The Magic Of Reading Aloud To Young Kids by Charu Sareen Gujjal - Book Review

Book Name : The Magic Of Reading Aloud To Young Kids

Author : Charu Sareen Gujjal

Genre : Parenting

In the era of digitization parents are looking for ways to keep their children gadget free. And the best way to do is, by inculcating reading habit in them. Reading stimulates their brain and make them highly imaginative and not only expands their understanding of the language but develop their listening skills as well. Reading has various benefits like improving concentration, making them more empathetic, expanding their vocabulary and so on. The benefits of reading to your children can start even before they are born. As early as 18 weeks of pregnancy a child will be able to start hearing their first sound. When we talk and read to our unborn baby, we are already starting a bonding experience with them. Literacy skills continue to develop while reading to you baby after they are born. Like reading it is also vital to know how do children pick up books to read. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charu Sareen Gujjal is a former teacher and language trainer, a passionate blogger and an author. She is a mom to five-year old twins Aarav and Aarohi, whom she lovingly calls as A&A. Her debut book ''A To Z of Parenting Twins' (published in 2019) is a wonderful resource for new parents on raising twins. She actively writes about her parenting journey on her blog The Mom Sagas which records all her motherhood experiences and everyday sagas of raising twins. She shares useful parenting tips, age-appropriate activities, books /games recommendations for kids, easy DIYs etc. She also expresses her views on topics related to womanhood, health, education and lifestyle.

"It must've been Love " by Mayura Amarkant - Book Review

 

Book Name: It must've been Love 

Author: Mayura Amarkant

Genre: Romantic Fiction, Poetry

Poetry is all around us. It allows us to understand our emotions in a unique way. It not only triggers our emotions and strengthens our brain but gives us space for self- reflection. As American poet Robert Frost once said. " Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." Today I am reviewing a book " It Must have Been Love" a beautiful amalgamation of poetry and prose, which are two common forms of literature. Let me introduce you to the author of this wonderful book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mayura Amarkant is an entrepreneur, blogger, promoter of a theatre group and a prominent writer. “Trapped in Heaven & other stories” was Mayura’s first anthology of romance fiction. With it, she launched Sansi Ventures, the publishing arm of Sarvashreshtha Solutions. The book received praise in India, Netherlands, USA, UK, Singapore, Australia and many other countries across the globe. “It Must Have Been Love” is her latest creation. Her blog, DiaryOfAnInsaneWriter, is among the top lifestyle blogs in India and attracts visitors from over 125 countries. She is a proponent of live art and promotes talent through the Karwan Theatre Group, Mumbai. Armed with over 2 decades of experience, Mayura has written education-related cover features for top newspapers. She has compiled study material, edited coffee-table books, novels, brochures and articles. Her scripts have given form to many corporate movies. She has also curated content for a web series. Even today, she continues to ghost-write for many corporates. 

This Is Not You! - Poetry

Every thing looks normal.....The day begin and the day ends,

The chores begin and the chores ends,

But there is something which feels hollow.

You accept your fate and learn to deal with it!

You even gain expertise in dealing with torment,

So much so that not even your inner soul feels it,

How do you do that?

Is it you or you pretend to be one!

Don't make things difficult for yourself.

Are you doing this so that everything should remain the way it is,

Building A Writing Practice by Sona Gover - Book Review

Name of the book : "Building A Writing Practice"

Author : Sona Grover

Genre : Self Help

To maximize the impact of any learning it is imperative to make commitment with practice. After all, practice is the only way to become proficient in what ever you do. Learning something new is hard, especially in the beginning and we tend to do mistakes and struggle more. But the reality is , the only way to learn something is through practice. According to Malcolm Gladwell "It takes 10,000 hours of practice to become expert at something. There is a big difference between an intellectual understanding and the skill development. Most of the people generally have intellectual capacity of quickly grasping of concept or an idea which can lead them to mistakenly believe that they know how to execute. The fact is that they don't, not until they practice, get feedback, refine their approach and practice again. Today the book I am reviewing talks about how  one can be a good writer or get better at the craft of writing if one does practice with consistency. Let me introduce you to the the author of this wonderful book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sona Grover is an author and a blogger. enthusiastic about good books, nature and long walks. She writes fiction and talks about her experiences with writing in her non fiction books. She has authored three wonderful books "One Girl Many Lives" and "Through The Mist" are fiction and "Finding Your Writing Flow " which is non fiction. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

The book "Building A Writing Practice" focuses on importance of practice, reading and consistency to get better at the art of writing. One can come out of writer's block or if one get stuck; by getting into a diffuse mode of thinking which relaxes your brain for a while despite your unconscious brain still working on the task. 

"Maharani" - Web Series Review

Name of the series : "Maharani"

Streaming on : Sony Liv

Genre : Political Thriller

Director : Subhash Kapoor

Rating : 3.8/5

CAST

Huma Qureshi (Rani Bharti), Soham Shah( Chief Minister, Bheema Bharati), Amit Sail(Navin Kumar), Pramod Pathak (Satyendranath Mmishra), Kani Kusruti (Rani's secretary), Inaamulhaq (Parvez Alam), Veenet Kumar (Gauri Shankar)

PLOT

Maharani is based on interesting phase in Bihar politics, set in the 90's. This was the time when Lalu Prasad Yadav placed his wife Raabri Devi in the Chief Minister's chair, who was illiterate and a homemaker, when he was being tried for the infamous Fodder Scam. Though it is not an exact replica but the premise is similar with some changes to make it look more appealing. 

STORY

"I Live To Love You" by Roma Gupta - Book Review

Book name– “I Live To Love You”- Romantic thriller 

Genre– Fiction 

Author– Roma Gupta Sinha 

Reading a good fiction book is an immerse experience that can make your brain come live with imagery and emotions and even turn on your senses. For me reading fiction not only helps me being creative and imaginative but gives me time to be with myself . In today's fast moving world when it is difficult to understand our own emotions, forget about understanding other's, it makes you empathetic towards people you have never met. This happens probably because book puts us inside the character's skin. Reading fiction puts our brains into a pleasurable trance, something similar to meditation which calms you down and results in better clarity of thoughts. Though I read lot of non fiction too but according to my experience , do not read non fiction prior going to bed as it encourages projection into the future and that can be stressful, while reading non fiction not only engages the imagination but demand present state attention that relaxes your brain. Above all  I love reading fiction, it makes me happy . Today I am reviewing a fiction book which is authored by a very good friend of mine and a co blogger. So let me introduce her to you all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roma Gupta Sinha is an acclaimed writer who has won the coveted ‘Woman of the Year’ Award in 2015 for her writings on Women Empowerment, Equality, Rights and Liberation on her blog www.trulyyoursroma.com and the prestigious ‘Planet’s Pride Award 2018’ for her entrepreneurial venture RCA where she has been passionately grooming six- to sixty-year-olds for the last many years in her endeavor to give back to the society and aid in shaping the future of India.   

After a ten-year successful stint of working in Tata Motors, Honda Cars and IKEA of Sweden in different parts of the world, she eventually embraced her first love of aiding people bridge the gap between their intellect and expression. She is the brand ambassador of 21st Century Education and strongly advocates learning beyond books. She is an author of five published books and writing on her blog is like breathing to her. She believes she is born for a purpose and yearns each day to be the face of positive change in the society she lives in. She also writes exhaustively on Women and Kids Mental and Physical Health.  

‘Soulful Letters On COVID, To My Future Grandchild’ is her fifth book after her first release ’Dare to Defy the Destiny’, a Hard-hitting non-fiction anthology did really well and her second, a chick let romance, ’The Fragrance of True Love’ which was a soulful tale of two resonating hearts became a bestseller. Her third book ‘Destiny’s Favorite Child’, which is her candid autobiographical account, is her most read book so far. Women Empowerment is a subject closest to her heart and thus her fourth release was known as ‘Empowered Women Empower Women’ published in year 2019.  You can grab a copy of all five on Amazon any time. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

"I Live To Love You" is a hard core love story with lots of twists and turns. This is a story about three childhood besties Aaradhya, Shamit and Riya who were inseparable. Their journey of friendship begins from  Nanital where they have shared lot of heartwarming moments. Then comes an unexpected turn of events in their lives, that completely changes the mood of the story from romantic to romantic thriller. The tag line on the cover of the book " will a pure soul ever succeed in finding her love who vanished seven years ago" clearly suggests that something tragic happened in their lives. 

The story is about how sometime emotions empowers thinking, that leads to disaster. The story is about separation and reunion. The story is about love, emotions, heartbreak and friendship and some relationships which cannot be named or explained.

MY TAKE ON THE BOOK

An artfully and thought provoking story covered various emotions. This book was totally unpredictable, surprises around each page! This book gets under your skin and stays with you. I found myself constantly thinking about the plot and the wonderful characters and setting that became familiar and comfortable. A detailed portrait of the characters is drawn in her deep words, and the story and its world deepens and richens, leading up to the edge of the seat. You really get invested into the characters and their lives and you start to feel their pain.

What makes a story engaging? Conflict is what brings tension into the story, creates trouble for the protagonist and develops the plot of the story more engaging. Author has managed to do that beautifully. You can see some internal conflicts that is in the minds of all the characters and external conflicts that happened to the character based on outside force, such a tragic incident happened which brought a big twist in the story.

No matter what, story should have some sort of satisfying conclusion. For me closure is important not just in books but in real life too. Here author has managed to do that, so a big thumps up from my side.

Author has managed to bring balance between showing and telling. She managed to show how the world of these three friends looks like . The characters were not perfect, some flaws made them more relatable and according to me that's is the biggest achievement of the author.

I believe the book should have at least 50% of its pages filled with characters communicating. This book has some incredible conversations between main characters that makes it very interesting.

Towards the end I felt the story  little draggy and lost the pace but overall the story was intriguing and all in all, I would highly recommend this book.

BOOK DETAILS

Format– eBook 

Pages- 165 

Available on- Blogchatter website for free download (for a limited time period) Link is given below

I live To Love You by Roma Gupta

This post is part of the Blogchatter Half Marathon.

This blog post if part of the blog challenge 'Blogaberry Dazzle' hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.

This post id part of Blogchatter's E-book Carnival, you can see my contribution for the same A2Z of Image Management

@Swati Mathur

 

 

Seven Beautiful Poetries Dedicated To Father's on "Father's Day" - Poetry

Father holds a very special place in children's life. Fathers, like mothers are pillars in the development of their child's growth. They provide a sense of security, both physical and emotional. Children always look for an opportunity to make their father proud. A father who is affectionate and supportive greatly affects a child's cognitive and social development skills and instills an overall sense of well-being and self confidence. A father is someone who shows her daughter what a good relationship with a man is like. Unlike daughters who model their relationships with others based on their father's character, sons model themselves after their father's character.

Let the father know the important effect he has on your life, through these lovely poems

Every child feels, out of all the father's in the world his or her father is the best. And why not, that is the kind of love they share.

For every one he is just a father but for a child he is their whole world. That's the kind of bond child shares with his or her father.

Do you think a day is enough to honor how special a father is? He is amazing every day of the year. I am sure every child feels the same.

There is a saying "A son's first hero" and "A daughter's first love" is a father. I totally agree with this apt saying and I am sure you all will too.

You know who is the richest man in this world not the one whose hands are filled with wealth but the one whose child can run into his arms when they are empty.

Not all super hero's wear capes, some are also called "DAD" - My wishing quotes- This quote is as beautiful as father child relationship.

So today, don’t forget to tell your dad you love him, and thanks for being there!

"Happy Father's Day"

This post is part of Blogchatter Half

 Marathon

Dedicating this Post to my DAD.. Love you dad♥

Poem courtesy : Find more poetries like this on poemsource.com

The Family Man Season 2 - Web Series Review

"For me a good thriller must teach me something about the real would" ~ Den Brown

The Family Man has done that for me....

Name of the series : The Family Man Season 2

Number of seasons - 2

Streaming On : Amazon Prime Video

Genre : Thriller/Political

Director : Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru

Rating : 4.5/5

Cast : Manoj Bajpayee, Samantha Akkineni(Raji), Priyamani (Suchi), Sharib Hashmi (JK), Seema (Prime Minister) Biswas, Darshan Kumar, Sharad Kelkar, Sunny Hinduja, Shreya Dhanwantary, Shahab Ali, Vedant Sinha, Mahek Thakur, Mime Gopi, Ravindra Vijay, Devadarshini Chetan, Anandsami and N. Alagamperumal

The family Man is back after a gap of two years to re-explore the challenges of saving the nation. This season will see a new enemy and restore an old opponent. 

Plot

Manoj Bajpayee ( Srikanth ) works for an intelligence force  (TASC) but due to certain circumstances showed in Season  two ,you will witness that he has taken an IT job that has nothing to do with the intelligence force, but he slowly finds a way back to his old roots. Srikant's family life is in trouble as he is trying to patch things up with his wife played by Priyamani. As the name suggests, "The Family Man" always focused on Srikanth's personal and professional life as the show’s premise depends on the fact that people with dangerous jobs can have an equally demanding home life. How he manages to balance both home and work life and faces tough challenges with grit is for you to see.

Story Line

Story is inspired by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's horrendous assassination by LTTE militant. The script gives you the glimpse of real life events and all the twist and turns makes it really thrilling and keep the viewers at the edge of their seat. 

A government in exile is persuading European government for recognition,  The problem begins when a sleeper cell of Tamil rebels is activated and join hands with the Pakistani ISI to mastermind an attack on the Indians. These rebels also orchestrate an attack on  Prime Minister Basu (Seema Biswas). Tamil rebel leaders who were in exile plotted the details of theses attacks sitting in France and London, with support from old rebels loyalists in India and Sri Lanka. TASC is assigned the task of rounding up these rebels. Samantha (Raji) who takes the lead as she was the only one equipped with desired skill sets. While Srikant and his team tries to chase rebels to stop their plan which is a big threat to India's national security, back at home Shrikant's family landed up in serious crisis which was the result of his profession. Both the crisis situation have been intelligently connected with fine precision. Every thing looked realistic and nothing seemed to be out of the box. The story touches upon the fact that rebels have local sympathizers, which makes the job becomes tougher for investigation officers. I don't want to be a spoiler by disclosing too many things, as there are lot of sub plots are going on with the main story. 

My take on the series

The directors have managed to create a gripping sequel which is not just fast paced but humorous too. For keeping the viewers hooked to screen, the credit goes to Manoj Bajpayee (Srikant), who has aced  his acting skills to next level. You just cannot takes your eyes off when you see Srikant and JK bromancing. Samantha as Raji has done justice to her role , by looking her part perfectly well. Priya Mani on other hand has a limited screen time but in spite of that she stood out in her performance , as does Seema Biswas. In between you might get frustrated , when you see these highly trained people in intelligence looked helpless due to many reasons be it political or social. 

While there are many brilliant scenes which are well coordinated and choreographed but what stood out for me was the climax, which was nail biting high octane scene.

The fictional series presents a balanced account and ensures that it doesn't sympathize with the insurgents while conveying their ordeals. The Family Man season 2 has all the reasons that make it worthy of a binge watch. If you haven't watch the season 1 , then I suggest you should to feel connected.

This post is part of Blogchatter's Blogchatter Half Marathon

@Swati Mathur

Cinco of Shrav vs Sana by Suhasini (Stroies with Morals)- Book Review

NAME OF THE BOOK : Shrav vs Sana

AUTHOR : Suhasini

GENRE : Kids Fiction

Stories with moral impart most important life lessons to a child, which forms a strong foundation for them to deal and respond to different life situations. Research also shows that young children learn moral reasoning through what they have been told and as they grow, they would be in a position to decide the right and wrong.

I am really excited to review this book as I am actually sharing the review done by my daughter who thoroughly enjoyed reading it and incorporated most of the learnings from this book in her life. Wow! Isn't it amazing? I would like to congratulate Suhasini who is the author for this book , for imparting some very important life lessons through her short stories.

3 Must Read Books To Understand Human Emotions - Book Review

Emotions are body reactions to what you are thinking in various situations. They are neither right nor wrong. You just feel a certain way , sometimes you being aware and other times you are not. There is no one way to deal with it. Every individual have their own intelligence to handle them. Think about something that you don't have, something that you want. Have you ever been happy while not having it? Or if you didn't have it but didn't care, would you be unhappy? Or If you were doing something that kept you away from thinking about it , would you be unhappy about it? You see, not having doesn't make you feel bad. Thinking about it does. Therefore these are your thoughts that have created these emotions.

So today I will be taking you through a roller costar ride of emotions and thoughts that triggers those feelings. But if you want to read and understand them better I recommend you to read these three wonderful e- books which talks about them in detail but in different ways.

Bloggers Unplugged by Ruchi Verma - Book Review

AUTHOR : Ruchi Verma

BOOK : Bloggers Unplugged

RATING : 5/5

Blogging isn't new but has gained its popularity in recent past. Blogging began in the year 1994, like a digital diary where people penned down their thoughts and shared it online. Then, people realized its true potential. They saw an opportunity to communicate information in a new way online. And then the beautiful world of blogging began but today it has been recognized as a serious profession and people are getting monetary benefits by writing content which the audience is looking for. 

Today I am reviewing a book that can act as a handy guide to make your blogging journey smooth and better. So let's meet the author of the book " Bloggers Unplugged".

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ruchi Verma is a well - known and multiple award-winning Blogger listed among the 50 top most influential content marketing professionals, Certified parenting teen practitioners and won India Inspirational Women Award in 2020. She started her blogging journey as she wanted to share and learn with everyone. 

A2Z of Common diseases and their Homeopathic Treatment" by Dr. Surbhi Prapanna - Book Review

 

Author : Dr. Surbhi Prapanna

Genre : Health, Alternative medicine, Homeopathy

Rating : 5/5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Surbhi Prapanna is a homeopathic therapist by profession and a writer and blogger by passion. She has more than 4 years of professional writing experience and her work had been published on various prestigious online platforms like Momspresso.com, kidstoppress.com, cureJoy.com and shivanaspirit.com. Health, parenting, and creative activities for kids (art, crafts, DIYs etc...) are her niche. And she shares her areas of expertise and parenting experience on her blog Surbhiprapanna.com. She has won so many awards for her academic and professional excellence but won the “Best parent award” is most precious and satisfying experience of her life. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

This book talks about all the common diseases with their causes, symptoms, prevention, diagnosis with homeopathic remedies in detail. In-depth detailing shows the kind of research the author has put in that gives us better understanding with immense clarity about the causes and treatment. Dr. Surbhi has covered almost all the common as well as routine illnesses which you can ever think of. Every illness and their remedies are explained with pictures that makes it very convenient for the readers to understand.

Homeopathy is a 200 year- old -form of alternative medicine that claims to revitalize a healing response and strengthen the body's ability to heal itself.

What I like about homeopathic treatment is that a homeopath will enquire into the cause behind the problem and go to the root of the disease to have a better understanding. For example if you have a recurring headaches due to some other disorder in your body such as stress, constipation or acidity, a homeopath will aim to remove the reason behind the headaches, or inquire patiently and show you the way out. 

There are numerous benefits of homeopathic medicine. They believe in holistic methodology, they try to remove the cause , there are hardly any side effects therefore considered as safest medicine. It also helps in building up your immunity and acts like a preventive medicine.

MY TAKE ON THE BOOK

Dr. Surbhi's passion and love for her professions shows in her writing. As we all know medicine is one of the most prestigious and highly regarded profession and as it has been rightly said that god cannot be everywhere that's why he has sent the doctors with excellence and selflessness. By writing this precious book Dr. Surbhi has proved this saying right. "A2Z of Common disease and their homeopathic treatment" is not just another book but a reference guide which can serve millions of people. So it is our responsibility to create awareness and increase the reachability of this valuable book. I personally use and believe in homeopathic medicine and have complete faith in it. I am a big fan of Dr. Surbhi's writing and precision as all her content are not just insightful but aim to serve the community.