Fiction List from 2018

Jayakanthan: Jayakanthan Short Stories

Fantastic collection of stories. Takes you back to Tamil Nadu. The two narrators have done an incredible job.

Kazuo Ishiguro: Remains of the Day

One of the type of book that will get you thinking. This book is about a Butler who reminisces about his work, time at his master’s place and asks if he did the right things and have lived a worthy life. Ishiguro won the Noble Prize.

Ursula K. Le Guin: Left Hand of Darkness

Another sci-fi book out of the left field. About two companions on a long journey. The interesting part of this story is about the world where there is no male or female. Everyone is neutral and 3-4 days in a month they turn in to one of the sexes. And it is not a fixed transformation either - so one could very well be Father to a few children as well as a Mother to a few. She has all sci-fi awards (Hugo, Nebula, Locus) and a lifetime achievement award from National Book Foundation.

Yevgeny Zamyatin: We

This is the grand-daddy of them all futuristic dystopian world. Written in the 1930s. Orwell, Huxley, Vonnegut, Rand, Nabokov all wrote works inspired by this.

Kazuki Kaneshiro (Author), Takami Nieda (Translator): Go

A nice coming-of-age love story.

Kwame Alexander: Booked and Sherman Alexie: Flight

Alexander and Alexie are incredibly talented writers. Their works bring out lot of lols. I like them.

LitRPG: The Land: Book 1

This is an awesome work and supposedly in a new genre (at least to me) called LitRPG. So there is a massively multi-player online role playing game. Except that our hero goes to sleep and wakes up inside the game. He has to start off at level 1 and slowly build skills, gather essential things, make friends, go for raids, claim a home (village) and so on.

Sue Hubbell: A Book of Bees

Not sure why I felt compelled to add it here since this is mostly a autobiographical narration but still it’s all about bees. Loved it.

Jane Goodall: My life withe Chimpanzees

Well, once I started including a bio, cannot leave out Jane. MUST READ!

Gordon Korman

Gordon Korman: Ungifted

Gordon Korman: Restart

Gordon Korman: Slacker

An author I only recently discovered. Seems to have got the “middle school” genre down pat. Very interesting stories with good morals.

Ungifted: An average student ends up in a gifted school program.

Restart: A former school jockey/bully has amnesia after a fall and now behaves good and makes new friends.

Slacker: A lazy student who starts a fictional club to evade work ends up in position to do lots of good work after the club becomes unexpectedly popular.

Katherine Applegate: The One and Only Ivan

An incredibly moving story inspired by true life events. Ivan is a silver-back Gorilla who lives in captivity.

A.J.Hartley: Macbeth

A modern retelling of Shakespeare’s epic tragedy. Very very nicely done. I was able to enjoy the original version much better after listening to this.

L. T. Ryan: Noble Beginnings

A marine who is framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Goes rogue to vindicate himself. Jason Bourne meets Jack Ryan meets Jack Bauer.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series and Ivy and Bean Series

  1. Jeff Kinney: Diary of a Wimpy Kid [Book 4: Dog Days]
  2. Jeff Kinney: Diary of a Wimpy Kid [Book 5: Cabin Fever]
  3. Jeff Kinney: Diary of a Wimpy Kid [Book 10: Old School]
  4. Jeff Kinney: Diary of a Wimpy Kid [Double Down]
  5. Annie Barrows: Ivy and Bean [Book 2: The Ghost That Had to Go]

They are all hilariously entertaining. Need I say more?