My Reads : 2022

 

      2022 wasn’t my best year when it came to reading. I wasn’t too prolific and to make matters worse, I picked up the “wrong one” fairly often. Sports occupied a higher-than-usual share in my list. Some biographies (Vajpayee and McEnroe) were outstanding . My fiction selection could have been a lot better. The good news is we are already in a new year so one can make amends.

      My top picks for the year :

      Non Fiction : Kishore Kumar (Anirudha Bhattacharjee/ParthivDhar)

      Fiction : Murder at the Mushaira (Raza Mir)

Non – Fiction :

1.       Think Again (Adam Grant) 8/10 : a powerful work on keeping an open mind to continuously re-examine one’s own beliefs and retaining the curiosity to question widely accepted assumptions. 

2.       The Flaneur (Edmund White) 7/10 : “Flaneur” (means “stroller” or “saunterer”) is a nuanced description of Paris, arguably the world’s most fascinating city. The writer captures them all- the chic Avenue Foch, flea marketsof Cligancourt, literary importance of St Germain etc etc. Nuanced and humorous.  

3.       That Will Be England Gone (Michael Henderson)  5/10 :  a paean to English living. The central theme is cricket but the emphasis is also on culture, music and the overall landscape. The narrative is delivered via school, club and county games. I didn’t have enough context to appreciate much of what is written. 

4.       Aftermath (Harald Jahner) 7/10 :  a portrait of post WW II Germany. Informative and insightful. Covers gender equality, evolution of father-son relationships post return from war and cultural awakening from the rubble of defeat. 

5.       Atal Behari Vajpayee (Sagarika Ghose) 8/10 : a comprehensive and balanced biography. Lucid yet tight writing. Doesn’t meander into needless detail. Brings the man to (larger than) life. Chronicles an important, less documented dimension of post independence India . Could have relied on a more extensive range of interviews and sources of anecdotes. 

6.       Hitting Against The Spin (Nathan Leamon and Ben Jones) 7/10 :  Explains patterns in cricket using data as a powerful tool. Covers a range of thought-provoking dimensions. Reasons for Indians not batting left handed , zen and fast bowling, Tendulkar’s “helping hand” etc. Does away with softer stuff like grit, perseverance etc and clinically analyses aspects of the game using analytics. Often, the data is curated to fit the hypothesis but then, that’s par for the course. 

7.       HBR at 100: 7/10 :  A compilation of the most influential articles from the Harvard Business Review. Some essays are dated but relevant. Others, topical and insightful. Only a few can be given a miss. Dispiriting to see negligible references to Financial Services. 

8.       Serious (John McEnroe)  7/10 : The enfant terrible of international tennis writes with endearing frankness and none of the pretentious self deprecation that characterizes many memoirs. He is unapologetic for his on-court behaviour and unabashed respect is reserved only for Borg. 

9.       The Metaverse (Matthew Ball) 7/10: An excellent primer on the Metaverse. Captures its cast of current and potential characters. Dives into into the all-pervasive  nature of the beast and its deep-rooted impact on our future lives. Slightly “heavy” in parts making it difficult for the uninitiated. 

10.   Primates of Park Avenue (Wednesday Martin) 7/10 : A snide, funny take on the residents of Upper East Manhattan. Covers the snooty condominiums, social hierarchy driven play dates, must-have ocean front homes and numerous other competitive symbols of having arrived. South Delhi pales and how. The writer is an anthropologist and some of those parallels make for dreary reading. 

11.   Kishore Kumar (Aniruddha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar) 8/10 :An incredibly detailed memoir about the “God of music”. Tells the story behind the eccentric genius, friend, father, benefactor and myriad other avatars. There are facets to him that seem unbelievable and some of his pranks seem too wicked to be true.

 

Fiction:

1.       Silverview (John le Carre) 6/10 : this was the master’s swan song. The king of the spy genre’s last novel before he kicked the bucket (published posthumously). Set in a small British town with a young bookseller and a polish agent being key characters. Not his best. 

2.       Murder At The Mushaira (Raza Mir)  8/10 : An enchanting piece of historical fiction. Woven around a murder committed at a mushaira in 1857 that is subsequently investigated by Mirza Ghalib, the poet laureate of the day (ahem!). Recreates the ambience of 19^th century Delhi with all its flourish and drama. 

3.       Making Nice (Ferdinand Mount)  6/10 : a satirical take on the deceitful world of the Public Relations industry. The spin and skullduggery that lies beneath the hype is covered with amusing cynicism. The author delves into diplomacy, politics and campaign trails to come up with a somewhat readable story .

4.       The Plot (Jean Hanff Korelitz) 6/10 : Diabolical mystery thriller . A has-been professor is accused of plagiarizing a story-idea developed by one of his students. This subsequently goes onto become a bestseller but not without consequences. 

5.       Harsh Times (Mario Vargas Llosa)  5/10 : the true story of Guatemala’s political turmoil masquerading as a novel. A villainous set of politicians and self-styled revolutionaries, copybook CIA maneuvers, and a predictable specter of violence. Not exactly up my street.  

6.       Ants Among Elephants (Sujatha Gidla): 5/10 :  Dark narration of the sharp caste-divide in Andhra/Telangana. Unidimensional and lacks perspective . Avoidable. 

7.       Pereira Maintains (Antonio Tabucchi) 6/10 :  the story of a culture columnist in a Lisbon newspaper who has moral struggles during the period of Salazar’s dictatorship. Humorous and well-written. This an excellent travel guide to Lisbon if one is keen to explore its must-visit cafes and listening posts. 

8.       Other Names For Love (Tagmour Soomro) 5/10: yet another novel that flits between London and Pakistan with a flurry of Oxbridge educated, conflicted Pakistanis thrown in. I have enjoyed many other novels dealing with this diaspora. This one however, was a complete letdown. 

9.       Olga Dies Dreaming (Xochitl Gonlez) 7/10: A story about Americans of Puerto Rican origin. A high-end wedding planner, her Congressman brother, and their mother (a resistance leader). Straddles seamlessly between posh NYC society, The Capitol and an impoverished but determined Puerto Rico. 

10.   Midnight at Malabar House (Vaseem Khan) 8/10: A gripping murder mystery set in (south) Bombay just after independence. Has all the ingredients of a classic thriller. The author also touches upon the post-partition psyche from numerous angles whist providing the odd glimpse into spicy SoBo razzmatazz.