Book Reviews - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Azadi by Arundhati Roy

This is more a brief take than a review. AZADI by Arundhati Roy. Penguin Books. This one`s a keeper. Roy touches on all the old familiar topics: Kashmir; communal rioting; lynchings including lynchings-by-TV; the manipulation of the populace for electoral gains; rape and other attacks on the weak, the marginalised, the ghettoised; the less than…

Book review: Around The World In 80 Trains

Around The World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh. Bloomsbury Books. Straight off the bat, let me say it: This book is such a delightful, easy read. I read Rajesh`s debut Around India in 80 Trains some years ago, and quite enjoyed it but this one I positively relished. It combines strands of a love…

Book review: The Women who Forgot to Invent Facebook by Nisha Susan

Snark Attack In her debut collection of short stories, Nisha Susan oscillates between the savage and the gentle, but never lets go of her trademark sarcasm It`s that expectations thing. It can`t be easy to be Nisha Susan debuting her book of short stories. That’s because Susan, co-founder of The Ladies Finger and Grist Media,…

Book review: Beast by Krishna Udayasankar

Beast by Krishna Udayasankar. Penguin Ebury Books. I think I speak for all readers — and reviewers — when I state that the two basic tenets of a good book rests on the author’s ability to create/conjure up a story that will immediately catch their target audience`s attention, as well as the author`s capability to…

Book review: Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

So, I read Stephenie Meyer`s latest, the bulky tome titled MIDNIGHT SUN, (Hachette India) which tells the Bella–Edward story all over again, this time from Edward`s pov. Fun Fact: The book has sold a million copies in the first week of its release. Well, it reads like a Barbara Cartland story on steroids, what with…

Book review: Bombay Balchao by Jane Borges

BOMBAY BALCHAO by JANE BORGES, Tranquebar Books. Bombay Balchao is rather akin to that tangy relish Goans are so justifiably proud of, the balchao. The interlinked shorts in the book are slice- of- life stories of a section of society with surnames like D`Lima, da Cunha, Crasto, Ferreira, Coutinho, Mascarenhas, Pinto, Gomes; a mix of…

Book review: Cari Mora by Thomas Harris

Thomas Harris might have risen to cult figure status with his maniacal creation Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs, and fallen low when giving Dr Lector a noble backstory in Hannibal, but that`s another story. It was Harris` Red Dragon that I found a terrifying but compelling read. I recall my hands…

Book review: In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne

Meanwhile, migrants elsewhere….. In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne, Hachette India. 2018 release. So, in a dreary London Council estate, there lives a set of young people, Selvon, Yusuf and Ardan, `those with elsewhere in their blood,` whose people have come over from places like the West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland. They…

Book review: The Book of Indian Kings

Royal characters A spotlight shone on a select set of Indian kings through the ages This slim volume is part of Aleph Books` Olio series, which trains focus on India`s great cities, culture, civilisations and suchlike. The theme here is Indian kings, a chapter each on the likes of Raja Raja Chozhar, the Mauryas, Ashoka,…

Book review: Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara

Basti log A trio of kids set out to solve the mystery of disappearing kids. This book has a slew of most impressive names blurbing about it, using words of high praise. And usually, that would be enough to make me somewhat suspicious. Not in this case, though. Anappara`s debut fiction more than deserves all…