Welcome to Litsy!

Oof. This is a tough one… all about how personal ambition can lead people to do the wrong thing for someone else; how easy it is to push someone down for your own gain. It‘s a powerful debut, maybe not quite as strong in the second act… but lots of promise. Looking forward to book group - both of my library groups are reading this one this year!

The premise was strong, and intriguing. Jivan comments on Facebook then finds herself arrested for playing a part in a terror attack. Her former teacher is being pulled into nationalist politics, Jivan‘s student Lovely could possibly help her, but no one is asking. There‘s a lot being said here, yet at the same time I felt a strange disconnect from the three main characters, and from how their stories interconnected. Overall, mixed feelings.

This was a painful but pretty perfect read. The ways the stories blended and came together and you saw the ending coming but didn‘t want to believe it for so long was really, really powerful. One of my favourite Indian novels of the last few years and I can‘t believe I let it sit on my tbr for so long!

#wintergames #snowangels

This was such a powerful read! I felt connected to all the characters and the third-world similarities. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Started reading this book this afternoon and I‘m flying through it! So, so good! This has been sitting on my shelf for 3 years 😅

The book relates the stories of three people - a young Muslim girl, a hijra, and the teacher.

An innocent social media post lands the girl in trouble.

It is a book of how one innocent person is prosecuted for her faith, how people abuse her innocence for their own career, and how everyone but the hijra abandons her.

It is a book about the loss of conscience. Everyone moves on .

Read the book.

It will burn.

This book is brilliant.

This story follows Jivan, a young Muslim girl who is accused of executing a terrorist attack after a comment she made on Facebook. Two people in her life are interwoven into the story following the choices they make after her arrest. This is ultimately about politics, class, power and fame in India. My heart was ripped out by the end but I couldn‘t put it down as it was so compelling
4 ⭐️

I chose this one to fulfill “Set in India” for the B&N Book Challenge; it‘s so brilliantly written, with characters who are so vibrant (and whom I just want to HUG), and I just…I‘m really glad I chose it. It is, however, a no-holds-barred representation of the poor and outcast in India, and the justice system‘s treatment of them, which is difficult to stomach. #aburning #meghamajumdar #bnbookchallenge #setinindia

My newest read is this novel which someone serendipitously slipped into my #LittleFreeLibrary. I had been looking around to see if I could find a book by an author from #India to use for a #LibraryThing book challenge to read a book by an Indian author. This is a debut novel which already hooked me so I gave it the go-ahead. It‘s a Book of the Month edition. Is that why the font in this book is unusually large? Weird!

I finished this a couple of weeks ago, and I still find myself thinking about the characters & events that took place in this book.
Jivan is a Muslim girl that gets accused of a terrorist attack despite trying to make a better life for herself for so many years prior. The book also follows Lovely and PT Sir which play significant roles in Jivan‘s story. I really enjoyed the different perspectives, and it was a fast and thoughtful read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unlike anything I have ever read. A stark look at humanity and ambition.

A Muslim woman is accused of terrorism after an impulsive Facebook post, her Phys Ed teacher find himself rising in the ranks of a political party whose success may hinge on convicting her, and her friend, a vivacious Hijra who dreams of stardom, holds her alibi but it may cost her everything to speak out. The full cast in this audiobook is phenomenal. This is a searing look at corruption, injustice, and life in a country turning toward extremism.

Despite being a short book, it took me forever to get through. I can‘t quite pinpoint what, but something was missing for me.

Three new second hand books I bought yesterday!

I read this for our college book committee and was glad to do so since I‘d heard so much about it when it came out. Not sure it would be my first choice for engaging the students we serve, though it does cover many themes that might resonate - identity, belonging, loyalty, ambition, discrimination, corrupting influence of politics, and more. A highlight of the reading experience for me was the multi-voice audiobook narration - really great!

Taking advantage of the nice weather and nap time to start a new book.

I meant to finish this last night, but what can I say -- it's been a rough week!

This was a really good read -- short and quick, but with a lot of depth. I especially appreciated how well the author was able to give each main character their own distinct voice.

Yay for checking off a #Booked2021 prompt: #setincountrywithUNpeacekeepers

@Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft

33/100, 3☆, The atmosphere and the voices in this book were really well done. A commentary on political versus social justice which provided a nice examination that can apply to all justice systems and political agendas. Overall a good read.

A more challenging read than I expected but one that got me invested in each story almost immediately.

Book 4/5 for #NutsinMay

Next on the list! I‘ve lost track of what # I‘m on...

#BookReport

I read a chapter a day in Anne of Ingleside

Then I finished/ read the other books and finished the tagged book on audio.

#BookReport and #WeeklyForecast

Finished Small Pleasures and read Artful.

Reading Anne of Ingleside a chapter a day. Almost finished with Jerusalem and hope to finish it this week. I‘m listening to the tagged book and will continue listening this week.

Just started Hamnet and next up is the book by Grossman.

But look at the pretty edges.....

I went into Waterstones to buy ONE book today. Just one. The Tim Marshall one.

This is what I left the shop with. Oops....

#BookReport #WeeklyForecast

This week has been a bit slower that previous weeks with just one finished book, Piranesi.

I have read more in Jerusalem and for me reading nonfiction takes longer time than fiction. And hope to keep this up next week

I‘m reading Anne of Ingleside a chapter a day.

I‘m currently reading Small Pleasures and hope to finish early next week. Then I want to start Artful that I didn‘t get to this week

This was good but didn't quite work for me. I enjoyed the writing but was left wanting more than it delivered. I think it was largely due to the structure ie 3 connected characters have their stories told but for me none, character or story, were developed enough. It had some interesting things to say & some profound and poignant moments but was just weirdly less than the sum of its parts.

Starting this one tonight. With thanks to #netgalley for this book.

Audio (even though I have a copy)
I really appreciate the writing and storytelling here. I want to say enjoyed but the story is painful, honest and raw. Corrupt governments and legal system lifting and dropping people based on optics. It is reality and told very well through Jivans story - especially considering the way that Muslim people are treated in India today.

I liked this one a lot. A Muslim girl from the slums is accused of causing a fire on a train. She becomes a scapegoat. It's about prejudice and propaganda and politics and how people's lives can get caught up in them.

#DoubleSpin done!
@TheAromaofBooks

I was rooting for every character; Majumdar did an excellent job at making them all sympathetic. For me, what made the book is even though as a reader, I knew something tragic was around every character, I felt the undying hope that each character had that things had to and would get better.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was an excellent read. It takes place in India but I also saw a lot of similarities to corruption in government and the justice system that we see in the U.S. One of the major differences is how fearful the characters are in India to speak freely because they don‘t want to be arrested or persecuted for treason. Highly recommend. This was my #bookspinbingo No 4 pick and my #tbrdeckofcards J♠️ pick- a book that takes place in Asia

Slow reading week, it‘s been a busy one at work. Happy to chill this evening and get a few pages in. I think I like it ??? Honestly I‘m not too sure.

I really enjoyed this story about Jivan, PT Sir & Lovely - different, but each struggling to survive in contemporary India. Majumdar writes about serious issues (poverty, corruption, injustice) with a light touch. It‘s beautifully paced: tension builds & the plot propels you forward. Rich with ydetails of place & food, pared back to allow the characters to shine - flawed, complex & sympathetic. They feel real. Loved the tone & sense of humour.

A story told from three perspectives after a train bombing in Kolkata. A Muslim girl is arrested after she makes a glib Facebook post, though she claims she is innocent. A young woman can provide an alibi but will jeopardize her own future if she does so. And a man discovers he can go far in politics if he goes against his own instincts.

Debut novel set in Kolkata, India, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. A young girl, Jivan, finds herself accused of helping plan & execute the attack after she posts a comment on social media. I thought it was an intriguing plot, but I didn't feel connected to the main characters at all & parts of it seemed rushed. 3⭐

Thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Simon & Schuster UK / Scribner UK, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

WOW! Amazing story! I really enjoyed the audiobook.

A Burning was an unforgettable story of a girl who was wrongly accused for a crime and the aftermath of this event for those in her life. The story questions success and the sacrifices of self people make in order to achieve their own dreams in spite of the effects it has on others.

My last book club read of 2020, and it was a doozy!

Such a fast read, and it felt like being swept up in a whirlwind of human failing and corruption and injustice, without a safe place to land.

Is it bad to say I enjoyed a book that also left me feeling disgusted and a tad hopeless?

FUN ANECDOTE: While reading this last night—a book called A BURNING—there was a small fire in my apartment building. No damage, it‘s fine. But still. JFC. Anyway, I liked this well enough but did have some issues. Powerful discussion of the meaning of innocence & power, of different types of survival. Characters were well drawn. But didn‘t feel like they were strongly connected & story needed more depth. Still good, will read more from her. 3/5 ⭐️

I feel a weight in my chest, the Earth‘s pull within my ribs. I try to hear further, but there are wasps in my ears.

This was a disappointment. The entire time I was reading I just kept thinking, “This book would be dynamite if it had been written by a better author.” 😬 I liked the characters and the stories she told, I just found myself wanting more depth and complexity. This almost read as YA for me at times. Oh well, on to the next! #DashingDecember

we fall &die from knowing but never being able to say, especially to our mothers, that the inside of a prison is an unreachable place. So what if there is a courtyard & garden & TV room? The guards tell us over&over that we live well... Still we feel we are living at the bottom of a well. We are frogs. All we can bear to tell our mothers is “I am fine, I am fine.” We tell them “I walk in the garden.” “I watch TV.” “Don‘t worry about me, I am fine”

Eff BOTM for putting that damn Read With Jenna sticker on the cover that doesn‘t want to come off. (Yes I know a hair dryer will help, too bad I don‘t own one.) #NowReading

Aren't we all.

Yesterday‘s #FeastMode read was this debut novel. It had a lot of elements that I love — a different culture, politics, characters you care about, and scenarios that make you suspect everyone‘s motives and morals in life. It really was excellent, while also being infuriating.

I met my goal (one book per day) for every day of the challenge except for today, lol. I started a new book, but I‘m enjoying playing Pokémon too much to switch back. ?

A study in justice and ambition, set in modern India, told through the alternating voices of a young woman falsely accused of terrorism; the woman's former phys ed teacher, also a prospective politian in an opposition nationalist party; and an intersex "hijra" actress. The pace is swift as a thriller, but thrills aren't the point here. I found the voices compelling and the scenario worryingly realistic.

#LitsySwaps #ShippingTomorrow

⭐️⭐️ I enjoy satire, but sometimes when it‘s fiercely sociopolitical, my interest tanks. Usually that‘s due to a lack of character connection, between each other and with the reader, which was the case here. The stereotypes didn‘t bother me as satire often plays to those, but the storylines felt forced rather than weaving together organically. It just didn‘t mesh well. I‘m not sure this debut deserves the hype.