BOOKWORM
FIRST, THE BAD NEWS
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty, Doubleday, $38. Though there is a “Death Lady”, bestselling author Liane Moriarty (Big Little Lies) delivers a nailbiting tale with nary a murder in sight.
How many of us would want to know our own cause of death and age of death? Not many, I’m willing to wager. But the passengers on a short-haul flight from Hobart to Sydney have little choice when a fellow passenger marches down the aisles, points her finger at them and reels off exactly that information.
Other passengers will have difficulty saying they noticed anything unusual about her until she began reeling off the unsettling information.
“She’s not extremely pregnant like the extremely pregnant woman. She’s not extremely tall like the extremely tall guy.”
Just your average older lady, travelling alone. One who tells people they will die of, among other things, old age, heart attacks, cancer, workplace accidents, violent incidents, intimate partner violence, drowning, and so on.
Senior citizens, young parents, newlyweds, children, she spares no one from her prophecies.
People are weirded out or terrified. But most try to dismiss it from their minds. Until reports of people on the flight passing away exactly how she’d predicted begin to surface.
Panic reigns. But a strange thing happens. People also begin posting grateful notes about how knowing how many years they had left gave them the courage to live the lives they always wanted to, or how they tested for cancer though they had no symptoms and caught it early.
So is she a messenger of doom or someone cautioning people against possible danger?
Side note: The cabin manager on the flight is a young woman called Allegra Patel. And her mother’s astrologer sees nothing untoward in her birth chart.
Moriarty looks at free will and destiny, grief and love and the endless struggle to maintain certainty in an uncertain world.
I had the hardest time not reading the ending first. The worth was so worth it!
SOME LIKE IT HOT
Sunshine and Spice by Aurora Palit, Berkley Romance, $25.99. When Naomi Kelly lands a career-saving contract to rebrand the Mukherjee family’s failing local bazaar, she’s willing to do anything to make the most of the opportunity.
But her free-spirited Bengali mother kept her free of the traditions and restrictions that she ran away from and now Naomi’s lack of connection to her roots represents everything Gia Mukherjee (another Bengali, in case you were wondering) disdains.
Naomi has been fielding questions about where she’s from, both from the mainstream community in Kelowna, where she was raised, and fellow desis who can’t quite place her.
Gia’s son, Dev, is also willing to do whatever it takes to escape the clutches of the matchmaker aunty his mother has hired to find him a “proper” Indian bride, so he wouldn’t be subjected to a “life of hot dogs and hamburgers”.
The solution to both their problems lies in pretending to be a couple: It will sabotage Gia’s matchmaking and Naomi will gain lessons in Bengali culture.
In an illustration of just how clueless she is, Naomi asks Dev what the little pills in a bottle with the picture of a happy kid are for.
“That’s Hajmola,” he said. “They’re all-natural tablets to help with digestion and to control flatulence... you’re welcome to try as many as you want if it’ll help you with your research.”
The book is funny and sweet in equal parts. It also explores the feeling of being tugged in many directions that people growing up away from their roots may experience.
WRITE ME A HAPPY ENDING
Match Me If You Can by Swati Hegde, Ballantine Books, $24.95. As a writer for a Mumbai women’s magazine, Jia Deshpande churns out cliché articles about finding “the One”.
In her other life, she blogs anonymously about the messy truth of real love, while balancing family game nights and growing feelings for her childhood friend.
Jaiman Patil loves Jia. But he’s also an honorary member of her family and confessing his feelings for her might jeopardize the bonds he has with her family.
Could life get more complicated than that?
PHOOLS RUSH IN
Say You’ll Be Mine by Naina Kumar, Dell, $24.95. Meghna Raman defies her parents wishes to pursue her dream career.
When her writing partner, best friend – and secret crush – invites her to be his best man at his upcoming wedding, she agrees, determined to move on.
Maybe she could marry the engineer that her parents still wish she’d become. Enter grumpy engineer Karthik Murthy, who has seen enough of his parents’ relationship to know marriage is not for him.
But for his mother’s sake, he goes along with her matchmaking attempts.
The two find common ground and – of course – an undeniable chemistry emerges. How can she not fall for someone who knows daisies are her favourite flower and designs a special t-shirt for himself with I’m a phool for you on it?
LIFE AS WE KNEW IT
My Beloved Life by Amitava Kumar, Hamish Hamilton, $36. My Beloved Life traces the arc of Jadunath Kunwar’s life. The beginning, in 1935, is inauspicious. While pregnant with him, his mother nearly dies of a cobra bite. We see him next in college, meeting Tenzing Norgay, the sherpa who first summited Everest. As changes big and small sweep across India, Jadu’s mundane life finds meaning in the most unexpected places and situations. Amitava Kumar’s novel is about how we tell stories and write history, how individuals play a counterpoint to big movements, and how no single life is without consequence.
THE DOCTOR IS IN
The Doctor Will See You Now by Dr Amir Khan, Penguin, $19.99. 60 hours a week. 240 patients. 10 minutes to make a diagnosis. Welcome to Dr Amir Khan’s surgery. A rare insider account of what it really takes to be a community GP in one of UK’s busiest practices.
From the unsuspecting pregnant woman about to give birth at the surgery to the family who needs support through bereavement, this powerful and compassionate telling reminded me of one of my favourite hospital shows, St Elsewhere.
WALK WITH ME
Globetrotting: Writers Walk the World, introduced and edited by Duncan Minshull, Notting Hill Editions, $28.95. Duncan Minshull lets you experience the world through the eyes of Roald Amundsen and Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, Charles Darwin and Rabindranath Tagore, Matsuo Basho and D.H.Lawrence, and a host of luminaries whose footsteps across Africa and Asia, the Americas and Australasia “suggest many reasons for leaving the sedentary life behind”. Then, who knows, some of the stories told might just persuade you to open a gate and get going somewhere in the world...
AS THE WORLD WATCHES
How I Survived a Chinese “Reeducation” Camp by Gulbahar Haitiwaji and Rozenn Morgat, Seven Stories Press, $26.95. Gulbahar Haitiwaji grew up in Ghujla, Xinjiang, “a paradise as big as some countries” whose riches include gold, diamond, citrus fruit and also oil, uranium and natural gas.
Her people, a largely Muslim, Turkic ethnic group, call it East Turkestan where they have “known only sporadic stretches of national independence” between long stretches of Chinese rule.
Too rich, too strategic, a corridor for the Silk Road Economic Belt launched in 2013.
Before the crackdown on dissent began, Haitiwaji left her husband and children and sought asylum in France.
And is lured back to China after she received a call, supposedly from a government official, to come and collect her pension.
Upon her return, Haitiwaji was held in detention centres and “reeducation” camps where she endured torture, interrogations, violence, brainwashing, forced sterilization and nights under blinding fluorescent lights in her prison cell.
Her crime: She’s an Uyghur, and her daughter Gulhumar had participated in a protest rally in France.
Suddenly, the officer slammed his fist on the table. “You know her, don’t you?”
“Yes, she’s my daughter.”
“Your daughter is a terrorist!”
“No! I don’t know why she was at that demonstration!”
A powerful account of an ongoing human tragedy as the world watches.
THIS OR THAT
Between Flowers And Bones by Carolyn Leiloglou, illustrated by Vivienne To, Waterbrook, $18.99. Twelve-year-old Georgia assumed she would one day be the last Restorationist protecting art from evil forces. So she’s thrilled when her second cousin Vincent joins the family calling.
But his flashier gift makes her feel like a sidekick and complications arise when Vincent steps into danger.
SPINNING MAGIC
Magic Tree House Windy Night With Wild Horses by Mary Pope Osborne, Random House, $21.99. The Magic Tree House series continues to spin its magic for young readers. In this, the 39th in the series, the Magic Tree House spins Jack and Annie back in time to a nature reserve for horses.
As eco volunteers, they ride mountain bikes across the land and summon a mysterious helper on their latest mission to save endangered wild horses.
ONCE UPON A LAND
A Sliver of Moon and a Shard of Truth by Chitra Soundar, illustrated by Uma Krishnaswamy, Candlewick Press, $21.99. Mangoes, Mischief and Tales of Friendship introduced young readers to Prince Veera and Suku.
In this follow-up book, the two best friends once again team up to solve puzzles and problems, inspired by timeless folk tales from India.
TEEN REVIEW
By KETA BHARUCHWALA
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, Penguin Random House, $13.99. Stargirl is an inspiring book narrated by Leo, who is confused by the new student, Stargirl.
Stargirl thrives by being herself even if it makes her stand out while Leo would do anything to fit in.
This book is a perfect example of the judgmental mindsets we see among the younger generation.
Stargirl is new at Mica High School, she loves to play the ukulele, and her kind gestures are usually mis-understood. Among her classmates is Leo who wants to fit in with the crowd. He doesn’t understand how unbothered Stargirl is to be called the “outcast”.
Stargirl taught me an important lesson about myself and others around me. I constantly try to fit in or go unnoticed. Many people are losing their individuality and are turning into the same person. We are always so concerned with what others think of us that we never get to understand ourselves. What we like or dislike are based on trends, our beliefs are not ours, they are based on those of others.
Instead of doing things because of others, it’s more important to do them for ourselves.
Stargirl is a book with a deep mean-ing that can change your mindset from comparing yourself with others.
• Keta Bharuchwala is a youth volunteer at Brampton Library.