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Coming of age
Rumina Sethi
Women’s Studies in India—A Reader
Ed. Mary E. John. Penguin. Pages 657. Rs 599.
THE
focus of this book is women’s studies movement rather than the
women’s movement. In many ways, this anthology is akin to Tharu and
Lalitha’s two volume collection of women’s writings in India, and
complements it, except that the editor has put together excerpts from
official documents and reports, research papers and commentaries, on
issues relating to women rather than creative writing issuing from
women.
Ways
to cope with a mean state
Ash Narain Roy
Towards Improving Governance
Ed. S. K Agarwal. Academic Foundation
Pages 266. Rs 895.
Alexander
Pope’s dictum that "for forms of government let fools contest,
whatever is best administered is the best" aptly sums up what the
current discourse on good governance is all about.
Science
of day after tomorrow
Kuldip Dhiman
Physics of the Impossible
by Michio Kaku.
Allen Lane, Penguin Books. Pages 330. £8.
COULD
we one day develop weapons that could shatter an entire planet to
smithereens? Could we make people and objects invisible? Could we design
machines that would generate their own energy? Is it possible to launch
spaceships that travel faster than light?
Scarred
by blasts
Kanwalpreet
187 Lives—A Remembrance
by The Indian Express Team.
HarperCollins. Pages 229. Rs 395.
Terrorists
aim to shake the foundation of countries and their governments, but
unfortunately grievously injure innocent people. The latter are caught
unawares while going about their business of living.
Life’s
varied hues
Priyanka Singh
The Painter of Shanghai
by Jennifer Cody Epstein.
Penguin. Pages 486. Rs 450.
JENNIFER
Cody has worked as a journalist in Asia and her knowledge and grasp on
its cultural psyche is immaculate. She has done the groundwork rather
well, even though the narrative doesn’t quite hold up at places.
A
pastoral tale
Aditi Garg
Bandicoots in the Moonlight
by Avijit Ghosh.
Penguin Books. Pages 237. Rs 250.
THE
growing up years of any person have such a deep impact on them that they
can scarcely ever outgrow its effects. The environment markedly affects
the basic perceptions about various aspects of life and their
priorities. To understand why people behave the way they do, a look into
their formative years can disclose a lot more than just childhood
memories.
‘My work is literature’
Estelle Shirbon
Publishing a novel at 19 and selling more than 400,000 copies of it ought to be enough to be taken seriously as a writer, but not if you are young, French, of Algerian origin and living in a poor suburb of Paris
Faiza
Guene, now 23, has just published her third novel and she is gratified
to see reviews of it in the literary pages of the newspapers. It means
she is slowly breaking down barriers.
The
woman behind Hardy’s Tess
Augusta Bugler, a Dorset
resident, was the woman who inspired Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the
d’Urbervilles in 1888, reveals her daughter Norrie Woodhall. According
to Norrie, the famous author used to spy on Augusta when she was just 18
years old, milking a cow on her grandfather’s farm in Dorset in 1888.
SHORT TAKES
Back to Omen
Randeep Wadehra
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