Preeti’s Top 5 for 2014
thegoodbookcorner.com is co-managed by Preeti Singh. She has worked as a Content Head, an Acquisitions Editor and a Project Manager with various publishing houses, including Disney Publishing, Popular Prakashan and ACK-Media. She helps authors with their manuscripts, helping them refine their storytelling and structure. Her body of work include Unravel, Great Books for Children and Smart Beginnings.
Preeti’s articles have been published in dnaindia.com, mid-day, IndiaAbroad, talkingcranes.com and The Scarsdale Inquirer.
Her top 5 for 2014.
Thanks to the Scarsdale Library and facebook where people post book lists ever so often, I read lots of interesting stuff this year.
The five books I loved this year
Still Alice, Lisa Sebold
My number 1 book for the year. Perhaps because I have a family history of Alzheimer’s and desperately hope it will not impact my father, my siblings or my children.
Alice was highly respected and admired at the job she was passionate about, had a loving husband, three children, and a rich and fulfilling life. What began as little episodes of forgetfulness is soon identified by the doctor as an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease.Alice is aware of what the disease is and the rapid escalating erosion of her memory. She decides to create a plan for the time when she would be labeled mentally ill and would become someone people avoided and feared.
It is heartrending to watch Alice’s descent into Alzheimer’s . When she brushes her teeth with her moisturizer, and tries to call her husband all morning with the television remote control. When she can’t remember where the bathroom in her house is, and soils herself in the hallway.
At many points in the book, I wished that she would stop registering what was happening to her, because her helplessness was awful. I felt relief when the disease completely takes over.
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Draywalt, Author and Oliver Jeffers, Illustrator
Although the crayons in this inventive catalogue stop short of quitting, most feel disgruntled. The rank and file express their views in letters written to a boy, Duncan. Red complains of having to “work harder than any of your other crayons” on fire trucks and Santas; a beige crayon declares, “I’m tired of being called ‘light brown’ or ‘dark tan’ because I am neither.” White feels “empty” from Duncan’s white-on-white coloring, and a “naked” Peach wails, “Why did you peel off my paper wrapping?”
The book is so brilliant that I bought a copy to read and chuckle when I am tired, and have gifted it to many young readers as well!
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
We Were Liars is the story of a king who had three daughters. And an island off the coast of Massachusetts . The King was a Sinclair, and all Sinclairs are old-money democrats. Athletic, tall, handsome and white. In her summer eight, Gat Patil walks into Cadence Sinclair Eastman’s life. Gat, Cadence, and her cousins Mirren and Johnny hang out together and they become known as the Liars.
King Sinclair controls the money, and plays his three daughters, with their depleting trust funds , against each other. Gat is brown , and a Heathcliff in her world, but he is the one Cadence loves desperately and does not want to lose him.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
This YA novel had me riveted and I re-read many parts of it time and again!
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair : A Novel, by Joel Dicker
When I started reading the book, I was, quite frankly, not impressed with the storytelling. I tried to understand why this book , originally in French, was such a blockbuster in Europe.Yet, soon enough you begin to understand the charm of the book. The lessons that Marcus learns from Harry Quebert on writing are precious. And just when you think you know who murdered Nola Kellergan, there is another twist in the tale..and till the very end you are on tenterhooks. You will be surprised with the ‘Origin of Evil’.
I loved the book and finished it in a day.
An Unnecessary Woman, Rabih Alameddine
To quote Julie Azzam of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this is “ A book lover’s book. If you’ve ever felt not at home in the world—or in your own skin—or preferred the company of a good book to that of an actual person, this book will welcome you with open arms and tell you that you’re not alone. You just might find a home within its pages.”
For very obvious reasons, I loved this National Award Finalist!
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