I recently read The Idiot as well as its sequel Either/Or by Elif Batuman, and I found myself relating to those books on another level. The Idiot follows Selin, a Turkish-American student at Harvard as she tries to figure out life, language and her own interests and ideas. She befriends Svetlana, a Serbian student in … More The Idiot and Either/Or by Elif Batuman

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the story of Changez, a Pakistani man in the US who had once embraced a Westernized lifestyle only to see the illusion of the American dream fall apart. I thought the story made some interesting commentary, but overall, i found it rather underwhelming. The writing style was somehow rather bland and … More The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Last year, I had read Bhaunri by Anukrti Upadhyay and loved it. So, I went into this one with high expectations. And by the time I finished reading it, I had mixed feelings. Kintsugi is set in two countries-India and Japan. It follows Haruko, a young Japanese woman who travels to Rajasthan to learn the … More Kintsugi by Anukriti Upadhyay

Nightfall is an expansion of the short story by the same name written by Asimov. Asimov has been quite a hit-or-miss author for me, and I hadn’t read anything by Silverberg before, so I was keen to know whether I’d like this one. And I did, mostly. Nightfall is set on a planet with six … More Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg

I just finished this YA SFF book that has been described as ‘Pacific Rim’ meets The Handmaid’s Tale’ and that is a combination you wouldn’t expect to work, but somehow it does. So, set in a futuristic world inspired by Chinese history, this book follows Wu Zetian (a character inspired by the Chinese Empress). In … More Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Much Ado About You by Samantha Young is a fun, light-hearted romance that follows Evie who after a bad experience at work as well as in her love life, decides to take a break. She decides to travel to England, where she gets a chance to rent a bookstore in a small village and runs … More Much Ado About You by Samantha Young

So, this is the third book in the Vorkosigan saga, but I believe it can also be read as a standalone, which was what I did. I hadn’t read the previous books, but now I really want to! Athos is a planet inhabited only by men. The inhabitants of Athos believe that women are evil … More Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold

So I just finished reading this book, and it has become a new favourite in no time. Seriously, this book was amazing. This book follows Shashi and Tara, a mother and a daughter in India. Shashi is dealing with the loss of her husband, Robi. A graduate in philosophy who ended up teaching at a … More The Illuminated by Anindita Ghoshe

I picked this one up on a whim. I like reading books from different parts of the world and this one was from Singapore, a place I had not read much from. And this was a light-hearted, quirky tale that was a lot of fun to read. Impractical Uses of Cake follows Sukhin, a 35-year-old … More Impractical Uses of Cake by Yeoh Jo-Ann

YA tends to be a hit or miss for me, and this one was truly a hit in my opinion! It had been touted as the book that was ‘bringing vampires back’, and this was better than most of the vampire books from back when the vampire craze was at its peak. It had a … More The Beautiful by Renee Ahideh