Here are my top 5 books for January 2025—stories that stayed with me long after I turned the last page. From gripping plots to heartfelt emotions, each book brought something special. If you’re looking for your next great read, these might just be perfect for you!
Genre- Novel/Contemporary/Romance
Author – Anup Jugde
Anoop Judge brilliantly created a literary journey that intertwined with two timeline stories, one explores a girl’s life in tumultuous 1992 India, when Babri Masjid destroyed, and a religious massacre that destroys a lot of lives, an unstitched wound is reopened again, and another part lets readers dive into an orphanage girl Gia’s life. Gia, is a girl full of spirit and her eyes full of dreams, a dream life and a dream job, but will it be fulfilled? She doesn’t know. Through the characters and plot the novel explores themes of life and, the mystery of fate, the novel pays homage to the eternal relationship between mother and child.
Gia is an ambitious, sparkling girl, she has lots of dreams in her big eyes but she doesn’t know where to start. She is an orphan girl, clueless about her past and future. She grew up in an atmosphere that was kind to her but it’s not home, she has to leave this place now.
At twenty-one years old, Gia Kumari finally leaves the Delhi orphanage where she was raised. With few prospects for the future, she receives an unexpected invitation from a stranger named Sonia Shah in San Francisco: an internship at Sonia’s weddings and events company. Gia and America. It’s love at first sight as she navigates an unfamiliar but irresistible new world of firsts.
Through this book, Anoop Judge tried to etch an excellent portrait of womanhood from two different aspects.
Rating 4/5 stars.
Author – Megha Rao
Genre – Magical Realism/Horror/Novel
Megha Rao’s writing is rich, poetic prose woven a strong story of campus life which is eeri and enchanting, compelled readers to read it nonstop.
When Esai arrives at St. Margaret’s imposing campus, this college has a phenomenal wild myth. Esai wants to go to the forbidden lake , that is laid amidst forest.
Esai felt a connection with this lake, this forest and the myth also, is there any connection between Esai and the lake? And with the witch in the lake?
Then she plunges headfirst into a world of power games, underground recitals, new enemies, and complicated relationships. And then Esai is lured into the arms of something far more dangerous and exciting —a water spirit lurking in the foliage. She stumbles onto an ancient secret that threatens to dismantle the entire college to the bone. Esai knows something the others don’t. She finds herself at the heart of the unrest brewing on campus, alongside Scheher. Scheher, once her only friend, now a formidable face of dissent. What happens when those you fought for once, turn against you?
Within the halls and thickets of St. Margaret’s, decisions must be made. Friends, foes, and lovers must learn to navigate the quiet truths of life, the fragility of friendships, and the aftermath of passion.
I enjoyed every bit of it. Megha Rao’s poetic language along with vivid narrative makes me stunned. I loved the enchanting world building, it was an enchanting world and the same time the blazing conflict on campus was extremely relatable, I wonder how she managed to create such brilliant, evocative narration that depicted magical realism and hardcore real world in same chapter.
The dualism, the inner conflict of Esai captured all the essence of human relationships. Till the end author’s witty storytelling maintained the dualism and the unexpected twisted revelation in the end was a master stroke. Highly recommended to all.
Rating 5/5 stars.
Author – Devi Yeshodharan
Genre – Magical Realism/Historical
Have you read any book that feels like combination of two genres?
I can remember when I started this book I wasn’t expecting it to be something impeccably beautiful. How could someone tell a story of migrants, their life, struggle, existential crisis that also blended with historical story and the outstanding part is author used the historical part as metaphor!!
Thus became the most beautiful writing of this year’s, a surrealism that delves into the life of a widow Nita who went to Dubai in search of a job that promises her good life and good education for her child, her inner loneliness could be compared as homeless people’s nothingness. While negotiating with her life circumstances this book explores domestic violence, and in a magnificent articulated way this plot also breaches the timeline and knocks the door of 3000BC and lets the readers dive into a century old traveler’s adventure towards Muziris.
This port became popular when Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians came to the Malabar Coast in search of spices in 3000 BC. And here comes the most beautiful blend in the novel. The historical adventure story aligned with Nita’s heart, her desire for searching life, her desire for one last time getting out of her skin, shout to the face of this world and tell her dreams. That’s where Devi Yeshodharan’s novel turns into fantasy. A hardcore migrant struggle story that is very much a shadow of reality, crossed its genre and became surreal mesmerizing, story that dazzling with beautiful writing style.
An utterly beautiful novel, highly recommended.
Rating 4/5
Author – Swapnil Bhumkar
Genre – Horror/Philosophy
Brace yourself for a magnificent eerie journey towards Nachiketa’s world. Swapnil Bhumkar did brilliant work to bring back Swami Nachiketa and his shadow in his story created a cacophony that stirred philosophy and age old wisdom.
It’s not your regular short stories, this collection is blended with fables just like The Upanishads.
It is not only about humans who are victims of invented realities. Like the troubled one in ‘Phantasmagoria’. A lonely hyena in ‘Glad to Meat You’ is proof of the illness being shared by beasts alike. It is not only about reasonable men like Laxman in ‘The Soul Swindler’, who incited by mischief, willingly fall prey to a con that may not be one, but also about people driven by doxasticity like Arjun in ‘Kingdom of Despondence’, who is addicted to the falsity of make believe. It is not only about a self-exploring genius kid like Vishnu in ‘Catharsis’, whose world is hyper-real; too real to be true. Even the enlightened grand master in ‘Neo Nachiketā’, after summiting the highest peak of self-realisation, asks, what next?
With a lyrical approach, author waved stories that stirred with Nachiketa ‘s timeless wisdom. Every story delves into the human psyche and brings out various emotional aspects like vulnerability, identity, morality, lust, greed, and pride. Fable like stories bring back the old times of story telling and the sharp reflections of human minds exposing arrays of psyche easily go deep down in readers’ hearts. It delivers a blatant critical analysis of human desire and the imbalance of obsession which makes every story evocative.
Rating 5/5
Crafting Maira: A Psychological Thriller by Sam Arkot
Received from Booksiren
Author – Sam Arkot
Genre – Psychological Thriller
Sometimes I thought is it the misuse of law that creates depression, and vulnerability gave birth to a manipulative narcissist or is it the age old patriarchal system that rooted the control freak mindsets, whatever the reason, humanity faces havoc and that debate skilfully portrayed in this novel.
Have you ever thought the system has malfunctioned our thinking process and makes creative monsters. The result is unimaginable. Author brilliantly waved the conflicts through character like Jatin.
Jatin wants nothing more to do with women. The only girlfriend he’d be interested in would literally worship the ground he walks on. But that’s impossible in modern India. Haunted by his wife’s devastating betrayal and their nasty divorce, Jatin slips into a life of bitterness and alcoholism.
Jatin went to Kashmir for office work and suddenly a catastrophe happened. He found a beautiful young, 13 years old girl, her family died in flood, Jatin found himself as sole guardian of a beautiful young girl with memory loss, Jatin embarks on the twisted task of crafting his perfect partner. He pretends to be a powerful deity while keeping her in total isolation, making himself the center of her world.
With her coming of age, he discovers the joy of a forbidden love, carefully hiding his new obsession from the world. But the craftsman discovers his limitations once a shocking event occurs. And what happened next? To know that you have to read this book.
This book sets a dark and uneasy feeling inside reader’s mind whilst being a compelling psychological thriller that focuses on a manipulative mind.
The book thoroughly builds Jatin’s character. The way he created the girl’s mindset, it’s quite horrible and you may find it depressing.
Rating 4.5/5
I hope you found something interesting to add to your reading list! Let me know which one caught your eye or if you’ve read any of these already.
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— Mili Das at The Lady Lives In Books