Linn Abraham

This book is divided into two parts, the first part which lets you analyse if you were in a toxic relation with your parents and the second part which is more of a self help guide. It was a recommendation that came out of Mallu Analyst's videos and one which was also engaging to read. Written by a professional psychologist, I believe this contains valuable advice which is relevant not only to people who have been abused or have reached a level where they need to seek medical help but also for people who don't consider themselves to be in a victim class. Its an eye opener for people interested in knowing what good parenting must be. I am tempted to believe that good parenting is probably to provide as less parenting as possible. Or in other words its an effort to understand and avoid the pitfalls of toxic parenting. There are times where I have felt less comfortable reading this because
1. This seemed to provide insights into my personal life or people whose lives I have come to know and I was afraid of the power of a book to do so. A need for cross verification comes up.
2. No one wants to be in a therapist's room unless you feel you have a problem at hand.

So its the first book in The Foundation series by the great sci-fi writer Issac Azimov and i can say that im only half impressed.The first half was good to read with the novel idea and great characters and layout and all....but the second half is only readable.

I liked the characters and the plot he created esp Salvor Hardin,I liked the fact this novel has a lot other than science fiction like politics,pseudo sciences,psychology,religion.

But the main problem is that trying to tell the story of 3 generations means all the characters wont register properly in a busy reader's mind like mine :) .The story was overdone too with 3 successive Seldon crisis being solved very wisely and artificially..i cant say i liked the idea of the religionists and the traders very much.but am i commenting too early without reading the rest of the series?but this book hasn't motivated me to read the rest so i think i just cant say.

I would give it two and a half stars if i could. Because I hated about the first half or three-fourths of the novel. It could have been better written. From the part when Gus reveals about the re attack, Then onwards the story became more likeable for me.

Reviewing this book because of two reasons.
1.that it says on the cover that it has won the pulitzer prize.
2.Jhumpha Lahiri had been author I had come to like for the other book of short stories I had read and for the freshness of her writing style although the stories mostly talked about the Bengali diaspora.

On beginning this book,I had the realisation about the setting being the same as what I had already become familiar with from her other stories.But initially the narration had drawn me instantly and I couldnt put down the book after I started it.Talking of Ashima's marriage and life with Ashoke,the anticipation and expectation I had from the start was quite high.But it was not met.



Yes, Lahiri is an expert in turning simple words into colourful images but past the first few chapters the novel turned out to be nothing like how I expected it to be and throughout the novel the positive spark I was searched for was missing.Maybe Gogol returning to his senses in the end may have seemed a bit like that but it still wasn't what I was expecting

The transformation into film also didn't make much of an impact upon me .

An engaging read that has a well thought out plot which is so complex you tend to go wrong every time you try to guess it.Your average Sidney Sheldon creation.

Not very sensous,not very enthralling,not very humourous not very very....a bit of this and a bit of that,but still i liked it.Very difficult to classify the book,still it had the endings of a crime investigation story.
The last chapters were the most intersting,the climax having a lot of unexpected twits and turns.

I liked the last sentence”he looked into her eyes and said softly,”Coffee?”