Review: Maktub

Maktub by Paulo Coelho
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A collection of mildly insightful to deeply insightful thoughts from his column

Maktub or loosely translated to "has been written" like fate / destiny / edict is a collection of various pieces Paulo has been writing in his columns and translated into a compilation. This is a breeze as most pieces are half a page whilst a couple linger over to another page or two. He could had converted this into a series of insta reels / posts and the book could have been the account (maybe there is one).

The collection includes his personal experiences and things he has read from other scriptures and cultures and hence I do find a few I have read before - the bamboo and the fern amplifying we all grow at our own pace and shouldn't compare with others. Similarly the caterpillar not understanding the bigger picture of its journey till he breaks out of the cocoon of its own making.

Key messages from all the stories I caught were
1) Live in the present / moment.
2) Believing in oneself and destiny to an extent to find your bigger purpose.
3) Love in terms of self love and meaningful relationships.
4) Wisdom of simplicity


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Review: Malibu Rising

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Hooter: The high life of the rich and famous in Malibu - a soap opera

I had shortlisted this book because it won the historical fiction award in GoodReads. It was a historical fiction but wasn't my cup of tea as it was a tedious round robin of relationships and break ups and the Page 3 shenanigans.

A family of 4 siblings using surfing instead of getting therapy to process the maddening world around them with broken relationships. The format Taylor applies is a good one switching between times and the key characters building up on their background stories as we progress but a build up to nothing that was of interest to me. Might as well have watched a soap opera or Dubai Bling. Maybe Malibu Bling has a premise to work on dished out through this book.

A lot of fiction set in a time gone by is the technical definition by which this book can be called a historical fiction. Otherwise Malibu's got latent is all I can say.

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