Book Reviews - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Until the Lions by Karthika Nair

He grew tall, he grew cold: Bheeshma blew into a typhoon, dark and vicious. A world where fools are born as king. …these men Were to remain sons, at best brothers- they could seldom grow into husbands, and never Fathers. Their own kingship, I can foretell, will be steered By possession, loss and carnage, Death…

Book review: Stuck Like Lint by Shefali Tripathi Mehta

This is more a brief take than a review of the book. Reading my friend Shefali Tripathi Mehta`s book, the evocatively titled Stuck Like Lint (Niyogi Books) was like taking a walk down a moss-hedged path in a secret garden. A contemplative walk, the surroundings lush and green, almost overwhelmingly so, and the branches…

Book review: The Designer by Marius Gabriel

A look-back at the start of the Dior phenomenon The Designer is an account of fashion at a time when Nazi – grey and American/Allied Forces khaki was the shade du jour. This is Paris in 1944, seen through the eyes of American Oona ‘Copper’ Reilly. Married to a promiscuous man and trying to…

Book review: Austenistan, edited by Laleen Sukhera

Jane in Jimmy Choos An independent writer, manuscript editor and author, the writer is based in Bengaluru. So here`s a peek at the gentler sex of a neighbouring country. This lot is anything but cowed down, abaya-clad, meek or demure. This lot wears Western couture with elan, are generally shod in Roger Vivier…

Book review: Veerappan, Chasing the Brigand by K Vijay Kumar

Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand by K Vijay Kumar. Rupa Publications. I wanted this book to read like a thriller, the author states in his Acknowledgments. And that is exactly what Veerappan… reads like: a bracing, fast-paced thriller that keeps the reader hooked and happy. It could be described as a crackling good yarn except, as…

Book review: Koh-i-Noor by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand

This is more excerpts from than review of the book. Romancing this stone! Prosperity, long life, increase of wives and progeny and domestic animals, and the bringing home of a teeming harvest all attend on the use of a diamond well-marked in its points, clear in lustre and divested of bainful traits. …serpents, tigers and…

Book review: Uncommon Type, Some Stories by Tom Hanks

Pounding on the keys So, here it is, Tom Hanks’s literary debut. But then Hanks has had stints with the written word before, having written screenplays for the HBO docudrama From the Earth to the Moon. He is an intelligent and articulate man as has been clear to those who have followed his…

Book review: Land of the Dawn-lit Mountains by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

This is more a brief take than review of the book. Land of the Dawn-lit Mountains by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent. Simon and Schuster. And once in a while, along comes a book which informs every bit as much as it entertains. This travelogue is one such. Bolingbroke-Kent hires a Hero motorbike and rides off into Arunachal…

Book review: The Golden House by Salman Rushdie

This is more a brief take than review of the book. The Golden House by Salman Rushdie. Penguin/Hamish Hamilton I don`t know what to make of this book, I really don`t. After Arundhati Roy offloaded her somewhat chaotic treasure chest on the unsuspecting reader a short while ago, Salman Rushdie follows in her footsteps, much…

Book review: American Assassin by Vince Flynn

Skip the book, watch the movie! America`s James Bond is written up in a very unoriginal style. American Assassin by Vince Flynn, is the first of a series of books that feature the protagonist Mitch Rapp. Visit Flynn’s website and you see fans sending in emails about how Rapp is their favourite character,…