We can’t ignore the dull Covid year, but we can at least be hopeful of a better 2022. A feel-good read might just spin things around
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Furry friends matter
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The little kitties, we hear, have been a blessing to pet parents through the last two years of the pandemic. And so, it just feels right to have a book by and for people who love cats, and also those who don’t. With essays on cats, big and small, reflective and sombre, cheerful and wonderful, Cat People (Rs 499), published by Simon & Schuster India and edited by Devapriya Roy, is a celebration of the most memed creature today, the cat, by a bunch of cat people—Meera Ganapathi, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, Varun Grover and Anukrti Upadhyay to name a few. The collection consists of short stories, personal essays, original art and photographs. There’s also the soon to release The Book of Dog: An Anthology Celebrating Our Beloved Best Friends (Rs 699), published by HarperCollins India and edited by Hemali Sodhi. The book comprises 45 original real-life stories by some of India’s leading writers and new voices.
Tales to remember
For those who enjoy a good story, there’s also a whole lot of fiction to pick and read from. Personally, we don’t mind re-reading JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, but there’s also the brilliant Sally Rooney book Beautiful World, Where Are You (R550), which released this year. It’s the story of four young people, and how their love for each other, pulls them closer and yet apart. They worry just not for themselves, but the world they live in, and Rooney’s storytelling makes this immediately intimate. If that feels too “seriously happy”, maybe a Ruskin Bond novel and his tales from the hills will do the trick.
A dose of self-help
We’ve taken a shine to all things bright and beautiful in these dreadful COVID times, and we must admit that a little sprinkle of self-help has only done a whole lot of good for us. Haemin Sunim’s Love for Imperfect Things: How to Accept Yourself in a World Striving for Perfection (Rs 499) offers vital lessons to help you realise that the only way to change what’s happening around you, is accepting your own flaws. There’s also Oprah Winfrey’s What I Know for Sure (Rs 775), that was published in 2014, where Winfrey shares stories of joy, resilience, connection, gratitude, possibility, awe, clarity and power.
Illustrated guides to love and life
One of the first books that we read in 2021 was Charlie Mackesy’s heart-warming bestseller, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Rs 999). A tale of four unlikely friends crossing paths with each other, this book is about love, friendship, hope and fighting your fears. We cannot thank Mackesy enough for writing and illustrating this one. It’s the book we keep going back to, each time we feel like we want to belong. For those nursing a broken heart, there’s Amalia Andrade’s You Always Change the Love of Your Life: [For Another Love or Another Life] (Rs 1,150), a beautiful illustrated interactive roadmap for getting over a broken heart. We suggest buying physical copies of these books instead of getting a Kindle version.
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TO BUY: amazon.in or your nearest bookstore
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