The Shelf

The Shelf

THE SHELF / 5 literary characters you might run into at a biye bari this winter

As the breeze takes on its familiar chill and exams finally come to an end, my favourite season quietly takes over the city. It is not the long vacation, nor the crisp winter air. It is wedding season. All I want from this stretch of the year is a fresh stack of invitations, each promising a feast for the senses and, of course, a plate of biryani.

1w ago

THE SHELF / 5 books that portray the ecological devastation of 1971

The ecological impact of the 1971 War of Liberation is not as well documented as some of the other, spectacularised aspects of war.

2w ago

THE SHELF / 5 books to read as a performative male

If you have ever carried a tote bag to a coffee shop solely to place it on the table next to a freshly prepared matcha latte, you already know the assignment. Reading, in the modern era, isn’t really about “reading” or enjoying a story—it is about signaling. It is about letting the person seated at the next table know that while you could be doomscrolling TikTok, you choose to instead engage with a higher form of brain simulation.

3w ago

THE SHELF / 5 books on women’s everyday terror to read this Halloween: The horror that persists

The violence is domestic, institutional, and often unnamed—carried out by people who look nothing like monsters.

2m ago

THE SHELF / 8 books to read if you’re fascinated by the louvre heist

These stories prove one thing: art theft never goes out of fashion.

2m ago

THE SHELF / 3 Partition stories for young readers

Here are three books on Partition that can be added to not only your child's but your own reading list.

2m ago

THE SHELF / 5 books to rescue you from brainrot

Here is a list of 5 books to nurse your brain back to health.

2m ago

THE SHELF / Navigating the 2025 Booker Prize shortlist

This year’s Booker Prize will be announced on November 10 in a ceremony that will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 and livestreamed on Booker Prize’s social channels.

2m ago

6 books that bring Bangladesh to life for diaspora teens

For teenagers growing up far from Bangladesh, the country can often feel like a patchwork of family anecdotes, festival memories, and half-understood news headlines. Books, however, have the power to fill in the gaps–to offer voices and histories that make the abstract appear real. The following

2m ago

7 lyrical fantasy books: Where prose becomes poetry

These are books that invite you to pause over a line, to linger in a paragraph, to lose yourself not in spectacle but in rhythm

2m ago

To flee, to remember

Every year, on June 20, World Refugee Day calls on us to remember and hold in our hearts the millions displaced by conflict, persecution, and political upheaval around the world.

6m ago

4 Bangla books with tender yet complex father figures

These paternal characters are not easy to love, nor can they love faultlessly themselves. Yet it is precisely this contradiction—their awkward tenderness, silent failures, and undeniable devotion—that makes them so achingly human

6m ago

5 books my 5-year-old can’t get enough of

In a world where smart TVs, touchscreen tablets, and mobiles are always within reach, I feel grateful that my daughter, who is almost five and a half, often brings me books and asks me to read them to her for a quick, fun storytime

7m ago

Book recommendations for different personality types

This year’s World Book Day theme, “Read Your Way,” invites readers to embrace their own paths, rhythms, and preferences regarding books

8m ago

Your guide to feminist resistance

This International Women’s Day, Star Books and Literature brings to you a list of five books that delve into the history of feminist movements and feminist resistance.

9m ago

Books about female rage

With International Women’s Day being celebrated across the world tomorrow, we here at Star Books and Literature decided to take a moment to read and reflect on the many expressions of female rage in both ancient and contemporary literature

9m ago

5 books to read while you’re sick

With cold waves sweeping the country, many of us have already succumbed to illnesses. For this list, we’ve compiled 5 books you could curl up with while on a sickbed

11m ago

Storytelling, struggles, and reimagining identity

Patriarchy would have you believe that women are inherently complicated—creatures who must be defined, boxed in, or reduced to stereotypes.

1y ago