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I had fun trying out books from different genres than what I normally read. What would you pick up if you wanted to experiment with reading out of your comfort zone?
My reading is (or rather was) genre specific. I love reading contemporary women/romance and earlier couldn’t go beyond that. But, recently I have experimented with different genres, and was pleasantly surprised. How different and interesting it could be, I realized, reading different genres.
However, I have also realized that I find women authors more fascinating than male ones. That is something I am not willing to experiment with yet.
So here are 5 fiction books that I have really enjoyed in 2015.
The Palace of Illusion by Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee
Like every Indian child I’d religiously watched Ramayana and Mahabharata on television. Yet I was not much into reading mythology. But, The Palace of Illusions worked wonderfully for me! Didn’t know reading mythology can be so intriguing and engrossing.
This book is beautifully crafted, and the best thing about this book is it’s ‘what next?’ factor, even though we all know what has actually happened. The lingering effect of this book filled me with a sense of loss and fulfillment at the same time. A mesmerizing read!
Reviewed here.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
It is an excruciating story that encounters harsh realities and supreme unfairness of life, that has strong elements of a love story. And I loved this love story! It has a woman as a central character but Will Traynor, the male protagonist, will stay in my heart…perhaps forever.
It’s a poignant tale that evokes a sense of loss.
Even though the book started a little slow, and didn’t turn out the way I’d expected, it touched me in a very personal way. I loved this book for this particular reason.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
I am not a fan of suspense thrillers. The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins is a suspense thriller, so I was a bit sceptical while picking it up, but I loved it! Because it’s different. Not just a typical thriller – tense, dark, packed with unending action.
To me it felt like a cozy drama about family, marriage and love. The story flows interestingly. With a tormenting memory-loss and psychological tricks, it unravels chapter by chapter, that keeps you going, playing the guessing game.
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
You can easily connect with Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories and her writing style.
The Lowland, nominated for the Man Booker Prize, has a naxalite background, but the story has little to do with that. This story is about two brothers Subhash and Udayan, so close yet so far. It’s about a strange woman, Gauri, failed by her husband Udayan, who gets involved in naxalite activities. It’s about a daughter, Bela, and her estranged mother. It’s about family and delicate relationships.
It was a beautiful engrossing read!
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
This was my first read by the author, and I’m glad I read this book.
“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roof Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls”
I really liked this quotation!
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a heart-breaking tale of two women from different generation, different backgrounds. Their struggle for happiness and love. Their inexplicable togetherness. It’s about loyalty, so pure that it goes beyond life.
I must say that the author is a master in creating heart-breaking scenes that evokes a sense of pain effortlessly.
What’s your best reads last year? And what do you plan to read this year? Please share, would like to know!
Image source: reading a book concept by Shutterstock.
Tarang Sinha is a Delhi based writer, translator and painter. She's the author of We Will Meet Again. She has translated a book titled 'Don't You Quit' published by Westland Books. Her articles read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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