echo By Zafra Usman
“Love from A to Z” By S. K. Ali
“Your resistance to my existence is futile.”
In 384 pages, S. K. Ali brought together the yearning of my oh-so representation-hungry heart; a love story of two expat kids coincidentally meeting at the airport. The cover should tell you that much, but what it does hide under the cover is a beautifully crafted narrative written through the diary entries of Adam and Zayneb (‘A to Z’) as they record the marvels and oddities that dot their chaotically, vibrant lives as migrants, siblings and activists. Adam; recording more marvels, Zayneb; recording more oddities, what happens when the two meet…? A love story of three parts: 1. Adam, 2. Zayneb and 3. Adam & Zayneb together.
“When Dimple Met Rishi” By Sandhya Menon
“She wept for her hardheadedness, and for a world that couldn’t just let her be both, a woman in love and a woman with a career, without flares of guilt and self-doubt seeping in and wreaking havoc.”
When Dimple met Rishi, there was chaos and butterflies, but only in Rishi Patel’s head and heart. After all, he was the only one who knew that she was –quite possibly- his future wife…a slight hurdle in the vigor of Dimple’s determination to overcome every obstacle in between her and the dreams her parents keep brushing off. Sneak a peek into the hearts of two opposites slowly finding a place for each other and themselves in the vibrant and vivacious chapters of ‘When Dimple met Rishi’.
“A Little Something Different” By Sandy Hall
“I sit up straight. She’s talking to me. No one ever talks to me. Oh, how I wish I knew human and could answer her. Instead I nibble on my peanut.”
Yes, this book is written in the perspective of a squirrel…and the Chinese takeout delivery guy and the Starbucks employee and a bench and ten other people, who are not the two main protagonists. A love story told in the perspective of everyone but the love interests.
“The Kiss Quotient” By Helen Hoang
“I don’t want just a night or a week or a month with you. I want you all the time. I like you better than calculus, and math is the only thing that unites the universe.”
To Stella, love is not a constant, it’s a variable she can’t equate, an enigma she can’t seem to solve. Helen Hoang writes a sensual story of love in the face of autism, cultural barriers and finding a home when you didn’t know you were looking for one. “The Kiss Quotient” is a love story with its pages spent fervently breaking barriers; in mental health and culture.
“Meet Cute: Some People are Destined to Meet” By 14 various authors
“What do you think the difference between wanting to be friends and wanting to be more than friends is?”
“Some people you want to get to know and some people you want to know you. I think that’s the difference.”
In the event that you find yourself hampered with the frightful hurdles of a busy day, Meet Cute is bound to whisk you away; a collection of short stories all featuring a cunning protagonist: love. Not only does this delightful anthology feed you bitesize hampers of joy but also gives you a taste of some of Young Adult literature’s most cherished authors; from Nicola Yoon (“The Sun is Also a Star”) to Emery Lord (“When We Collided”).
