📚Read these books next: generations of homes, grief and love

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We send out weekly links of curiosities, frequent book recommendations and occasional deep thoughts on culture and tech.

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The last two months of 2023 were great for reading. We were visiting our families back in India; our lack of chores made way for a great book reading season. January has been off to a slow but interesting start. Here are a bunch of what we really liked reading - each book showed us how one generation’s choices roll into the lives of the next:

1. Property by Rowan Moore - We’ve been super intrigued from the second we saw this recommendation on a list. We picked up a copy at the library, and started reading it instantly. It’s an amazing economics, history and policy lesson written with great insight, a bit of humor and tons of research. Our kind of non-fiction! Home ownership’s past radically shapes the present - is 17th-century colonial philosophy the reason why we lust after that apartment?

   

2. Western Lane by Chetna Maroo - We hate the word ‘poignant’ but that’s the only way to describe this book. It’s a book about a 11-year old girl and how sports - squash, specifically - gives her purpose to move on after the loss of her mum. It’s tale of how a family deals with loss. There is nuanced context about the mixed-religion marriage of the parents, how it isolates them, how family and community still play a really important role when they show just a little acceptance. It’s a tale of grief, moving on, solace, grit and a silent, progressive but broken dad. We loved every page.

3. Teen Couple Having Fun Outdoors by Aravind Jain - Loved it so so much. It’s so Indian. There’s no other word for it. Never thought the claustrophobia of a middle-class Indian household could be expressed so well in words. As the reader, you feel the need to run away! Then there is the dysfunction of most arranged marriages. Do they like each other, hate each other, tolerate each other, are they on the same side?? Nobody knows. Not even the kids who have lived with them for decades. The only thing they know is to not get into the middle of it. Finally, the toxic patterns of many Indian families. Never seen it depicted in fiction (books or movies or TV shows) this accurately. Thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it if you can find a copy.

4. Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So.

   

   Look at the cover! No wonder the word most often repeated in all the reviews of this book is “electric”. It’s a collection of short stories about a small town in California where Cambodians feeling the genocide found refuge. The stories are tautly written. The settings are always pedestrian: an auto mechanic’s shed, an ethnic grocery store, a donut shop. You can almost smell the sweat, and the dejection. When you have heal from generational trauma of fleeing the genocide, maybe the best option is to open a donut shop. It’s tragicomic anthology further saddened by the fact that the incredibly talented young author didn’t live to see his book published.

If you pick any of these up at your local library or local bookshop - holler at us and tell us what y’all thought.