New year, New me and New books. There’s no way a reader can catch up to all the books being published in a year. Like we know, there are so many books and not enough time to read all of them. But we want to make sure you don’t lose out on the good ones. So, here’s a list of books you should read in 2019.
- City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert:
From the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, a delicious novel of glamour, sex, and adventure, about a young woman discovering that you don’t have to be a good girl to be a good person. Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love.
- Gun Island by Amitav Gosh:
Bundook. Gun. A common word, but one which turns Deen Datta’s world upside down.
A dealer of rare books, Deen is used to a quiet life spent indoors, but as his once-solid beliefs begin to shift, he is forced to set out on an extraordinary journey; one that takes him from India to Los Angeles and Venice via a tangled route through the memories and experiences of those he meets along the way. There is Piya, a fellow Bengali-American who sets his journey in motion; Tipu, an entrepreneurial young man who opens Deen’s eyes to the realities of growing up in today’s world; Rafi, with his desperate attempt to help someone in need; and Cinta, an old friend who provides the missing link in the story they are all a part of. It is a journey which will upend everything he thought he knew about himself, about the Bengali legends of his childhood and about the world around him.
- We Are Displaced by Malala Yousafzai:
After her father was murdered, María escaped in the middle of the night with her mother.
Zaynab was out of school for two years as she fled war before landing in America. Her sister, Sabreen, survived a harrowing journey to Italy.
Ajida escaped horrific violence, but then found herself battling the elements to keep her family safe in their new makeshift home.
In We Are Displaced, which is part memoir, part communal storytelling, Malala not only explores her own story, but she also shares the personal stories of some of the incredible girls she has met on her journeys – girls who have lost their community, relatives, and often the only world they’ve ever known.
- The Testaments by Margaret Atwood:
The author of award winning book ‘The Blind Assassin’ is back with a book which is a sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. ‘The Testaments’ is set fifteen years after Offred’s final scene in the ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and is narrated by three female characters. Also, this book is not connected to the television adaption of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’.
“Dear readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.”- Margaret Atwood
- Raavan- Orphan of Aryavarta by Amish Tripathi
The wait is finally over. The third book from the Ram Chandra series will be out by mid September. The first book from the series was Ram-Scion of Ikshvaku which was followed by the book Sita-Warrior Of Mithila. The book Raavan as the name says will be based on Raavan the events in the first two book from the Raavan’s point of view. Amish has also promised a fourth book which will connect all the three books.
- On The Come Up by Angie Thomas
This is a highly anticipated second novel by the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning The Hate You Give. The story is about Sixteen-year-old Bri who wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Her first song goes viral and she soon finds herself at the center of a controversy. It is the story of fighting for your dreams and how, especially for black people, freedom of speech isn’t always free.
- King of Scars: Leigh Bardugo
A novel from the American YA fantasy author best known for the Six of Crows duology and the Shadow and Bone trilogy. King of Scars is the first book in a brand new duology by from the best-selling author.
Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.
Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.
- I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella:
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sophie Kinsella comes an irresistible story of love and empowerment about a young woman with a complicated family, a handsome man who might be “the one,” and an IOU that changes everything.
Fixie Farr has always lived by her father’s motto: “Family first.” And since her dad passed away, leaving his charming housewares store in the hands of his wife and children, Fixie spends all her time picking up the slack from her siblings instead of striking out on her own. The way Fixie sees it, if she doesn’t take care of her father’s legacy, who will?
- My Seditious Heart by Arundhati Roy
My Seditious Heart collects the work of a two-decade period when Arundhati Roy devoted herself to the political essay as a way of opening up space for justice, rights and freedoms in an increasingly hostile environment. Taken together, these essays trace her twenty year journey from the Booker Prize-winning The God of Small Things to the extraordinary The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: a journey marked by compassion, clarity and courage. Radical and readable, they speak always in defence of the collective, of the individual and of the land, in the face of the destructive logic of financial, social, religious, military and governmental elites.
- Golden Child by Claire Adam
A deeply affecting debut novel set in Trinidad, following the lives of a family as they navigate impossible choices about scarcity, loyalty, and love
Rural Trinidad: a brick house on stilts surrounded by bush; a family, quietly surviving, just trying to live a decent life. Clyde, the father, works long, exhausting shifts at the petroleum plant in southern Trinidad; Joy, his wife, looks after the home. Their two sons, thirteen years old, wake early every morning to travel to the capital, Port of Spain, for school. They are twins but nothing alike: Paul has always been considered odd, while Peter is widely believed to be a genius, destined for greatness.
When Paul goes walking in the bush one afternoon and doesn’t come home, Clyde is forced to go looking for him, this child who has caused him endless trouble already, and who he has never really understood. And as the hours turn to days, and Clyde begins to understand Paul’s fate, his world shatters—leaving him faced with a decision no parent should ever have to make.
