Reviews & Musings

Source: Goodreads.com Blurb 1998. Twenty-two-year-old Mina is moving to the US from Bangalore to begin a new life with her husband. Then there’s a horrific murder and her life is turned upside down. Mina’s best friend Neelu helps her out of the abyss. Mina gradually leaves her past behind and settles into a new life in the US. Years later, she is forced to return to India and is confronted by the demons from her past. In her fragile mental state, she is unable to support Neelu in her time of need. Their friendship hits rock bottom. Mina goes back to the US and faces further hurdles, this time on the work front. She tries to make amends with Neelu, but their friendship ends with Neelu accusing Mina of something unimaginable related to the murder. Something, that deep down, Mina knows is true... Will Mina redeem herself? Will the people she loves forgive her for what she did? Alternating between flashbacks and the present day, What Mina Did explores how one...

Introduction Source: Goodreads.com Genre:  Fiction/ Young Readers Publishers: Pan Macmillan India

Introduction Source: Amazon.in ISBN :   978-81-291-5113-1 Genre:  Fiction / Classics Publishers: Rupa Publications Price:  Rs. 195/-  ( I got the book for review from the  publisher )

Introduction ISBN :   978-93-5277-383-1 Genre:  Fiction/Translations Publishers: HarperPerennial Price:  Rs. 399/-  ( I got the book for review from the  publisher )

Introduction Source: Amazon.in ISBN :  978-0143441748 Genre:  Fiction/ Children's Books Publishers: Puffin Books Price:  Rs. 250/-  ( I got the book for review from the  publisher )

Introduction ISBN:  978-8129149015 Genre: F iction  Publishers: Rupa Publications Price:  Rs. 295/-  ( I got the book for review from the publishe r )

Have you ever in life encountered an event, an event that pulls the rug from under your feet, threatens to destroy the very foundation of your existence? I have. Source: Tiny Buddha

Introduction ISBN:  978-1492242802 Genre: Fantasy Fiction Publishers: CreateSpace Kindle Price:  Rs. 49/-  ( I got the book for review from the author )

Introduction Source: http://panmacmillan.co.in ISBN:  978-1509835836 Genre: Fiction/Women Publishers: Pan Macmillan India Price:  Rs. 229/-  

Introduction Source: Amazon.in ISBN:  978-1509839551 Genre: Fiction/YA Publishers: Pan Macmillan India Price:  Rs. 399/-  

I was introduced to reading by my mother at the age of four. She always used to tell me that I was a hyperactive kid and she felt books would be a safe option to keep me occupied all day. In doing that she not only passed on her love for books but also ensured I was addicted for life.

Introduction ISBN: 978-81-291-4739-4 Genre: Fiction Publishers: Rupa Publishers Price: Rs. 295/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher ) I write because I need you to know what I cannot say. I write about the past, about family, about country, because they all speak to me about my father…’ Addressed to Hyder, his son, Omar Zafarullah’s A Hundred Journeys is part memoir and part manual for living. With the help of his family’s personal history, the author attempts to explain Pakistan to Hyder, a narrative which is intensely personal but deeply political too. The journey begins in the early 1900s when the family migrates from Ropar (in India’s Punjab) to Gojra (in Pakistan’s Punjab) in search of a better future. The book is filled with inspiring characters—Zafarullah’s great-grandmother, Maaji, a woman with an iron will who challenged patriarchy in her efforts to take the family out of the throes of poverty; his highly respected doctor–grandfather whose perse...

On a usual tropical evening in Mumbai I had the pleasure of being at CSMVS where Anil Dharker and Amit Chaudhuri were in conversation over the latter’s new release, Friend of my Youth. With an ethereal sunset at the Arabian Sea adorning its beige textured cover; this book is a short and crisp novella revolving around friendship and childhood memories in the city of dreams – Mumbai. 

Introduction ISBN: 978-812-914-5710 Genre: Non-Fiction/Politics Publishers: Rupa Publications Price:  Rs.195/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher ) Set in the once-fabled land of Kashmir, Behold, I Shine moves beyond male voices and focuses, instead, on what the struggle means for the Valley’s women and children—those whose husbands remain untraceable; whose mothers are half-widows; those who have confronted the wrath of ‘Ikhwanis’, or the scrutiny of men in uniform, and what it means to stand up to it all. This book also brings to focus the resilience of the Valley’s women and children—of activists like Parveena Ahangar and Anjum Zamrud Habib, who, after debilitating losses, start human rights organizations; of ordinary homemakers like Munawara who have taken on the judiciary; and of a young generation of thinkers like Uzma Falak and Essar Batool who foreground the interaction of gender, politics and religion, and won’t let Kashmir forget. Stitchi...

Introduction Genre:Children Fiction Cartoon Series Publishers: Red Turtle books ( I got the book for review from the publisher) Your beloved superhero Mighty Raju is back. Set out on exciting adventures with him and also learn something new with this unique series of sixteen books created keeping young learners in mind. Parents today face great difficulty in making their children study and/or understand concepts. This series is an amalgamation of learning and fun for children through their favourite character, Mighty Raju, a four-year-old superhero. These books have topics ranging from colours and shapes, maths lessons to fun-filled adventure stories to learning about festivals of India and much more. The series will encourage them to learn a variety of concepts in an interactive and engaging manner with the right amount of learning, fun and adventure all packed together. Behind the Book

Introduction ISBN: 9789382616740 Genre: Fiction / Drama Publishers: Pan MacMillan Price:  Rs.350/- ( I got this book from the publisher for a review ) Single mother Samaira juggles her corporate job and Aksh, her teenaged son, even as she defies society, disapproving in-laws and her own family. But when Aksh is found battered and beaten at school, she finds herself questioning her role as a mother. Faced with a conspiracy of silence from the school, she delves deeper only to discover the murky world of bullying, the secret life of teenagers, and the emotional distance between parents and children. In her pursuit of truth and justice, Samaira ends up challenging the power equations of politics, wealth and influence. It’s Not About You is an urgent, contemporary tale that celebrates the persistence of the human spirit to fight against all odds. Behind the book Source: Goodreads.com

Introduction ISIN:  9781250043948 Genre: Fiction / Drama Publishers: Pan McMillan Publishers Price:  Rs. 307/- ( I got this book from the publisher for a review ) From the award-winning author of Island of a Thousand Mirrors comes the confession of a woman, driven by the demons of her past to commit a single and possibly unforgivable crime. "The walls of my cell are painted an industrial white, like albumen. They must think the color is soothing. Where I come from it connotes absence, death, unrelenting loneliness." In the idyllic hill country of Sri Lanka, a young girl grows up with her loving family; but even in the midst of this paradise, terror lurks in the shadows. When tragedy strikes, she and her mother must seek safety by immigrating to America. There the girl must reinvent herself as an American teenager to survive, with the help of her cousin. Both love and loss fill her life, but even as she assimilates and thrives, the secrets and scars of her past...

Introduction ISIN:  978-9352015665 Genre:  Children's / YA  Publishers:  Leadstart Publishing Price:  Rs. 199/- ( I got this book from the  publisher  for a review ) Inspiring five real-life stories for children (late elementary/early middle school). Welcome to the real world, where superheroes live. They are no different from anyone—confronted with life’s turmoils and challenges. Like the young performer, Pandit Ravi Shankar—the sitarist who introduced Indian classical music to the West—in The Music Weaver. His heart tugs him to leave his cushy life behind for exciting but uncertain possibilities. The mountain porter, Tenzing Norgay—the first climber to top Mount Everest, alongside Edmund Hillary—in The Determined Dreamer. He can’t control his yearning for something more…bigger, better and greater. The number-whiz, Srinivasa Ramanujan—a one-of-a-kind mathematical genius—in The Mathemagician. He outshines his teachers even though he f...

Introduction ISIN:  978-1-4088-6311-4 Genre:  Free Verse / Fiction Publishers:  Bloomsbury Books Price:  Rs. 499/- (  I got the book from the publisher for a review ) Tippi and Grace share everything—clothes, friends . . . even their body. Writing in free verse, Sarah Crossan tells the sensitive and moving story of conjoined twin sisters, which will find fans in readers of Gayle Forman, Jodi Picoult, and Jandy Nelson. Tippi and Grace. Grace and Tippi. For them, it's normal to step into the same skirt. To hook their arms around each other for balance. To fall asleep listening to the other breathing. To share. And to keep some things private. Each of the sixteen-year-old girls has her own head, heart, and two arms, but at the belly, they join. And they are happy, never wanting to risk the dangerous separation surgery. But the girls' body is beginning to fight against them. And Grace doesn't want to admit it. Not even to Tippi. How long can they hide f...

Introduction ISIN: 978-0701186050 Genre: Fiction/ Drama Publishers: Penguin Random House Price: Rs. 599/- [ I got this book from the publisher for a review ] Spare and unsparing, "God Help the Child" is a searing tale about the way childhood trauma shapes and misshapes the life of the adult. At the center: a woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life; but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest forms of love until she told a lie that ruined the life of an innocent woman, a lie whose reverberations refuse to diminish . . . Booker, the man Bride loves and loses, whose core of anger was born in the wake of the childhood murder of his beloved brother . . . Rain, the mysterious white child, who finds in Bride the only person she can talk to about the abuse she's suffered at the hands of her prostitute mother . . . and Sweetness, Bride...