Thursday, August 31, 2017

Books I read in August

I'm in Bangalore for a while, and it's not been a great month for reading, because I'm spending a lot of time hanging out with friends. No regrets!

But look at this magnificent haul of second-hand books.


Picture Books and Graphic Novels
(from the shelf of friends I'm staying with)


Three Pigeon books by Mo Willems
I like The Pigeon Wants a Puppy best. Not only does it remind me of myself (when I was a kid, and also like right now because I do want a puppy dammit!) but it also has Pigeon hilariously promising to water it once a month. Get it for the babies in your life, even if they're adults.

A Gardener in the Wasteland by Srividya Natarajan and Aparajita Ninan
This beautiful, beautiful book describes the work of Jotiba and Savitri Phule. The art is gorgeous, and I don't know enough about the Phules, so this book was a lovely introduction.

Everything else

The Inner Courtyard edited by Lakshmi Holmstrom
I've been wanting to read this, and was got it as a gift recently. It's a lovely collection of stories by some of the most eminent writers of twentieth century India (and one from Pakistan/UK).

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag
A friend had lent me her copy and asked me to read this book ages ago; I finally got around to it. Fittingly, because I read it soon after coming to Bangalore and the book is set here. It's a thin, delicate novel, much more nuanced than it appears at first.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
This book was really popular a year or two ago, and I can see why. It's a thriller, but an extremely intelligent one. It reminded me of Emma Donoghue's Room in style, though in genre it's probably closer to Gone Girl. I found Gone Girl extremely disappointing ultimately, and this book is everything that one wasn't.

The Cosmopolitans by Anjum Hasan
Another book I've been intrigued by since it first came out, and finally got around to reading. I loved its meditations on art and artists, and Anjum is, of course, a very good writer. (Check out this beautiful piece on her fiction.) I felt the novel handwaved a rather major incident (and flaw in the character), and I felt one plot twist was contrived and sort of predictable, but it's a really interesting book that's stayed with me.

How Fiction Works by James Wood
This is a surprisingly easy-to-read, engaging book on literature and art. I loved it and mean to reread it soon.

In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh
This amazing book blends history and memoir and is set in Egypt and India (mostly Mangalore). It's Ghosh's personal account of discovering the story of an Indian slave owned by a Jewish Egyptian who moved to India in the fifteenth century.

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