Top 10 Books

 

Anyone remember that I plan to read 100 books this year? Yes, I have taken up this challenege to finish at least two books every week. So far it is going great. Though, I have no idea how this is going to end, but I am quite enjoying it. Plus, the added self-isolation has worked to my benefit. Now, I am not saying that what is going around is good, but what can we do?

 

Well, I do have a suggestion of what we can do. As long as this quarantine lasts, we close ourselves and read. Today I am going to share my top ten books of the year so far. Yes, it will be top ten, don’t ask me to make it a shorter list, and never ask me to pick one. I can’t.

 

Dear Ijeawele, or A feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

“Being a feminist is like being pregnant, either you are or you are not.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The book is short, crisp and to the point. The writer has been asked a simple question, “How to raise your child as a feminist?”

The answer comes in the form of this book, a short, one-hour read, merely fifteen suggestions on how and what to do.

My take? Well, if she says it, you ought to listen to this woman. This is not how you should raise a daughter if you want her to be a feminist. This is how you should raise any child, boy or girl. This is how you should raise your child irrespective of the term feminism.

I have seen so many people telling each other that her book, ‘We Should All Be Feminsit’ is a must read for everyone. I agree. You should read that and it just follows below on my list. But if you want to change not just yourself, but the people around you too, you should read this. Any person, feminist or not, reader or nor, should read this book. Even if you just press pause on scrolling for a while, you will finish this up. An hour devoted to this is going to make a lot of difference. This will change things, at least my positive side believes so.

Everyone should read it, even if you are not planning on children now, even if you don’t ever plan to raise another human being, you should read this, that’s that. I love it more than any other book because it changes you and it changes the future generations, it changes the root of how and what we think on so many issues, it changes the general norm, thus making an effort on changing something that we have miserably failed at doing for so many ages.

Read it now. Set aside any book that you are reading (okay, I know that sounds harsh) just take a break then, but read it, please!

 

 

Becoming by Michelle Obama

 

There is pretty much nothing new that I might have to say for this book. Many readers have praised the book in all means possible and I can only stress it again. Becoming is an exceptional memoir and I can promise that even if you don’t like non-fiction you will be hooked and hanging to every last syllable of her words.

Before I started it, I thought I will enjoy only the later parts of the book, when I get to know the hardships of a man and woman of colour who become the first president and first lady respectively. But now that I have done it, read and gulped down every word of it, I realise I clung to the first two sections of the book more. It was beyond brilliant, every character, every small incident makes you realise how we perceive things makes a lot of difference.

Michelle Obama, first lady or not, has become an exceptionally strong idol for me. She has left a mark as a child, infant, teen, woman, wife, mother and the first lady. The hardships that she bore, the sacrifices that she made so that her husband could become the president, sometimes bringing up the children alone, the things that she has done in the office, all of them shows her resilience and sincerity.

Also, I loved her honesty. The faith and the power that she uses in her words stun me. The end of the memoir and how truthfully she puts her thoughts on show about the future is a sign of the kind of woman and a human that she is. And that is what is called freedom of speech, if you know what I mean.

I adore her for the simplicity, of an ordinary woman having an inordinary journey.

To more ordinary women having inordinary journeys.

 

 

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

We should all be feminists, and we should all read this. That is that. The sheer apt facts that the small book brings forward, is shocking. The few pages that it owns are enough to slap you with the kinds of truth that as humans we tend to take for granted then make it a habit to differentiate between genders. I could not stop taking notes and was rapt in the simple language and the simplest of questions that the writer brings forward as a woman and as a human.

 

 

Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson

 

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson is about two ten-year olds who have lost their mother and their father does not want to be involved too much, who is now otherwise, happily married and has another son of his own. The uniqueness comes in when you get to know that these two kids can combust. Yes, you heard me right, these two ten-year olds have the super power to put themselves on fire, without an inch of harm to themselves.

The plot is definitely unique and if read with an open mind, you will enjoy every bit of the humour, the trauma, the loneliness and the small incidents with which the story proceeds.

Somehow, as the climax appeared and I turned pages with far greater zeal, I just fell in love with the kids and Lillian. The way the book ends, or rather shows sign of the end, I much appreciated what was happening. With tears and smiles, I loved the two darling kiddos who actually knew their superpower, and even more aware were they of what to use them in their favour.

You don’t cut stars when the book gives you a lump in your throat, when your heart brims with love, and when your eyes have tears and you just know all of it is fiction.

 

 

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

 

Oh, I love Gilbert. I just love this woman who brings out such strong, unafraid characters to life through her books that she makes me fall in love with all of them. And there is only so much love in me, with all of her books and these strong willed women. Of course it wasn’t Eat Pray Love, but it was Elizabeth Gilbert and she never fails to woo you with her charming, lucid, funny prose.

 

 

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

 

It had been so long, so, so, so long since I had read something so beautiful! A complete five starrer, this book left me nothing but a sense of exaggerated pleasure. I completely fell in love with Shams and Ella, both from ages, eight hundred years apart and yet the one thing connecting them. The novel brings forward the true meaning of love in an absolutely breathtaking style.

 

 

Three women lisa taddeo

 

My heart goes out to them, all three of them. Three women is an enthralling novel. I don’t know what to say. The preface itself was so enchanting, so brutally right that I knew then itself that it was going to be a great read. Grrreeeeeaaaat.

How can someone cheat you after trying to make you believe that he will leave everything for you? All that matters is you. How can someone not want to kiss his wife, not even want to touch her? How can someone be so desperate for love, for a simple loving touch? How can just 30 minutes of casual sex make someone feel good, may be it can when you have no one and someone finally pays a little attention to you, I think even those five minutes, despite being fake can make someone feel important.

It is depressing. It is heart breaking

Lisa’s desperation, a mother of two kids, to just be kissed, a simple french kiss, a woman who hasn’t been touched by her husband in 11 years. Maggie’s desire, exploitation and heartbrokenness by her only love, and Sloane’s vivid and various sexual desires and occurrences, all will rapt you and let you know about women’s sexuality, their desperation, their depression, and their loneliness.

I loved the book, and I can keep saying love all over again. The novel is mesmerising, throwing light on different shades of a woman and how men rule her from time to time, according to their needs. For a change you will read all about her needs and what she wants- emotionally and biologically.
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There is only one thing, I thought missing or wrongly portrayed. The book is said to have been mostly about desires, but I found it more about exploitation. But the prose, oh my!

 

 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

 

Not prepared, nope, not at the least was I prepared to read something so sad, something so lonely. But the book, the plot and the writing was so artistry yet so plain that I could not put it down.

At 30 years of age Eleanor Oliphant is lonely and scarred from her past. She is unfit for social gatherings and does not know what to do or how to behave in a lot of situations. She keeps saying she is fine.

She is so lonely, she yearns for human touch. The story itself is so depressing that I could not stop myself from taking a moment to compose myself after every few pages.

I only wonder when we will start talking to people who care about us instead of just saying, ‘Yes, I am fine.’

PS: Mummy was a surprise, though midway I did think what exactly proves true.

 

 

 

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

 

It’s been on my list for quite a long time and now I finally managed to read this. No regrets, only awe!

 

 

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

 

Okay, this one, I am currently reading and am 75% done. I think I love it so much that I don’t want this to end and so I am pressing pause on it. But whatever the end, it is on my top ten so far. This is a saga! An amazing saga! Despite the length you have to read it. The contents page is written in rhymes? Do you think anyone else puts so much though in the index section? No! But the author does so and you have to give him the chance. I was sold just by the content and the word of thanks, the length did not come in any way. If you pick this up, be prepared to laugh, cry, and feel so much more all through the 1500 pages of the book.

 

Okay, that was it for today. A small bookish post. For more reviews and to know what I am reading visit my Goodreads page. (Link on the menu)

 

Tell me in the comments section below if you have read any of this or you plan to read after seeing it here!