These 25 books are the literary equivalent of a buffet at a Michelin star restaurant
On Tweak India Book Club’s second anniversary, a round-up of all the fictional worlds we explored together
Poet Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Ms Angelou was talking about people, but she may as well have been talking about books. Because don’t the best ones make you feel—transport and transform you? You could be having the worst sales quarter, but sit by the window with your copy of The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond and a cup of chai, and somehow you remember what it was like to be courageous and full of youthful optimism. And when you’re listless from yet another Netflix marathon, reading The Fury by Alex Michaelides lets you participate in a whodunnit with your own imagination.
Tweak India’s founder, Twinkle Khanna, herself has been an avid reader since childhood. More than cartoons, she devoured books, getting carried away into worlds built with words. After pouring her thoughts doused in wit and dry humour into popular columns, 10 years ago, she wrote her first book: Mrs Funnybones: She’s just like You and a lot like Me.
It’s this deep and abiding love for books that led to the inception of Tweak India Book Club in collaboration with Crossword Bookstores back in June 2023, encouraging deep literary conversations, mindful reading, and connection with fellow book lovers (click here to join us). Since then, we’ve had meet-ups with bestselling authors like Harlan Coben and Dr Abraham Verghese, discovered debut Indian writers like Aravind Jayan and Balli Kaur Jaswal, and celebrated classics with Ruskin Bond and Mrs Sudha Murty. Now here we are. It’s been two years of opening our minds (and hearts) to many fictional worlds and the people who dreamed them up.
In case you missed it, take a walk down memory lane with us. Or just discover a brand new list to get you out of that reading slump.
June 2023
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
What do you get when you combine a chemist with a cooking show? You get Elizabeth Zott, who unexpectedly becomes a cooking show host after being fired from her job at a laboratory. When Zott’s popularity skyrockets after hosting the show, we soon find that hers isn’t just an individual story of success—instead, she’s inspired an entire generation of women to spread their wings.
Addressing the trials of being the only scientist in an all-male team in 1960s America, the book is, at its core, a critique of systemic sexism. Plus, Garmus’s voice—wry, bold, and hilarious—shines through on every page, making it a light-hearted read despite the grim topics it addresses.
July 2023
Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Set in 1947, this is the story of three sisters hailing from a loving home in rural Bengal. Priya hopes to become a doctor, Deepa falls in love with a Muslim man, while Jamini makes a fervent attempt to hold the family together after their father is killed during a riot.
Soon, the partition of India comes into effect, and the sisters, torn apart from one another, are forced to embark on their own paths. Heartfelt and distressing, this book is as much a novel about India’s freedom from the British Raj, as it is a coming-of-age story of young women. If you’re a history nerd, this novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, whose oeuvre speaks of immigration and the Indian experience, is sure to satisfy lovers of historical fiction.
August 2023
Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben
Imagine you’ve just attended your husband’s funeral after he was brutally murdered in front of you. Then you look at your motion-activated nanny cam to check on your young daughter, and see him. Alive. Cradling your baby with his back turned to the camera. As you struggle to make sense of it, you’re left grappling with a fresh set of questions—have you spiralled into insanity? Or is someone pulling a sick, twisted prank on you? Soon, you discover that nothing is as it seems, and that includes everything you thought you knew about your late husband.
If you loved Netflix’s The Stranger—which is an adaptation of another Harlan Coben novel—this one delivers the same intrigue and suspense. But, what truly makes Coben’s books so unputdownable is his rare knack for crafting gripping stories full of exhilarating twists that take you right to the edge of reason. In one interview with The Guardian, the author revealed, “I can’t tell you the secret to writing a great mystery other than to say I’m always asking, ‘What if?’”
September 2023
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Four elderly residents of a peaceful retirement village gather regularly to get to the bottom of cold cases. It’s all recreational until a fresh crime hits the area. A property developer from their village has been brutally murdered for no apparent reason. The four septuagenarian sleuths are determined to get to the bottom of it, even if it means putting their own lives on the line to solve the case. If you’re someone who can’t get enough of amateur detectives (think: Nancy Drew and Miss Marple), this one is sure to hit the spot.
Come for the mystery, and we guarantee you’ll stay for the characters, whose quirky antics and child-like enthusiasm are the very heart of this book. Interestingly, Osman’s inspiration for the book was a visit he’d made to an actual retirement village in Sussex, before he spent 18 months working on the book.
October 2023
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
Ghosts like La Llorona and the Grady twins are known for being terrifying, but this collection of short stories by South Korean author Bora Chung reminds us that we don’t need a vengeful ghost to feel afraid. In reality, the trials of living in a patriarchal and hyper-capitalist society are often far scarier than most horror movies. As curator of the Tweak Book Club, Twinkle Khanna said, “These stories are oddly fascinating, and I promise you will never look at your toilet bowl in same way again.”
Shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize, this genre-bending book that flirts with magical realism, horror, and science fiction, has cemented itself as a clever critique of humanity. With its lucid, evocative style of writing one thing is clear: nobody does interpretative horror like Chung. In fact, Anton Hur, who translated the book into English from its original Korean manuscript (these are the Korean authors you need to read), also noted, “Bora’s language is definitely what I enjoyed the most about Cursed Bunny… She is just so remarkably funny and sensitive and aware and empathetic.”
November 2023
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
When a young woman, Nikki, starts teaching a creative writing class for illiterate Punjabi widows in West London, the group of women—otherwise prim and proper—tap into their innermost desires and start writing erotic stories. As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki is careful to keep their work hidden from the Brotherhood, a group of conservative men that act as the society’s moral police. The plot thickens, however, when the group of widows dredges up details of a young woman’s death and Nikki finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery.
If you’re looking for a book that perfectly captures the NRI experience, this one is the poster child, perhaps owing to the fact that Jaswal herself is a Singaporean novelist with family roots in Punjab. Plus, it’s staunchly feminist, sex-positive, and paints a vivid picture of female desire—what more could we even ask for?
December 2023
Welcome to Paradise by Twinkle Khanna
Known for her acerbic wit and astute observations, this collection of five short stories by Khanna explores themes of heartbreak, betrayal, and isolation through the lives of characters that are as vibrant as they’re realistic.
From one woman writing a letter to the Chief Justice of India, urging him to choose a ‘nice cut-off age to die’, to another woman battling the grief of losing her son, this book straddles the fine line between poignancy and hilarity. What truly sets apart Khanna’s writing, though, is her ability to find meaning in the mundane, putting a magnifying glass to the small hurdles that often feel insurmountable in the moment.
January 2024
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Geeta’s abusive husband mysteriously disappeared five years ago. She swears she didn’t kill him, but nobody in the village actually believes her. What starts out as a CID-like plot soon turns into a dark satire when the other women in the village start approaching Geeta, asking her to get rid of their good-for-nothing husbands too. Striking a balance between being self-aware and wildly hilarious, Shroff tackles themes of patriarchy and female rage with a lightness rarely seen in the genre.
“Based on my Google searches while researching the novel, especially the ‘What can kill…’, I’m pretty sure I’m on a variety of lists somewhere,” joked Shroff during Tweak Book Club’s author conversation, when Khanna quizzed her on taking an unkind stance towards the men in the story.
February 2024
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Nothing proves the butterfly effect like a well-written family saga—indeed, it’s a stark reminder that the tiniest choices you make can ultimately impact those born generations after you. Spanning over 70 years, this multigenerational novel traces a Malayali family plagued by a rather strange affliction: someone from each generation dies by drowning.
Focusing on a genetic condition that predisposes the family to untimely deaths, the book draws readers in with its well-researched narrative. Interestingly, Abraham Verghese is, first and foremost, a physician, which is made perfectly clear by his decision to write a medical mystery and the sheer number of surgery scenes that made their way into the final edit. If you couldn’t put down Min Jin Lee’s haunting family saga Pachinko, this one will be right up your alley. (Watch our conversation with the author here)
March 2024
Grandma’s Bag of Stories by Sudha Murty
Picture this: the night air is cold and crisp, and you’re curled up under a velvety kambal as your aaji narrates stories of enchanted forests and vain kings, complete with dramatic pauses and wild expressions. This collection of short stories will truly make you feel like you’ve been catapulted back in time.
While it’s meant to be a children’s book, who’s to say an adult won’t find it equally pleasurable? Those of you seeking a comforting read, don’t forget to throw on pyjamas, grab a bowl of makhana and dive into the world of Anand, Raghu, Krishna and Meera.
April 2024
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Remember the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series that found its way onto every bookshelf back in the 2000s? With its heartwarming stories and vulnerable accounts, it tackled serious themes like illness, alcoholism, bullying, with a side of laughter and heart. This book by Cheryl Strayed echoes the same sentiment.
Gathered from her anonymous advice column ‘Dear Sugar’, the book is home to a collection of essays that answer readers’ most personal questions, like getting over heartbreak or feeling guilty after a miscarriage. Her response often draws from her personal experiences, and Strayed counsels readers with big-sisterly patience, wisdom, and brutal honesty. Her words are powerful yet gentle enough to let you grieve without restraint. Like Twinkle Khanna said when she selected Tiny Beautiful Things for the Tweak Book Club, “This is a book that you must swallow in tiny bites and feel satiated all the same.”
May 2024
Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez
Do you consider yourself a hopeless romantic? Find yourself swooning at any mention of love? This book dives right into it—except, it’s not the bubblegum romance we see in the movies; it’s gritty, messy, and frankly blasphemous. Set in 18th century South America, this is the story of a 12-year-old girl thought to be possessed after being bitten by a rabid dog, and the priest assigned to exorcise her, who instead falls irrevocably in love with her.
With its magical realism, lyrical quality, and lucid imagery, the book by Gabriel Garcia Márquez—who won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1982)—feels remarkably like a fever dream. And if you’re left wishing you could live with the characters just a while longer, follow it up by watching the 2009 film of the same name. It lasts a little more than an hour and promises a sensory explosion.
June 2024
My Gita by Devdutt Pattanaik
A contemporary retelling of the Bhagavad Gita, this book dissects ideas of life, desire, and purpose without being overly didactic. Most relevant, perhaps, is the section of the book where Krishna urges Arjuna to approach his relationships from a place of empathy, not judgement. It’s a gentle reminder that we need to be more kind and patient while dealing with our loved ones.
If you find that trudging through a religious scripture often feels like solving the world’s toughest Sudoku puzzle, fear not, this book captures the essence of the Gita while still being a thoroughly compelling read. Plus, Pattanaik’s signature illustrations and diagrams offer respite to the easily distracted mind, making it a great option for bibliophiles and non-readers alike. Fans of Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions, clear your schedule, because you might just devour this in one sitting. (Watch our conversation with the author here)
July 2024
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
Sally Diamond, a reclusive woman puts her father’s dead body in a garden waste bag and feeds it to the incinerator, honouring his wish to be taken with the bins. Angela, a family friend who was visiting Sally, found out about this bizarre act and called the police. Due to the strange nature of it, Sally soon finds herself caught in the media’s attention (an introvert’s worst nightmare). A past she didn’t know she had started unravelling itself. Liz Nugent’s novel is not just a psychological thriller; it’s a deeply empathetic look at trauma, survival, and the unique ways in which people cope.
As Sally’s past emerges piece by piece, we’re drawn into an unsettling narrative that refuses to let you sit comfortably. Even then, this book will inspire you as Nugent builds a female character who’s been failed repeatedly by the systems around her, yet carves out her own version of strength.
August 2024
Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors by Aravind Jayan
When a private video of a teenage couple goes viral, it sends shockwaves through their conservative middle-class family in Kerala. But rather than focus on the teenagers, Aravind Jayan turns the spotlight onto the anxious, image-obsessed adults. Through dry humour and sharp cultural commentary, he explores shame, masculinity, and parental panic in the age of surveillance and social media in his debut book.
What makes this novel stand out is its refusal to sensationalise. Jayan treats his characters with quiet compassion, even as he satirises their hypocrisy. During the Tweak India Book Club conversation, Jayan jokingly told Khanna, that this book has desensitised his parents when it comes to sex. “At this point, my sex tape could come out and they’d be like ‘yeah, okay’.”
September 2024
The Fury by Alex Michaelides
A former movie star invites her friends to spend Easter on her private Greek island every year. But not everything is as it seems. Behind years of friendship lie hatred and vengeance, things money can’t fix. The Fury is a slow-burning psychological thriller from an unreliable narrator’s perspective. When a murder takes place, the secrets between them start to explode.
Alex Michaelides, best known for The Silent Patient, dives into the whodunnit theme once again with this book, and successfully so. If you loved watching The White Lotus, this book will keep you racking your brain too.
October 2024
All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker
While the Vietnam War is ending, girls are getting kidnapped in Missouri. The story, spanning decades, follows a woman haunted by a childhood abduction and the ripple effects that trauma has on her life and the people she encounters.
Set against the backdrop of a small town with secrets of its own, this is a novel about how people survive violence—not just physically, but emotionally. There are mentions of abuse and abortion, so read only if it won’t trigger you. Chris Whitaker combined history with inspiration from his own childhood experiences for this book. “I didn’t like feeling like a victim as a child, so when someone tried to steal my cell phone I fought back, even when they pulled out a knife. And it’s something I considered when writing Patch. Whilst Patch steps in when he sees a girl being abducted, and does this noble, brave thing in saving her, he also sets forth a chain of events that shape the rest of his life, and the lives of those who love him,” he says in an interview.
November 2024
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
After the sudden death of their youngest sister, the three Blue sisters—each vastly different in temperament and lifestyle—are pulled back into each other’s orbit. Their reunion is filled with tension, sarcasm, buried grief, and the complicated intimacy only siblings can share.
Told in alternating voices, Blue Sisters explores how loss rearranges relationships, how memory is filtered through emotion, and how family bonds can both hurt and heal. Coco Mellors captures the messy truth of grief and sisterhood in this book. It will make you hold on to your sister tighter, and you might finally let her borrow that dress she’s been eyeing.
December 2024
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
In a world that often moves too fast and demands too much, Matt Haig offers a gentle reminder that it’s okay to pause. The Life Impossible follows a man who has disconnected from everything—his job, his relationships, his sense of self—and escapes to a remote European village. There, he begins to rebuild, slowly and imperfectly.
Haig writes with a soft hand, crafting a narrative that honours sadness while also allowing for redemption. The novel doesn’t promise dramatic transformation but instead celebrates the quieter joys of friendship, acceptance, and new beginnings. A deeply soothing read for anyone seeking meaning in chaos.
January 2025
The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond
Ruskin Bond’s coming-of-age novel, first published in 1956, remains just as resonant today. It tells the story of Rusty, a 16-year-old Anglo-Indian boy raised by a strict guardian in post-colonial Dehradun. Yearning for freedom and connection, Rusty breaks away and enters a world of friendship, risk and self-discovery.
Bond’s prose is simple yet poetic, capturing the quiet restlessness of adolescence and the beauty of everyday moments. This is a book about cultural in-betweenness, the longing to belong, and the first exhilarating steps into adulthood. When you’re feeling weighed down by adulting, this book will make your inner child feel relaxed. As long as his decades-old books continue being read, Bond feels he shall be remembered, he said in the Tweak India Book Club conversation with Twinkle Khanna (watch it here).
February 2025
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
A sweeping historical fiction, Pachinko spans four generations of a Korean family navigating life in Japan during and after Japanese occupation. At the heart of the novel is about Sunja, a young woman whose unplanned pregnancy pushes her family into an uncertain and hostile future.
Min Jin Lee’s characters in this book endure poverty, racism, and generational trauma with quiet resilience. The novel explores what it means to be an outsider—culturally, economically, and emotionally. It also highlights what colonisation does to a country, as generations to come often end up trying to be like the very people who oppressed them. Like in India, behaving more English became a symbol of superiority, Koreans often felt the need to act more Japanese. In 2024, the book was listed number 15 on The New York Times‘ 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list.
March 2025
Meru by S. B. Divya
Jayanthi is a genetically modified human child created by alloys. Who are alloys? They are transhuman descendants of humans. Set many centuries into future, Earth has already become terribly damaged, and alloys don’t trust the humans enough to let them move to another planet. But Jayanthi, who is genetically modified to survive space conditions, wants to prove them wrong, and sets out on a mission to do so.
This book explores themes of identity, prejudice, and scientific ethics through Jayanthi’s journey. S.B. Divya is able to build a futuristic world you can imagine, while giving a glimpse into what a post-apocalyptic era could look like. Spoiler alert: it’s terrifying and humbling.
April 2025
The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi
Shiva, who is the chief of the Guna tribe, moves to Meluha with his people, and must fight against the Chandravanshis. But when he observes the fact that in a conflict, each side is the villain to the other, he realises that nobody truly wins it. And both sides suffer from the damages of the war. Shiva also finds himself confronting the concept of mortality, the nuances of good versus bad, and the true meaning of leadership.
If you love mythology but at the pace of a page turner, you will find Amish Tripathi’s The Immortals of Meluha immersive and intriguing. This book, which was his debut and also the first of the now-famous Shiva Trilogy, features a humanised Shiva, who cracks jokes (when someone asks him if he is free, he says, “I’m free now but I may charge later”) and gets nervous around his love interest. Tripathi is a master of weaving the profound with the silly, and making mythology relatable for a whole new generation. (Watch his conversation with the Tweak Book Club here)
May 2025
The Tiger’s Share by Keshava Guha
In this novel by Keshava Guha about conflicts over inheritance, gender roles, and greed, we see two families fall apart in Delhi’s elite society. In one family, two siblings are fighting over who has the right to the majority of their father’s assets. In another, the father wants to leave nothing for his kids and instead, give back to planet Earth—which leaves the unaccomplished son feeling agitated, especially when his sister whom he envies for having a stable career, respects her dad’s wishes. “I wanted to write about a generation of men that I felt had reacted to women’s ambition with resentment and insecurity,” Guha told Khanna during the Tweak India Book Club conversation.
The book keeps you hooked, with many instances that make you feel angry about male entitlement, as the men in the families feel they are the natural heirs. We see the women, fighting for their inheritance rights, but more for being seen as equals. The end is not for the weak-hearted and leaves you feeling uneasy for days.
June 2025
There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak
This is a book that makes you think about identity and displacement, memory and shared history, and the role water plays in human existence, beyond survival. Set across different timelines and along two important rivers—Thames and Tigris—this book by Elif Shafak narrates the stories of people living around these water bodies. A man born into poverty is uplifted due to his gifted memory, a Yazidi girl and her grandmother face displacement, and a hydrologist living in a houseboat struggles to make ends meet.
It’s fiction set against the background of real-world events, with one of the characters inspired by an Assyriologist and their socio-political circumstances. The author of Forty Rules of Love (one of the BBC’s ‘100 Novels that Shaped the World’) has penned the book in a way that will make you seek answers about your own roots. Before you know it, you will be on a call with your nani asking her for your family’s backstory.
Want to be a part of the Tweak Book Club? You can join our closed Whatsapp group where the community shares reviews and book recommendations (click here). You can also follow us on Instagram to get regular updates on upcoming author conversations.
