The page turner escapes

Books are my bestfriends. I go “meeting” them every time I have an issue in my life. When I’m tired, stressed, or sad. When I need to relax and take some breaks. In short way, it’s my escape routes. My short getaway. Books help me to move my mind entirely to another life. To put myself in some characters’ shoes or to imagine merging into some historical events. Books are like a rest area in my daily life. Places where we can finally pull the hand break, take a deep breath and have a short walks enjoying the views.

I like a lot of books though I don’t read every kind of books. I mostly read novel, historical fiction, historical events, travel/journey stories and sometimes some autobiographies or books written by famous public figure.

Talking about novels, I read some of the pop culture novels such as Harry Potter, Hunger Games, LOTR & The Hobbit, GOT (haven’t finished the entire series) and Robert Langdon’s series. I also have a thing with dystopian novels. Some of my fav authors, the one whose books I ran into when I just need a short get away, are Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Andrea Hirata, J.K Rowling (also her being Robert Galbraith), Dan Brown, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Haruki Murakami and John Green. Their books rarely disappoint me because I just surrender myself and emerge to their fantasy. Most of their books are the real “rest area” that I mentioned above.

I also read some historical stuff. Fiction or non-fiction. The latest historical fiction I love is The Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I got emotionally attached with the main character. My standard of a gentleman is changing way much after knowing Count Rostov. You can read my review of the book in this blog here. Meanwhile, historical events book that I recently love is The Choice by Edith Eger. This book is full of emotions and feelings that lets you swept away in it. It combines 2 of my fav things, history and psychology. Not only Edith told us about what happened during her being a prisoner war, but also how she struggle to thrive and heal from the her trauma. It gave me chills and inspired me at the same time.

I rarely read non-fiction books. Non-fiction books I read mostly is the one written by some public figures or their autobiography. I fell in love with Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, after reading his book Ride of a Lifetime. It taught me well that being success means being persistent and have faith. You don’t need to be that genius such as Mark, Steve, Elon, Bill or Jack. You may start your career from below. From an employee of a company. As long as you have faith on yourself, there’s always a way for success.

That’s what I like about books. Not only it feeds my imagination, but it’s also strengthened me. It opens my mind and gives me a different perspective. The more different perspectives and an open mind I have, the more calm, wise and humble I become. Some books like Buddha by Karen Armstrong and Filosofi Teras by Henry Manampiring really taught me how to sweep away my negative feelings, so I can think more clearly to face this busy and fast pace world. Exactly the strength I need.

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.”