Happy Thanksgiving my minions.. LOL kidding

Happy Thanksgiving! thank you for keeping me in your prayers. You are in mine too :)

Jepp, who defied the stars - Katherine Marsh

After the emotional turmoil of Stieg Larsson trilogy, i wanted to cleanse my mind with something down to earth/ humble and my sister suggested me this creation. Truth be told, the name attracted me (who can resist the stars after all).

A 15 year old dwarf, Jepp, an apple of his mother's eye, is taken to the court of Spanish Infanta with implanted dreams of a better life. He soon discovers his job as a jester; dressed in yellow pie, where humiliation and cruelty engulf his life. The only thing giving him hope is his lady love Lia. But disaster strikes and he ends up losing his love and being imprisoned. Strange sequence of events takes him to Uraniborg (castle of heaven) under the scorching eyes of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.  He struggles at first but later meets Magdalene who inspires him. Then the search of his true identity begins and the story ends warming your heart and Jepp defying his stars.

Image credit: Google

A beautifully portrayed humble, heart warming, romantic tale woven with the true story of 17th century astronomer Tycho Brahe; that urges you to dream big and defy the self created boundary of your own stars.

Reasons I loved the story

• Jepp, a dwarf, is such an unsophisticated character with flaws that cannot be hidden. We can relate because everyone of us is imperfect, with flaws we so badly try to hide. He urges us to embrace that flaw of ours, but not let it define us.                        
• Everyone is child at heart! Like Jepp. All we crave for is a little smile, words of affection and love. A bit of each is enough for us to be grateful, to be full of gratitude. Despite unintentional but unspeakable cruelty towards him by his prisoner Matheus, Jepp shows his gratitude throughout the journey to Uraniborg, when Matheus shows  simple gesture like providing him hot broth and blankets. The gratitude paid off in the end though the emotions showed earlier were not drenched with expectations. It teaches us the importance of gratitude.                                                                
• Jepp is portrayed as a victim of his own stars! Without any fault he suffers and the blame goes to the stars. A common human mistake of surrendering to the stars. But Jepp rises above it, holds his dream tight and doesn't let his stars or lines define him. With a bit of encouragement by his love and his own determination, he denies being the victim of the moment.

This story is so true and every bit human. It lets you define your flaws but don't let you be defined by it. It impels you to recognise your demons but not to be shadowed by it. Most of all it encourages you to dream and to work on it; not to be chained to the general perception of who you are but let your good deeds define you.

Happy heart warming reading!!!

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest - Stieg Larsson

Five stars of mine is reserved for few authors, to whom I am openly biased; but I would be more than happy to give this book a blazing Five.

It's enthralling, amazing, stunning, exceptional......

I started this book in a great hurry and anticipation, to devour the revealing secrets that was left unanswered in book II. And from the start till the very end, I was glued.

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Cheating death after surviving a bullet in the head, Lisbeth Salander, charged for attempted murder struggles to prove her innocence. Stuck in the hospital room for months, Salander uses her extravagant yet secret computer hacking skills and accepts ever faithful Mikael Blomkvist help to dig in the unethically buried mysteries of the section within the Sapo. Mikael Blomkvist, a celebrated millennium journalist closely encounters death but still helps Salander by using her information's and his intuition to defy all glowering power play of the section to bring her to justice. Advocate Giannini, Blomkvist's sister and a well know face as a defence lawyer for violence against women, helps in the trail representing Salander and the story ends with a high note.

Advocate Giannini is fantastic in the court. Usually the story of lawyers bore me but I was hooked and was applauding after every word she spoke to defend. She was brilliant (who knew a courtroom drama could be so engrossing!). And though i will always wonder why Salander made that dragon tattoo, this book provides a peaceful closure to the trilogy.

The girl who kicked the hornets' nest is a mesmerizing fiction which makes the first two read tolerable. 

You have to read it to believe it.

Happy reading!

PS: Suddenly the sandwich toppings, Billy's pan pizza and the fountain of coffee don't irate me anymore ;)