Scan barcode
aish_dols's reviews
94 reviews
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
4.0
There are two sides to every story, and then, there's the truth, unfiltered.
Amy & Nick are in love, get married, prove to us that marriage isn't a fairytale but Amy's just gone, missing on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary and nobody knows why/how. The search for Amy digs up several secrets about both characters. I couldn't trust either of them. Gillian's portrayal of Amy & Nick's minds in writing is a work of fine art.
Can I say that the mind of a woman is such a workshop for intellectual positivity and negativity? It can be so dark, can be so bright, can be anything. I'd say Nick has always been questionable, so this was an intense ride. Don't even guess what's going to happen nor how it would end. It would stun you. Read and let your head spin.
Amy & Nick are in love, get married, prove to us that marriage isn't a fairytale but Amy's just gone, missing on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary and nobody knows why/how. The search for Amy digs up several secrets about both characters. I couldn't trust either of them. Gillian's portrayal of Amy & Nick's minds in writing is a work of fine art.
Can I say that the mind of a woman is such a workshop for intellectual positivity and negativity? It can be so dark, can be so bright, can be anything. I'd say Nick has always been questionable, so this was an intense ride. Don't even guess what's going to happen nor how it would end. It would stun you. Read and let your head spin.
Layla by Colleen Hoover
3.0
Well...
I've read Verity, It Ends With Us, Regretting You & Ugly Love. I've love for all those books, different types of love for them. Although Verity is a kind of psychological thriller that just shocks you, it had a way of making me fall more in love with Colleen. I'm going to read all CoHo's works anyway. I mean I had to search for Tarryn Fisher and read The Wives after I realized she was Colleen's bestie.
About Layla.
Paranormal + Romance. I respect Colleen for mixing anything at all with romance. She's a writer who explores and her result comes out well. In as much as I enjoyed Layla, at several points in the middle of the book, I felt like I was in a spin and this really made me want to just get to the end of the book already. I was getting impatient and Leeds can be such an annoying, back and forth narrator. He stretched a lot of things.
Layla was brilliant anyway. The twists. The otherworldliness. The extraterrestrial feel to it. I liked it. It's nothing like I've ever read before.
I've read Verity, It Ends With Us, Regretting You & Ugly Love. I've love for all those books, different types of love for them. Although Verity is a kind of psychological thriller that just shocks you, it had a way of making me fall more in love with Colleen. I'm going to read all CoHo's works anyway. I mean I had to search for Tarryn Fisher and read The Wives after I realized she was Colleen's bestie.
About Layla.
Paranormal + Romance. I respect Colleen for mixing anything at all with romance. She's a writer who explores and her result comes out well. In as much as I enjoyed Layla, at several points in the middle of the book, I felt like I was in a spin and this really made me want to just get to the end of the book already. I was getting impatient and Leeds can be such an annoying, back and forth narrator. He stretched a lot of things.
Layla was brilliant anyway. The twists. The otherworldliness. The extraterrestrial feel to it. I liked it. It's nothing like I've ever read before.
The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays by Chinua Achebe
5.0
In 16 essays, Achebe expanded imperative topics where he wrote of the 'chaotic colonial situation', how the British raped Africa, Nigeria's independence; which favoured us until the events that preceded the Nigerian Civil War – a War that, according to Achebe 'robbed us of the chance to become a medium-rank developed nation in the 20th century.' His work /A Man Of The People/ led him to becoming a suspect in the coup d'etat. This put himself and his family in danger.
The trans-atlantic slave trade in this essay, "Spelling our proper names" was broadly written about; the African-American connection and being black. Achebe said it's important for us to spell our names properly by telling our own stories for the oppressor is willing to eternally label us and rewrite history if we don't. He gave an example by repeatedly mentioning Joseph Conrad, an European writer/sailor who visited the Congo in Africa and degraded, dehumanized us in his literary work, 'The Heart of Darkness' where his racist and white supremacist mentality did everything to rubbish our existence
Conrad wrote: 'to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches...' – this was amongst other disgusting lines to debase us for our mere appearances in our own lands. Achebe however mentions that some Europeans had souls and treated Africans like Humans in their literary works or art. Some like Livingstone and Gainsborough
Racism, is reflected in several pages. How it is subtle but sneaky. Achebe gave an instance when his daughter rose a question and he had to read the 'children's book' and realized it put down the African soul in a way that spewed hate
Contrary to hearsay that Africans sold their own to the colonialists, Stories untold, like that of King Dom Afonso (1506 - 1543) who ruled the Kingdom of Bukongo, but missionaries brought Christianity with manipulation and threats to seize sons of the land for 'slave trade' in Europe, exists.
Africans should write their own stories/'Our job as writers is not to describe the predicament but to change it.'
I really enjoyed this book.
The trans-atlantic slave trade in this essay, "Spelling our proper names" was broadly written about; the African-American connection and being black. Achebe said it's important for us to spell our names properly by telling our own stories for the oppressor is willing to eternally label us and rewrite history if we don't. He gave an example by repeatedly mentioning Joseph Conrad, an European writer/sailor who visited the Congo in Africa and degraded, dehumanized us in his literary work, 'The Heart of Darkness' where his racist and white supremacist mentality did everything to rubbish our existence
Conrad wrote: 'to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches...' – this was amongst other disgusting lines to debase us for our mere appearances in our own lands. Achebe however mentions that some Europeans had souls and treated Africans like Humans in their literary works or art. Some like Livingstone and Gainsborough
Racism, is reflected in several pages. How it is subtle but sneaky. Achebe gave an instance when his daughter rose a question and he had to read the 'children's book' and realized it put down the African soul in a way that spewed hate
Contrary to hearsay that Africans sold their own to the colonialists, Stories untold, like that of King Dom Afonso (1506 - 1543) who ruled the Kingdom of Bukongo, but missionaries brought Christianity with manipulation and threats to seize sons of the land for 'slave trade' in Europe, exists.
Africans should write their own stories/'Our job as writers is not to describe the predicament but to change it.'
I really enjoyed this book.
Guardians: The Awakening by David A. Atta
5.0
When Queen Amina, the Guardian of the North, in the battle of Altagara, faces an extraterrestrial destroyer named Qaos, it is 1610, over 400 years from 2020 where the book's chapters begin. The battle in the prologue, ends with the Queen vanishing almost immediately after her Staff. The mystery wrapped me, I had no idea if she was truly dead or alive. She however, leaves her traces down and her trusted guardian, with her ring and sword.
More than four centuries later, Nigeria is no longer designed solely under several kingdoms than the system of the government. Not only have times changed, but spiritual beings have caused havoc for years, fueled on the ethno religious divisions of Nigerians. The scenes shift between Zaria, in Kaduna State, Zamfara State and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and briefly explores Yobe and Suleja.
These extraterrestrial evil beings however suspect the return of the queen, which marks the sharp intrigue of the fantasy and action woven story, when a University undergraduate, Hadiza's stepfather schemes evil ways to squeeze her mother of her fortune. This nemesis makes the past and present meet.
Issues that have wrecked Nigeria like Terrorism, Kidnapping, Corruption, Religious feuds, Ethnic crisis are well represented here with a sprinkle of politics. The author's use of fantasy, another realm, the divides among Nigerians to weave this tale is sheer brilliant.
Just as there's the guardian of the North, the book hinted there's one for the West. And I'm certain there are more guardians, about two more. I am longing for a sequel or sequels. The epilogue is one mad cliffhanger.
I like the way women were put into light, and had their strengths highlighted in the likes of Asabe, Hadiza, Ugochi and even Habiba. It was fast paced, expertly described and the imagery did justice to the power of the tale.
David Atta's debut is a must read. If you read between the lines, it promotes unity in the most interesting of ways amongst Nigerians by showing us how chaotic hate spawn from our differences can get.
More than four centuries later, Nigeria is no longer designed solely under several kingdoms than the system of the government. Not only have times changed, but spiritual beings have caused havoc for years, fueled on the ethno religious divisions of Nigerians. The scenes shift between Zaria, in Kaduna State, Zamfara State and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and briefly explores Yobe and Suleja.
These extraterrestrial evil beings however suspect the return of the queen, which marks the sharp intrigue of the fantasy and action woven story, when a University undergraduate, Hadiza's stepfather schemes evil ways to squeeze her mother of her fortune. This nemesis makes the past and present meet.
Issues that have wrecked Nigeria like Terrorism, Kidnapping, Corruption, Religious feuds, Ethnic crisis are well represented here with a sprinkle of politics. The author's use of fantasy, another realm, the divides among Nigerians to weave this tale is sheer brilliant.
Just as there's the guardian of the North, the book hinted there's one for the West. And I'm certain there are more guardians, about two more. I am longing for a sequel or sequels. The epilogue is one mad cliffhanger.
I like the way women were put into light, and had their strengths highlighted in the likes of Asabe, Hadiza, Ugochi and even Habiba. It was fast paced, expertly described and the imagery did justice to the power of the tale.
David Atta's debut is a must read. If you read between the lines, it promotes unity in the most interesting of ways amongst Nigerians by showing us how chaotic hate spawn from our differences can get.
The Descent of the Drowned by Ana Lal Din
4.0
'I know what it’s like to be invaded, Roma,” he said in a quiet voice. “I know what it’s like to have somebody leave their imprints on you. To lose who you are and hate what you’ve become.”
She heard herself scream for aid...and the silence of the village.
She heard herself scream for aid...and the silence of the village.
Moonlight Hope: A Muslim American Coming of Age Story by Nora Salam
5.0
Why do we deem it 'lifesaving' to get attached to something/someone?
I feel like finding who/what to keep you going in this world, to drive you, partner with you is different from attaching yourself dangerously to them/it to the point of delusion.
Review
I feel like finding who/what to keep you going in this world, to drive you, partner with you is different from attaching yourself dangerously to them/it to the point of delusion.
Review
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
4.0
We seek pleasure in extreme ways that need questioning; in ways to forget pain, ways that do lead to pain and a baseless feeling of emptiness when the pleasure seeking methods we rely on fail us, harm us. That's what I have drawn, amongst other things from Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi.
Yaa, with T.K. dives in an emotion summoning manner, into religion and science. The two are like contrasting directions that sometimes meet, directions that Gifty, a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at Standford School of Medicine, is struggling to follow. Her research revolves around studying addiction in mice and how to find a solution to this problem that ruined her family through Nana, her brother who was a star athlete. Gifty had said: "Nana's addiction had become the sun in which all of our lives revolved. I didn't want to stare directly at it." // Even with all her 'hardness' in coming to terms with the fact that her family of four, was now of two and the relationship with her and her mother who now suffered from Anhedonia was suffocating, she wanted to find solace in her faith which used to be firmer when she was younger. How do you mix science with religion? How do you battle with the darkness in your soul when what you do is study the brain and this needs more logic than emotions? Why do we seek pleasure in ways that displease God? How can we come to terms with our sinful nature? Why do we always want to escape this world? Is it the pain? Why can't we give in to Him without slipping? Is it because of our nature? Can science really give us all these answers? I don't think so. T.K. will mess with your feelings and make you ask yourself a lot of questions.
Yaa, with T.K. dives in an emotion summoning manner, into religion and science. The two are like contrasting directions that sometimes meet, directions that Gifty, a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at Standford School of Medicine, is struggling to follow. Her research revolves around studying addiction in mice and how to find a solution to this problem that ruined her family through Nana, her brother who was a star athlete. Gifty had said: "Nana's addiction had become the sun in which all of our lives revolved. I didn't want to stare directly at it." // Even with all her 'hardness' in coming to terms with the fact that her family of four, was now of two and the relationship with her and her mother who now suffered from Anhedonia was suffocating, she wanted to find solace in her faith which used to be firmer when she was younger. How do you mix science with religion? How do you battle with the darkness in your soul when what you do is study the brain and this needs more logic than emotions? Why do we seek pleasure in ways that displease God? How can we come to terms with our sinful nature? Why do we always want to escape this world? Is it the pain? Why can't we give in to Him without slipping? Is it because of our nature? Can science really give us all these answers? I don't think so. T.K. will mess with your feelings and make you ask yourself a lot of questions.
The Son of the House by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia
4.0
When do we think we can't take more and have reached our elastic limit? – The thing is, we always find a way to stretch and stretch until we shock our own selves and bring our our inner warrior to fight the coming battles life unwraps for us. The question now is, how far can we stretch?
A Sprinng Women Author Prize 2020 Book, The Son Of The House by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia opens like this; there are two women, Julie & Nwabulu who have been kidnapped but decide to share their stories to each other to pass the time while the kidnappers wait to get their ransom from their family. However the women from different backgrounds have their stories matched by something so powerful as they tell it.// Set in Lagos and Enugu, this novel highlights issues we face in our society, like the unrealistic standards set for women and destructive stereotypes in families that tend to break a woman when it comes to 'capability tests' we have laid down for women. We tend to forget that women are human too and not just created for others to leverage on. There was the issue of power play sprung from gender bias and this marked the genesis of the turns this story took. // It read familiar. Like a story that might even happened sometime. I kept asking myself how much more Nwabulu could take. From being orphaned, rejected, maltreated, sexually abused and having to deal with loss. The beauty of this book is really in how she bounced back unscathed regardless of how everything was so structured against her. The highlight of the book however for me, is how her path crossed with Julie. It represents how mysterious and labyrinthine life is.// Did the end get to me? – Not really. I think the author wanted we, the readers, to form our own ending. I've mentally done that and trust me, positive vibes only.
A Sprinng Women Author Prize 2020 Book, The Son Of The House by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia opens like this; there are two women, Julie & Nwabulu who have been kidnapped but decide to share their stories to each other to pass the time while the kidnappers wait to get their ransom from their family. However the women from different backgrounds have their stories matched by something so powerful as they tell it.// Set in Lagos and Enugu, this novel highlights issues we face in our society, like the unrealistic standards set for women and destructive stereotypes in families that tend to break a woman when it comes to 'capability tests' we have laid down for women. We tend to forget that women are human too and not just created for others to leverage on. There was the issue of power play sprung from gender bias and this marked the genesis of the turns this story took. // It read familiar. Like a story that might even happened sometime. I kept asking myself how much more Nwabulu could take. From being orphaned, rejected, maltreated, sexually abused and having to deal with loss. The beauty of this book is really in how she bounced back unscathed regardless of how everything was so structured against her. The highlight of the book however for me, is how her path crossed with Julie. It represents how mysterious and labyrinthine life is.// Did the end get to me? – Not really. I think the author wanted we, the readers, to form our own ending. I've mentally done that and trust me, positive vibes only.
In the Palace of Flowers by Victoria Princewill
3.0
It is in the late 1800s in Iran. Jamila and Abimelech, are Abyssinian (Ethiopian) slaves in the Qajar Royal Court. The novel opens with a burial of a nobleman and Jamila gets an epiphany here, that she does not want to live a worthless life only to die forgotten. This drives her rebellion to make something more out of her life. However she is careless and things in the court aren't that smooth. Juggling between slave and an undefined concubine for Prince Nosrat, she yearns for more. Abimelech, her genuine friend and confidant is an eunuch for the Prince until he ascends to the Shah's accidental adviser. His mental acuity in politics and life, in general, is loathed by most men in power for he is a mere slave. Abimelech will make more enemies and misfortune will befall him. Jamila and Abimelech would come to know that the life of a slave mostly attracts suffering and forgetfulness.
Victoria Princewill birthed a brilliant piece of art with In The Palace Of
Victoria Princewill birthed a brilliant piece of art with In The Palace Of