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City Of Djinns
Author: William DalrymplePages: 339Published in the year: 1994Publishers: PenguinGenre: Non-fiction/ MemoirFor Dalrymple, who has come to acquire the status of a formidable travel writer today, it was...
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First Day First Show:Anupama Chopra
Author: Anupama Chopra Pages: 376 Publisher: Penguin Price: 499 It didn't seem like the wisest thing to do when a 20 something Anupama Chopra set her mind to write on Bollywood. Her intellectually...
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A longish essay on Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic 1852 novel is best remembered for its emotional, conscientious appeal for the abolishment of slavery. The author, though White herself, had seen the lives of slaves from...
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Chinese Whiskers
Friends, this is a piece I did for Biblio, a one of its kind literary magazine in India - published from Delhi. I consider it a fairly important and essential platform for the intellectual exchange of...
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The theme of retribution in Delhi Belly
The fact that this Akshat Varma penned script, stylishly directed by Abhinay Deo is a tightly-woven, smartly executed one is something all reviews have agreed. Varma – probably on account of having...
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Priya - Namita Gokhale
Author: Namita GokhalePages: 195Price: 350Publishers: PenguinThis is the first book I took up to review by Namita Gokhale, better recogonised as the co-director of the highly popular Jaipur lit fest....
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R K Narayan's The Dark Room and The World Of Nagaraj
Very few readers will dispute the talent that R K Narayan was. He was the first Indian writer in English to acquire such a name for himself both among native as well as foreigner readers.V. S Naipaul...
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Elizabeth Gilbert's Committed
Haven't we all at some point typed an intimate question on Google search for user responses. This mini research offers you perspective and the assurance that you are not alone in it. It also gives...
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Somerset Maugham's Liza Of Lambeth
Liza Of Lambeth (1897) is perhaps Maugham's only novel which I don't have the heart to revisit. Not because it is poor, but because it is so chillingly tragic. It isn't as if his other novels are all...
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The Dutch Treasure Trove
Renee Ridgway recently unveiled an archival find, a 17th century book on medicinal plants created by the then Dutch governor in Cochin. The event, held at David Hall, Fort Kochi aimed at looking at the...
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Collected Short Stories: Vol 4
Pages: 576Much of what Maugham wrote was always greatly influenced by the numerous travels he made. In the course of his momentous writing career, there were few countries and cities that he did not...
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Shobha De's Spouse and Surviving Men
Compared to Elizabeth Gilbert's 'Committed', Shobhaa De's 'Spouse - the truth about marriage' is a surprisingly tame book on the same subject. Many years ago she wrote the controversial hot-seller...
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Duo On Discovery Path
The husband and wife writer duo, Devapriya Roy and Saurav Jha went backpacking through the length and breadth of India on a daily budget of Rs 500. The couple is currently turning their travel...
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The Secret Lives Of Somerset Maugham
Author: Selina Hastings Pages: 550 Published in: 2010 Not a rollicking read, but Selina Hastings' biography on Maugham is balanced, credible and engaging enoughGiven that Maugham reveals so much of...
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The Big Book Shelf - Sunil Sethi
Author: Sunil Sethi Pages: 240 Publishers: Penguin Price: 350 With the opening up of the publishing industry in the country and the rapid flowering of desi writing in English, the interest around books...
View ArticleReal-life stories need fictional plausibility too
Realism in movies or books is a confusing term. One wonders if it means to portray life as it is - in its bare, unpolished form? Often you see a film that completely defies logic but is sold to you as...
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Christmas Holiday by Somerset Maugham
Among all his works, Christmas Holiday published in 1939, counts as Maugham's most political novel. It still has all the central themes of love and coming-of-age which the author engaged with, but...
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Conversations with Mani Ratnam
Pages: 305, Price: 799Author: Baradwaj Rangan Knowing how reticent filmmaker Mani Ratnam can be, one has to congratulate writer and reviewer Baradwaj Rangan who gets the maker to articulate so well...
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Maugham and India
Maugham as one knows was a great traveller, and journeying was something he considered indispensable to his career as an author. Most of his inspiration came to him from his travels and in the course...
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Their Language Of Love
Publisher: Penguin VikingPrice: Rs 499Year of Publishing: 2013 It was despair and unhappiness that drove Pakistani author Bapsi Sidhwa to be a writer. Afflicted with polio as a child, she battled...
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Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
Author: Shyam SelvaduraiPenguin BooksYear of Publishing: 2005When a writer is part of two worlds – Sri Lanka and Canada – with a readership in both countries, his instinct often is to combine these...
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The Weight Loss Club
The Weight Loss ClubThe Curious Experiments of Nancy Housing CooperativeAuthor: Devapriya RoyPublished in: 2013Publisher: RupaPrice: Rs 250Devapriya Roy’s novel proves once again why books and...
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The Hungry Ghosts; interview with Shyam Selvadurai
Shyam Selvadurai's novel, released in 2014, The Hungry Ghosts, marks a gigantic leap in his craft and writing. The author who garnered international acclaim with his first novel, Funny Boy, and went on...
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Who We Are: A Citizen's Manifesto
Author: Rudyard GriffithsYear of publishing:2009Like most book lovers, I enjoy the idea of discovering a country, its national character, its quirks through the written word. Some of the first...
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Tagore's Naukadubi
Kashmakash(dubbed) Director: Rituparno GhoshStarring: Jishu Sengupta,Raima Sen, Riya Sen, Prosenjit,Stars: *** In times when intelligent and original stories are so hard to come by, one naturally looks...
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