Mahita Gajanan

Mahita Gajanan is an editor at TIME. She covers culture.

Recent Articles

The 14 Best Books of 2025 So Far

From Amy Griffin's The Tell to Katie Kitamura's Audition, these are the best fiction and nonfiction books of the year so far.

By Andrew R. Chow , Lucy Feldman , Annabel Gutterman , Megan McCluskey , Meg Zukin , Mahita Gajanan , Judy Berman , Erin McMullen , Rachel Sonis and Olivia B. Waxman

Shah Rukh Khan on Making Met Gala Debut

Shah Rukh Khan spoke with TIME about attending the 2025 Met Gala and his hopes for the future of movies.

By Mahita Gajanan

The Most

Nothing causes a stir quite like a woman who veers from her expected place. Jessica Anthony’s fourth novel, The Most, takes place over a tense, unusually warm November day in 1957, when housewife and mother...

By Mahita Gajanan

Rejection

Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection is, as the title suggests, gutting and tough to endure. Throughout a collection of connected stories, Rejection introduces pathetic, sad, and deeply lonely characters who try and fail to find connection in...

By Mahita Gajanan

Didion and Babitz

Literary legends Joan Didion and Eve Babitz are for some the ultimate avatars of cool women writers. They were also, it turns out, deeply intertwined. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, their distinct styles...

By Mahita Gajanan

Dinner for Vampires

Bethany Joy Lenz’s sharp memoir traces how she became involved with a cultish group called the Big House Family, which took advantage of her for 10 years. Lenz, known for starring on the 2003-2012 drama...

By Mahita Gajanan

Most Haunting Moments on 'Love Is Blind'

From the wine-drinking dog in Season 1 to a post-breakup jet ski ride in Season 6

By Eliza Berman , Mahita Gajanan , Meg Zukin , Rachel Sonis , Judy Berman and Cady Lang

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

In Sangu Mandanna’s 2022 cozy witch romance, Mika Moon is used to hiding her magic. Better to stay unseen so her powers don’t attract attention. It’s easy to pretend she’s normal so she can fit...

By Mahita Gajanan

Xeni

In the 2019 stand-alone second novel in Rebekah Weatherspoon’s Loose Ends trilogy, Xeni Everly-Wilkins is prepared to take care of her late Aunt Sable’s estate in upstate New York, as complicated and emotional as it...

By Mahita Gajanan

The Vibrant Years

Many men populate Sonali Dev’s 2022 contemporary romantic comedy, The Vibrant Years, but its emotional core lies between three generations of women in the Desai family. There’s the stereotype-defying Bindu, who has just used a...

By Mahita Gajanan

Dating Dr. Dil

Kareena Mann is your classic eldest daughter, taking care of everything and everyone. She yearns for a good love story but spends most of her time restoring her late mother’s classic car. The morning of...

By Mahita Gajanan

The Duke Who Didn’t

Victorian-era sauce maker Chloe Fong lives for her lists. For her, there’s nothing more satisfying than organizing life into daily tasks and crossing them off one by one. And ahead of the Wedgeford Trials, an...

By Mahita Gajanan

See Iconic TV Casts Reunite at the Emmys

At the 75th Emmy Awards, casts from popular TV shows reunited, including Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Grey's Anatomy, Martin, and more.

By Mahita Gajanan and Olivia B. Waxman

Bob Barker, Iconic Host of 'The Price Is Right,' Dies

The animal rights activist hosted the popular game show for more than three decades

By Mahita Gajanan

The Legacy of Sinéad O'Connor on SNL

The singer, who has died at 56, is remembered for her legacy as a protest artist, perhaps best exemplified by a 1992 Saturday Night Live performance that went off-script.

By Mahita Gajanan

Cate Blanchett Calls for Hope in Times of Uncertainty at TIME Women of the Year Gala

Cate Blanchett dazzled at TIME’s second annual Women of the Year event, held in Los Angeles on Wednesday to honor a range of women who have made deep impacts in their work. The actor, who...

By Mahita Gajanan

Megan Rapinoe Toasts Transgender Community at TIME’s Women of the Year Gala

The athlete spoke about how transgender people should not be "left behind," as their rights in the U.S. are currently under threat.

By Mahita Gajanan / Los Angeles

TIME Women of the Year Gala 2023: Biggest Moments

Guests included Cate Blanchett, Angela Bassett and Megan Rapinoe

By Mahita Gajanan

Angela Bassett Knows Her Value

Angela Bassett, fresh out of grad school in the ’80s, intended to be a star. When she got an agent—a big deal for any actor early in their career—the man she was dating at the...

By Mahita Gajanan

David Hyde Pierce on Playing Paul Child in Julia and Whether He'd Ever Return to Frasier

On playing the husband of famed TV chef and cookbook author Julia Child on HBO Max's Julia

By Mahita Gajanan
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