1. I WISH I COULD TELL HER BY AJAY K PANDEY
ABOUT THE BOOK – If a good-looking face was the definition of beauty, then no one would have loved their ailing and wrinkled parents. When Vasu first sets his eyes on the charming and pretty Radhika, he forgets all about his ‘average’ looks. An amiable and kind-hearted boy, Vasu is looked down upon by others due to his dark skin tone. His sister Kavya sees his inner goodness and wants him to realise that he is no less than others. Radhika considers Vasu to be her best friend, while he cannot help falling in love with her. Will his ‘average’ looks come in the way of his happily ever after? What happens when Vasu is harshly judged based on his skin tone? Will he be able to overcome his insecurities? I Wish I Could Tell Her is a heart-warming story of a boy’s struggle in search of his identity. Vasu’s emotional tale shall engulf you in tears, both of pain and laughter.
2. ANANDA: HAPPINESS WITHOUT REASON BY ACHARYA PRASHANT
ABOUT THE BOOK- What is that one fundamental thing for which we go about toiling all our lives – sacrificing, negotiating, scheming, praying? Intuitively, one might answer – happiness. But do we really know what happiness is?
Most of the existing literature paints a fuzzy picture of happiness, beautiful in words but lacking in practicality. In this book, Acharya Prashant shatters all misconceptions about happiness jargons like ‘loving unconditionally’ and ‘living in the present’. He explains how what we commonly understand as happiness exists only in the backdrop of sadness, and what man is really looking for is not just happiness, but Ananda – an unconditional joy free from both happiness and sadness. Discarding multiple myths that burden our consciousness, the book draws from scriptures like the Gita and the Upanishads, revealing the true meaning of Ananda.
If you have the courage to question your deep-rooted beliefs and enter an unfathomable territory beyond the duality of happiness and sadness, this book is for you.
3. Satyajit Ray Miscellany: On Life, Cinema, People & Much More
ABOUT THE BOOK- More than seventy rarest essays on filmmaking, screenplay writing, autobiographical pieces and rare photographs and manuscripts of Ray
‘Ray is a most singular symbol of what is best and most revered in Indian cinema’ – Adoor Gopalakrishnan. ‘Satyajit Ray, I salute you. The greatest of our poets of the cinema’-Ben Kingsley. Satyajit Ray Miscellany, the second book in The Penguin Ray Library series, brings to light some of the rarest essays and illustrations of Ray that opens a window to the myriad thought-process of this creative genius. With more than seventy gripping write-ups and rare photographs and manuscripts, this book is a collector’s item.
4. The Magicians of Mazda by Ashwin Sanghi
About The Book-The story toggles between these two timelines with Jim, Linda, and their rescuers on a miraculous life-saving journey from the ancient Persepolis to modern-day Tehran, the Taliban camps of Afghanistan, and finally to India to the bewitching landscapes of Kashmir. On the other hand, we have an entire Encyclopaedia on the Zoroastrian community, their beliefs, faith, and ideologies, that seem to be unbeknownst to many of us. It is very sad to see that such a resourceful community of the past has dwindled in its population today, but their contribution to society and mankind is beyond anyone’s comprehension.
5. Your Time Will Come by Saranya Umakanthan
ABOUT THE BOOK- Love can break the strongest of men and they are the ones to fall hard. But after the fall, will they be able to bounce back and start afresh? Will they ever realize that true love is supposed to “build” them and not “break” them? Siddharth Saxena, a young and dynamic CEO, falls apart when the girl he believes was his, leaves. Depression drives Sid into a web of darkness. His life slips, his business falters, and the world around him shatters. Shanaya enters his life as his wife, unaware of his personal battles. He likes her but does not want to acknowledge the feelings she evokes in him, as he is wary of falling into the trap of love again. But she trusts him and believes that his time will come. He cannot help but be inspired by her positivity which awakens a determination within him. With her by his side, can he rediscover himself and get his life back? Or will he stay broken forever?
6. Death; An Inside Story: by Sadguru
About the book- Death is a taboo in most societies in the world. But what if we have got this completely wrong? What if death was not the catastrophe it is made out to be but an essential aspect of life, rife with spiritual possibilities for transcendence? For the first time, someone is saying just that. In this unique treatise-like exposition, Sadhguru dwells extensively upon his inner experience as he expounds on the more profound aspects of death that are rarely spoken about. From a practical standpoint, he elaborates on what preparations one can make for one’s death, how best we can assist someone who is dying and how we can continue to support their journey even after death. Whether a believer or not, a devotee or an agnostic, an accomplished seeker, or a simpleton, this is truly a book for all those who shall die!
7. In An Ideal World by Kunal Basu
About the Book-Altaf Hussein, a youthful Muslim pupil, has been abducted from his council hotel. The authorities have washed their hands off the matter and the police are indicted for a cover-up. Rumours claim he has gone to fight the jihad in Iraq. Further minatory rumours have him tortured and boggled for opposing the Nationalist scholars who are in a rage to produce a Hindu motherland in India, driving out Liberal sympathizers like Altaf and their decadent ideals.
The peak between Liberals and Chauvinists invades the Sengupta ménage in Kolkata when Joy, a bank director, and Rohini, his teacher woman – both compassionate humanists- learn the shocking news that their only son Bobby has come to a leader of the Nationalist scholars and is intertwined in Altaf’s exposure.
Unbelief turns to anguish when they encounter his truculent testament and his not- too satisfying denial of his part in the Altaf affair. Out to break the riddle of Altaf, Joy and Rohini discover conspiracy and hate, interdicted love, and exceptional courage, and come face to face with a world caught between the real and the ideal. But will they succeed in exonerating their son of the heinous crime?
Will Altaf be set up after all? Or will they, and this splintered nation, pay the ultimate price for harbouring a cracked heart?
8. Suit By Samarth
Suit is set in a Mumbai of the near future, when Safai Karamcharis have been handed safety outfits, including a full-body safety suit which gives them the moniker of Suitwalas. The story explores smirch, social change, and mobility through the eyes of Vikas, a youthful” Suitwala”, as we follow him through a day in his life, darting between incidents at work, moments he catches with his family, and recollections of his father.
The suit is hailed as a great vault in the right direction for the safety and quality of Safai Karamcharis; still, has anything changed, or is the suit just a cover? The book speculates what change could look like in a profession so steeped in exploitation and rejection, where the patient smirch infuses every step towards betterment with a bitter shadow.
9. To Hell and Back: Humans of Covid by Barkha Dutt
About The Book- Since 2020, our world has battled a single adversary. In dealing with the epidemic, India has seen its challenges and special tragedies. Two times the epidemic may have formerly claimed anywhere between 3 and 5 million Indian lives.
The lockdown of the first surge caused unknown desolation. And in 2022, Omicron has trigged a new challenge. When India’s lockdown was first blazoned in March 2020, acclaimed intelligencer Barkha Dutt started an extraordinary series of road passages, recording the mortal story of the epidemic, one which she continues indeed moment as we scuffle with the contagion’s rearmost icon.
In this book, she tells India’s epidemic story through the stories of the people she covered – the migratory workers and politicians, businessmen and functionaries, croakers and nursers, plant workers and growers, preceptors and scholars, misters and women, parents and children. And through these accounts, she draws an astounding picture not just of our pest times but the veritable nature of our country with its deep- confirmed inequalities across class, estate, and gender.
10. The Living Mountain by Amitav Gosh
About The Book-The Living Mountain is an exemplary tale of how we’ve totally exploited nature, leading to an environmental collapse.
reported as a dream, this is a fable about Mahaparbat, the Living Mountain; the indigenous vale residents who live and prosper in its sanctum; the assault on the mountain for marketable benefit by the Anthropoi, humans whose sole end is to reap the bounty of nature; and the disaster that unfolds as a result.
The Living Mountain is an especially applicable moment when we’ve been battling an epidemic and are facing a climate catastrophe both of which are products of our inadequate understanding of humanity’s relationship with nature, and our sustained appropriation and abuse of natural coffers. This is a book of our times, for our times, and it’ll reverberate explosively with compendiums of all periods.
11. Tomb Of Sand by Geetanjali Shree
About The Book-In northern India, an eighth year-old woman slips into a deep depression after the death of her hubby and also resurfaces to gain a new parcel of life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention- including striking up a fellowship with a bisexual person- confuses her bohemian son, who’s used to thinking of herself as the further’ ultramodern’ of the two. To her family’s consternation, Ma insists on traveling to Pakistan, contemporaneously defying the undetermined trauma of her teenage gests of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mama, a son, a woman, a positivist.
Rather than respond to tragedy with soberness, Geetanjali Shree’s playful tone and buoyant wordplay results in a book that’s engaging, funny, and hugely original, at the same time as being a critical and timely kick against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between persuasions, countries, or genders.
12. The Wait and Other Stories By Damodar Mauzo
About The Book- A hack automobilist, who assumes the identity of whoever his guests want him to be, finds himself in a tricky situation with a passenger. A late-night call leads a croaker down a path of lust and desire, but with unexpected results. A pen acquaints himself with a stealer who had broken into his house. A migrant worker falls in love but wonders how he can present himself as a suitor. An immature man, having lost the love of his life, takes it upon himself to resolve another couple’s dilemmas.
Konkani pen Damodar Mauzo’s sometimes crazy, sometimes tender stories, set largely in Goa, produce a world far removed from the sun and sand and the holiday resorts. also, you find townies facing moral choices, children waking up to the realities of adult lives, men who dwell on guilt, women who live a life of guilt, and communities whose bonds are growing tenuous in an age of religious polarization. Probing the deepest corners of the mortal psyche with lingo- in- impertinence humor, Mauzo’s stories reveal the multitudinous vestments that connect us to others and the ease with which they can be broken. Written in simple prose and yet concentrated in nuances, The stay is a collection that brings to the Anglophone world one of the doyens of Konkani literature.
” Damodar Mauzo’s stories present us with pictorial casts of the richly different, smart reality of contemporary Goa. In these perceptive, keenly observed stories Hindus, Catholics, and Muslims all find ways to co-occur, in defiance of partisanship.”
13. 400 Days by Chetan Bhagat
About the Book- Twelve-year-old Siya has been missing for nine months. It’s a cold case, but Keshav wants to help his mother, Alia, who refuses to give up.
‘My daughter Siya was kidnapped. Nine months ago,’ Alia said. The police had given up. They called it a cold case. Even the rest of her family had stopped searching. Alia wouldn’t stop looking, though. She wanted to know if I could help her.Hi, I am Keshav Rajpurohit and I am a disappointment to everyone around me. I live with my parents, who keep telling me how I should:
a) get married,
b) focus on my IPS exams,
c) meet more people and
d) close my detective agency. But Alia Arora, neighbour, and ex-model, wanted my help. And I couldn’t take my eyes off her face … I mean … her case. Welcome to 400 Days. A mystery and romance story like no other. An unputdownable tale of suspense, human relationships, love, friendship, the crazy world we live in and, above all, a mother’s determination to never give up.
14. Boys Don’t Cry by Meghna Pant
About the Book- ‘A work of power, intimacy and magic’ Anees Salim, author
When Maneka Pataudi is arrested as the prime suspect for the murder of her ex-husband, she reveals a chilling tale of marital abuse and neglect.
But is her confession the truth or a lie? Is she telling the story as a victim or a perpetrator? And is it better for women to kill for love or be killed for it?
Based on a true story (mostly), Boys Don’t Cry is a gripping, compelling and courageous novel that takes you behind the closed doors of a modern Indian marriage.
15. A Place Called Home by Preeti Shenoy
ABOUT THE BOOK- In the windowless, cramped servant’s room at Mrs Shetty’s luxurious house, where her mother is a maid, Alka dreams of an escape. When Mrs Shetty decides to send her to the same school as her daughter, she works hard, moulding herself into a new avatar.
She marries Subbu, a coffee grower with a four-hundred-acre estate. Between taking care of her heritage home, her two young daughters and her fabulous relationship with her mother-in-law, Alka’s life feels complete.
But when secrets about her past that she has fiercely guarded are exposed, they threaten to destroy her life. To protect all that she has, Alka must fight her demons and travel back to the world she worked so hard to leave behind.
A Place Called Home is a novel about secrets, family, and finding yourself, from bestselling author Preeti Shenoy.
