Category: Thinking Turf

Catch 22 is an American post-war novel written by Joseph Heller. It is one of the interesting pieces of American literature juggling dark humor, war issues, bleakness, satire, silliness, wordplay and serious theme. Initially the book looks like a noose of loose strands but as the plot progresses, we find that very deftly, Heller has been able to surface the absurdity of war and the human condition itself. It is a world of madness, where each character fits in perfectly well with his personal streak of eccentricity.

The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim is written by Nicholas Kulish and Souad Mekhennet. It is a semi biographical sketch of SS officer Aribert Heim, a medical doctor by profession and an able ice hockey player. He was serving at Mauthausen during 1941. People who survived the concentration camp reported that he used to take pleasure in operating healthy people without giving them anesthesia. Plus, he decorated his table with skulls of victims and offered the same as gifts to his…

A Place Called Freedom is Ken Follett’s one of the most absorbing historical novel set around 1770 A.D. Protagonist Malachi (Mack) McAsh right at an early age stands against the tyrannical practice of employing children as miners in Scotland. His desire for freedom above everything else in life sets the underneath motif in the novel. It is the same willingness to be free that makes him a fugitive in the eyes of his master, Sir George Jamisson. After escaping from High Glen, Jamisson’s property, he moves to London. There again he…

Arnold Schwarzenegger is an epitome of success and Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story has beautifully put forth his journey from Mr. Olympia to Terminator and finally to Governorship. One of the most striking features of his personality that surfaced from the book is that, he knew what he wanted to do in life right from his young age. At the time when most of the people were struggling for living in war torn Austria, he was visualizing himself as a success story and was busy working persistently towards…

Xodus is KJ McPike’s debut novel that falls into YA Sci-Fi Fantasy genre. The book is an engaging piece that revolves around a sixteen-year-old protagonist, Xitlali, who happens to discover her ability of astral projecting. Xitlali is already upset with her mother’s sudden disappearance and the discovery of outside body experience further adds fuel to her emotional disturbance. Even though she tries to convince her dad of her ‘special ability’, she becomes exasperated when he dismisses it to nothing but a state of restless mind. Xitlali is still struggling to…

A personal diary it is and anybody reading it will be moved by the fears and day to day problems faced by the Franks. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is one of the most simple and meaningful book for people who want to learn the times and tides of WWII.

The Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation by Glenn H. Mullin takes us back into the Tibetan history soaked up with their culture and times during the wars within and pressure from the outside of the country. It is not a fast read, after all, we are peeping at the history of Tibet, which of course would take time and imagination to witness the era. The work can be considered as a collarge depicting the lives and times of Dalai Lamas.

The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho resounds the theme of The Alchemist (from the same author), which is, universe conspiring in achieving ones destiny although the presentation is different in the book under consideration. In here, the author takes inspiration from the biblical Books of Kings.