Anita NairAuthor
1. Just William series
By Richmal Crompton
38 books about 11-year-old mischievous school boy William Brown, who lives in a village between Marleigh and Hadley.
2. The Coral Island
By R M Ballantyne
Story of three boys who survive a shipwreck on a Polynesian coral reef, set during the peak of the British Empire.
3. Panchatantra
By Vishnu Sharma
Ancient collection of inter-related animal fables in verse and prose, with morals.
4. The Adrian Mole series
By Sue Townsend
The diary of an adolescent young boy. Realistic and humorous.
Zac O’Yeah Author, Crime Fiction
1. The Inhuman Condition
By Clive Barker
Book IV of the six-volume Books of Blood is a novel of surrealistic terror, inspiring panic and evoking revulsion and delight.
2. Love and Longing in Bombay
By Vikram Chandra
Five stories on love, ghosts, etc, spun by an elusive narrator in a Mumbai bar.
3. Mr X
By Peter Straub
As Ned explores his past, he’s accused of crimes, and must face his deepest nightmares.
4. Devil in a Blue Dress
By Walter Mosley
LA, 1948: Easy Rawlins, a black war hero, loses his job and is offered good money by a white man to find a blonde.
Jaishree Misra Author
1. A Casual Vacancy
By J K Rowling
The eagerly-awaited new novel for adults by the creator of Harry Potter.
2. The Sense of an Ending
By Julian Barnes
This 2011 Booker winner follows a middle-aged man as he contends with his past — until childhood friends return with a vengeance.
3. River of Smoke
By Amitav Ghosh
Part II of the historical Ibis trilogy continues the story of 19th century drug trade.
4. Case Histories
By Kate Atkinson
Former policewoman Brodie investigates three seemingly unconnected family tragedies.
Advaita Kala Author & Scriptwriter
1. The Secret History
By Donna Tartt
Six former classics students at an elite Vermont college reflect on the murder of one of them.
2. People Who Eat Darkness
By Richard Lloyd Parry
Asia editor of The Times probes the murder of 21-
year-old Lucie Blackman in summer 2000, Tokyo.
3. The Householder
By Amitabha Bagchi
Second novel by IITian, on shifting definitions of morality in a corrupt world, about a man who finds demands of being a man weighing him down.
4. The Napoleon of Crime
By Ben Macintyre
The true story of Adam Worth, a Victorian masterthief, model for Conan Doyle’s Moriarty.
Namita Gokhale Author & Founder, Jaipur LitFest
1. IQ84
By Haruki Murakami
A love story, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival Orwell’s —1Q84 is Murakami’s most ambitious book yet.
2. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
By Susan Cain
Passionately argued, with indelible stories of real people, Cain shows how we undervalue introverts.
3. The Resignation (Tyagpatra)
By Jainendra
The story of Mrinal, whose uncompromising idealism makes her a social outcast.
4. Difficult Pleasures
By Anjum Hasan
A collection of stories about the need to escape and the longing to belong.
Pushpesh Pant Social Scientist and Author
1. The Better Angels of Our Nature
By Steven Pinker
Pinker explores the essence of human nature, to paint a counterintutive picture of an increasingly nonviolent world.
2. Nivedan
By Dharmanand Kosambi
The autobiography of the Buddhist scholar and a Pāli language expert, just translated from Marathi.
3. The Monk, the Moor and Moses Ben Jalloun
By Saeed Akhtar Mirza
A stimulating review of Islam’s contribution to human civilisation.
4. Letters to a Young Poet
By Rainer Maria Rilke
Letter-poems to Franz Kappus, written during 1903-08.