The Big Book Blog

            Every land has a story to tell. Everybody is a story by themselves and it takes a good observer to ponder the less explored magnificent secrets of the lives we have seen. Author Manu S. Pillai, on that account, has succeeded in giving a very intense and descriptive narration of the history of Kerala, the lesser-known secrets of Travancore royal family, and the women who owned the throne.  The book Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore begins by introducing the history when Vasco da Gama set foot in Kerala. Travancore as the principal subject in the book begins with the rise of Martanda Varma. There is a brief narration of Ravi Varma’s growth as an artist, followed by the journey of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and her cousin Sethu Parvathi Bayi (granddaughters of Raja Ravi Varma), who were adopted by the royal family to become senior and junior maharanis respectively, in order to continue the royal lineage as per Kerala’s matrilin...

  The Alchemist appeals very well to everyone who reads it because, I personally believe, we tend to correlate with the characters of a book, but it is not an appreciable piece of literary work. The philosophy written in here is a poster that is stuck on every wall, but the way it is written, one of its kind. So, what does this book offer to its readers? It is a fictional story of a boy named Santiago, who leaves behind everything we would hold dear, and becomes a shepherd, then goes in search of treasure (one can interpret it in many ways). Ideas, and philosophies lay buried, it doesn’t bump in to the readers (satisfies the one who reads for fiction and the one who reads for motivation). It is subtle, and still makes sense, why? Because everyone wants their dreams to come true. The novel is quite fascinating to me, because of the courage that Santiago displays. The book doesn’t deal with any difficult words, but of course has some dose of philosophy to it. This boo...