🍂”Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit’me, but remember its a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
– Harper Lee, To kill a mocking bird
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🌼If you have been a reader for some time, you would have definitely come across a mention of this classic, and most of you would have already read it.
But if you have not yet come around to reading this coveted novel, here are all the reasons why you should!
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🌻 A classic set in 1930s Alabama is told by the point of view of a little girl, Jean, fondly known as Scout, who is witnessing her father, who is a lawyer, struggle to stand for a black man accused of raping a young white woman, in a town surrounded by people of racial prejudice.
As the events unfold leading up to the trial, will Atticus Flinch, the father, uphold his morale even when everyone is against him?
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🌺 Easily one of the easiest to understand classics, the story flows lyrically, the words almost poetic, the intricacy of the characters so memorable, the words don’t leave you long after you are finished reading them. Compassionate, striking and deeply impactful, the book talks of important themes of racism and inequality, by means basic subtleties of life, of human behavior, its innocence, its kindness, its cruelty, its love, its hatred all at the same time.
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🍁 A masterpiece that takes a story of two kids growing up in a world where all things are not fair, and the conflicts of a father trying to be an example for his kids and do the right thing, the characterization makes for a great story that constantly keeps you hooked and brings out the messages in a poignant manner.
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: classic, fiction, historical-fiction
Category: top-picks
“Small Days and Nights” by Tishani Doshi
“We raise our heads to the sky as if the sea was a window and we were climbing out of it.”
– Tisha Doshani, Small Days and Nights.
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Having had a normal childhood, born to parents of Italian and Indian descent, Grace finds herself in a small coastal village of Paramankeni, running away from her failed marriage and having found her sister, Lucia who was born with Down’s syndrome and was kept a secret from her all these years.
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Escaping the restless and highly active social life in States, grace decides to move into her mother’s house, with Lucy, the village housekeeper Mallika and little dogs to surround the house.
A story that looks so simple on the surface, turns complicated as one unveils the layers of a life of a single woman living alone without any men in a village in India, by the sea.
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Grace’s days are filled with taking care of her sister, feeding the dogs, taking them to the beach and in the process trying to find her lost self, and make meaning of a life she has spent in Madras, Italy, the States, Kodaikanal and now Pondicherry.
But the nights are full of fear and anxiety, for the endless glares and attention a house being lived by a single woman attracts, of someone breaking in, of someone marring the beauty of the life they are trying to build here.
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The prose is absolutely lyrical full of metaphors and analogies, that warms the heart and can be cherished long after one is done reading.
The beautiful description of the sea and the sand, and the nights and the days, and you can almost feel yourself walking on the beach or strolling on the streets of Italy suckling on a gelato.
The writing reminded me of Subhangi Swarup’s portrayal of all the alluring landscapes.
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An absolutely marvellous account of a story of survival, or finding one’s lost self, making peace with the misgivings of a family, of mistrust and finding trust, unveiling secrets and accepting them.
But above all, it is a tale of the one’s self-discovery amongst all the chaos, loneliness, heartbreaks and confusion.
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A sad yet thought-provoking novel full of life and the various emotions of ecstasy it has to offer.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: contemporary, fiction, indian-literature
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5
“A Man called Ove” by Fredrick Backman
“People said Ove saw the world in black and white, But she was as color. All the color he had.”
– Fredrick Backman, A man called Ove
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Ove is a grumpy man on the exterior but if one peel through the outer layer, they will find a loveable man, one who is staunch on his principles and has come to become bitter in life due to the loneliness and sadness that surrounds him.
What happens when a chatty couple moves next door and tries to strike a friendship with our cranky old man.
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The story is packed with all the emotions, sadness, heartbreak, laughter, the joy of an unexpected friendship and the innate bond of selflessness.
It highlights the sorrows of losing a loved one, the constant melancholy that reminds one of the loss, and the isolation that eats you up.
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Adjourned with beautiful metaphors, the humour, and witty narrative makes an impression on you, even while discussing sombre or depressing topics.
What really stands out is the relationship between Sonja and Ove, their marriage, their relationship, their heart-rending love even when the two people were at the opposite end of the spectrum.
“Ove had never been asked how he lived before he met her. But if anyone had asked him, he would have answered that he didn’t.”
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A highly recommended warm and fuzzy read, one that is sure to make you laugh and cry at the same time.
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: fiction, contemporary, humour, swedish, adult-fiction
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5
“Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom
“Death ends a life, not a relationship”
– Mitch Albom, Tuesday’s with Morrie.
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Mitch Albom’s college professor from twenty years ago, Morrie Schwartz, is diagnosed with ALS – a neurological disease that is bound to cause his neurons to deteriorate over time and cause his muscles and in turn his mobility to die slowly.
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It is then the disconnected student, gets a chance to reconnect with his old teacher in his last days and ask him bigger questions, about life and death.
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His teacher, Morrie, in turn, does not disappoint him. He answers every question with so much clarity, bringing in insights about the larger meaning of life and even when his health worsened, he was in the same spirits, helping and counseling others with love and care.
Goes on to show how great a person Morrie was and even in death his memoir goes on to inspire hundreds.
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Told as a first-person account of the author’s experience of his interviews with his teacher, the books goes on smoothly and fluidity, yet aims to bring an impact on the reader.
Highly recommend this short read.
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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: memoir, nonfiction, biography
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐/5
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
“I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way…I can’t apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to… We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful.” -Alice Walker, The Color Purple
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Do you ever come across a tale so poignant yet so inspiring, that you cannot help but marvel at its beauty in all its form, one that is so tender that it touches you deeply even though it is just some words written on a few pieces of paper?
Well, this was one such read for me.
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Celia is a young black girl born into a poor family and having grown in a household where she was continuously raped by her father, deprived of the right to live with her two children and separated by her darling sister Nettie, she finds herself in an ugly marriage.
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Her life is gloomy and melancholious until she meets Shug Avery, a steadfast and unwavering woman, who refuses to resort to her destiny of living the life of a black woman, one that is filled with a lot of sacrifices and prejudice.
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Told by means of letters written by Celia, the story takes beautiful turns, showing a mirror of the condition of woman in black societies. If the blacks were the deprived classes back then, then the black women were deprived of the deprived. So much so that at some points of the book, it almost breaks your heart.
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Even though the narration is in African American English dialect, which might not be everyone’s piece of cake, once you get the hang of it, it is one of those tales that are so absorbing, you almost don’t want it to finish.
Intense yet gratifying.
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Genre: classics, black-history, historical-fiction, feminist-literature, feminism
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5
“The Palace of Illusions” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
“Love comes like lightning and disappears the same way. If you are lucky, it strikes you right. If not, you’ll spend your life yearning for a man you cannot have.”
– Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
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A novel take on the age-old saga of Mahabharata, narrated by Panchali or fondly known as Draupadi, this enchanting tale takes you to the beginning of her birth in the fire, to her earlier days in her father’s palace, to her stint as a woman with five husbands.
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We all are probably aware of the courses that Mahabharata took but do we ever think of what happened and why it happened especially from the point of view of a woman who was supposedly ‘modern’ and lucky for her time, being married to five men at a time?
The story provides answers to all these questions and opens up your eyes about the circumstance that led Draupadi to be the cause of the war.
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The narrative also provides important insights about her friendship with Krishna and a long lost love, that never came to fulfilment.
How were her relationships with the Pandavas? What were the sacrifices she had to make as a woman of that time and to support her husbands in the war?
Did she really get what she wanted in the end?
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Beautifully narrated, highly engaging and refreshingly stimulating.
The parts where the war is described does get a little boring because most of it is already been told so many times before, but the different take that the book offers on the war more than makes up for it.
Highly recommended for lovers of Indian mythology.
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Genre: indian-literature, mythology, war, fiction, fantasy, historical-fiction
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5
“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr
“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”
– Anthony Doerr, All the Light we cannot see.
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Marie-Laure is a young blind child of a museum caretaker in France. Torn by war, Marie and her father had to flee France, taking with them an infamous diamond, in an attempt to save this artifact from the Nazis.
Werner, on the other hand, is a young German lad recruited in the Hitler youth army and is known for his exceptional intelligence and scientific curiosity.
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What brings them together is war. Both of them meet in the ancient wall city of Saint-Malo, where Marie and her father had taken refuge in Marie’s great uncle and Werner arrives with the invading German army.
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Set in a beautiful port city, taking you to parts of Nazi Germany here and there, the story moves beautifully through the eyes of both the protagonists, who only meet briefly in the end, yet one can almost feel the love lost between the two.
Written in wonderful prose, with an enchanting description of the characters, their complexities, the plight of two cities affected by war, the plight of two characters affected by war, so differently, yet so similar.
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If you are a fan of historical fiction, I definitely recommend this one. Or even if you aren’t, I would just recommend it for the beautiful way it is written. Everyone deserves realising that captivating experience, heartwarming and heart wrenching.
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Genre: fiction, historical-fiction, war, history
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Reading difficulty:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
“The Lowland” by Jhumpa Lahiri
“Isolation offered its own form of companionship” – Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
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Subhash and Udayan, two brothers born fifteen months apart, spend their childhood in a Tollygunge, a typical Calcutta neighbourhood and even though they were inseparable growing up, due to their stark opposite personalities, they make different choices in life that take them to separate paths when they grew up.
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Udayan, the ever enthusiastic and charismatic being, finds himself in the Naxalite movement while Subhash, the obedient son, leaves home to pursue scientific research in America.
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It is only when Subhash finds about his brother’s plight in the lowland outside their house, he returns back to his home in hopes of making everything right for his family and Udayan’s wife.
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Beautifully written with touches of intimacy, heartfelt emotions and bittersweet pangs of separation and exile, this tale of what happened to two beings that deeply loved a person who is now gone. Subhash, trying to take responsibilities that his brother left and Gauri, trying to discover things for herself and move forward from the flawed choices her husband made.
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The sense of separation that the book takes you to lasts almost the entire life of the two protagonists and it is nothing short of magical.
Another masterpiece by Jhumpa Lahiri.
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Genre: fiction, indian-literature, historical-fiction, contemporary
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5
“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”
– Viktor E. Frank, Man’s Search for Meaning
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Based on psychiatrist’s Viktor Frankl description of his life in a Nazi death camp, the book narrates the psyche of a prisoner struck between life and death and how the idea of survival changes in dire situations.
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The author argues that we can be caught in a life that we didn’t choose, that brings us suffering every single day, that things can turn grim any day, but how we choose to cope with it depends on us.
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How we find meaning in a life we feel is not worth living, is entirely on us and rather than underestimating the will power of the human soul, one can always attempt to find light in adversity. Sure the meaning and values will change but life will still be life and it is not something to give up on.
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What makes the book impactful is the author’s real-life experiences of living in a concentration camp, of being surrounded by death everywhere, still trying to find a trace of humanity even when fate fails him.
I recommend it to anyone who is confused as to what is the true meaning of life. The book doesn’t answer the question entirely but sure will help one see how so many things in life are to be grateful for.
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Genre: #non-fiction, #psychology, #philosophy, #history, #memoir
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5
“The Help” by Kathryn Stockett
“You is kind. You are smart. You are important.”
– Kathryn Stockett, The Help
Three wonderful women, Skeeter, Minny, and Aibileen, are set to change the course of history by bringing out a change in their small town of Jackson, Mississippi.
In a time when black women work as domestic help for white women, Skeeter, the white lady, decides to pen down the experiences of the ‘help’ to the white society in the hopes of exposing the white folk’s hypocrisy and stirring the already brewing black rights movement at that time.
What will she have to go through by turning against her own people?
How is Minny’s and Aibileen’s experience going to change the air of racism in their town?
The narrative style is so fast-paced and dramatic that one finds it hard to put the book down. Although the characterization was simple and the writing style easy to read, the way the various characters were woven and how well the characters take forward the plot, demands applause for the author.
The only downside to the story was that the book was the stories of the black woman were narrated by the point of view of a white woman. It would have been better if the actual stories were elaborately told in the novel.
But that aside it was a riveting read, a story of not just racism but the bond between one’s househelp and oneself.
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Genre: fiction, historical-fiction #contemporary, black-history
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Reading difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐/5
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