Top Ten Books I read over the Last Decade

This is a list I wanted to make before I officially reach my pre-mid twenties. I might not talk about books that are part of a series or books that might be popular, but have not been good enough for me. I have tried very hard to list down some good titles below. I will soon make a Goodreads account for myself so that I can keep track of my reading journey. Sadly I haven't had the time to read as much as I wanted over the last few years. This will mainly be a mixture of fiction and non-fiction and different other genres. A proper ranking genre wise might be done later. These are not ranked but have a good time reading. 

1. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

I have read the entire literary collection that has been published by this author. However, I find this book to be the best, even better than her more popular works Namesake or The Lowlands. Instead of being a novel, the book takes an unusual turn spinning out 8 tales out of which the last three are interwoven together. Bengali immigrants living in the west, amongst clashes in culture and what we Indians prefer to call falling apart from values and traditions, the theme has always been pretty common as far as Lahiri's books are concerned. However the most beautiful part of this book is the wide range of human relationships and emotions this book decides to span on. Right from the start of life, childhood, adulthood and then acceptance of death of loved ones. The story that I most vividly remember is that of Hema and Kaushik. The thing that strikes in my memory the most is how vividly the reality of love, relationships and life choices are portrayed in this story where the latter sometimes has far reaching consequences and is sometimes not governed by the former two factors. I suggest this book as a great option to read on a lazy afternoon. The complexity of human emotions is all you will need to comprehend. Here is a memorable excerpt from the book:

"And wasn't it terrible, how much he looked forward to those moments, so much so that sometimes even a ride by himself on the subway was the best part of the day? Wasn't it terrible that after all the work one put into finding a person to spend one's life with, after making a family with that person, even in spite of missing that person...that solitude was what one relished the most, the only thing that, even in fleeting, diminished doses, kept one sane?"

2. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

I can't believe that almost 10 years ago, I had purchased this book from a school book fair on the suggestion of one of my teachers. The diary was written by a young Jewish girl who along with her family had to go into hiding along with other Jewish families during the time of Holocaust. The girl and her family decides to hide with the family of her father Otto Frank's office colleague in the sealed off upper rooms at the back of the company building and they had survived in hiding for two years. The diary simply follows the workings of the mind of a girl in her early teens and her everyday life against the backdrop of looming threats of being discovered from the Gestapo. The abrupt ending of the diary was so realistically horrific because diaries unlike stories are not written sometimes to ensure to give closure to readers, the innocence of the life of a Jewish teenager at the time of the Nazi rule was simply that unpredictable. One of my favourite memorable quotes from her diary is: 

"Because paper has more patience than people."

3. Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

(Trigger warning)This is the second book I had ever read by Paulo Coelho. The first book I read was called Brida. However I don't have any recollection of the plot of Brida since I was fourteen and the only thing that shocked me in the book was it was the first ever book I read about a woman having a sexual experience and I remember my mother explaining to me what an orgasm is. I read Veronika Decides To Die much later when I was more mature and in my early years as an undergrad. This is one of the first books for me that ever introduced and normalised the concept of mental health. This is the story of a young Slovenian 24 year old named Veronika (of course) who wakes up in a mental institution after trying to kill herself by overdosing on sleeping pills because she was upset that people didn't know where Slovenia was. The story follows Veronika as she finds the will to live and enjoy every moment as her last and how her presence in the Institute has an effect on the other inmates. The story was gripping with many underlying themes of what is madness and  reminding me of Emily Dickinson's poem - Much Madness is the Divinest Sense. Again I have found this book to be a better read compared to the bestselling popular books like The Alchemist, simply because of the former's innate nature to capture the fine line between the sanity and eccentricity. To every young reader out there questioning their own sanity, this book can definitely throw some light on the issue. One hilarious but true life lesson from this book lies within this excerpt: “You are someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that in my view is a serious illness. God chose you to be different. Why are you disappointing God with this kind of attitude?”

4. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Today we have a world that has certainly decided to answer the call to years of oppression against people of colour. However one cannot think of a more powerful moment in literature, when there was an instance of standing up for a minority community in the district of Alabama as Atticus Finch had- defended Tom Robinson, a member of the African-American community in the backdrop of America during its era of The Great Depression. Where Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe had only imagined such rights for a community that was treated as a non-human entity, and had reached a bitter-sweet ending as far as Uncle Tom was concerned, Lee takes it a step forward by portraying characters like Atticus who stand as pillars of the advancement of the entirety of humanity without leaving behind any part of the race behind, also inculcating similar values of equality and understanding in the future generations like his daughter. The other favourite part of the story is of course none other than Scout. The story can even be appealing to young readers because the story is narrated mostly from the perspective of a six-year old Scout, and we also ride along with her on funny adventures with her brother and her friends, and at the same time be able to learn important life lessons from her father Atticus, who by far, should be awarded the "Best Dad" award as far as father figures go in literature. I was ashamed of myself, that I had not read this classic before - not until it was recommended by my cousin, considering the fact that I had already been introduced to books like Uncle Tom, a tear-jerking favourite of mine, in junior school. This story is a must read for the generation who raises their voice against injustices of the world. Of course, a quote from the book  would be the wise words of Atticus Finch: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."

5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This was definitely a difficult choice to make. I have read the three popular works by the author and I couldn't decide between two masterpieces as to which one could I crown as my favourite. Did Maryam and Laila's story not leave me in tears ? Did I not wonder about the horrors women still face today in different parts of the globe? Although, A Thousand Splendid Suns was amazing and touched me in many ways especially because I am a woman living in what I suppose is a free country but still sadly understand the limitations imposed on us by society, the conclusion of the book had been so grim that I decided to weigh in on The Kite Runner as a better preference for this list. The Kite Runner is a tragic as well as a heartwarming story of two friends and how the difference in their socio-economic divide in Afghanistan had created an emotional rift between the two characters. Amir and Hassan were those friends who remind you of a friendship where they don't need words to communicate. My heart always went out to Hassan and how Amir had tried to repent for his previous actions and as an adult does his best to prove his loyalty to his dear friend and try to give their next generation a better future. The story had for the first time given me the picture of Afghanistan, how the common innocent people had got caught up in the country's turmoil and the plight of Afghan refugees in the US. But the story also gives hope alongwith a nostalgic feeling of the innocence of childhood as if you could almost hear the sound of laughter ringing through the streets of Kabul as two young boys run down the streets to get hold of a kite they were able to strike down. I would not be able to talk about this story without mentioning another father figure Baba (Amir's father) and his wise words, "When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft."

6. Deception Point by Dan Brown

Okay, to explain this, I would need to say that Angels and Demons is a close second in my head. The plot of Deception Point is as good a deception as the name suggests. This book had been released at a time when Brown's plots were, unlike his most recent works, still unpredictable.This piece of science fiction delves right into one scandalous NASA expedition that could in turn affect US elections. This book manages to keep up the thrill to its maximum like every other piece of Dan Brown fiction even without the help of our usual friend, the Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon.  Instead it is also able to address the shortcomings of scientists to sometimes ignore the obvious fallacies in observations that sometimes often leads to blasphemous claims which we often observe later as retraction of articles from high impact factor journals. 

"Proof, she knew, was a conclusion built on a pyramid of facts, a broad base of accepted information on which more specific assertions were made. Remove all the base assumptions. Start again."

7. Dust on the Mountain by Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond is one of the first authors beside Enid Blyton whose work introduced me to the delightful world of books. The first ever book my dad got for me from a long ago forgotten time in childhood was called The Adventures of Rusty by Bond. My mouth watered when I started reading about Granny's delicious dishes and I thoroughly enjoyed the antics that Uncle Ken used to get into. As I grew older, I also started to appreciate his other short stories and almost journal-like entries scattered with autobiographical elements about life in Dehra and the beautiful mountains of Mussoorie. Bond's simplistic writing and the picturesque view of the life of North India was what made me fall in love with his stories. Bond is one of the few writers other than Rudyard Kipling, despite his foreign ancestry has been more of an Indian and beautifully captures his love for the country through his work. His stories are also the best to dive into for people who still have a weak grasp of the English language because I remember that reading Ruskin Bond was what helped me improve my English in my school days. 

8. Aam Antir Bhepu (Song of the Little Road) by Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay

The first book that ever made me cry. I had watched all these movies and read all these books, and let's just say that when  I read this book and I found tears trickling down my cheeks on one fine afternoon, I finally realised that I wasn't dead inside. The first character that I ever felt for was this old widowed woman Indir Thakrun. The story of a barely getting by Brahmin family in rural Bengal deals with the small joys, love, struggles, anguish and heart-wrenching pain and loss experienced by Apu, his elder sister Durga, mother Sarbojaya and father Harihar. The intensity of the story lies in the fact that this story was not some fantasy spun out by the author but depicted the lives of real people and painted an apt picture of rural Bengal of the early 1900s and hit close to home. The title is more popularly known as Pather Panchali or Song of The Little Road after Satyajit Ray's screen adaptation of the story. 

"ঐ যেখানে আকাশের তলে আষাঢ়ু-দুর্গাপুরের বাঁধা সড়কের গাছের সারি ক্রমশ দূর হইতে দূরে গিয়া পড়িতেছে, ওরই ওদিকে যেখানে তাহাদের গাঁয়ের পথ বাঁকিয়া আসিয়া সোনাডাঙ্গা মাঠের মধ্যে উঠিয়াছে, সেখানে পথের ঠিক সেই মোড়টিতে, গ্রামের প্রান্তের বুড়ো জামতলাটায় তাহার দিদি যেন ম্লানমুখে দাঁড়াইয়া তাহাদের রেলগাড়ির দিকে চাহিয়া আছে!"

"There, beneath the sky where stood the file of trees along the brick road to Ashadu-Durgapur, beyond that, in that direction, where their village took a bend and climbed to Sonadanga field, there, right there by the old jamun tree at the end of the village stood his sister looking wistfully at their train."

9. Susanna's Seven Husbands by Ruskin Bond

Do I have two books by Ruskin Bond in my top ten? Yes. Why? Because it's my blog and I can do whatever I want. And Susanna, the protagonist of the story, also did whatever she wanted. This is a story about a beautiful woman named Susanna, her weakness for the wrong men and how she got away with the murder of 7 of her spouses. . The story is narrated for a few times from the perspective of Arun who lived in the neighborhood of Susanna's highly lavish property and had been in love with her despite their wide difference in age. The reason I like this piece of work is it is amazing how murder is one extreme to deal with relationships which were highly problematic and toxic with instances of her husbands having multiple other wives, or casual sexism with acts of domestic violence sprinkled here and there, however, the reality of dealing with such situations is at the other end of the spectrum. There's no hero in this story only because Susanna is not a damsel in distress. One of my favourite moments from this story is the very first introduction of a black widow spider waiting to kill her mate and how it reminded Arun of Susanna. 

10. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

This book made me so mad and frustrated and yet I keep it as a top 10. If the story can be broken down to its core, it is basically a match-making story to find the suitable boy for marriage to a 19-year old girl Lata. The setting is post-Independence with Hindu-Muslim strife and caste discrimination at its peak. And God forbid if a Hindu girl decides to fall in love with a Muslim Boy. Although I liked the story very much, mostly due to Lata's inner musings about her family members, her extended family members from her siblings' marriages and her three suitors, the book made me realise how important the society considers marriage and having a child to be a part of a woman's life. Post independent India hasn't come much of a long way, since, even after more than 70 years of Independence, we still hear comments from relatives on how we should have to think of "settling down" and we are "selfish" if we are not looking for a husband to mother or a child to become a second mother to. Although this book properly highlights the dynamics of a Hindu-Muslim relationship, at points I find Kabir and Lata's secret relationship extremely toxic with moments where he even man-handles her to some extent. There are moments when even Lata's other two suitors treat her extremely off-handedly, especially when Amit (one of her suitors) kisses her without her consent just to surprise her. I was disappointed with Meenakshi's character for personal reasons, she was a Bengali and she was shown as a promiscuous gold-digger. It might come off that I have so many complaints about this novel and yet I am penning it down in my top ten. That's only because of Seth's ability to provide intricate character building and story development. I even enjoyed other side plots and characters especially the one about Firoz. In spite of all my complaints I guess I like this book only probably because I realized that it truly depicts India for what it is, and also because unlike the title of the book, none of the suitors were "Suitable" in my taste. 

"Quietly they moved down the calm and sacred river that had come down to earth so that its waters might flow over the ashes of those long dead, and that would continue to flow long after the human race had, through hatred and knowledge, burned itself out."