Tag Archives: History

The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap

31 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by in Fiction

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51q0487gGFLAuthor – Paulette Mahurin

Rating – 5/5 stars

Number of Pages – 202

Publisher – CreateSpace

‘It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.’

Oscar Wilde(Playwright, Novelist, Essayist and poet)

‘The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap’ is set in 1895 when the world stormed with the news of the conviction of one of the most successful playwrights, novelists, poets and short story writers and noted celebrity Oscar Wilde sentenced to two years of hard imprisonment after being convicted of “gross indecency.”

The story is of two women Mildred Dunlap and her cousin Edra is a subject of gossip for the people of Red River Pass, a small town in Nevada. The life of two women impacted by the news of conviction of Mr. Wilde who finds themselves in the similar circumstances. Mildred being the reason of persecution all through her life and people find reasons to talk about her. Her looks, the way she dressed, her wealth and even her relationship with Edra brought her constant criticism.

The book is worth every penny and every second you give to this book. The book makes a point from the opening chapters and concludes on a note. It is a thoughtful writing and slap on the biased and judgmental thinking of people who loves to subjugate other people and wish to find faults based on their life choices.

The time hasn’t changed since then as the world still finds it a matter of their concern/gossip of person’s sexual relationship. The story is based in 1895 but it reads as it talks the present time.

The book is well written as plot and subplots of the story are intelligently designed. It is a beautiful story capturing the struggle of human rights and how love and friendship bring strength and healing in the life of two women.

Author Bio

Paulette Mahurin, an award-winning author, lives with her husband Terry and two dogs in Ventura County, California. Her first novel, ‘The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap’, made it to Amazon bestsellers lists and won multiple awards, including best historical fiction of the year 2012. Her third novel, To Live Out Loud, won international critical acclaim and favorite read book of 2015.

She practices women’s health in a rural clinic and writes in her spare time. She is an animal advocate and has been involved with dog rescue, along with her husband, for the past twenty-eight years. Profits from her book sales go to help rescue dogs from kill shelters.

You can reach to her at thepersecutionofmildreddunlap.wordpress.com

Twitter@MahurinPaulette

I hope you also like ‘The Seven Year Dress’ by Paulette Mahurin sets during the time of WWII. Read the review Here.

Buy this Book Here: Amazon.com Amazon.in

‘I received a copy from Author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.’

Singha Durbar

26 Friday May 2017

Posted by in Non-Fiction

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51l-nnCeWkL.jpgAuthor – Sagar S.J.B. Rana

Rating – 5/5 stars

Number of Pages – 450

Publisher – Rupa Publications

‘If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.’

-Toni Morrison (Novelist)

‘Singha Durbar’ illustrates the history of the beautiful and troubled land of Nepal. The land has the fascinating, high and lush peaks of the Himalayas. The book narrates the history of the land of Prince Siddharth who later renounced his status to lead an ascetic life and founded Buddhism and came to be known as Gautam Buddha.

The book is written by a descendant of the Rana clan. The period is among one of the most vital parts in the history of the country. The author presented a detailed material regarding the pre-Rana history in Nepal and also the Rana regime founded by Jung Bahadur.

The Rana regime in Nepal began with Maharaj Jung Bahadur Rana in the mid-nineteenth century and ruled the kingdom for slightly over a century which comes to a close in 1951. They ensured that Nepal remains isolated from the winds of change coming from India for democracy and complete freedom for a whole century. The year 1940 is crucial in this regard when the anti-feudal movement began which resulted in the toppling the Rana regime in 1951.

The author painstakingly researched for years to bring this book and it is evidently seen when you read and come across the details and not every book can present with such barefaced and forthright. This is a wonderful book for history readers and all those who are interested in knowing one of the episodes of history which covered more than a century of Nepal. The book also is an excellent read for historians and students. This book is as detailed as it needs to be and as brief that it won’t take ages to read and apprehend the ‘Rise and Fall of the Rana Regime of Nepal’.

Author Bio

Sagar S.J.B. Rana was born in 1938 in Baber Mahal Palace, Kathmandu, Nepal. He holds an MA in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford. A descendent of the Rana family, he and his brother were also actively involved in the Nepali Congress party, the principal democratic force that opposed the politically active monarchy. He was a member of the Central Working Committee and the Head of Department of International Affairs of the Nepali Congress in the critical years, 2003-2006. He is the founder chairman of the Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal. He is currently the Vice President of Nepal Art Council.

Buy this Book Here: Amazon

‘I received a copy from Publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.’

The Boy from Pataliputra

13 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in Fiction

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34511154.jpgAuthor – Rahul Mitra

Rating – 5/5 stars

Number of Pages – 381

Publisher – FingerPrint Publishers

What if you lost your dearest and only family in the hands of injustice and political conspiracy? Would you take the revenge or isolate yourself and mourn. Will you not instrument the fire burning in you to bring down the conspirator to beg for his life?

The story set in the backdrop of 330BC. Alexander is on a mission to invade every kingdom and win over the world and become the mighty ruler of the whole world, a world conqueror. After invading and looting Persia, now Alexander is eyeing on India. Its innumerable treasures of gold and silver made it a dream of every ruler to conquer and attain undying glory.

Thousands of kilometers away, a carefree and reckless boy’s life turned upside down when he was forced to leave the city of Pataliputra. With Pataliputra, he left a boy in him behind and become a man, who now has a purpose to live, to fight for honor and love.

It is a story of revenge. A story of a jovial and unbothered boy Aditya who was living in the shadow and forced to take the sword in hand. It is well-written, entertaining, captivating and an excellent read for the historical fantasy readers. What could be better than sitting in comfort of your room and travel centuries ago? Well, this book will take you to time travel in 4th century BC.

The book has many relatable everyday characters which engage the reader more and compel him to delve deeper and keep reading until the book finishes of itself. And that is not all, the story doesn’t end at the last page. The book is a part of a trilogy and two more books are about to hit the shelf. So, you have a fair chance to grab this book before the next read hit the shelf and be ready to travel again in the world of words with Rahul Mitra.

Author Bio

Rahul Mitra grew up in Delhi and is currently working as an IT Marketing Professional with a multinational company in Mumbai. Passionately interested in all things Indian, Rahul is vociferous in his opinions about India, its people, and its culture. Like many others before him, he believes he can change the world and influence people through his writings.

You can reach to him at Twitter@kyarebaingan

Buy this Book here: Amazon

‘I received a copy from Chevusread in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.’

 

The Seven Year Dress

10 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by in Fiction

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30142931.jpgAuthor – Paulette Mahurin

Rating – 5/5 stars

Number of Pages – 324

Publisher – Early Girl Enterprises

Hope is the only thing which makes everything possible. When humanity is murdered in front of her eyes, people are beaten to death every second for no reason. Hope becomes her survival instinct. She sleeps every night listening to the sounds of gunshots, voices coming out of pain, screams of people yelling for mercy and telling to herself that ‘Nothing Lasts’.

In 1919, Helen Stein born to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany and raised with love with her three siblings. She is happy to find her best friend in Max; forced to play a role in the German army. She dreams to have a life filled with love and a family of her own and have many children’s one day. No one saw it coming that the history of Germany is going to change in few years and that changed the life of Jews. This changed the way the world looked at Germany, once was a peaceful and prosperous country. One man behind all is Adolf Hitler.

The story weaved during the time of World War II. How a girl in Auschwitz tortured and tormented, seeing death and brutality, midst of blood bath and hypocrites mocking and laughing at the pain of the people and finding pleasure in hurting and killing people whose only crime is that they are Jews and in a position of helplessness. When death is hanging on her in every second, going through the unthinkably awful period of her life she encountered compassion, selfless acts of kindness, and friendship.

A treat to historical fiction reader. A must read. A definite page-turner. It is not only about history and the story interweaved around the period. The way the story unfolds and captivates the reader is phenomenal. The author put the well-researched documented historical facts remarkably. The book is admirable and brilliant. The story touched the heart of the readers and compels to ask what kind of humans would do such barbaric act with another human.

Author Bio

Paulette Mahurin, an award-winning author, lives with her husband Terry and two dogs in Ventura County, California. Her first novel, ‘The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap’, made it to Amazon bestsellers lists and won multiple awards, including best historical fiction of the year 2012. Her third novel, To Live Out Loud, won international critical acclaim and favorite read book of 2015.

She practices women’s health in a rural clinic and writes in her spare time. She is an animal advocate and has been involved with dog rescue, along with her husband, for the past twenty-eight years. Profits from her book sales go to help rescue dogs from kill shelters.

You can reach to her at thepersecutionofmildreddunlap.wordpress.com

Twitter@MahurinPaulette

Buy this book here: Amazon.in Amazon.com

‘I received a copy from Author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.’

Heroines

17 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by in Non-Fiction

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33795518.jpgAuthor – Ira Mukhoty

Rating – 3/5 stars

Number of pages – 205

Publisher – Aleph Books

‘Heroines’ is a book narrates the story of powerful Indian women of myth and history. The time when man dominates, these women courage and bravery make their place in the history of India.

Ira Mukhoty compiles stories of such great women of myth and history in her book. The book tells a story of their struggle for respect, finding their place in the man dominating society, fighting for restoring their self respect. There was a time when a woman had a secondary and supporting role in the man’s world. It was considered that a woman’s life has only one aim to serve and support her father, husband and son, who are her owner on different stages of life. They live in the influence of a man all through their life without having an identity of her. They had no rightful place in the society and had no right to be given.

The book has a life and struggle of eight such women from Draupadi; a dharma queen to Jahanara Begum from the history.

The book is read like a history book and diverts from its path on every then and now. From the title of the book one may expect a story of these women courage and fight for their rightful place but book seems more like a research paper. The characterizations of these women of Indian myth and history could have been better if the book is written as their story of struggle rather a collection of excerpt.

An Era of Darkness

24 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by in Non-Fiction

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32777063Author – Shashi Tharoor

Rating – *****

Language – English

Number of Pages – 338

The Author, Shashi Tharoor, is an Indian politician and a former diplomat who is currently serving as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha.

The birth of the book is the speech made by the author at Oxford when author was invited as a speaker at Oxford Union. After praises, criticism, trolling over internet, the speech made its way in the heart of masses. The book is not his written speech; it is differ in many respects. This book is not about British Colonialism as a whole, but simply tells about India’s experience of it. It does not tell a story of British Raj on India but makes an argument.

Starting from 1600 when British Charter forms East India Company, who once entered in the country as traders and then eventually ruled the country till 1947 – India gain independence on 15th august, partition of the country, Britain exits India. Brief history of the dark phase of Indian history and their impact on India and over Indians from the eye of author.

During the period, the India becomes mere exporter of raw material to Britain and its export market of manufacturing goods declined considerably. British Raj extracted the wealth in the name of taxation. Britain’s Industrial Revolution was built on the destruction of India’s thriving manufacturing industries. Factual figures are also stated in the book.

There is nothing new, which, one haven’t read before about Indian history but book neither trashing British Raj. It evaluates the impact of Colonialism and how India made progress after independence to one of the world’s fastest growing economy.