Published by Penguin / Viking, 2006, 512 pages. This is one of those books that was hard going when I was reading it but stayed with me for a long time afterwards. The book moves between the present and a few centuries later. In the present, Dave, a London cabbie, loses his mind when his …
The Narrow Road to the Deep North: Richard Flanagan
Published by Chatto & Windus / Vintage, 2014, 464 pages. A harrowing book about war, love, and the nature of good and evil. Set, for the most part, around the end of the Second World War, it is about a group of Australian soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese and made to build a railway …
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The Type Taster—How Fonts Influence You: Sarah Hyndman
Published by Type Tasting Publications, 2015, 148 pages. Sarah Hyndman brings 20 years of experience as a graphic designer, with findings from neurologists and psychologists, to her book about types and fonts. When I read the book’s blurb, I expected a collection of essays, which this book is not. It’s a largely visual, hands-on introduction …
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War and Peace: Leo Tolstoy
Translated from Russian by Anthony BriggsPublished by Penguin, 2007, 1440 pages. Original version published in its entirety in 1869. The first English translation by Clara Bell was published in 1886.Review by Kamakshi Balasubramanian Such a joy to have read Tolstoy's absolute, unparalleled, masterpiece now, without the spectre of deadlines and exams. This time around, I …
Moogavani pillanagrovi (Ballad of Ontillu) – Kesava Reddy
Translated from Telegu by the author.Published by Oxford University Press, 2013, 152 pages. Original version published in 1993.Review by Sadhana Ramchander Oxford Novellas are a unique series and present to the world, socially relevant themes from languages and genres not published in English earlier. They are translations of not only famous names but also of …
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Economics—The Users Guide: Ha-Joon Chang
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing / Pelican Press, 2014, 528 pages. I am one of those people who have a mental block about economics. When I read about it, my eyes glaze over and my brain goes “are you kidding?” and shuts down. I think this is ridiculous. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, and …
The Lives of Others…are always distant
Published by Vintage, 2014, 528 pages. Review by Usha Raman I picked up Neel Mukherjee's novel with much anticipation...well, perhaps it is wrong to use the term "picked up" because it was the first book I had downloaded on my Kindle Paperwhite and it may be more correct to say, "I swiped on to page …
How to be both…a creative not-quite conundrum
How to be Both: Ali SmithPublished by Hamish Hamilton, 2014, 384 pages. Review by Usha Raman The cover is deceptively like a book for young adults, a simple coming of age tale—two teenage girls from some time in the 1970s, walking on a street somewhere (possibly) in Paris. Ali Smith's novel, shortlisted for last year's …
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What is Literature For?
Literature is not just words, but can be visual too! Loved this imaginative video on what literature can do for us with Alain de Botton on voiceover. Thanks to Paola Cagna for sharing this!
S.: JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst
Published by Hachette Book Press, 2013, 456 pages. If you think of a book as words on a page, think again. S. is a novel with a difference, stretching the limits of what a book can be. You pull it out of a black slipcase with a paper seal that you have to break—a hardcover …
