PLOT: 4/5 CHARACTERS: 4.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 Zimbabwe-born American author, filmmaker, producer M.K. Asante is a household name in the United States. Son of the widely known Molefi Kete Asante, the famous African American scholar, historian and philosopher, best known for his work on African-American studies and writings on Afro-centricity, […]
Thundergod: The Ascendance of Indra | Rajiv Menon | Book Review
PLOT: 3.5/5 CHARACTERS: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 CLIMAX: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 Among the plethora of mythological fiction authors that have swarmed the local bookstores and online retailers, some manage to make their mark in the world of literature, some manage to pass by as just another me-too and a few others come and go […]
Missing Varrun | Amar Agarwala | Book Review
PLOT: 3.5/5 CHARACTERS: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 CLIMAX: 3.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 “Family is not an important thing. It’s everything,” says the famous and one of most versatile Canadian American actor, producer and activist, Michael J. Fox. His is not the only opinion of such form, for we all know what family is and what […]
Delhi Is Not Far | Ruskin Bond | Book Review
DELHI IS NOT FAR IS ONE OF RUSKIN BOND’S BEST WORKS PLOT: 4/5 CHARACTERS: 4.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 As will be the case with most of the people who grew up in the 1990s, a major chunk of my childhood too was spent on watching Doordarshan sponsored children television programs. […]
The King’s Harvest | Chetan Raj Shrestha | Book Review
PLOT: 4.5/5 CHARACTERS: 4.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4.5/5 CLIMAX: 3 /5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4.5/5 I remember it was the summer of 1996; my aunt was newly married and still living with us when her tall, dark, handsome knight in shining armour came to stay with us (read stay with her) for two weeks. It was a […]
POW! | Mo Yan | Book Review
PLOT: 2/5 CHARACTERS: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 3/5 CLIMAX: 2.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 “Wise Monk, where I come from people call children who boast and lie a lot ‘Powboys’, but every word in what I’m telling you is the unvarnished truth.” Just as the author, I too would like to present my opinion in all honesty. […]
Kasab: The Face of 26/11 | Rommel Rodrigues | Book Review
SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 4/5 RELEVANCE: 5/5 WRITING STYLE: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 Throughout modern Indian history, there have been some events which have forever left a cavity so deep, that even the mighty Arabian Sea cannot attempt to fill it in its lifetime. One such atrocious disfigurement of the beautiful face of our Mother India […]
The Making of Tesco: A Story of British Shopping | Sarah Ryle | Book Review
SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 3/5 HISTORICAL/ACADEMIC VALUE: 3.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 We all love shopping. We all love the way so many retail outlets are now giving us the shopping experience that we all have always wanted. We enjoy a wide array of choices and unbeatable prices. But the world was not the […]
The Redeemers | Suresh Taneja | Book Review
PLOT: 4/5 CHARACTERS: 3.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 2.5/5 CLIMAX: 2.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 Suresh Taneja’s The Redeemers shows you an ideal India of 2030. It gives you hope and the power to dream; it is inspiring, but in the end, it gives an idealist way and not a perfect way to fight corruption. The book was […]
Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management | Devdutt Pattanaik | Book Review
SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 3.5/5 RELEVANCE: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 4.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 I have always known Devdutt Patnaik as a writer on Indian mythology, so when I came across this title – Business Sutra – it was a little surprising. Having studied management myself, I am always eager to read books on the subject (though […]
The Lost River: On The Trail Of The Sarasvati | Michel Danino | Book Review
SUBJECT: 5/5 RESEARCH: 4.5/5 HISTORICAL/ACADEMIC VALUE: 5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 2.5/5 Michel Danino was a French national who left France in 1977, to come to India and has since then lived in India. He has been a voracious scholar and an extensive researcher ever since, with his theory of “Indigenous Aryans” being critically […]
Complete/Convenient | Ketan Bhagat | Book Review
PLOT: 3.5/5 CHARACTERS: 3.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 CLIMAX: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 Chetan Bhagat taught India to read. Now his younger sibling Ketan Bhagat has joined the coveted “author” bandwagon by penning his debut Complete/Convenient. I know it’s really not fair of me to introduce the debut author by relating to his brother, but then […]