Dear Reader,

After a scorching summer, the rains are finally here !

Apologies for the long gap; I have been travelling, with lots of reading and writing, and listening to audiobooks.

But first, the most fun thing that happened, bookishly speaking. On a recent Sunday morning, we read poems, something we hardly ever do these days. And played dumb charades with book titles.

We were celebrating the launch of Chemical Khichdi, a memoir by Aparna Piramal Raje. The book is an absorbing mix of personal stories, poems and advice and coping strategies for people with mental health, and for their families. All of which make the book a great read.

Other books on mental health here. If you’d like more personalised recommendations, click here for a Book Box.

Book 1 of 4 : Fathers and Children

Father’s Day has passed, but it’s always a good time to read books on fathers and children . We recommend Out Stealing Horses. In this evocative book, a 69-year-old man reflects on a summer he spent living with his dad, in a cabin, in a Norwegian wood, in the tree felling season. Something happened that summer, that caused him to see his father, for the first time, as a flawed adult. Read this book for its haunting prose and its exquisite sense of the landscape. And if you’d like to gift your father a special set, why not explore these ?

Book 2 of 4: An Audiobook on Art

If you are back on the road or in the air, it’s a good time to listen to these audio books. Start with Letters of a Post-Impressionist by Van Gogh, where Van Gogh comes alive in these letters he writes, some to his brother and some to a friend. They discuss life and art and the magic of colours. The book is on the free app Librivox and also free on Audible.

Book 3 of 4 : A Racy Read for a Rainy Day

Sierra Six is number 11 in the addictive Gray Man series featuring Court Gentry, independent operator for the CIA. I loved this book for its fascinating settings, moving from Turkey and Afghanistan and Pakistan to Mumbai, India. There’s intrigue, intelligence agencies that include the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) as well as terrorist groups like the Kashmiri Resistance Front. Besides the action, there are interesting characters like drone operator Priya Bhandari.

Book 4 of 4 : Read the book, then Watch the Movie

Where the Crawdads Sing is a feel good story of an orphan girl growing up in the marshes. The film comes out next week ! Read this book before that, for its beautiful writing and for the way the story is steeped in the landscape of the marshes. There’s also a mystery element. Interestingly, author Delia Owens is a wildlife biologist. This is her first novel, which she published at the age of 70.

That’s all for July. Next month we look at stories of the mind and the body - medical fiction and non fiction and also books on Tibetan Buddhism.

In the meantime, if you’d like to receive a book every month, delivered at your doorstep, why not sign up for a 3 month or 6 month subscription ? It will help you read more, give you that little nudge.

Till next month then, happy reading !

Write to me at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com, with reading requests, suggestions and bookish problems.

Warm regards,

Sonya

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