Book Review: Sex and Power by Rita Banerji

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

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Sex and Power by Rita Banerji

I would like to thank Author Kelli Sue Landon for helping me to get this book from Amazon. Find Kelli on one of these social media sites if you are a fan of murder mystery and thriller books.

WordPress: https://kellisuelandon.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @kellisuelandon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kelli-Sue-Landon-Author-128375177223550/

Her book review site: https://kellisbookreviews.wordpress.com/

I\’m glad I read this book. So glad I did. I got to know about Rita Banerji sometime ago and wanted to grab a copy of her book through Amazon, which I couldn\’t, as the title was and I believe still is not available where I live. Kelli helped me to get the book via Kindle and gifted it to me. It had been on my Kindle device for about a year, if I\’m not wrong. I don\’t read books on Kindle to be honest but finally decided to read it as I know it is worth getting a glimpse of the thoughts of Rita Banerji, an activist whose work largely revolves around women\’s rights in India. I like how she does extensive research to reveal cultural myths and the way religions both glorified and condoned human beings\’ sexuality.

Rita\’s book will definitely shed some light on issues we thought were taboo. I particularly like how women were so much sexually empowered through religions. The Golden Era saw men and women emphasising \’romance\’ and \’love-making\’ where they respected each other. Rita also wrote very distinctly on the influence of religions and how \’sex and power\’ were viewed and handled differently according to their respective religious view point.

Towards the end, I\’m able to learn on how the present-day India is still struggling in promoting equality and how leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, whose preaching and practice on sexual stance had great disparities their own sexual.

I would rate this book 10/10 and give it ten stars on Amazon, if I could.

Check it out on https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Power-Defining-History-Societies/dp/0143064711

WordPress: sexandpower.wordpress.com

I welcome your thoughts and views ! 😀 Thank you for your feedback.

Review: Belonging by Sameem Ali

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

I finished reading two books in just two days. I made a review for \”Daughters of Shame\” written by Jasvinder Sanghera in my previous post and this one is for Belonging by Sameem Ali.

Daughters of Shame and Belonging are two books about #forcedmarriages and coincidentally, these two books were written by Asian women whose parents hail from Pakistan and India. Jasvinder and Sameem\’s parents migrated to the Great Britain where the ladies were born.

when I put down Jasvinder\’s book, I went to my shelf and picked this book up. As I started reading I realized that the story is somewhat similar and it took place also in Britain. Then I knew that forced marriages and honour killings are REAL and these horrible crimes are still happening today. I like the way the story is narrated in \”Belonging\”. It is very engaging and believable. Sameem grew up in a children\’s home when she was young where life as a kid was beautiful for her and the rest of the kids. When she turned 7, her parents came to take her home and that\’s where the not-so-nice life started.

She was basically treated like a slave, forced to do all the housework, forced to marry someone in Pakistan (one of her uncles had unsettled debts and to settle it off, Sameem was forced to marry one of his sons). She never knew what marriage, sex and pregnancy were at the age of thirteen but she was pregnant and had a child at the age of 14.

Sameem was mistreated by her own family and it is really sad to know that the society still thinks that girls should not get proper sexual education. She never knew that women will go through menstruation and she was not even explained about it after attaining puberty. The society is cruel towards women as we are not even allowed to explore our own bodies and the way they work. We are not supposed to fully mature sexually because knowing what\’s happening to our bodies would educate us on how to protect ourselves and that would mean less control for men on women. What a shame!

This is an excerpt from the book that makes my stomach churn!

\” Mother decided that she could fix the stutter by cutting the skin under my tongue, which she told me was pulling my tongue down in the wrong way. She shouted angrily at Hanif to help her, and the two of them laid me down on the kitchen floor, and told me to open my mouth. I was confused but did as I was told. In Mother\’s hand was a razor blade, the kind found in an old-fashioned razor. I stared at in horror. \”

We have seen gradual improvements on racism, gay-lesbian rights, and many other issues plaguing our society but it\’s sad to know that we are still battling the war against sexism in 2014. It\’s sad to see Emma Watson being threatened online by some jerk who thinks he could leak her nude photos and humiliate her.

It\’s not just the UN ambassador\’s responsibilities to fight for justice. Let\’s spread awareness and make this place a better place for women and men. If we continue to portray men as rude, dominating and evil, when are we going to see the gentlemen around?

I welcome your thoughts and views ! Thank you for your feedback

Daughters of Shame: A Review

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

Daughters of Shame

If you have never read any books written by human’s rights advocate, you should add this book to your TBR list!

I have read the first book written by this author (Shame by Jasvinder Sanghera) and I must say that domestic violence and child marriage are REAL and the pain can be very tormenting even when the victims are no longer abused.

In her first book, she wrote about her childhood and how she managed to escape the forced marriage. I’ve learnt about the Asian community living in the UK through this book and how the girls face similar issues at home.

In this book, she had shared some of the women’s stories whom she is helping through the community-based organization in the U.K by the name of Karma Nirvana. Jasvinder is the founder of this community and she voices out for the victims of honour-based crimes in the U.K.

It is absolutely saddening to see so many women and men who have fallen victims to one of the most atrocious form of crime among the Asian community. Girls as young as twelve are sent back to their parents’ country (which is usually India and Pakistan) where they are forced to marry men twice their age. These girls were often abused and tortured; treated like slaves and their children suffer the consequences of not having educated parents to care for them.

Girls who go against their parents’ wish were often killed by their own families in the name of honour!

I applaud the work being done by Karma Nirvana and Jasvinder Sanghera as the U.K. has enforced the Forced Marriage Act to protect underage children and adults from forced marriages and honour-based crimes.

I welcome your thoughts and views ! Thank you for your feedback

A Life Worth Living: A Review

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

A Life Worth Living

I was working on T.L Scott\’s book trailer for the past one week. It was a fun learning process as this time, I hired a voice over artist to provide voice over for the trailer. So you might want to watch the trailer and let me know what you think about it overall. I welcome your honest critique that is constructive!

I read his book before coming up with ideas for the trailer so I thought I would post my honest opinion on the book.

Note: This review is purely based on my opinion and my preference and taste when it comes to books. My thoughts and views may be entirely different from yours if you were to read the book. This review is written constructively so that the author of the book could find better inspiration and idea for his writing journey.

A Life Worth Living\’s blurb :

Dave and Debbie are a typical middle class family. They work hard to provide for their two children. They have made sacrifices to provide a good home and a good life for each other and the children they love. Somewhere along the way to making a good life they have lost sight of each other.

When tragedy strikes they have to decide if they can make theirs a life worth living.

This is a story of love, loss, and ultimately redemption.

My review:

I find this book interesting when I got to know a few things about this book. This book is about a man who is workaholic and finds himself spending too much time on his office work. Dave is a hardworking man who equally loves his family. But Debbie, his wife is getting frustrated about his workaholic ways.

The story uncovers the fact or reality of life as it evolves. It is about the good and bad we face in life. The family faces numerous tragedies in this story. I like the story and the way Scott has planned about the suspense elements in his book. One of it was very shocking to me too when I was reading. If you like stories that is based on family bonding, sacrifices and loss of family members as well as the emotions behind these incidents, then you may like the story of this book. I find it easy to finish reading the book within one to two days.

Some of the aspects that could have been improved in this book are the writing style, paraphrasing and narration.

I thought it would have been better if the narration of the story sticks with the first person\’s point of view and specifically Dave. When Dave is away from home, the narration is being made from Debbie\’s point of view, so when the word \”I …. \” comes, I find it a little bit difficult to figure out who is telling the story this time round. There were also some sentences that need to use certain punctuation marks especially dialogues.

I saw a few repetitions in the book. I found sentences being repeated not word by word but they are actually telling the same thing. This can be distracting.

I also thought the blurb should be changed because it doesn\’t seem to be as enticing as the story.

These are purely based on my thoughts and I can be wrong. Another person may not find these aspects of the book giving issues to their reading experience. Different reviewers will find different thoughts on the book.

so I suggest you to read the book and Scott is looking for reviewers, so if you are interested you can let me know and I will help you with that.

I welcome your thoughts and views ! 😀 Thank you for your feedback

The Book I Gave Up On

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

Seven Days One Summer

I think some of you may know that I went wild in excitement the last time the Big Bad Wolf came to the town where my university is situated. I bought quite a number of books. I am huge fan of non-fiction book and I usually buy anything that is related to the Middle East. Trying to recollect the fun I had that day, I went on on my own by bus as I was really not bothered to wait for anyone else to tag along. It was worth the hassle because good books were selling like hot cakes that day and I was really happy I went early.

I carried a huge box I found at the side of the hall and started to pile it up with books and carrying it along from one section to another awkwardly. Just to have a change in my reading experience, I bought books from all genre and Seven Days One Summer was one of it. I thought of giving Young Adult genre a try. I picked this up a few days back before I go for my holidays but there is just something that didn’t attract me well in this book. I feel the story is stale and the plot is very boring. You would be expecting a twist each time you turn the pages but it would end up disappointing you. At least that is what I honestly felt. There is just not much motivation about it that keeps you going.

The story is about a woman going for holiday with her son and husband. At the holiday spot, they meet their old friends with their spouses and kids. So it ended up like a group vacation where old friends meet. Jen is actually not happy with her husband Marcus and the way the relationship is going. She meets her old flame in that group and her attentions got diverted to that guy, Sam.

Sam shows not much of prominent interest in Jen anyway. I really feel Jen is quite obnoxious in this story as she falls for another man too easily. The entire story so far was just about them having some argument, particularly between Tara and Jen and how these two women were possessive over Sam for no reason even though they are already married. On top of that, Alfie, Jen’s kid is another irritating kid in this story who comes crying to his mother all the time. I can say that the author has made Alfie very annoying as he comes crying in between every twist in the story and the excitement of yours would fade off as the story hardly develops.

I’m not sure if I would finish reading the book but I may read just to have the satisfaction having read the book and not wasting my effort buying it. Yeah, just for the sake of it. 😉 I’m sorry but I really didn’t enjoy it. What else can I say.

I welcome you thoughts and views ! 😀 Thank you for your feedback

What Happens To Ryan and Jade?

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

Modern Disciples Volume 2

Modern Disciples Volume 2 gets deep into the character development and this is differs the book from the first sequel. Jane is seem to be the hero that captures everyone’s heart with her bold and outspoken attitude. This book features Jane slightly more than any other disciples, even Ryan. If you have read the volume 1, you will be wondering what will happen next to these disciples especially Ryan and Jane. In this book, the characters’ emotions develop and Jane’s love for Ryan unfolds.

The author has once again connected the reality with mythology very naturally. As Jane trails the man who may be in league with the Titans in Las Vegas, she was joined by a few other new disciples in this story. When Ryan gathers the group back together, Jane receives another mission from her mother unexpectedly. The group was divided into three and Jane and Ryan go to the dessert where the mobster’s camp is. Monsters from Norse Mythology, from Dark Elves to Fire Giants, make an appearance in this story, as well as new gods and disciples.

For those of you who wants a story with good character and emotional development, this will be a good read. Whereas for those of you who prefer action-paced story and character where there is nothing much about emotion development, this book may seem a little bit lesser than the first.

I welcome you thoughts and views ! 😀 Thank you for your feedback

The Harbinger

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

The Harbinger

The Harbinger written by Christopher Huntingford is the first sequel to the other Harbinger Chronicles that will be following up soon. This story is based on kingdom adventure with Alexander Wolfield as the main character where the kingdom of Alveus is on the rise as it conquers the economic wealth. The story evolves as a rift between the king’s sons develops. Apart from that, factions are also being formed in the countryside. Alexander faces challenges from his father as he became close and loyal to his ideals who points out the sins of the nobility and he soon finds his way out to leave the kingdom.

The characters of the King’s children are very captivating in this book, with each one of them being so different from one another. I enjoyed Sofia’s character in this book as much as the main character. She is the only girl among the four brothers and also the twin sister to one of the boys. The third son Calimus’ is the black sheep of the family I would say as he shames the family and kingdom with his character. These characters add the suspense element to the whole plot as the tension rises when friction builds among themselves.

Christopher has an amazing website for his book that can be viewed at this link. His blog can be viewed at this tumblr website and like his Facebook page to get the updates regarding his book. You can pre-order the book now through his website or wait for the book the be available on Amazon on 9/1.

About Christopher

Christopher Huntingford is a citizen of the world. He was born in the United States and raised on military bases across the Pacific Ocean. At one point he attended four schools in three years and ended up attending seven schools in a span of twelve years.

In the midst of his journeys he developed his creative side with his love of acting and a secondary love of writing. He went on to perform in high school and college plays and sketches, but left his love for a successful career in business management.

When his son Wyatt turned eight, Christopher promised to finish a story he had been musing on for a decade and publish it.

Slow Burn: Zero Day

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

Slow Burn: Zero Day

Bobby Adair has done a great job with his book Slow Burn: Zero Day. If you love stories about zombies or reading suspense and horror books, I bet this book is going to entice and keep you glued to the book.

This book features Zed as the main character who is in the idea of approaching his mother for some money only to find out that his mother is dead. Very soon, Zed learns that his stepfather has got a zombie feast and deeply horrified Zed then kills his stepfather. He passes out for two days, wakes up and calls the cop who later arrests him. In the prison, Zed sees the world is in turmoil about the new flu strain that has been spreading across many continents and people live in fear of getting infected.

Although Zed managed to kill his stepdad, he was actually bitten by him before he died. So Zed is considered a ”slow burn” where he can later turn out to be infected or not which is the main suspense that drives the interest of readers till the last page of the book. Zed comes out of the prison and finds his survival in the chaotic world where he defends himself from the zombies who are infected and faces challenges interacting with people who are not infected and runs away from Zed in fear.

I thought Bobby has weaved this story very realistically with some sense of humor together with suspense, horror and thrilling elements. I bet you would feel the tense throughout the book as the eagerness to know what happens next keeps you hooked to the book. The characters are well drawn and well developed, and the main protagonists experience circumstances and develop a point of view not often seen in Zombie/Infected Apocalypse fiction. This book is available for free download at Amazon’s link and at Smashwords.

I welcome you thoughts and views ! 😀 Thank you for your feedback

When Life Gives You Lemons…

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

Womens & Lemons: Your Time Is Now

Ever wondered what happens to your life when you, as a woman, hit the age of 50? How do you intend to live your life after 50 or even 40? Do you think you should slow down and live a life that is calmer and reserved? Janice L. Walker has a message for you and all the other women who think just like you as she proves you wrong with her book Womens & Lemons: Your Time Is Now. Yes, WOMENS, you read that right. Find out why when the book is out.

For the past 15 years, Janice L. Walker has conducted workshops and seminars for a variety of women’s groups. She is passionate about issues that involve women and believes that women do not truly appreciate themselves as they should, especially in their 50s. She encourages, affirms, motivates, and inspires women to be all that they can be, and accept nothing less than the best for themselves at this particular juncture in life.

I had an opportunity to read Janice’s book before it is out this FALL 2013, and I feel Janice has incorporated her experience in this non-fiction work to help women start enjoying their lives. With the motto that 50 is really the new 30, I feel this book is a perfect read for our mothers who are getting old and living a dull life. It serves as a call for them to get out of their house, do what they are passionate about and achieve their dreams.

While reading this book, I also thought it is essential for men to encourage their wives and mothers to live a joyful life by going out for vacation, participating in social events with their friends and continue exploring adventures at this age. I feel it is time for us to stop consuming too much of our mothers’ lives. Women have sacrificed enough for their families during their younger days and Janice encourages them to start living for themselves.

So, when life gives you lemon, squeeze the life out of that lemon and enjoy all that life has to offer you, which you so richly deserve!!

Womens and Lemons is coming out this fall and you can request to be notified on the release of the book by emailing to vipfalo@aol.com and you will get to choose one out of ten free posters of Womens and Lemons available when you get the book.

I welcome you thoughts and views ! 😀 Thank you for your feedback

Fifty Shades Unrevealed

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

Grey Is The Man and The Colour

Everyone was talking about this book back in May when we had a book fair by the Big Bad Wolf over here and I missed this book as it was sold out on the first day itself. I never intended to read this book but when Carmina, a friend from Glipho mentioned that the book has some other messages although it is all about sex somewhere from page 100 right till the end of the book.

I finished this book within 3 days. I am never a fan of erotic books. Romance yes, not erotic and all we got from this book was just sex and nothing else. There was no love making between Ana and Grey. It was just about hormones and sheer pleasure from sex without feelings, emotions or love. To make it worse, the relationship that Grey wanted from Ana was a BDSM relationship where Grey was in control as a dominant and I thought this doesn’t add value to my reading experience. E.L James also used the word mutters and whispers excessively rendering dull conversations between Ana and Grey.

I gave the book 4/5 finally as I thought there were more to see beyond the erotic content that is not appealing. There was emotions between the two characters even though it was a dominant submissive relationship. This story explains the difference in feelings the male and female have on each other. Ana fell in love with this super-smart and good-looking guy and I thought even though they were sexually driven and attracted to each other, Ana had feelings for this guy and wants to have a normal and lasting relationship. On the contrary, all Grey had on mind was about sex and nothing else initially. I made a guess on how the story would end and I was right. 😉 Grey actually liked Ana and he seemed to care for her a little bit more from how the story evolves. I liked the fact that these two people were actually having ‘something’ more than just sex between them, something that lies somewhere in between love and sex.

When Ana confesses that she is in love with Grey, he denies her feeling and she was left devastated. It shows the extent of emotions in a man and a woman. For Grey, the excitement is over as soon as he empties himself within the girl. Whereas Ana fooled herself thinking that Grey would fall for her. A typical men and women’s story that reflects the real scenarios in the society. E.L James brought the reality into her characters and I think this worked very well and earned her all the 4 and 5 stars.

The story also shows how a woman could actually take charge of the relationship and how she plays a powerful submissive role to control her man. This message was beautifully captured by James’ characters, Ana and Grey where Ana flirtatiously seduced her man and he went craving for her more and more. Fifty Shades also portrayed how possessiveness and being a control freak would negatively affect the woman and her emotions. Being naive is no good and Ana who was very reserved learned about men the hard way.

Fifty Shades unrevealed is the title for the post because I don’t see all 50 shades of Grey here that suggests him being a complicated man or whatsoever. I don’t even think he has 10 different shades of himself.

What do you think of the book? Tell us your views 😉

I welcome you thoughts and views ! 😀 Thank you for your feedback