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Resolutions are overrated and perhaps destined to fail because of just how overly ambitious they are. This year, me and a few of my friends—comprising a medical doctor, a psychologist who has been practicing for five years, and an engineer who quit her job last year and runs her own business now—decided to list down some things we’d like to do in 2025.

We have always made shared resolutions but this year we decided to deviate from the usual routine and call them mindful habits. We’re also going to take it slow and not give up on a habit even if we fail a few times. I’ve asked for permission to share our list of habits or changes we’d like to make this year to inspire you all to maybe pick one or two to incorporate in your life or make a list of your own. Here are our top five things that we are going to follow in 2025 for a more disciplined and healthy lifestyle.

Meditate daily, even if for just 10 minutes

A couple of years ago, I took up yoga and meditation. I joined an online class and started doing an hour of it every day. The changes in me weren’t immediate but over time, people started commenting that I was calmer and happier. I had actually felt the changes in me before others noticed. I wouldn’t get upset over small things and was able to let things go without creating a fuss. Then after six months, the classes got over and I didn’t rejoin. I thought I could carry on without guidance. But then I started becoming erratic with my practice. This year, we’re planning to restart mediation and do 10 minutes to begin with. We will build up from there. Our aim is to make a habit to meditate for at least 30 minutes daily in the next six months.

Spend time outdoors

Exposure to morning sunlight is important to set the tone of the day. It’s also a good thing to do to get your daily dose of Vitamin D which is crucial for bone, muscle, and nerve health. All of us spend most of our time indoors, at work or at home, so we have decided to spend at least 10 to 15 minutes out in the sun as soon as we wake up. It could be while drinking a cup of tea or reading the papers. But this one is non-negotiable and it shouldn’t be that hard since all we have to do is open the door, step out into our balcony or garden area, and just bask in the sun. Alternatively, we have also decided to try to go out for short walks, mid-work, or spend some time in nature after we reach home.

Eat meat on the weekends

All of us agreed that we’d like to eat less meat this year. Many studies have shown that meat, especially processed meat, isn’t the healthiest thing for your body. We contemplated becoming a vegetarian for a year before deciding it would be too much too soon. So to take it slow and ease ourselves into it, we’ve decided to eat meat on the weekend and stick to a plant-based diet on the weekdays. This seems more doable than going vegetarian. This way we get to satisfy our non-veg cravings and we also have to experiment with our food, since we have to start eating all kinds of vegetables  and grains to compensate for the meat.

Sugar control 

Not eating sugar isn’t possible for us but for those who think they can do it, it’s one of the best gifts they can give themselves. Sugar is responsible for inflammation in the body which leads to many health issues, especially in the long run. Cutting down on sugar can help you lose weight, keep your blood pressure in check, and also prevent a lot of chronic diseases. We’ve all tried to stop eating sugar in the past and we’ve all failed miserably. So in 2025, our goal is to cut down on sugar and be mindful of what we are eating. We’re going to eat chocolates, but not every day. We’re going to have a slice of cake but we’ll stick to having it once a week at the most. The idea is to have as little sugar as possible while ensuring we don’t abstain from it altogether. This way, we believe, we will be able to give up sugar completely in the future.

Keeping our word

Oftentimes, we say we will do something and forget about it or we make promises knowing that we might not be able to keep it. We say yes when we want to say no. This sometimes has us doing things we wouldn’t have been involved in if we hadn’t said yes without thinking or if we had had the presence of mind to think things through. One of the things I’d personally like to change in 2025 is being able to keep my word. My friends agreed that if we all made promises we could keep, we’d feel better about ourselves and our reputations, at work and on a personal front, would also be so much better.

Shirley Jackson, who was born in San Francisco in 1916, was famous because of her short story ‘The Lottery’ which was published in The New Yorker in 1948. Readers were scandalized and sent her hate mail. But it didn’t stop her from writing and getting published. Her first novel, ‘The Road Through the Wall’ was published in the same year. ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ and ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’ brought her more fame and went on to become all time classics.

She was mostly known for her horror stories but she also published two memoirs of life in Vermont where she lived with her husband and four children. For a writer who died in her sleep when she was 48, Jackson left behind a wide body of work. Two collections of her essays and other writing were even published posthumously.

I had only read Jackson’s famous short story and the novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I was actually looking for The Haunting of Hill House when I came across 

‘Life Among the Savages’. The blurb was intriguing, starting with: “Sometimes, in my capacity as a mother, I find myself sitting open-mouthed and terrified before my own children.” I bought the book without even opening the plastic cover to check the size of the font, which I usually do. There was no way I wasn’t reading this masterpiece. The font could be horrible and minuscule for all I cared.

It turned out to be a great read. The font size was perfect too, in the Penguin edition (published by Penguin Classics in 2019). I was captivated by Jackson’s life and her ability to navigate the complexities of marriage and motherhood with an ease that I have never come across. The language is also quite compelling and she doesn’t seem to sugarcoat things, preferring to keep it raw and real. She also doesn’t try to portray her husband, children and even herself in a positive light. She is simply stating the facts and how things are. It’s refreshing, at times funny, and quite relatable, even though the setting is of an entirely different time as compared to today.

The book starts off with Jackson’s family having to look for a new place to stay. Their lease is up and they are asked to move. Their finances aren’t that great and they have two small children to look after. After being shown expensive houses that are all up for sale, they finally settle on renting an old dilapidated mansion of sorts. The rent is cheap, at $50 a month, and the owner even makes a few renovations for them. The family moves and it means a lot of adjustments and modifications.

Life Among the Savages is basically a story of the domestic mundanities that set in when you have to manage a family, your finances, and various other daily activities. Jackson keeps her tone casual but there’s a looming sense of frustration. The book was apparently initially published as a series of stories in various women’s magazines and later put together in a single collection. But it doesn’t read like disjointed writings. There’s a smooth flow to it that makes you ponder about life and how some things never change.

I believe every woman must read this brilliant depiction of domestic life. It will perhaps help us understand how we can navigate our own lives better at a time when our professional lives are starting to overwhelm us, and slow living is the last thing on our minds. But men should also pick this one up because it tells you things women might not always spell out for you by giving you a glimpse of how society can set unrealistic expectations on women and how it can be burdensome.

Life Among the Savages

Shirley Jackson

Published: 1953

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Young

Pages: 229, Paperback

Ruth Reichl has written nine books including ‘The Paris Novel’ and edited many others like ‘History in a Glass’ and ‘Endless Feasts’. Most of her books revolve around food and culture that celebrate food. The cover of The Paris Novel has Nigella Lawson, English food writer and television cook, calling it ‘nothing less than absolute enchantment’.

I was surprised I had never come across Reichl’s works or even heard of her. I read the blurb of The Paris Novel and the first few pages at the bookshop and decided to buy it. It seemed like a simple story filled with mentions of food, books, and life in Paris. It’s also not a thick book so I thought I would breeze through it in a couple of days.

Stella St. Vincent is a copy editor at a publishing house and she likes her structured life. Then she receives a mysterious note from her late mother telling her to go to Paris. Her mother, who Stella never had a loving relationship with, has instructed her attorney, and perhaps her lover at one point, to buy a one way plane ticket to Paris for Stella and convert the remaining money in her account to traveller’s checks.

When Stella’s boss finds her asleep at the office she tells her to take an extended leave. She promises Stella that her job will be waiting for her when she gets back. Left with no choice, Stella finds herself alone in Paris. She doesn’t have friends there and is a little lost and overwhelmed. Then she meets Jules, an octogenarian who collects art and sees something in Stella that makes him take her under his wing. He introduces her to a side of Paris (and life) that she has never seen before.

The Paris Novel is rich in imagery and full of Parisian vibes. The plot is predictable and cliched. Stella, initially a shy and insecure American woman, turns into a confident go-getter with a flamboyant attitude by the end of the book and you see it coming the moment she lands in Paris. The book could also remind you of the many coming-of-age novels you have read. But be warned, there’s a familiarity to it that might bore you. It’s like a fictional version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Eat, Pray, Love’—which is basically one woman’s quest of finding herself.

The writing, with all the references to French culture and cuisine, can also confuse you. It’s a novel that never picks up. Unlike what I initially thought, I couldn’t finish the book in a day or two. I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. I had to take it slow as I was unfamiliar to the French lifestyle beyond what I’ve seen on the popular show ‘Emily in Paris’ on Netflix.

Whether or not you enjoy the novel depends on what kind of a read you are looking for. If you want an all vibes not much plot book, then this is for you. But if you are looking to follow a storyline, there isn’t much here. A friend who has read Reichl’s other works as well as The Paris Novel says the latter isn’t her best work and that I shouldn’t judge her based on it. She has recommended ‘Cheer Me Up with Apples’ and ‘Tender at the Bone’. Despite not being great, The Paris Novel, with its lush descriptions of food and wine, has whetted my appetite for more and I’m actually willing to give her another chance. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195430688-the-paris-novel 

The Paris Novel

Ruth Reichl

Published: 2024

Publisher: Magpie Books

Pages: 272, Paperback

Having read two out of three of Bollywood Actor Twinkle Khanna’s books—‘Mrs Funnybones’ and ‘Pyjamas are Forgiving’ and not having liked them very much, I was hesitant to read ‘Welcome to Paradise’, a collection of short stories published in 2023. I hadn’t read the one which came before that which was ‘The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad’ as I was convinced it wouldn’t be a good read.

Truth be told, I picked up Welcome to Paradise because it was on discount. The book was available at half price at Bookverse in Civil Mall, Kathmandu. “Why not? It’s a book of short stories and I can read one or two and give it to someone else to read if I don’t like it,” I thought to myself. But the first story ‘The Man from the Garage’ about a family who can’t decide if they want to cremate or bury their matriarch was highly nuanced and insightful. The characters felt like people I would bump into on the streets or at the temple. I was surprised by the fact that Khanna’s writing also seems to have improved a lot.

So, I kept reading. The stories that followed, and there are four more, were all snippets of lives that felt very real and addressed complex issues in a light-hearted manner. All the stories have women protagonists and are about middle-class life in Mumbai, India. The stories prove that Khanna is deeply observant as she has picked up a lot of tiny details that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. The stories are about loneliness, grief, and heartbreak and validate many of your emotions.

‘Let’s Pretend’, the second story in the collection, had me rooting for Amita as she pretends to be her aunt while corresponding with a man over email. ‘Jelly Sweets’, the story that comes at the very end, made me teary-eyed. It’s about how a mother copes with the loss of her son. The titular story ‘Welcome to Paradise’ was one that felt most real. What happens in Garima’s life could happen in anyone’s life. The story made me realize that sometimes experiences lend perspectives that don’t come from hearing or seeing other people’s stories and lives.

But my favorite one is ‘Nearly Departed’ about a woman named Madhura Desai, an 86-year-old retired teacher who wants to be able to end her life on her terms. She writes to the chief justice to seek permission for euthanasia as she suffers from Parkinson’s and doesn’t want to be dependent on anyone later in life. Her appeal goes viral and she gets a lot of media attention and requests for interviews, etc. I laughed, I got all choked up, and I reread it when I was done. I even asked a few friends to read this one, if not the rest of the stories in the collection, and they all loved it. They thought it was a fresh take on aging and how we all wish to be in control of our lives.

In the end, I didn’t give the book to anyone. It’s sitting on my bookshelf with story collections I have enjoyed in the past like ‘Her Body and Other Parties’ by Carmen Maria Machado and ‘The Lives of Strangers’ by Chitra Divakaruni among others. I have a feeling I might want to revisit the stories sometime in the future. And I will definitely be reading the next book Khanna writes and this time it won’t even need to be on discount. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200237485-welcome-to-paradise  

Welcome to Paradise

Twinkle Khanna

Published: 2023

Publisher: Juggernaut Books

Pages: 213, Paperback

Emma lives with her husband Leo and their daughter Ruby. She loves them and she’s happy. But everything her family knows about her is a lie. Even her name is fake. She can never tell them about her past. She knows she will lose them if she does as Leo won’t be able to deal with the betrayal, not after being betrayed by his parents. He’s never forgiven them for it.

But Leo is an obituary writer and Emma is a well-known marine biologist. When she is diagnosed with cancer, Leo tries to cope with it by reading and writing about her life. His editor also asks him to write a stock for Emma: Most papers write obituaries for famous people well in advance, and especially so if they are suffering from any illness. Leo agrees because he’s already started working on one and also because he thinks no one knows her like he does.

However, he stumbles upon some papers that don’t match with what she’s told him and it opens a can of worms. Leo starts questioning what he’s been told and Emma’s past and starts asking around as well. Soon, he finds out things that he doesn’t know about her, realizing that the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Emma will need to prove to Leo that she is the woman he always thought she was but for that she has to come clean about her past.

‘The Love of My Life’ was unlike anything I had ever read. It’s not a typical thriller but it keeps you on the edge. It’s gripping and heartbreaking at the same time. Rosie Walsh’s first book, ‘The Man Who Didn’t Call’ was a romance, suspense novel that was an instant bestseller when it came out. The novel’s theme was grief and it explored it in a subtle way that made you think. In The Love of My Life the theme is relationships and its complexities and again Walsh has done a brilliant job in exploring its nuances.

The story, like in The Man Who Didn’t Call, is told from two different perspectives. It keeps the narrative interesting by building the suspense gradually. Also, seeing things from two different viewpoints keeps your brain ticking. The only issue I had with the book was that while the story is full of twists and turns, it reads like a slow-burn family drama at times and less like a thriller. But all in all, I absolutely loved the story. The plot, I thought, was ingenious. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for something different to read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58492104-the-love-of-my-life  

The Love of My Life

Rosie Walsh

Published: 2022

Publisher: Pan Books

Pages: 358, Paperback

Every home has its go-to meals. In Nepali households, it’s mostly ‘daal, bhaat, tarkari’, the occasional ‘roti, tarkari’, ‘khichdi’, and/or different forms of curries. We rarely deviate from this supposedly set menu, unless we have guests over or are eating out. I find home cooked meals comforting. I guess everyone does. But it can become mundane. We could all do with a little variety every now and then. This is where cookbooks come in handy. I have, over the past couple of years, amassed quite a collection of cookbooks. These, mostly hardcover, books are kept separately in a small shelf in the dining area. Looking at them makes me feel I’m able to prepare delicious, nourishing meals whenever I want to.

‘The Curry Guy Chicken’ by Dan Toombs and ‘Masala Memsahib’ by Karen Anand are two of my favorite cookbooks that I constantly reach for. These are mostly Asian/Indian recipes and as someone who likes a good curry and rice, I feel I don’t need anything else. But my family loves Nepali food. They find it easier to digest and more winter-friendly than oily, spices-heavy Indian food. I have come to realize that if you follow the recipes to the letter, it always comes out great. You are never disappointed. Earlier, I used to go with the flow, and what often happened was that I was never able to recreate a dish.

For Nepali cooking, I have for a while now turned to ‘Timmur’ by Prashanta Khanal. I first chanced upon the book at a dietician’s clinic. While waiting for my turn, I flipped through the pages and the full-page photos, taken by Nabin Baral and Gagan Thapa, caught my attention. The recipes are divided into sections, with a separate ‘Achaar’ segment as well. I left the clinic determined to buy my own copy the same day. I didn’t manage to, for various reasons. But the book was always at the back of my mind. Having tried my hands at making Indian curries and naans (through cookbooks, of course), I wanted to learn proper Nepali cooking too as much of what I knew was limited to what I had seen growing up.

I finally got a copy and it’s been a good investment. I’ve tried making many dishes and they have come out really well, so much so that my mother, who is an expert cook, complimented my cooking. As someone who grew up eating Nepali food, I was familiar with many of the recipes in the book but every time I made, say ‘kwati’ or Bamboo Shoot curry, it would taste different—I could never master the recipe. Timmur has made that possible for me. It has recipes for many of my childhood dishes, like ‘gundruk’, ‘aalu cauli tarkari’, and ‘khasiko bhutuwa’ among others, as well as many that I always wished I could make, like ‘yomari’ and ‘mula ko achaar’.

The thing about cookbooks is that they are easy to follow, unlike YouTube tutorials where you might lose track every few minutes and have to pause or rewind. Cookbooks also make for great coffee table books and can double as décor. I love having the one I’m using displayed on the kitchen counter or the dining table. Cookbooks, I believe, have made me a better cook, taught me some great hacks that have significantly lessened my time in the kitchen, as well as made me understand and appreciate different cuisines.

‘Notes on Heartbreak’ by Annie Lord must be one of the most honest memoirs I have read. It’s a raw and intimate look at heartbreak and all the complexities it entails. The author doesn’t try to portray herself in a good light–as someone who had control over her emotions and took things one day at a time. She lays bare her sufferings and shows us how [badly] she dealt with things. She was a mess and she’s not afraid to show it as breakups are messy and traumatic, and she’s only human.

In most memoirs, writers try to show their good side and often sugarcoat their weakness, pinning the blame on someone else. They show themselves as victims, which they might have been, but in doing so they tend to invariably make us believe that the people in their lives have somehow been responsible for everything that has happened to them. They hardly ever take ownership of their actions. This is how ‘Notes on Heartbreak’ differs from the rest.

Despite reeling from a broken heart, Lord keeps things quite neutral. Joe is just another human, with his own set of flaws and baggage. He’s not someone who purposely tried to ruin Lord’s life. It’s quite easy to come out of a breakup bitter and cynical–after all, it feels like the one central truth of your existence has been shattered. But as Lord tells a love story in reverse, she shows you that pain can sometimes teach you important lessons, and that every story has at least two sides to it.

The autobiographical and poetic exploration of a five-year relationship coming to an end is heartwarming, funny, at times sad, and over all a beautiful meditation on love, longing, and loss. Lord shares inside jokes and tender moments to justify her rage and confusion. She can’t figure out why Joe would choose to end a perfectly good relationship. She longs for love, lives in denial for a while, and unsuccessfully tries to move on too fast. Her experiences could mimic that of many readers and make them realize that they aren’t alone, that their pain is felt and shared by every person who has ever fallen in love.

Notes on Heartbreak isn’t a story about a single heartbreak. It tells a universal story. It’s for anyone and everyone who has loved someone. I was reading a book on heartbreak and loss right before picking up Lord’s memoir. I won’t mention which book it was because it was horrible. So I was skeptical about Notes on Heartbreak. But the writing style was refreshing and I was hooked right from the start. It isn’t preachy. Lord isn’t dishing out advice on how to get over a heartbreak. She simply shares her thoughts and feelings, making you feel heard and validating your extreme emotions. The book is quite thick but the story doesn’t feel dragged out. I would highly recommend it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59777955-notes-on-heartbreak 

Notes on Heartbreak

Annie Lord

Published: 2022

Publisher: Trapeze 

Pages: 385, Paperback

One of my favorite childhood memories is of my mother eating oranges and reading while sitting out in the sun during winter. She was (and still is, in her 70s) a busy woman with a lot of things to do but in the winter, she would take every opportunity to go up to the terrace and just sit, eat, and read (and occasionally fall into deep slumber). I think this was why I started to associate winters with a slow-paced life.

I always take the time to carefully curate a list of 10 books that I want to read in the winter. I will invariably end up reading other books too but the ones on the list are non-negotiable. This time, I’ve picked some books that I have enjoyed in the past or those that come highly recommended. I also have some books that I have been dying to pick up—books from authors that I have previously enjoyed. As the days get colder, it’s finally that time of the year when weekends are all about basking in the sun with some snacks and a good book to keep you company. With the reading list, I’m all set to make the most of it.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

About two magicians who are pitted against each other and who ultimately fall in love, despite having to risk their careers and lives, ‘The Night Circus’ is a heartwarming story that is just the perfect winter read. Though it’s one of my favorite books of all time, I haven’t reread it in so long that I have forgotten many of the details. My plan is to devote one weekend to this book and I would recommend those who are looking for a great winter read to pick this one up. The story takes a while to build up but I guarantee you won’t be able to put it down.

Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes

‘Someone Else’s Shoes’ is Jojo Moyes latest book. I have come across it at various bookstores but I haven’t bought a copy yet, choosing instead to save it for a time when I don’t find anything interesting or when I’m in a reading slump that I desperately want to get out of. I know Moyes won’t let me down. ‘The Giver of Stars’, her book based on the true story of packhorse librarians of Kentucky, is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in my life. Someone Else’s Shoes is about second chances and how one little thing can change everything. It sounds like a cozy winter read, one that you can breeze through while curled up on the couch with a hot tea by your side.  

Bombay Stories by Sadat Hasan Manto

In every reader’s reading journey, there will inevitably be times when s/he won’t be able to focus on novels. That is when poems or short stories can come to your rescue. Sadat Hasan Manto is known as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He wrote mainly in Urdu and produced a wide body of work including but not limited to stories, plays, and essays. He is best known for stories based on the partition of India. ‘Bombay Stories’ is mostly about men and their concubines but the women are portrayed in a fierce way. These are women who hold power over men, women who might be vulnerable but hold their ground, and women who don’t care about what society thinks. It’s a good book to dip in and out of—something that won’t take a lot of your time but will stay in your mind long after you have read it.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t read Rebecca, which is such a cult classic. A few of my friends have recommended this to me and every time I tell them I haven’t gotten around to it I can see the disappointment in their faces. I read the abridged version when I was in school so I know the plot but my friends swear the vibe is eerie and fills you with a sickeningly sweet sense of dread, which I relish. The Clockwork Reader, a YouTuber I subscribe to, says it’s a fabulous fall read—the vibes are just right, she says—which is why it’s now on my winter TBR list.

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum

If you are in need of a feel-good book, this would be a safe bed. Yeongju gives up a high-flying career, divorces her husband, and starts a bookshop. She meets all kinds of customers and they all have their own problems and disappointments in life. The bookshop is where people come to find some respite from their lives. It’s where they ultimately find themselves. A heartwarming, albeit slightly cliché, story about love and human conditionings, the book offers many nuggets of wisdom that could crack your mind wide open. The chapters are short and disjointed as well. You don’t need to focus to keep a track of the story making it a perfect book for when you want to take naps in between reading.

Waiting by Ha Jin

The book was published in 1999 and it’s based on a true story Ha Jin heard from his wife while visiting her family at a hospital in China. There was once an army doctor who waited 18 years to get a divorce so that he could marry his girlfriend who was a nurse. ‘Waiting’ tells us the story of three people: Lin Kong, the army doctor; his wife Shuyu, whom he has never loved; and the nurse Manna Wu, his girlfriend at the hospital where he works. Kong is a decent guy but he has his flaws so it’s quite easy to identify with him. The book had made me really happy. It’s such a beautifully written story and I’m looking forward to rereading it.

Bunny by Mona Awad

‘Bunny’ is Mona Awad’s second book, published three years after her debut novel ‘13 ways of Looking at a Fat Girl’. It’s about a girl named Samantha who arrives a liberal arts college in New England and meets a group of fake-nice rich girls who make up her writing group. The story takes a somewhat sinister tone right from the start and gives you goosebumps that you can’t explain. I would say it’s a mix of horror, magical realism, and fantasy. You are always questioning what you’ve just read and don’t know what to make of it. I read it in the summer and thought it would have been a perfect under-the-cover or out in the sun read. I’m super excited to reread this as I’m sure it will hit differently in colder months. 

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

Seventeen-year-old Laxmi escapes an abusive marriage and makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist (and soon the confidante) to the wealthy women of the upper class. Though she is trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own as it can have grave consequences but secrets have a way of making themselves known. Her husband soon finds her and he brings a girl with her—she is the sister Laxmi never knew she had. There’s intrigue, drama, and a fair bit of suspense in this wonderfully written book that is the first installment in a trilogy.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Another book I haven’t read in its unabridged form is Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’. And it’s a shame because I love vampire and zombie stories. Dracula tells the story of Count Dracula, a vampire who comes to England from Transylvania to feed on new blood and create a bigger circle of vampires. It’s supposed to be gory, tense, and even downright scary. The story is told through diary entries of a journalist called Jonathan as he tries to figure out who the Count actually is. This, I’ve been told, makes for a riveting read as you are easily able to put yourself in his shoes.

Fury by Alex Michaelides

I really enjoyed ‘The Silent Patient’ by Alex Michaelides. It gave me the creeps like no other thriller had in a while. The plot twist was amazing. I didn’t see it coming. Michaelides has a knack for telling stories that keep you hooked. The Maidens, a dark academia thriller, was as good as his debut novel. I’m really excited about reading Fury which was published earlier this year. I got a copy a while back but I have been saving it for the right occasion. I have a feeling that a balmy winter afternoon will be just right for this book that is sure to keep me on the edge of my seat.