#2// celebrate ASIA this week
Celebrate Asia
Dear Reader,
What day is it? I do not know anymore. My timeline is filled with recommendations of all kinds from books to classes to hacks for productive stay-at-home. I have signed up for a few completely random classes too. I think they’ve all expired by now. This week’s newsletter is Asia themed. Excellent fun books from Asia, short stories, an addictive TV drama and a recipe follow.
A book I keep thinking about
The Empty Room by Sadia Abbas (2018)
I read The Empty Room last year on a train journey. The novel is like those songs that take you back to the exact day you listened to it with all you heart. When I see it on my shelf, I am taken back to the dark blue seats, the jolting journey and the shrieking children in my compartment. The Empty Room is an account of domestic life in new Pakistan and the portrait of a a new bride in a conservative, joint-family household. There are liberals, rebels and traditionalists; cunning sister-in-laws and concerned brothers. Here marketplaces where “jalebis spun in sizzling oils, little bubbles formed rushing spirals around intricate whorls”, saree shops stocked with “jade tanchoi, magenta benarasi, two-tone grey-muave with thick, raised gold embroidery of karchob”, and “disheveled clusters of mauve bougainvillea, clumps of crimson and pink ixoras in ceramic vases on white, starched table cloths” co-exist. You’ll be enthralled by the beautiful descriptions, and rooting for the friendship between two women.
Support
Bookshops have opened in India for home delivery and pickup. The Covid lockdown has hit the book industry real hard. Here is a list of bookshops open across the country categorized by cities. I hope you find this useful for your book buys. If there is a store near you, consider buying a book. If you can’t, do share the list and support bookstores.
(PS: If there is a store open for home delivery in your area/city and isn’t included in the list, please send me an email and I will update it)
Read
I compiled 18 Fun Asian Books to Binge Right Now. Many readers equate fun books to light reads only. That isn’t the case at all. Some of the books mentioned are very literary but awesome fun. Think Singapore weddings, Chinese-Indonesian dinner parties where 300 guests are poisoned, Delhi’s elite and matchmaking, Japanese murder mysteries and Pakistani sisters of marriageable age.
You might also want to take a look at 10 Places to Read for Free in Quarantine. Many links are still open and you can snag some excellent translations, thanks to generous publishers.
Watch
Itaewon Class on Netflix is awesome. A underdog’s revenge with good social commentary, arrogant rich people and women who startle. Itaewon, South Korea’s expat hub with a colourful nightlife, is kaleidoscopic, dizzying and very inviting. I wrote why Itaewon Class is a drama we need and not another typical revenge drama. Don’t go by the premise or posters — I had imagined it to be a show I would not enjoy at all. But I so did.
Also, Stream these 9 Malayalam movies that deserve more attention.
Bake
This Orange carrot cake with pistachios and apricots by Nik Sharma (Food and Wine) is heaven personified. Be prepared for your whole house to smell DIVINE. I had bookmarked the recipe when it was published but got around to making it this week only because of the lockdown. I couldn't source sour cream for glazing but the cake by itself is delicious. Bookmark for later if you can’t bake now, it is too good to miss. Also, don’t dig into it as soon as it comes out of the oven. After 5-10 hours, the flavours jump at you.
These short stories
I loved these short stories, the first for the sadness I felt both for the mother and the son and the second for the way it progressed, the unpredictability making me hopeful.
What’s your name Sandra by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, translated by Tiffany Tsao (Catapult) about a woman who takes a trip to Vietnam after her son Bison’s death
Slow and Steady by Rachel Khong (The Cut) about a woman meeting someone she knew 13 years ago at a café. Rachel Khong made me sigh multiple times.
“It was too late for us to get drunk and fall into bed together. Not too late in the day — it was 9 a.m. — I mean too late in life.”
Amazing links
- This profile of Shailaja, health minister of Kerala, the ‘Corona virus slayer’ and ‘rock star minister’ by Laura Spinney (The Guardian)
- An excellent list of 50 contemporary novels under 200 pages (Lithub)
- Vivek Tejuja’s fantastic Twitter thread about 100 books in English by Indian women. I guarantee you’ll find 20 (or more) books to add to your TBR
- How my arranged marriage evolved during lockdown by Anu Prabhakar (Arre)
- No kissing, no extras : How to make TV in the time of virus (Japan times)
- Folk artists across India use their art to spread message about social distancing (BBC)
Currently Reading
I am finding solace in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford, a book that I’ve wanted to read for years. I listen to it (narrated by Wanda McCaddon) before bed and it is the best thing. I might finish it over many months, predicting by the speed with which I am going, but I find it strangely comforting that I don’t need to hurry up with it. The book reminds me of old days when I used to begin every day with a few pages from a classic. (Why did I stop that?). And it just makes me miss Mumbai all the more.
For books — new, classics, translations, indie press titles — and movies,
Sign up for TWO months of FREE Scribd using my Invite Link.
Hope you are being responsible and going outside only when absolutely necessary only. Staying indoors is more difficult that any of us imagined it to be. But our own health and other’s health over momentary pleasures, until we defeat the virus. Don’t forget your mask and sanitizer if you have to get out of the house.
Stay safe.
Until next time,
Resh x
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