Book Reviews - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

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,…

Book review: When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy

When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy. Juggernaut Books There`s no getting around it, this book is a wrenching read for the reader, all the more so for the female reader. The unnamed narrator, a poet flying high but yet to get to the top of her game, decides to, rather suddenly, marry a man…

Book review: Small Towns, Big Stories by Ruskin Bond

This is more a brief take than review. Small Towns, Big Stories by Ruskin Bond (Aleph Publications) Another little gem from the inimitable Bond, Ruskin Bond. Herein are tales from the villages, hamlets and townships of his beloved hills, accounts of interesting and eccentric people, sundry leopards, bears and birds, and all of it infused…

Book review: Khullam Khulla by Rishi Kapoor

This is more a brief take than review of the book. My holiday reading was Rishi Kapoor`s Khullam Khulla, (HarperCollins) and a thoroughly enjoyable read it turned out to be. All through, you sense the polish given by co-author veteran film journalist Meena Iyer but it is Rishi Kapoor`s strident voice heard in the book,…