FIVE BOOKS TO CHECK OUT WHILE IN HOME QUARANTINE

Safely tucked at home will be the reality for almost all of us in the next coming days. Chances are, you are wondering how to pass all that time productively. We scoured five of the best books around to keep you company, first to entertain you and ultimately help you learn something not only about yourself but how you can make the next coming days better.

The soft-spoken Marie Kondo has been everywhere (including the bestselling list) and a Netflix show cemented her status as the decluttering queen. If there’s anyone more qualified to teach about the concept of discipline and cleanliness, it’s the Japanese. Had you read of the football players who cleaned their locker rooms before they left even though they lost the game? That’s how considerate and disciplined they are. In this book, Kondo offers answers to the question “Why I Can’t Keep my house in order?” and breaks down the knowledge of why “Tidying by category works like magic.” She also explained how you could use the concept of “Storing your things to make your life shine” and overall how “The magic of tidying dramatically transforms your life.”

With so much time at home, what better way than getting rid of things that don’t spark joy and replace them with something that truly brings you happiness.

There’s no way you could have missed hearing about this. But we are sure many of you had failed to grab a copy and to read what it’s all about. Jokha does not grant a lot of local interviews but based on what we sourced, and many real-life events had inspired several things in the book. If you are in the mood of discovering the secrets of three fictional Omani women and the challenges they have to face given the time period they are in, look no farther than this book and maybe, just maybe like us, you will realise that some issues are universal and this collective experience makes us all human.

This book didn’t receive much fanfare other than being shortlisted in the 2017 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Ismail Fahd Ismail is considered as the founder of the Kuwaiti novel, and in this book, he tells the story of Um Qasem who has to live through the longest war of the 20th century — the Iran — Iraq war. The protagonist was evacuated from her Iraqi hometown with her extended family, but she sneaks back in with her donkey, Good Omen. She was believed to have been responsible for extending a lifeline to the dying plantations crawling right along the Shatt al-arab River.

One of Amazon’s bestsellers, “If Animals Kissed Goodnight” imagines the unique world of the animal kingdom if they were allowed to showcase human affection. For parents spending a long time with their children, this is a great way not only to spark the love for reading but also build up and extend their imagination. A great pick to also help develop their passion for animals and other vulnerable species.