I didn’t end up reading too many books in January since most of the month was taken up by reading a 700 pager. But what a glorious reading experience that was!
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The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese 5/5
The reading experience I had with this book was absolutely the best. The book is a 700 pager based mostly in Kerela. And I was going to Kerela for a wedding. I needed to read this book in Kerela. That would be a coup.
I knew I needed to be strategic about this read. I didn’t want to buy it in hardback in London, it would be too heavy. I landed in Kerela – without a book. (This is a huge deal for me. I don’t travel without books. Travelling without a book would give me extreme anxiety.) Ok, to clarify, I had a very thin book. One I knew wouldn’t last me more than a day or two. We were in Kochi on the 31st, bringing in the New Year. I dragged DJ to the bookstore in Kochi that was open at 8 pm on 31st evening. And it was packed. And they had a copy of Covenant of Water. If this was a movie, I would have managed the last copy but they had piles of them actually. And its the airport size. My favourite editions.
Covenant of Water lived upto every convoluted hype I had built up in my head. I admit a lot of the book was a bit of nostalgia for the other beautiful book set in Kerela, A God of Small Things. I read A God of Small Things almost 15 years ago. I don’t recollect too much of the actual plot of characters now but I remember the feeling reading it – so much feeling.
Covenant of Water is one of those epic stories long books you feel you can keep reading. Its so long but I never felt it was dragging.
2. Good Material by Dolly Alderton
I was a big fan of Dolly and Pandora’s podcast, the High Low and have followed their work ever since. I read Alderton’s memoir which to be honest I wasn’t the biggest fan of. I then read Ghosts which I quite enjoyed. This is definitely her best book in my book. It was a perfect mix of emotional, funny, genuine and silly. Its quite a interesting perspective since the book is from the point of the view of 35 year old white male person which is so far out from my point of view – I loved reading about it. Its definitely TV show material.
3. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
I realised that although I have handed out this book to every friend who had a young child, I hadn’t read it myself. So I did. I do see the appeal. It is very heartfelt just as I expected. Definitely a great present for kids.
Short story
4. So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
This is a longish short story – maybe about 40 or so pages. The writing felt very Sally Rooney like for me which I love. This is also the only writing of Keegan I have read so I don’t have much to compare it to but I am definitely interested in reading more from her. Its quite a sad story about the state of modern relationships and how men are doing quite badly. I felt sorry for the protagonist although couldn’t really blame anyone else for his state. The writing gives you very vivid pictures of the various scenes described and although the story takes place in Ireland, the scenes felt very familiar to me. Its a quick read on the New Yorker website so I would recommend reading and let me know what you though of it?
I have a challenge of only 50 books this year since I want to read all the doorstoppers! Let me see how that goes. Happy reading!
– Anisha
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