Author Payal Roy sent me an e-copy of the book 12 Precious Anecdotes from Life.
Description from Goodreads:
12 short stories that initiate the ball of fate rolling on the court of life. Meet Samantha, John, Amy, uncle Ben and an octogenarian amongst a dozen other faces who share their anecdotes through this book.
What do they have in common? Successful and interesting people from a diverse background, their paths cross with Anita Maher. This sets off a cascade of events that compels everyone to look back at their own lives. How is Anita affected? Other people too seem to bump into Anita all of a sudden . Does life want to convey a message to all?
12 heartfelt anecdotes from their lives kept a secret all this while, only to be revealed to Anita, when time seems limited and many ventures still left unexplored. Does life give a second chance? Find out in this book which shares their exploits and adventures through their intriguing and engaging vignettes on life.
I honestly feel like I should write two reviews for this book, one a critical analysis of the book itself and the second a personal examination of my own response to it. The two are quite different. Just as the title suggests, it is a collection of short stories, each containing an important lesson to help the reader lead a more fulfilled and meaningful life. Who can argue with the idea that it is important to value your friends and family above money or to stop and appreciate small moments of bliss? I have no qualms with what the book set out to do and, honestly, even accomplishes. I didn’t even have any real qualms with the writing, though it was painfully straightforward and repetitive at times. What it was that made my skin crawl was simply that I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate being preached at and that is exactly what each one of these stories felt like to me. Something like having my mother trying to tell me, a 35-year-old woman, how best to live my life. While acknowledging the message, I’m inclined to reject the messenger based on the emotional aversion it engenders, and it’s hard to rationalize myself past that.
This makes reviewing the book a little difficult. Should I treat it as a simple representation of my own personal opinion of the book or as a more impartial indication of the book’s worth to readers as a whole? Because, certainly, if you are the type of reader who enjoys sitting in Sunday School pondering the moral lessons implicit in the Book of Paul (or any other religious text) you would really like this book. I am not that person. I didn’t enjoy it, but I’m not ready to say it isn’t a good book.
I know it sounds like I am straddling the fence on this one, but I am rather trying to impart two messages in one review. I didn’t like it, but please don’t take that as a general denunciation of the book. It and I were simply a poor match.