1. The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemon – On March 2, 1908, nineteen-year-old Lazarus Averbuch, an Eastern European Jewish immigrant, was shot to death on the doorstep of the Chicago chief of police and cast as a would-be anarchist assassin.
A century later, a young Eastern European writer in Chicago named Brik becomes obsessed with Lazarus’s story. Brik enlists his friend Rora — a war photographer from Sarajevo — to join him in retracing Averbuch’s path.
Through a history of pogroms and poverty, and a prism of a present-day landscape of cheap mafiosi and even cheaper prostitutes, the stories of Averbuch and Brik become inextricably intertwined, creating a truly original, provocative, and entertaining novel that confirms Aleksandar Hemon as one of the most dynamic and essential literary voices of our time.

2. Corduroy Mansions series by Alexander McCall Smith – Corduroy Mansions is the affectionate nickname given to a genteel, crumbling mansion block in London’s vibrant Pimlico neighborhood and the home turf of a captivating collection of quirky and altogether McCall-Smithian characters. There’s the middle-aged wine merchant William, who is trying to convince his reluctant twenty-four-year-old son, Eddie, to leave the nest; and Marcia, the boutique caterer who has her sights set on William. There’s also the (justifiably) much-loathed Member of Parliament Oedipus Snark; his mother, Berthea, who’s writing his biography and hating every minute of it; and his long-suffering girlfriend, Barbara, a literary agent who would like to be his wife (but, then, she’d like to be almost anyone’s wife). There’s the vitamin evangelist, the psychoanalyst, the art student with a puzzling boyfriend and Freddie de la Hay, the Pimlico terrier who insists on wearing a seat belt and is almost certainly the only avowed vegetarian canine in London. Filled with the ins and outs of neighborliness in all its unexpected variations, Corduroy Mansions showcases the life, laughter and humanity that have become the hallmarks of Alexander McCall Smith’s work.

3.  Me Laxmi, Me Hijra – Flamboyant transgender rights activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi is proud of her sexuality and claims to be “a woman who can put all other women to shame.” “Me Hijra Me Laxmi,” the new English translation of her autobiography, written by R. Raj Rao, launched at the New Delhi World Book Fair was one book she says she never imagined writing. The book is already in publication in Marathi and Gujarati. She was the first transgender person to represent Asia Pacific at the United Nations and has represented her community and India on several international platforms including the World AIDS conference in Toronto. She currently runs Astitva, an organisation for the support and development of sexual minorities. The autobiography is a narrative of her ordeal of becoming a hijra by choice, and her subsequent journey of fighting against tremendous odds for the recognition of her community.

4. The Sialkot Saga by Ashwin Sanghi – This book is the labour of my love,’ Sanghi explained as he unveiled the novel’s cover for the first time, on Day 3 of JLF. The story is a depiction of the bond between two men of different religious beliefs, set against the backdrop of the India-Pakistan partition in 1947: ‘Some will read it as a story about a feud while others as that about great friendship,’ Sanghi said. He then treated the rapt audience to a teaser extract, which hinted of an intriguing tale about a powerful secret going all the way back to the time of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. Sanghi’s shared his insight into what makes a great thriller novel: ‘Three things make for a compelling story: the first paragraph of the book should suck you in, the last paragraph of each chapter must force you to read the next, and the last paragraph of the book should make you want to wait for the writer’s next work.’ A great novel, Sanghi added, is not one where the reader turns the pages, but where the pages turn themselves.

5. Tales of The City by Armistead Maupin – For more than three decades, Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City has blazed its own trail through popular culture—from a groundbreaking newspaper serial to a classic novel, to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The first of six novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, Tales is both a sparkling comedy of manners and an indelible portrait of an era that changed forever the way we live. The series opens with the arrival of Mary Ann Singleton, a naive young woman from Cleveland, Ohio, who is visiting San Francisco on vacation when she impulsively decides to stay. She finds an apartment at 28 Barbary Lane, the domain of the eccentric, marijuana-growing landlady Anna Madrigal. Mary Ann becomes friends with other tenants of the building: the hippyish bisexual Mona Ramsey; heterosexual lothario Brian Hawkins; the sinister and cagey roof tenant Norman Neal Williams; and Michael Tolliver, a sweet and personable gay man known to friends as Mouse (as in Mickey Mouse).

6. Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi – The year is 340 BC. A hunted, haunted Brahmin youth vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with a complete absence of accepted morals, he becomes the most powerful political strategist in Bharat and succeeds in uniting a ragged country against the invasion of the army of that demigod, Alexander the Great. Pitting the weak edges of both forces against each other, he pulls off a wicked and astonishing victory and succeeds in installing Chandragupta on the throne of the mighty Mauryan empire.
History knows him as the brilliant strategist Chanakya. Satisfied—and a little bored—by his success as a kingmaker, through the simple summoning of his gifted mind, he recedes into the shadows to write his Arthashastra, the ‘science of wealth’. But history, which exults in repeating itself, revives Chanakya two and a half millennia later, in the avatar of Gangasagar Mishra, a Brahmin teacher in smalltown India who becomes puppeteer to a host of ambitious individuals—including a certain slumchild who grows up into a beautiful and powerful woman.
Modern India happens to be just as riven as ancient Bharat by class hatred, corruption and divisive politics and this landscape is Gangasagar’s feasting ground. Can this wily pandit—who preys on greed, venality and sexual deviance—bring about another miracle of a united India?

7. Swimmer Among The Stars by Kanishk Tharoor – Elephant at Sea opens this debut collection of dozen deftly wrought short stories, titled Swimmer Among the Stars, by a refreshingly profound and gifted 31-year-old writer. It starts on a humorous note when the Indian official at the embassy receives a perplexing telegram intimating him that an elephant is enroute. He even mulls the possibility of it being a code. Then it slowly suffuses a tragic and complex hue as the elephant, accompanied by its mahout, land on the unfamiliar shore. As they embark on the lonely voyage to the capital, the man and animal, two strangers in a strange land, their delicate fate distend. In the short story lending the title to the collection, Swimmer Among the Stars, “the last speaker of a language” is being interviewed by a group of ethnographers. The woman finds it strange to listen to the sounds of her mouth. “You must understand she says, my memory is preserved better than a lemon, it is difficult to remember which words are my own and which words are not.” In The Fall of an Eyelash, Forlough’s family help smuggle her out of the country, a desert, to a place which is “green and made from clean lines for safety”. She’s homesick. In this strange land, the new people admire her courage and keep asking her to repeat her story, not realising “that while an exile can escape her country, she can never escape her exile.” Slowly she learns the new customs. She discovers how wishes can come true from fallen eyelashes. The story, Kanishk says, is loosely inspired by the life of a family friend. Although it was written long before the Syrian refugee crisis, it finds a particular resonance in the present context. One of the haunting allures of Swimmer Among the Stars is that the stories are not only intricately knit, but in them the grazed walls of literary conventions fold and merge. Death and destruction recur as grim reminders that the world is always ending for someone, somewhere.

8. An Unsuitable Boy (Karan Jaohar’s biography by Poonam Saxena) – An Unsuitable Boy, co-authored by Johar and Poonam Saxena, is a frank and riveting account of the Johar’s life, including his relationship with his famous father, the film-maker Yash Johar. Johar described harrowing experiences of being bullied for his mannerisms by friends at school and in the “snooty” South Bombay colony where he lived. Having worked for over twenty years in the film industry and made many successful movies like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kal Ho Na Ho, My Name is Khan and Student of the Year as well as taking home-production house Dharma Productions to new heights, Johar observed that the film industry has changed a lot: ‘It’s more detached… corporatized now, led by big ambitions. Earlier, films were a product of inter-relationships of film-makers, actors, musicians and other stake holders. Now, we are made to produce cut-throat cinema, which has no space for personal bonding.’ Johar’s first appearance at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival was a thrilling insight into the film-maker’s world. The star, who rarely gives interviews, spoke with riveting candour about his journey from a bullied young boy to one of the most successful directors in India today. We are looking forward to reading his book!

Leave us your thoughts in the comments section below!

Here goes!

1. THE FIRST MEETING BETWEEN THE POTTERS AND THE DURSLEYS WAS A DISASTER.

Petunia had long hated being overshadowed by her witch sister, and her fiance and future husband, Vernon Dursley, hated all things that weren’t perfectly normal—so they were pretty much predisposed to hating all things magical. But it was the first meeting between the couple and Lily and James that really cemented that attitude:

James was amused by Vernon, and made the mistake of showing it. Vernon tried to patronize James, asking what car he drove. James described his racing broom. Vernon supposed out loud that wizards had to live on unemployment benefit. James explained about Gringotts, and the fortune his parents had saved there, in solid gold. Vernon could not tell whether he was being made fun of or not, and grew angry. The evening ended with Vernon and Petunia storming out of the restaurant, while Lily burst into tears and James (a little ashamed of himself) promised to make things up with Vernon at the earliest opportunity.

Of course, no amends were ever made. Petunia didn’t ask Lily to be a bridesmaid in her wedding, and, Rowling writes, “Vernon refused to speak to James at the reception, but described him, within James’ earshot, as ‘some kind of amateur magician.’” The couple didn’t attend James and Lily’s wedding, and the last letter Petunia received from the magical pair—Harry’s birth announcement—went in the trash.

2. THE IDENTITIES OF ALL THE MINISTERS FOR MAGIC.

The Ministry of Magic was established in 1707 (it took over for the Wizard Council as the governing body of the wizarding community). Rowling has listed out all of the Ministers for Magic since then, along with short descriptions of their time in office. A few of our favorites include Basil Flack (1752), “Shortest serving minister. Lasted two months; resigned after the goblins joined forces with werewolves”; Evangeline Orpington (1849-55), “A good friend of Queen Victoria’s, who never realised she was a witch, let alone Minister for Magic”; and Wilhemina Tuft (1948-59), a “Cheery witch who presided over a period of welcome peace and prosperity. Died in office after discovering, too late, her allergy to Alihotsy-flavoured fudge.”

Also, fans universally whooped with joy when Rowling revealed that Kingsley Shacklebolt is still Minister for Magic and will probably win the next election too.

3. CORNELIUS FUDGE GAVE HIMSELF AN ORDER OF MERLIN FIRST CLASS.

The Order of Merlin First Class is awarded for “‘acts of outstanding bravery or distinction’ in magic.” Dumbledore received the award—a gold medal on a green ribbon—for defeating the Dark Wizard Grindlewald, a decision everyone agreed with. But when Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, awarded it to himself for “a career that many considered less than distinguished,” there was “a good deal of muttering in the wizarding community.” But we totally feel Fudge… after all, what use is a Minister’s position if one can’t award oneself the highest honor in wzarding community!

4. UMBRIDGE HAD A SQUIB BROTHER—AND A MUGGLE MOM!

You’d never guess from the books that the Mud Blood hating, all-around toad Dolores Umbridge was anything but a pure blood. But Umbridge was a half-blood, the eldest child and only daughter of wizard Orford Umbridge and muggle Ellen Cracknell. Her brother was a Squib. Her parents weren’t happy, and, Rowling writes, “Dolores secretly despised both of them”:

Orford for his lack of ambition (he had never been promoted, and worked in the Department of Magical Maintenance at the Ministry of Magic), and her mother, Ellen, for her flightiness, untidiness, and Muggle lineage. Both Orford and his daughter blamed Ellen for Dolores’s brother’s lack of magical ability, with the result that when Dolores was fifteen, the family split down the middle, Orford and Dolores remaining together, and Ellen vanishing back into the Muggle world with her son. Dolores never saw her mother or brother again, never spoke of either of them, and henceforth pretended to all she met that she was a pure-blood.

The essay explains Umbridge’s rocket ascent through the Ministry of Magic, covers her failure to find a husband, and explains how she came to be on Voldemort’s side during his takeover. Reading it would only deepen your utter hatred of the toad, we’re sure!

5. MINERVA MCGONAGALL HAD A SAD CHILDHOOD.

Minerva McGonagall, future Hogwarts Transfiguration teacher and headmistress, was the first child of Reverend Robert McGonagall, a Muggle, and Isobel Ross, a witch. There was just one problem: Isobel didn’t tell Robert that she was a witch until after Minerva was born, a choice that broke the trust between the young witch’s parents. “Minerva, a clever and observant child, saw this with sadness,” Rowling writes:

Minerva was very close to her Muggle father, whom in temperament she resembled more than her mother. She saw with pain how much he struggled with the family’s strange situation. She sensed too, how much of a strain it was on her mother to fit in with the all-Muggle village, and how much she missed the freedom of being with her own kind, and of not exercising her considerable talents. Minerva never forgot how much her mother cried, when the letter of admittance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived on Minerva’s eleventh birthday; she knew that Isobel was sobbing, not only out of pride, but also of envy.

This knowledge directly affected McGonagall’s life after Hogwarts, when she met a Muggle named Dougal McGregor, “the handsome, clever and funny son of a local farmer.” They fell in love, and when he proposed, McGonagall accepted. But that very night, she realized their love could never be, because “Dougal did not know what she, Minerva, truly was … Minerva had witnessed at close quarters the kind of marriage she might have if she wed Dougal. It would be the end of all her ambitions; it would mean a wand locked away, and children taught to lie, perhaps even to their own father. She did not fool herself that Dougal McGregor would accompany her to London, while she went to work every day at the Ministry. He was looking forward to inheriting his father’s farm.”

She broke off their engagement without telling him why—if she violated the International Statute of Secrecy, she would have lost her job at the Ministry, “for which she was giving him up,” Rowling writes. “She left him devastated, and set out for London three days later.”

6. ICE CREAM PARLOR OWNER FLOREAN FORTESCUE WAS KIDNAPPED AS PART OF A PLOT ROWLING DECIDED NOT TO USE.

Many a book reader has been puzzled by the Death Eaters’ abduction and killing of Florean Fortescue, the wizard, magical history buff, and ice cream parlor owner Harry meets inPrisoner of Azkaban. In one Pottermore extra, Rowling revealed that she had “originally planned Florean to be the conduit for clues that I needed to give Harry during his quest for the Hallows, which is why I established an acquaintance fairly early on … I imagined the historically-minded Florean might have a smattering of information on matters as diverse as the Elder Wand and the diadem of Ravenclaw, the information having been passed down in the Fortescue family from their august ancestor,” former Hogwarts Headmaster Dexter Florean:

As I worked my way nearer to the point where such information would become necessary, I caused Florean to be kidnapped, intending him to be found or rescued by Harry and his friends.

The problem was that when I came to write the key parts of Deathly Hallows I decided that Phineas Nigellus Black was a much more satisfactory means of conveying clues. Florean’s information on the diadem also felt redundant, as I could give the reader everything he or she needed by interviewing the Grey Lady.

So, unfortunately, Rowling had the character meet his untimely end for no real reason at all. “He is not the first wizard whom Voldemort murdered because he knew too much (or too little),” Rowling writes, “but he is the only one I feel guilty about, because it was all my fault.”

7. DRACO MALFOY WAS RAISED TO BELIEVE HARRY WAS A GREAT DARK WIZARD.

One of many theories that went around after Harry survived Voldemort’s curse was that The Boy Who Lived was actually a great Dark wizard—and it was this theory that Lucius Malfoy, Draco’s father, clung to. “It was comforting to think that he, Lucius, might be in for a second chance of world domination, should this Potter boy prove to be another, and greater, pure-blood champion,” Rowling writes. Which is why Draco went out of his way to befriend Harry on the Hogwarts Express:

Harry’s refusal of Draco’s friendly overtures, and the fact that he had already formed allegiance to Ron Weasley, whose family is anathema to the Malfoys, turns Malfoy against him at once. Draco realised, correctly, that the wild hopes of the ex-Death Eaters – that Harry Potter was another, and better, Voldemort – are completely unfounded, and their mutual enmity is assured from that point.

Rowling also reveals that Draco could have had a very different last name; Smart, Spinks, or Spungen were all options. Well, we’re just glad that the author settled on Draco!

8. THE MALFOYS WEREN’T ALWAYS SO HATEFUL OF MUGGLES.

Rowling reveals in the Malfoy family history that, at one point, they were quite close to Muggles they deemed worthy. “In spite of their espousal of pure-blood values and their undoubtedly genuine belief in wizards’ superiority over Muggles, the Malfoys have never been above ingratiating themselves with the non-magical community when it suits them,” Rowling writes. This includes—according to rumor, anyway—trading in Muggle money and assets, annexing Muggle land, and procuring Muggle art and other treasures for the family collection.

They often hung out in Muggle social circles as well—but only wealthy Muggles, of course. “Historically, the Malfoys drew a sharp distinction between poor Muggles and those with wealth and authority,” Rowling writes. “Until the imposition of the Statute of Secrecy in 1692, the Malfoy family was active within high-born Muggle circles, and it is said that their fervent opposition to the imposition of the Statute was due, in part, to the fact that they would have to withdraw from this enjoyable sphere of social life.”

Once the Ministry of Magic—“the new heart of power”—was founded, the Malfoys “performed an abrupt volte-face, and became as vocally supportive of the Statute as any of those who had championed it from the beginning, hastening to deny that they had ever been on speaking (or marrying) terms with Muggles.”

9. FENRIR GREYBACK ATTACKED REMUS LUPIN BECAUSE OF SOMETHING LUPIN’S FATHER SAID.

During Voldemort’s initial rise to power, Lyall Lupin, Remus’s father, joined the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, where he encountered Fenrir Greyback, “who had been brought in for questioning about the death of two Muggle children.” Because the Werewolf Registry was poorly maintained, and Lupin’s colleagues didn’t see the signs, they believed Greyback’s claim that he was a Muggle tramp. “Lyall Lupin was not so easily fooled,” Rowling wrote. “He … told the committee that Greyback ought to be kept in detention until the next full moon, a mere twenty-four hours later.” When his colleagues laughed at him, Lupin grew angry, calling werewolves “soulless, evil, deserving nothing but death.” After Greyback was released, he told his fellow werewolves how Lupin had described them, and vowed to get his revenge—which he did, shortly before Remus turned 5:

As [Remus Lupin] slept peacefully in his bed, Fenrir Greyback forced open the boy’s window and attacked him. Lyall reached the bedroom in time to save his son’s life, driving Greyback out of the house with a number of powerful curses. However, henceforth, Remus would be a full-fledged werewolf.

Lyall Lupin never forgave himself for the words he had spoken in front of Greyback at the inquiry … He had parroted what was the common view of werewolves in his community, but his son was what he had always been—loveable and clever—except for that terrible period at the full moon when he suffered an excruciating transformation and became a danger to everyone around him. For many years, Lyall kept the truth about the attack, including the identity of the attacker, from his son, fearing Remus’s recriminations.

10. AZKABAN HAS A REALLY DARK HISTORY.

Rowling writes that the North Sea island on which the prison is built has never appeared on any map, wizard or muggle. An early resident, a sorcerer named Ekrizdis who practiced the worst kinds of dark magic, lured Muggle sailors there and tortured and killed them. When he died, the concealment charms faded, and the Ministry became aware of the island’s existence. “Those who entered to investigate refused afterwards to talk of what they had found inside,” Rowling writes, “but the least frightening part of it was that the place was infested with dementors.”

The two part play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, will focus on Harry as an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic and his son Albus Severus who finds himself burdened with family legacy. It opens in London next year. 2016 couldn’t arrive sooner!

1. The Fellowship of The Ring – While most people only consider Frodo and Sam’s devotion to each other as the ultimate friendship goals, we think that what made The Lord of The Rings epic was how the entire surviving Fellowship – Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn and Gandalf – was so connected and unconditionally loved each other! That all their hearts beat for one another is pretty evident throughout the story. Their unending devotion and love might have made us teary eyed more than once… way more than once!

2. Harry, Ron and Hermione – Yes, Harry and Ron spent quite some time in the books trying to ignore Hermione (timetables, SPEW, don’t-break-school-rules sermons) but there’s no denying the fact that these three shared the most special and closest bond ever. Each brought to the trio something unique and indispensable in a way that made them tough. We’re pretty sure these three could rule the wizarding community if they were ever so inclined.

3. FRIENDS – No BFF list would ever be complete without a mention of the Six. Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler and Joey redefined “friendship” in the 90’s and their popularity is a phenomenon that just doesn’t quit.

4. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson – The two lived together for a time, and they also solved mysteries together. Watson is the perfect match for Sherlock’s sometimes abrasive, Type-A behavior. Also, Watson is the person who actually records all of Holmes’s triumphs. All but four of the Sherlock Holmes tales are told by Watson, who is outraged that Holmes doesn’t get more recognition in the press. He also deals with what a jerk Holmes is rather well. What a good friend!

5.  Athos, Porthos and Aramis (from Alexander Dumas’s The Three Musketeers) - “All for one and one for all!” Are we right or are we right?

6. Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby (from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby) - Look, Nick admires Gatsby enough to tell his entire story! That is dedication! He’s also one of the only people to attend Gatsby’s funeral, and who wasn’t looking for money or some kind of connection from Gatsby. He is the only person that Gatsby can really be honest with or divulge anything to (though he tries to do so with Daisy as well). Nick is also the only person who is loyal to Gatsby.

7. Darcy and Bingley (from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) - Bingley tolerates Darcy’s bad habits like only best friends can. Despite Darcy being a total downer, as well as totally rude, Bingley still loves the man like a brother. Bingley loves Darcy so much, that he actually listens to Darcy’s advice when he suggests that Bingley NOT marry the sweet, shy Jane (luckily, Darcy realizes the error of this advice, and Bingley and Jane end up getting married and living happily ever after). Oh, and they marry sisters, which means that even though they are married, they’ll still be seeing lots of each other! Good play, gentlemen!

8. Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte – Sex and The City was more than just about four 30 something women trying to find love in New York… it was about them staying together and supporting each other through all the difficulties of navigating the dating jungle that is Manhattan. Through Sam’s cancer, Charlotte’s no baby situation, Miranda’s baby situation and Carrie’s “big” problems… the girls stuck together. These four ladies show us that as long as we have our girlfriends and a standing brunch reservation, everything will be okay. It’s as Carrie said, “Maybe our girlfriends are our soulmates, and guys are just people to have fun with!”

9. Sancho Panza and Don Quixote in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra – Before “bromance” was ever a word (or, rather, something vaguely resembling a word), there was Sancho Panza and Don Quixote. It’s a friendship that, over the years, has morphed into a familiar trope of hero and sidekick. The two friends go an epic journey together, which is basically a road trip. Their funny and simple friendship is a reminder and an ideal of how we should support our friends, both emotionally and physically.

10. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn – We’re first introduced to Huck in chapter six of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and learn right away that Huck is bad news bears. You know that kid from high school that you weren’t allowed to hang out with because his/her parents were always out of town and their house was just a mecca of weed and cheap booze? That’s Huck Finn. The mothers of the children in town do not let their kids play with him, because, yeah, he’s a dirty little homeless creep. Still, Tom associates with Huck despite all his shortcomings, and isn’t that what friendship is all about?

11. Jules, Jonah, Ethan and Ash in The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer – The Interestings thus spans decades, beginning when the characters are hardly teenagers and going all the way through middle age. Wolitzer writes a compelling story about what it means to be envious of your friends, even when you love them. Who among us is noble enough to not have been jealous of those we are closest to? It’s complicated, though: You’re covetous, but you can’t express your resentment, and you’re also genuinely happy for whatever it is that your friend has achieved. You don’t just feel envious; you feel meager. Wolizer’s novel manages to provide an accurate portrayal of these complex feelings that can be at the heart of very real friendships.

12. Kay, Mary, Dottie, Elinor, Libby, Helena, Priss and Polly in The Group by Mary McCarthy – The Group details the lives of eight female friends, all from Vassar College’s class of 1933, following them post graduation. Despite their impressive liberal arts educations and their strong ambitions, all the women find themselves lacking direction. (Sounds eerily similar to another series currently on HBO, doesn’t it?) The novel spans seven years, offering an expansive look into the sororal bond of these women as they navigate everything from sexism in the workplace, to marriage, to child-raising, to financial difficulties, to losing their virginity. (Not necessarily in that order.)

13. Daria and Jane, Daria – These two prove it really is possible to have a friendship based just on cynicism, sarcasm, and quiet observation.

14. Ted, Marshall, Robin, Barney, and Lily of How I Met Your Mother – Only the best of friends could have helped Ted get through the years (and years) of breakups and make sure he didn’t settle before finally finding the one he has been waiting to meet.

Here are 24 super quotes from the “Wings of Fire” author himself. Read through and get inspired!

1. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”

2. “Don’t take rest after your first victory because if you fail in second, more lips are waiting to say that your first victory was just luck.”

3. “All Birds find shelter during a rain. But the eagle avoids rain by flying above the clouds.”

4. “Man needs difficulties in life because they are necessary to enjoy the success.”

5. “If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun.”

6. “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.”

7. “You have to dream before your dreams can come true. Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.”

8. “To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.”

9. “We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.”

10. “Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.”

11. “It is very easy to defeat someone, but it is very hard to win someone”

12. “All of us do not have equal talent. But , all of us have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.”

13. ” Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.”

14. “Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life.”

15. “If you fail, never give up because FAIL means “First Attempt In Learning”.

16. “End is not the end, if fact END means “Effort Never Dies” – If you get No as an answer, remember NO means “Next Opportunity”. So Let’s be positive.”

17. “Dream, dream, dream. Dreams transform into thoughts and thoughts result in action.”

18. “Dream is not that which you see while sleeping, it is something that does not let you sleep.”

19. “When learning is purposeful, creativity blossoms. When creativity blossoms, thinking emanates. When thinking emanates, knowledge is fully lit. When knowledge is lit, economy flourishes.”

20. “This is my belief: that through difficulties and problems God gives us the opportunity to grow. So when your hopes and dreams and goals are dashed, search among the wreckage, you may find a golden opportunity hidden in the ruins”.”

21. “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts.”

22. “Sometimes, it’s better to bunk a class and enjoy with friends, because now, when I look back, marks never make me laugh, but memories do.”

23. “We are all born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness.”

24. “What makes life in Indian organizations difficult is the widespread prevalence of this very contemptuous pride. It stops us from listening to our juniors, subordinates and people down the line. You cannot expect a person to deliver results if you humiliate him, nor can you expect him to be creative if you abuse him or despise him. The line between firmness and harshness, between strong leadership and bullying, between discipline and vindictiveness is very fine, but it has to be drawn.”

Here’s our list of top 12 Young Adult books that deserve kickass big screen adaptations!

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why is a young-adult fiction novel about a guy named Clay Jensen who discovers that he was one of the thirteen reasons why his classmate and crush, Hannah Baker, committed suicide.

The book begins with Clay getting home from school one day to find a package on his porch that is addressed to him from an anonymous person. He opens it and finds a shoe box with seven cassettes recorded by Hannah, in which she reveals names of all the people and the reasons for her suicide. From the cassettes, Clay gets to know and feel the pain Hannah that went through. he finds out how, unintentionally, a bunch of people including himself led to her taking her own life.

2. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen – Here’s what the official book description says – Macy’s summer stretches before her, carefully planned and outlined. She will spend her days sitting at the library information desk. She will spend her evenings studying for the SATs. Spare time will be used to help her obsessive mother prepare for the big opening of the townhouse section of her luxury development. But Macy’s plans don’t anticipate a surprising and chaotic job with Wish Catering, a motley crew of new friends, or … Wes. Tattooed, artistic, anything-but-expected Wes. He doesn’t fit Macy’s life at all–so why does she feel so comfortable with him? What is it about him that makes her let down her guard and finally talk about how much she misses her father, who died before her eyes the year before? Sarah Dessen delivers a page-turning novel that carries readers on a roller coaster of denial, grief, comfort, and love as we watch a broken but resilient girl pick up the pieces of her life and fit them back together.

We say – just read this inspiring coming of age book for the lovable, well developed characters, convincing romance that will make you cheer for them and plain sheer entertainment!

3. Time Riders by Alex Scarrow –  Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘Take my hand . . .’ But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren’t rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose – to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to stop time travel from destroying the world . . .

This wonderfully gripping and believable sci-fi series by Alex Scarrow is like a lesson in world history, but 100 times more interesting! Each of the nine novels in this series is a roller-coaster ride that will keep you at the edge of your seats and will definitely make for great fast paced movies!

4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time recently opened as a Broadway play, and we think it would make a great movie as well. A film adaptation may be in the planning stages, but no production has begun. The story follows Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old with high-functioning autism, as he tries to solve the mystery of his neighbor’s murdered dog. Genius, moving stuff, right?

5. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli – From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, hallways hum “Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’s heart with one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. Until they are not. Leo urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her – normal.

This inspiring “un-put-downable” book chronicles Leo’s interaction with a profoundly non-conformist girl Susan Caraway who also goes by the name Stargirl. It raises some introspective questions about standing out when the entire society wants you to “fit in”.

6. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins – Anna Oliphant has life going great for her till her father decides to ship her off to a boarding school in Paris. She can’t speak a word of French and she definitely misses everyone back home. Everything takes the turn for the worse till she meets the charming and beautiful Étienne St. Clair. It’s the stuff for movies that a younger Hilary Duff or Amanda Bynes could have starred in.

7. Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles – Moving, emotional, realistic—these are just words that can describe the story of four teenagers whose lives are changed with one pregnancy. Friendship, love and sex are the perfect ingredients for a summer romance movie. It’ll be interesting to see this on-screen since there are multiple narrators in the book. A movie can give the story a holistic look and make connecting the dots a lot easier.

8. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han – Imagine writing letters to your ex-boyfriends and hiding them in your closet, never having the intention of sending them out. Imagine finding out that the letters are missing and you learn that these letters have reached their corresponding owners. The main character Lara Jean receives a healthy dose of reality and growing up in this coming-of-age novel. Inspired by Han’s own habit of writing (but never sending) letters to boys she had a crush on, this book will make a delightful big screen adaptation, we think!

9. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume – Margaret is raised by parents who do not like to discuss religion as not to confuse her. But once she reaches puberty, she ends up talking to God about possibly everything since she has no one else to talk to. From religion to adolescence to wearing bra and making and losing friends, this 1070’s book has proven to be a classic and at least deserves a screen adaptation.

10. Betsy-Tacy Series by Maud Hart Lovelace – The Betsy-Tacy books are a series of semi-autobiographical novels by American novelist and short-story writer Maud Hart Lovelace (1892-1980), which were originally published between 1940 and 1955 by the Thomas Y. Crowell Co.

The series follows the adventures of heroine Betsy Ray, who is based closely on the author, and her friends and family. The first book, Betsy-Tacy, begins in 1897 on the eve of Betsy’s fifth birthday, and the last book, Betsy’s Wedding, ends in 1917 as the United States prepares to enter the First World War.

Coming of age in Industrial America would only get better with the costumes, don’t you think!

11. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld – Curtis Sittenfeld’s debut novel, Prep, is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.

Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel. Lee’s experiences–complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant, coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.

12. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson – This riveting, heartbreaking book follows the story of Lia, an eighteen-year-old girl dealing with anorexia nervosa. The novel opens with the news that Lia’s best friend of 10 years, Cassie, who was bulimic, has died, and the night she died, she tried to call Lia 33 times. The novel follows the course of Lia’s struggles with anorexia, her difficult relationships with her parents and stepmother, and her search to learn about Cassie’s fate.

Drop us your thoughts on our list, or your suggestions for the dream cast, in the comments section below!

Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures author Emma Straub writes about one family’s two-week trip to the island of Mallorca in The Vacationers, a story about the complicated up-and-down dynamics among family and friends. The Posts are going on their first family vacation in years, and it’s going to be a special one: Jim and Franny are taking their daughter Sylvia, son Bobby and his girlfriend, and Franny’s best friend Charles and his husband, all the way to Mallorca for two weeks of the sort of relaxation, culture and cuisine that only Europe can offer. But there are problems. After a transgression with a 23-year-old editorial assistant, Jim has been sacked from his job, and now his and Franny’s marriage is on the rocks. Charles and Lawrence are feeling divided over their future, Bobby is mired in debt problems and stuck in a relationship that’s pulling in opposite directions and his girlfriend Carmen, super-fit personal trainer and, at 40-something, far too old for Bobby, seems to have realised her mistake. As for Sylvia, she’s 18, about to go to college, and determined to lose her virginity before she gets there.

Bestselling author Emily Giffin’s latest novel, The One & Only, takes place in a small Texas town where football is everything. Shea, a 33-year-old woman, was born and raised in the college community. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets. Thoughtful, funny, and brilliantly observed, The One & Only is a luminous novel about finding your passion, following your heart, and, most of all, believing in something bigger than yourself . . . the one and only thing that truly makes life worth living.

Transport yourself to the Mediterranean with Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, a romantic read that tosses between Italy in the 1960s and modern-day Hollywood. From the moment it opens—on a rocky patch of Italian coastline, circa 1962, when a daydreaming young innkeeper looks out over the water and spies a mysterious woman approaching him on a boat—Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to the back lots of contemporary Hollywood, Beautiful Ruins is gloriously inventive and constantly surprising—a story of flawed yet fascinating people navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Terry Hayes’s thriller I Am Pilgrim tells the story of a secret agent — with the code name Pilgrim — who is forced to face his greatest enemy after the murder of a wealthy American.

Marina Keegan’s The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories is a posthumous collection written by a 2012 Yale student who had a play set to be produced and a job waiting at the New Yorker when she died tragically in a car crash days after graduation. Following the viral success of her final essay for the Yale Daily News, “The Opposite of Loneliness,” her essays and stories have been gathered into a collection.

The Bees by Laline Paull is what Room author Emma Donoghue calls a “heart-pounding novel” and a “wild ride” about an ancient culture with a strong caste system in which only the queen can breed. Flora 717, a member of the lowest caste, is caught between personal dreams and society’s demands when she dares to challenge the queen’s wishes.

Unique and amusing, Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments follows the back-and-forth emails between two female co-workers who like to dish on their relationships — and the company’s Internet security officer who finds himself falling for one of the women based only on her private exchanges.

The Silver Linings Playbook author Matthew Quick returns with the story of the 38-year-old Bartholomew, who struggles to be on his own after his mother’s death. In the witty book, titled The Good Luck of Right Now, Bartholomew finds a letter from Richard Gere among his mother’s things, and he sets out to find himself as he writes letter after letter to the actor.

Chelsea Handler’s back with another book, Uganda Be Kidding Me, this time sharing her hilarious, outrageous stories from traveling the world. Wherever Chelsea Handler travels, one thing is certain: she always ends up in the land of the ridiculous. Now, in this uproarious collection, she sneaks her sharp wit through airport security and delivers her most absurd and hilarious stories ever. Complete with answers to the most frequently asked traveler’s questions, hot travel trips, and travel etiquette, none of which should be believed, this book has Chelsea taking on the world, one laugh-out-loud incident at a time.

The Fault in Our Stars author John Green calls We Were Liars by E. Lockhart “thrilling, beautiful, and blisteringly smart.” In it, there’s a group of four friends called The Liars, and one of them, a girl named Cady, is part of a distinguished, mysterious family.

Sharp and witty, Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette follows a young girl, Bee, as she pieces together emails, documents, and secret correspondence to find her mother, Bernadette, an agoraphobic architect who goes missing prior to a family trip to Antarctica.

Charming and nostalgic, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows brings together letters and storylines from the 1940s to tell the tale of a quirky society against the backdrop of a dark war.

For a fun mix of nostalgia and romance, dive into The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, which follows a 1922 It girl and her chaperone, Cora, as they leave Wichita, KS, and take on Manhattan, NY. Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s, ’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers, and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.

For a dose of sharp writing and juicy celebrity culture, dive into Christine Sneed’s debut novel, Little Known Facts, told from several points of view. Set around an A-list Hollywood actor and his family, the book looks at the highs and lows of fame and how it affects relationships.

Just in time for wedding season, you can pick up a copy of Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close, a story about three 20-something friends who find themselves going to wedding after wedding, struggling to figure out their own lives.