Books To Look Out For This Summer!

Bring out your sunglasses and a reading mat, we are going to read this summer. Or perhaps turn your AC on full blast if you are in India!

1. Camino Ghosts by John Grisham

In this new thriller on Camino Island, popular bookseller Bruce Cable tells Mercer Mann an irresistible tale that might be her next novel. A giant resort developer is using its political muscle and deep pockets to claim ownership of a deserted island between Florida and Georgia. Only the last living inhabitant of the island, Lovely Jackson, stands in its way. What the developer doesn’t know is that the island has a remarkable history, and locals believe it is cursed…and the past is never the past…

2. 17, Morris Road by Parul Sharma

Sometimes, home is a place between a longing for the past and the allure of the future…

Soon-to-be empty-nester Gayatri Trivedi has found herself at a crossroads: her only son is off to the land of excessive pizza and cola, her husband remains indifferent to her feelings, and the object of her teenage affection is inviting her to Dehradun. But Dehradun has changed a lot, and so has Arbour House, the colonial-era bungalow that still has a piece of her heart. Now as she returns, she also returns in time, reminiscing about the memories she made with people who changed her life when she was sixteen.

As the cloud of nostalgia clears and her future comes into view, Gayatri must decide if she is ready to let go of what-ifs. Equal parts charming and delightful 17, Morris Road weaves together a heartfelt story of times past and emotions buried, and most of all, of eventually finding one’s place in an ever-changing world.

3. Nocturne Pondicherry by Ari Gautier (translated by Roopam Singh)

A postman struggles to deliver the last letter on his last day of work. A prostitute elopes with the auto rickshaw driver who arranged clients for her. An inspector discovers the dead body of the boy he had an altercation with the previous evening.

In seven riveting stories, Ari Gautier peels back the layers of human emotions until glimpses of greed, anger and lust can finally reveal themselves. Unsettling and irresistible, Nocturne Pondicherry is an all too realistic collection where mundane situations ‐ featuring common people, ill-fated street dwellers and hapless immigrants ‐ pull readers in and fling them into the abyss.

4. A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama ( Translated by Jesse Kirkwood)

It was raining when I arrived at the house. The walls of my room were lined with cat photos, set in fancy frames just below the ceiling.
When her mother emigrates to China for work, 21-old Chizu moves in with 71-year-old Ginko, an eccentric distant relative, taking a room in her ramshackle Tokyo home, with its two resident cats and the persistent rattle of passing trains.
Living their lives in imperfect symmetry, they establish an uneasy alliance, stress tested by Chizu’s flashes of youthful spite. As the four seasons pass, Chizu navigates a series of tedious part-time jobs and unsatisfying relationships, before eventually finding her feet and salvaging a fierce independence from her solitude.

A Perfect Day to be Alone is a moving, microscopic examination of loneliness and heartbreak. With flashes of deadpan humour and a keen eye for poignant detail, Aoyama chronicles the painful process of breaking free from the moorings of youth.

5. You Like It Darker by Stephen King

From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,” and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

“Two Talented Bastids” explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,” a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man” asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

King’s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.

6. White Blood by Nanak Singh (Translated by Dilraj Singh Suri)

White Blood is one of Nanak Singh’s popular novels, published first in 1932, and later reprinted in dozens of subsequent editions.White Blood has literary as well as historical importance in the annals of the Punjabi novel. Although the author had earlier contributed some novelettes, this was his first major achievement, which like a milestone, showed the Punjabi novel the path of realism. The portrayal of Punjabi life, individuality of characters, and their proper psychoanalysis, is wonderfully described. Besides, a double well-knit plot, interspersed with dramatic situations and dramatic-irony is praiseworthy.The novel is written in an ironical style, which is an effective satire on the wrongdoings of society of the time. This peculiarity is intelligently crafted by the writer while sculpting various characters of the novel. It can be amply found in several scenes – representation of the deplorable condition of writers, Rodu, the juggler’s struggle for a better life for the innocent child Sundri, preparation of country wine by Pala Singh and his men, the skirmish between the village farmers at a religious place, Anwar’s dance performance, Sundri’s addressing Anwar as “Maa Ji,” dramatic transformation of Anwar’s life. All these scenes are constructed with a brilliance that was never found earlier in the history of Punjabi literature.

7. You Are Here by David Nicholls

Sometimes you need to get lost to find your way

Marnie is stuck.
Stuck working alone in her London flat, stuck battling the long afternoons and a life that often feels like it’s passing her by.

Michael is coming undone.
Reeling from his wife’s departure, increasingly reclusive, taking himself on long, solitary walks across the moors and fells.

When a persistent mutual friend and some very English weather conspire to bring them together, Marnie and Michael suddenly find themselves alone on the most epic of walks and on the precipice of a new friendship.

But can they survive the journey?

A new love story by beloved bestseller David Nicholls, You Are Here is a novel of first encounters, second chances and finding the way home.

Which book are the most excited to read this summer?