Book Review: Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives by Sudha Murty.

Book: Three Thousand Stitches

Author: Sudha Murty

Pages: 256

Publisher: Penguin

Read On: Paperback

How Long it Took Me To Read: 2-3 days

Plot Summary: So often, it's the simplest acts of courage that touch the lives of others. Sudha Murty-through the exceptional work of the Infosys Foundation as well as through her own youth, family life and travels-encounters many such stories... And she tells them here in her characteristically clear-eyed, warm-hearted way. She talks candidly about the meaningful impact of her work in the devadasi community, her trials and tribulations as the only female student in her engineering college and the unexpected and inspiring consequences of her father's kindness. From the quiet joy of discovering the reach of Indian cinema and the origins of Indian vegetables to the shallowness of judging others based on appearances, these are everyday struggles and victories, large and small. Unmasking both the beauty and ugliness of human nature, each of the real-life stories in this collection is reflective of a life lived with grace.





 General Thoughts: I always enjoy Sudha Murty's books. I find them soothing and simple and often moving.  At this point I've read pretty much everything by her, both fiction and non-fiction titles. So when this book came out I could not wait to give it a read.

Things I Liked: 

1. Like always I enjoyed the simple and straight forward writing style. This book was an engaging and easy read.

2. I love reading about real people doing brilliant and extraordinary things and helping others or simply themselves. It is inspiring and moving and a great life lesson to learn.

3. I think a book like this works for every kind of reader. Ones that are avid readers and devour books at a regular pace as well as those that don't read regularly. It's style is simple and easy and it is a kind of book that you can dip in and out of with ease.

4. The setting of each of these 'stories' are quite diverse, from rural India to even Europe and big Indian cities. I liked that these stories moved from one place and didn't just focus on one area in the world, and therefore were a bit more relatable.

5. There are life lessons big and small in each of these stories and these stories all leave you with something to think about. An aspect of the book I really appreciated.

6. A lot of Sudha Murty's real-life stories focus on helping people in need and giving back to society through her own personal example and those of others she has encountered in her life. I think giving back and helping those in need is a very important value that most of us need to imbibe in our life.

Things I Didn't Like:

1. This is perhaps the fourth or fifth book of Sudha Murty in a similar vein that I have read.

Wise and Otherwise.
The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk and Other Stories.
The Old Man and His God.

And I LOVED all of these books so much.
So while I was getting into this book my hopes were pretty high, and I expected to fall in love with these bunch of stories as well.

And I did like them.
But I didn't LOVE them.

I felt that the earlier collections of real life tales were so much better.
This collection for some reason just didn't move me enough.
It was the weakest of all of her real life stories.

2. I found myself feeling very disconnected with this book in parts.

3. The first story which is incidentally the title story was a little too long and frankly I found myself bored by the time I got to the middle of the story. It didn't hold my attention or interest at all.

4. There was something oddly familiar about these stories like I had read them before or I knew the stories already. They didn't feel new.

Rating: 3/5