“The Twentieth Wife” by Indu Sundaresan
Part fictional, part historical, on the love affair between Meherunissa and Prince Salim. Fascinating!
The other one in the same genre by her is The Feast of Roses. Absolutely a delight to read over a lazy holiday.
“The Blind Assassin” by Margaret Atwood
Clearly one of the most compelling and well plotted books out there.
Our Book Club
We have been part of a fabulous book club, having just completed 7 years this August. We have a regular group of members, ranging from 5 to 7 people, with the odd visiting mom (as in, one of our moms) making a (valuable) appearance. In fact, one of our member’s mom is a PhD in English Literature, and suggested a few stories from “Swimming Lessons” by Rohinton Mistry. She was then able to offer a professional critique – it was such a treat! We find our group size to be perfect. It’s big enough to generate divergent viewpoints, yet it’s small enough to actually get heard!
Our book club has spanned several genres, starting with Amy Tan’s “The Bonesetter’s Daughter” (Bindiya loved the first few Amy Tan’s she read, but by the Bonesetter’s Daughter she was plumb BORED). We read “Shalimar the Clown” by Salman Rushdie, with great success (as in: we all read it and mostly loved it). We also attempted his “Midnight’s Children”, without similar success. Most of us, despite loving his style, couldn’t finish the book! He’s so brilliant, yet gets so carried away that it’s hard to keep up, despite Herculean efforts. Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible” met with unanimous approval. It was such a complex book, and each character so well evolved. A personal fave for both of us was Arundhati Roy’s “God of Small Children”. Didn’t care for “The Devil Wears Prada” (but that made such a FUN movie – highly recommended!).
Interestingly enough, one of our most exciting and charged discussions came from one of the least popular books in our club (”Jemima J” by Janet Jones). Yet another endeavor was the critically acclaimed, Booker prize winning “Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai but alas, a disappointment in many ways. It was the immigrant experience re-told, with no new ideas or characters, or anything else, that makes a book stand out from others of its kind.
If you enjoy a good read (and who doesn’t?), stop by often. We promise you an interesting book banter!
Need to get a Bookclub started?
Ours was started by a bunch of playgroup moms, who decided to form a bookclub that meets once a month or so, and get some intellectual stuff in once the babies were in bed! Our suggestion is to talk to other moms that either belong to a common playgroup, or even moms in your kids’ schools….many a bookclub has formed that way, too. Keep it small, 5-8 people is optimal, and get a schedule going, to make sure everyone keeps to a timetable. There are great places to download bookclub ideas and discussion points, such as the Barnes and Noble site. Then all you need to do is get reading! Let us know if you have any questions/suggestions.
Baby Books
Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (A lovely book to end the day with!)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle (Manisha’s older son ate all his meals with this book for a very long time)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle ( A delightful book that is loved by babies and pre schoolers!)
Toddler Books
Dinosaur Roar by Paul Stickland
My Big Dinosaur Book by Roger Priddy
Dinosaurs Stomp by Paul Stickland (A very enjoyable book written in verse. It was greatly loved by our kids)
The Amazing Adventures of Hercules from the Usborne Young Reading Series
How Do Dinosaurs Play with their Friends? by Jane Yolen( and all the rest in the series)
Books for Preschoolers
Anar Books- small, paperback books on the Indian mythology like Children’s Ramayana and Naughty Krishna. Easy to read and understand, these are fun beginner books for kids.
National Geographic’s Little Kids Magazine is wonderful for all young explorers.
The Lady Bird India series are simple and easy to read for a beginner reader. On your next trip to India, get a handful of these.
Books for the 6 to 12 year olds
Maya Running by Anjali Banerjee is on the American Library Association’s “2007 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults Nominations”. “The small golden statue of the Hindu elephant god, Ganesh, hardly resembles an all-knowing Granter of Wishes. But Ganesh is more powerful than he looks, and he’s about to send a young girl on a magical adventure of self-discovery.”
Also by Anjali Banerjee – Looking for Bapu, “a moving story about surviving an unexpected, shocking loss…[Anu's] mature realization that his grandfather lives on in him is believably portrayed.”
How I Taught My Grandmother to Read and Other Stories, by Sudha Murty. She is Narayan Murty’s wife and a personality to boot. My friend brought this book from India for her son. He enjoyed reading it thorougly. Find out more.
