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Your reading list before the year ends
Here is a list of 10 books to add to your bookshelf before the year ends
Wondering about what books to read? Here’s some expert help at hand. Here are a few suggestions to help you add a few good books to your reading list.
1. Story of a land
Peace Has Come by Parismita Singh
Parismita Singh has stunned us with her graphic novels before and leaves us speechless with this collection of searing yet profoundly moving short stories based in upper Assam or the area also known as Bodoland, a borderland many of us know little about.
2. A tale of power
We That Are Young by Preti Taneja
An adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear set aptly amidst a power-hungry family living in a farmhouse in Gurugram, this is an ambitious undertaking for the writer as much as the reader at a whopping 496 pages. Taneja pulls it off with the kind of ease you can only find astonishing in a debut.
3. Of twists and layers
The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil
Thayil’s mesmerising second novel is the ‘Indian’ novel every avid reader must have to hold and read, over and over again. Because with every page, the layers unfurl and offer another jewel. An artist of gigantic talent and advanced years finds himself restless enough to return to his complicated beginnings, even as his story is told by a narrator who can only be Thayil himself.
4. The perfect narrative
First Hand 2: Graphic Narratives from India on Exclusion edited by Vidyun Sabhaney
The second volume in the First Hand series of graphic anthologies, these comic narratives bring to you accounts of unpardonable exclusion rife in our country. The stories are as powerful as is the form of each narrative compelling.
5. Power of history
Republic of Caste by Anand Teltumbde
If you have wondered about the history of the exclusion and disempowerment of Dalits, then this is the book you must read. Commanding and unrelenting, Teltumbde also shows a way forward out of the morass of inequalities we are steeped in.
6. Fable special
Strongmen: Trump-Modi-Erdogan-Duterte edited by Vijay Parshad
Four brilliant artists, Eve Ensler, Danish Husain, Burhan Sonmez and Ninotchka Rosca confront four ‘strong men’, Trump, Modi, Erdogan and Duterte in a small book of fables. Unputdownable!
7. T he young adult winner
When She Went Away by Andaleeb Wajid
This one’s for all the young adults out there who love to read. Maria, 16, wakes up one morning to find her mother missing. As Maria and her younger brother Saud’s life goes topsy turvy, the book takes you through a delightful and at times poignant coming of age story.
8. Of kids and emotions
Love and Rage: The Inner Worlds of Children by Nupur Paiva Dhingra
An experienced child psychotherapist draws on her consulting room narratives to take you through what children’s inner worlds look like. A must read not just for parents and those who work with children but for every adult who wants to address the emotional baggage of her childhood.
9. The tale of a game
Right Arm Over by Moti Nandy, translated by Arunava Sinha
Cricket lovers, ever wanted to read a delightful fiction based around your favourite sport? Well, here you are, in a lovely translation by the prolific Arunava Sinha, the great Moti Nandy’s heartwarming tale of two best friends who are also promising cricketers.
10. A life well lived
Indira by Devapriya Roy and Priya Kuriyan
If Indira Gandhi’s life intrigued and perplexed you and you wanted to understand it from another angle, this is the book for you. Brought to life via Kuriyan’s powerful images, the book tells the story of an awkward young child who found herself on a path that she could only conquer with authoritarianism.
Arpita Das is the founder of Yoda Press, an independent publishing house which has produced award-winning titles on sexuality, dissent, cities, and new perspectives on history
From HT Brunch, October 21, 2018
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