Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: The Seasons of Trouble by Rohini Mohan

The Seasons of Trouble by Rohini Mohan. HarperCollins Books. This is really of the lest- we- forget genre. We have had some competent, even accomplished wordsmiths chronicling the conflict and after in Sri lanka, the likes of Nirupama Subramanian (Voices From A War Zone), Samanth Subramanian (This Divided Island), Romesh Gunesekera (most recently Noontide Toll)…

Book review: Ten Kings by Ashok Banker

Ashok Banker`s Ten Kings (Amaryllis) takes a tale from the Rig Veda, a tale of what has to be one of the most unequal battles ever, breathes nuanced flesh and blood into it, infuses it with the right amount of colour, and presents it as yet another morality tale, of how puny good can sometimes…

Book review: In The Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman

In The Light Of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Basically, things the author knows. I can`t resist it. I just can`t resist it. In the light of what I (now) know, I rue the fact that I picked up this book so eagerly. Why, you ask. Well,…

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…