We are three months into 2021 and it’s time to take stock of things in life. COVID-19 is still here, Europe is going back into sporadic lockdowns and we are still asking–WHEN WILL THIS END?
But it’s not all gloom and doom. On the personal front, with a new job where I sometimes get paid to write (yay!), a kid back in school and my first shot of COVID vaccine around the corner, I would say things are looking up.
However, it is a long road till things truly get back to normal (and who knows what that will mean anymore) and reading continues in full swing–something that I am grateful for.
As we wrap up the first quarter of this year, I looked at the eleven books that I read so far and these three floated to the top of the list. They either made me happy or contemplative; both desirable results when it comes to reading books.
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Photo Credit: Goodreads.com
If there is ever a book of our times, then this is it. Two families isolated in a home in the middle of nowhere, an invisible world disaster with no end in sight. Their best bet is to stay where they are. Sound like the year that was, doesn’t it?
Amanda and Clay, along with their two children, head out of New York city and busy lives to a staycation somewhere in the Hamptons (not the ultra-rich kind). The appeal of the house is in the paradox of its modern comforts and medieval countryside isolation. They are just settling in when one night, there is a knock on the door and an older black couple is standing at their doorstep. Ruth and George enter the narrative, as owners of the fancy house who are running away from a power outage in New York and came to the first place they could think of.
As hours pass, things become clear and fuzzy at the same time. They have electricity here but no internet. Without access to information, everyone is helpless as little babies. The plan is to stick around together till they know more. But one thing is sure, something is very wrong with the world.
Already commissioned by Netflix to be a movie, Alam’s apocalyptic novel is unlike anything that I have read before. It subtly touches on class and race issues, taps into the anxieties of every loving parent and humanity’s existential fears.
“If they didn’t know how it would end, with night, with more terrible noise from the top of Olympus, with bombs, with disease, with blood, with happiness, with deer or something else watching them from the darkened woods — well, wasn’t that true of every day?”
― Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind
The Way of The Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Book 1 of the Stormlight Archives by the unusually prolific fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson hits it out of the park on all fronts. Entertaining, addictive, imaginative and emotionally devastating (yes, that is a good thing!).
The Way Of Kings is set in the original world of Roshar, a place with higher than usual crustacean creatures, desert like vegetation, multi-racial society, strange gender-based social norms, stringent caste systems and of course, warring kingdoms.
Written in typical POV narrative style that is all the rage in fantasy fiction, Sanderson transports us to the heart of conflict on the Shattered Plains of in the middle of bloody yet meaningless war between the Alethi kingdom and the Parshendi people. Roshar suffers from a troubled and brutal history of angry gods, mad Heralds and traitorous Knight Radiants, people powered by ideals and the forces of nature.
Sanderson gives insight into the political, moral and social dilemmas of this world through three principal characters– Kaladin, the slave and rebel, Shallan Davar, the lying scholar and Dalinar Kholin, the jaded war general.
All three come with heavy emotional baggage and with their struggles, Sanderson explores the true cost of war, the importance of ideals and morality and the meaning of leadership and valor.
“And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings
Stormlight Archives is one series from the several based in Cosmere, a universe of complex magical systems created by Sanderson. There are many ways to enter this world. I started with The Way of Kings, and I loved every minute.
If you want to escape in good writing, captivating characters and philosophical conundrums, then this is the book for you.
Last Nocturne by M.J Trow
Photo Credit: Goodreads.com
It is 1878, and a dead body of a woman is discovered on the bench of Cremorne Gardens. But what is truly worrying is the book on birth control carefully placed on her lap.
Intrigued? I was.
As an avid reader of murder mysteries, I am always on the lookout for the next fun series to dive into. A chance recommendation on Kindle, and I was completely transfixed by the detective duo of Matthew Grand and James Batchelor — Enquiry Agents extraordinaire.
In Last Nocturne, the two have been asked to look into the personal feud between painter James Whistler and art-critic, John Ruskin. Their foray into the modern art world intersects with an increasing body count of young girls at the Cremorne Gardens. Is there a serial murderer on hand? What is the connection between the murdered girls and the painters? Will they know enough to stop the next murder?
M.J Trow’s Grand & Bachelor series satisfies both the mystery reader and history buff in me. Trow was a history teacher all his life, and his love for the subject shows. He weaves historical characters into the fictional narrative with surprising results. On one page, you will find yourself in the parlor of John Everett Millais, and on another Oscar Wilde will saunter through the pages as a potential murder suspect. Anything can happen!
Matthew Grand (an American civil war veteran) & James Batchelor (an ex-journalist) share enough bromance to lighten up the pages, though the female characters could be improved upon.
The mystery in itself is not out of this world, but Last Nocturne guarantees a few hours of diversion.
