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On The Shelf: Our Must-Read Books For April
A modern reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, a trip behind the palace walls of the Royal Family and two poignant tales of mothers and daughters highlight ANOKHI's latest literary roundup.
Eligible (Random House)
By Curtis Sittenfeld
Photo Credit: Random House
American Wife author Sittenfeld crafts a quirky, ambitious retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which brings the classic tale of love, gender and family squabbles into the era of CrossFit and reality TV. Here, Elizabeth is a magazine writer and Jane a yoga instructor, both single 30-somethings living in New York, who are beckoned home to Cincinnati by their father’s failing health to find their family in disarray and their mother intent on finding them and their other single sisters (unemployed CrossFit enthusiasts Kitty and Lydia, and shut-in professional student Mary) suitable husbands. At a Fourth of July BBQ, two suitors present themselves in the form of local ER doctor Chip Bingley, fresh off a stint on the nation’s top reality dating series Eligible, and his neurosurgeon pal, the arrogant Mr. Darcy, who just might be more than meets the eye.
A Mother’s Secret (Bookouture)
By Renita D’Silva
By Renita D’Silva
Photo Credit: Bookouture/amazon.ca
Having lost her mother and infant son in quick succession, pregnant young Jaya is a deeply shaken woman. Little does she know, there are more shocks to come. Sifting through her mom’s belongings, she finds two smoke-scented diaries and a series of photos featuring a smiling child. From there, author Renita D’Silva takes her protagonist and her readers on a rich, captivating journey into India’s past, delving into a once-great family brought down by deceit and flames, culminating in a shocking revelation that will forever change a daughter’s perception of her mother — and herself.
Dangle (Readomania)
Sutapa Basu
Photo Credit: Readomania/amazon.ca
At once a love story, a mystery, a journey of self-exploration and a travelogue to the lesser-seen corners of India and several other pockets of the world, Sutapa Basu’s acclaimed, award-winning tale arrives in North America via Amazon. It’s the tale of Ipshita, an independent TV host who hops from country to country filming and producing travelogues. Her beauty, smarts and adventurous spirit attracts plenty of attention from the opposite sex, most of which is rebuffed on account of a pathological condition that inspires “psychotic turmoil” when interacting with men.
So it surprises the normally distant Ips when, over the course of her latest journey, she develops an intense attraction to three separate men. Sexually awakened, she alas unearths an uncomfortable truth about her three “suitors”, forcing her to face up to the true cost of silently suffering her way through life.
Hold Still (Liveright)
By Lynn Steger Strong
By Lynn Steger Strong
Photo Credit: Liveright
This astute, heartrending, breathlessly tense dissection of the mother-daughter bond tells the story of gifted New York English professor Mary, who tends to deal with her personal problems by not actually dealing with them at all. Which is why, when her 20-year-old daughter Ellie is drowning in drugs and promiscuous sex, she opts — albeit with the best of intentions — to send the girl to Florida to serve as caretaker to the child of a family friend. Though things start off promisingly, Ellie’s demons are still lurking within, and on one fateful day, they re-emerge to devastatingly tragic results. Now, if either of them is to have a shot at peace or redemption, they’ll need to come to terms with their individual shortcomings, their toxic similarities and their all-but-shattered bond.
Game of Crowns: Elizabeth, Camilla, Kate, and the Throne (Gallery Books)
By Christopher Andersen
By Christopher Andersen
Photo Credit: Gallery Books
Best-selling biographer Christopher Andersen offers readers another behind-the-scenes, all-access pass to Buckingham Palace, with this comprehensive profile of three very different Royals — comparing and contrasting the stories of the Queen, Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Cambridge, delving into how each has shaped the modern-day perception of the Royal Family, and, most compellingly, exploring their rivalries with one another.
Main Image Photo Credit: www.telegraph.co.uk
Matthew Currie
Author
A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...
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