There is nothing quite like cuddling up with a good book and a piping hot cup of chocolate in the chilly winter months. Here are out top picks for November!
Inspired by Jane Austen and set in contemporary Pakistan and England, Austenistan is a collection of seven stories; romantic, uplifting, witty and also, heartbreaking. The anthology edited by Laaleen Sukhera from Pakistan proves that Jane Austen is still relevant centuries after her death.
A first in a series of two essay collections Natasha Bhadwar covers a range of essential subjects, from parenting and marriage, to faith and selfhood.
Knitting together a popular column in Mint Lounge, new writing and priceless handcrafted dialogues, the author describes her journey as the mother of three young daughters; as the wife of a man from a religious background unlike her own; and as an individual with dreams detached from the roles of wife and mother—here’s a wanderer, a feminist, a workplace goer.
Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary. Selin may have barely spoken to Ivan, but with each email they exchange, the act of writing seems to take on new and increasingly mysterious meanings.
Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student in Dublin and aspiring writer, she works at a literary agency by day. At night, she performs spoken word with her best friend Bobbi, who used to be her girlfriend. When they are profiled by Melissa, a well-known journalist, they enter an exotic orbit of beautiful houses, raucous dinner parties and holidays in Provence. Initially unimpressed, Frances finds herself embroiled in a risky menage-a-quatre when she begins an affair with Nick, Melissa’s actor husband. Desperate to reconcile herself to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances’s intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new – a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.