This post goes out to all the readers/ nerds/ bookworms out there. It is that time of the year again, time to bring in the tide and the cheer. You have probably been very busy winding up at work, to plan a holiday reading list. But we’ve got you covered there. For a break, and since you’re on break these recommendations have nothing to do with the world of work! All you need to do now, is source these books, make your self a mug of steaming hot chocolate, and settle down under the covers with a read. Sounds like bliss? We agree!

1. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

   What happens when trouble breaks out in an idyllic little town, where the lives of all its residents are perfectly planned and pre-determined? A narrative weaving together tales of two mothers, their children, against the backdrop of a nail-biting mystery involving a custody battle over an adoption. A nail-biting mystery, succinctly described by the talented Celeste Ng. Listed as the Goodread Choice 2017 winner, this drama and thriller will surely keep you on edge! Buy here.

2. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy

   ‘How to tell a shattered story? By slowly becoming everbody. No. By slowly becoming everything.’
   Two decades after her first book, God of Small Things, which won the Booker prize, Arundhati Roy has come out with her second master piece. Riding under the garb of fiction, she invokes the politics of Kashmir, of the saffron brigade, the rights and lives of the ‘third sex’, all woven through a fantastical narrative. This book requires patience, because more than a story it is a condensation of her thoughts about everything through her years of activism. A must read however, because of the courageous account of the India as we know it, or maybe refuse to know it as. Indeed, she tells the shattered story by becoming everybody and everything. Buy here.

3. Chocolat, Joanne Harris

   While it is very unfair to the other recommendations on this list, if there was just one book you want to pick, we’d recommend this. Also a hit motion picture, Joanne Harris’s Chocolat is a story about love, acceptance, travel, religion, the home and the world, all of this brought together by something almost no one can resist – Chocolate. Just the perfect holiday read, this book will make you laugh and cry and in the need leave you feeling grateful that you read it. We also recommend two of her other books – Blackberry Wine and Three Quarters of an Orange – a delight for your senses. Buy here.

4. Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom

   This classic is based on a real life story. The narrator documents beautifully, the life and more importantly the ending of the life of his favorite professor. This book captures in rare honesty the motions of life. Through the story of Professor Morrie we learn that there is beauty in everything. There is beauty in life, there is beauty in pain and suffering, for as long as we breathe there will always be something to be grateful for. If you haven’t already read this, this is a great time for you to read it. Nothing like ending the year on a note of gratitude. Buy here.

5. The Last Interview – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, edited by David Streitfeld

   The Last Interview is a series on famous personalities with transcripts from their prominent interviews, and their last interview. If you are a Marquez fan (even if you aren’t), you will love this read. From discussing his extremely diverse works, magic realism as a trope in his Nobel winning book – A Hundred Years of Solitude, to his belief and disbelief in politics, and how he can never write without a yellow flower at his desk – get insights into the life of one of the world’s most loved writers. Buy here. 

Happy Reading folks!

Have recommendations to add to this list? Comment below!