The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Daniel Sempere is a young boy mourning the loss that the Spanish Civil War brought in his life. Trying to live with the memory of his late mother, his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a secret library where only a select few are welcomed. Traditionally, those who come to the library must choose to take a book and keep it guarded with them for the rest of their lives. Daniel chooses a book named ‘The Shadow of the Wind’, by Julian Carax. Engrossed in the story, Daniel wants to read more books by Carax, but he finds out that the author is very elusive and there’s a mystery involving one Lain Coubert, who is hell-bent on destroying Carax’s books. In his bid to get to the roots of the matter, Daniel stumbles upon a story that will alter his life.
Reading Lolita in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi
Azar Nafisi writes about her time as a professor at the University of Tehran during the tumultuous times of revolution. While the laws mandated women to wear veils, she refused, and was forced to quit for that. But that didn’t stop her from seeking out selected students to teach them the workings of Western literature. Nafisi, with her students, delves deeper on the contradictory ways of the Western societies and the world they live in, and yet, they also find a resemblance that encourages them to seek different facets of their culture, and indulge in self-expression. This is a story where the characters risk stepping over the boundaries to immerse themselves in the world of literature.
How to Read a Novelist
by John Freeman
Ever, after finishing a book, wondered about the person responsible for writing that masterpiece? Ever wanted to decode an author, go to the roots of what s/he meant in that particular line and moment? Ever felt that you could do with knowing more about the author than what is written at the back (or front) cover? This is the idea behind John Freeman’s How to Read a Novelist. For the past decade, Freeman has talked to many authors about their work and themselves, which he has neatly compiled in this book. This book could be your ultimate guide to reading a novel and getting a deeper understanding of the stories you read.
Hamro Kitab: For the book-loving society
The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
An unexpected letter arrives for Margaret Lea. The letter requests her to be present at the residence of Vida Winter, a famous novelist who is known for her elusiveness. After avoiding the prying eyes of journalists and reporters for decades, Winter wants Lea, an amateur biographer, to pen her biography. Before deciding anything, Lea reads Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation, immediately catching her attention with its spellbinding stories and the missing thirteenth tale. She decides to meet the author if only to decline the offer, but the author promises her stories of dark family secrets and Lea is drawn in the seductive web. Together they face the ghosts of the past and confront it.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer,
Annie Barrows
Juliet Ashton is looking for a muse for her next book. She is known as a writer of a humorous column under the pseudonym Izzy Bickerstaff. After the Second World War ravaged her home, she longs to write about something a little more serious. And she finds her subject in the most unimaginable of places – in a letter inside a book. Through a series of correspondence, she finds out about the life of the people in Guernsey, a farming community, and their struggle inflicted by the German occupation during the war. As she examines and attempts to write about the lives of people in Guernsey, her own life takes an unlikely turn.
The Polysyllabic Spree
by Nick Hornby
Among the many books, you might have a list that you want to read once in a while. You might have bought a few, borrowed some, and even taken one or two without telling your friends. But which of these have you actually read? And do you read something totally unexpected when you do end up reading something? If this is your case, then you might find Nick Hornby’s The Polysyllabic Spree to be somewhat relatable. The book is a collection of the author’s columns in The Believer from September 2003 to November 2004. There he lists books he bought vs. the books he
ended up reading, and does a sort of reading habit analysis based on that. The book is the first of the four books in the series.
Cover to Covers
by Alexandrea Weis
A successful CEO of a flourishing oil company, Tyler Moore is a man who gets everything he wants. He makes the heaven and earth meet to make his desires come true, and lets no one come in between; that is until Monique Delome, whom he shares a history with, returns in his life. A successful romance novelist now, she catches Moore’s attention again when he gets a whiff of the fact that the men in Delome’s books remind everyone of him. Moore is set to get her, but he’s in for a surprise. He will soon know what it means to live a life right from the pages of the books.
Matilda
by Roald Dahl
Matilda is a precocious little girl who seeks solace in the many books she started reading from a young age. With parents who often neglect and ill-treat her, she stands by the honor of the books, even though her parents are anything but supportive about her reading habits. Matilda keeps herself going in the big bad world, and with all her bookish knowledge, she manages to prevent things from taking a bad turn. From saving her friends from the horrible Miss Trunchbull, to getting Ms Honey her rightful inheritance, she gets everything accomplished. She finds her happy ending when she goes on to live with Ms Honey and pursues the highest level of schooling. All because of her love of books.
