#StandWithSalman in a Sea of Stories
As part of their event, Pen America encouraged those who could not be in New York today to submit our own readings.
This reading from Haroun and the Sea of Stories is from chapter 10, Haroun’s Wish. The speaker who opens the excerpt is Khattam-Shud, whose name means “completely finished or over and done with” according to the book’s glossary.
Audiobook review: The Past As Present by Romila Thapar
At first glance, a book on Indian historiography might not seem easily accessible to a general audience.
Yet, Thapar’s prose is lucid, and her tone remains conversational without losing its scholarly authority. Thapar connects arguments about the past to our present quite beautifully.
Audiobook review: My Broken Language by Quiara Alegría Hudes
This One Book book choice and its companions like the others before it reflect the diversity of this city. But it also shows how limited the resources truly are.
My journey with Joyce
There’s a story about my maternal grandmother, Mom-Mom, and it goes something like this. My grandmother was always an avid reader. Despite dropping out of school at an early age (10 or so) because reasons, she was a life-long and voracious reader. Like, reading is how I remember her. Often with a Penguin Classics edition […]
Audiobook review: Work Pray Code by Carolyn Chen
In her book Work Pray Code, sociologist Carolyn Chen explores how tech firms in Silicon Valley have transformed the relationship between work and religion.
Review: Upstarts
Tell me if you’ve seen this movie before…. There are these 3 college friends. When the movie opens, your first thought is, “Arre, yaar, these guys are idiots.” Then you see the girl. Because there is always a girl, isn’t there? Naturally, things don’t go well, the lovers are thwarted, and the friends end up standing at a train station that’s supposed to be in UP, but strongly resembles a Mumbai local station. All before the opening credits. That’s when you realize that you’ve guessed the wrong movie name. This movie is Netflix India’s latest release Upstarts.
What’s cooking with One Book, One Philadelphia this year?
One Book, One Philadelphia is my favorite Free Library of Philadelphia program. I love that the program builds community through reading. For two months every winter, Philly becomes one giant book club. The programming is as diverse as the city itself, ranging from traditional book discussions and author events to themed workshops and cooking classes. […]
Overdoing it: Moving
I was born in Philly. For the first five years of my life, I lived just off Rising Sun Avenue. That changed when my parents loaded the three of us into a U-Haul and drove us nearly eight hours away to Akron, Ohio. Little did I realize at age five that I would move more […]
Why I finally gave in to the dark side and started posting book reviews on Amazon
I hate Amazon’s review system. I consider it a trash fire sitting on top of another garbage fire lit by trolls and paid reviews. The reasons are numerous. I dislike the 5-star system. It’s too simplistic and doesn’t offer the user an option to rate the Amazon delivery experience separately from the product experience. Thus, […]
Light and language: A writer’s journey into art
In our post-literate world, who will have the last word?