Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Sugarbread by Balli Kaur Jaswal

My Wednesday Book Look is this little gem of a book, SUGARBREAD, by Balli Kaur Jaswal, a 2016 release, HarperCollins Books. Set in Singapore of the early 1990s, the narrator is a ten- year- old girl Pin, Parveen Kaur. In sharp, clear tones, Pin tells us the story of her life, her easygoing lottery-addicted father,…

Column: Let`s reset for the journey rather than the destination

Let`s reset for the journey rather than the destination This is my ode to the paths we take to reach someplace. Let`s face it, most times it`s all about reaching rather than relishing the journey. We stride on our paths, gathering speed, sidestep what we perceive to be obstacles, and are relieved when…

Book review: Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

The perils of purloining This book quite lives up to the buzz it generated at release. It`s a brief, acute meditation on the agony and the ecstasy of writers, the insecurity that goes with the act of turning author, the imperatives of the publishing industry. All of this shelters under a zinger of a story:…

Book review: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway. Penguin Books. Hemingway wrote this classic a little over seven decades ago. I first read it a little over four decades ago. Now, thanks to my book club, I did a re-read, and OMG, was blown away – again – by the powerful story. For those…

Book review: Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors

TEEN COUPLE HAVE FUN OUTDOORS by Aravind Jayan. Serpent`s Tail Books. September 2022 release. Think Holden Caulfield. Think a slightly older Holden Caulfield transplanted to Trivandrum, living in a regular middle class locality with his father, mother and elder brother. Then, one not-so-fine day, said brother Sreenath`s sex tape with his girlfriend Anita goes viral….

Book review: Wayel Kati by Linthoi Chanu

Guardians of the realm First the good news. The story of the Divine Scissors of Justice, Wayel Kati, is a composite of various folk tales from Manipur that combines all the hero/villain/monsters/protectors/desecrators tropes, and produces a very interesting tale. The list of protagonists is headed by Atingkok, the Father God in the form of an…

Book review: Soft Animal by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

Love in the time of lockdown Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan spins a most readable tale of how a woman in her late thirties, married to Mukund, who seems to be quite a nice guy, jobless and facing an endless number of lockdown days back when Covid-19 raged, is forced to take a close, grim look at…

Book review: Digesting India by Zac O`Yeah

When food and literature mix….. Travel-writer Zac O`Yeah has travelled the length and breadth of India, stopping for double breakfasts, a handful of lunches, many a bottle of stuff that ranges from grog to branded liquor at many a pub or what passes for a pub in the hinterlands, as well as several dinners, all…

Column: On the Sanitisation of Well-loved Books

Throwing the baby out with the bathwater I recently watched Roger Waters, former Pink Floyd songwriter and bassist, the man who wrote the most scathing lyrics that shone a spotlight on war, violence, twisted men and women, twisted politics, defending himself against charges of anti-Semitism. After I intently searched Waters` monologue for any signs of…

Book review: The Amur River by Colin Thubron

The Amur River by Colin Thubron. Penguin Random House Books. Yet another wonderful travelogue by veteran travel writer Colin Thubron, the wow factor in this work is two-pronged. One of course, is his travel trajectory, the long and winding River Amur that flows between China and Russia. The other is the jaw-dropping fact that…