Book Reviews - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: It`s All In Your Head, M by Manjiri Indurkar

Managing the Black Dog A brave account of struggling with a troubled mind and body. If life sometimes looks to be all uphill, never is this more manifest than in Manjiri Indurkar`s It`s All In Your Head, M. Laid low with a bevy of stomach- related ailments, some of the trouble diagnosed to a rotavirus…

Book review: Rhododendrons in the Mist by Ruskin Bond

There`s a tale called Panther`s Moon in Ruskin Bond`s book RHODODENDRONS IN THE MIST (Aleph Books/2019 release) a collection of the writer`s favourite tales of the Himalaya. And Panther`s Moon is a classic example of why Bond`s popularity amongst the reading public continues to thrive, to flourish, to attract newer readers. The story puts little…

Sangeetha Shinde Tee talks about The Naked Indian Woman

The naked truth Sangeetha Shinde Tee talks about the journey and purpose of her book, The Naked Indian Woman, and the lifetime that went into the making of it. What set you off on this particular quest? For as long back as I can remember, I have been told to be silent. My parents…

Book review: Akbar the Great Mughal by Ira Mukhoty

This is more a brief take than review. Akbar the Great Mughal by Ira Mukhoty. Aleph Books. Such a good read. The picture of the protagonist that emerges from Ira Mukhoty`s book on Akbar is an illuminating one: a man of modest build, sharp intelligence, quick temper, a fondness for taming elephants (he knew the…

Book review: Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena

Enter the Star Warrior A prophecy. A child with a scar. A villain slated to be killed by said child. Tanaz Bhathena’s Haunted by the sky, a YA fantasy fiction, shares these plot points with Rowling’s Potter series. There are other similarities too, but then the template of good versus evil, or even of a…

Book review: Wild Himalaya by Stephen Alter

Wild Himalaya by Stephen Alter. Aleph Books. Stephen Alter, our go-to Himalaya man, has delivered up a real treasure trove with this book. It is divided into eight sections dealing with virtually all aspects of the mighty mountain range: orogenesis (the process by which the Himalaya was formed through deformations in the earth`s crust), the…

Book review: The Last White Hunter by Donald Anderson with Joshua Mathew

The Last White Hunter, Reminiscences of a Colonial Shikari by Donald Anderson and Joshua Mathew, Indus Source Books. This was a book I was meant to read two years ago but stuff happened, and I couldn`t/didn’t. So, when I cracked it open just a few days ago, only to fall headlong into the story and…

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,…