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.
Audiobook review: 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.
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.
Book review: Reading Rupi—Translating English across cultures
Reading Indian writing in English represents an act of translation every time I read. Yes, even when the book is written in English, every book represents a journey through and across culture. It might seem strange to hear a native English speaker say that I read English in translation, but I do. Given the idiomatic […]
Where do you belong to?: Homecoming and belonging in The Better Man
There she was, at the back of the shop, leaning against VS Naipaul. She’d travelled so far from her native place to reach mine. That we should meet here in my hometown just as I was trying to decide where to settle felt like more than kismet or fate. It felt like my own homecoming. […]
Book review: My Gita by Devdutt Pattanaik
For all the focus in the Gita on action rather than outcome, a book review, let alone a verdict, seems almost superfluous. As a novice reader of the Gita, I would recommend this book. I am glad this was my last read of 2016.
Book review: Chain of Custody by Anita Nair
Chain of Custody blends the best elements of commercial and literary fiction to deliver a nuanced study of human trafficking and its players.
Book review: Understanding Chetan Bhagat’s One Indian Girl on her own terms
One Indian Girl is Chetan Bhagat’s best written and best edited book.