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One of the things I love about being a reader is people always ask me for recommendations and that way I get to talk about the books I love. Whenever I have book discussions with friends and colleagues, I find that most people tend to stick to a particular genre. There’s a friend who loves rom-coms. A colleague is obsessed with fantasy. My boss will only read non-fiction. He thinks spending time in imaginary worlds is for those who aren’t happy with their lives. I vehemently disagree but that is a topic for another time. I love fiction. The genre doesn’t really matter as long as it’s a good story and it’s well written.

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague asked me about the book I was reading at that moment. When I told him I was reading a memoir (‘Crying in H Mart’ by Michelle Zauner), he was clearly surprised. He said I always seemed to be reading a variety of things. Sometimes it was self-help, sometimes it was psychology, and other times even children’s books like ‘Matilda’ by Roald Dahl and ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ by Madeleine L’Engle. This is something I have been doing intentionally. As a reader, I want to read across genres and read authors from all over the world.

This wasn’t easy. There was a time I’d have to find materials online or ask a cousin or a friend to send certain books from the US. But now bookstores in Nepal have started stocking a wide range of books. I was surprised to find an entire bookshelf worth of graphic novels (manga) at Bookverse in Civil Mall in Sundhara, Kathmandu. Even Pilgrims in Thamel has quite a good selection of comics. So, it’s now easier than ever before to want to read something and have immediate access to it—which really leaves us with no excuse no to read anything and everything.

While discussing the importance of reading and reading different authors and topics, a few of my colleagues and I came up with a list of 10 books that we felt we should all read—books that would give us a better understanding of the world around us and the times we live in. We have made a pact to read these books within one year. It might be a little too ambitious given we all have full time jobs (and are also reading other things simultaneously) but we are committed to completing the challenge. We made sure to include books from different genres. With special permission from our little unofficial book club, I’m sharing the list with you all with the hope that these books will inspire us to become more attuned to and accepting of people’s differences.

The Stationery Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

Roya and Bahman are in love. They quickly get engaged and are looking forward to a life together. But then the coup happens in Tehran and the two get separated. When Bahman doesn’t come to meet her as planned one day, Roya is devastated and leaves for California where she meets Walter and gets married. But she can never forget Bahman and this dictates her entire life. ‘The Stationery Shop of Tehran’ is essentially a love story but it’s also about a woman’s strength to overcome life’s challenges. It’s a story of hope and resilience and how the past shapes you but doesn’t have to define you.

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park

Yeonmi Park is a North Korean defector—someone who escapes from North Korea into either China or South Korea. Park was born in the North Korean city of Hyesan, which is close to the Chinese border. North Korea is under the brutal regime of the Kim dictatorships. When Park was 13, she and her mother fled to China. ‘In Order to Live’ is her harrowing account of her life in North Korea as well as her time in northern China when she was trafficked by gangsters running prostitution rackets. It’s an eye-opening read and will tell you a lot about an isolated part of our world. Trigger warning: There are references of extreme sexual and physical assault.

The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen

This book was published in 2009 but the ideas presented here are as relevant today as they were back then. Sen, Nobel Laureate in economics and thinker, gives great insight into an aspect central to human life and democracy. Sen’s idea of justice isn’t about creating a perfectly just society. It’s about finding ways to remove injustice prevailing in society. The book is over 400 pages long and has footnotes and a long preface too but we have sworn not to be intimidated by its size as Sen’s concepts and ideas are critical to how we view and understand social justice and contemporary jurisprudence.

Severance by Ling Ma

This slim book is a dystopian novel that we would have probably thought was a bit too far-fetched before the Covid-19 pandemic. Shen Fever sweeps across New York City and there is utter chaos—a fungal infection is turning people into zombies. But Candace continues her routine at a publishing company. She coordinates with overseas Chinese factories (rumored to be the source of the microspores of Shen Fever) who print and source their Bibles. The story reminds us that we live in bleak, unpredictable times where nothing is impossible. The book goes back and forth in time, alternating between Candace’s office job and her travels across post-apocalyptic America.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

I read this book a few years ago and I didn’t like it much. But everyone I know, including my husband, raves about it. It will completely change your attitude, they argue. I thought it was a bit too cliché but I’m going to give it another shot. In this 2016 nonfiction self-help book, American blogger and author Mark Manson argues that life’s struggles give it meaning and says that most self-help books offer meaningless positivity which is neither practical nor helpful. The book presents a strong case for not trying too hard to be happy. Rather, it focuses on letting things slide and not trying to control everything. Manson argues that we should only engage in those things we can control and not be bothered by everything that happens to us.

The Lives of Strangers by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author and poet. She mostly writes on Indian experience, contemporary America, women, immigration, history, myth, and the joys and challenges of living in a multicultural world. Her books have been translated into over 29 languages, including Hindi, Japanese, and Dutch. All of us had read ‘The Palace of Illusions’ and we had loved it so we thought a book by Divakaruni would refresh us while we were reading some heavy topics while also opening our eyes to different cultures and people’s experiences around the world. ‘The Lives of Strangers’ is a collection of short stories that delve into the immigrant experience and the complexities of relationships.

Why Men Rape by Tara Kaushal

This book, according to a friend who knows the author, is a labor of love and meticulous hard work. Kaushal has traveled extensively through India, talking to both victims and perpetrators of violence. She has interviewed those who have been accused of rape and men involved in gang rapes as well. Many times, she received threats and had to seek police protection. Kaushal argues as well as shows through anecdotal evidence how patriarchy and misogyny have armed men with a deep sense of entitlement, one which leaves them unable to understand the meaning of the word no. We thought this would be a good book to understand the psychology of men who choose to commit violent crimes as well as discuss an issue that is so often swept under the carpet in Nepal.

Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree

Geetanjali Shree is the first ever Hindi writer to win the International Booker prize. She’s 65 and she’s been writing for about 30 years. ‘Tomb of Sand’, translated by Daisy Rockwell from her book Ret Samadhi, is her fifth novel. The novel is about a depressed 80-year-old, whom we get to know as ‘Ma’. At the beginning of the book, she refuses to get out of bed. Then things take a strange turn. She disappears, and when she turns up later, just as unexpectedly, she’s full of life, ready for adventure. It’s a long read, at over 600 pages but the chapters are short and the story moves swiftly as we follow Ma in North India and Lahore in Pakistan, where she lived as a girl. 

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

I read that Joan Didion wrote ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ in 88 days. It chronicles the first year after her husband’s death when grief and loneliness were her constant companions. The couple had been married for 39 years when John Gregory Dunne had a massive heart attack. Didion was mixing a salad in the kitchen. It’s a melancholy memoir about love and loss that makes you value life and your loved ones. We thought reading it would help us prioritize the people we love and spend more time with them rather than scrolling the phone or rushing through life. The book, a colleague said, makes us realize that life is fragile and try to come to terms with it.

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

The first part of the novel is set in August 1949, a year after the Nakba, as an Israeli officer oversees the clearing of the Negev Desert and the establishment of the border with Egypt. During routine patrol, some soldiers encounter a group of Arabs and immediately kill the men. They bring a young woman back to camp with them where she is repeatedly gang raped and eventually murdered. In the second part of the book, set in the present day, an unnamed woman reads about the crime in the newspaper and feels compelled to try and find out what happened. We all agreed that this book was an important, eye-opening piece of fiction that we must all read. We are planning to start our reading journey with this one. The book is short but it’s intense and examines the effect of violence.

“We are supposed to begin as the apple of our mother’s eyes. But I was more the maggot in the apple.”

Some opening sentences like the one from ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens (It was the best of times, it was the worst of times), and Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov (Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins) have become the most famous lines in literature. Opening sentences hold a lot of promise. It’s also perhaps the most important words of the book as it sets the tone of the plot. It’s what hooks the readers and starts the book with a bang, and that’s a lot to ask from the first few words. Most authors, if not all, feel the pressure to start off with a brilliant sentence. Not all get it right. For me, Joanne Glen definitely does in her novel ‘All My Mothers’.

The opening sentence is the reason I picked up the book despite it being the wrong size. The copy I have doesn’t have the regular book dimensions. The length to breadth ratio is off, making it difficult to hold when the book is open. I don’t know about other readers but I have to enjoy the shape and feel of a book while reading it. All My Mothers is one of those rare books that I didn’t like holding in my hands but I got sucked into the story and loved every word. And my love affair with the book started with the first line.

Eva Martinez-Green is an only child. It wouldn’t be a problem if her parents were involved in her life. But her mother has mental health issues and her father leaves, unable to cope with a volatile wife. Eva feels unwanted, like she doesn’t belong. She’s also unsure about where she comes from and wants answers. Her longing for a motherly figure is so strong that it becomes the guiding factor of her life’s trajectory. She meets women who challenge her idea of how a mother should be, forcing her to confront her demons.

The book is heavy with themes such as generational trauma, displacement, loss, and longing. But despite an overall melancholy vibe, the book won’t upset you. There’s a sense of hope that’s heartwarming. The chapters are short so it feels like the story is moving fast and you’re not bored at any point. Eva is a fully fleshed out character. There’s no aspect of hers that isn’t explored. She’s naïve, jealous, smart, forgiving, and even horrible at times—she’s you and me. You can relate to Eva even if you haven’t had a complex childhood as she has had. If you have, reading All My Mothers will give you some closure for sure. It will make you look at people as humans and accept that there are and always will be flaws in all of us.

Fiction

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57207910-all-my-mothers 

All My Mothers

Joanna Glen

Published: 2021

Publisher: The Borough Press

Pages: 471, Paperback

Comedy often has a short shelf life. What is funny today, might not be funny 10 years down the line, depending on the context. It’s also subjective. You and your friend might not find the same thing funny. Having said that, there are some classics that will tickle your funny bone no matter what. You might roll your eyes at the incredulity but it will lighten your mood. Here, we recommend five of our favorites that you can choose from this weekend, when the unpredictable weather doesn’t allow you to do anything else.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a 1994 American comedy film starring Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura, an animal detective who is tasked with finding the abducted dolphin mascot of the Miami Dolphins football team. It’s a cult classic that made Carrey a Hollywood star. It’s silly and awkward at times but a laugh riot nonetheless. There are many visual gags and funny one-liners. Since there is also suspense in the plot, the movie grips you from start to finish. Carry is not everyone’s cup of tea. His brand of comedy might be a bit over the top for some people but we think no one should give Ace Ventura a miss. 

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

A swinging hipster from the 60s, Mike Myers (Powers) puts himself in a deep freeze for 30 years to pursue his archenemy, Dr Evil (Mike Myers). He is thawed out in the 90s when Dr Evil reappears and plans to drill a missile to the center of the earth and destroy the world.

We have to admit that this comedy of the 90s might not be entertaining for today’s generation but Austin Powers will provide you with the escapism you need. He takes comedy to another level with his expressions and body language.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

There are a total of three films in this franchise but we recommend the one that came out in 2002 featuring Nia Vardalos and John Corbett in the lead. It’s a light-hearted comedy that stands the test of time as so many of the family issues shown in the movie are as relevant today as they were back then. Everyone in the Portokalos family is worried about Toula (Vardalos). She is 30 and unmarried. Then she falls in love with Ian Miller (Corbett), a teacher who is handsome but not Greek. He is also a vegetarian. Toula’s family doesn’t want her to marry this man and chaos ensues. 

Home Alone

Eight-year-old Kevin is accidentally left behind when his family leaves for France. At first, he’s happy to be in charge of the house. But then thieves try to break into his home and he has to put up a fight like no other. The result is a tense but hilarious drama that you will be glued to till the end. Again, there are a few films in the franchise as ‘Home Alone’ is a series of American Christmas family comedy films originally created by John Hughes. We suggest you start at the beginning with the one that came out in 1990. The novelty will wear off after a couple of films as each one features an isolated child left to defend himself but the first one is guaranteed to make you laugh while cheering for Kevin. 

Mr Bean’s Holiday

We remember watching Mr Bean as children and his silly antics always made us laugh. We confess it still does. In ‘My Bean’s Holiday’ the hapless Mr Bean is on a vacation on the French Riviera. There, as everything that could possibly go wrong always does when Mr Bean is around, he becomes ensnared in an accidental kidnapping because of a case of mistaken identity. Mr Bean separates a father and son and then travels with the son in search of his father. Rowan Atkinson, as Mr Bean, is phenomenal. He is what makes the character so hilarious.

In ‘Maybe Next Time’ by novelist and screenwriter Cesca Major, we meet Emma Jacobs. She is a literary agent. She loves her job which is basically reading books and discovering new authors. She has a loving husband, Dan, and two wonderful children, Poppy and Miles. But she’s always rushed—her phone pings all the time, she has meetings to attend, and books to get published. She loves her family but she, like most of us, has unknowingly placed them at the bottom of her priority list. She and Dan had a deal, which was to write a letter to each other on their anniversary. Emma always forgets. She has, even though she will never admit it, taken her family for granted.

Then one day everything changes and her family and life will never be the same again. But she finds herself stuck in a time loop. The same day keeps repeating itself but the outcome is unchanged. If she can fix her mistakes, will she be able to rewrite the future? The metaphysical aspect of the story makes you contemplate life and how you are living it. As Emma tries to do things differently to change the course of her life, she starts noticing how focusing on unnecessary things was complicating her life for no reason. Knowing what she knows about how the day will end, she is forced to slow down and take pleasure in all the little things, and value those she loves.

I have a shelf dedicated to my favorite books. It has books like ‘Matilda’ by Roald Dahl, ‘A Man Called Ove’ by Fredrik Backman, ‘Circe’ by Madeline Miller, and ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ by Delia Owens among several others. These are books that I will recommend to everyone I meet, think about with love and longing, and absolutely refuse to lend when someone invariably asks for them. I don’t want to part with them. Not now. Not ever.

Maybe Next Time went right on this shelf after I finished it. Come to think about it, it could easily be in my top five all-time favorites. I must admit I didn’t like the cover art. Plus it was a love story and I’m not much into that genre. However, it was a Reese’s Book Club pick and I tend to like books that the club chooses. So, despite the glaring orange title on a light yellow and blue backdrop (all clashing horribly), I got the book. As shallow as it sounds, I believe these things matter. I’ve often not bought books I’ve been wanting to read because it didn’t feel right—something about the pages or the cover would be off.

But this time I’m glad I didn’t because Maybe Next Time is so good. The writing is smooth and you breeze through the story. The storyline keeps you hooked. You are always wondering what Emma will do next. It makes you think about life and, as cliché as it sounds, teaches you the value of the present moment. Nothing but the present is guaranteed, and the book, for me, hammered in that point like no other story has ever done. The movie adaptation is in the works and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. I’m sure it will be a tearjerker though, just like the book.

Four and a half stars

Fiction

Maybe Next Time

Cesca Major

Published: 2023

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 376, Paperback