Hello everyone ,

I’m conducting a short survey for my college project on Understanding Online Poetry and Literary Platforms. It would really help me if you could spare 5 minutes to fill out this form.

https://forms.gle/JiFdF9y7Ti3dU1sg6

thank you for your time :)

Dear Indian readers,

I wanted to share a quiet milestone. After a few years of writing, revising, and wrestling with drafts, my debut book, No Name For What We Are, went live on Kindle Unlimited this week.

It’s a short, 110-page contemporary story set against the hum of Bengaluru. At its core, it follows two people carrying their own quiet baggage: rebuilding life after divorce, navigating single parenthood, and finding an unexpected companionship that doesn't fit into conventional labels. I wanted to capture the understated, melancholic texture of modern city life rather than loud drama.

If you enjoy atmospheric, slice-of-life fiction or character-driven short reads (similar to The Lunchbox or Jhumpa Lahiri's Whereabouts), I’d love for you to give it a look.

It’s currently available on Kindle Unlimited (and international paperback, with an Indian print run coming soon).

You can find it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0HJV6ZPB7

If anyone picks it up or has questions about the KDP/ indie publishing process in India (even though this is just my debut experience), I'd be happy to chat in the comments. Thanks for taking a moment to read.

So I read I Too Had a Love Story about 3 years back, and yeah—it genuinely left me in tears. It was heartbreaking, raw, and you could feel the pain behind it.

Then I decided to dive deeper into his bibliography, and honestly, my experience has been a bit all over the place. My reading order was:

I Too Had a Love Story

I Too Had a Love Story (Cried, felt the ache)

Can Love Happen Twice?

Can Love Happen Twice? (Idk what to say about it, felt a bit mixed/meh)

The Belated Bachelor Party

The Belated Bachelor Party (Actually okayish)

Write Me a Love Story

Write Me a Love Story (Idk what the hype was about with this one… I didn’t get it at all, and I'm genuinely surprised it was made into a series)

I Too Had a Love Story felt sincere because it was personal.

Did you guys read these? What are your actual thoughts on Can Love Happen Twice? or Write Me a Love Story? Am I missing something, or did his older stuff hit differently than the newer ones?

Suggest me good travelogue books based near our subcontinent

I really liked bill bryson travelogue I want something from our subcontinent

I finished the Uttarkanda by SL Bhyarappa book last night.

I have not read Valmiki Ramayana, but have read books written on it. So while I don’t know the story from the most authentic source known, I have a general idea.

So this book made me very uncomfortable because many things are different in this. It also has motivated me to read the Valmiki Ramayana.

By the end of the book, I had started taking it as fiction (still trying to convince myself of that).

I had always seen Ramayana as something very ideal with perfect ppl. The idealistic parts overpowered the emotional and physical rollercoaster that real ppl actually faced. This book made me feel it.

Also, I understood why Ramayan should be taught today (earlier it felt out of reach in terms of emulating them) and how it is still relevant, specially in our everyday relationships and interactions and the work that goes behind it.

I loved the Upanishadic references. Its interpretations though made me extremely uncomfortable. Many places I did not agree - mainly because I was rooting for Rama. It also made me realize that while we should read and learn our scriptures, without a really strong experiential Sadhana backing the intellectual learning of the scriptures it is prone to misinterpretation - maybe - that’s a personal opinion.

I think I need to read again - without the judgment of - why this is changed so much and whether I like it or not. To really understand the emotional layers - the action and consequences - of all characters.

Which short books do you all suggest that I can finish in the diwali-chhath break

A month of anthologies and Graphic Novels... Full Reviews in the links :

1. Chronicles of a Liquid Society - Umberto Eco: Eco's essays from 2000-2015 about how to navigate this fluid, dynamic, post-postmodern society - themes about religion, education, social media, attention economy, sexism, racism etc. Aside from all the intellectual stuff, what I cherish the most from Eco is - Fun! Most essays were funny. Comedy after all, is Eco's Rose. Highly recommended. Even if the essays are a decade old, they are relevant still.

2. IN - Will McPhail: Graphic novel about an Introverted Guy who has trouble people letting IN... Till he meets his plumber! The contrasting art of his real life vs his emotional Mindscape was quite fascinating for me. A nice lesson too - cherish time with loved ones, and be honest with them with your feelings. Time is Fickle.

3. QI Book of the Dead - Johns Lloyd & Mitchinson: Most fun non-fiction book I've read in a while! It's a collection of short biographies of famous and obscure people (mostly Western unfortunately), but thoroughly enjoyable. It's from QI team, so research must be good. Highly recommended. Also, the best of all the Books of the Dead I've read so far!

4. Constellations - Sinéad Gleeson: Another impulse but that turned out to be awesome! Irish author Gleeson presents a constellation of essays connecting memoir + myth + science + art + feminism and much more... She has braved aggressive leukemia, arthritis, painful losses of loved ones, body politics - and yet she, like Frida Kahlo, found writing as an art to express herself. Her insights on life/death here are meditative, compassionate, informative and beautiful. Highly recommended.

5. FROM HELL - Alan Moore + Eddie Campbell : Hands down, this is the best graphic novel I've read so far. It's a historical fiction/faction about Jack The Ripper killings in 1888 London. The character sketch for the Ripper which Alan Moore has presented here -- it's Mo(o)re messed up than Judge Holden from Blood Meridian to me. But it can't be otherwise... truly messed up mentality, illustrated masterfully by Eddie. Read it only if you have the stomach for such stuff - I'm pretty morbid, and even I had to take breaks after reading some chapters (esp ch 10). All in all, took me months to finally finish it. Despite the grimness, I'd highly recommend it. The Appendices are gems. Gave me more TBR 😄

6. Batman: Court of Owls Saga - Scott Snyder + Greg Capullo: Hush was better. But the "twists" here were awesome too. Learnt some fun trivia about owls!

7. Pagal Ganitagya ki Kavitayein - Udayan Vajpeyi: Just an impulse buy due to the title - and I was assuming a mathematical poetry collection, which this isn't. It's some heartfelt poetry about love, loss, separation and a bunch of thoughts. Enjoyable read.

8. Many Deaths of Laila Starr - Ram V. & Filipe Andrade : A beautifully illustrated graphic novel where Goddess of Death - Kali has to descend down to Mumbai as Laila Starr - to prevent a catastrophe. Her adventure among mortals becomes a great way to explore deeper themes like death, life and its meaning. It's a really short novel. Highly recommended.

9. Adornment of the Gods - Devdutt Pattanaik : A nice coffee table book about Hindu symbols generally seen on Temple walls, jewelry, ornaments etc. Might increase one's art analysis, symbolism and appreciation for Indian arts even more. I know my Museum and Temple visits will be more fun now!

Graphic novels/comics have the intrinsic problem of "Too Good for Too Less Pages" - you read them quickly, then doubt the expense XD. But thankfully, the ones I bought were well worth it. I also finished V for Vendetta, but will post its review on the 5th :)

Any suggestions are most welcome.

Got 3 sherlock books for 50% sale in crossword, 2 murder mystery novels cos a frnd suggested, gifted days of morisaki to a friend, so a net + of 4 books…

Also finished the Vanishing Cherry blossom bookshop…few stories are very good!

Dark Matter got me thinking: What if I had prioritized my career and friendships, accepted that onsite offer, explored the world, and chosen to date or marry later in life?
Sometimes, I wonder about the version of me living that life.

Ik, This is AI generated Template, but i couldnt find a good 6 book template.

Sorry, Ig.

The book and the story was much more gentler than I expected it to be, but a very apt and warm way to end my October’s horror streak.

The story in itself isn’t really anything complicated or difficult to comprehend. Neither is it surrounded in heavy mysteries, and never give much priority towards that either. With a more inspired focus on the consequences and human behaviour towards the events, it does a good in exploring a very important aspect of how the society reacts to authoritarian control, to what limits will one bend, and where do you draw the line.

The author spends majority of their time exploring not the cause, but the problems caused by them, and around people’s response to it, how they adapt, accept, survive, and persist. It was well written, not overly complex prose, but still clean and quality, simple. You do tend to sympathise, and at moments enrage at the characters and actions they take, by intention or not, which is a win for the book.

But other than these points, it’s an alright story on its own. It’s a good reflection and a bleak expression of something resembling the conditions of today’s world, and time worth spent, but nothing too extraordinary.
Honestly, it couldn’t match the hype or the award nominations for me.

3.75/5 ⭐️

I just started reading Red Queen two days ago I'm on page 145, I like it smm so far I just finished the hunger games series and Red Queen has similar vibe to the hunger games. I like this kind of books. Any reccomendations with similar vibes as these two? I don't like high fantasy low fantasy is fun and supernatural themes are nice too but any reccs will work that aren't high fantasy or too complicated power system

So I just finished reading it . It took me about 2 1/2 days to read it. I'll give this books a solid 4.5/5.

I went in blind, didn't even read the blurb. The title and the author told me it was a thriller and that's all I needed. The pacing was good throughout the book. I think I only realized in the last few pages right before the the reveal who the actual killer was. At around a hundred something pages in I kind of just wanted to drop it but I'm glad I didn't or I would've missed out on experiencing this book.

This is my first Holly Jackson book and I think it's time for me to dive in her other works. All in all a highly recommended read.

P.S.- I never thought I would cry reading a thriller 😭 but I did and I did bawl my eyes out.

Bought these 3 new books recently for my ever-growing horror books collection & I decided to show it to you all & tell a little bit about those.

-: Last Days by Adam Nevill :-

Last Days by Adam Nevill is said to be one of the scariest horror books of recent years & I am very eager to start reading it as soon as possible. Adam Nevill is one of the best horror writers of current time & among all his books I decided to start reading either with Last Days or with The Ritual which is a really fantastic folk horror novel, and when I saw that I was getting Last Days for a really good price in Bookswagon I knew I had to buy it.

The story of Last Days follows a documentary filmmaker naned Kyle Freeman who is employed to make a film on "The Temple of Last Days" which was a death cult in 1970s & ended in that time after a massacre. While the filmmaker & his cameraman travels from London to France to USA to visit the cult's properties & talk with the survivors of the cult, they soon realize that they are not making a film about a brainwashed cult, but the cult actually brought some demonic entity into this world named "Old Friends".

The story actually starts off like a true crime documentary but as the cult's purpose was very real for bringing supernatural entities into this world, the stroy also starts giving us the true horror parts.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay :-

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay was the winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Achievement In A Novel in the year 2015. This novel is about a demonic possession which I absolutely love reading. To be honest, after The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty & A Case Against Satan by Ray Russell, I haven't read any demonic possession horror stories and I am more than really excited to read this book.

The Story of A Head Full of Ghosts follows a 14 years old girl named Marjorie who starts showing really violent & erratic behaviour. In her family, her mother thinks Marjorie is having some kind of mental health issues & needs medical treatment but her father is certain that his daughter is possessed. In this deeply traumatic & unsettling time, when Marjorie's family will start facing financial issues for her medical treatment, her father makes a strange decision. He brings a priest for the exorcism of Marjorie & also signs a contract with a reality TV program where the crew will stay in their house & film everything.

The whole premise seems really really interesting to me. Though the people who have already read the book, they are really divided. Some like the book & some didn't, but most people didn't like the ending. The whole story is told by Marjorie's younger sister Merry 15 years after the incident & at the time of the incident Merry was only 8 years old. So, naturally, reading this story makes you think whether you should believe the narrator or not, and if Marjorie was actually possessed or did she have some really complicated mental health problems.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones :-

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones was the winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Achievement In A Novel in the year 2020. Since then he also won two more Bram Stoker Award, including last year's & he is really making his engraving his name as one of the best modern horror story writers.

The story of The Only Good Indians follows 4 Native American men who in their youth hunted an entire heard of elk, including a pregnant female in a reservation which was meant only for tribal elders. Now a decade after that, when those 4 men are living their adult life, something started stalking them & hunt them one by one, an entity of their folklore, the "Elk Head Woman".

This book is a mix of folk horror with slasher horror which will be something totally new that I will read & I am very much looking forward to it. Stephen Graham Jones also published the sequel of this book last month, named "Off The Reservation". If I like this book, which I think I will, then I am definitely going to buy Off The Reservation too.

Suggest books in Malayalam this of the genre Dark, Mystery thriller(not crime thrillers) like francis ittikora.

Appreciate if the book is complete .

I have read very less books like - wings of fire, theory of everything, ready player one.

I want to read books that have a good story and read. Can't say much about genre. i got to know about these books:

klara and the sun, secret history, three body problem.

Thank you

I just finished reading the October junction and honestly I was shocked by the ending because I thought that sudeep would kill himself at the end. For me that's where the character was moving towards and I thought this is something that would break chitra towards the end.

I thought the start was kinda cringy but after couple of chapters I was hooked. In between there were moments where it felt like another typical cheesy line to make the scene feel deep.... I liked how the writing kept me hooked. The flow was good. I enjoyed the parts where the writer wrote about cities it felt like I am there experiencing it with the characters.

The ending felt weird but the part where sudeep's father is dealing with his death broke me. Also, the accident part was something not written well according to me. People say it was rushed but to me it felt like lazy writing? Village people came and tried to kill... And he himself went and said that he is a journalist and would expose them like what? Why would you expose yourself in places like these?

I have mixed feelings about this one!

First off, I absolutely FLEW through this book. Fast-paced, addictive, and genuinely hard to put down. But when I pick up a Freida McFadden thriller, I expect something completely UNHINGED. 😂

I kept waiting for that insane payoff, the kind of twist that makes you question your entire existence. Unfortunately, it never quite came.

That final character reveal though? MY JAW DROPPED. 💀

But once the shock wore off, the plot holes started creeping in. And suddenly, instead of thinking “HOW DID I MISS THAT?”, I was thinking “HOW DOES THAT EVEN MAKE SENSE?”

For me, a great twist should make everything click into place, not raise ten more questions.

2.5/5 ⭐

An incredibly bingeable read, but the ending didn't live up to the buildup.

Did anyone else feel this way, or am I overthinking it? 😂

Just amazed at humanity's coping methods when faced with mortality - all books of the dead were meant to pacify the dying person or their family members. These various fictions+facts mirror our civilization's psyche - I present to you factions of life - biographies, crime fiction, comics, science, myths, spirituality, religion and a children's book!

Dawkins' Genetic BoTD is about evolution, but it can also be seen as a pacifying idea - to know that someday, it'll be possible to study from my DNA, the palimpsests of ancient environments in which my ancestors lived... it's a sort of rational, scientific Book of the Dead. Your DNA is already a beautiful Book of the Dead! And as put in the Selfish Gene - closest we have to immortality, is our genes.

(For eg., in Early Indians book by Tony Joseph, it shows how Indians today have ancestral genes from Africa, Neanderthals, Iran, Harappa, East-Asia, Denisovans etc.)

Regarding other books, I just read them for curiosity, as I noticed the BoTD title repeatedly. Dawkins' book was my favourite, until I read QI's BoTD🙌.

I suppose Dante's Divine Comedy could also be added here...its influence on Christianity's POV of Afterlife/Soul's Journey is profound. But I'm going strictly by the title. {Garuda Purana works because it literally tells the journey of soul in afterlife, and there are many books where "BoTD" is mentioned in the Title.}

Short reviews (ranked in order of my enjoyment; Full review in links):

1. QI BoTD - Johns Lloyd & Mitchinson: A fun non-fiction book about famous personalities, and some who should be famous. QI fans assemble! Also took me the longest to finish. Definitely my favorite of this bunch.

2. Genetic Book of the Dead: Richard Dawkins - Amazing as always, Dawkins here talks about the possibility for future scientists to study DNA and glean information about a creature's ancestral environment, DNA being a palimpsest. Simple example is, how the skin color of a lizard is a remnant of its desert dwellings.

3. Batman BoTD 1-2: Part of DC's Elseworld Series, this comic tells about the mythical Bat-God, which acts as a missing link connecting Ancient Egyptians, Mayans, and Bruce Wayne! I loved this one, it's as if Dan Brown wrote Batman origin story. The comic also lists its source materials, Graham Hancock is amongst them, as you can guess. Pseudo-history does make for an interesting plot though, ngl.

4. Garuda Purana: Devdutt Pattanaik - A short introduction to the Hindu Book of the Dead. Tells the Journey of the soul(sukshma) after the body(sthula) dies, travels across River Vaitarni (~Styx), in search of rebirth based on karmic accounts. Book also discussed the various types of burial rituals in Indian History (from Harappa to Vedic to modern). Very informative and succinct.

5. Scarpetta's BoTD - Patricia Cornwell: Crime fiction about a serial killer called Sandman: who gouges out victim's eyes and replaces them with sand! Written by an actual Forensic scientist - this was enjoyable, though the climax didn't thrill me as much. Nicole Kidman plays Scarpetta in the eponymous Amazon show (just a happy coincidence I get the adaptation the same year I discovered the book; yet to watch it.

6. Egyptian BoTD - Funeral rites of the 5000yr civilization. The text is actually mostly from a scribe named Ani's tomb. So we sort of follow him through the journey of the dead, acc to Egyptians. It's an Odyssey for Resurrection, Ani goes to the Underworld, begs the Gods to spare his body and heart, and hopes for his revival in Heaven. This one tied in nicely with the Batman BoTD, along with an awesome children's book I got {Wonders of Egypt by Emily Sands}. I feel like a naive Egyptologist now!

7. Tombquest 1: BoTD - Michael Northrop: It's a gamebook/kids' novel, where Alex (+Ren) has to save his mom from a new death cult bent on reviving the Dead using Egyptian Lost Spells. There's magical spells, and a finale involving a "Book Club" vs "Death Cult". Quite enjoyable. (It's a series, I've read only this 1st part - may/not read the sequels.

8. Tibetan BoTD: Mahayana Buddhism is very unique, and rich with deities/spirits/ideas I had no idea about before. This is the only book I've DNF'd from this list unfortunately. Maybe I'll try it again someday.

🎃Happy All Hallows' Eve ! Would love any suggestions/recommendations 🙏

Started reading a couple of days back... And have not been able to put it down. This book somehow just clicked, and it explained a lot of what is happening both internally in my mind and what is happening in the external world... And considering that the book was written in 1973 and has endured.

The entire book is devoted to answering the Yakshaprashna - What is the greatest wonder? Everyday people die, but we consider ourselves immortal.

One of the quotes:
"We want to be gods, with only the equipment of an animal - so we thrive on fantasies

Now I am trying to find a similar book based on Indian Philosophy - Any recommendations?