Reviews & Musings

The Speaking Stone by Ratnadip Acharya ~Book Tour~ 11th to 17th November

Introduction Copyright (C) Privy Trifles ISBN:978-9386228918 Genre:  Non-Fiction/ History Publishers: Juggernaut Price: Rs. 599/- (I got the book for review from the publisher)

Introduction Amazon.in ISBN :    978-9386021120 Genre:  Non-Fiction Publishers: Aleph Book Company Price:  Rs. 699/-  ( I got the book for review from the  publisher )

Introduction Source: Amazon.in ISBN:  978-9386021045 Genre:  Non- F iction/ History Publishers: Aleph Book Company Price:  Rs. 799/-  ( I got the book for review from the  publisher )

Introduction ISBN: 978-9351941958 Genre: Non-Fiction/Biographies & Autobiographies Publishers: Roli Books Price: Rs. 556/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher ) The period between 1850 and 1950 was a magnificent time for the world of performing arts. Classical music, dance, drama and folklore traditions were being rewritten and reinterpreted to welcome a new age. These arts were a reflection of the times, but they had larger role to play than as mere entertainment. Drama Queens: Women who created history on stage places itself at the crossroads of understanding modern cultural history. Through ten leading ladies of theatre, including Munni Bai, Mukhtar Begum, Jahanara Kajjan and Moti Bai, the book traces an unwritten narrative of women, performance, nationhood and modernity. The visuals knit a historical account reflecting the rich artistic lives they led. Through a project of memory, this book is a tribute to the giant contribution of these women to the ...

Introduction ISBN:  978-93-86021-07-6 Genre: Fiction Publishers: Aleph Price:  Rs.399/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher ) On a camel’s back hill beyond Agra stands a Redstone citadel altogether different from the white marble Taj Mahal. Fatehpur Sikri is the capital Akbar built to honour the saint who foretold the birth of his first son. In the inner court of the king’s palace is a broad stone terrace with a chequered pattern that resembles a game board. Here, accounts say, Akbar played a kind of chess using human pieces from his harem of three hundred. Costumed in various guises, his women would have presented lively masques upon this stage.Zelaldinus mounts such a pageant, glittering and fantastical, where past and present, nobles and commoners, history and fiction rub shoulders. Its variety of verse and prose forms evoke the carnival spirit of a masque. Underlying the depiction of a rich and varied court life at Sikri are reflections on kin...

Introduction ASIN:  B01N25AZ6L Genre: Fiction / Drama Publishers: Amazon Books Price: $4.07  ( I got the book for review from b00k R3vi3ws ) He is married to the Devil, but can he be her advocate? Jacob Barder, a successful New York attorney, returns home to New York after being trapped in Europe during the Second World War and miraculously surviving the Holocaust. Barder does not return alone: with him is his new wife, Rachel, a beautiful blonde woman whom he met in Warsaw shortly after the war - a Jewish survivor who lost her entire family and remained alone in the world. Jacob fell in love with her and brought her to the states. Now he will defend her in the biggest battle of her life. A Jewish lawyer’s wife is accused of committing Nazi war crimes One evening, in a Broadway theater, Rachel is attacked by a woman who accuses her of being Matilda Krause - a German SS officer who served at the Nazi concentration camps. Rachel’s arrest and police investigation op...

Introduction ISBN: 978-8129142177 Genre: Non fiction / Biographies Publishers: Rupa Price:  Rs.395/- ( I got this book from the publisher for a review ) Did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose die in an air crash in Taihoku (Taipei, Taiwan) on 18 August 1945? Was he sent off to Siberia by Joseph Stalin? Did he die there? Or did he escape? Or was he let off, eventually to make his way back to India? Was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba of Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh? If so, how did he find his way back? Why did Bose leave India when he did? Was it on account of his political approach, which was opposed by the then high command of the Congress party that wanted a quick transfer of power from the British? The past comes alive as journalist and author Kingshuk Nag seeks answers to these and related questions at a time when there is a considerable renewal of interest in Netaji's fate with old records tumbling out, the latest being the declassification of 64 files on the subject by the W...

Pan Macmillan are delighted to reveal the cover for Ken Follett’s new novel A Column of Fire, which will be published across the world in September 2017. Ken Follett’s first Kingsbridge novel, the masterful epic The Pillars of the Earth, enchanted millions of readers with its compelling drama of war, passion and family conflict set around the building of a cathedral. The sequel, World Without End, was a number one bestseller in the UK, US and Europe, taking readers back to medieval Kingsbridge two centuries later, as the men, women and children of the city once again grappled with the devastating sweep of historical change. Opening in Christmas 1558, A Column of Fire will take readers back to Kingsbridge once more. Jeremy Trevathan, Publisher of Macmillan Adult Books said: ‘Publication of a new Ken Follett novel is always a major event, but a new Ken Follett Kingsbridge novel, set in the fictional town that readers first encountered in The Pillars of the Earth,...

Introduction ISIN: 9781849044080 Genre: History / Nonfiction / Biography Publishers: Random House Price: Rs. 599/- (P.S: I got this book for review from the publisher ) The Last King in India is the story of an extraordinary man whose memory still divides opinion sharply today. Was he, as the British described him, a debauched ruler who spent his time with ‘fiddlers, eunuchs and women’ instead of running the kingdom? Or, as most Indians believe, a gifted poet whose works are still quoted today, and who was robbed of his throne by the East India Company? Somewhere between the two extremes lies a complex character, a man who married over 350 women, who directed theatrical events lasting a month and who built a fairytale palace in Lucknow. Wajid Ali Shah was written out of the history books after his kingdom was annexed in 1856. Some even thought he had been killed during the mutiny the following year. But he lived on in Calcutta where he spent the last thirty years of hi...

Introduction ·          ISBN: 978-81-8400-126-6 ·          Genre : Non-Fiction ·           Price: Rs.  399/- [ This book was given by the publisher for a review] ·          Pages : 354 ·          Publishers: Random House India Since childhood suspense and mystery has been my genre in reading. I have devoured greedily on Nancy Drew, Famous Five, Hardy boys as much as I have on Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Sheldon and Agatha Christie. And add to it history my favourite subject and make it a biography, it’s like a never before offer for me to difficult to resist. No wonder when read the blurb of this book I knew I had to read it for obvious reasons. Behind the Book: Source: Google Images The scandal that rocked the Raj