by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
New Delhi : Read a step-by-step programme to discover a new you; know the miserable stories around foreign nationals brought to the United Arab Emirates to construct its towering skyscrapers; get an interesting guide to learn smart shopping; and flick through the story of a young Punjabi boy who chases his unidentified dreams and ends up in solitude.
The IANS bookshelf has a variety of reads to offer for this weekend.
1. Book: How to Unleash the Power of Your Subconscious Mind; Author: Joseph Murphy; Publisher: Harper Collins; Pages: 285; Price: Rs 299
A 52-week Guide provides a step-by-step programme to discover a new you. You have the incredible potential to be, do and receive whatever you desire, imagine and truly believe. Unfortunately, however, only a small number of people achieve their full human potential, because they fail to recognise and harness the infinite power of the subconscious mind. By following the guidance offered here, you can stop going through life as a victim of circumstances and become the master of your own destiny within a year.
2. Book: Temporary People; Author: Deepak Unnikrishnan; Publisher: Penguin; Pages: 251; Price: Rs 399
In the United Arab Emirates, foreign nationals constitute over 80 percent of the population. Brought in to construct the towering monuments to wealth that punctuate the skylines of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, this labour force works without the rights of citizenship, endures miserable living conditions and is ultimately forced to leave the country.
Until now, the humanitarian crisis of the so-called guest workers of the Gulf has barely been addressed in fiction. With his stunning, mind-altering debut novel “Temporary People”, Deepak Unnikrishnan delves into their histories, myths, struggles and triumphs.
Here are 28 linked stories that careen from construction workers who shapeshift into luggage and escape a labour camp, to a woman who stitches back together the bodies of those who’ve fallen from buildings in progress, to a man who trains workers designed to live 12 years and then perish — until they don’t — and establish a rebel community in the desert.
3. Book: The Ultimate Guide to Smart Shopping; Author: V. Rajesh; Publisher: Rupa; Pages: 167; Price: Rs 295
Eat a banana before you go shopping! No, that’s not a diet advice, but a tip for smart shopping. A whole host of such smart shopping ideas is what this book is all about. Contrary to what we would like to believe, shopping is not a rational or logical activity. There are various facets of human subconscious which influence a person’s choice, especially with regard to shopping. In the majority of instances, the person is unaware of all these aspects and thus is unable to control the shopping.
The book details all these facets and provides clear, actionable steps to help develop smart shopping habits. It covers various facets of shopping such as: Why should you always check when you see an unbelievable offer? Should take your children along to shop or not? How to get good service? Read the book and start smart shopping today.
4. Book: Gone Are The days; Author: Gaurav Sharma; Publisher: Kalpaz; Pages: 177; Price: Rs 190
Ever since the world came into existence, mankind has been racing against time. This is the story of Gaurav, a boy who hails from Sitamarhi, a small town in Bihar. As Gaurav was born in a Punjabi family, spent his childhood in Bihar, lived in Delhi and went to Canada thereafter, he faces a huge mismatch in life. He recalls his memories from the past and shares it with the world. He carries with himself a thirst to control time. He rushes to chase his unidentified dreams, make his life comfortable and often overlooks what life brings for him; what life has to offer.
In this hodgepodge of reaching out somewhere, achieving something big, seeking happiness and securing the future, he somehow remains deprived of his very own moments of life. In this quest to leave everyone behind and reach the top, he soon finds himself alone; not because he left everyone behind, but because he couldn’t keep up with them.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
New Delhi : Read an intensely human and deeply political account of the Sikh riots; learn to value life from an autistic man; relive the extraordinary life story of emperor Ashoka; and know about the horrors of partition from people who inhabit the land through which these lines run.
IANS bookshelf offers a bunch of interesting reads this weekend.
1. Book: The Year of the Hawks; Author: Kanwaljit Deol; Publisher: Speaking Tiger; Pages: 283; Price: Rs 350
The early 1980s: A fiery preacher has outgrown his mentors and is raising an army of radicalised young men across Punjab. In Moranwale village, young Fareed is emerging from adolescence, uncertain about his future in an increasingly divided and violent society, where neither love nor hope can survive. In Delhi, Sikand, a journalist approaching middle age, struggles to keep a grip on his life even as news from the land of his childhood becomes alarming.
As terror spreads through Punjab, Fareed and Sikand find themselves in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, among armed men primed for a holy war. The two men are on opposite sides — one has joined the militants, the other will take no sides. But after the Indian Army storms the holy shrine of the Sikhs, their fates are twinned, perhaps for a lifetime.
Kanwaljit Deol’s gripping debut novel is a work of rare power and sophistication, intensely human and deeply political.
2. Book: Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8; Author: Naoki Higashida; Publisher: Sceptre; Pages: 273; Price: Rs 499.
In this book, Naoki Higashida shares his thoughts and experiences as a 24-year-old man living each day with severe autism.
Higashida explores school memories, family relationships, the exhilaration of travel, and the difficulties of speech. He also allows readers to experience profound moments we take for granted.
Acutely aware of how strange his behaviour can appear to others, he aims throughout to foster a better understanding of autism and to encourage society to see people with disabilities as people, not as problems.
With an introduction by novelist David Mitchell, “Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8” also includes a dreamlike short story Higashida wrote, especially for this edition. Both moving and of practical use, the book opens a window into the mind of an inspiring young man who meets every challenge with tenacity and good humour. However often he falls down, he always gets back up.
3. Book: Ashoka, Satrap of Taxila; Author: Ashok K. Banker; Publisher: Westland; Pages: 179; Price: Rs 299
He can battle any enemy except his own family.
Ashoka has been dispatched to accompany his brother Sushim to Taxila. But when he sees the brutality and disrespect to Mauryavansh by the Pashtun rebels, he cannot stay silent. His sword is as quick as his temper, and the result is swift and bloody justice. Taxila is saved but the emperor is furious.
Emperor Bindusara, egged on by his favourite queen, Noor Khorasan, becomes convinced that Ashoka’s show of initiative is an act of treason. Even the wise words of nonagenarian Kautilya, emerging from retirement, fall on deaf ears. Queen Khorasan’s well-mounted plot to control the empire sweeps up everyone who opposes her. Suddenly, Ashoka is forced to choose between his mother’s life and his own. What will the young prince do?
The author brings alive the battles, brutality, lust and politics of ancient India in vivid detail with thrilling action.
4. Book: Gazing At Neighbours; Author: Bishwanath Ghosh; Publisher: Tranquebar; Pages: 347; Price: Rs 399
In July 1947, British barrister Cyril Radcliffe was summoned to New Delhi and given five weeks to draw, on the map of the subcontinent, two zigzagged lines that would decide the future of one-fifth of the human race.
One line, 553 kilometres long, created the province of West Punjab; the other, adding up to 4,096 kilometres, carved out a province called East Bengal. Both territories joined the new-born nation of Pakistan — an event called the Partition of India, which saw one million people being butchered and another 15 million uprooted from their homes.
Enough and more has been written about the horrors of Partition, but what of the people who inhabit the land through which these lines run?
Curiosity leads the author into journeying along the Radcliffe Line through the vibrant greenery of Punjab as well as the more melancholic landscape of the states surrounding Bangladesh and examining, first hand, life on the border.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
New Delhi : Flick through a mysterious tale around a killer who has terrorised the residents of Chicago; read a thrilling book featuring legendary spy, assassin and art restorer Gabriel Allon; go through a collection of classic ghost stories; and, finally, a searing, spellbinding blend of cold-case thriller and psychological suspense.
Thrill, mystery and excitement is what the IANS bookshelf offers for this weekend.
1. Book: The Fourth Monkey; Author: J.D. Barker; Publisher: Harper Collins; Pages: 404; Price: Rs 399
For over five years, the Four Monkey Killer has terrorised the residents of Chicago. When his body is found, the police quickly realise he was on his way to deliver one final message, one which proves he has taken another victim who may still be alive.
As the lead investigator on the 4MK task force, Detective Sam Porter knows, even in death, the killer is far from finished. When he discovers a personal diary in the jacket pocket of the body, Porter finds himself caught up in the mind of a psychopath, unravelling a twisted history in hopes of finding one last girl, all while struggling with personal demons of his own.
With only a handful of clues, the elusive killer’s identity remains a mystery. Time is running out and the Four Monkey Killer taunts from beyond the grave in this masterfully written fast-paced thriller.
2. Book: House of Spies; Author: Daniel Silva; Publisher: Harper Collins; Pages: 526; Price: Rs 399
Four months after the deadliest attack on the American homeland since 9/11, terrorists leave a trail of carnage through London’s glittering West End. The attack is a brilliant feat of planning and secrecy, but with one loose thread.
The thread leads Gabriel Allon and his team of operatives to the south of France and to the gilded doorstep of Jean-Luc Martel and Olivia Watson. A beautiful former British fashion model, Olivia pretends not to know that the true source of Martel’s enormous wealth is drugs. And Martel, likewise, turns a blind eye to the fact he is doing business with a man whose objective is the very destruction of the West. Together, under Gabriel’s skilled hand, they will become an unlikely pair of heroes in the global war on terror.
3. Book: The Haunted Library (A collection of ghost stories); Curator: Tanya Kirk; Publisher: Niyogi; Pages: 232; Price: Rs 450
The Haunted Library is a new collection of classic ghost stories many of which have never before been anthologised from the golden age of the genre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Each of these stories revolves round the arcane secrets and dark psychic traces to be found in libraries, museums and other treasure troves of hidden knowledge.
The 12 stories included are “The Nature of the Evidence” by May Sinclair, “Mr Tallent’s Ghost” by Mary Webb, “The Lost Tragedy” by Denis Mackaill, “Bone to His Bone” by Edmund Gill Swain, “Herodes Redivivus” by A.N.L. Munby, “The Book” by Margaret Irwin, “The Whisperers” by Algernon Blackwood, “The Tractate Middoth” by M.R. James, “Afterward” by Edith Wharton, “Fingers of a Hand” by Theo Douglas, “The Apple Tree” by Elizabeth Bowen, and “The Work of Evil” by William Croft Dickinson.
4. Book: The Good Daughter; Author: Karin Slaughter; Publisher: Harper Collins; Pages: 503; Price: Rs 350
Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind.
Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn’s happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their home. It left their mother dead. It left their father — Pikeville’s notorious defence attorney — devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night.
Twenty-eight years later, and Charlotte has followed in her father’s footsteps to become a lawyer herself — the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again — and a shocking tragedy that leaves the whole town traumatised — she is plunged into a nightmare. Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it’s a case that unleashes the terrible memories she’s spent so long trying to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime that destroyed her family nearly 30 years ago won’t stay buried forever.
—IANS
