I think this is life's cruel joke...cause these words seem to explain what happened to me when I was in Asia...this type of feeling and person you never get over. And it is weird that your whole life turns around from that moment...and no-one else will do. This is how I have been living my life since...and although this person is not in the same country as me...I sure am glad everyday that he is on the planet...in the hopes that someday again in a faraway Asian country we will meet again.

Om-shanti-om