Anu Recommends #3
Footballing history, 2023 hopefuls, new year wishes, and more
Hi and welcome back to the Storyteller! I hope all of you have found at least some moments of peace and rest over the holidays, and have things to look forward to in these earliest moments of 2023.
Where do we stand on new year resolutions? I’m not regimented with making them, I’ll be honest; I prefer a gentler, more flexible approach to it that works better for me, and makes sure I’ll be more likely to stick with whatever it is. I like to call these wishes “hopefuls” and this even bleeds into my to-read lists. Apart from what I have to read for work and other deadlines, I’m very much a mood reader, as I’ve mentioned already. But even my moodiest self likes to have options to consider. Enter hopefuls.
Here are some I’ve mapped out from my physical unread shelves for the year ahead.
Spot any favourites or wishlist titles?
New Year Wishes, Neil Gaiman style
If you’re new here, or to me, here’s a little tip. Neil Gaiman is one of my heroes. And almost every year for nearly two decades, he’s been writing the most beautiful, touching, hopeful new year wishes for his readers, for himself, for the world.
He hasn’t yet posted a wish for 2023 but you can read up on past years here. I’ll be sure to share the new one, if there is any, in the next issue.
The art of recommendation
If you’re a reader, chances are that you’ve been asked to recommend books. In my case, that request gains a new intensity since I'm also a writer. Even so, I’ve never much thought about how I approach recommendations, until I got asked about it a few days ago.
I’ve always preferred to ask the other person, especially if they’re a stranger or someone I don’t know well, a ton of questions, including books they’ve loved and disliked, so I have an idea of what they’d (probably) enjoy. I also ask them, most importantly, what kind of book they’re in the mood for. Those whom I know well are a different matter since I just know what they’re likely to love, mood aside. With both, I have been routinely known to recommend books that I personally didn’t enjoy but knew they would.
Similarly, if I’m writing about a book I loved, I’ll gush about it but also tell you in detail why I loved it; vice versa if something didn’t quite work for me, especially then. All the while ensuring that there is enough information there for you to make up your own mind about whether it’d be a good fit for you.
This is also why I stopped rating books a few years ago: 1) it’s such a subjective matter, and 2) star ratings are hopelessly inadequate in encapsulating the experience of reading a book, the context, or the nuances that are so important since reading is an intensely personal activity.
All of this to give you an idea of how to approach my recommendations in this newsletter, amd what kind of questions to prep for if you email/ask me for one!
That said, do you have any go-to book recs that have a good all-around record, irrespective of all the above factors?
How do you go about recommendations, book or otherwise?
Footballing history, past and present
In the span of ten days, the world of football has seen record-breaking genius and lost an eternal legend.
On December 18, Lusail Stadium erupted with roars and euphoric tears when Gonzalo Montiel slotted home Argentina’s World-Cup-winning penalty after a high-quality, high-octane end to what had till then seemed like a casual park walk for the Argentines. Later, Captain Leo Messi held aloft the Jules Rimet trophy at long last.
I have a vivid memory of the first time the beautiful game grabbed me and held on, courtesy of one Ronaldinho bending the rules of physics. 20 years and five World Cups later, I couldn’t help but reflect on being a football fan, through the story of Messi’s long-prophesized tryst with destiny in Qatar.
You can read the personal essay here on Football Paradise. It's extra special because it's my first football piece in over a year. Hope you enjoy it.
Shivani managed to capture the heart of the piece in this accompanying illustration.
But even as Leo cemented his legacy beyond doubt in the hallowed pantheon of the all-time greats, Edson Arantes do Nascimento was nearing the end of his. This undisputed King of futebol was the beautiful game’s, the world’s, first global superstar, and with his passing (just two years after El Diego), the footballing world is left bereft of, perhaps, the greatest of them all.
As someone who wasn’t around when he was at the peak of his prowess, I always craved to learn as much as I could about him and the others who formed what is widely considered the greatest team of all time. My chance arrived when I wrote a two-part article for Football Paradise prior to World Cup 2018 tracing the birth of Brazil’s footballing culture and the narrative threads that led to arguably their biggest triumph at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
Both illustrations are by Onkar Shirsekar.
Part 1 here - Brazil and the birth of a footballing culture
Part 2 here - When football reached its pinnacle: The story of Brazil at Mexico ‘70
Early reviews are in!
If you read issue #2 (out December 18), you’ll know that Pomegranate Summer, my travel micro-collection was published at the end of November. It’s free to read if you have Kindle Unlimited, available as an e-book on all Kindle platforms, and as a paperback only in select Amazon marketplaces.
Sadly, India isn’t one of those marketplaces. However, I do finally have some physical copies with me (all the way from Amazon UK), so if you’re interested in buying one, let me know! India only, for obvious reasons.
More details in the post below, including some early reviews which have had me deep in my feels. Grateful and privileged to be able to continue writing and sharing stories with the world.
That’s all for today. Let me know what your reading plans, if any, for the year look like, and whether you’re a mood reader like me or prefer more structure. Do you have any new year resolutions?
And, as always, please feel free send in recommendations—books, movie, TV shows, authors to interview, ideas of what you’d like me to write on, rants/ramblings/excited monologues, GIFs and memes (especially them) and more. Just drop me a line and turn this into a conversation, even if just to say hi and let me know what you thought of the latest issue :) Or share this with someone you think might enjoy it.
See you next week!
Anu
If you really like the newsletter, please feel free to buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/anushreenande
You can find me on Twitter at @AnuNande (follow for all the football chatter) and on Instagram at @booksinboston.