Brajesh's Review : Sex Tips for Husbands & Wives From 1894

Sex Tips for Husbands & Wives From 1894 is a really funny booklet, which can be read in 10 minutes. In 1894, Ruth Smythers, ‘Beloved wife of The Reverend L. D. Smythers’, wrote: “While sex is at best revolting and at worst rather painful, it has to be endured... One cardinal rule of marriage should never be forgotten: give little, give seldom and above all, give grudgingly”

While the book may have been construed as practical advice in 1894, today it is rolling on the floor (ROFLOL) funny. It also turned out to be a perfect gift for a cousin getting married.

Rating : 4/5

Brajesh's Review : 13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck

Being a fan of Ashwin Sanghi from his first book “Rozabal Line”, I had to read his first non-fiction foray. Unfortunately I was quite disappointed.

While the book does try to de-construct luck through street wisdom, it lacked the depth of research to make it significant. After reading the book, you might have a brand-new notion on how to define luck, but it is more likely you will wonder if the construct isn’t a little far-fetched.

Separately the book could be a great source of lovely quotations and real-life stories which can be used by readers to turn their conversations interesting. When I had met Sanghi in London a few months back, I specifically asked him what made him drop his successful and masterly franchise of historical fiction to delve into non-fiction ? He told me that he wanted to get out of his comfort zone and continue his personal learning experience. It clearly enhanced my respect for the individual and I am sure, with such an attitude he will surely have more “Luck” in his coming ventures.

Rating : 3/5

Brajesh's Review : Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs

Ansel Adams quote of “You don’t take a photograph, you make it” caught my attention, and I speed read Henry Carroll's "Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs" at the book-store.

A simple book, without too much jargon and complexity touched all the basic aspects of taking good photographs. The beauty of the book is that it gives proper weight to non-technical aspects of photography which is often neglected. I would recommend all budding photographers to invest in this book, or you can just look at my notes in the photo collage

Rating : 4 / 5

Brajesh's Review : It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be

Paul Arden's "It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be" is similar to Rhonda Byrne's “The Secret” kind of philosophy, where the power of mind is emphasized and a ton of common-sense wisdom is presented through fancy models and charts.

I speed read this book in about 20 mins and felt those were 20 wasted minutes. Not sure where they got the quote of “world’s best selling book” on the jacket, but if that is true, we do live in a seriously problematic world.

Rating : 2 / 5

Kim & Brajesh's Review : The Novel Cure - An A-Z of Literary Remedies

Kim's Review :

The minute I saw "The Novel cure - an A-Z of Literary Remedies" by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin up for pre-order on flipkart, I just ordered it immediately. It seemed like something right up our alley. And when it arrived on 21st August, I dove into it. In fact, Brajesh and I were fighting over the book, since he was home when it arrived.

I've been dipping into it on & off since that day. Its not a book that can be read cover-to-cover, but its meant to be savoured one topic at a time, referred to often and enjoyed whenever you are in the mood for a recommendation.

Its written by 2 Bibliotherapists, like a medical handbook, but the remedies are books. Ailments are wide ranging from fear of fatherhood to fear of dinner parties, loneliness to selfishness, feeling like an idiot to bad manners and serious ones like being widowed to falling off the wagon.

They have a list of Reading ailments too - which is not just apt but also humorously written - ailments include compulsive book buying, fear of finishing a good book / series, too many children requiring attention, reading induced loneliness etc. We identified with so many of those illnesses and found some valuable tips too.

I have to recommend it to every reader, because I'm sure each one of you will love it.

The only drawback of this book : its adding more titles to my ever growing bedside books "to be read"

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Brajesh's Review :

If you are a book lover, you MUST have this book as a part of your library. A most unusual book , which I am delighted to have discovered.

First the facts, prior to this book I was unaware of “Bibliotherapy” as a concept. As I discovered, it is an expressive therapy which uses ones relationship with the written word as a cure.

This book is a Bible of bibliotheraphy, it provides a literary cure to all ailments ranging from physical problems like “headache & hiccups” to psychological issues like “pessimism & sadness”. It addresses the funny problems like “missing your flight & public urinating” while also addressing the cure of serious issues like “ageing parents & alcoholism”. So no matter what your problem is this Bible will suggest a literary cure for the same.

Obviously this is a book which can never truly be read, but without having this in your library, you can't really call yourself a book lover.

A good way to familiarize oneself with this book , is to flip through the pages while reading the highlighted pages listing the common “Reading Ailments” like “fear of finishing” and “seduction of new books” or the most common one for book lovers “overwhelmed by number of books in your house”.

While going over these, also read the book lists of 10, sprinkled throughout. To sample a few consider “the 10 best novellas” or “the ten best shocking novels” or my favorite, “the ten best novels for seemingly well read”.

At INR 595/- this is a perfect gift and my recommendation for the “best value for money book” of 2014. Go order now at flipkart or amazon.com

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Mum's Review : Natural Kingdoms – Healing with Homeopathy

Mum has been treating most of the family with Homeopathy and other Natural / Alternative Remedies, for over 35 years. She started when I was a kid and used to throw up or react violently to any allopathic medication (mum also says that our cat throwing up her worm tablets on me, is some kind of Karmic Justice).  Soo whenever I find a new book on Homeopathy in the market, which I think may interest her, I send her a copy.

When I was recently offered Dr Rajan Sankaran's - Natural Kingdoms – Healing with Homeopathy for review, I sent it to my mum as she is much more qualified than me to review a book on this subject. Below is mum's review in her own words.

Dr Rajan Sankaran's - has named his method of diagnosis as the sensation method. It is based on his concept that an individual’s perception of stress is shaped by an inner pattern, or song, which is connected to one of the three kingdoms in nature — animal, plant or mineral. Identifying this fundamental connection enables homeopaths to cure ailments at their root, even in the case of individuals who find themselves trapped in repetitive patterns, despite their best efforts to break it.

Natural Kingdoms – Healing with Homeopathy uses 3 case studies to explain the homeopathic process in the hope that it will encourage the reader to discover his/her own inner song to bring about better health and harmony in their own life.

Although, I am an amateur homeopath with limited experience, I like to read up a lot. This is the first book on homeopathy that I have read, that keeps in mind the emotional and mental state of the patient while treating the symptoms. Thus, it takes into account the entire individual, rather than just the symptoms exhibited and it was a refreshing change.

Very few homeopaths like Fr Augustus Muller have given a couple of pages to explain the physiological constitutions (sanguine/ lymphatic/ nervous/ bilious) and pathological constitutions (herpetic/ hysterical/ gouty/ haemorrhoial/ tuberculous) Most of the other authors only focus on the Materia Medica (body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing) and the symptomology. Which are more or less very concise and precise

Being an amateur NLP practitioner, I was happily surprised that homeopathy could even help a NLP teacher where the root cause was an insect bite (physical) and that he could not help himself despite his skill and high qualification. The verbal and non verbal cues and body language was beautifully integrated with the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdom personalities which was totally new reading for me.

The subtle touch of spirituality struck an emotional chord. It was nice to read Kabir’s Dohe and the explanation of the root cause of stress.

On the whole it was very good light reading, but, it was like walking on the beach with only the waves touching my toes. It left me asking for so much more, as there are so many unanswered questions.

It it is a new approach with maybe a more accurate diagnostic repertoire, but this book just touches the tip of the iceberg. I wish he would write a more comprehensive book which will open new horizons and help heal a lot more people.

Brajesh's Review : How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

Every corporate slave is secretly in love with Dilbert, and I am no different. When I saw Scott Adam’s autobiographical advice book, given my recent delight with a similar book by Stephen King, I snapped this one up.

"How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big" is conveniently divided into 38 small chapters and starts smartly.

Scott’s personal battle with speech dystonia gives it the feel of a thriller. Unfortunately the book does not keep its pace and loses the reader in the second half.

Some of the advice is truly amazing and connected with me big time. I will list them here in the order that they appear in the book. Reading the list, you will realize how powerful and revolutionary these thoughts are.
“Passion is Bullshit” 
“Have a System not a Goal” 
“Decide, Don’t just Want” 
“Be Selfish 1st – Selfless 2nd” 
“Manage Odds for Success” 
“Humor – Diet – Fitness – Luck”.

The part which totally put me off was the “Affirmation Piece” I have never been a fan of Rhonda Byrne's “The Secret” and finding it embedded strongly towards the latter half of the book was quite disappointing.

The biggest take-away for me, was the happiness formula of Scott which goes something like “Happiness = Eat Right + Exercise + Sleep Well + Imagine a Great Future + Flexible Schedule + Progressive Improvement in Tasks + Help Others + Reduce Daily Tasks to Routine”.

I also loved his 6 Filters for Truth in the form of “Personal & Others Experience, Experts, Scientific Studies, Common Sense, Pattern Recognition” and the advice that unless a situation passes more then 2-3 filters simultaneously, one should always be wary of it.

I will round-off this review with the list of skills, which as per Scott Adams, increase the probability of individual success, and like the book I only agree with the first 7 in this list :-
1. Public Speaking
2. Psychology
3. Business Writing
4. Accounting
5. Design
6. Conversation
7. Second Language
8. Overcoming Shyness
9. Golf
10.Proper Grammar
11. Persuasion
12. Technology
13. Voice Technique.

Do read this as your tribute to all those Dilbert induced smiles.

Rating : 3 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Talk like TED - 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds

Being a TED fan, I had to pick this one up. Unfortunately this book by Carmine Gallo, is neither well written nor well researched.

The basic framework is built around 3 sections of Emotional, Novel and Memorable approach to presentation. Each of these also includes the 3 subsections which are fairly intuitive and basic.

While the neurological research supporting the construct sounds strong, the presentation is weak and does not add to the structure. I would ask you to skip this one and keep browsing TED.com to improve your presentation skills.

Or you can also look at my summary cheat-sheet to get all the gyaan of this book on one page .

The only plus from this book is that I now have a list of 10 odd great TED talks which I seem to have missed-out.

Rating : 2.5 / 5

Brajesh's Review : The Laws of Spirit - A Tale of Transformation

I have never really liked/enjoyed self-help books, and this one also turned out to be an ordinary read. Dan Millman's "The Laws of Spirit - A Tale of Transformation" uses fable like construction to narrate the 12 universal laws.

While each of the laws of Balance, Choice, Process, Presence, Compassion, Faith, Expectation, Integrity, Action, Cycles, Surrender, and Unity are beautiful and noble, the book itself sounds too righteous and idealistic and is unlikely to connect with a modern audience.

Since a friend had gifted this to me, I read it, but would advise you to avoid.

Rating : 2 / 5