The Shelf Life: Champaca Bookstore Blog
January Recommendations: Looking Back, Looking Forward
At the cusp of 2020, we found ourselves taking stock of the year that has gone by, and making hopeful plans — and reading goals — for the new one.
Book Review – Octavia Butler’s Parable Series
This little note about Octavia Butler’s Parable Series was written by Kavya Murthy in May 2020, when things around the lockdown were very pressing.
Book Review — Patrik Svensson’s “The Gospel of the Eels”
This month, Nirica Srinivasan reviews Patrik Svensson’s The Gospel of the Eels, a unique natural science memoir.
October Recommendations — Horror, Crime & Mystery
This October, but we were inspired to put together some spooky recommendations for you.
Exploding Mangoes & Hiring Milkshakes: Recommended Reads for Designers & Makers by Jay Dutta
This month, we're featuring recommendations by Jay Dutta, the Founder/Curator of DesignUp. Here, he lists recommendations for designers — but really, they're recommendations for everyone!
September Recommendations — Cats!
This month, we’ve put together recommendations for cat-lovers, across poetry, graphic novels, science, and fiction.
August Recommendations — Feminism
We’ve put together a collection of feminist writing that explore the intersection of feminism with race, caste, and class. In this list are memoirs, ethnography, biography and poetry.
Book Review — Carolina De Robertis' “Cantoras”
This month, Nirica Srinivasan reviews Carolina De Robertis' Cantoras, a novel about resistance, love, and the power of the sea.
July Recommendations — Race & Immigration
This month, we’ve compiled recommendations that speak to the experience of racism and the insider-outsider paradigm, that talk of immigration and race in many of its forms.
Book Review — Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Water Dancer”
This month, Kavya Murthy reviews Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer.
Books for Now — “A Word with You, World,” by Siddalingaiah
In our second Books for Now session, we spent time with the autobiography of Dalit poet Siddalingiah Ooru Keri in its English translation, A Word with You, World. Kavya Murthy recaps the event.
June Recommendations — Pride Month
This year, Pride Month coincides with the phenomenal wave of protests in the US and the Black Lives Matter movement. In India, we celebrate in a different context.