What to read on a rainy day
We'll be honest—instead of all the work we had piled up today, be it taking or attending classes, editing articles, or reporting news, all we at The Daily Star wanted to do was curl up with a good book, wrap ourselves with blankets and sink into some good old, comforting storytelling.
What did we want to read?
THE RAILWAY CHILDREN (1906)
Edith Nesbit
"It is, simply put, just a green flag of a story", Aaqib Hasib, sub editor of Star Arts & Entertainment, tells us. Nesbit's classic novel tells the story of a family—three children and their mother—who are forced to move from London to the countryside, in a simple house near the railway, because their father is taken away on wrongful charges of espionage. Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis adjust to life around the railway, help prevent a train disaster, shelter a Russian exile and, most importantly, write through their daily life a cosy, wholesome tale of sibling support systems. It is written in simple, fun language. It is, above all, a family love story.
PARTHIB (1994)
Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay
"Parthib is monsoon and all the feelings associated with it captured eloquently in the pages of a book. It introduces you to the grey areas of human behaviour while taking you through the ups and downs of a rainy day", DS Books contributor Oyessorzo Chowdhury says. "None of the characters in the novel are extraordinary. They are all people like you and the ones you come across on a daily basis. You will see yourself pining for the characters and be mesmerised by how ridiculously they act, only to realise later that you would do the same."
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER (1999)
Stephen Chbosky
"A bittersweet story laced with nostalgia and memories", contributor Fatin Hamama Nur says. Chbosky's novel, adapted to much fame by Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, gives us the letter of Charlie and his life through highschool. Charlie reveals for us his world of adolescent confusion and excitement, as he and his group find friends, fall in love, experience music, and experience also the magic of The Rocky Horror Show. More importantly, it is a cutting story of mental health and trauma, abuse, and pain. "The feelings intensify even more when I re-read it on a rainy day", Fatin says.
WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE (1962)
Shirley Jackson
For the past six years, 18-year-old Merricat Blackwood has been the only bridge connecting her family—her sister Constance and her uncle Julian—to the world outside their large house and expansive grounds. Their community has shunned them ever since Merricat's family were poisoned to death by arsenic, a crime for which Constance was charged and acquitted. The magic Constance practices is the least of the threats brewing between the family and a simmering, angry townsfolk.
"I have always found a rainy day to set the mood for gothic fiction", DS Books contributor Rasha Jameel says. "Shirley Jackson's novel checks all the boxes for a provocative and haunting rainy day read, with themes that heavily revolve around agoraphobia and seclusion, which I equate to the feeling of staying huddled together indoors during the monsoons. There's a captivating mystery at the heart of the story with a slightly supernatural element to it. Nothing like a rainy day to transport you to the fictional small-town setting of the novel. It's the perfect rainy day read for anyone invested in the dark academia subculture".
WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1847)
Emily Bronte
Along the same vein, contributor Shehrin Hossain says, "A rainy day spent indoors is like inhabiting a small, sad, secret realm—like the one Cathy and Heathcliff shared, suspended forever in lost childhood, shrouded in perpetual yearning. The rain makes me feel like that a lot, makes me miss something I can't quite place."
"And there are the atmospheric details of course. The sound of the wind coming off the moors—the fire crackling in the grate—Nelly knitting in the light of the fire—the wash of white noise enveloping everything as a jilted Heathcliff rides away into the night."
TARANATH TANTRIK (1940)
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay & Taradas Bandyopadhyay
In a collection of supernatural short tales, first author Bibhutibhushan and then his son, narrates the mystical adventures of the eponymous Taranath Tantrik. An astrologer by profession, he travels around the terrains of West Bengal to learn the art of occult from practitioners of the dark arts and exorcises evil spirits.
The grim occultist undertones of the stories in the collection amplifies the ambience of a rainy day. "Just before it is about to rain, the overcast skies, the whistling winds against rumbling windows against their panes is the best backdrop for a story from the Taranath Tantrik Shomogro.
WE WERE LIARS (2014)
ER Lockhart
"It was the last time that a book made me bawl out loud while reading", DS Books editor Sarah Anjum Bari recalls. ER Lockhart's tense, tearful novel tells the story of the Sinclair family—cousins Cadence, Mirren, Johnny, and their friend Gat who spend summers together with their family at their grandfather's private beach. In the summer in which the book unfolds, Cadence is trying to piece back the memories she lost after an accident. The truth behind the incident—which is excruciating when revealed at the novel's climax—lurks beneath the King Lear-like dynamics controlling the Sinclair patriarch's dynamics with his daughters, mothers to the teengers. It is the kids' denial of their parents' greed and elitism, their zest for revolution and love for one another, that gives the novel its heart.