Love, Life, & Beyond

Welcome to my July reading wrap-up! This month’s summer reading list started strong, taking me on a wonderfully diverse journey across genres. If you are searching for fresh book recommendations or honest book reviews, you are in the exact right place.

My July book reads began with the gripping dystopian thrill of The Hunger Games series, followed quickly by the mythological grandeur of Heroes by Stephen Fry. 

However, as the month drew to a close, my reading took a backseat. I simply could not take my eyes off of the protest videos by CJP in Delhi. What an inspiring movement it was! Watching it unfold completely captured my attention that no book could match. A generation that grew up watching memes brought an unresponsive government to the table with such unseriousness it was a treat to see.

If you want to follow this year’s reads, here’s January, February, March, April, May, and June.

Heroes—Greek Legends Retold by Stephen Fry

The author specifies in the beginning, there will be many names (you are not prepared for just how many) and relationships that will be hard to keep track of. He tries to give some context and backstory when possible, but even then I found myself re-listening to some chapters to get my story straight. 

We meet some of the famous heroes in this book, like Heracles, Oedipus, and Jason as we adventure with them on their quests. The storytelling is a little underwhelming as compared to the first book because I felt it is overdramatised in many parts. Each hero gets their own section so the book doesn’t connect smoothly as a whole.

Given that the myths are so vast, and often strange, this series of books makes it a lot more accessible to people who just want to get a better idea of the characters while having a good time. Stephen Fry’s humour and side notes made me chuckle out loud more than a few times. 

You will not come out of this book an expert of Greek Mythology (or even remember a lot of it), but they are interesting stories. All the books in this series can be read on their own or in any order, but you get a better hold of the timelines and the main characters if you go by the chronology.

You cannot control others if you cannot control yourself. Those who most understand their own limitations have the fewest.

• Verdict: Must read if you’re new to mythology
• Rating: 9/10
• Genre: Mythology, Historical Fiction
• Format: Audible Audio Book
• Listening Time: 15h 10m
• Narrated by: Stephen Fry
• Performance Rating: 5/5
• Country: UK
• About: It is not possible to encapsulate the life of Sir Stephen Fry in a short bio. He is a celebrated English actor, comedian, writer, and broadcaster known for his wit and eloquent delivery. His bibliography spans bestselling memoirs, hit novels, and acclaimed retellings of Greek mythology. He serves as president of the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts and works closely with mental health charities.

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman

Maus is a unique medium of storytelling. It recounts the harrowing experiences of his father, Vladek, a Polish Jew who survived Auschwitz. It simultaneously documents the present-day relationship between father and son which is filled with tension.

The graphic novel’s most striking feature is its visual metaphor: Jews are drawn as mice, Nazis as cats, and non-Jewish Poles as pigs. I felt that this choice made the effect of the horrors more stark. The choice to depict Jews as mice was straightforward as Hitler had described them as such. It also helps distinguish different people. When Vladek is trying to pass off as a Pole, he is shown as wearing a mask of a pig. That is a clever way to get your message across.

The black-and-white, woodcut-style illustrations enhance the bleak reality of survival of the time and also the present tension between father and son. Vladek is a resourceful survivor, but he is also a difficult, broken man, and Spiegelman does not shy away from the guilt and resentment that complicate their bond.

It is a vital piece of historical literature and an essential read detailing the horrors of the time and how the next generation also carries the trauma of that event. It is not an easy book to read because the content sits heavy. If you needed a reminder about the effects of war, then this graphic novel is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.

But here God didn’t come, we were all on our own.

• Verdict: Read
• Rating: 8/10
• Genre: Memoir, Holocaust
• Format: Paperback set of 2 books
• Country: Europe, US
• About: Art Spiegelman is an American cartoonist and editor whose Maus became the first and only comic to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Spiegelman also co-founded the avant-garde comics magazine RAW with his wife, Françoise Mouly, cementing his legacy in elevating comics into serious literary art. Maus faced bans in some US schools for profanity and nudity, and criticism in Poland for depicting Poles as pigs.

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

This one was not on my radar, but having won the BOTM in my book club, I dove right in. It was the perfect read during a stressful time getting my son to prepare for a competition. It reminded me of the book P.S I Love You by Cecelia Ahern but with books instead of letters.

The book follows Tilly Nightingale, a woman paralysed by grief five months after the loss of her husband, Joe. Her world shifts when she receives his final, pre-arranged birthday gift via her local bookshop: twelve carefully chosen books, one delivered each month, meant to be read over the course of a year, to help her navigate life without him.

The story moves at a gentle, unhurried pace and doesn’t rush Tilly’s stages of grief, so it doesn’t feel like she is instantly healed. There are many relatable moments from wanting to see all the 12 books at one go, to not knowing how to respond to grief.

Alfie is the kind-hearted bookshop owner who has been given the task to deliver the books to her. Of course, it is obvious where the story is headed, but it is a scenic journey to the end, and I enjoyed getting there.

The best part for any book lover is the list of book recommendations on a variety of genres and topics.

The right book in the hands of the right person at exactly the right moment can change their life forever.

• Verdict: Read for a feel good ending and lots of book recs
• Rating: 7.5/10
• Genre: Romance
• Format: Paperback
• Country: UK
• About: Libby Page is a bestselling British author celebrated for her heartwarming, character-driven novels that champion the power of local community, friendship, and everyday human resilience. She worked as a journalist and in marketing before publishing her smash-hit debut novel, The Lido, in 2018. Her other novels include The 24-Hour Café and The Island Home. 

A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes & Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Both the books are prequels to the original Hunger Games trilogy. The first one, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes us back 64 years to Coriolanus Snow’s ambitious beginnings, when the Games were just 10 years old. Sunrise on the Reaping takes us to when Haymitch was reaped for the 50th Games. It reveals the boy he was before the Capitol systematically broke him.

While both books can be read as standalones, I would highly recommend reading the whole series in order of publication to avoid spoilers. (Read my full review of the series.)

The books give us an insight into how the Games were meticulously engineered over time to be used as a weapon of psychological control, rather than just a source of punishment for rebellion. It was not just the Districts who were unhappy, but people in the Capitol also lived in fear. That fear was the eventual downfall of the Empire.

At its core, the series is a scathing commentary on our desensitisation to violence and the media’s power to manipulate truth. The Games themselves are a brutal reality TV show where survival is commodified. We see how the Capitol ensured that the Districts are not only punished by taking their children away, but are also forced to watch it happen.

It forces readers to confront the very real danger of becoming passive consumers of others’ pain. In this age of over-information and over-exposure, I fear the author’s prediction has come true to a large extent.

“You were capable of imagining a different future. And maybe it won’t be realized today, maybe not in our lifetime. Maybe it will take generations. We’re all part of a continuum. Does that make it pointless?”

• Verdict: Must Read as a full series
• Rating: 9/10
• Genre: Dystopian Fiction
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: Approximately 400 pages each book
• Country: USA
• About: Suzanne Collins is an American author and television writer, best known for The Hunger Games trilogy and The Underland Chronicles. The idea came to her while channel surfing between competitive reality television programs and actual, devastating footage of the Iraq War. The lines blurred, and she realized how easily we consume human tragedy as mere entertainment. She has won numerous literary accolades for her work. 

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

I will add a disclaimer to my review first; I did not connect with the subject matter at all. Usually you are lured into a story giving you time to assimilate, but Paul Beatty drags you into his narrative with force and if you are not already aware of the situation, you get overwhelmed and lost. That’s what happened to me.

The narrator is raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist. He has spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. Even though I know it is a work of fiction, it is hard to imagine a child going through experiments that include harm. He is led to believe that his father’s work will result in a memoir that will solve his family’s financial woes. But when his father is ‘accidently’ killed in a police shoot-out (the cops are sneering), he realises there never was a memoir. I stopped soon after this so I am not sure where it leads.

The writing is fast-paced, fueled by anger, and filled with humour and a satirical view of society. I did not understand a lot of the references mentioned. There is also strong language, which might startle some readers. 

Just because racism is dead don’t mean they still don’t shoot n*****s on sight.

• Verdict: Did Not Finish
• Rating: NA
• Genre: Fiction
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: 292
• Country: USA
• About: Paul Beatty is a contemporary African-American author. In 1990, he was crowned the first ever Grand Poetry Slam Champion of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. One of the prizes for winning that championship title was the book deal which resulted in his first volume of poetry, Big Bank Takes Little Bank. His first novel was The White Boy Shuffle, which was followed by Tuff. He has also edited an anthology of African-American humor called Hokum. In 2016, The Sellout won the Booker Prize.

Once Elephants Lived Here by Geetanjali Shree (Translated by Daisy Rockwell)

The book is a collection of 11 short stories each taking the reader to a completely new setting and feeling. They evoke nostalgia like the titular story, or you might get drawn into a fantastical world of joy and love, or you are forced to confront uncomfortable truths such as in These Days. 

Along the way you meet interesting personalities; the patriarchal figures in The End and And I Saw Myself Running, the woman writer who is Out for a Spin, and the woman who falls for the Sky, to name a few.

I would suggest taking a short break between every story. Each story transports you to a different world and you interact with it wholly. Once that story ends, you need a minute to step out of that world before you enter a new one.

Beautifully written, they are highly condensed versions of the style of writing we saw in Tombs of Sand. Don’t go expecting a neatly packaged short story; instead, be open to flowing with the writing and the emotions on the page.

“…all traces of the past have drowned in the river and now the banks are paved in cement and asphalt roads and lined with elephant-sized cement tubs overflowing with an abundance of city flowers.”

• Verdict: Read
• Rating: 8/10
• Genre: Fiction, Short Stories
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 193
• Country: India
• About: Geetanjali Shree is a Hindi writer. Bel Patra, Mai, and Hamara Shahar Us Baras, are some of her works. Originally written in Hindi as Ret Samadhi, Tomb of Sand was translated into English by Daisy Rockwell and it won the International Booker Prize in 2022—the first translated South Asian novel to win it. Daisy Rockwell is an artist, writer, and translator living in New England, USA. Her highly acclaimed translations include, Upendranath Ashk’s Falling Walls and Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas.

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield 

I re-read this book for a pick-me-up. It is part of my Must-read Memoirs collection. I remember him from many videos he made about life in space, making it more accessible and interesting to those of us who don’t really think about those things much!

The book is a memoir about his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut and following through with it. However, it is much more than that. He gives an insight into the nitty gritties of life in space and on Earth as an astronaut while leaving gems of wisdom about how to live a happy life.

I am not a highly motivated person, so it was strange to read that even as a child he made choices that would lead him to his dream job like choosing veggies over fries! One thing that really resonated with me was when he said he was happy to be working in the domain of his choosing. Even if he never got to go to space, he would still be happy doing the testing, experimenting, and planning on the ground. You don’t always get everything you want in life, so you need to find your happiness where you are, while striving to achieve your dream.

The writing draws you into his life and into space, and is peppered with humour and insight. Even if you never wanted to be an astronaut, it is a good read.

“I am in space, weightless, and getting here only took 8 minutes and 42 seconds. Give or take a few thousand days of training.”

• Verdict: Read
• Rating: 8/10
• Genre: Memoir
• Format: Ebook
• Pages: 322
• Country: Canada
• About: Chris Austin Hadfield is a retired Royal Canadian Air Force colonel, test pilot, and CSA astronaut. As the first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and also served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Prior to his career as an astronaut, he served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 25 years as an Air Command fighter pilot.

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