Book Reviews - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: The Patna Manual of Style by Siddharth Chowdhury

The Patna Manual of Style, Stories by Siddharth Chowdhury. Aleph Books. I read this slim book in a state of much mystification, and the mystification remained for a while after I finished it. What`s the buzz about? The nine short stories all deal with a Bengali- speaking Bihari called Hriday Thakur and his cohort of…

Book review: Kaleidoscope City, A Year in Varanasi by Piers Moore Ede

Kaleidoscope City/A Year in Varanasi by Piers Moore Ede. Bloomsbury. It`s a quiet book, a slim book, this one, chronicling the year the author spent in this ancient temple town. No pretensions at finding a side to Banaras that no one has yet seen here. Ede knows his place, which is that of an outsider,…

Book review: How to Make Enemies and Offend People by G Sampath

How to Make Enemies and Offend People by G Sampath. Penguin/Viking publications. This is just the book one needs to dip into when the weight of the world`s misfortunes seem to, strangely enough, land heavily on your shoulders or in your head. Don`t ask `why me?` Grab Sampath`s book instead. Readers familiar with the veteran…

Book review: The Dalai Lama`s Cat by David Michie

The Dalai Lama`s Cat, a novel by David Michie. Hayhouse publishers. After a mercifully brief spell of picking up books that were less than enthralling, I`m back on track, thanks be. The Dalai Lama`s Cat is another treasure I have come to a bit late. But if there`s one thing this book teaches me, it…

Book review: Is Shakespeare Dead by Mark Twain

Is Shakespeare Dead by Mark Twain. Think about it. The work is by that satirist extraordinaire Mark Twain, the man who could and did string sentences so sharp, they could be wielded like a sabre. The subject is the Bard of Avon. And the title? It`s Is Shakespeare Dead? Now tell me which Lit major,…

Book review: God Help The Child by Toni Morrison

God Help The Child by Toni Morrison. A Chatto and Windus publication. Within a couple of pages, the reader is sucked into the vortex of a powerful story told in a powerfully effective style. This is the eleventh work of the extraordinarily accomplished writer and Nobel Laureate. A girl child is born to the mother…

Book review: The House that BJ Built by Anuja Chauhan

The Deliciously Deviant Book That AC Wrote You know, when after prolonged gorging on balushahi, khubani ka meetha, kalakand, gulab jamun, malapua, you turn to a plain Cornetto ice cream? You bite into it and it turns out to be anything but plain: the buttery-smooth ice cream blends with the crunchy waffle it is wrapped…

Book review: Don`t Let Him Know by Sandip Roy

What lies beneath? It all starts with a letter. A plaintive letter written by someone who feels wronged, dumped. A letter meant for someone now far away in an Illinois campus town, and read by someone else, one who has just plighted troth with the person the letter is addressed to. And inside the letter,…

Book review: Mad in Heaven By P G Bhaskar

Comic caper Chennai strolls casually through this hectic and hilarious story. Once in a blue moon comes a book that settles upon the bustling city of Chennai (Madras) for its chosen locale and tells the story of its denizens; only, the city plays such a major part wittingly or otherwise, that it becomes the second…

Feature: Attacking Atticus

Attacking Atticus: What happens when characters overshadow their creators Intermixed with the excitement about Harper Lee’s new book, To Set A Watchman, which is actually an old book since the manuscript dates back to 1957, is widespread dismay that the man who shone with a clear sense of purpose and fair play in To…