Shruti's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 15 Jul 2020 03:26:13 -0700 60 Shruti's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg When Winter Comes 1428365
What happens to fish, flowers, field mice, and other living things when ponds freeze and the air turns blustery? Walk with a curious child and his parents as winter's first snow falls and find out....]]> 34 Nancy Van Laan 0689817789 Shruti 0 to-read 3.84 2000 When Winter Comes
author: Nancy Van Laan
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/15
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]]> For One More Day 10929
Mitch Albom mesmerized readers around the world with his number one New York Times bestsellers, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie. Now he returns with a beautiful, haunting novel about the family we love and the chances we miss.

For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one?

As a child, Charley "Chick" Benetto was told by his father, "You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy, but you can't be both." So he chooses his father, only to see the man disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence.
Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding. And he decides to take his own life.
He makes a midnight ride to his small hometown, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing even to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother, who died eight years earlier, is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing ever happened..

What follows is the one "ordinary" day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets, and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the astonishing things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together.

Through Albom's inspiring characters and masterful storytelling, readers will newly appreciate those whom they love and may have thought they'd lost in their own lives. For One More Day is a book for anyone in a family, and will be cherished by Albom's millions of fans worldwide.]]> 208 Mitch Albom 1401303277 Shruti 3 4.13 2006 For One More Day
author: Mitch Albom
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2006
rating: 3
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]]> Eat, Pray, Love 19501
Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world—all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way—unexpectedly.

An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society’s ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.]]> 368 Elizabeth Gilbert 0143038419 Shruti 3 3.64 2006 Eat, Pray, Love
author: Elizabeth Gilbert
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2006
rating: 3
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]]> The Alchemist 865 197 Paulo Coelho 0061122416 Shruti 3 3.85 1988 The Alchemist
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1988
rating: 3
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]]> Vintage Murakami 17804
Vintage Murakami includes the opening cnapter of the international bestseller Norwegian Wood; �'Lieueenant Mamiya's Long Story: Parts I and II" from his monumental novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; "Shizuko Akashi" from: Underground, his nonfiction book on the Toyko subway attack 1995; and the short stories "Barn Burning," and "honey pie."

Also included, for the first time in book form, the short story "Ice Man."
--back cover

Table of Contents
"Barn burning" from The Elephant vanished --
"Shizuko Akashi" from Underground --
"Honeypie" from After the Quake --
"Lieutenant Mamiya's long stories: Part I" from the Wind-up bird chronicle --
"Lieutenant Mamiya's long stories: Part II" from the Wind-up bird chronicle --
"Ice man."]]> 182 Haruki Murakami 1400033969 Shruti 3 4.04 2004 Vintage Murakami
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2004
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Immortals of Meluha (Shiva Trilogy, #1)]]> 7913305 The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient legend: When evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears that your enemies have triumphed, a hero will emerge.

Is the rough-hewn Tibetan immigrant Shiva, really that hero? And does he want to be that hero at all? Drawn suddenly to his destiny, by duty as well as by love, will Shiva lead the Suryavanshi vengeance and destroy evil?

]]> 436 Amish Tripathi Shruti 4 4.11 2010 The Immortals of Meluha (Shiva Trilogy, #1)
author: Amish Tripathi
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)]]> 5043 Ken Follett is known worldwide as the master of split-second suspense, but his most beloved and bestselling book tells the magnificent tale of a twelfth-century monk driven to do the seemingly impossible: build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known.

Everything readers expect from Follett is here: intrigue, fast-paced action, and passionate romance. But what makes The Pillars of the Earth extraordinary is the time the twelfth century; the place feudal England; and the subject the building of a glorious cathedral. Follett has re-created the crude, flamboyant England of the Middle Ages in every detail. The vast forests, the walled towns, the castles, and the monasteries become a familiar landscape.

Against this richly imagined and intricately interwoven backdrop, filled with the ravages of war and the rhythms of daily life, the master storyteller draws the reader irresistibly into the intertwined lives of his characters into their dreams, their labors, and their loves: Tom, the master builder; Aliena, the ravishingly beautiful noblewoman; Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge; Jack, the artist in stone; and Ellen, the woman of the forest who casts a terrifying curse. From humble stonemason to imperious monarch, each character is brought vividly to life.

The building of the cathedral, with the almost eerie artistry of the unschooled stonemasons, is the center of the drama. Around the site of the construction, Follett weaves a story of betrayal, revenge, and love, which begins with the public hanging of an innocent man and ends with the humiliation of a king.

For the TV tie-in edition with the same ISBN go to this Alternate Cover Edition
]]> 976 Ken Follett 045122213X Shruti 0 to-read 4.34 1989 The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)
author: Ken Follett
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Shruti 0 to-read 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 0
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]]> To Kill a Mockingbird 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Shruti 0 to-read 4.25 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird
author: Harper Lee
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 0
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]]> Never Let Me Go 6334 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 Shruti 0 to-read 3.85 2005 Never Let Me Go
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> The Old Man and the Sea 2165 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.]]> 96 Ernest Hemingway 0684830493 Shruti 3 3.81 1952 The Old Man and the Sea
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1952
rating: 3
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]]> The Fountainhead 2122
This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy...and of the fanatic denunciation unleashed by an enraged society against a great creator. As fresh today as it was then, Rand’s provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fiction—that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress...

“A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly...This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall.”—The New York Times]]> 704 Ayn Rand Shruti 4 3.87 1943 The Fountainhead
author: Ayn Rand
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1943
rating: 4
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]]> The Japanese Wife 2862903 202 Kunal Basu 8172237332 Shruti 3 3.24 2008 The Japanese Wife
author: Kunal Basu
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2008
rating: 3
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]]> Eleven Minutes 1430 Eleven Minutes is the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that “love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer. . . .� A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune.

Maria’s despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness—sexual pleasure for its own sake—or risking everything to find her own “inner light� and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.]]> 273 Paulo Coelho 0060589280 Shruti 4 3.74 2003 Eleven Minutes
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin 'Einstein' Varghese (Dork Trilogy, #1)]]> 7725244 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

In April 2006 Robin ‘Einstein� Varghese; a stupendously naïve but academically gifted young man (he was ranked 41st in his class); graduates from one of India’s best business schools with a Day-Zero job at the Mumbai office of Dufresne Partners; a mediocre mid-market management consulting firm largely run by complete morons.

Varghese finds that he fits into the culture remarkably well. Or does he? Through a stunning series of blunders; mishaps and inadvertent errors; Robin begins to make his superiors rue the day they were driven by desperation into hiring him.

With things going spectacularly wrong in his professional and personal life; will Robin manage to achieve his short-term goal of being promoted to Associate in under a year? Will love conquer all and will Gouri walk with him through Dadar Department Stores with her hand in the rear pocket of his jeans?

Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin ‘Einstein� Varghese is for all of those who’ve ever sat depressed in cubicles…and wanted to kill themselves with office stationery. Especially that letter opener thing.

Join Robin as he navigates his first insane year at Dufresne Partners in this first volume of the Dork trilogy.]]> 240 Sidin Vadukut 0143067117 Shruti 3 3.18 2010 Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin 'Einstein' Varghese (Dork Trilogy, #1)
author: Sidin Vadukut
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2010
rating: 3
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date added: 2016/05/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson]]> 6900
Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.]]> 210 Mitch Albom Shruti 4 4.19 1997 Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
author: Mitch Albom
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1997
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/05/12
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]]> The Color Purple 11486
Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave Celie the courage to ask for more - to laugh, to play, and finally - to love.]]> 295 Alice Walker Shruti 4 4.22 1982 The Color Purple
author: Alice Walker
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1982
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/05/12
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]]> A Thousand Splendid Suns 128029
With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a portrait of a wounded country and a story of family and friendship, of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond, and an indestructible love.]]> 372 Khaled Hosseini 1594489505 Shruti 4 4.44 2007 A Thousand Splendid Suns
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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]]> And the Mountains Echoed 16115612 404 Khaled Hosseini 159463176X Shruti 4 4.06 2012 And the Mountains Echoed
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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]]> Difficult Daughters 354501 Difficult Daughters is the story of a woman torn between family duty, the desire for education, and illicit love. Virmati, a young woman born in Amritsar into an austere and high-minded household, falls in love with a neighbour, the Professor--a man who is already married. That the Professor eventually marries Virmati, installs her in his home (alongside his furious first wife) and helps her towards further studies in Lahore, is small consolation to her scandalised family. Or even to Virmati, who finds that the battle for her own independence has created irrevocable lines of partition and pain around her.]]> 256 Manju Kapur 0571195695 Shruti 4 3.56 1998 Difficult Daughters
author: Manju Kapur
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1998
rating: 4
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]]> Those Days | Sei Somoy 1940633
The story centers around the life of Nabinkumar (character based on Kaliprasanna Singha), along with legendary historical figures including Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the reformer; Michael Madhusudan Dutt, the poet; the father and son duo of Dwarkanath Tagore and Debendranath Tagore; Harish Mukherjee, the journalist; Keshab Chandra Sen, the Brahmo Samaj radical; David Hare and John Bethune, the English educationists; Dinabandhu Mitra, the playwright; Radhanath Sikdar, the mathematician; Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, the novelist; and others.

Yugantar, an Indian television series that aired on DD National in the 1980s, was based on Sei Somoy. The novel was translated into Gujarati by Uma Randeria as Nava Yugnu Parodh (2002).]]> 588 Sunil Gangopadhyay 0140268529 Shruti 5 4.46 1981 Those Days | Sei Somoy
author: Sunil Gangopadhyay
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1981
rating: 5
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]]> The Forty Rules of Love 6642715 Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams's search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mir­rors her own and that Zahara—like Shams—has come to set her free.

In this lyrical, exuberant follow-up to her 2007 novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives—one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz—that together incarnate the poet's timeless message of love.]]> 354 Elif Shafak Shruti 4 4.15 2009 The Forty Rules of Love
author: Elif Shafak
name: Shruti
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage]]> 19288239 A mesmerising mystery story about friendship from the internationally bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and 1Q84

Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names contained a colour. The two boys were called Akamatsu, meaning ‘red pine�, and Oumi, ‘blue sea�, while the girls� names were Shirane, ‘white root�, and Kurono, ‘black field�. Tazaki was the only last name with no colour in it.

One day Tsukuru Tazaki’s friends announced that they didn't want to see him, or talk to him, ever again.

Since that day Tsukuru has been floating through life, unable to form intimate connections with anyone. But then he meets Sara, who tells him that the time has come to find out what happened all those years ago.]]> 386 Haruki Murakami 0385352107 Shruti 3 3.82 2013 Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Shruti
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2013
rating: 3
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date added: 2016/05/04
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]]>