 | ||||||||||||
|
about the project | |
features | |
women in publishing | |
profiles | |
the reading room | |
home | |
| ||||||||||||
Home  Recommended reading |
 print this page |
August 2008
Recent recipient of the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction 2008 and our recommended reading this month, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale is “a dramatic page-turning detective yarn of a real-life murder that inspired the birth of modern detective fiction. Kate Summerscale has brilliantly merged scrupulous archival research with vivid storytelling that reads with the pace of a Victorian thriller.
The book is a rare work of non-fiction that mimics suspense genre and leaves one gripped until the final paragraph. Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, who became the most celebrated detective of his day, is a complex, shabby character who immediately conjures up images of the scruffy looking LA cop, Columbo and even of Rebus. The Road Hill murder case was to dominate newspaper headlines and caused national hysteria, and inspired a generation of novelists from Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to Conan Doyle.”
June/July 2008
Prep
By Curtis Stittenfeld
Random House
The protagonist of this novel from Curtis Stittenfeld, Lee Fiora, is a shy, angst-ridden, thoughtful teenager. We follow her years at a posh boarding school in New England where she battles with sexuality, relationships, friendships, identity and class. Stittenfeld doesn’t revert to crass stereotypes to make Lee relatable, like so many other authors who write about teenagers. Instead she draws the reader into Lee’s very private, angst-ridden, insecure world, wrought with issues that everyone, not just teenagers, can connect with. The result is a breathtaking novel that is both honest and compelling.
May 2008
Unaccustomed Earth
By Jhumpa Lahiri
Random House
Rs 495
Unless you were on Mars the last couple of months, you will have noticed the sensational buzz around Jhumpa Lahiri's latest offering, a collection of short stories entitled Unaccustomed Earth.
Proving that fame doesn't always crush the writer, Lahiri delivers a tight, well-crafted collection of short stories that read even better than the Interpreter of Maladies, her first book.
April 2008
Fear of Flying
By Erica Jong
Vintage Books
Rs 430
"Show me a woman who doesn't feel guilty and I'll show you a man," says Isadora, the protagonist of Erica Jong’s groundbreaking novel Fear of Flying originally published in 1973. The brazen novel follows Isadora, a 29-year-old Jewish, unhappily married woman as she wanders across three continents on an existential odyssey that is ripe with sexual and emotional revelations.
Still considered one of the most pioneering books of the 70s and a feminist classic, Fear of Flying is a gripping, no-holds-barred look at a woman’s sexuality. Essential reading for anyone with a vagina (and even for those without one).
March 2008
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
By Yiyun Li
Harper Perennial
Rs 295 approx
"The first time Yiyun Li saw a group of prisoners on their way to execution was when she was five. There were three men and a woman, their hands bound with ropes, and they shuffled on to a makeshift stages in a field in suburban Beijing. An officer raised his fist, shouting: "Death to the counter-revolutionary hooligans!" And the five-year-old Li was happy to see them go, because a world free of hooligans, of those who would even dare to harm China's socialist paradise, was clearly a better place." writes David Robison of Li in the Scotsman in early 2006.
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is an honest, sweeping collection of short stories, each revealing an otherwise-hidden China. Winner of the Guardian First Book Award in 2006, this book is easy to read. Li is insightful and sensitive to her characters, never faltering to stereotypes or gimmicks to portray a country on the brink of great change. A collection to be savoured with each story begging to be read again and again.
February 2008
Kari
By Amruta Patil
Harper Collins India
Rs 295
This debut graphic novel from Amruta Patil is a beautifully-drawn, hauntingly-told story of a young woman in Mumbai named Kari. At the heart of this book lies Kari's sexuality and the confusion, heartache and beauty that accompanies it. More than anything else, Kari is an acute potrait of depression and loneliness. Patil's prose and imagery captures the intensity of feeling alienated and isolated every minute of every day.
A quote:
"It's not that I have a bad relationship with the mirror. On the contrary, i think mirrors are splendid, shiny things that make great collectibles, whether whole or in smashed bits. Problem is, I just don't know what they are trying to tell me. These things can be troubling. The girls are outside the door telling me to wear kohl, and here I am wondering why I amn't looking like Sean Penn today."
January 2008
To hell with you Mitro
By Krishna Sobti
Translated by Gita Rajan and Raji Narasimhan
Katha
Rs 200
“Good language is not just… knowing that a word exists. You cannot even establish a word or install it unless you are aware of its shape, colour, as also the country of its origin and use. An exhibition of words, without an avowed intent or aesthetic sense, is meaningless." Krishna Sobti
This brazen, candid tale of a woman's sexuality was first published in Hindi in 1966 and, not surprisingly, ruffled some feathers among the writing elite. The English translation released in 2007 successfully captures much of Sobti's magic and finally makes this unapologetic novel accessible to English-language readers.
December 2007
Neither Night Nor Day
13 short stories by women writers from Pakistan
Edited by Rakhshanda Jalil
Harper Collins
Rs 250
These thirteen stories aim to capture the everyday, mundane details of life for Pakistani women. The editor states in her introduction, "I must confess I chose Ordinariness as my anthem, for I believe that by celebrating ordinariness we celebrate life as it is lived by scores of real people."
From Partition to the streets of London, the stories are unique and beautifully told by "young and relatively less known writers. Hopefully, readers will find it refreshing not to come across the usual names that are most anthologized and therefore, erroneously, taken as being representative" Jalil writes.
November 2007
Namita Devidayal's The Music Room (Random House)
This impressive memoir from first-time author Devidayal follows her relationship with Dhondutai, her guru and mentor as she trains her in the Jaipur gharana.
April 2007
Bina Shah Blessings
March 2007
Srividya Natarajan no onions nor garlic
Feb 2007
Anita Rau Badami Can you hear the Nightbird Call?
[Top]
Advanced Search
 |
 |
 |
 |
