Title Tattle

My first book is Superpower? by Raghav Bahl. The second is Shah Commission Report by my old friend and parliamentary colleague,the 87-year-old Era Sezhiyan. He has added a subtitle Lost and Regained. The third book I wish to commend is Bangladesh Liberation War: Myths and Facts by B.Z. Khasru.

L.K. advani,BJP leader

I have been a bit behind the times this year,falling for a book that was first published in 2001,The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I approached it with some suspicion who wants to read a book everyone else has been raving about for years? but was won over by its brilliant depiction of the horrors of extended family life,which made the American story familiar and universal. Now I am in the middle of Franzens Freedom,which is similarly antsy.

Patrick French,writer

I was very taken with Michael Hofmanns superlative translation of the German poet Gunter Eichs verses in Angina Days. Eichs poetry is bleak and yet sensuous and resilient,like something industrial but tactile a tangle of wire with its own beauty. The translations led me to reread Hofmanns own excellent poetry in his Selected Poems. Edwin Frank,the editor of NYRB Classics,gifted me a few books from his list when I was in New York. Among them is the great Japanese novelist Yasushi Inoues novel Tun-Huang. Japanese historical fiction is poetic and precise,very different from its Anglophone counterpart. Ive also begun reading,with surprise and real pleasure,Ivan Vladislavics terrific,off-kilter portrait of his traumatised hometown,Johannesburg,Portrait with Keys.

Amit Chaudhuri,writer

The book I enjoyed the most was Orhan Pamuks My Name is Red. I am yet to see a novelist who can combine wit and sobriety like he does. The book unites the past and the present and marches through a world of exquisite art. It has amazing imagery,great quality and subtle characteristics.

M. Veerappa Moily,

Union law minister

The most enjoyable book I read this year is one I am still in the process of finishing. Titled After Tamerlane: The Rise & Fall of Global Empires,1400-2000,this is a history book I can only call magnificent. Its author,John Darwin,has a commanding grasp of politics,culture and economics,and it is almost like listening to a magician with a globe of the world in his hands,who spins it around,showing you simultaneous images from around the world at a particular period of time,explaining how they all connect. Kraken by China Mieville is another kettle of fish or squid. This is Mieville at his most authoritative,playing brutally with ideas of time,death,memory and who are the people who want to really destroy the world. Of Indian titles,I would like to mention Siddharth Chowdhurys Day Scholar,a novel full of pyrotechnics,expletives,blood and sex. And yet the book is touching for precisely the opposite reasons,for its deliberations and delineations of the quiet characters that actually make decisions the vulnerabilities behind the overblown facades.

Omair Ahmad,writer

This year,my book is Oblivion: A Memoir by Hector Abad,the heartbreaking story of his fathers life and murder,violence and injustice in Colombia. Its amazing that we dont have more of Abads beautiful writing in English. Curfewed Nights by Basharat Peer is a reminder why it is important for us to write our own stories rather than let foreigners troop in and write the histories of the subcontinent its a brave and important book. Republican Gomorrah by Max Blumenthal rounds up my best books of the year,a chilling look at the heart of Americas right wing movement.

Fatima Bhutto,writer

I have a list of three. One is Lustrum by Robert Harris. Set around 58 BC,it is a fictionalised account of the politics in ancient Rome. It is compelling,has great political insights and is a thrilling read. I also enjoyed Gandhi & Churchill by Arthur Herman. It is a parallel biography of two contemporaries charismatic leaders and rivals. It shed light on their lives,and brought me closer to understanding them. I also liked An Indian Summer by Alex von Tunzelmann. Set during Partition,with the central characters being Jawaharlal Nehru,Lord Mountbatten and Edwina Mountbatten,once again,its a book that gave me an insight into that period.

Aamir Khan,actor

I love visual books. Last week I was in Paris to attend a group show at the Louvre Carrousel Gallery and was happily surprised see the retro of one of my favourite artists,the late Arman,at the Pompidou. I picked up his book Arman where he passionately writes about his tactile violent processes of first destroying or burning objects like chairs or musical instruments and then coating them with resin or freezing them in concrete to immortalise them. He is in love with everyday objects,not beautiful ones but those in the process of decay,and his art seeks to freeze that decay. As a poverty-stricken child,he fell in love with objects his family could never possess. The book helps to unravel the layers of his mind.

Arpana Caur,artist

I read The Audacity of Hope before Barack Obama was to address Parliament,and enjoyed it immensely.

Meira Kumar,Lok Sabha speaker

I re-read some books on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. I wanted to see the difference between a non-glamorous but solid politician like Patel and others like Jawaharlal Nehru who have been glamourised a great deal. I read The Transfer of Power in India and The Integration of the Indian States by V.P. Menon,My Reminiscences of Sardar Patel by V. Shankar and Patel: A Life by Rajmohan Gandhi. I also read Bob Woodwards Obamas Wars and am into Tony Blairs memoir,A Journey.

Arun Jaitley,BJP leader

I am reading Event,Metaphor,Memory: Chauri Chaura 1922-1992 by Shahid Amin. It is a solid piece of scholarship told with a strong sense of the narrative.

Anusha Rizvi,filmmaker

Here are my five books. Maos Last Dancer by Li Cunxin is an unputdownable autobiography of a Chinese village boy who,through twists of fate,is trained as a ballet dancer at a Beijing academy patronised by Mao Zedongs wife Jiang Qing. His intellectual curiosity and drive see him persevere through years of rigorous training as well as a brutally repressive pre-reforms China,leading to a stint in America,where he creates an international furore by becoming a political defector. Another book is Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne. It is a biography of the charismatic Quanah Parker,the half-white last chief of the Commanches,the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. Christopher McDougalls Born to Run is about the fascinating world of a reclusive Mexican tribe,the Tarahumara,who run for pleasure and as a way of life,being coaxed to participate in the modern subculture of multi-hundred km ultramarathons,in which they run in shoes made from pieces of used tyre rubber,yet dominate the much better equipped,world-famous athletes. Obamas Wars by Bob Woodward is a stunningly well-researched,fly-on-the-wall,insiders view of the first 18 months of the Obama presidency. The complexities of American policymaking can be revealing,particularly from an Indian perspective,since we often raise our eyebrows at what appears to us as American naiveté when it comes to Pakistan and south Asia in general. Im midway through Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. My last book of the year,and what a revelation. Who knew that the violent Mongol hordes were actually secular,abhorred torture and pioneered many innovations that made the modern world? Like paper currency,for instance. Highly readable history.

Baijayant Panda,BJD leader

This was a bumper fiction year for me,and there were two kinds of novels I fell in love with: the haunting,introspective kind,and the exuberant satire. In the first category,I was blown away by Gerbrand Bakkers IMPAC-winning The Twin,Marilynne Robinsons Home,and Joshua Ferriss The Unnamed. In the second category Gary Shteyngarts Super Sad True Love Story was super-laugh-out-loud-good,and for anyone who thinks Indian writing in English is so over,Id point them in the direction of Manu Josephs excellent debut,Serious Men.

Tishani Doshi,writer

I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick over the year. I found it particularly engrossing for it is a new visual medium attempted by the author. It is part graphic novel with interestingly laid-out text.

Vikramaditya Motwane,filmmaker

One of my favourite books was Way to Go by Upamanyu Chatterjee. No one depicts the inherent weirdness of the upper-caste Hindu middle class better than Chatterjee. Amitava Kumars Evidence of Suspicion is a brave and heartfelt account of subalterns caught in the crossfire of the global war on terror. Finally,Jimmy the Terrorist by Omair Ahmad,a deeply personal and moving account of the sense of alienation that Muslims in India have felt in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition. This is old-school storytelling at its best.

Siddharth Chowdhury,writer

Andre Agassis Open left a huge impression on me. It was fascinating to see the human side of an icon. Even though I couldnt follow all the technical details of tennis sprinkled throughout the book,I found it quite an intense read. Agassi comes across as a very emotionally charged person and the book made me want to meet him for a dinner and conversation.

Tabu,actor

I found Alif Laila translated into Urdu by Ratan Nath Sarshar,and first published in 1901 from Naval Kishore Press,Lucknow,the most interesting and delightful read of 2010. I was also lucky to find in the old books market in Karachi the complete works of R.L. Stevenson,which I have just started reading. His stylised prose is a pleasure to read and study.

Musharraf Ali Farooqi,writer

One of the books I enjoyed reading was The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe,Barack Obamas campaign manager. It is about how Obamas campaign was managed,leading to a historic result in 2008. The most important lesson from this book is that,contrary to the perception that it was a hi-tech campaign,it emphasised on door-to-door campaigning,meeting voters personally and seeking their support. Another book was Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang. It is the shocking story of Zhao Ziyang. For trying to usher in liberal politics and for opposing the massacre at Tiananmen Square,he was removed as premier and forced into house arrest for the next 16 years. Eventually he died as a prisoner. The two others books I read on my Kindle is Nomad: From Islam to America by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and God is Back by John Micklethwait.

Ram Madhav,RSS leader

Among the memorable books I read is the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafóns immensely imaginative and enjoyable The Angels Game (2009). So enchanted was I by this book that I went on to read his The Shadow of the Wind (2004). Both books engage in a literary archaeology to uncover the secrets of books and writing. But as mysteries are solved,the fantasies become more enigmatic yet believable at the same time. The writing is unpretentious and ironic,and there is a hint of Mikhail Bulgakovs The Master and Margarita,which is all to the good. I found Manu Josephs Serious Men compelling,both because it is set in Mumbai,and for its portrait of the hypocrisies and pettiness in a scientific establishment. Then Wendy Donigers The Hindus: An Alternative History is a brilliant,scholarly but accessible account of Hinduism. With immense erudition,she presents the plural,contradictory and rich heritage of the Hindus something that Hindu nationalists could learn from but alas will not. Basharat Peers Curfewed Nights is a must-read to understand what the conflict in Kashmir means at the level of everyday life. On a lighter note,I found Keith Richards Life utterly charming. The book is worth reading just for its hilarious opening chapter. It is full of wry,humorous insights into the life of an all-time great of rock and roll.

Gyan Prakash,writer

My book is Amitav Ghoshs Sea of Poppies. It is very well-researched,and I loved it.

Anjolie Ela Menon,artist

When Im writing I typically dont read much unless it explicitly informs my manuscript. Since Im working on one now,I might not read for the next few years. And though my sensibilities change I read a lot of Nabokov,for instance,at 13 but dont anymore I have a proclivity to reread books that have a resonance for me. I try avoiding literary sensations and nonfiction but this year I read a literary sensation and some nonfiction. Before I mention which books I read and reread,I should mention the ones I put down. Admittedly,I am impatient. After all,we will be dead soon. And Marcel Prousts A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu should be read before then. I tried my damnedest to make sense of Roberto Bolanos The Savage Detectives but failed,not once but thrice. I didnt get far into Thackerays Vanity Fair either. I reread Sara Suleris Meatless Days. Its a unique book. I also enjoy rereading J.M. Coetzees The Life and Times of Michael K. for some reason. Like old Michael K,perhaps,I am a masochist. I finally picked up The White Tiger. Nobody can disagree that its a sensation. I found the voice compelling. I should also mention that Lifes Too Short,an anthology of new Pakistan writing,is good fun.

H.M. Naqvi,writer

In Day Scholar,Siddharth Chowdhury gives readers a stark,startling narrative about the caste-influenced politics of a Delhi University hostel. Julie Orringers The Invisible Bridge,set in pre-war,1930s Paris,delighted me with the tension of its epic sweep and the elegant beauty of its prose. It was a terrific year for non-fiction,and I enjoyed the ambition,detail and novelesque storytelling of three books: Rebecca Skloots The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,which deals with scientific ethics and racism; The Warmth of Other Sons by Isabel Wilkerson,which is a gripping narrative of African-American migration in the 1900s,and David Remnicks The Bridge,which explores those aspects of African-American history and politics that made Obamas election possible.

Sonia Faleiro,writer

Gordon Burns book of essays on art and artists titled Sex and Violence,Death and Silence is fascinating. Burns prose is lucid,fat-free and rarely gets caught in unnecessary flourishes; it tells it like it is and his descriptions are well ventilated to allow the reader to generate parallel readings of the work of the artist in question.

Jitish Kallat,artist

Although I have the deepest love for classics,I like to mix it up with what is in to keep myself up to date. This year,I read The Scarlet Pimpernel,which was engrossing. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang,the story of three generations of women before and after the Cultural Revolution,was another great book I read. After watching the movie Sherlock Holmes late last year,I revisited the entire series. Please dont judge me when I confess that I could not escape the Twilight series. It was such a pop-culture phenomenon that I wanted to find out what the big fuss was all about. Just for the record,Im Team Edward because Robert Pattinson rocks. The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson was unputdownable.

Sonam Kapoor,actor