What to read in 2019? Options galore

An interesting line-up awaits bibliophiles this year -memoirs by Mithali Raj and Yashwant Sinha, the last work of Kuldip Nayar and books by Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Sachin Pilot and Raghuram Rajan among others.

While Bloomsbury will publish Sinha's "Relentless", Penguin Random House will bring out Raj's memoir "Unguarded". Nayar finished "On Leaders and Icons: From Jinnah to Modi" weeks before he passed away on August 23, 2018 and it will be published by Speaking Tiger.

Other autobiographies include Prashant Bhushan's "My Life in Movements" (Rupa) and Lisa Ray's "Close to the Bone" (HarperCollins India). Pilot's book, co-written with Pratishtha Singh, is titled "Rooted" (Penguin).

Films, music and the entertainment and lifestyle industry will also be amply represented.

Lyricist Sameer pens down his life in Bollywood through some of his most famous songs in "Life of a Songster" with filmmaker Shuja Ali (Rupa). Designer Manish Malhotra chronicles his journey so does Masaba Gupta (both Rupa).

Other books on films include those by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra (Rupa) and Deepti Naval (Aleph); and biographies of composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Danny Denzongpa (both Rupa), Gulshan Grover and Sridevi (both Penguin); and "Reel India: Cinema and the Mofussil" (Hachette) by Namrata Joshi; "The Three Khans" by Kaveree Bamzai (Westland).

Sports biographies include that of Sanath Jayasurya (Rupa) and Dutee Chand's (Westland); "The Nine Waves" by Mihir Bose (Aleph); "The Miracle Men" by Nikhil Naz; and an account by Viswanathan Anand with Susan Ninan (both Hachette).

Penguin's titles include "Gun Island" by Amitav Ghosh; Pico Iyer's "Autumn Light"; Ruchir Sharma's "Democracy on the Road"; Arundhati Roy's collected non-fiction "My Seditious Heart"; "Past Present: India in the Geopolitics of Asia" by ex-NSA Shivshankar Menon; "Tell it on the Mountain" by Nirupama Rao; and SY Quraishi's "The Great March of Democracy".

HarperCollins will release books like "The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind" by Raghuram Rajan; "Resurgent India" by Bimal Jalan; "All Against All" by former foreign secretary S Jaishankar; "The Shape of Things to Come" by Markanday Katju; and "Every Vote Counts: The Story of India's Elections" by Navin Chawla. It will also publish "The Forest of Enchantments" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and "Superior: The Fatal Return of Race Science" by Angela Saini.

Oxford's will publish Manmohan Singh's "Changing India" and books by Indira Jaising, Ashis Nandy and Upinder Singh among others.

Rupa Books' list includes "Holding to Account" by ex CAG Vinod Rai; a biography of former PM Chandrashekhar by Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh; and books by Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Subramanian Swamy.

Aleph will publish "Which of Us Are Aryans?" by Romila Thapar, Michael Witzel, Jaya Menon, Razib Khan and Kai Friese; "The Prospect of Miracles" by Cyrus Mistry and "Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Highest Mountains on Earth" by Stephen Alter.

Some titles of Hachette are "The Hachette Anthology of South-Asian Speculative Fiction", edited by Tarun Saint; "History of Sufism in India" by Rana Safvi; "To Kill the Truth" by Sam Bourne; and "King of Scars" by Leigh Bardugo.

Pan Macmillan will publish biographies of MA Jinnah (Yasser Latif Hamdani) and Umar Khalid (Adi Prakash) besides books on Flipkart's story (Mihir Dalal), history of circus in India (Anirban Ghosh), and the Deoliwallahs (Joy Ma, Dilip D'Souza) and a 10th anniversary edition of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's "The Palace of Illusions".

Speaking Tiger's list includes "Classic Indian Journeys", edited by Mark Tully; Nayantara Sahgal's "The Fate of Butterflies"; "The Assassination of Indira Gandhi: Collected Stories" by Upamanyu Chatterjee; and a book of short stories by famed vocalist Shubha Mudgal.

Palimpsest will bring out veteran history writer Rob Walters' "The South Asian Stars of Oxford".

Amaryllis will publish the memoirs of Niddhi Chaphekar, the flight attendant who became the tragic face of the Brussels terror attack, and celebrated hairstylist Shivarama Bhandary; and also "The Kitchens of the Prime Ministers of India" by Purabi Sridhar and Sanghita Singh.

Bloomsbury will bring out Elizabeth Gilbert's next novel "City of Girls", William Dalrymple's account of East India Company's takeover of India "The Anarchy" besides five JK Rowling books in seven Indian languages and Batman series DC Comics novels for children.

Juggernaut's list includes Poomani's "Heat"; Samhita Arni's "The Prince"; Pankaj Mishra's "How Not to be a Man"; Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee's "What Do Economists Do"; Aditya Ghosh's "Building Companies that Work"; Falguni Nayar's book on start-up and "Ultimate Food Rules" by Rujuta Diwekar.

Westland has "Bombay Balchao" by Jane Borges; "Raavan" by Amish; Devdutt Pattanaik's "Aranyaka"; Rujuta Diwekar's "Notes for Healthy Kids"; Dhirendra Jha's "The Akharas of Banaras" and books by Surjit S Bhalla and Pavan K Varma.

Simon and Schuster's titles include "I Have Become the Tide" by Githa Hariharan; "Life Lessons from the China Dragon" by Chandrahas Choudhury; and "Upon a Burning Throne" by Ashok Banker.

Niyogi Books will come out with "Beyond the Himalayas: Journeying through the Silk Route", a book by director Goutam Ghose who was part of a Central Asian expedition in 1994; "I, Anupam" by Nabaneeta Dev Sen; and books on Delhi's top 10 Baolis, design movement in Santiniketan and Indian churches.