Week 5 Round Up of Books Read in 2019

Week 5: Jan 28 - Feb 3, 2019

Books Read : 2

1. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris - It's a very heart-rending tale of a young Jew who lands up in the Nazi's concentration camp at Auschwitz and goes on to spend about 3 years of his life there, working as a tattooist and seeing death from very close quarters. It traces the journey of a man from being a tattooist and marking fellow prisoners, to becoming a survivor and a saviour. It is a story of courage and bravery amidst the most barbaric and  inhumane conditions that humans may face and also about true love, a kind of love (between 2 inmates) that happens in the most unimaginable of the places (where death was always imminent and survival was always the priority for the inmates) but blossoms in the aftermath of the worst holocaust ever witnessed in human history. The book is a true testament to human's hope, will, and courage to survive come whatever may. It's also about living the paradox - displaying acts of kindness and help towards fellow humans even when our own life's at stake and living next moment is never a guarantee. The one big message from the book is that "there's always a glimmer of hope even in the most unpredictable and the darkest of situations and all we need to do is to self-affirm and live by the moment, positively and intently". 
2. Arriving At Your Own Door by Jon Kabat-Zinn - A wonderful and quite an unorthodox book on mindfulness which provides ample of fodder for the readers to reflect. The book contains 108 short lessons laced with great amount of wisdom succintly expressed through relevant concepts, some of which are quite offbeat. Stressing that mindfulness is about awareness and awakening, the book works as a companion to the reader, guiding him/ her to a journey of self-discovery, self healing and fulfillment. The topics/ headings of all the 108 lessons are very relatable and provides the understanding in a very crisp manner. There's a depth in the simplicity of each of the 108 lessons presented in the book.