This week, lets have a read of some great books that have turned into movies. 

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

“Your emotions are the slave to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.” 

After going through a midlife crisis when she turned thirty, Elizabeth Gilbert took a profound decision. Despite having the “perfect” lifestyle – a husband, a house, a career, she wasn’t feeling content.  After going through a lot of traumatic events in a short amount of time, all she felt instead was fear, chaos, and despair.

To save herself from all of her problems, she found ways to help herself. She escaped reality to truly find herself. After getting rid of her belongings, quitting her job, and taking a journey around the world, she might have finally found her true self.  She planned to visit three places to “examine one aspect of her own nature set against a backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one very well.” In Rome, she studied art by learning to speak Italian and enjoying the food. In India, the art of devotion and embarking on a spiritual journey. In Bali, the art of balance between the world and inner-peace. 

This novel tells everyone that not everything goes as planned. It tells you what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own happiness and not follow what the society believes in. 

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

“You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to life it as fully as possible.” 

An ordinary woman living an ordinary life, Louisa Clark has never left her small village. Left with no choice, she takes a job for the ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor. Will Traynor has been wheelchair-bound after an accident, but before that, he was living the best life. Now he’s worried that he will never be able to go back to that. 

Will is bossy, temperamental, and harsh but Louisa is determined to help him. What she doesn’t realize is that his happiness is eventually going to mean a lot to her. After finding out about Will’s secretive plans, she is determined to show him why life is still worth living. 

A unique love story brings two people who have nothing in common. But what do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart? 

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 

“For you, a thousand times over.”

Amir is a Pashtun. Hassan, his friend, and servant is a Hazara. As political and ethnic tensions increase in Afghanistan, Amir breaks the strong bond the two had because of his own reasons. What’s surprising is the fact that Amir finds his way back in Afghanistan to right his past wrongs to redeem himself. 

The tragic and remarkable story of the friendship between a Pashtun and a Hazara, The Kite Runner is a novel based in a country which is being broken. It discusses the “power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons – their love, their sacrifices, and their lies.” The Kite Runner is a one-of-a-kind novel about love, family, and friendship.