Bookish Fancies

 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...