Four years, endless feels

On Our Bookshelf | August 2024

Dear readers,

We’ve been in celebration mode lately, and this week is extra special as we mark two significant milestones: BGB’s fourth anniversary and Mishika’s wedding. To celebrate our four-year journey, we asked our community to share videos of their favorite BGB-recommended titles. Watching these videos was an absolute delight—we could truly feel your emotions through the screen. It made us reflect: how often do we finish a book, feel its emotional weight, and then move on, letting those powerful moments slip away unspoken? Too often, we let the impact of a story fade without sharing the experience, leaving behind no trace of the way it moved us.

We realized that the specifics of what we’ve read may blur—the plot lines, the characters, the exact words. But what lingers is how a book made us feel long after we’ve turned the last page. That’s why it is so important to share these feelings, to preserve connections, and let the stories we love continue to resonate not just with us, but with others.

One story that left a lasting impression on us is “All This Could Be Different” by Sarah Thankam Mathews. The novel immersed us in the unpredictable realities of post-college life: navigating first jobs, finances, friendships, and romantic relationships as a newly minted adult. While many books focus on coming-of-age experiences during adolescence, the early twenties represent a uniquely challenging period of transition and transformation. Mathews captures the essence of her narrator, a queer, immigrant South Asian woman, with remarkable authenticity; yet her writing speaks universally to anyone who has felt unfulfilled or inadequate, stumbling through life and leaning on friends as anchors, companions, and guiding lights. As always, read our review of Mathew’s book, and more releases below — and thanks for joining us for over four years of doing so.

Until next time,

Mishika and Sri

I Will Greet the Sun Again by Khashayar J. Khabushani

Reviewed by: Josephine Ali

Growing up in California, K and his brothers Justin and Shawn are average boys: obsessed with video games, basketball, and making fun of each other. The brothers navigate school, crushes, friends and family, all while being cool. Then, suddenly, their dad uproots them back to his home in Iran. Years later, they return to live with their Mom in America, barely speaking about the years they spent abroad with their father.

”I Will Greet the Sun Again” jumps ahead in time with little transition. As the brothers grow older, their lives change along with the world around them. The impact of 9/11 shifts the course of American history, and they move on to graduate and start their careers. Meanwhile, K wrestles with his traumatic past, his strained relationship with his father, and the exploration of his sexuality.

This novel beautifully explores the emotional challenges faced by the children of immigrants, all through the eyes of a young child. Regardless of where your parents come from, how old you were when you moved to America, or where you grew up, the universal themes of fitting in, embracing your ethnic name, finding your path, and holding on to an identity that sometimes feels foreign are all explored. The contrast between the complexity of these feelings and the innocence of the narrator can be jarring at times, but it also makes the story deeply moving.

Readers will find themselves laughing, crying, and reflecting on the trials of growing up, grateful to have left those years behind. Khabushani sets the story in a very specific community, which shapes the experiences of Kand and his brothers. While some themes resonate universally, the details of K's life offer a fascinating glimpse into a world that feels both familiar and foreign. Khabushani shows readers that, despite our differences, we share common experiences that help us lead with empathy and open hearts.

*TW for the novel: child sexual abuse

📚 Get your copy of “I Will Greet the Sun Again.”

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

The debut of a blazingly authentic voice, “All This Could Be Different” introduces us to the harsh truths of navigating the corporate world, friendships, and romantic love in the American Midwest as a new college grad and non citizen.

How does one build a decent life without the support of undergraduate friends and the financial safety net of loved ones? Protagonist Sneha doesn’t have the answer.

Thankam Mathews pushes the sexual envelope, describing, in detail, intimacy and pleasure between Sneha and queer characters. While sex positive, not every example of intimacy is tied to a healthy relationship. For Sneha, making love becomes a compulsive behavior; proving that aging is a complex and malleable process.

As I made my way though Thankam Mathews’ writing, I realized that this phase of life is rarely written about with such care and detail. Whereas the literary market is flooded with coming of age stories, my home library doesn’t reflect books that address “what happens when you are of age - when you’re expected to operate as an ‘adult’?” Readers will develop a soft corner for Sneha as she looks through the murky waters that is adulthood.

📚 Get your copy of “All This Could Be Different.”

Choice by Neel Mukherjee

Reviewed by: Monica Chakraborty

“Shouldn’t existence be the quarrel with all that could be better but isn't?”

In this tripartite meditation on what it means to live in today’s world, Neel Mukherjee asks the fundamental question: how should we live our lives aware of others suffering while reaping the rewards of privilege and stability? Mukherjee shows us that ultimately our choices can have profound and devastating results.

The first section is a polemic narrative against the ravages of capitalism, greed and materialism disguised as ambition and progress. In a stream of consciousness breakdown and with ritualistic tendencies belying his chaotic state of mind, one of the novel’s main characters, Ayush, ceaselessly questions the comforts of his life. He battles with the ethical and moral responsibility of humanity juxtaposed by his husband’s mantra: “Economics is life, life is economics.” Similar to “Yellowface” by R.F. Kuang, the author sheds light on the dark, capitalistic machine that is the publishing industry. How editors, agents and publishers proudly parade about as inclusive arbiters and uplifters of art while in reality, practicing tokenism in the name of diversity.

Feeling unmoored after an accident that changes the trajectory of her life, a once high-performing literary academic, Emily, is the focus of part two. Mukherjee shows a shift from unmitigated ambition to how claustrophobic the rat race of accepted paradigms can be. It is a deeply complex exploration of facing white responsibility in the wake of colonial consequences and how to be humane to refugees.

The final segment is about a destitute family in rural India that is given a cow to help them improve their lot in life. However, the ill-begotten government scheme serves to push them further into poverty without considering the resources, time, and space they will need to actually gain profit from the animal. Mukherjee uses the cow as a symbol for all the misguided notions on how to solve poverty without considering the systemic foundations to wealth inequality and lack of access.

“Choice” is a masterpiece of contemplation on autonomy in an increasingly prescriptive, capitalistic society.

📚 Get your copy of “Choice.”