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The Memorables, or, My Top Books from 2015

A ZOO IN MY LUGGAGE- GERALD DURRELL

I first read My Family and Other Animals when I was in primary school, and read a host of Durrell's other novels through the next few years. His writing always fascinated me because they revolved around his global travels in search of animals for his zoos. He wrote of how he tracked them down, used local help, built make-shift enclosures and transported all the animals he collected. They were often humorous, and the idea of using zoos as an educational device interested me. It was also refreshing to read of the kind of zoos he designed and set up in contrast to the wasteland of an animal urinal we have for a zoo in Mumbai. A Zoo in My Luggage was like coming home to an old, weird friend. As a kid, the adventures and mishaps kept me entertained, but now, I learned to appreciate his humour, writing and the people within his stories. This particular book talks of his journey to the Cameroons where he's hosted by the Bafut, a royalty of sorts, and goes into detail about some of the animals they come to procure and bond with. The Bafut may be one of my favourite non-fictional characters. He's flamboyant, has a huge harem of mutually-jealous wives, and wastes no time in finding new ones. It was amusing to read about Durrell and his wife struggling to house the animals they found right under the nose of an indifferent, ever-jovial, dancing Bafut, who was kinder to them than any authority they knew. There was no question about whether this book ought to be on my list. Nostalgia aside, it was a delight to read.

100 HEARTBEATS- JEFF CORWIN

This book was my constant companion through the last few months of college. It's essentially a series of case studies from the world of conservation and extinction. Apart from the clean writing and inspiring/shocking/mortifying/worrying/touching topics discussed within its pages, the underlying premise of this book shook me up the most. The species that find their way into the 100 Heartbeat Club have only a hundred individuals or less left on this planet, and the list of members is unbelievably long. As conservationists strive to strike species off this list, more and more seem to make it, leading to a more fragile ecosystem than already at hand. In my eyes, Jeff Corwin was always the witty, clumsy, passionate ecologist who made 8-year-old me want to be a wild life expert when she grew up. I knew him for his love of nature and his light-hearted demeanor, which is why reading this book was an unexpected experience for me. He is serious, genuine and vulnerable through the book and opens up about how inspired he is by others and how humbled he is by the various species he has interacted with. I look at this book as a textbook that I can use through life to remind myself of how much irreparable damage we've caused as a race and of how much a handful of us are doing to better the situation. It's a book that teaches the truth behind conservation battles and the trauma of wild animals at our expense. My love for Jeff Corwin as a conservationist, scientist and human being quadrupled after reading this book, and I would certainly tremble in his presence from respect for his attitude and experiences. These are my celebrities.

[From his experience as the keeper for a newly orphaned elephant calf.] "He was having a nightmare, and I instinctively cupped his eyes so he couldn't see the light from the oil lamp hanging from the ceiling... Just as he was drifting off again, he started to twist a lock of my hair with the tip of his trunk. All 40,000 muscles in that miniature proboscis were working together to make sure that its tip- which is 10 times more sensitive than a human finger- brought him the soothing contact he needed. Suddenly, I grasped the trauma that a creature this sensitive must experience in the presence of a poacher's brutality."

GOODBYE SOLDIER- SPIKE MILLIGAN

I discovered Spike Milligan last year when I was browsing through the second hand books at Fountain. The fact that he was part of The Goon Show with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe attracted my attention. The first book I picked up was a collection of his poems and short stories, along with the occasional script from one of the Goon shows. It had me in peals and so, I kept reading more Spike. Goodbye Soldier holds notes from the diary he kept during WWII, wherein he played for a travelling jazz band that served as entertainment for the troops in Rome, Vienna and other places. His sarcastic and comical writing about his bunk mates, other musicians and his new-found love Toni, had me feeling like I was travelling with the odd ball bunch. The book is, perhaps, the most candid one I've ever read- offering insight into how simple, no-nonsense, vulnerable, and downright funny Spike Milligan was.

NO MATTER THE WRECKAGE- SARAH KAY

Spoken word poetry has been a part of my life for only just over a year, and Sarah Kay was one of the first few poets I was introduced to. I once spent an entire evening on YouTube listening to her perform poem after poem, and her poetry is what drove me to attempt writing my first spoken word piece. Even when simply talking, she seemed to make perfect sense, and I loved that ideas were clearer to me through poetry than they would've been otherwise. She led me to other poets and more poems of my own. "Poetry is like pooping, if there's a poem in you, it has to come out." Despite having dabbled with poetic devices and rhymes in the past, free verse and expression through poetry found its way to me only in the recent past, and I hand a chunk of credit to Sarah and her recitations for that. No Matter the Wreckage is her first compilation of poems and has come to be a portable bag of emotions for me. Reading some of my favourite poems off paper and discovering more that I had never heard of before was lovely, and it's hard for me to ever tire of such a book. I find myself reaching for this book on days when I'm both happy and low, and I always find a poem in there that lifts off the page and wraps itself around me in a comforting hug.

THE GIRL IN BLUE- P G WODEHOUSE

Astoundingly, this was the only Wodehouse book I read all year (I think?), and so, it made my list effortlessly. Like some of his other books, this one was filled with failed engagements, young and fickle love, and valuable heirlooms. Even though my all-time favourites like Uncle Fred, Psmith, Finknottle and Wooster were amiss, I ended up loving the fresher characters fumbling about in this tale as well. The book opens with lawyer Homer Pyle and his shop-lifting sister, and leads you on to Jerry West, the broke bloke in love, seeking money from his uptight Uncle Bill. Jerry, engaged to Vera Upshaw (the typical Wodehouse-ian, insufferable lady) ends up falling in love with Jane Hunnicut when trying to procure The Girl in Blue, the painting that was stolen from his uncle. Summarizing the plot here would be futile, for it's as convoluted as the Empress of Blandings' intestines. This is a good book for someone who is new to Wodehouse as well, for it needs no background knowledge of any of its characters. It's hilarious, witty and sharp, but like all his other books... ends. PGW can find me laughing aloud in the most populated trains in Mumbai, and this one was no exception. 

Jerry West, you're no Psmith, but you two would get along spectacularly, and for me, that's more than enough. 

THE TEN TRUSTS- JANE GOODALL & MARC BEKOFF

This book has ten chapters or trusts that one must honour as members and custodians of this planet. The trusts enlisted are simple, and have to do largely with the attitude mankind has toward the environment and species within it. Chapters like 'Respect all life' and 'Have the courage of our convictions' are backed up by Goodall and Bekoff's experiences, case studies, anecdotes and statistics. The book explores all life, including the animals we domesticate and the trees that grow in our shrinking forests. It talks about scientific attitude, basic human mentality and animal behaviour. All these themes come together to generate a more evolved sense of awareness in the reader's mind and paints an unadulterated, clear picture of everything wrong with the way man deals with his surroundings. This book also talks about the few victory stories the world has witnessed and draws inspiration from them. Goodall and Beckoff have managed to talk about the shortcomings of man and advise us about the right path to take without coming off as cynical, judgmental or hostile. With their individual, characteristic calm, they've driven home crucial points and observations that more people ought to know about. If these trusts were the fundamental guidelines to a religion, the world would be a better, more harmonious place.

BOSSYPANTS- TINA FEY

Tina Fey is one of my favourite women, because she is undeniably funny in a world where only men are considered capable of being comedic. Bossypants is full of unapologetic humour- humour that feeds off of her every embarrassing experience. She walks you through her clumsy childhood, extremely-awkward teenage years, her first jobs and finally, unravels how she came to be the SNL and 30 Rock star we know her as. When I started reading this book, I was worried I'd be disappointed. I hoped that her writing would live up to the image I had of her in my mind and that her comic self wasn't the result of a team of writers hidden behind a stage curtain somewhere. Turns out, she started out as one of those faceless writers and made her way to the audience-side of the curtain. My skepticism vanished two paragraphs into her introduction, and I ended up reading the next hundred-odd pages in the same sitting. Apart from being a breather from life, it also spoke about all the work that goes into putting up live and pre-recorded TV shows, and it made me respect the whole process a lot more than I did before. This was the breezy, well-written bit of heaven I didn't know I needed. 

LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET- RAINER MARIA RILKE

This was the last book I read in 2015. I ordered it off Amazon on an impulse and the eager, little fellow knocked at my door the very next day. This is a collection of ten letters that Rilke sent to a young Mr. Kappus, who wrote to him asking for advise and opinions. Rilke, through his wise persona, wrote warm letters that offer advise and suggestions so universal, they can be applied to more than just a young poet. I do not agree or accept in entirety all of what Rilke had to offer, however, his words are thought provoking and poetic even through the prose. These letters clearly belong to a former time, but it was lovely to read words that were once delicately fed to paper and sent with compassion and genuine heart. Despite the air of formality that comes with each letter, there's a sense of acceptance and belonging between the correspondents that is endearing. Although I imagine some of its beauty was lost in translation, this is a good book for anyone with a love of poetry and words that linger.