Hello Loves!
End of the month means talking about every single book I read this month.
November felt so long...yet I can't quite believe it's done and dusted.
It felt like an activity filled blur.
Of doing things. Reading things.
Finding joys and trying to squeeze in some non-fiction reads for #nonfictionnovember.
I am happy to report, I read four non-fiction books, two volumes of poetry and a book rooted in a real true crime case.
A good, solid reading month.
I read 20 books in total and I am very happy with everything I read.
:)
So let's just jump into it and talk books.
BOOKS OF NOVEMBER 2022:
1. Cultish by Amanda Motell: I love reading about Cults and everything sinister and off-kilter that goes on in these place.
Why do people join?
What makes perfectly normal people willing to give up their free will and follow orders, often to a messy and fatal end?
I have always liked cults and found them endlessly fascinating. So I started the month with this book that I've wanted to read for a long, long time.
This book talks more about the language of cults. How language is used to lure people in and then control them and make them feel like they belong. Language is also used to constantly build up a feeling of community and othering people outside of the cult.
This was so interesting and full of examples of everything from Scientology and MLM schemes and even seemingly benign fitness regimes and gyms. I loved reading about the former members of the cults and how they were controlled and how it took them, in some cases decades to leave. I think the writer did a great job of showing just how convincing cult leaders can be and how the control is exerted overtime and starts small, so even if you think..well this would never happen to me, you honestly, can't be very sure.
Pick it up if you love cults as much as I do, you will not be disappointed.
4/5
2. A Normal Family by Chrysta Bilton: Kept true to nonfiction and picked up this memoir about a woman growing up in a not so normal family...to put it mildly. Reading this made my head spin.
I did a full review for this one. You can read it here.
4/5
3. More Spooky Stories by Tanushree and Ajay Podder: Even if Halloween was gone, it was still the season for scary and spooky tales. I read the first installment of spooky stories earlier in the year and I loved them so much. It was a perfect book to curl up with on a rainy, cold night and be joyfully spooked. So I went into this one, hoping for something similar.
Hmm...honestly, I left feeling a little underwhelmed.
It was nice enough. But not brilliant.
A mixed bag, and the big twist was painfully obvious.
2.5/5
4. Between You, Me and the Four Walls by Moni Mohsin: I absolutely adore Mohsin and her Social Butterfly books. LOVE THEM. Social Butterfly is a ditsy socialite from Lahore and she is silly, speaks in ridiculous English and is such a colouful and memorable character. It was so nice to be back in her world and see her people and her world again, and hear her often wild takes on world events, politics and The Royal Family. Fun, hilarious and such a good time. This time she also talked about some serious things and it this book made me smile, laugh and tear up.
4/5
5. Ways of Seeing by John Berger: Another nonfiction pick, and one I wanted to read for a while. This is a book about art, about how we see and perceive the world and how we look at art and what images mean and stand for. There is a lot to understand, dive into and absorb. I enjoyed my time with this book. I have never read something like this before and I want to find more books like this.
3/5
6. A Bend in the Ganges by Manohar Malgonkar: A historical fiction that I could not get enough of. This book was sooooo good. It starts of in Punjab, pre-independence and then we see these two young men, both classmates but different in every other way imaginable. It's about them, their ideals, the freedom struggle and two very opposite views on how to fight for freedom. The story also takes us to the dreaded Kalapani prison in the Andamans and I was frankly very on edge and not sure if I was ready to read about the atrocities that were part and parcel of prison life. Thankfully, none of the torture and inhumane treatment is mentioned here in any sort of detail. But we do get a taste of prison life and the cruelties that were meted out to prisoners, some of whom were patriots fighting for independence.
I adored this book and at a look at what makes a hero and idealism and the shifting of loyalties and fickleness of human beings.
So good. So glad I found my way to this book.
5/5
7. Such a Pretty Girl by T. Greenwood: I went into this book thinking it's thriller but this one was so much more. There is a little mystery but this is not a thriller at all.
Set partially in 1977 and 2019, this is a story of child star. A mom and her daughter. A picture found in the wrong hands. An end of innocence and how children are often, far too often sexualised in films and media, I mean what with the damn Balenciaga shit fest that's going on right now! This book makes you stop and think, about family, duty and how often parents impose their dreams and hopes on to their children with disastrous consequences.
Gut wrenching and moving and wonderful.
4/5
8. If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar: A volume of powerful poetry about being a woman, a brown Muslim woman in the West, about loss and grief and some searing ones about Partition. I quite liked them. I have the writer's book sitting on my iPad which I am quite excited to read now. I have a feeling I'll love it.
3/5
9. Friends, Lovers and The Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry: I love Friends. I LOVE it. I have seen each episode multiple times and I know the dialogues by heart. I am that level obsessed. So I had to read this, plus I love Chandler Bing..sadly though I don't think I quite love Matthew Perry very much. I am going to keep it real: Dude gives a massive asshole vibe. He comes across a little too full of his comic genius and I don't know his tone just rubbed me the wrong way.
Nope.
Not good.
1/5
10. The Mendicant Prince by Aruna Chakravarti: If you are Bengali, you know all about the lore and legend of the Sanyasi Raja. A Zamindar..well a Prince, falls ill and dies in Darjeeling. Away from him palace and his people. He is quickly cremated, only rumours swirl that he wasn't exactly cremated properly, jackals made away with his remains. Worse still rumours of him being poisoned float around.
12 years later he comes back.
Is it really him?
What happened to him?
A long court case goes on and on to prove his identity. The British have their own selfish reasons to deny him his place. His wife and her brother have their own reasons..
For years people have wondered about him and who he really was...When I saw this book, I knew I had to get it and read and I knew I would love it.
And I did.
It's so well-written and perfectly researched and I loved it.
5/5
11. Home Body by Rupi Kaur: Another volume of poetry. I went into this a little apprehensive, I was sorta sure I wouldn't enjoy it, I wasn't exactly a big fan of Kaur's debut. But...this one took me by surprise...in a good way. I read it in one session and really loved it. She talks about things I could relate to, anxiety and not feeling enough and some very heavy things...like abuse and assault and self-harm.
TWs for pretty much everything.
I am glad I read it and went in with an open mind.
4/5
12. The Silent Woman by Minka Kent: A thriller that I read late one night as palette cleanser and sadly it was nothing to write home about. So obvious and every twist was easy to see coming from a mile off.
Meh.
2/5
13. Secluded Cabin Sleep Six by Lisa Unger: I usually love Lisa Unger's writing and her thrillers keep me on the edge of my seat and very invested. This one sadly felt a little flat. There were tooo many characters and too much going on and the ending was just a little too chaotic and kinda unsatisfying.
2/5
14. Amma's Pickle Collection by Debeshi Guptoo: A short collection of stories that I enjoyed over a cup of coffee. Really nicely done and all the stories were good. Read this via Kindle Unlimited.
4/5
Then I read some Romance Books via KU too. These were fun and all of them were 3/5 reads.
15. Undertow by Sam Mariano
16. Throne of Power by Rina Kent
17. God of Wrath "
18. Ghosted by J.H. Darhower
19. Friends Like These by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez: A YA mystery that I was rolling my eyes at the whole time.
Like meh and so OTT. Like we've all been in toxic friendships we just didn't go around killing people. Get a damn grip.
2/5
20. Everything The Light Touches by Janice Pariat: My last read for November. I am technically still reading this and I have around the last 150 pages left and I will do a proper review once it's over but so far in it's quite lovely.
We go from present day Shillong, to Calcutta in 1925, to Italy in 1776 and back and forth..
So well written and beautiful.
Can't wait to finish it.
~~~
So that's everything I read in November.
Nice.
I am happy with how this month shaped up and I mostly enjoyed everything I read.
Hope you had a good November too.
:)
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