A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I don’t read a lot this year (17 books only and still counting), but this is the best book I’ve read so far this year!

Read this at the first time with a purpose to get a little touch of Russian history, I ended up “trapped” in every character that Towles create in this book. This book is about a gentleman names Alexander Ilyich Rostov who was sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. We can see how a gentleman with full of wisdom and wit who never worked before had to adjust his life by living in the hotel’s attic, worked as head of waitress, made a lifetime relationships and found a larger life and even a meaningful life as a gentleman despite being prisoned.

I love count Rostov and the Triumvirate, I hold Sofia dearly in my heart, and I despise the Bishop so much. I gasped, shrieked, laughed, sighed to each of the moments our beloved count experienced. I’m happy, sad and thrilled for him and other characters as it’s so deeply engraved in this book. I definitely invested so much emotion in this book.

Something we can learn from this book : live your life to the fullest even though you feel like you’re trapped within 4 walls (literally and figuratively). Make new friends, create new habits, learn something new, and keep your mind sharp & positive!

Thank you, Count Rostov for reminding us such thought during this pandemic situation 🙂

I read the book with my e-book. Good decision as i can’t stop reading it even it’s already late at night and the light has been turned off. I really love this book it made me want to sketch its cover! It also inspired to a new project of mine that will be launched soon!

I also love the way how Towles played with the timeline. He divided decades based on book part. Each decade has a background of a changing Russia between early 1920s to early 1950s. He could telling a story of 10 years after then go back to the present days within a paragraph, without leave us confuse with the story. My favorite character is Count Rostov, of course. And I love how Towles write all those very detail about his character; his thoughts, his manner, and his attitude toward everything around him.

So here’s my verdict :
Story line : 4.5/5
Main topic : 4.5/5
Inspiring words : 4/5
Character development : 5/5
Total : 4.5/5

[Short Review]Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Not as funny as i expected, but Amy serves some fresh and wise words that makes you stop, stare and start to think about your own life. Like this :

“Treat your career like a bad boyfriend.
Here’s the thing. Your career won’t take care of you. It won’t call you back or introduce you to its parents. Your career will openly flirt with other people while you are around. It will forget your birthday and wreck your car. Your career will blow you off if you call it too much. It’s never going to leave its wife. Your career is fucking other people and everyone knows but you.
Your career will never marry you.”

*stabbed*

You can also find some funny writings that you can expect from Amy, but unfortunately, you can’t find it in all of her chapters.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

“Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end that’s all there is: love and its duty, sorrow and its truth. In the end that’s all we have–to hold on tight until the dawn”

Finally done reading this. There’s only 2 choices about reading it, either you hate it very much or you love it so much.

For me, i love it! I love it that I can recall all the stories within those 1255 pages. That quote above is just one of the beautiful and smart dialog you can find in this book. All the loves, the sorrows, the laughs and cries were well explained by Gregory/Lin. We could got a clear picture about India; its people, its life, its culture and way of thinking.

As goodreads said :
“Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart.”