Let’s cat(ch) you a book

JSPF Recommends — Books for the New Year 2022 — Part 1

To keeping your neurons buzzing into the new year, here’s a scintillating collection of books in English and Tamil hand-picked by the Jitheshraj Scholarship for promising freshmen team. Happy reading!

You can click on the book covers to find reviews and details.

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Lowland

Jhumpa Lahiri

Genre: Historical fiction

Recommended by: Siddhant Chandra, JSPF team member and past mentor

It is a beautifully written book. What a work of art! Lahiri has reached an insane level of artistry in this book. Lahiri has an extensive immigrant experience — and that becomes a fertile ground of a lot of her fiction. The story examines a greatly intimate details that intersections of the political and the personal and shows how quickly the political and become so personal. The novel starts out from the beginnings of the Naxalite uprising in West Bengal in 1967. In a backdrop as fertile as that of early post-Independence India, Lahiri brings out her genius of analysing the minutiae of relationships with extreme insight and its intersections with poverty, radicalism, death, violence etc. Lahiri’s characters are vivid and she has structured the novel with precision and restraint. I am also recommending this book because of my love for Kolkata and how this book’s detailing of Kolkata caught my attention immediately. If you, like me, love Kolkata/Calcutta, you must read this book. Caution: the book is suffused with sadness and grief — you might find yourself in tears and despair while reading through it at some points.

“Most people trusted in the future, assuming that their preferred version of it would unfold. Blindly planning for it, envisioning things that weren’t the case. This was the working of the will. This was what gave the world purpose and direction. Not what was there but what was not.”

Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit

Men Explain Things To Me

Rebecca Solnit

Genre: Feminist theory, Media culture

Recommended by: Ashwini Petchiappan, JSPF mentor

This essay collection has become a touchstone of the feminist movement — it led to the term ‘mansplaining’ being coined. Starting with an incident where she had her own book explained to her by an old white male, Solnit takes on patriarchy with a burning clear lens. The male tendency for (ignorantly) explaining things to women, talking over them, silencing them, and then on to violence. She lays bare how micro-aggressions in daily life contribute to a global rape culture How violence is an authoritarian way of control, and gas-lighting a way of painting women as unreliable witnesses of their own lives. Solint poses a question: why isn’t violence against women treated as a crisis, when it causes more deaths in women than major diseases, wars, and accidents put together?

“There’s no good reason (and many bad reasons) colleges spend more time telling women how to survive predators than telling the other half of their students not to be predators.”

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Shantaram

Gregory David Roberts

Genre: Surrealist fiction

Recommended by: Vishnu, JSPF panelist

This book has helped me improve when I’ve been down and anguished at some stage in life. I recommend it for the variety in thought and the meaning it brings into your life.

“Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears.”

Mythos by Stephen Fry

Mythos

Stephen Fry

Genre: Mythology

Recommended by: Lakshmi S., JSPF panelist, team member, and past mentor

Mythos is absolutely delightful and it brought me back to reading after a long time. Fry’s exceptionally engaging storytelling ability apart, the joy of uncovering the richness of another culture’s stories was a delightful experience.

“Gaia visited her daughter Mnemosyne, who was busy being unpronounceable.”

Veerayuga Nayagan Velpari by S. Venkatesan

Veerayuga Nayagan Velpari (Tamil)

S. Venkatesan

Genre: Historical fiction

Recommended by: Nandhakishore C. S., JSPF finalist and team member

A fantastic novel for our Tamil readers. S. Venkatesan is a Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer.

Beyond The Last Blue Mountain by R.M. Lala

The Joy Of Achievement by R.M. Lala

Beyond The Last Blue Mountain & The Joy of Achievement

R. M. Lala

Genre: Biography

Recommended by: Darshan Maru, JSPF finalist and alumnus

The books talk about events, conversations and relationships in the incredible life of industrialist J.R.D. Tata. They are a mesmerizing read journeying through India of 1930s to modern day, revolutionizing air-travel, rewriting business ethics and JRD’s love for India and it’s people. Every new turn of leaf has an aroma of inspiration, dignity, compassion and an undying human spirit.

“The one thing that has made life worthwhile for me is the feeling of being esteemed. Being loved is a great feeling.”

Educated by Tara Westover

Educated

Tara Westover

Genre: Memoir

Recommended by: Himanshi Gupta, JSPF finalist, alumnus and team member

Educated is a story of transformation and self-discovery of a young woman Tara Westover who trudges an extraordinarily unusual life path. Westover is a powerful storyteller. Her first-person account of the memoir covers her journey towards knowledge and enlightenment. It is an unflinching account of love and brutality, of the power that people who love us hold to define who we are. But it is also a story of a brave young woman who ultimately discovers herself as an individual. Educated is a journey of self-discovery propelled by education and the power of knowledge.

“We are all of us more complicated than the roles we are assigned in the stories other people tell.”

“An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.”

The Satepur Moonstone by Sujata Massey

The Perveen Mistry Investigations

Sujata Massey

Genre: Crime fiction, Cultural drama

Recommended by: Vivek Shah, JSPF panelist and team member

The protagonist Perveen Mistry is a female lawyer in British India (the only one) who is on the back foot in terms of her intersectionality on so many levels. A third culture kid viewpoint of a girl who comes to terms with the differing cultural ties of each of her family members as she visits all her families to be able to understand herself better.

“‘I don’t think much of such plants as medicine.’ Dr. Andrews’s face was disapproving. ‘Every plant grows differently. One cannot control for strength of dosage.’”

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

Genre: Science

Recommended by: Anushree, JSPF finalist

Sapiens answers one of the most fundamental questions, the “why”. For a book that spans multiple domains and the vast majority of history, it’s a relatively light read. Written with the common reader in mind, it discusses every concept from the bare basics and leads us to realise the answer instead of simply stating it. While it may not be “life-changing”, it adds value to our understanding of ourselves as a species.

“There are no gods, no nations, no money and no human rights, except in our collective imagination.”

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee

Genre: Fiction, Classic

Recommended by: Naresh, JSPF finalist

It teaches inclusivity in a subtle form, not even touching the subject or words about it outright, but through the eyes of the innocence of a young girl who plays a pivotal role in it. The prejudice and injustice that has happened and is happening to the black community and the albinos. It is is a must read to gain perspectives, and leaves you with empathy and knowledge that you don’t know what the other is going through.

“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”

If you loved these books, find more recommendations in Part 2.

If you feel bedazzled by the brilliance of all these books, and need help picking one, here’s the JSPF Librarian to your rescue. You can select books based on their setting (time or location), genre, publication year, or author details.

About the Author:

Ashwini Petchiappan is the JSPF Librarian and a JSPF Mentor for 2020–21 application cycle. A graduate of NIT Trichy and TU Delft, Ashwini brings an unparalleled creativity and a hand-drawn flair to all her works. When she is not at JSPF (or writing about penguins), she is a sea turtle researcher at the Dakshin Foundation.