Started this quarter off with a book that feels like a ton of weight around the readers’ hearts. But got lighter after that.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Recounted by the eponymous tattooist to Morris when he was really old, this book looks at the lives, in first person, of prisoners in concentration camp in Auschwitz and Birkenau. I was living the scenes in my head all the while reading this book. Watched a Netflix documentary (Einsatzgruppen: Nazi Death Squads) in its entirety the night after finishing the book. Nothing more I can add here.
Recommendation: Read!
New World Monkeys by Nancy Mauro
As different as two books can be, thematically, was this book from the one above. But truth be told, I did not finish this book. I waded through about the first 70 odd pages and it just wasn’t going anywhere for me. I’ll leave a blurb of one of the reviews I found online: A savagely smart, darkly comic literary debut, New World Monkeys exposes the false idols of marital tranquility, small-town idyll, and corporate Darwinism in the dazzling voice of a major new talent.
Recommendation: Not worth the time
Footprints on Zero Line by Gulzaar
Yes, this is the same Gulzaar, full name Sampooran Singh Kalra, whom most Indians know from movie credits as the “lyricist”. He was born in Dina, Pakistan and came over to India, like millions others, during Partition. This book is some parts of his remembrance of Partition and some parts very scathing commentary on the absolute inhuman abyss that was Partition, in stories that seem innocuous. The translation, not bad in and of itself, though, takes some of the punchlines and pathos out from the narrative.
Recommendation: Read, especially if you’re from the subcontinent.
The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth J. Church
A historical fiction that follows the adult life of the protagonist, Meri, through the years right before the WW II and the ensuing 40 years. I think this book had more potential than you’ll find in the end package. Themes of women’s lib mixed with a couple of love stories, eventually ending in self actualization.
Recommendation: Read if you have nothing better.
Books read in 2022 Q3: 4
Total books read in 2022: 12
The answer to all questions 
Vox Populi