Bookish

Author: Devdutt Pattanaik
Publisher: Penguin India and Zubaan Books
Year: 2014
ISBN: 9789383074846
Rating:
Click for latest prices

Devdutt Pattanaik’s latest book, Shikhandi and Other Tales They Don’t Tell You is a collection of 30 stories about gender and sexual identity – Shikhandi, who was born a woman but raised as a man, Krishna, who became a woman for one day to become wife to a doomed man, Chudala who became a man so that her husband would accept her as a teacher, and more.

Going with the recent wave of adaptations, the year 2014 witnessed two bestseller love stories coming alive. While Bollywood adapted 2 States by Chetan Bhagat, Hollywood made The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Each book featured a young couple whose love was threatened by factors outside their control. The Indian couple suffered from the age-old problem facing Indian couples – parents who don’t ‘accept’ their love. The American couple faced a different, life-threatening challenge – cancer.

Author: Robert Galbraith
Publisher: Hachette India
Year: 2014
ISBN: 9781408704035
Rating:
Click for latest prices

The second Cormoran Strike novel gets its writer an ‘Exceeds Expectations’ O.W.L. Deftly plotted, intricately detailed and with much better character development than its predecessor, The Silkworm is a must-read in the best traditions of British detective fiction.

Cormoran Strike is doing a leetle better than the last time we met him. He now has a home of his own, so his office no longer doubles as a bedroom. He seems to have clients too – at least, enough of them that he can afford to kick out a well-paying but rude one out of his office, mere pages into the novel.

He came, he namaste-ed, he conquered. Narendra Modi is all set to become the first Indian Prime Minister in 30 years who need not dance to the tune of petulant allies, nor be controlled by ‘remote’ by a power-behind-the-throne. All Indians, whether they voted for him or not, have high expectations  from our new PM. Will his 56-inch-chest thumping translate into practical benefits for all Indians, vikas and parivartan all around, and India Shining once more? Are happy days really here again? Only one thing is sure: 5 years later, there can be no excuses for failure. We wish our new PM all the best. Meanwhile, has the Gandhi family been washed away by the Modi wave? Is this (fingers crossed!) the end of dynastic politics in India? Sadly, if these news articles are to be believed, far from it. Sigh. Some things never change. As for a certain Gandhi-topi-ed gentleman… AAP ka kya hoga, janabeyaali, AAP ka kya hoga? Care to know more about Modi? Try this book. For more election-related tomes, take a look at these.  

Is this YOUR story? It certainly is ours! No, seriously. How many of you just CAN’T go to sleep unless you read for a while? And how often do you miss out on sleep because you want to read ‘just one more page’? When you’ve got your hands on a great little page-turner, does the world around you just fade out? Do you browse while eating, in buses and autos, in the loo (admit it!) and everywhere else you possibly can? Is late-night reading your addiction of choice? Tell us!

Gabriel Garcia Marquez – ‘Gabo’ as he was affectionately known by his Latin American fans – was one of the most popular as well as critically praised authors that the world has seen. He popularized the style called magic realism – in which some rules of the real world are cast aside while the rest of the story portrays a realistic scenario. Here are some of his most acclaimed works.

Everyone and his dog seem to be talking about the elections. This time we also have a soap-opera unfolding around the timely (or ill-timed, depending on which side of the political divide you’re on!) release of a book that allegedly supports all those ‘remote-control’ theories. Take a look at the books that are making waves this election season. The Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjaya Baru: No introduction necessary. The book alleges that Singh was not entirely in control of his cabinet, nor of the PMO. Instead, important decisions were taken by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi. “There cannot be two centres of power. That creates confusion. I have to accept that the party president is the centre of power. The government is answerable to the party”, Manmohan Singh is alleged to have told the author, who was his media advisor and says that he wrote the book to gather ‘empathy’ for the beleaguered PM. The timing of the book launch couldn’t have been more ooportune; it has become a talking point, a sensation, and has already sold out on Flipkart. Buy the book.     Centrestage: Inside the Narendra Modi model of Governance by Uday Mahurkar: Is the much-touted ‘Gujarat…

Narendra Modi a.k.a Namo vows to fight for ‘The Hindus’ (not the community, Wendy’s book) In a fit of secularism, Narendra Modi has decided to gift copies of Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History free of cost to colleges and universities in the country. ‘Let us be open-minded and show tolerance, something that I have always strongly believed in,’ his press office said in a statement. The move seems to be designed to appeal to the YA vote bank. Youngsters, however, seem to be skeptical. ‘Why would we read a heavy, academic book which we had never even heard of before the controversy? We only read about Hinduism when it is written in a snappy, user-friendly manner, like Amish Tripathi’s chillum-smoking, romantic Shiva!’ Dr.Doniger and her publisher have publicly expressed their gratitude – some say, because they have no choice. ‘But this is obviously a plot. If the book is freely available, nobody will want to buy it, ’ said a disgruntled insider. Rahul Gandhi releases excerpts from his autobiography We have recently been informed that Rahul Gandhi is hard at work on his autobiography. Excerpts: “Our party has empowered people in the freedom movement, farmers in the green…

Author: Shereen El Feki
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2013
ISBN: 9780099526384
Rating:
Click for latest prices

This book was an easy read. The author has placed her observations and data in a very reader-friendly format. Every chapter starts with a pithy statement by her Egyptian grandmother. For example: “I am not a prostitute, and my husband isn’t giving me money, so where am I supposed to find the cash?”