Book picks similar to
Gypsy Masala by Preethi Nair


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The Solitude Of Emperors


David Davidar - 2007
    Timely, topical, modern and fresh - The antidote to the 'Indian' novel. 'An impassioned plea for tolerance in a country rife with competing interests, this marvelous new novel by David Davidar follows a young man's heroic love for his country. While it draws on the wisdom of past thinkers to recast a vision of tolerance for the present, it holds to an emotional core of idealism and the compelling rhythm of youth.Unflinching. Unsentimental. Deeply Moving. I loved it.' Kiran Desai

Bombay Girl


Kavita Daswani - 2012
    And then she moves to London on a whim to pursue an interior design course, where she meets and falls passionately in love wi th Jagdish Sachdev - he of the compassionate heart and matchless brains. But Jag leaves her, citing irreconcilable differences between their families. Sohana returns home to the news that the business empire her grandfather had built over the years will wind up either in the hands of the highest bidder or with the grandson (but of course) who shows the most mettle. As her brothers race to inherit the business, Sohana is wooed, and her ethics and loyalties tested. In this first instalment of Kavita Daswani's trilogy, with secrets tumbling out and dramas unfolding all around her, Sohana must make up her mind about what and who she is in the scheme of things. About the Author: Kavita Daswani Kavita Daswani is currently a fashion correspondent for CNN International, CNBC Asia, and Women's Wear Daily. She has written for the Los Angeles Times and the International Herald Tribune among many other publications and has been the fashion editor of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons. She has authored the best-selling books For Matrimonial Purposes, The Village Bride of Beverly Hills, Indie Girl and Salaam, Paris. Her books have been published in seventeen langu

The Lost Story


Amit Goyal - 2012
    Together, they imagine an epic battle between balance and chaos, a tale of a haunted house, a simple journey home that turns into a man's greatest nightmare, and even the end of the world.As the stories take shape, Sandy gets curious about Saleem's past and the several unanswered questions that he encounters… Why did Saleem stop writing? Why can he no longer finish stories? What is behind the locked door in his house? And… what is The Lost Story?Written like the premise, the stories in this book have each been done in two halves. One part by one author, and the second by the other, never discussing the story in between.

Shoe Addicts Anonymous


Beth Harbison - 2007
    Lorna Rafferty is up to her eyeballs in debt and can't stop her addiction to Ebay. Sandra Vanderslice, battling agoraphobia, pays her shoe bills by working as a phone sex operator. And Jocelyn Bowen is a nanny for the family from hell (who barely knows a sole from a heel but who will do anything to get out of the house).  On Tuesday nights, these women meet to trade shoes, and, in the process, form friendships that will help them each triumph over their problems—from secret pasts to blackmail, bankruptcy, and dating.  Funny, emotional, and powerful, Shoe Addicts Anonymous is the perfect read for any woman who has ever struggled to find the perfect fit.

The Other Woman


Jane Green - 2004
    Dan and Linda talk on the phone every day. Twice a day. As Dan and Ellie’s intimate civil wedding ceremony gets transformed into a black-tie affair, Ellie begins to wonder if it’s possible to marry the man without marrying his mother. As troubles mount, Ellie turns to her friends—glamorous Lisa, who always looks like she’s just stepped off a runway, and wonderfully frazzled Trish—and tries to rediscover the independence she once had, and the man she still loves. But it seems that having a child and saving a marriage means growing up in ways she’d never imagined . . .A warm, witty, and wise look at mothers-in-law and what they teach us about ourselves, The Other Woman is sure to please Jane Green’s growing legion of fans.

How Was It For You?


Carmen Reid - 2004
    Not even when you want it to. After five years and every medical procedure possible, Pamela and Dave still haven't been able to get pregnant. Their baby longing has become a dark cloud that hovers over their marriage, which is now so rocky that they need hiking boots just to negotiate dinner. It's probably not the best time for them to up and move out of London so that Dave can follow his dream of running an organic strawberry farm. Especially when Pamela's so vulnerable and their new neighbor is devastatingly handsome farmer Lachlan Murray. While Dave seems content to follow his bliss -- taking up weeding and becoming obsessed with manure -- Pamela's tempted to hitch a lift in Lachlan's 4 x 4 and ride off into the sunset. Although there is Lachlan's wife, Rosie, to consider. Pamela's London friends think she's gone insane -- contemplating infidelity with a farmer! -- but they don't know just how far she's prepared to go for a baby. Does she?

Em and The Big Hoom


Jerry Pinto - 2012
    Between Em, the mother, driven frequently to hospital after her failed suicide attempts, and The Big Hoom, the father, trying to hold things together as best he could, they tried to be a family.

Someday, Someday, Maybe


Lauren Graham - 2013
    But so far, all she has to show for her efforts is a single line in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a degrading waitressing job. She lives in Brooklyn with two roommates - Jane, her best friend from college, and Dan, a sci-fi writer, who is very definitely not boyfriend material - and is struggling with her feelings for a suspiciously charming guy in her acting class, all while trying to find a hair-product cocktail that actually works. Meanwhile, she dreams of doing "important" work, but only ever seems to get auditions for dishwashing liquid and peanut butter commercials. It's hard to tell if she'll run out of time or money first, but either way, failure would mean facing the fact that she has absolutely no skills to make it in the real world. Her father wants her to come home and teach, her agent won't call her back, and her classmate Penelope, who seems supportive, might just turn out to be her toughest competition yet. Someday, Someday, Maybe is a funny and charming debut about finding yourself, finding love, and, most difficult of all, finding an acting job.

The Prayer Room


Shanthi Sekaran - 2009
    dissertation. Instead, he comes home with a bride named Viji, an Indian woman he barely knows. This seemingly unlikely pair eventually wind up in Sacramento, where they buy a ranch house and give birth to triplets.In this new American world of shag carpets and pudding pops, Viji seeks consolation in her prayer room, which she visits frequently to gossip, sass, and seek advice from the framed portraits of her dead relatives. It is here where Viji feels most herself and where these deceased family members feel “as real to her as she’d been to them.”A hilarious and heartfelt debut, The Prayer Room re-examines the meaning of family—the people who live down the hall, the people who exist only in our memories, and the people who roll their eyes at you from within their picture frames.

The Folded Earth


Anuradha Roy - 2011
    Desperate to leave a private tragedy behind, Maya abandons herself to the rhythms of the little village, where people coexist peacefully with nature. But all is not as it seems, and she soon learns that no refuge is remote enough to keep out the modern world. When power-hungry politicians threaten her beloved mountain community, Maya finds herself caught between the life she left behind and the new home she is determined to protect.

I Am an Executioner: Love Stories


Rajesh Parameswaran - 2012
    From the lovesick tiger who narrates the unforgettable opener, “The Infamous Bengal Ming” (he mauls his zookeeper out of affection), to the ex-CompUSA employee who masquerades as a doctor; from a railroad manager in a turn-of-the-century Indian village, to an elephant writing her autobiography; from a woman whose Thanksgiving preparations put her husband to eternal rest, to the newlywed executioner of the title, these characters inhabit a marvelous region between desire and death, playfulness and violence. At once glittering and savage, daring and elegant, here are wholly unforgettable tales where reality loops in Borgesian twists and shines with cinematic exuberance, by an author who promises to dazzle the universe of American fiction.

A Friend of the Family


Lisa Jewell - 2003
    Tony’s dealing with divorce and a weight problem.  Novelist Sean is up against a serious case of writer’s block and a shock announcement from his “perfect” new girlfriend. Their parents have a new lodger, Gervase—why is Bernie, their mother, so keen to give this unsavory waif a home?  And what is the real reason for kid brother Ned’s surprise return from his travels in Australia?A Friend of the Family is a hilarious, dead-on-target story from the bestselling author of Thirtynothing and Ralph’s Party.

Attachments


Rainbow Rowell - 2011
    (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now—reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers—not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained—and captivated—by their stories.By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.What would he say . . . ?

The Edge of Desire


Tuhin A. Sinha - 2012
    And it does, once again, in the lawless Bihar of the 1990s...When journalist Shruti Ranjan, newly-wed wife of the Deputy Commissioner of Kishanganj in the lawless Bihar of the 1990s, is brutally raped by a ‘politically sheltered local goon’ all of her attempts at getting justice are crushed by a corrupt and complicit state government. That’s when the charismatic Sharad Malviya, a leading member of the Opposition party, offers her an unlikely solution: his party’s ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Left with little to choose from, Shruti agrees, only to realize that being catapulted to an enviable position of power in an all-man’s world comes at a price. Caught between her mentor and her spouse – both upright but ultimately flawed men – and a host of envious others who continue to cast aspersions on her character, she struggles to address the larger problems of the country.Taunted for being a 'Draupadi' she makes the curse her identity and resolutely fights her fate...

Someone Else's Love Story


Joshilyn Jackson - 2013
    She’s got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up in a gas station mini-mart and falling in love with a great wall of a man named William Ashe, who willingly steps between the armed robber and her son.Shandi doesn’t know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It’s been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his universe. But William doesn’t define destiny the way other people do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in science and numbers, destiny to him is about choice.Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, in a funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness,; about a virgin birth, a sacrifice, and a resurrection; about falling in love, and learning that things aren’t always what they seem—or what we hope they will be. It’s a novel about discovering what we want and ultimately finding what we need