Your reading list for March & April

Special Report

March 20: Now that you’re down with spring cleaning, its time to reward yourself and curl up with a nice book. This month, we have a few authors writers who will change the way you view the world and people. Create your list and banish your boredom with these fantastic books.

What Have We Done, by Alex Finlay

Five teenagers forged an unbreakable connection while residing at Savior House, an abusive group home for troubled teenagers, 25 years ago. Despite the fact that they lost touch, they all went on to lead fulfilling lives. When group members start dying, they are compelled to have a reunion that none of them wanted in order to track down the murderer.

Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano

After growing up without any attention from his family, William Waters finds solace in hoops in college. William rapidly integrates into the close-knit Padavano family after meeting Julia Padavano, a vivacious girl who is very close to her parents and three sisters. William never thought he’d be the one to break the family apart, despite the fact that cracks are beginning to show in the family.

Evil Eye, by Etaf Rum

Yara believes she has successfully escaped her traditional Palestinian upbringing when she marries a charming businessman and relocates to the suburbs. Even so, Yara doesn’t seem to be fulfilled by even her ideal family and ideal work. However, as Yara’s world starts to fall apart, she learns that the upbringing she believed she had left behind has finally had an impact on her and her daughters.

Stateless, by Elizabeth Wein

Stella North is delighted to be participating in the first air race for young adults in Europe in 1937 as the only female pilot. The world is searching for something encouraging to follow in the wake of the Spanish Civil War and the rise of the Fascists. But when one of the pilots is killed, the competition rapidly turns savage because each of them has a dark past they must keep hidden.

Hang the Moon, by Jeannette Walls

Author of the popular memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls also wrote a book about a tough young woman living through Prohibition in Virginia. Sallie Kincaid, despite having a comfortable upbringing, was expelled from her family after her counsel caused her younger half-brother Edie to have a mishap. Sallie, who is currently working as a bootlegger, is determined to reclaim her position in the family.

Fear and Other Stories (Translated by Hemang Ashwinkumar)

Fear and Other Stories is a reminder of the inherent dangers of the Dalit life, a life subjected to unimaginable violence and terror even in its most mundane moments. In this collection of short stories, veteran Gujarati writer Dalpat Chauhan narrates these lived experiences of exasperation and anger with startling vividity. His characters chronicle a deep history of resistance, interrogating historical, mythological and literary legends, foregrounding the perspectives of the disenfranchised.

Epic Tales of Wisdom, by Nityananda Charan Das

Epic Tales of Wisdom takes children on an exciting, enlightening, vivid and imaginative adventure through the epics. The stories bring to life a world inhabited by gods and goddesses, sages and saints, demons and monsters and others. This precious treasury of stories helps them evoke interest in the scriptures and sets the foundation of love for God’s creation.

Retold by godman Nityanand Charan Das in a child-friendly manner the stories allow kids to explore, perceive, comprehend and inspire their curious minds. The subtle lessons in the book capture timeless wisdom from Indian mythology and offer valuable insights on how to get through the rough and tumble of life. Nirzara Verulkar’s illustrations add zing to this book of educative, entertaining and enlightening tales that aspires to make kids spiritually richer and morally and socially stronger.

LAB HOPPING: a Journey to find India’s women in science, by Aashima Dogra & Nandita Jayaraj)

From Bhopal to Bhubaneswar, from Bangalore to Jammu, Aashima Dogra and Nandita Jayaraj engage in thought-provoking conversations with renowned scientists like Gagandeep Kang, Rohini Godbole, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Prajval Shastri, as well as researchers at earlier stages of their scientific careers. These dialogues about the triumphs and challenges faced by women offer fresh perspectives on the gender gap that continues to haunt Indian science today.

Pineapple Street, by Jenny Jackson

This unputdownable debut follows three women in an old Brooklyn Heights clan: one who was born with money, one who married into it, and one who wants to give it all away.

Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected, carefully guarded Stockton family, has never had to worry about money. She followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood, sacrificing more of herself than she ever intended. Sasha, Darley’s new sister-in-law, has come from more humble origins, and her hesitancy about signing a pre-nup has everyone worried about her intentions. And Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can’t (and really shouldn’t) have, and must confront the kind of person she wants to be.

Shot through with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York’s one-percenters, Pineapple Street is a smart, escapist novel that sparkles with wit. Full of recognisable, loveable – if fallible – characters, it’s about the peculiar unknowability of someone else’s family, the miles between the haves and have-nots, and the insanity of first love – all wrapped in a story that is a sheer delight.

The Love Wager, by Lynn Painter

After yet another disastrous date, Hallie Piper decides it’s time to grow up. She gets a new apartment, a new haircut, and a new wardrobe. But when she logs into an app to find new love, she matches with none other than Jack: the guy the wrong kind of sparks had flown with just weeks earlier.

Agreeing that they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie realise that they’re each other’s perfect wing-person – and join forces in their searches for The One. They even place a wager on who can find romance first.

But when they agree to be fake dates for a wedding, all bets are off.

Because as they pretend to be a couple, they struggle to remember why dating for real was a bad idea to begin with . . 

Old Babes in the Wood, by Margaret Atwood

Atwood’s first new fiction publication since The Testaments, this deeply personal collection includes a stunning sequence that follows a married couple as they travel the road together, the moments big and small that make up a long life of love — and what comes after. The stories explore the full warp and weft of experience, from two best friends disagreeing about their shared past, to the right way to stop someone from choking; from a daughter determining if her mother really is a witch, to what to do with inherited relics such as World War II parade swords.

They feature beloved cats, a confused snail, Martha Gellhorn, George Orwell, philosopher-astronomer-mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria, a cabal of elderly female academics, and an alien tasked with retelling human fairy tales. The glorious range of Atwood’s creativity and humanity is on full beam in these tales, which by turns delight, illuminate and quietly devastate.

Dirty Laundry, by Disha Bose

Keep your friends close and your neighbours closer…

Ciara has it all – a loving husband, well-behaved children and an immaculate home. But behind the filters, her reality is far from what it seems. Mishti is stuck in a loveless marriage, raising her daughter in a country that is too cold, among children who look nothing like her. Lauren is mostly happy, despite being judged for letting her kids run naked, wild and free. Then Ciara is found murdered in her pristine home and suddenly everyone is a suspect. Hushed whispers, secret rendezvous and bloody betrayals . . .

Everyone has their dirty laundry, but this goes beyond gossip. This is all-out war.

A deliciously scandalous page-turner about the dark side of suburbia that peels back the layers of Ciara’s insta-perfect life to reveal friendships gone rotten, manipulation masquerading as love and families riddled with lies…

Mastering Uncertaint, by Matt Watkinson & Csaba Konkoly

What separates the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and business tycoons from the rest? It’s not their superhuman intelligence. It’s something more fundamental: they understand how to turn uncertainty to their advantage. We all know that the future is inherently unknowable, and yet we behave and plan as though it is. Once we truly understand the nature of uncertainty, though, we can take practical steps to make the most of the opportunities that come our way.

In Mastering Uncertainty award-winning author Matt Watkinson and investor and entrepreneur Csaba Konkoly offer a masterclass on the workings of luck and probability. They show how to calculate when to make big bets and when to pull back. And they offer supremely practical advice on how we can improve our odds, whether through maximising our networks, learning how to read warning signs, or assessing where best to place our energies.

The unforeseen always occurs. Mastering Uncertainty shows you how to prepare for it and make the best use of it.

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, by Peter Attia.

This is the ultimate manual for longevity.

For all its successes, mainstream medicine has failed to make much progress against the diseases of ageing that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes. Too often, it intervenes with treatments too late, prolonging lifespan at the expense of quality of life. Dr Peter Attia, the world’s top longevity expert, believes we must replace this outdated framework with a personalised, proactive strategy for longevity.

This isn’t ‘biohacking,’ it’s science: a well-founded strategic approach to extending lifespan while improving our physical, cognitive and emotional health, making each decade better than the one before. With Outlive’s practical advice and roadmap, you can plot a different path for your life, one that lets you outlive your genes to make each decade better than the one before.

The Letters I Will Never Send, by Isabella Dorta

Embrace honesty and heal beautifully.

In the letters i will never send, TikTok poet Isabella Dorta urges you to leave nothing unsaid and take comfort in moving poems on love, heartbreak, mental health and self-discovery.

With beautiful line illustrations and over 100 poems written in the form of confessional letters addressed to the most influential figures in your life:

Your younger self

Your future self

Your lover

Your body

Your family

and more

Take the ultimate step. Read, rip out, burn or send the letters out into the world. Write your own and share them with the people in your life. Just don’t hold back!

Eat to Beat Your Diet, by Dr William Li

Lose weight by eating more of what you love

Dr William Li’s first book, Eat to Beat Disease, showed us how eating the right foods can reduce the risk of chronic diseases, while also extending our lifespan and improving our overall health. Building on this groundbreaking work, Dr Li now brings us Eat to Beat Your Diet, a revolutionary, science-based approach to weight loss. Eating more of the right foods and adopting a “MediterAsian” diet (combining the best of Mediterranean and Asian diets) can promote fat loss and improve our metabolism in as little as 21 days.

Rooted in new science, Eat to Beat Your Diet offers a simple plan providing leading research on how supplements, sleep and exercise can help us defend the body against excess fat. With clear lists of fat-fighting foods and recipes, including a week-long detox and 3-week weight-loss protocol, this book empowers readers to lose 10-20 pounds healthily – all while enhancing enjoyment of food.

The Tools, by Phil Stutz & Barry Michels

Change can begin right now. Learn to bring about dynamic personal growth using five uniquely effective tools- from psychotherapist Barry Michels and psychiatrist Phil Stutz, subject of the Netflix documentary Stutz, directed by Jonah Hill.

Can you imagine what your life would be like if you could tap into a new source of power – one that has been inside you all along – to solve your own problems and become the master of your life?

The Tools is an extraordinary psychological model based on the proven methods of Hollywood’s greatest psychotherapists. Phil Stutz and Barry Michels have over 60 years of psychotherapeutic experience between them. Together they have helped their A-list clients work through whatever has held them back – be it insecurity, trauma, anger, lack of willpower, negativity or avoidance – to achieve their greatest work and find a deep level of fulfilment.

Now, at last, the acclaimed clinicians are sharing their methods in this eye-opening and empowering book. Introducing their five simple techniques, namely The Reversal of Desire, Active Love, Inner Authority, The Grateful Flow and Jeopardy, the authors clearly explain what they are plus how and when to use them. Astonishingly effective and beautifully simple – once you’ve learned a tool it takes only three to five seconds to use it – this book will give you everything you need to propel yourself forward to achieve your ambitions and be who you were born to be.

Why Politics Fails, by Ben Ansell

Why do the revolving doors of power always leave us disappointed? In Why Politics Fails, award-winning Oxford professor Ben Ansell shows that it’s not the politicians that are the problem, it’s that our collective goals result in five political ‘traps’.

Democracy: we all want a say in how we’re governed, but it’s impossible to have any true ‘will of the people’. Equality: we want to be treated equally, but equal rights and equal outcomes undermine each other. Solidarity: we want a safety net when times are tough, but often we care about solidarity only when we need it ourselves. Security: we want protecting from harm, but not if it undermines our freedoms. Prosperity: we want to be richer tomorrow, but what makes us richer in the short run makes us poorer over the long haul.

You’ve probably noticed a pattern here, which is that our self-interest undermines our ability to deliver on our collective goals. And these traps reinforce one another, so a polarized democracy can worsen inequality; a threadbare social safety net can worsen crime; runaway climate change will threaten global peace.

Drawing on examples from Ancient Greece through Brexit and using his own counterintuitive and pathbreaking research – on why democracy thrives under high inequality, and how increased political and social equality can lead to greater class inequality – Ansell vividly illustrates how we can escape the political traps of our imperfect world. He shows that politics won’t end, but that it doesn’t have to fail.

Letters to a Writer of Colour, by Deepa Anappara & Taymour Soomro

Filled with empathy and wisdom, personal experiences and creative inspiration, this is a vital collection of essays on the power of literature and the craft of writing from an international array of writers of colour.

‘Electric essays that speak to the experience of writing from the periphery… a guide, a comfort, and a call all at once’ Laila Lalami, author of Conditional Citizens

‘A whip-smart collection’ Kamila Shamsie, author of Best of Friends.

The Path to Ananda, by Swami Avadheshanand Giri

There are as many conceivable responses to these questions as there are people in this world. While happiness is a very individual concept, it is most often seen as containing a measure of health, prosperity, social status, professional or creative satisfaction, a loving family and friends. The problem is that all of these are transitory phenomena.

Through 101 short, workable capsules, The Path to Ananda: A Mystic’s Guide to Unlimited Happiness offers readers that knowledge again. This is a mystic’s guide for those who like following practical, easy-to-follow advice, knowledge that makes a difference, and wisdom that’s practical.

Nilavukkum Nerupendru Per (Rajesh Kumar)

Bhuvanesh and Tarun race towards the RS Puram Vinayagar temple. It’s a big day for Bhuvanesh. Today he will marry his long-time girlfriend Mukila at the temple, without letting their families know. Mukila has already called him to say she is on her way in a cab, but when she doesn’t arrive, Bhuvanesh, Tarun and a cop apprehend the cab she was in, in whose backseat, broken pieces of bangles are scattered. When the cab driver’s claims of dropping her at a flower market check out, Bhuvanesh, Tarun and others are alarmed. Where could Mukila be?

Qaidi (Commander Karan Saxena Series)

Gangadhar Mahant, the chief at RAW, sends Agent Karan Saxena on a secret mission to Beijing to rescue an Indian scientist who joined the Chinese government out of greed.

Working in a lab there, he has contributed to major advancements in the field of medical science in China. But now he has sent an SOS to be extracted to India. This is no cakewalk because the Chinese Secret Service always has its eyes on him.

With the help of other agents and informers working undercover-Prof. Koirala from Nepal, the drug peddler Hoshang and Neelkanth aka Kripashankar Bishnoi who can poison opponents in an instant-Commander Karan Saxena sets out on one of his most dangerous missions yet.