India, July 23 -- How does it feel to call a hill station your home rather than a weekend getaway, a summer hideout, or a honeymoon destination? Read Janhavi Prasada's Nainital through Memory, Stories and History to find out. She writes with affection and insight about her experience of growing up in this charming town in the Kumaon Hills, which is often reduced to an Instagram-friendly spot where holidaymakers chomp on instant noodles and swig cups of steaming hot chai. There is more to Nainital in the archives, and in the hearts and minds of its inhabitants.

This book is for the curious traveller, who wants to know what this landscape was like before it turned into a must-visit on tourist itineraries. The prose lights up with the warm ...