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Hard
times
Rumina Sethi
Fugitive Histories.
Githa Hariharan.
Penguin.
Pages 244. Rs. 450.
Fugitive
Histories made me think of
bollywood flick — Delhi 6. In both, the book as well as the
film, one waits expectantly for a tightening of the plot, for details
that strikingly affect one’s imagination and make it impossible to
look away from the screen or the text, as the case may be.
For
the cause of Afghanistan
Humra
Quraishi on what makes Nadeem Aslam an intense and sensitive
writer
Intensity
is the very first thing that
strikes one about Nadeem Aslam — from the way he looks and more so
from the way he talks about himself and other issues. He moves the
listeners with his intense and emotional outpourings and one is just
left wondering about the effect of his written word.
Gender
& norms
Ranjit Powar
Living the Body: Embodiment,
Womanhood and Identity in Contemporary India
by Meenakshi Thapan.
Sage.
Pages 190. Rs 550.
Undoubtedly,
not a work that is merely another attempt to ‘keep up with trends’
or cater to the current passing interests in nonchalant gender issues, Living
the Body is a meaningful sociological research in women’s studies
that builds on previous work focussing on factors that go to fashion
women’s identities and perspectives.
Magnificence
in marble
R. L. Singal
Taj Mahal
by Giles Tillotson.
Penguin.
Pages 200. Rs 399.
Internationally
acclaimed by architects and aesthetes as the most beautiful monument of
love, the Taj Mahal at Agra has almost become a legend in India’s
artistic and cultural history. Built by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jehan,
in memory of his beloved wife Arjumund Banu Begum (widely known as
Mumtaz Mahal) who died in 1631.
Minority’s
insecurities
Kanwalpreet
Damage
by Amrita Kumar.
HarperCollins.
Pages 261. Rs 295.
Amrita
Kumar’s novel, Damage comes
at a time when the nation is rocked by the dilemma of religious and
cultural identity. The writer has highlighted the brutal attacks on
Christians and explored the causes of the ire behind the hate attacks.
Urdu
Book Review
Shades of human
nature
Amar Nath Wadehra
Koiyee Charasaaz hota
by Renu Behl.
Modern Publishing House.
Pages 112. Rs 150.
While
reading this collection of 18 short stories this couplet by Sahir
Ludhianavi comes to one’s mind "Duniya ne tajurbato hawadis ki
shakal mein jo kuchh mujhe diya hai/lauta raha hoon main." (I
am returning to the world what it has given me by way of experiences and
accidents).
Gaiman’s
spooky book wins Newbery
Neil
Gaiman has received the top US prize for children’s literature, The
John Newbery Medal. "I am so wonderfully befuddled," the
best-selling author said after winning the 88th annual Newbery for The
Graveyard Book, a spooky, but (he says) family friendly story about
a boy raised by a vampire, a werewolf and a witch.
Nun’s
expose
A
former catholic nun in Kerala has penned down an autobiographical
account of sexual abuses prevailing in convents besides ill treatment
being meted out by superiors to nuns. The book titled Amen—-
Autobiography of a Nun by former nun Dr. Sister Jesme from the
Catholic Church in Kerala, highlights the little known moral corruption
for public knowledge.
BACK
OF THE BOOK
Human Rights and
Peace — Ideas, Laws, Institutions and Movements.
Ed. Ujjwal Kumar Singh.
Sage.
Pages 345. Rs 420.
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