Bookish Fancies

 I had picked up Bewilderment with the expectations that anyone would naturally have for a Booker shortlisted book but I have to say this book fell short by a wide margin. I was having trouble figuring out what the point of this book was and 270ish pages later I was no wiser. I would like to say however that Richard Powers has talked about a number of issues ranging from  mental health, grief and global warming and has handled them in a really sensitive manner. Maybe I would be comfortable labelling this as a thematic book rather than a plot driven or character driven one. Richard Powers writes beautifully. The sentences kind of flows like thoughts of the main characters. Indeed Bewilderment is a powerful book. But the lack of character development kind of did not work for me. I was struggling to finish this book and considered DNFing at a point. I wished I did because the ending was rushed and did not do any justice to whatever little the plot had to offer.  All in all I...

I won't be attempting to write much about this book because this one is pure entertainment. Taylor Jenkins Reid has a way with weaving stories about the world of glamorous actors, musicians and models-- something that not many of us are familiar with. She is careful about showcasing not just the glittery facade but also the dirty laundry which is always kept away from public eyes. The book is centred around the the Riva siblings- Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit. Alternating chapters also provide a backstory about how their parents June and Mick met. Their marriage started out as a fairy tale but quickly disintegrated following Mick's rise to fame as a singer. The glamour and the constant attention quickly got to him and he soon left his young children with an alcoholic mother without a second thought. While June's forgiving nature and big heart definitely won my sympathy it did get irritating after a point. Nina's character was the one that stood out. Her transformation from a...

  TW: minor spoilers ahead I have been looking forward to read something by Amy Tan and so when I came across this tattered copy of The Hundred Secret Senses in a thriftstore, I bought it without any second thoughts. I am unsure about what exactly did not work out for me. Maybe I was expecting the story to take a different trajectory. This book's weakest point was the character development. I waited and waited to know more about Kwan as a character and how the relationship between the sisters evolved over the years but sadly that never happened. The book had a lot of potential. I have not read many books exploring the relationship between two half sisters (or not? No more spoilers here). But it remained largely unexplored and the few conversations that they had, were always centred around Kwan and her peculiar abilities to interact with dead people because she believed she had "yin" eyes. A number of chapters were dedicated to a certain Mrs. Banter, her friend who had die...

 The book opens with Oorja, who has returned to India seeking answers and desperate to understand the meaning of her life. Its not very difficult to imagine ourselves in her place-- we have all been through phases in our life where we have doubted the purpose of our very existence. We look back at our lives and suddenly all those regrets buried under years of oblivion rises to the surface. It is something we can't let go of-- we learn to trade our sanity from time to time to bask in the warmth of what could have been. Oorja's character held a lot of promise. The beginning of the book actually held my atrention and I was expecting something along the lines of an immigrant coming back to India and the wave of nostalgia forcing her to rethink the choices she made in life. The mystery surrounding her father's disappearance and her setting off to look for her father so she could make amends were written in exceptional detail giving attention to the storm blowing inside Oorja and...

 When I first read the blurb I knew I had to get myself this book. I have always had a thing for romances in the backdrop of a war since I read Atonement and this book ticked off all the boxes.  Roya meets Bahman in a little stationery shop in Tehran and fall in love Bollywood style. Their romance was not unlike those of high school children who exchange poetry, steal glances and exchange letters through books. Their courtship was proceeding smoothly and they got engaged in a few months. By this time my sadist mind was already cooking up situations which would seperate them and yes I am not disappointed. Bahman's mother disapproved of the match and had already fixed his marriage with someone else (yeah I know, Bollywood again). The marriage didn't fall through eventually and as the political situation in Iran worsened, Roya and her sister decided to emigrate to America in the hope of a better future. The book doesn't offer any surprises. I pretty much guessed the ending whe...

 Belonging is written from the perspective of three characters- letters of Cecily to her sister Mina, Cecily's son Henry and Henry's daughter Lilian (Lila). In spite of having three main characters Umi Sinha never underrepresents any of them. Their emotions, fears, apprehension were detailed meticulously and I found myself living the pre-Independent era through their eyes.  Much of the Partition literature that I read was written from the perspective of Indians. Belonging shows the other side of the story-- it talks about three generations of an ordinary British family living in India. Throughout the book each of the characters struggle to find a sense of belonging in their lives. In spite of being English by birth, India has always been their home and they never thought of their servants as anything less than family. When Lila falls in love with a native, they both knew that it was not to be. Her aunt's dislike of the natives coupled with the possibility of War looming in ...

 Wrapping up July with this short read about the musings of an ageing widow living in a Haveli all by herself. COVID has taught us that we crave human touch more than ever-- something that no amount of social media and virtual meetups can ever replace.  The novel portrays how powerful loneliness can be and how it cripples everyone eventually.  Amma Bi reminds me of my grandparents who would not let go of their homes even if it means being alone for the rest of their lives. With her son away in the US, Amma Bi only has the company of her servant and her memories. For her, giving up her Haveli is equivalent to give up her soul. Her loneliness has driven her to the point where she is willing to pay her servant extra just so he would spend the nights in the Haveli.  Pankaj Kapur portrays loneliness as something tangible; something that can drown you if you are not careful. The sounds of anklets on her roof which scared Amma Bi every night was nothing but her mind playing...

 Funny Boy essentially revolves around Arjie who was nicknamed "funny boy" because he showed tendencies which the society doesn't associate with the male sex. Growing up he found himself enjoying playing bride-bride with his sisters rather than a game of cricket. His parents tried out radical measures to drive out the "funniness" (if that's even a word) out of him but that only pushed him closer to discovering himself and his own identity. He eventually came to understand that what his parents considered to be "normal" may not be the only "normal". That there are things far more important than conforming to stereotypes and keeping up the facade. That there are people out there like him-- who would gladly be a part of his journey if only he mustered up the courage to  open up. No book based in Sri Lanka is complete without talking of the civil war and this was no exception. More than the actual war it mostly focussed on the effect it had o...

  I picked up Jasmine days because of the rave reviews by Indian Bookstagrammers some time back. This book is about the Revolution that broke out in Arabia and I have to admit I did not have much idea about it and had to do a fair bit of Googling to catch up with the events in the book. The narrator is Sameera, a radio jockey who is an immigrant in a Middle Eastern country. She wrote this book in the form of a letter to the editor of her book Javed. In the initial few chapters she talks about adjusting to a life in a foreign country in a house full of extended relatives she barely knows, away from her mother. Her relationship with her father was a bit strained initially but as they came to know each other better, they come to realise that they are more alike than they thought. Any Indian could relate to the internal politics prevalent in a joint family and Sameera being new to the household naturally became a victim. However being headstrong and ever outspoken she soon learned to m...

 I was randomly looking up books based in Afghanistan as I have always been interested in the political upheaval in this country when I chanced upon this much underrated book on Goodreads. I needed a short book at that time and the blurb and the stunning cover made me pick up the book immediately. The book is a series of letters written by Homeira Qaderi to her son, whom she has not met in years, in the hope that he will get to read them someday. Interspersed with the letters are flashbacks of her childhood in Taliban occupied Afghanistan.  Homeira recounts how being born a girl in Afghanistan was the worst fate you could bring upon yourself. You are denied education, freedom and even the right to go outside without a male person. In short you never have an identity. You are either someone's daughter or wife or mother. What's worse than being a girl was giving birth to a girl child. She tells us the story of her neighbour who was always pregnant and lived in shame having given...

 This is the story of Dinesh living in a refugee camp in a country torn by civil war. I did not have much idea about the Sri Lankan Civil War to be honest and this book focuses more on the life of refugees than the actual detailing of the war. After reading quite a number of war fiction, most of which focus on the horrors of war and its devastating after effects, this book proved to be quite unique because it chose to deal with the emotions and nuances rather than facts.  The book is quite slow paced and doesn't have a storyline as such. Mostly it follows Dinesh as he goes about living each moment like its going to be his last. You watch his story unfolding before you but that's it-- you are the spectator. You watch him as he loses his family. You watch him as he finds a ray of hope after he marries Ganga under unusual circumstances so that Ganga's father can live in peace having fulfilled his duties. Their conversations are the most mundane yet the most powerful. Its the o...

 This book is definitely one of my best reads of 2021. I have got no words to describe the intricate manner in which Anita Desai has portrayed the various layers of human relationships and how it becomes strained with years of pent up angst, guilt and resentment.  The book focuses on four siblings Bim, Raja, Bakul and ther autistic brother Baba growing up in colonial India. Their parents were too busy with socialising and attending parties to pay attention to their children who spent most of their time with their aunt Mira. As three of them grew up and began discovering themselves, they sought their own means of escape from the toxic atmosphere at home. With the possibility of Partition looming in the horizon, their future becomes more uncertain. Soon after Partition, Tara and Raja escape from their hometown in the hope of a better life while Bim decided to stay back with Baba. Bim started resenting her siblings for leaving her alone and never left an opportunity to mock Tara ...

 "Women Dreaming" was a book which I picked because of its gorgeous cover. The premise looked promising and I had a lot of expectations from this book. The book kicked off with a great start. The first 100 pages were flawless as the author described the plight of Muslim women in a small village which reeked of patriarchy and stereotypes. The struggles of three generations of women was written with heartbreaking compassion. Mehar's husband Hasan did not believe women were entitled to the same rights as men and even outlined the do's and don'ts for his the women in his family. When Mehar divorces him after she learns of his second marriage, it becomes the talk of the town with Hasan gradually losing his reputation among the villagers. The ongoing tussle between Mehar and Hasan, destroys the childhood of their children who ends up turning bitter and hated coming back home from hostel. Even with a promising storyline the story fell flat. It kept on dragging and the in...

 I found myself reading and enjoying books which I had never considered picking up before thanks to #thequiltbagreadathon and #readwithpride . Here are my favourite queer books which I read this month: 🌈 Detransition, Baby- The story of a queer family and their plans to raise a child. I held on to my hopes till the end but the ending was something really unexpected. I guess the author was trying to be honest- that's how things work. The queer community don't have it easy. Rating- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🌈 On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous- It took time to get into the book but the patience was worth it. I wrote my ramblings in a previous post. Do check it out! Rating- ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🌈 Girl, Woman, Other- A beautiful book about the lives of twelve British mostly coloured. Prize winning books usually don't work for me but I am so happy that this one did not disappoint. This is one book that everyone should read.  Rating- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🌈 Beartown- A beautiful, heartbreaking book. Though its not a typical quee...

 Our Moon has Blood Clots is a memoir written by journalist Rahul Pandita about the exodus of Kashmiri pandits who were forced to leave their homes in the Kashmir valley by Islamist militants in the 1990s.  The book is honest and is written with bone chilling detail about the genocide which was largely ignored by Indian media.  Kashmir has always been an area of unrest with uprisings being reported every other day; most of which remains underreported. Pandita has brought forth the humanitarian side of the mass killing of Pandits which led to numerous Kashmiris, including himself, losing their loved ones. Some of them remain forever scarred with the memory of their dear ones being ripped to pieces right in front of their eyes. The dispassion with which he writes about death makes this a truly harrowing read. And yet it is unputdownable -- I kept turning the pages in the hope of a ray of light in the gloom that is omnipresent throughout the book. But none of the exiled fami...

  This book is very unlike anything she had written before. It doesn't have a structured storyline-- it chronicles the life of a spinster living alone and her observations about her neighbours, acquaintances, friends and anyone who crosses paths with her. Her experiences aren't anything extraordinary either-- and that is what makes this book so special. You relate to her tedious life, her need to break the monotony and yet when her friend visits her, she finds herself wishing that her friend had visited alone without her family. We crave adventure and yet we detest changes. Everyday she meets familiar faces on the street and yet the experience is different. Someone is grumpy, another is facing a crisis in his life, someone fought with their wife. They know nothing about each other in spite of living down the street and yet when the cross paths, formalities are an obligation. You rarely come across a book which resonates with you on this level. Because the narrator can be you, m...

  "The lives of others" is a family saga depicting the fall of a prominent family in Calcutta over the generations. Multidimensional with a host of characters who live together, the book paints a surprisingly accurate picture of joint families residing in Calcutta. There are evil wives, the discriminated widow, the privileged son, the black sheep and the Naxalite-- everything needed to spice up a family drama. The family tree in the beginning can be of some help in understanding the relationship between the host of characters in the book.  When a book is about your city, you can't help loving it. But I felt the book could have been made shorter by leaving out some of the side plots like Priyo's perversion which went nowhere and had little relation to the story. I also didn't develop any attachment with any of the characters. Its like watching a drama unfold before your eyes which doesn't include you. The author didn't attempt to hide his skepticism about S...