HOW TO NAVIGATE LIFE

Living While Human by Arwinder Kaur, Tellwell Talent, $39.56. We live in a complex, complicated world, and the quality of one’s life depends on how we navigate its twisted pathways.

Even in a crowded world of eight billion people, many of us often find ourselves lonely, and life seems empty and devoid of meaning and purpose.

Arwinder Kaur confronts the reader with poignant questions. “Why are we the only species that seems to be struggling to live truly healthy lives? What makes us live the way we do?”

How we answer these questions might have a lot to do with where we were born or raised, and how that impacted our understanding of suffering or being free to choose one’s path, she writes.

How can we live better lives with a deeper connection to ourselves?

Living While Human is a “micro-autobiography, not a full account of my life,” says the author. Living truly well is about knowing the meaning of the time gifted to us.

It is now or never. We must follow the lead. Nature has made our way forward clear. We need to stop living our lives concerned with petty things and activities like  manicures, pedicures, and idolizing the Kardashians, and raising children to think the same way. Too many are doing the wrong thing. People need to admit they don’t know how to save the planet, and the politicians don’t know or don't want to. Listen to the Indigenous people and groups who do know how and follow their lead and their way. If enough of us, billions, do this collectively, others will have to follow since they will have no votes or money to stay in power.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the choices we make.

Find a deeper connection with yourself, exhorts Kaur, and shares her own life experiences. The solutions to our problems are not locked away in a secret vault, but are within easy reach – if only we can find the inner energy to reach out and try a

TOPICAL PAGE-TURNER

The Detective by Ajay Chowdhury, Harvill Secker, $31.99. On the verge of a four-billion-dollar deal, a tech entrepreneur is found dead in a construction site, which leads to the discovery of three skeletons over a hundred years old.

Are the two connected?

And then more bodies turn up.

The Detective is astonishingly topical. The war in the Middle East, tech entrepreneurs embroiled in dark deals with governments, the pros and cons of artificial intelligence, Brexit, and the politics of immigration.

“What, like Cambridge Analytica?” said Tahir.

The investigative professionalism of the Met compared to that of Kolkata police: But the paperwork was as bad as it was in India. Records had to be kept, backsides had to be covered.

Out of the kitchen and back on the force, can Detective Kamil Rahman take the heat?

“Looks like we have a lot of empty puris with no pani or dahi to speak of,” he quips at one point. Or, as his partner Anjoli adds, “I can be the Liz Salander of the East End – the girl with the baingan tattoo.”

Ajay Chowdhury serves up a page-turner filled with insights about how similar the journeys of Jewish immigrants in the early 1900s were to those of Bengali immigrants in England today.

AN EPIC FANTASY

Bramah’s Quest by Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Nightwood Editions, $26.95. The year is 2087. Bramah, the time-travelling demi-goddess, a locksmith and this book-length poem’s hero, is back on a planet ravaged by climate change and global inequality.

A grandmother toils in a factory, plotting to save seeds, drying them on patched linen. Consortiums with deep supply chain connections to farms and food cut losses and slink away. Bramah is on a quest to find her people and the little boy last seen in Bramah and the Beggar Boy.

Using blank verse, the sonnet and the ballad, Renée Sarojini Saklikar connects global issues, themes of good and evil, eco-catastrophe, the resistance of seed savers, craftspeople, scientists and orphans. She weaves together poetry and politics in this saga.

Myth, story, legend, fact

petals unfold together, apart

Time’s stem split, turned back,

the seasons, such riches, each twig and leaf,

threshold of discovery or precipice

Expect shape-shifting, magic realism, she writes in her introduction. “Many things happen, some good, mostly bad, including five eco-catastrophes and yes, a bio-contagion (pandemic).”

All characters are uninvited settlers on the unceded territories, the world over, of First Peoples. These include Rajencrantz and Gabbar-bhai, two Gujarati assassins!

Saklikar brings a phenomenal knowledge of epics, literature and current world affairs to her very own epic.

LIVE WELL

Real Self-Care by Pooja Lakshmin, Penguin Life, $37.99. Pooja Lakshmin is a psychiatrist and founder and CEO of Gemma, the physician-led women’s mental health community and a leading voice at the intersection of mental health and gender.

The line on the cover, (Crystals, Cleansers, and Bubble Baths Not Included), points to her focus on challenging “the tyranny of faux self-care” as it says in her author bio.

Gratitude lists and essential oils are all very good, but Lakshmin wants to redefine wellness. In an age when juice cleanses, yoga workshops, and bamboo sheets have exploded into an industry billed as a panacea for all that ails women, she shows how incomplete and manipulative some of these can be, shifting the focus outwards instead of addressing an oppressive social system. Real self-care is an internal, self-reflective process. It’s not a thing to do or buy, it’s a way to be.

AN OLD FAVOURITE

Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L Sayers, Vintage Books, $16. Following the republishing of Whose Body?, the first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, fans of Dorothy Sayers will be thrilled to learn of the republishing of the second in the series.

Clouds of Witness has the dashing amateur sleuth investigating the death of his sister’s fiance. The evidence points in an unfortunate direction – their older brother. Will Lord Wimsey save his brother or condemn him?

COLD COMFORT

Snow Road Station by Elizabeth Hay, Alfred A Knopf, $32.95. In the winter of 2008, as snow falls without interruption, an actor blanks on her lines. Fleeing the theatre, she beats a retreat into her past and arrives at Snow Road Station, a barely discernible dot on the map of Ontario.

A witty, wise tale about unrealized dreams and the enduring bonds of female friendship from the Giller Prize-winning author.

I SPY

A Song of Comfortable Chairs by Alexander McCall Smith, Alfred A Knopf, $34. In this instalment of the beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Grace Makutsi encounters a pair of quandries that will require all of her and Mma Ramotswe’s insight and intuition to solve.

WHERE TRUE VALUE LIES

Castaway Mountain by Saumya Roy, Astra House, $37. A small community of migrant ragpickers lives at the edge of the towering Deonar garbage mountain at the outskirts of Mumbai. Saumya Roy brings a deep insight to the narrative from time spent chronicling the lives of the wastepickers of Deonar to whom her Vandana Foundation provides microloans. Reminiscent of Behind the BeautifulForevers, Castaway Mountain reveals that sometimes when you own nothing, you know where true value lies: in family, community and love.

NEW HORIZONS

Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo, Catapult, $34. A widow in a retirement community glimpses her future while waiting for her daughter to visit from America. A shocked professor reacts to accusations that he exploited his graduate students. These intimate stories of South Indian immigrants and the families they left behind explore how women both claim and surrender power.

MAKE OR BREAK

The Making of Her by Bernadette Jiwa, Dutton, $36. Joan Egan and her husband Martin are living an enviable life with their daughter Carmel when everything changes with the arrival of a letter.

A tender story of marriage and motherhood, and of a woman’s journey to claim happiness.

AND DO THEY GIGGLE?

Are Llamas Ticklish? by Jane Lindholm and Melody Bodette, Grosset & Dunlap, $13.99. So are they? Ticklish, that is? And why do goats have rectangular eyes? Packed with fun and informative answers to real questions from real kids, this little book is sure to have adults wondering why they never thought to ask such questions!

THE INTREPID MARS PATEL

The Extradimensional Reappearance of Mars Patel by Sheela Chari, Walker Books, $24.99. Mars Patel is back on earth – after his interplanetary expedition – but earth isn’t quite the same. And Mars isn’t prepared for all the changes that have taken place while he was away on a Martian colony. Can he and his friends protect both Mars and Earth and maybe even make them better?

BETWEEN THE COVERS

The Book That No One Wanted To Read by Richard Ayoade, Walker Books, $23.99. Introduction: In which I (a book) ask several important questions, successfully answer them and generally get things off to a super start.

Thus begins this delightful little book.

Here are The Top Five Things That Grate My Gears:

1. People who fold the corner of the page to save their place. Have these savages not heard of novelty bookmarks? Or paper? Or “memory”? Which part of your body would you most like to have folded back on itself?

An equally fun read for all adults who never met a book they didn’t want to read.

TEEN REVIEW

By NIPUNA COORAY

The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Shambhala, $16.95. This book on strategy and warfare has been read by generations. Despite being over 2,000 years old, its insights and principles are still relevant today, not only in military affairs but also in business, politics, and everyday life.

It is divided into 13 chapters, each of which explores different aspects of strategy, such as the importance of understanding your enemy, the need for flexibility in your tactics, and the role of deception in warfare. Sun Tzu stresses the importance of preparation, both in terms of knowing your own strengths and weaknesses and those of your opponent. He also emphasizes the importance of avoiding unnecessary conflict and seeking victory through means other than brute force.

What sets it apart from other works on strategy is its emphasis on the importance of psychological factors in warfare. Sun Tzu argues that a successful person must not only be skilled in tactics and strategy but also in understanding the motivations and emotions of their allies and opponents.

The Art of War is a must-read for anyone interested in strategy, leadership, or human behaviour. Its lessons continue to inspire and inform leaders around the world, making it a true classic of military and philosophical literature.

• Nipuna Cooray is a youth volunteer at Brampton Library.