Reads 365: No.7
December - Year in Review
A mix of literary classics & essential reads.
Some of the books features heavy subject matter, so please be mindful of the content warnings and research them fully.
Your mental wellbeing matters.
Difficult Women
by Roxane Gay
A fierce short story collection that refuses to make women palatable. Gay's characters are messy, complicated, sometimes violent—fully human. These stories explore desire, power, trauma, and survival with unflinching honesty and dark humour.
✨ "I am difficult because I am often angry."
📚 Genre: Short Stories
🔥 Characters who refuse to be likeable or easy to categorise
👑 From the author of Bad Feminist
#MarginsXReads #DifficultWomen #RoxaneGay #ShortStories #FeministLit #HaitianAmerican
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
A devastating letter from a son to his illiterate mother becomes a meditation on family, masculinity, and survival. Vuong's poetic debut novel traces the lives of Vietnamese immigrants in America with language so beautiful it aches—exploring queerness, violence, and the search for belonging.
✨ "Let me begin again."
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
💌 Lyrical brilliance
🏳️🌈 Queer love story
#MarginsXReads #OnEarthWereBrieflyGorgeous #OceanVuong #Poetry #QueerLit #Vietnamese American #Immigration
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
An epic family saga spanning four generations of Korean immigrants in Japan. From 1910 to 1989, Lee follows one family's struggle against discrimination, displacement, and the search for identity in a country that refuses to accept them. This is a novel about survival, resilience, and the price of belonging.
✨ Multigenerational storytelling at its finest
📚 Genre: Historical Fiction
💔 "History has failed us, but no matter."
📚 An immersive, unforgettable journey through a hidden chapter of history.
#MarginsXReads #Pachinko #MinJinLee #HistoricalFiction #KoreanLiterature #FamilySaga #AsianLiterature #LiteraryFiction #BookCommunity #Bookstagram #NationalBookAward
The Sympathizer
by Viet Thanh Nguyen
A thrilling spy novel and literary masterpiece about a communist double agent who flees Vietnam for America after the Fall of Saigon. Nguyen deconstructs American narratives about the Vietnam War while crafting a darkly funny, devastating portrait of a man caught between two worlds.
✨ "I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces."
🌍 Voice: Vietnamese-American
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
🕵️ Espionage and identity
🏆 Pulitzer Prize Winner
#MarginsXReads #TheSympathizer #VietThanhNguyen #PulitzerPrize #LiteraryFiction #VietnameseLiterature #WarStories #SpyNovel #BookCommunity #Bookstagram #AwardWinningBooks
The Lowland
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Two brothers in 1960s Calcutta take divergent paths—one toward revolution, one toward academia in America. When tragedy strikes, the ripples spread across continents and generations. Lahiri's elegant prose explores how political idealism, family loyalty, and unspoken grief shape our lives.
✨ Lahiri's masterful exploration of the Bengali diaspora
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
📖 For readers who love quietly powerful family dramas with political depth.
#MarginsXReads #TheLowland #JhumpaLahiri #LiteraryFiction #IndianLiterature #DiasporaStories #FamilySaga #ContemporaryFiction #BookCommunity #Bookstagram #NationalBookAward
The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy
A lush, heartbreaking story set in 1960s Kerala about forbidden love and the "Love Laws" that dictate "who should be loved, and how. And how much." Roy's debut won the Booker Prize with its innovative narrative structure and devastating examination of caste, colonialism, and childhood trauma.
✨ Booker Prize winner that put contemporary Indian literature on the global stage
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
👑 Explores how "small things" contain entire worlds of meaning
#MarginsXReads #TheGodOfSmallThings #ArundhatiRoy #BookerPrize #IndianLiterature #LiteraryFiction #ContemporaryClassics #BookCommunity #Bookstagram #AwardWinningBooks
A Fine Balance
by Rohinton Mistry
An epic of compassion set during India's Emergency period (1975-1977). Four strangers, two tailors, a widow, and her nephew, come together in a cramped apartment, forming unlikely bonds against a backdrop of political turmoil and social injustice. Mistry's masterpiece is Dickensian in scope and heart.
✨ About finding humanity in impossible circumstances.
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
📖 Heartbreak and resilience
🏆 Mistry's Dickensian scope combined with intimate characterisation
#MarginsXReads #AFineBalance #RohintonMistry #IndianLiterature #LiteraryFiction #HistoricalFiction #CanadianLiterature #BookCommunity #Bookstagram #EpicNovel
December’s Year in Review list