reading habit
Book Editor’s note
It is a bleak, lonely time, and all of us are finding ways to both engage with and escape everything happening around us. I hope today’s offerings will offer some measure of respite. I know they did for me. As always, I’m here to talk about any and all books if you need someone to chat with. Stay indoors, stay safe, mask up!
Fiction
Whereabouts: by Jhumpa Lahiri. A new Jhumpa Lahiri is always an enormously exciting publishing event. It’s her first novel in nearly a decade, which she originally wrote in Italian and then translated into English. We follow her protagonist, a woman living her life somewhere between rest and movement, as she navigates her relationship with her mother after her father’s untimely death, her place in the city she has known forever, her friendships and romances. All this over the arc of a year, at the end of which waits change and transformation. This is going to be special.
The Windsor Knot: by SJ Bennett. I’ve mentioned before that I love it when real people are made fictional and sent off to solve crimes and such. In this delightful mystery, Queen Elizabeth II is donning the figurative deerstalker with some help from her assistant private secretary, Rozie Oshodi, a British Nigerian and recent officer in the Royal Horse Artillery, to figure out who killed the young Russian pianist soon before her 90th birthday celebrations. This is one form of monarchy I can get behind.
The Lost Apothecary: by Sarah Penner. The premise of this one was so instantly thrilling (and strangely empowering). In this time-jumping tale, Nella is a gifted healer in 1791, using her talents in a different way: by selling well-disguised poisons to women desperate to get out of the clutches of the men in their lives. In the present day, Caroline is still shocked by her husband’s infidelity when she chances upon a strange, old vial that leads her to the unsolved “apothecary murders” from over two centuries ago. As their lives collide, so do their fates, in a twisted, shocking way.
Budhini: by Sarah Joseph, tr. by Sangeetha Sreenivasan. This reimagined history tells the real story of 15-year-old Budhini, who is chosen to welcome Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Dhanbad in 1959 with a garland and a ‘tika’ on his forehead. When these ceremonial gestures were interpreted by her own people as marriage, she was ostracized and outlawed for “marrying outside her community”. Joseph tells her tale with care, bringing out a robust, endearing woman whose story is essential to tell.
First Person Singular: by Haruki Murakami, tr. by Philip Gabriel. A new collection of stories by the Japanese master, narrated by the classic Murakami protagonist, a lonely man, deals with themes of nostalgia, love, loss, childhood, death, tied together with Murakami’s signature twists. Don’t think I need to sell this any further.
Non-fiction
Bene Appétit: by Esther David. I need this book to just take my money already. Focusing on the small, unique Jewish communities living in different parts of India, David finds the common thread that binds them: their cuisine and lifestyle. Filled with heart-warming anecdotes, new discoveries, and yummy recipes, this is a respectful, rounded portrait of a little-known community.
Makers of Modern Dalit History: by Sudarshan Ramabadran and Guru Prakash Paswan. An impactful volume bound to make a difference, it features several inspiring individuals from the Dalit community across time who have battled divisive forces to make a mark and change the course of Indian history. Telling the stories of B.R. Ambedkar, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Gurram Jashuva, K.R. Narayanan, Soyarabai and Rani Jhalkaribai, among many others, it serves to change our perception and add significantly to the Dalit discourse.
Rumours of Spring: by Farah Bashir. A haunting, deeply moving account of the author growing up in Srinagar in the 1990s, amidst ongoing clashes between Indian troops and militants. As fear and violence became the new normal, Bashir, then a schoolgirl, found ordinary activities, like studying for exams and falling asleep, riddled with anxiety. But to balance that out came vitality and resilience in her growing spirit, as she secretly danced to banned pop songs, wrote her first love letter and more. It’s an affecting memoir of how conflicts shape everyday lives.
1971: by Boria Majumdar and Gautam Bhattacharya. It was the year that changed Indian cricket forever. It was the year when the scrappy young Indian team defeated not only the giant West Indies in a test series on their own turf, but also came out victorious over England, in England. Suddenly, Pataudi and Wadekar, Sardesai and Viswanath were household names around the globe, an upcoming player by the name of Sunil Gavaskar was beginning to take small yet significant steps, and fifty years on, their legacy remains intact in the shape of the greatest cricket team in the world.
Goodbye, Again: by Jonny Sun. Jonny Sun is our perennial, favourite Twitter next-door-neighbour and best friend and confidant and sometime-therapist. In this collection of touching and hilarious personal essays, stories, poems—accompanied by his trademark illustrations made famous by ‘Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too’—he talks about mental health, happiness, and what it means to belong, ultimately giving each of us hope, understanding, and a chance to connect, reminding us that we are not alone in any of this.
Quick fixes, aka a few varied recommendations:
What I’m reading: I’m currently reading ‘Truly, Devious’ by Maureen Johnson and I just want to be a teenager again so that I can solve a boarding school murder while attending said school. I mean, I don’t think that’s too much to ask for. Stevie Bell is a true crime aficionado who is starting at Ellingham Academy, a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists, where decades ago the school’s founder’s wife and daughter were kidnapped, never to be found, presumed murdered. It’s a great, unsolved mystery perfect for Stevie, perfect for me, perfect for anyone looking for good writing, engaging characters, and a really good, rare combination of setup and twist.
A childhood fave: Eoin Colfer is most famous for his incredible Artemis Fowl series, but I stumbled upon this little gem of a standalone novel by him at my school library and it was SO MUCH FUN. Called ‘The Wish List’, it stars the deliciously troubled Meg Finn who has a lot to deal with on Earth anyway, and to make matters worse, after an accidental explosion, her spirit is flung into limbo, where she’s stuck while a race begins between the demonic and the divine to win her soul. You’d think from the premise that only hijinks ensue, but at the end of the day it’s a story of second chances and unexpected joys and it gave young me so much hope for my life. Every teenager should read this, really.
Book-adjacent rec of the week: Felicia Davin is a linguist who loves romance novels and runs Word Suitcase, a newsletter dedicated to the words she finds in her reading, and does deep dives into their origin and usage over the years. It is fascinating as it is entertaining, and you can trust Felicia to do her research. It has added to my vocabulary considerably since I subscribed.
Underrated author of the week: Matthew Reilly might be well-known in Australia, but it’s a shame I don’t find more people talking about him here. His books are pure adrenaline, like Lee Child meeting Dan Brown on crack, and they exist to entertain the living hell out of you. I’d recommend you start with the Jack West Jr. series, whose latest instalment, ‘The Two Lost Mountains’, came out recently.
Bookish adaptation to watch out for: I’ve been watching episodes of The Terror on Prime Video for the past three days now, and I’ve had nightmares every single night. I didn’t think it would be this scary! Season 1 is based on the novel of the same name by Dan Simmons, and is a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition, on HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, where Franklin and his crew are stalked across the bleak Arctic landscape by something that is neither man nor animal. It is gripping but frightening. TW: gore, violence and horror.
Note: Reading Habit is curated by our books editor Anushree Kaushal. Want to send along recommendations, feedback or just say hi? Email her at kaushalanushree@gmail.com.
