All the amazing Books I read in September and October 2022

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First, and foremost excuse me for being away for a while. Because as I shared in my last post in August, we had a baby, Yay!!! She is now two months old (already), and we have a routine I do manage to squeeze out some time for the blog and for my reading. Because frankly, I love writing posts for you about my reading journey and sharing my thoughts about some great reads and some not-so-great books.

On the reading front, I did manage a few books amongst the frantic crying and diaper changing, but they were mostly kindle editions. But since the number is small I decided to combine my September and October reads.

But hey I completed my Goodreads Challenge for 52 books to be read in the year, with two more months to go. Wohoo!!

September was a good mix of mythology, self-help, rom-com, and memoirs. While October has been all about spooky, dark mysteries or thrillers.

So let’s just jump right into the books with which ones were a hit and which ones were a miss.

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Recent Reads September 2022

Liberation of Sita by Volga

How many times have we have heard the story of the epic Ramayana? How Rama returned triumphant to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile and after slaying the almighty demon king - Ravana. And then he continued to rule the heart of his subjects with a just and kind rule. Isn't that the way the story goes?

But what about Sita on whom the entire Ramayana happened? Was Rama just and kind and fair to her? Or what of the humiliation of Surpankha who was the very spark that ignited the fire of revenge and retaliation in Ravana's heart and he decided to kidnap Sita.

Why did Laxmana's wife not accompany him to the exile like Sita did for Rama?

Did we ever go deep into the mindsets of the women in Ramayana? Not all of their stories turned out as glorious and illustrious as Rama's.

A short read to put your thinking gears into work.

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to be Calm in a Busy WorldBy Haemin Sunim, Chi-Young Kim (Translator), Youngcheol Lee (Illustrator)

Haemin Sunim is a Korean Buddhist monk who shares his first-hand experiences about life in this practical guide to mindfulness.

The teachings are applicable to people worldwide and belonging to all religions. They are simple reminders to simple things in life that we are aware of but have forgotten in the daily hustle of life. The book also has beautiful illustrations that reflect the message of the book.

Sunim shares some much-needed wisdom about – maintaining relationships, finding true love, trying to be happy, taking control of your emotions, getting out of low feelings and shares some insights about loving yourself.

Each chapter opens with a short essay followed by a series of short messages/quotes that are actually words of wisdom /advice addressed directly to the reader.

“When your mind rests, the world also rests.”

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

We begin the book with a wedding. And what a wedding!

Olive and Ami are twin sisters. Identical twins but unidentical in every other way. They are poles apart. Ami is organized and eternally winning things, while Olive is constantly unlucky. Ami is getting married, but as luck would have it the entire wedding party gets food poisoned and will take at least a fortnight to feel better. Meanwhile, Olive who escaped the poisoning wrath due to a food allergy, is asked to go on their honeymoon to Maui, all expenses paid, with the best man – Ethan Thomas, who also managed to avoid eating at the buffet and is therefore safe from all the puking.

And Olive and Ethan hate each other. What follows is an extremely hilarious romantic comedy that is completely charming and will sweep you off your feet. This story is meant for anyone who feels unlucky with love.

Our Moon Has Blood Clots : The Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits by Rahul Pandita

Our moon has Blood Clots is an eye-opening book. Kashmiri Pandits living in the valley were unjustly, brutally driven out of their houses for no valid reasons and these numbers go by lakhs. And sadly no one, not even the Government were able to help them, save them or stop the injustice from happening. It is only now several years of the dark events that the victims are slowly able to open up about what happened to them and yet they can never go back to what was rightfully their own house. 

The book itself is divided into 5 parts – the first part details the history of Kashmir and the history of how the Kashmiri Pandits began to be targeted. The second section deals with how Rahul’s family managed to escape the barbarism and find quarters that were extremely insufficient for them, but as they say, beggars can’t be choosers. The third section describes how the massacre escalated and how hundreds of Pandit families were being wiped off for no good reason. The fourth part is the narrative of Ravi’s father, detailing how he came to be a part of Kashmir and the events leading to his son’s death. The last part deals with the present where Rahul is now a journalist and wants to interview some Kashmiri Pandits whose narrative is critical to the events. 

A poignant and powerful memoir that will forever be etched in the minds of the readers.

Recent Reading October 2022

The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong

The Good Son is set in Korea and takes us through the coming of age of a psychopath. It is not a mystery per se, but it definitely is a riveting and absolutely page-turning read.

Yu-jin wakes up one day to find himself covered in blood. The entire house has blood marks and down the staircase of his room, he finds a body in a pool of blood. The body belongs to someone very close to him. What happened? He remembers nothing.

If he reports the killing, he believes he might be accused. So he starts investigating on his own. Memory flashes, diaries, his past, and the evidence all lead him to only one impossible conclusion.

Recommend this to readers looking for good Asian literature.   

Confessions by Kanae Minato

A surprisingly powerful book.

A high school teacher has lost her young daughter. She knows she was murdered by her own students. How did this happen, and why? What purpose would some students have? And more importantly, now the teacher wants her revenge.

The character study of this very unique plotline is amazing. We are taken through the narratives and minds of a number of students and the perpetrators through chapters. And at the end of every chapter, there are some serious twists.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this amazing Japanese piece of literature.

I recommend it to anyone looking to explore new writers and Japanese literature.

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

Absurd. Weird. Outrageous. Strange, very, very strange.

These are the first words that come to my mind. There are themes of child abuse, incest, murder, and cannibalism. So I think you get the gist of what to expect. It’s a seriously dark book.

Natsuki is a girl who believes she’s an alien. Her mom cares more about her elder sister than she ever cared about her. Natsuki loves her cousin Yuu and going to her grandmother’s house in a remote village away from Tokyo and meeting her cousin there is all she ever looks forward to. She believes that the city is a factory. A factory for manufacturing babies and her wants to prepare herself for it. But much before she is prepared her tutor takes advantage of her, and her mother doesn’t believe her and that breaks her.

I’ve never read a stranger book. Her alien theory is not only believed by her cousin and her future husband but they too start believing that they are aliens. I get weird writing but I just couldn’t see the point of this, it was so all over the place. Don’t recommend it.

Verity by Colleen Hoover

Quite a remarkable story.

Lowen is looking for a writing job and she lands the meatiest one available. Verity Crawford is a bestselling writer of a book series but she cannot complete her last 3 books because of an accident that has her injured. Jeremy, Verity’s husband is looking for a writer who will be able to complete his wife’s successful series.

Lowen is thrilled to accept the job. But once she enters the Crawford home things change. She accidentally finds Verity’s autobiographical manuscript and its contents are catastrophic for their marriage. In spite of that Lowen wants to share the manuscript with Jeremy because she has begun to get feelings for Jeremy and the truth will make it impossible for Jeremy to continue loving his wife.   

A must-read mystery with a twisted end that will have mystery fans gasping.

Next up we have non-fiction November and for it I plan to read some self-help books, some memoirs, and some true stories of success. So stay tuned and till then keep reading!