‘A Burning’ by Megha Majumdar

★★★★★ Books that address various themes have almost always fallen flat for me. 'A Burning' is a rare exception, that dazzlingly weaves through religion, class, gender, politics with fluidity. ⁣⁣Jivan is a young Muslim woman, who witnesses a terrorist incident and is wrongfully arrested for the same. The only ones who can save her by…

‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ by John Boyne

★★ This book kept popping up on my radar, and I had always wanted to read it. I've read a couple of survivor testimonies from the Holocaust however, this was my first fiction novel based on the event. First, a little bit about this book - Bruno, the 9 year old son of a Commandant…

‘Mistborn: The Final Empire’ by Brandon Sanderson

★★★★ I read a fantasy book after so long and it was incredible. The joy and excitement of discovering a new world, the laws that govern it, the characters and groups that inhabit it - I didn't realise how much I had missed it until I read 'The Final Empire' - the first book in…

‘Clap when you land’ by Elizabeth Acevedo

★★★ First, your Papi dies in a plane crash. Then, you discover he had a whole other life in another country, a family, a part of him you know nothing about. You are not your Papi's only daughter, you have a sister. A sister who's a stranger. " I'm the child her father left her…

‘The Mars Room’ by Rachel Kushner

★★★★★ I have so much to say about this Man Booker Prize shortlisted book. To be honest, I attempted to read it a number of times, never managing to get past a few chapters and having to start all over again. I don't really know why I kept at it - I have not completed…

‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker

This was a book I'd been very excited to read. Winner of the 'Pulitzer Prize', the book is heralded for its no-holds barred depiction of African American women in the early 1900s. Honestly, it wasn't an easy read. The violence and humiliation is jarring and affected me emotionally. The lived reality of an African American…

‘Us Against You’ by Fredrik Backman

★★★★★ 'Us Against You' is the heady, gut wrenching sequel to 'Beartown'. The town and its people get into your head and force you to journey along with them in their ups and downs and my god - what a journey it is. Rarely have I identified so much with a setting and characters as…

NPR Podcast – Selected Shorts

★★★★★ I feel an itch in my brain whenever I haven't been reading. With work demanding all my attention, I simply haven't been able to read anything new for a week now and was starting to feel the itch. So thank God that I chanced upon NPR's Selected Shorts podcast. I love it, I truly…

Beginnings in online reading

The last couple of days, I have been thinking about my early online reading experiences, which had a significant impact on me and motivated me to start blogging. Here goes - My very first online reading experiment was Harry Potter fan fiction. As a 12 year old, I remember so many many lazy days, equipped…

‘Other People’s Children’ by Joanna Trollope

★★★★ This book, part of a Reader's Digest Select Editions, had been patiently waiting for me to discover it. I had skipped through this book earlier - Probably the blurb about divorced couples and stepfamilies hadn't appealed to me ten years back as a teenager. I'm so glad that this period of lockdown has afforded…