#diksha basu

[productivemonthoff]

welcome to the international student's (post-sickness) sunday in japan

today, i want to:

🌷 read the following:

articles on emotional intelligence for customer success

i (manifesting) will be starting a new job that requires customer success skills that i, as the baby of the family, simply missed out on.

another book

any recommendations for and from contemporary fiction fans? books i loved: the circle by dave eggers, the windfall by diksha basu, and yellowface by r.f. kuang (!!!)

🌷 planning and preparation:

interview on wednesday

potential blog posts

...but considering that last week i was busy juggling daily interviews and coffee chats with three different diseases, i think i will give myself this lazy sunday.

here's a no-pressure let's see how much i can get done ʕ⁠⁠•⁠ᴥ⁠•⁠ʔ⁠

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

💌 Book Mail 💌

🦇 Good afternoon, my wonderful bookish bats. I hope this weekend has treated you well! I received a bit of bookish mail last night--always exciting!

💌 Thank you @simonbooks for sending this my way! Keya Das's Second Act is Sophan Deb's / @SopanDeb debut novel!

💌 A “painfully beautiful” (Booklist), heartwarming, and charmingly funny debut novel about how a discovered box in the attic leads one Bengali American family down a path toward understanding the importance of family, even when splintered.

💌 Shantanu Das is living in the shadows of his past. In his fifties, he finds himself isolated from his traditional Bengali community after a devastating divorce from his wife, Chaitali; he hasn’t spoken to his older daughter, Mitali, in months. Years before, when his younger daughter, Keya, came out as gay, no one in the Das family could find the words they needed. As each worked up the courage to say sorry, fate intervened: Keya was killed in a car crash.

💌 So, when Shantanu finds an unfinished play Keya and her girlfriend had been writing, Mitali approaches the family with a wild idea: What if they were to put it on? It would be a way to honor Keya and finally apologize. Here, it seems, are the words that have escaped them over and over again.

💌 Set in the vibrant world of Bengalis in the New Jersey suburbs, this “delightful” (Diksha Basu, author of The Windfall) debut novel is both poignant and, at times, a surprisingly hilarious testament to the unexpected ways we build family and find love, old and new.

[afrofeministe]

Diksha Basu / Indian American writer + actor / Author of Destination Wedding + The Windfall / Photograph livemint.com

[vivian-bell]

"And if it doesn't work, we get...divorced?" "What happened to all your romance talk?  Who mentions divorce in the middle of a proposal?" Upen said with a laugh, and sat down next to her.  "Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that, but yes, if it doesn't work, we get divorced." "But, divorce...," Mrs. Ray trailed off. "What?  Yes, divorce.  It's no longer the end of the world, you know.  I've survived a divorce before.  We'll be gentle with each other; we're too old to be petty.  But we won't get divorced!  I'm trying to ask you to marry me; stop talking about divorce!"

The Windfall by Diksha Basu

[literarybutter]

The Windfall | Diksha Basu

“His India was neither rich nor poor. There were no huge homes and elaborate weddings, nor were there slums and water shortages and child laborers. The middle ground was too confusing to explain to an outsider. It was neither exotic enough nor familiar enough.”

Rating ★★★★

Synopsis

This is the story of the Jhas, a middle class family who have newly acquired wealth from the sale of Mr Jha’s tech company. They move from their apartment complex in East Delhi to a house in the more affluent neighbourhood of Gurgaon.

Review

A palatable social satire on India’s nouveau riche. The main premise of the story is what most rags-to-riches stories tend to gloss over - the mental readjustments required in jumping social strata. The unlearning and relearning of social codes and tastes and etiquette that make you belong. All the admin that is required to fit in, not just what car to buy, how to decorate your new house, but also how to talk, what to drink, what social activities to partake in.

There is no rulebook for any of this, which is why Mr Jha relies so deeply on his new neighbour in Gurgaon, Mr Chopra as his unofficial guide for how to behave in this new world. Mr Jha gave me so much second-hand embarrassment in the lengths he goes to to fit in - which is possibly the point. Mrs Jha is a much more interesting character to me. She does her best to support her husband’s ambitions while remaining true to herself. 

What I enjoyed about this book was the nuanced depiction of life in India. It’s not all slums and millionaires. This really came through in the dynamic between Rupak, the Jhas’ son, and Serena, a Delhi girl he meets while studying in Ithaca. She is quick to judge him for his wealth, while not acknowledging the privileges she herself has that a lot of people don’t (e.g. studying theatre abroad). There is a point where Rupesh says to her - “Is your life the exact boundary of what’s acceptable?” 

I also enjoyed the ancillary character of Mrs Ray - a young widow who still has a penchant to enjoy life, despite the societal expectations of Indian widows and the gossiping neighbours who won’t let her live in peace. I found her relationship with her maid touching, given she is the only family she has left. While I am happy she found a happy ending, her love story was a little predictable and I think she had a lot to offer as a character outside of it. 

[poetsandwriters]

“Circumstances may be dictated by borders, but human characteristics are not. We live in an increasingly divided world in which we’re being taught to fear the outsider when so much of our experience is universal, and I wanted to explore that.”

—Diksha Basu, featured in First Fiction in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine (2017)

[readcommendations]

[wantonruminating]

#Bookreview of the funny, comfortable #Windfall by #DikshaBasu @BloomsburyIndia This book was sent to me by Bloomsbury India in exchange of a fair review Windfall.

[brigdh]

Reading not-Wednesday

After feeling sick for a while lately, I saw on doctor on Friday and discovered I have bronchitis! Which means this week has mostly been an excuse to sit still and read light-hearted things. What did you just finish? The Windfall by Diksha Basu. A light but charming novel about a middle-class Indian family who abruptly become fabulously wealthy when the father sells a website he developed. Mr and Mrs Jha – middle-aged, comfortable, traditional – decide to move from their old family apartment in East Delhi to a brand-new mansion in Gurgaon; the American equivalent might be a couple selling their Queens apartment to set up in a McMansion in Silicon Valley. This, of course, leads to cultural clashes both funny and sad, from broken ties with old friends to an ever-escalating game of financial one-upmanship with the new neighbors. Meanwhile, their son Rupak is attempting to acquire a MBA from an American university. "From Cornell", the elder Jhas like to say at first, when they're showing off their upward mobility; "from the nearby Ithaca College", they say later, when it becomes clear that having a failure of a son is even more of an indication of wealth – after all, only the really rich can support useless offspring! Rupak himself strives to chose between two romantic possibilities: the white Elizabeth (Rupak assumes his parents would never approve of him dating an American, while Mr Jha secretly longs for a white daughter-in-law to humblebrag about) or the Indian Serena (who, despite being the niece of a family friend and fellow Delhite, culturally comes from ivory-tower artists who are possibly even more foreign than the Americans). None of the characters are particularly three-dimensional, but then, it's not really that sort of book; it's more interested in recognizing certain real-life types of people and having a gentle laugh at them than exploring the deep personal ramifications of sudden wealth. It's also an excellent book for Westerners despite being set almost entirely in India. Basu has a subtle but deft hand at explaining various cultural allusions without exoticifying them. For example, at one point Serena sends a joking text to Rupak: Have you seen all the places in Collegetown charging $5 or more for turmeric milk? Good old haldi doodh that our mothers make every day. Forget banking, that should be your next big business idea—something from our childhood at marked-up prices. I’m thinking Maggi Ramen. Wait, that might actually be a good idea. Look at that! Providing a translation and context for "haldi doodh" in very naturalistic-sounding dialogue, adding "Ramen" to the brand-name "Maggi" so that it becomes something recognizable even to someone who's never been to India, and all without alienating a reader who's already familiar with both. It's such a minor thing to point out, but I noticed Basu doing this work in several places, and I'm very impressed at how she manages to speak to two audiences at once. Anyway! It's fun, it's breezy, and it's not too serious: I recommend it. I read this as an ARC via NetGalley. An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole. A romance novel set during the American Civil War. Elle Burns, a black woman with photographic memory, works as a spy for the Loyal League, a (fictional? I think?) network of black men and women working to end slavery. Her first independent mission requires her to travel to Richmond in the opening days of the war, where she goes undercover as a slave in the house of a Confederate senator. She soon meets Malcolm McCall, a confederate soldier who is strangely kind to her – and who turns out to be a spy himself, employed by the Pinkerton Detective Agency to gather information for Lincoln. Their immediate attraction to one another is constantly hampered by distrust, the need to maintain their cover stories (which includes Malcolm's flirting with the senator's daughter), rumors of the Confederacy developing a new superweapon, and general social stigma (even without the complications of spies and war, an interracial relationship in the 1860s isn't exactly easy or welcome). There are kidnappings and burning buildings and gunshot wounds and dramatic escapes to add adventure to the love story, but ultimately it is very much a love story. This was a great book, but unfortunately it wasn't quite as great as I had wanted it to be. I can't quite put my finger on why – maybe I needed slightly fuller characterizations? a longer timespan for the relationship to develop? richer dialogue? maybe my expectations were just too high? – and I absolutely don't want to discourage anyone from reading it. It's great! It's just not, you know, the GREATEST. Although bonus points for including a slightly fictionalized version of the story of Robert Smalls! I read this as an ARC via NetGalley. Dearest Rogue by Elizabeth Hoyt. A historical romance, set in England in the mid-1700s. Phoebe is the younger brother of a Duke (himself the star of the Regency Batman! romance I read last year) and has slowly been going blind for the last decade. In response, her brother hires a bodyguard, Captain James Trevillion, to follow her around everywhere and keep her from danger. Although since her brother hardly ever lets her leave the house and even then only to specific, sheltered events it seems a bit like overkill, but then overprotective older brothers: what are they for other than giving heroines a reason to rebel? Unfortunately for Phoebe, her brother seems to be proven correct when a gang of men attempt to kidnap her for mysterious reasons. Phoebe's need for independence and James's need to protect her provide a nice set of conflicts for them to resolve as they slowly start to see one another as friends (and more!) rather than obstacles. Phoebe's youth, status, and cheeriness are contrasted with James's age, cynicism, and working-class-ish origins, so that even once they finally admit their feelings they can't immediately hop into marriage. They have nice chemistry, but my favorite part of the book was Phoebe herself. Here's a scene I feel captures her character very well (she and James are pretending to be married for the purpose of traveling together): “And, just for you, I’ve ordered a mild ale instead of wine,�� he said. “Have you?” “Much against my better judgment. It’s a common drink, my la—ahem, wife, and I cannot think it’ll be pleasing to your palate. Although,” he added under his breath, “considering where we are, the beer is probably better here than the wine.” She brightened at the prospect of a new experience. “Then I must taste it at once.” “It’s right here.” He took her hand and placed it on a pewter tankard. “To your health, husband,” she said solemnly and took a sip. Or rather tried to, for her nose seemed to be buried in foam. She inhaled in surprise—not the best thing to do—coughed, and then sneezed. “I do beg your pardon,” Captain Trevillion said, and she couldn’t help noticing that his voice was oddly muffled. Phoebe sneezed again—rather violently—dabbed at her eyes and nose with her handkerchief, regained her breath, and immediately demanded, “Are you laughing at me?” “Never my… wife. Never,” he assured her, his voice shaking. He was. He was most certainly laughing. She sat up straight, threw her shoulders back, and brought the tankard to her mouth again. This time she kept her nose out of the way and delicately sipped through the foam. The beer was… well, sour. And oddly prickly on her tongue. She held it in her mouth for a moment, thinking, and then swallowed. “Well?” She held up a finger and took another sip. Sour. Yeast. Something earthy. And those funny little prickles. She swallowed and took another sip. Did she like the aroma? She’d smelled it all her life—most of the people of London drank beer—it was the common man’s water. That sour tang, so warm and strong. She plunked down her tankard. “I think… I think I shall have to experience it more.” “Why?” he asked. “If you don’t like it, then drink wine.” “I didn’t say I didn’t like it.” “Nor did you seem overcome with your enjoyment of it,” he pointed out drily. “It’s… different—very different—from anything I’ve ever tasted before,” she said, her finger tracing the cool metal of the tankard. “I’d like to try it again.” “If you wish to do so, then I’ll certainly obtain you beer at our meals while we travel, but I don’t understand. Why force yourself to drink what you don’t like?” “But I’m not forcing myself,” she returned, tracing the edge of the tankard, feeling the bubbles pop against her fingertip. “Don’t you see? I want to explore different things—food, places, people. If, after several tastings, I find I cannot stomach the beer, then I shall give it up. Often something tasted for the first time seems foreign to us—strange and off-putting. It’s only after repeated tries that one realizes that this new thing, this once-strange thing, is quite familiar now. Familiar and beloved.” Phoebe inhaled, her breath coming too quickly with the force of her argument. “To only try but once and declare a thing lacking… why, that’s quite cowardly.” Of course I love a character who is devoted to tasting new things! The scene also shows how Phoebe's blindness is handled narratively, which I was very curious about before reading. Would Hoyt pull out some weird stylistic device to get around describing things visually? No – as here, there's usually so much dialogue that the lack of visuals hardly makes a difference. Overall I think the issue of Phoebe's disability was very well-handled; it's easy to sympathize with her desire for autonomy, and yet she's very much not defined by her blindness. One could write the exact same book starring a sighted character without needing to change one detail of the plot – overprotected younger sisters are not exactly a rare character type. The blindness feels simply like a realistically-presented detail. The multiple kidnapping attempts and their ultimate resolution are a bit silly, but eh, it's a historical romance; I don't need the plot to be all that serious. I had fun and enjoyed the characters, which is all I ask, and this is an excellent example of the genre.

(DW link for easier commenting)

[dykevillanelle]

savannah "dykevillanelle"'s 2021 reading list

books read: 86 pages read: 26,910

top 5: 1 (best). Gideon the Ninth / Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir) 2. Lolita in the Afterlife (edited by Jenny Minton Quiqley) 3. Carceral Capitalism (Jackie Wang) 4. Detransition, Baby (Torrey Peters) 5. Plain Bad Heroines (Emily M. Danforth)

bottom 5: 1. The Other Woman (Sandie Jones) 2. Meddling Kids (Edgar Cantero) 3. Haunted (Chuck Palahniuk) 4. Come With Me (Helen Schulman) 5 (worst). The Mask of Sanity (Hervey M. Cleckley)

full list and my ratings under the cut:

Plain Bad Heroines (Emily M. Danforth) ★★★★★

The Honey Month (Amal El-Mohtar) ★★★★★

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Ibram X. Kendi) ★★★★

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (C. Riley Snorton) ★★★★★

The Milk Lady of Bangalore: Adventures With My Milk Lady (Shoba Narayan) ★★★

Mules and Men (Zora Neale Hurston) ★★★

Ring Shout (P. Djèlí Clark) ★★★★★

The Friend (Sigrid Nunez) ★★★★★

The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love (Sonya Renee Taylor) ★★★★

Meddling Kids (Edgar Cantero) ★★

Fade Into You (Nikki Darling) ★★

Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of LGBT Latino/a Activism (edited by Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, Uriel Quesada, & Letitia Gomez) ★★★

The Fifth Season (N.K. Jemisin) ★★★★★

Her Body and Other Parties (Carmen Maria Machado) ★★★★★

Clock Dance (Anne Tyler) ★★★

The Other Woman (Sandie Jones) ★★

The Obelisk Gate (N.K. Jemisin) ★★★★

The Windfall (Diksha Basu) ★★★

The Freezer Door (Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore) ★★★★

Carceral Capitalism (Jackie Wang) ★★★★★

Watchmen (Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons) ★★★★

Lolita in the Afterlife (edited by Jenny Minton Quiqley) ★★★★★

The Stone Sky (N.K. Jemisin) ★★★★

The Mask of Sanity (Hervey M. Cleckley) ★

Grand Union (Zadie Smith) ★★★

In West Mills (De'shawn Charles Winslow) ★★★

The Farm (Joanne Ramos) ★★★★★

Jane: A Murder (Maggie Nelson) ★★★★

Inside This Place, Not Of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons (edited by Ayelet Waldman & Robin Levi) ★★★★

Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction (edited by Sabrina Chap) ★★★★

Other Voices, Other Rooms (Truman Capote) ★★★★★

Moses, Man of the Mountain (Zora Neale Hurston) ★★★

The Weight of Ink (Rachel Kadish) ★★★★★

Two or Three Things I Know For Sure (Dorothy Allison) ★★★★

Clean and White: A History of Environmental Racism in the United States (Carl A. Zimring) ★★★★

The Grass Harp and Other Stories (Truman Capote) ★★★★

Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case (Debbie Nathan) ★★★★

Without a Net: The Female Experience Growing Up Working Class (Michelle Tea) ★★★★

The Devil Finds Work (James Baldwin) ★★★★

Seed Sovereignty, Food Security: Women in the Vanguard of the Fight Against GMOs and Corporate Agriculture (edited by Vandana Shiva) ★★★

Women, Race, & Class (Angela Y. Davis) ★★★★★

Mermaid in Chelsea Creek (Michelle Tea) ★★★★★

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (Harriet A. Washington) ★★★★★

Freshwater (Akwaeke Emezi) ★★★★★

Summer Crossing (Truman Capote) ★★★

The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom (Carey Pietsch, Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy) ★★★★★

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” (Zora Neale Hurston) ★★★

Women, Culture & Politics (Angela Y. Davis) ★★★★

Superior: The Return of Race Science (Angela Saini) ★★★★★

In Cold Blood (Truman Capote) ★★★

The Keeper of Lost Things (Ruth Hogan) ★★★★

The Chosen and the Beautiful (Nghi Vo) ★★★★★

Mexican Gothic (Silvia Moreno-Garcia) ★★★★

On the Come Up (Angie Thomas) ★★★

Capitalism: A Ghost Story (Arundhati Roy) ★★★★

Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (Angela Y. Davis) ★★★★

The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures (Noelle Stevenson) ★★★★

The Travelers (Regina Porter) ★★

Mister Impossible (Maggie Stiefvater) ★★

Honey Girl (Morgan Rogers) ★★★★

The Daylight Gate (Jeanette Winterson) ★★

Women in the Qur'an: An Emancipatory Reading (Asma Lamrabet) ★★★

Music for Chameleons (Truman Capote) ★★★★

Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture (Angela Y. Davis) ★★★★★

Trans Love: An Anthology of Transgender and Non-Binary Voices (edited by Freiya Benson) ★★★★

The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin) ★★★★

Black Women and Popular Culture: The Conversation Continues (edited by Adria Y. Goldman et. al.) ★★★

The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues (Angela Y. Davis) ★★★★

Inside the Cell: The Dark Side of Forensic DNA (Erin E. Murphy) ★★★★

Detransition, Baby (Torrey Peters) ★★★★★

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me (Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O'Connell) ★★★★★

The Magicians (Lev Grossman) ★★★

decolonizing trans/gender 101 (b. binoahan) ★★★★★

Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir) ★★★★★

Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir) ★★★★★

Come With Me (Helen Schulman) ★★

Geek Love (Katherine Dunn) ★★★

The House That Race Built: Original Essay by Toni Morrison, Angela Y. Davis, Cornel West, and Others on Black Americans and Politics in America Today (edited by Wahneema Lubiano)

The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones) ★★★

Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote (Truman Capote, Gerald Clark) ★★★★

The Call (Peadar O'Guilín) ★★★★★

An Untamed State (Roxane Gay) ★★★★

Haunted (Chuck Palahniuk) ★★

Anger is a Gift (Mark Oshiro) ★★

Ayiti (Roxane Gay) ★★★★★

Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive (Kristen J. Sollee) ★★

[rockislandadultreads]

Books to read if you liked Schitt’s Creek 

The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang

A hilarious debut novel about a wealthy but fractured Chinese immigrant family that had it all, only to lose every last cent - and about the road trip they take across America that binds them back together. Charles Wang is mad at America. A brash, lovable immigrant businessman who built a cosmetics empire and made a fortune, he's just been ruined by the financial crisis. Now all Charles wants is to get his kids safely stowed away so that he can go to China and attempt to reclaim his family's ancestral lands - and his pride. Charles pulls Andrew, his aspiring comedian son, and Grace, his style-obsessed daughter, out of schools he can no longer afford. Together with their stepmother, Barbra, they embark on a cross-country road trip from their foreclosed Bel-Air home to the upstate New York hideout of the eldest daughter, disgraced art world it-girl Saina. But with his son waylaid by a temptress in New Orleans, his wife ready to defect for a set of 1,000-thread-count sheets, and an epic smash-up in North Carolina, Charles may have to choose between the old world and the new, between keeping his family intact and finally fulfilling his dream of starting anew in China. Outrageously funny and full of charm, The Wangs vs. the World is an entirely fresh look at what it means to belong in America - and how going from glorious riches to (still name-brand) rags brings one family together in a way money never could.

The Windfall by Diksha Basu

For the past thirty years, Mr. and Mrs. Jha’s lives have been defined by cramped spaces, cut corners, gossipy neighbors, and the small dramas of stolen yoga pants and stale marriages. They thought they’d settled comfortably into their golden years, pleased with their son’s acceptance into an American business school. But then Mr. Jha comes into an enormous and unexpected sum of money, and moves his wife from their housing complex in East Delhi to the super-rich side of town, where he becomes eager to fit in as a man of status: skinny ties, hired guards, shoe-polishing machines, and all. The move sets off a chain of events that rock their neighbors, their marriage, and their son, who is struggling to keep a lid on his romantic dilemmas and slipping grades, and brings unintended consequences, ultimately forcing the Jha family to reckon with what really matters..

Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak

It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter—who is usually off saving the world—will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, she’s been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family. For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity—and even decent Wi-Fi—and forced into each other’s orbits. Younger, unabashedly frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being immersed in first-world problems. As Andrew sequesters himself in his study writing scathing restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole family upside down. In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive…

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors -- but the upshot is she's good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people's privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman. Part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry, Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who's become addicted to "recreational surveillance"); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed "Lost Weekends"). But when Izzy's parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy's new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there's a hitch: she must take one last job before they'll let her go -- a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.

[afrofeministe]

Diksha Basu / Indian American writer + actor / Author of Destination Wedding + The Windfall / Photograph Manjari Sharma

[vijyalakshmiharish]

Book Review: The Windfall

Book Review: The Windfall

“To Gurgaon, Bindu,” Mr. Jha said while closing the windows. “Our new lives await. And for the ride, six CDs in our CD player await. Put some Kenny G on.” I read The Windfall, and watched the movie Hindi Medium, very close in time to each other. It is because of this temporal proximity, and their similarity in some aspects, that the two are inextricably linked in my head. Delhi and its…

[siriuslygrimm]

Unexpected Upgrades

#BOOKREVIEW - Unexpected Upgrades - #TheWindfall #blog

Moving house is hardly ever an easy task, but when moving into a different social status at the same time, there’s bound to be a learning curve associated with it, as in Diksha Basu’s The Windfall. 

Having worked hard for years and living in a neighborhood with people who are incredibly involved in each others lives a sudden turn in fortune changes the Jha family’s lives. When the website that…

[aabany-group]

AABANY Co-Sponsors: All That Glitters is Gold

Thursday, August 10, 2017 7:00pm

Asian American Writers' Workshop

112 W 27th #600

New York, New York 10001

If you’re in the mood for an addictive and charming summer read, come hear authors Diksha Basu and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan read new novels about social climbing, love, and the drive to strike it rich. Basu’s The Windfall portrays the rise of the Delhi rich from the perspective of a nouveau riche family that’s just hit the Internet jackpot; the book made Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan laugh so hard he almost fell out of bed. 

Described as Jane Austen in Singlish, Cheryl Tan’s Sarong Party Girls follows a young material girl in the material world of the Singapore party scene, and her quest to nab a foreign husband. 

Don’t miss these sharp, hilarious novels that mix comedy of manners, rom-com, and social satire in the age of globalized capital. They’ll speak with Jarry Lee, Deputy Books Editor for BuzzFeed News.

For more information, click the link in the title.