The year is coming to an end, Twitter is littered with people’s Spotify wrapped. We have travelled around the sun in another year and turned wiser for it, we have tasted success and learnt from our mistakes ( I know I did). This year two things were on my agenda- completing my debut novel and reading more. I am happy to share that I have almost completed the dreaded first draft of my novel and read over 30 novels ( 35 to be precise and a good reminder of who I am going to be next birthday), thanks to the ease of discovering books on Kindle.
They were mostly fiction based, but I also read a few non-fiction books , they were largely based on geopolitics, public policy, counter terrorism and espionage. But I don’t get this debate about Fiction or Non-Fiction, read both to get a fuller outlook I say.
But because I am writing a blog post and not a novella, I have decided to do separate lists for Fiction and Non-Fiction.
The 5 shelfworthy works of fiction in no particular order
Because we don’t judge books here, we jam with them!
So, without further prologue, let’s dive right in….
Devi by Nag Mani ( Horror/Mystery)- I discovered Nag Mani at the very beginning of my career break, I was on a horror fiction reading spree. I read works by celebrated horror writers, but my thirst for horror fiction was only quenched after reading Nag Mani. He is an elusive personality, I tried looking for him on various social media sites, but he isn’t active anywhere. But his works create the ethereal environment that’s sure to give you goosebumps. Specifically Devi, a venerated deity who is as kind as she is bloodthirsty. The story is set in a remote village at the Nepal border in Bihar and the socio-cultural milieu is layered beautifully on the horror backdrop. The protagonist Aditi is coaxed by her insipid husband to come live with him in the remote village ( a punishment transfer) even when he was warned against it by his colleagues. Initially welcomed warmly, her liberal attitude is soon met with growing suspicion and strife. Will the Deity save her, or bay for her blood? After all, our Goddesses and Gods are a projection of us only, no?
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag( Political Satire/Psychological Fiction)- A tongue in cheek work unraveling the cracks & patterns in India’s joint family setup which is also micro to India’s macro. It follows the poverty to unimaginable riches of a joint family that could may be a parallel with India’s shift from socialist, economically conservative policies to Liberalization & Globalization in the early 90s. The book was recommended to us by one of our Public Policy professors. there’s a certain bit of whodunnit also at play. If the name flusters you, that’s the whole point of the book, an allegory on how we find order in chaos.
J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding world ( Fantasy Fiction): revisiting Harry Potter after 18 years, because I wanted to be inspired again by the world created by JK Rowling, mainly for my book . It won’t be wrong to say that JK Rowling helped me navigate my own world with the courage of Gryffindor, the intellect of Ravenclaw, the heart of Hupplepuff and the alacrity of Slytherin. So drawn I was to her world that I was often seen speaking in parseltongue ( or what I imagined it to be) at home, but the books were a great part of my childhood and I went back to them a little worried that the magic must have worn off, but nope! I still believe in the power of love and goodness.
Virginia in and as Mrs. Dalloway(Psychological Fiction): I love Virginia with a vengeance, more so, because few writers in her time wrote so freely about the maladies of mind. Mrs Dalloway reads more like a diary written like an autobiography, it’s what she wants you to know, her alternating moods depending on where she is. Her friend’s battle with PTSD and his death by suicide which she doesn’t repent but chooses to understand. Mrs. Dalloway is more than a peak into the lives of high society of the 1900s.
Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Fantasy/Science Fiction): I discovered this gem at the beginning of 2023, intrigued by its premise, a quaint coffee shop that acts as a time machine, and can send you back to a specific point in time ( inside the coffee shop) with the caveat that you have to return before the coffee gets cold. Interesting, right? I was hooked and the characters, a balanced mix of the staff and visitors, drew me in further with their lives; someone is trying to prevent a breakup, someone needs to see a family member one last time, another tries to find a letter from their terminally ill husband. Who doesn’t want to relive their past, with the choice of redoing it in a carefully controlled environment?
Have you read any of these? If not, I hope you get a chance to get your hands or eyes on them and enjoy them as much as I did.
I will be back with the non-fiction list next week.
Till then, happy reading!!
Fingers in symphony 