Reader’s Digest India – July 2019

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Video Nights in
Kathmandu And
Other Reports
from the Not-
So-Far East
BY PICO IYER,Vintage,
`979.My introduction to
travel writing, this book
did not just transport me elsewhere but
also taught me how to look at the world
with wry wit. Iyer’s great gift is how he
straddles east and west so effortlessly.

Bengali Cooking:
Seasons & Festivals
BY CHITRITA BANERJI,Aleph Book
Company, `299.Combining memoir,
sociology and food seamlessly, it’s a
book I’ve gone back to again and
again—sometimes to read, sometimes
to cook from—leaving its pages both
dog-eared and turmeric-stained.

Naked
BY DAVID SEDARIS,Little, Brown Book
Group, `599.Hooked initially to
Sedaris’ hilarious radio essays, I was
captivated by his ability to alchemize
crazy family stories about nudist

camps, OCD and grandmothers into

something funny, heartbreaking and

razor-sharp. Long before literature fes-

tivals became fashionable, I went to

watch a live book-reading show of his.

Sei Somoy [Those Days]

BY SUNIL GANGOPADHYAY, Ananda

Publishers, ` 490. This saga about 19th

century Renaissance Bengal has an

enthralling mix of historical fact and

fiction. It’s a soap opera—I mean it as a

compliment—where my textbook

characters sprang to life.

Persepolis

BY MARJANE SATRAPI,

Vintage, `599.

Just stunning. The

simple line drawings

hit like a hammer as

the Iranian Revolution

comes to scary life

through a little girl’s eyes. On a related

note, let me sneak in Yiyun Li’s

staggering The Vagrants about the

aftermath of China’s Cultural

Revolution here.

—COMPILED BY SAPTAK CHOUDHURY

The Hours

BY MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM, Picador, `1,059. I would read

and reread the section that describes Virginia Woolf

committing suicide and my heart would stop every time.

I marvelled at how Cunningham could take the minutiae of

a day and turn it into something so gripping and profound.

The Book

I Loved

Most...

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