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Dolly Alderton’s books, I think, come badly packaged. The publisher should really rethink the cover design. They are confusing and all over the place. Your eyes hover over the covers without taking much in. I wouldn’t have bought her books had I not read a few of her interviews—one on Elle magazine and another in British GQ—where she talks candidly about why she writes the kinds of stories that she does. I loved reading her interviews because she talks passionately about writing and life.

I read ‘Good Material’ a while back and enjoyed it. About a guy going through a breakup and trying to come to terms with it, Good Material was an interesting take on relationships and how different people view them differently. It was a little slow at times but Alderton’s writing was refreshing and honest and I really enjoyed the book. I had heard her debut novel ‘Ghosts’ was much better than Good Material and though I had seen the book at a few bookstores in town, I had been put off by its silly cover. I know I’m harping about the cover and they say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but with colorful patches and loud proclamations, it’s quite off-putting.

Alderton is a columnist for The Sunday Times and the author of the hugely popular memoir ‘Everything I Know About Love’ which won a National Book Awards (United Kingdom) in 2018. Many of my friends rave about the memoir but I haven’t found the book. I was actually looking for it when I came across Ghosts again and decided to give it a chance (despite the unappealing cover).

Ghosts is a bittersweet and sarcastic book about navigating single life in your 30s. Nina is in her 30s and all her friends are married and having babies. She, on the other hand, has recently broken up with her long time boyfriend. And he is getting engaged to this other girl he has only recently met. Then, she meets someone and they click. Everything looks perfect until he ghosts her, leaving her wondering just what went wrong. Aside from the romantic drama, Nina is also dealing with a difficult career, dwindling friendships, and worse, her beloved dad is slowly losing his memory while her mother seems to be having a mid-life crisis of sorts.

If you feel that’s a bit too much to be happening all at once, if you actually think about it life can sometimes unravel like that. It’s never a linear path, with one singular problem at a time. That is why Ghosts feels so relatable. Nina is not without flaws and you might even identify with one of her friends, depending on what’s going on in your life. The writing is smooth and flows with ease—you feel like a friend is talking to you, taking you through her life.

The book makes you smile, simmer in anger, and upsets you. But as it takes you through a rollercoaster of emotions, you feel better about life in general and more capable of handling whatever comes your way. It left me with an empowering ‘life’s like that’ attitude. I have to admit that it was hard to read at times because of the content but it’s definitely one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

Fiction 

Ghosts

Dolly Alderton

Published: 2020

Publisher: Penguin Random House UK

Pages: 337, Paperback 

I believe it’s important to read books with strong women characters for several reasons. This is true for both readers who identify as women as well as everyone else. I especially enjoy books with women protagonists as I think they tap more into varied human emotions as compared to books with male protagonists. 

Women have often been underrepresented in literature. Their struggles and achievements aren’t often spoken about or celebrated. But things have slowly been changing with more writers focusing on telling stories with women in the lead. In the past few years, I have read some great stories of inspiring women, both fictitious and real, and they have opened me up to a world of experiences that I would probably not have been privy to.

Books like ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ by Delia Owens showed me the power of resilience in women who seem silent and are sidelined. It made me think of my mother who doesn’t usually say much but manages to hold her ground with such astounding dignity in times of stress. ‘Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows’ by Balli Kaur Jaswal made me realize that women often have complex needs that they are generally hesitant to discuss. There have been many more such amazing works that have made me look at women and their lives in a completely different light. Here are three of my favorites. 

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

This is Ottessa Moshfegh’s second novel. It’s a story of a young girl who starts relying on prescription drugs in order to sleep for an entire year. The protagonist is a young unnamed woman in New York. She has a lot of problems, and childhood trauma to deal with. Her father ignored her, and her mother was a drunk who used Valium to pacify her. She doesn’t like her best friend, Reva, and she has always felt used by her boyfriend, Trevor. She is not with him anymore but she can’t stop obsessing over him. She decides to take a year off and recover—by taking as many drugs as possible and sleeping for days on end. She believes it’s just the way to fix herself. Moshfegh writes characters who are repulsive but by doing that she exposes people’s vulnerable sides. ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ is seeped in dark humor and evokes empathy for those you might not necessarily understand. 

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

This is one of my favorite books. It’s such a heartwarming story. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. And you will be recommending it to everyone you know. Set in small-town 1930’s Kentucky, the book is based on the real-life Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky, or the Horseback Librarian program as it was called then. The program delivered books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling library and ran from 1935 to 1943, making books accessible to over 100,000 rural inhabitants. I love historical fiction and this is probably one of the best I’ve read in the genre. There is drama, conflict, romance, and friendship in this brilliant story that makes you realize the power books and stories have to bring people together. 

Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe came out in 2018 and tells the story of the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, in a different light. In Miller’s version of Greek mythology, Circe isn’t just a figure with uncertain powers or a witch. The first-person narrative format that Miller has decided to stick to in this book to give Circe a powerful voice, allowing her to tell her own story. Circe, according to the mythology, is the least liked by Helios. She is mocked and eventually even exiled for her use of witchcraft to turn Scylla into a nymph. We see her as a villain of sorts. But in ‘Circe’ we get to hear her side of the story. I loved the book as Circe is such a strong character. She is fierce but not without fears. She is bold but she has her weaknesses. It’s such a lovely depiction of a woman who can be many things at once. 

Every reader has a list of favorite books. The list keeps changing as our reading preferences evolve and change but there are definitely books that we keep coming back to time and again. The thought of certain books fill us with nostalgia and we wish we could read them again, for the first time. Out of all the books I’ve read over the years, if I were forced to pick only five these would probably be it. 

The Island of the Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

This is a beautiful love story narrated in two timelines—one in the 2010s London following 16-year-old Ada Kazantzakis, and the other in the 1970s Cyprus, following her parents Defne and Kostas. One of the narrators is a fig tree that lived in the middle of a tavern in Cyprus before Kostas took a cutting and planted it in his and Defne’s garden in London. As Ada narrates her story of loss and grief and explores her cultural roots, the fit tree fills in the gaps, offering insights into the character’s past and history. The writing is beautiful and concise and believe me, you will never look at a tree in the same way again.  

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

A coming-of-age story of a girl named Kya Clark who lives alone in a shack in the swamplands of North Carolina after being abandoned by her family, ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ is a fascinating read. Owens is a retired wildlife biologist and she intersperses the story with a lot of information about nature’s various elements, blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction in places. Set in the 1950s and 1960s, the story begins with a body being discovered in the swamp and alternates between the past and the present. Kya is a lovely character, even though she’s a bit aloof and might appear strange at times. You will be rooting for her throughout. 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

This book made me laugh. It made me cry. I bought multiple copies of it to give to people I love. It’s basically a story about a 59-year-old Swedish widower called Ove who repeatedly tries and fails to kill himself. Ove comes across as cantankerous but between his attempts to die, you see him take flowers to his wife’s grave and tell her that he misses her. He takes his pregnant neighbor to the hospital and even babysits their kids. He does not do it with a smile on his face but you can see that beyond the grumpy facade, there’s a kind man. You also get a taste of urban Swedish life and how immigration is slowly changing the landscape there, much like everywhere else. It’s a beautiful book because it teaches you to love life despite the many issues that inevitably arise. 

Roar by Cecelia Ahern

I have to admit that I wasn’t particularly interested in reading this book when a friend gifted it to me. I assumed it would be sappy and silly as I wasn’t a fan of Ahern’s fiction. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. Roar, a collection of 30 stories about women from different walks of life, is one of the most uplifting and inspiring books I have read. The feminist stories have traces of magical realism and science fiction. The writing is okay but the stories are relatable and highly imaginative. Based on women’s experiences that are almost always shoved under the carpet, the stories leave a lasting impact. I would recommend you to read a story or two at a time and let their message sink in before moving on. 

The Stationery Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

Roya and Bahman are in love. They get engaged but then the coup happens in Tehran and they get separated. Roya is devastated and leaves for California where she meets Walter and gets married. But she can never forget Bahman and this dictates her entire life. ‘The Stationery Shop of Tehran’ is essentially a love story but it’s also a story about a woman’s strength to overcome life’s challenges. It’s sad at times, hopeful at places, and fills you with a strange kind of yearning. If you like historical fiction and romance, you will love ‘The Stationery Shop of Tehran’.

I have to confess that I wasn’t a fan of ‘The Hunger Games’ series by Suzzane Collins when it first came out in 2008. I read it because everyone was reading and talking about it. But since I wasn’t interested in dystopian settings, I didn’t get as hooked as perhaps the rest of the world. 

I read the second part ‘Catching Fire’ as I wanted to know what would happen to Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist, after she won the games but by the third book ‘Mockingjay’, I had lost all interest.

To be honest, I didn’t read ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ that came out in 2020 so even I was surprised when I picked up ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ that came out early this year. It was part the hype surrounding the book and part this acceptance of dystopian novels post Covid-19 which had made the impossible seem possible. 

For those of you who don’t know what the Hunger Games is about (and I’m pretty sure there aren’t very many), it’s a dystopian novel about this place where the Capitol controls all the other districts in the area. Many years ago, frustrated with the Capitol’s oppressive regime, the 12 districts rose against it. There was a civil war in which the districts lost. Since then, as a form of punishment, the Capitol takes two ‘tributes’, a boy and a girl, from each district to participate in what they call the hunger games. Out of 24 participants, only one remains in the end. The blood bath that ensues in the artificially constructed arena where everything is under the control of the game makers is shown on TV. 

Sunrise on the Reaping follows Haymitch Abernathy, who features heavily in the original Hunger Games trilogy as Katniss and Peeta’s mentor. As the only surviving victor from District 12, he is tasked with mentoring the tributes from his district but he is perpetually drunk and lost in his own world. However, his sharp mind and cunning skills prove to be crucial in ensuring the tribute’s survival in the arena. Though you will initially dislike him in the Hunger Games, he is a character who will slowly grow on you. Sunrise on the Reaping gives his backstory and you get to find out why Haymitch is the way he is. You will come to empathize with him.

But you can read the book as a standalone book or even if you have forgotten much of what happens in the Hunger Games trilogy. In district 12, on the day of the 50th annual Hunger Games, Haymitch Abernathy tries not to think too hard about his chances as that year twice as many tributes are being taken. He just wants to make it through the day and be with Lenore Dove, the girl he loves and wants to spend the rest of his life with. He truly believes he will beat the odds. But Haymitch’s name gets called in the reaping and he finds himself torn apart from his family—his mother and younger brother, and his love. He is transported to the Capitol with three other district 12 tributes—a young girl he considers his sister, an oddsmaker, and the girl Lenore dislikes the most. 

Even before the games begin, the people at the Capital and especially President Snow take an instant dislike to him. Haymitch soon realizes that he has been set up to fail from the start and that they are going to do everything to take him out as early and as brutally as possible once he enters the arena. But something in him wants to fight, and to show the Capitol people that the tributes aren’t just mere pawns.

I breezed through the book as I simply couldn’t put it down. It’s fast paced and the characters are beautifully developed. You even come to care about a character that appears for a really short time and has perhaps been implanted by the Capitol to spy on Haymitch. We learn a lot about Haymitch in the third part of the series ‘Mockingjay’ and those who haven’t read Sunrise on the Reaping might wonder what new this book has to offer. But there are so many layers to his story and how he won the games that you will be missing out if you don’t read this gem of a novel that keeps you on the edge of your seat all throughout. 

If you haven’t read the series then this book could actually even be a great introduction to it. I’m tempted to read the Hunger Games again after having read Sunrise on the Reaping because I’ve forgotten much of what’s in it and also because I feel I’ll look at the characters and the story from a fresh perspective. I hadn’t enjoyed them very much when I first read it but now I’ve a feeling that I will as I’m quite invested in the plot and care deeply about the district tributes whoever they might be. President Snow might just be my most hated person at the moment. What I mean by that is, in my head, I seem to be largely living in the world the author has built.

The book also deals with themes like political propaganda and the gap between the haves and the have-nots, making it a thought-provoking read as well. I’ve given it a five out of five stars and can’t stop thinking about it. It’s every bit as wonderful as the internet (especially all the BookTubers) is making it out to be. 

Dystopia

Sunrise on the Reaping

Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Published: 2025

Pages: 382, Hardcover

Price: Rs 1918