Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:22:41 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/srigannada-:-contemporary-kannada-writings-2-114418.html A compilation comprising the most incisive, original and evocative voices to come out of Karnataka in the last two decades. In Srigannada—‘the wealth that is Kannada’—eminent writer Vivek Shanbhag has brought together essays, fiction and poetry that best represent the last two decades of literature in this language, lush with meaning and nuance. Significantly, writers in Kannada have received the highest number of Jnanpith Awards, and this compilation amply demonstrates why they been singled out time after time for that distinction. The anthology includes established litterateurs like U.R. Ananthamurthy, Girish Karnad and Chandrashekhar Kambar, as well as newer writers such as Sunanda Kadame. They have tackled a wide range of issues— globalization, caste, displacement, reality shows—that reflect the dramatic social and economic changes that have taken place over the last twenty years. Srigannada is an anthology that holds a mirror before the diverse cultures and many societies that exist within the contemporary Kannada world.

Author: Vivek Shanbhag  Publisher: WESTLAND]]> Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/madhouse-:-true-stories-of-the-inmates-of-hostel-4-2-114420.html Read about the extraordinary experiences of a batch of 1983, and in particular the residents of Hostel 4 or H4, at IIT Bombay, who are today well-known politicians, international strategists, IT czars and successful entrepreneurs…

Author: Edited by Urmilla Deshpande Contributing Editor Bakul Desai  Publisher: WESTLAND]]> Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/first-proof-6-2-113823.html What First Proof says is, buy the ticket, take your chances, come on board—the view is pretty good from where we sit.’—Time Out In First Proof we continue to publish the best new writing from India. The selections in this sixth volume range from essays, short stories and poems to memoirs, ethnographies and profiles. You will discover exciting first-time writers and come across familiar names writing in new genres. You will also read some outstanding translations of writers from Indian languages. This collection is rich proof that variety continues to thrive in Indian writing.

Author: VARIOUS]]> Sun, 14 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/beach-book-best-beach-stories-under-the-2-102295.html Living in splendid isolation on the shores of Kenya, a blind hermit finds that his knowledge of poisonous seashells can save livesforcing a haunting reckoning . . . Paradise turns out to be a mixed blessing when a crafty old businessman retires to Miami Beach . . . A young globetrotter winds up stranded in a Thailand beach shack, determined to shed the baggage of his Western identity . . . In these and seven other stories, The Beach Book gathers a seminal selection of fiction set on beaches around this big blue globe. Internationally acclaimed authors like Gabriel Garcma Marquez and Isaac Bashevis Singer, as well as emerging voices such as Anthony Doerr and Frederick Reiken, have all written eloquently about the sea's siren song. Why does the beach seem to promise nothing short of paradise on earth? The Beach Book is completely waterproof. Put it right in your tote bag along with your sunscreen and beach ball. It's the perfect companion for a day of sand and surf.

Publisher: DORLING KINDERSLEY]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/ex-libris-2-102296.html The author is the sort of person who learned about sex from her father s copy of Fanny Hill , and who once found herself poring over a 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only thing in her apartment that she had not read at least twice. This title recounts her lifelong obsession with books.

Author: Fadiman, A  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/love-in-a-fallen-city-2-102297.html Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentiethcentury China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. This title presents a collection in English of her body of work, and introduces readers to the stark and glamorous vision of a modern master.

Author: Chang, Eileen  Publisher: PENG MOD CLASSICS]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/penguin-book-of-historic-speeches-2-102298.html Great leaders of history have sought to take their followers to the promised land through the uplifting power of speech. Editor Brian MacArthur surveys the greatest oratory past and present. From Moses to Abraham Lincoln, he shows that great speeches can be placed alongside the work of artists, poets, and priests and read with the same pleasure and intellectual enlightenment.

Author: Macarthur, Brian  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/penguin-book-of-twentieth-century-speech-2-102299.html Whether it was Churchill rousing the British to war, Castro inspiring the Cuban revolution, or Clinton defending himself against Monica Lewinsky, great speakers have always had the power to stir hearts, uphold great ideals, and lead nations to new frontiers. This newly revised edition of The Penguin Book of Twentieth Century Speeches includes a new introduction and twentynine new selections, such as the words spoken by Earl Spencer at Princess Diana's funeral, Nelson Mandela's Let Freedom Sing speech, and Bill Clinton's 1998 apology to the American people.

Author: Macarthur, Brian  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/poolside-durabooks--2-102300.html Poolside is a waterproof collection of fourteen stories about the satisfactions (and tribulations) of swimming lessons, summer scenes at club pools, chance encounters at the rec centerand just plain floating. The perfect companion for a day of dipping and people watching, Poolside is as necessary as sunscreen for achieving maximum poolside bliss. Poolside features internationally acclaimed authors Alice Adams, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, David Foster Wallace, Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever, and AM Homes, as well as emerging voices such as Julie Orringer and Andrea Lee.

Publisher: DORLING KINDERSLEY]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/convergence-of-birds-a-2-102301.html Jonathan Safran Foer has long had a passion for the work of the twentiethcentury American assemblage artist Joseph Cornell. Inspired by Cornell's avianthemed boxes, and suspecting that they would be similarly inspiring to others, Foer began to write letters. The responses he received from luminaries of American writing were nothing short of astounding. Twenty writers generously contributed pieces of prose and poetry that are as eclectic as they are imaginative, and the result is a unique collaborative project and one of the most significant engagements of literature with art for many years.

Author: Foer, Jonathan Safran (Editor)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/fish-fishing-the-meaning-of-life-2-102302.html An anthology, featuring both contemporary and historical writing about fishing in prose and verse, covering various things from tench tickling to piranha attacks.

Author: Paxman, Jeremy  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/little-book-of-hope-2-102303.html Are you convinced that the future holds something really worth looking forward to? And that tomorrow has even more to offer than today? When it comes to hope and optimism, the formula is simple if you assume there is hope, you have hope. This book aims to bring you hopefilled inspirations to make tomorrow a time to look forward to.

Author: Wilson, Paul  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/little-book-of-quitting-2-102304.html Containing more than 100 phrases, this book is intended for those who want to give up or for people eager to help smokers kick the habit.

Author: Carr, A  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/magic-tales-my-penguin-2-102305.html Presents a collection of folk tales that conjure up a world of spells and bewitchment, outwitted villains and cruel stepmothers, animal bridegrooms and enchanted princesses. This work includes stories such as Hansel and Gretel and The Robber Bridegroom , BriarRose , Snowwhite , The Frog King , The Blue Lamp , Thickasathumb , and more.

Author: Grimm, Jacob  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/making-it-home-2-102306.html This is a poignant and inspiring collection of stories by refugee children from all over the world. Told through their eyes, it promises to be a compelling insight into the plight of the world's refugees. The youngest contributor, sixyearold Wachen Bohlen left wartorn Liberia, but wants to return because 'it is my country. It is my home.' The oldest is fifteenyearold Merci Ngubi from the Congo who spent two weeks trekking in the jungle with his family after fleeing from their home. Publication will coincide with International Refugee Week.

Author: Naidoo, Beverley  Publisher: PUFFIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-d-h-lawrence-2-102307.html EIGHT STORIES AND NOVELETTES, INCLUDING 'THE PRUSSIAN OFFICER', 'THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER', AND 'THE FOX'. SELF CONTAINED SECTIONS FROM 'THE RAINBOW' AND 'WOMEN IN LOVE', POEMS, TRAVEL WRITINGS, LETTERS, ESSAYS, CRITICISM.

Author: Lawernce, D H  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-amerecam-realism-reader-2-102308.html The Portable American Realism Reader collects fortyseven of the best stories published in the United States between 1865 and 1918 the most celebrated period of short fiction in American literary history. This great flowering of talent includes such classic stories as Mark Twain's Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog, Bret Harte's The Luck of Roaring Camp, Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, and Henry James's The Beast in the Jungle. The volume's editors have also expanded the sweep of American Realism to embrace works by less well known AfricanAmerican, AsianAmerican, and NativeAmerican writers. In addition, there is a special emphasis on the contributions of women writers to this crucial period of American letters, with stories by Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Mary Austin, among others. During the pivotal period of America's international emergence, between the Civil War and WWI, the aligned literary movements of Realism and Naturalism not only shaped the national literature of the age, but also left an indelible and farreaching influence on twentiethcentury American and world literature. Seeking to strip narrative from pious sentimentalities, and, according to William Dean Howells, to (paint) life as it is, and human feelings in their true proportion and relation, Realism is best represented by this volume's masterly pieces by Mark Twain (Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog), Henry James (The Beast in the Jungle), Stephen Crane (The Blue Hotel), Kate Chopin (Desiree's Baby), and Sarah Orne Jewett (A White Heron) among others. The joining of Realist methods with the theories of Marx, Darwin, and Spencer to reveal the larger forces (biological, evolutionary, historical) which move humankind, are exemplified here in the fiction of such writers as Jack London, Frank Norris, and Theodore Dreiser.

Author: Nagel & Quirk  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-chaucer-2-102309.html DESCRIPTION OF BOOK CONTAINS THE CANTERBURY TALES AND THEFIVE BOOKS OF TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, AND HAS BEEN EXPANDED TO INCLUDE LARGER PORTIONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESS AND THE BIRDS' PARLIAMENT, AS WELL ASTHE SHORT POEM NOBILITY.

Author: Chaucer, Geoffrey  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-graham-greene-2-102310.html A crosssection of Greene's work which consists of the novels The Heart of the Matter and The Third Man, excerpts from ten other novels, short stories, memoirs and travel writings, essays on literature and statements on political issues. A long critical biographical introduction is included.

Author: Philips, Stratford  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-harlem-renaissance-reader-2-102311.html From its beginnings in 1919, with soldiers returning from the Great War, to its sputtering end in 1934, with the Great Depression, the New Negro Movement in arts and letters proclaimed the experience of African American men and women. This magnificent volume features a wealth of fiction and nonfiction works by 45 writers from that exuberant era.

Author: Lewis, David Levering (Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-hawthorne-2-102312.html The Portable Hawthorne includes writings from each major stage in the career of Nathaniel Hawthorne a number of his most intriguing early tales, all of The Scarlet Letter, excerpts from his three subsequently published romances—The House of Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, and The Marble Faun—as well as passages from his European journals and a sampling of his last, unfinished works. The editor’s introduction and head notes trace the evolution of Hawthorne’s writing over the course of his long career from the tales, to their apotheosis in The Scarlet Letter, through his popular romances, to his private journals and frustrated attempts at another romance. Readers looking for a critical vantage point from which to see Hawthorne whole—his artistic rise, triumph, and sad decline—can find it in this collection.

Author: Hawthorne, Nathaniel  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-jack-london-2-102313.html Alfred Kazin has aptly remarked that the greatest story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived. Newsboy, factory work beast, gang member, hobo, sailor, Klondike argonaut, socialist crusader, war correspondent, utopian farmer, and worldfamous adventurer London is the closest thing America has had to a literary folk hero. His writing itself is concerned with nothing less than the largest questions and the grandest themes What does it mean to be a human being in the natural world? What debts do human beings owe each other and to all their fellow creatures? This collection places London, at last, securely within the American literary pantheon. It includes the complete novel The Call of the Wild; such famous stories as Love of Life, To Build a Fire, and All Gold Canyon; journalism, political writings, literary criticism, and selected letters.

Author: Labor, Earle  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-karl-marx-2-102314.html Presents an overview of the life and thoughts of Karl Marx. This book weaves together Marx s published works and letters into a tapestry of history and ideas. It also features tidbits from Marx s hand that help you understand the man and the history of his ideology, including his predictions on the fates of France and Russia.

Author: Marx, Karl  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-machiavelli-2-102315.html Features personal and professional works of Machiavelli. This book strives to do away with many of the myths that have plagued the man's posthumous fame.

Author: Machiavelli, N  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/portable-nietzsche-2-102316.html The works of Friedrich Nietzsche have fascinated readers around the world ever since the publication of his first book more than a hundred years ago. This book includes translations of the complete texts of Nietzsche s four major works Twilight of the Idols , The Antichrist , Nietzsche Contra Wagner and Thus Spoke Zarathustra .

Author: Nietzsche, F  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/selected-writings-2-102317.html Born in Nicaragua, RubA(c)n DarAo is known as the consummate leader of the Modernista movement, an esthetic trend that swept the Americas from Mexico to Argentina at the end of the nineteenth century. Seeking a language and a style that would distinguish the newly emergent nations from the old imperial power of Spain, DarAoas writing offered a refreshingly new vision of the worldaan artistic sensibility at once cosmopolitan and connected to the rhythms of nature. The first part of this collection presents DarAoas most significant poems in a bilingual format and organized thematically in the way DarAo himself envisioned them. The second part is devoted to DarAoas prose, including short stories, fables, profiles, travel writing, reportage, opinion pieces, and letters. A sweeping biographical introduction by distinguished critic Ilan Stavans places DarAo in historical and artistic context, not only in Latin America but in world literature.

Author: Dario, Ruben  Publisher: PENGUIN CLASSICS]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/classical-comedy-2-102318.html The ideal singlevolume introduction to the greatest masterpieces of ancient comedy From the fifth to the second century B.C., theatrical comedy flourished in Greece and Rome. This new anthology brings together four essential masterworks of the genre Aristophanesa bold, imaginative The Birds; Menanderas The Girl from Samos, which explores popular contemporary themes of mistaken identity and sexual misbehavior; and two later Roman comic playsaPlautusas The Brothers Menaechmus, the inspiration for Shakespeareas The Comedy of Errors; and Terenceas bawdy yet sophisticated double love plot, The Eunuch, Together, these four plays capture the genius of classical comedy for students, theatergoers, actors, lovers of satire, and anyone interested in the ancient world.

Author: Aristophanes  Publisher: PENGUIN CLASSICS]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/great-ideas-67-consolation-in-the-face-2-102319.html Ranging from art to marriage to morality, this book demonstrates the brilliance, perception and wit that made Samuel Johnson the leading man of letters of his day, and one of the finest essayists in the English language. It offers wise words on confronting grief at the loss of a loved one.

Author: Johnson, Samuel  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/under-the-duvet-2-102320.html Few writers in a generation achieve the consistently extraordinary sales of a Maeve Binchy or Catherine Cookson. now there is a new name to add to the superstars of womens fiction Marian Keyes. Critically acclaimed, her novels 'Watermelon', 'Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married', 'Rachel's Holiday' and 'Last Chance Saloon' have sold over the world in their millions. Setting the record straight about her life as a novelist (less glitz and glamour than sitting alone in a darkened bedroom with a laptop in front of her) Marian Keyes here presents a selection of her articles. These regular bulletins from a woman under the duvet include unpublished pieces.

Author: Keyes, Marian  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/little-aloud-a-2-86006.html We remember it from childhood. The unique comfort of being read to at bedtime, when we were ill, as a salve for the bumps and bruises of life. We knew it, we felt it. And now, science is showing it to be true. n We are on the cusp of a reading revolution. Increasingly, research is uncovering an intimate connection between reading and wellbeing. The seemingly simple act of being read to brings remarkable health and happiness benefits. It stimulates thought and memory, encourages the sharing of ideas and feelings, hopes and fears. It enriches our lives and minds. n This unique book offers a selection of prose and poetry especially suitable for reading aloud to your husband or wife, a sick parent or child, an elderly relative. Or to someone who finds it hard to concentrate for long, someone who finds reading difficult or simply someone who has never been given the chance to get into a really good book. With short introductions and discussion topics for each piece there s something here for everyone from Shakespeare and Black Beauty to Elizabeth Jennings and Bruce Chatwin. It puts great books in the hands and minds of people who need them.

Author: The Reader Organisation  Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE]]> Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/funniest-thing-you-never-said-2-2-88489.html The return of the 100,000 copy bestselling book of humorous quotations It's back! The bestselling , blockbusting, bumper book of humorous quotations rides back into town with over 6,000 new quotes. From times past to the modern day, classic funnies to contemporary wit, The Funniest Thing You Never Said 2 delivers an unbeatable selection of fantastic and hilarious quotes on every subject under the sun. Featuring topics as diverse as celebrity to religion, and including a cast of quotees ranging from Oscar Wilde to Homer Simpson, there's something here for everyone with a sense of humour.nn I am willing to love all mankind, except an American. Samuel Johnsonnn Glastonbury was very wet and muddy. There was trench foot, dysentery, peaches all the Geldof daughters. Sean Locknn Politics would be a helluva good business if it weren t for the goddamned people. Richard Nixonnn I ve had more women than most people have noses. Steve Martinnn I have the simplest tastes. I m always satisfied with the best. Oscar Wilde nn Well, it s 1am.Better go home and spend some quality time with the kids. Homer Simpsonnn All I know is I m not a Marxist. Karl Marxnn I m the pink sheep of the family. Alexander McQueen

Author: Jarski, Rosemarie  Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE]]> Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/feast-of-freud-a-2-88491.html A tribute, from his daughter, to the highly popular writer and broadcaster, the late Clement Freud. Clement Freud, who died suddenly in April 2009, was a man of many parts. His life embraced a variety of careers, including TV chef, gambler, owner of a night club and several racehorses, radio broadcaster, adventurer and, not least, Member of Parliament. Yet, as his son Matthew declared at his funeral, it was Freud's writing that brought us closest to the man. In addition to several books notably the children's book Grimble, Freud on Food, The Book of Hangovers and a volume of autobiography, Freud Ego, he wrote on a vast range of subjects for newspapers and magazines, including the "Observer," "Sun," "Financial Times," "Sporting Life," "Daily Mail," "Tatler," "Guardian," "New Yorker" and "Racing Post." A Feast of Freud presents a generous helping of Clement Freud's best and most humorous writing on a broad sweep of topics, including his consuming passions of food, sport, politics and the absurdity of the human condition, reflecting his extraordinarily varied life through the prism of his distinctive deadpan humour. From the pen of the man who once joked of being out-grandfathered by the younger Winston Churchill comes this richly stocked volume that every Freud fan, no matter in which of his many lives they encountered him, will treasure.

Author: Freud, Emma  Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE]]> Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/granta-112-pakistan-2-99150.html Thirty years on, Granta remains the world’s most prestigious English-language magazine of new writing.Filled with almost 200 million people speaking nearly sixty languages, brought into nationhood under the auspices of a single religion, but wracked with deep separatist fissures and the destabilizing forces of ongoing conflicts in Iran, Afghanistan and Kashmir, Pakistan is one of the most dynamic places in the world today. From the writers who are living outside the country – Kamila Shamsie and Nadeem Aslam – to those going back – Mohsin Hamid and Mohammed Hanif – to those who are living there and writing in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Baluchi and English, there is a startling opportunity to draw together an exciting collection of voices at the forefront of a literary renaissance. Other contributors include Fatima Bhutto and Basharat Peer. Granta 112: Pakistan will seize this moment, bringing to life the landscape and culture of the country in fiction, reportage, memoir, travelogue and poetry. Like the magazine’s issues on India and Australia, its release will be a watershed moment critically and a chance to celebrate the corona of talent which has burst onto the English language publishing world in recent years.

Author: JOHN FREEMAN  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/yaraana:-gay-writing-from-south-asia-2-94269.html ‘These are not pieces written out of literary ambition or to simply explore an appealing idea or concept; these are pieces that had to be written, that demanded to be created, that leaped up and caught their authors by the throats and said “write me” over and over again until it was done’—Ashok Banker An exploration of gay identity in South Asia. From Ashok Row Kavi’s autobiographical piece on growing up gay in Bombay to Vikram Seth’s brilliantly etched account of a homosexual relationship in The Golden Gate, the stories, poems, plays and prose extracts in this collection cover a range of literary styles, themes and sensibilities. Mahesh Dattani’s play Night Queen is significant as one of the first serious attempts at dramatizing homosexuality on the Indian stage; the poems by R. Raj Rao included here are part of a series that formed the basis for the Bollywood film Bomgay; and the poetry of Dinyar Godrej, Adil Jussawalla and Sultan Padamsee is searing in its intensity. Apart from the pieces written originally in English, there are works translated from Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and other Indian languages, which speak of the agony and the joy of being a man in love with other men. Extracts from the work of well-known writers including Bhupen Khakkar, Kamleshwar and Vishnu Khandekar provide a rare insight into the lives of homosexual men in India’s small towns and villages. An extract from Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy details an account of growing up gay in war-torn Sri Lanka, while K.C. Ajay, an illiterate taxi driver, gives us an alternate glimpse of love and friendship in Nepal. Pieces such as these along with the poetry of Agha Shahid Ali and Iftikhar Naseem expand the scope of this collection to include writers from South Asia. With wit, passion and courage, these writings bring to the fore the true meaning of yaraana or male friendship and bonding, an often ignored facet of South Asian life and sexuality.

Author: Merchant, Hoshang  Publisher: PENGUIN INDIA]]> Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/clear-blue-sky-a-:-stories-poems-on-2-84080.html 26/11, 9/11, 7/7—dates that have changed the way we see ourselves and those around us. Dates that have changed the world, and not for the better. Why is the world getting increasingly fragmented? Is there a way for us to understand different viewpoints better? In this collection, writers from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan—Gulzar, Elmo Jayawardena, Manjula Padmanabhan, Poile Sengupta, Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, Subhadra Sen Gupta and others—write about various kinds of conflict in our society and history. Some stories are dark, others full of light and hope, and some outright funny as they portray mindless bigots for what they are. When a church burns in Bangalore, the altar cloth ends up in the hands of Mubina, whose grandmother can clean and repair it like no one else; years after the Partition tore a friendship apart, two people try to find the happiness that was once within their reach; and while chasing away courting couples from the Delhi Ridge, a young thug learns a lesson about what really makes Indian ‘culture’. Interspersed with poems that articulate pleas for peace and understanding, this collection is sure to start a conversation on religion, race, caste, and mindsets that divide us.

Author: Narayana Murthy, N.R. (Foreword)  Publisher: PUFFIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/penguin-book-of-indian-journeys-2-95895.html A wonderful synecdoche for India: heterogeneous, contrary, suddenly seductive' — Hindustan Time `The Penguin Book of Indian Journeys is not exactly a collection of essays on trips to places familiar and unknown. It is so much more, that it would be a crime to describe its contents as travel pieces . . . It examines the petty and the large-hearted, the honest and the hypocritical, the smug, the defeated and the insecure . . . In the final analysis, Indian Journeys is like a parcel gift-wrapped in multiple layers, each one presenting the reader with a wonderful surprise that raises his expectations of the next'— Sunday Statesman `A treat ... With more than 35 pieces, the book gives a wide-angle view of contemporary India' — Indian Express `An exhilarating account of India, complete in its mosaic of contending architecture, climate, people, politics, emotions, ambitions and shibboleths'— Hindustan Times `[India] sets the literary imagination on fire. The brilliant and absorbing pieces in this collection are moulded in the heat of that dazzling flame . . . An essential read for all wanderers and intrepid travellers'— First City `Memorable pieces dominate: Jan Morris's exuberant essay on Darjeeling, Bruce Chatwin's ironic take on Mrs Gandhi, and Sarayu Ahuja's delightful portrait of a Madras Mami . . . You can scarcely wait till the bookshop opens so you can read the rest of their books' — Hindu

Author: Moraes, Dom (Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/my-life-in-my-words-hb--2-95919.html Tagore is so sentive and shows us another way to see life. This is not his best book, but if you want to start to read him, this is a good book to begin. Tagore is so sentive and shows us another way to see life. This is not his best book, but if you want to start to read him, this is a good book to begin.

Author: Tagore, Rabindranath (Tr. Uma Dasgupta)  Publisher: VIKING]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/writing-from-the-margin-and-other-essays-2-95920.html Like her fiction, the Shashi Despande's essays hold a universal appeal, even when firmly entrenched in the social realities of our everyday life and grappling with issues that are particularly Indian. Some of the finest pieces included in Writing From The Margin And Other Essays deal with language and writing: the prickly and often acrimonious issues of English, the deep and unfortunate divide between English and the regional languages, the importance and necessity of translations, the compulsions of the global market on literature, a writer's obligation to self-censorship, the moral vision that underscores all good writing, the unshakable worth of readers and much more. There are also essays in which the author talks about her own craft, how each one of her novels took shape, going into particulars and readily sharing confidentialities so that readers will experience the same intimacy they encounter in her novels. Much of her writing is shaped by the fact that she is a woman. With unflinching honesty she clearly articulates the difficulties of writing as a politically aware woman, touching upon matters of contention such as gender, feminism, marginalisation and the relevance of reworking myths. Thought-provoking and engaging, this collection showcases, for the first time, the broad sweep of Despande's non-fiction writing.

Author: Deshpande, Shashi  Publisher: VIKING]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/tenth-rasa-the-2-95917.html Tenth Rasa, The

Author: Heyman,M.,Satpathy,S.,Ravishankar,A.(Eds  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/unhurried-city-2-95918.html The Unhurried City, peppered with photographs and illustrations, puts together stories articles and poems which celebrate the amalgam that is Chennai. Absorbing, thought-provoking and rich in detail, this anthology is evocative of the spirit of an exceptional city.

Author: Lakshmi, C. S. (Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/shaam-e-awadh-2-95916.html In 1528 the Mughal Sultanate conquered and formally incorporated Awadh as one of its constituent provinces. With the decline of Mughal power the nawab-vaziers of awadh began to assert their independence. After the East India Company appropriated half of Awadh as ‘indemnity’, the then nawab, Asaf’ud Daulah, moved his capital to Lucknow in 1775. A move that resulted in the growth of the city and its distinctive culture known as ‘Lakhnavi tehzeeb’. Since then, Nawabi Lucknow has undergone enormous changes. The refinement of ‘pehle aap’ has all but disappeared. Originally built to support a hundred thousand people, amid palaces, gardens and orchards, the city now staggers under the burden of fifty times that number. Its unchecked growth and collapsed civic amenities are slowly draining the life and beauty of this once vibrant city. Its once rich and flamboyant culture has faded amidst the decay that has eaten into the fabric of the city, and smothered by the corruption and treachery that permeate the government. In separate pieces William Dalrymple and Barry Bearak trace the decline of Lucknow—the city, its architecture, people, politics, governance—and the sad end of the havelis and their once grandiose occupants. The elegiac Marsia tradition of the Shias strives to be heard over angry chants of ‘Hulla Bol’ of political rallies in Mrinal Pande’s account of her visit to the city. And, in his hyperbolic saga of seven generations of the fictional Anglo-Indian Trotter family, I. Allen Sealy meanders through two hundred years of Lucknow’s chequered history. However, despite the apparent disintegration, Lucknow’s ineffable spirit can still be found—in the tantalizing flavours of Lakhnavi cuisine, the delicate artistry of Chikankari; the legendary courtesans and the defiant voice of the rekhti; the melodious notes of the ghazal and thumri . . . Engaging and thoughtful, Shaam-e-Awadh: Writings on Lucknow celebrates the unique character of this city of carnivals and calamities

Author: Oldenburg, Veena Talwar (Edited by)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/reflected-in-water-2-95915.html Described variously as the Kashi of the South, the Rome of the East and the pearl of the Orient, Goa, located on the west coast of India, is renowned for its scenic charm, its beaches, and the architectural splendour of its temples, churches and old houses. With its sun-sand-surf leitmotif it is also the land of the lotus-eater, a tourist's paradise of fun and frolic, raves and revelry. But Goa is more than just the world's favourite holiday destination. Its unique history, shaped by the various dynasties that ruled it—the Rashtrakutas, the Kadambas and the Bahmani Muslims, before its 450-year-long occupation by the Portuguese from 1510—has given it a distinctive flavour, a different rhythm, an easy cosmopolitanism. Reflected in Water is a collection of essays, poems, stories and extracts from published works that bring to life both the natural beauty and the changing social and political ethos of India's smallest state. From Mario Cabral e Sa's delightful take on the earliest Portuguese women to come to India to Gita Mehta's description of hippies at Calangute, from Alexander Frater's mesmerizing account of Goa in the monsoon to Manohar Malgonkar's ode to the Mangeshi temple, this anthology celebrates the irreverent and the sacred in equal measure. Teotonia R. de Souza's profile of the little-known ‘opium smuggler who tried to liberate Goa' is as captivating as Frederick Noronha's portrait of Abb

Author: Pinto, Jerry (Ed)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/multiple-city-2-95914.html Founded by the chieftain Kempe Gowda around 1537, the story of Bangalore has no grand linear narrative. The location has revealed different facets to settlers and passers-through. The city, the site of bloody battles between the British and Tipu Sultan, was once attached to the glittering court of Mysore. Later, it became a cantonment town where British troops were stationed. Over time, it morphed into a city of gardens and lakes, and the capital of Indian scientific research. More recently, it has been the hub of India’s information technology boom, giving rise to Brand Bangalore, an Indian city whose name is recognized globally. Hidden beneath these layers lies a cosmopolitan city of sub-cultures, engaging artists and writers, young geeks and students. People from every corner of India and beyond now call it home. In this collection of writings about a multi-layered city, there are stories from its history, translations from Kannada literature, personal responses to the city’s mindscape, portraits of special citizens, accounts of searches for lost communities and traditions, among much more. U.R. Ananthamurthy writes about Bangalore’s Kannada identity; Shashi Deshpande maps the city through the places she has lived in since she was a young girl; Anita Nair draws a touching portrait of a florist who celebrates the glories of the Raj; Ramachandra Guha describes his close bond with Bangalore’s most unusual bookseller; and Rajmohan Gandhi recounts the Mahatma’s trysts with the city. From traditional folk ballads to a nursery rhyme about Bangalore, from poems to blogs, from reproductions of turn of the twentieth century picture postcards to cartoons, Multiple City is the portrait of a metropolis trying to retain its roots as it hurtles into the future.

Author: De, Aditi  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/last-bungalow-2-95913.html Located at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the invisible Saraswati, Allahabad, or ‘Godville’—the ‘babu’ translation of the name that Mark Twain came across—has been frequented by pilgrims for two thousand years. However, it was only towards the latter half of the nineteenth century that Allahabad shed its identity as another dusty north Indian town and emerged as one of the premier cities of the Raj and the capital of the North-West Provinces. This metamorphosis, ironically, was brought about by colonial rule, whose beginnings Fanny Parkes has described at great length. Allahabad was the home not only of the Pioneer newspaper, where Kipling was employed, but also of literary figures like Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’. Its university, one of the oldest in the country, attracted students from far and wide. Visited by the Buddhist scholar Hsiuan Tsang in the seventh century, the city is today visited by spiritual con men and con women, as well as ordinary pilgrims, who come to attend the Magh and Kumbh Melas. As Kama Maclean’s essay shows, far from being an ancient religious festival, the Kumbh Mela, which is held every twelve years, originated as recently as the 1860s. Colonial Allahabad, along with the intellectual energy that colonialism generated, has all but disappeared. The bungalows have gone, and so have the last of those who inhabited them. Their descendants can only recall a lost time. In 1824, Bishop Heber wrote that Allahabad was a ‘desolate and ruinous’ place. Three years later, Mirza Ghalib compared it to hell, only hell was better. But for Jawaharlal Nehru, Allahabad was where he was born and where he cut his political teeth; for Nayantara Sehgal, it was a model for civilized living; for Ved Mehta, it was, like other Indian cities, ‘a jumble of British, Muslim, and Hindu influences’; for Saeed Jaffrey, it was a place where a good time could be had, while one picked up a decent education; for Gyanranjan, it was a city one could fall in love with in one’s youth; and for I. Allan Sealy, it was his parents’ home town, a reservoir of family lore. The Last Bungalow: Writings on Allahabad is a memorial to a now forgotten city, whose rise was as meteoric as its fall.

Author: Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna (Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/city-improbable-2-95911.html City Improbable is an anthology that brings together writings on Delhi by residents, refugees,travellers and invaders who have engaged with the city at various moments in itslong history. Amir Khusrau, Ibn Battura, Samsam-ud-Daula and Niccolao Manuccirecord the glories and follies of prominent kings and emperors, from AnangpalTomar to Shah Jahan. Timur Lane tells the story of his own bloody invasion ofthe city, Khushwant Singh of an untouchable in the time of Aurangzeb, WilliamDalrymple of the first intrepid Englishmen in Delhi, and Ghalib and Hodson ofthe war of 1857. There are also vignettes of everyday life - a Jat household inthe nineteenth century; vendors and housewives in Ballimaran during the SecondWorld War; lovers and joggers in Lodi Garden; happy parties at the discos. Thecontemporary pieces, most of them specially commissioned for the collection,constitute a bitter-sweet ode to modern Delhi. The book is acollection as varied and lively - sometimes serious, sometimes richly humorous -as Delhi itself.

Author: Singh, Khushwant (Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/first-proof-1-2-95912.html The Penguin Book of New Writing from India 2005 An anthology of new writing and new writers, and established writers writing in a new genre-"First Proof" showcases original and brilliant non-fiction and fiction. The collection includes works in progress, essays, short stories, and a graphic short. Among the nonfiction in this volume is an account of a childhood in boarding school, a portrait of Naipaul on his first visit to India in the 60s, reportage on Sri Lanka, the RSS, a don in Bihar, an essay on the Bollywood vamp, and glimpses of Kashmir. Fiction includes themes of incest, suicide, love, lust, familial bonds, human relationships, loneliness, dysfunctional people, and a graphic vignette with London as a backdrop.

Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/bombay-meri-jaan-2-95910.html When King Charles II of England married Princess Catherine de Braganza of Portugal in 1661, he received as part of his dowry the isles of Bom Bahia, the Good Bay. Reclaimed from the sea, these would become the modern city of Bombay. A marriage of affluence and abject poverty, where a grey concrete jungle is the backdrop to a heady potpourri of ethnic, linguistic and religious subcultures, Bombay, renamed Mumbai after the goddess Mumbadevi, defies definition. Bombay, Meri Jaan, comprising poems and prose pieces by some of the biggest names in literature, in addition to cartoons, photographs, a song and a Bombay Duck recipe, tries to capture the spirit of this great metropolis. Salman Rushdie, Pico Iyer, Dilip Chitre, Saadat Hasan Manto, V.S. Naipaul, Khushwant Singh and Busybee, among others, write about aspects of the city: the high-rise apartments and the slums; camaraderie and isolation in the crowded chawls; bhelpuri on the beach and cricket in the gully; the women's compartment of a local train; encounter cops who battle the underworld; the jazz culture of the sixties; the monsoon floods; the Shiv Sena; the cinema halls; the sea. Vibrant, engaging and provocative, this is an anthology as rich and varied as the city it celebrates.

Author: Pinto, Jerry & Fernandes, Naresh (Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/penguin-book-of-classic-urdu-stori-hb-2-95908.html Though barely a hundred years old, the Urdu short story, or ‘afsana', has established itself at the forefront of Urdu literature. Emerging as a discrete narrative genre with Munshi Premchand, it gained momentum with the Progressive Writers' Movement in the 1930s. The partition of the subcontinent in 1947 introduced new dynamics into the genre as writers grappled with emerging trends of modernism and symbolism as well as with a depleted readership in India and the challenge of establishing a new literary tradition commensurate with a new nationhood in Pakistan. The Penguin Book of Classic Urdu Stories brings together sixteen memorable tales that have influenced generations of readers. From Saadat Hasan Manto's immortal partition narrative ‘Toba Tek Singh' and the harrowing realism of Premchand's ‘The Shroud' to the whimsical strains of Qurratulain Hyder's ‘Confessions of St Flora of Georgia' and the daring experimentation of Khalida Husain's ‘Millipede', this definitive collection represents the best of short fiction in Urdu. In the process, it provides a glimpse of the works of acclaimed masters on both sides of the border—Ismat Chughtai and Ashfaq Ahmad, Rajinder Singh Bedi and Intizar Husain, Krishan Chander and Hasan Manzar, Naiyer Masud and Ikramullah.

Author: Asaduddin, M. (Ed)  Publisher: VIKING]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/tomorrow-s-india-:-another-tryst-with-de-2-95909.html Almost sixty years ago, Nehru spoke of India’s tryst with destiny at the dawn of Independence. In the Constitution of the new republic that was framed a few years later, the goals and values of that vision were unfolded. How far have we progressed since then and what is it that destiny now holds for tomorrow’s India? The present volume of essays surveys the scene past-forward and paints a picture of what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. There is pride and satisfaction in particular over India’s vibrant democracy and progress in many directions. This is nonetheless tinged with concern, for there are nagging problems of governance and shortfalls in human and infrastructure development, as well as social deficits in the matter of rights, corruption and sectoral and regional imbalances. All these must be squarely faced and speedily overcome if the nation is to grow in keeping with its increasingly recognized potential as a rising great power. It has been widely forecast that within thirty years India, together with the United States and China, will constitute the three largest economies in the world. The wellsprings of growth are there. However, as more than one author points out, mere economic and technological growth is not enough. In this globalizing world the market is not all. The citizen must march hand in hand with the consumer in a sharing and caring society. The twenty-four essayists who write of Tomorrow’s India do so in celebration of the 125th anniversary of their alma mater, Delhi’s St Stephen’s College. Their themes relate to diplomacy and security; the economy and technology; governance; society’s watchdogs; ideology and values; social change; and culture and heritage. The authors represent a galaxy of public figures, academics, professionals and social workers. What they have to say makes compelling reading, with penetrating insights and critiques. Contributors include George Abraham, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Rukmini Banerji, Ranjit Bhatia, Ravi Dayal, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Sagarika Ghose, Navina Haidar Haykel, Prem Shankar Jha, Manoj Joshi, Mukul Kesavan, Arun Kumar, Sarwar Lateef, Arun Maira, Harsh Mander, Deepak Nayyar, Bunker Roy, Vikramjit Sen, Kapil Sibal, Dilip Simeon, K. Natwar Singh, N.K. Singh, B.G. Verghese and Sitaram Yechury

Author: Verghese, B. G. (Ed. )  Publisher: VIKING]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/memory-s-gold-2-95907.html This anthology brings together essays, stories, poems and memoirs of people who have shared an ardent relationship with Calcutta. From Henry Meredith Parker’s early nineteenth-century vignettes of life in the city to Ulrike Draesner’s overwrought images at the turn of the new millennium, from Tagore’s elegiac reminiscences of his childhood home to Sandipan Chattopadhyay’s hallucinogenic depictions of nights spent on the footpath, Memory’s Gold celebrates the coexistence of the sacrosanct and the blasphemous, so characteristic of Calcutta itself.

Author: Edited by Amit Chaudhuri  Publisher: VIKING]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/delhi:-adventures-in-a-megacit-2-95906.html This is an extraordinary portrait of one of the world’s largest cities. Sam Miller sets out to discover the real Delhi, a city he describes as being ‘India’s dreamtown—and its purgatory.’ He treads the city streets, making his way through Delhi and its suburbs, visiting its less celebrated destinations—Nehru Place, Rohini, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon—that most writers ignore. Miller’s quest is the here and now, the unexpected, the ignored and the eccentric. All the obvious ports of call–the ancient monuments, the imperial buildings and the celebrities of modern Delhi—make only passing appearances. Through his encounters with Delhi’s people—from a professor of astrophysics to a crematorium attendant, from ragpickers to members of the Police Brass Band—Miller creates a richly entertaining portrait of what Delhi means to its residents, and of what the city is becoming. Miller is, like so many of the people he meets, a migrant in one of the world’s fastest growing megapolises and the Delhi he depicts is one whose future concerns us all. Miller possesses an intense curiosity; he has an infallible eye for life’s diversities, for all the marvellous and sublime moments that illuminate people’s lives. This is a generous, original, humorous portrait of a great city; one which unerringly locates the humanity beneath the mundane, the unsung and the unfamiliar.

Author: Miller, Sam  Publisher: VIKING]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/breaking-the-big-story-2-95905.html As a watchdog of public interest and the voice of the small man, it is the duty of the media to uphold democracy of exposing what those in authority may prefer to gloss over or hide. But in this age of instant communication and twenty-four-hour television, the focus is on breaking the story as it happens, with little attempt interpret and analyse. In this context, when everything appears ‘big’ and yet superficial, has the ‘big story’ become defunct or is it more important than ever before? Breaking the Big Story showcases great moments in Indian Journalism, when journalists chose to lead rather than follow the mob, to investigate and forewarn, to expose corruption at the highest level, to intervene as ghastly events unfolded in a bit to pre-empt them , to cover ethnic strife in foreign lands, to tear away the blinkers from the eyes of a gullible nation that sought refuge in its sporting icons, to pose as arms dealers and investigate dubious aspects of defence purchases, to cover communal clashes and point to a new direction. In short, to break a big story. This volume brings together nine essays on major stories or exposes by their authors in the Indian Print or electronic media. Raajkumar Keswani writes about his attempts to warn people of the looming dangers posed by Union Carbide in Bhopal and the death three years later of thousands of people following the gas leak. Sampad Mahapatra questions the 100 years old definition of death by starvation and discovers that people will eat any thing to keep death at bay. Sanjoy Hazarika, Teesta Setalvad and Muzamil Jaleel relive the horrors perpetuated in the name of ethnicity and identity in Assam, Gujarat and Kashmir. Anita Pratap recollects similar problems across the waters in Sri Lanka. Chitra Subramaniam retraces the trail of kickbacks in the Bofors-India Howitzer deal to high offices in the country. Tarun Tejpal goes a step further to show that corruption cuts across party hues. And Pradeep Mazagine writes about his meeting with a bookie and how the subsequent exposure of cricket match-fixing did not really come as a surprise. The nine essays in this collection, written long after the big stories were first published, evoke a range of emotions: compassion, shame, horror, outrage, disgust. They raise issues of media and governmental responsibility and document how democracy and the fourth estate have matured in India.

Author: Verghese, B. G. ( Ed. )  Publisher: VIKING]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/byob-bringing-your-own-bytes-2-95903.html Some extraordinary initiatives that have helped reinvent governance by making imaginative use of information and communication technology Governance is always in a state of flux largely due to the continuous delegation of power by governments to different administrative authorities, resulting in the multiplication of government agencies. The modern day ‘information society’, a product of the significant developments in information and communication technologies, has surely been beneficial, but it has also complicated governance. Fortunately, the same technologies have come to the rescue and are now being used for e-Governance. This inspirational collection of twelve case studies by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, brings into focus the creators of some very successful e-Governance initiatives that have used technology to better people’s lives. Different governments and local bodies—eight from India and four from South Africa, Canada and Singapore—have significantly bettered their efficiency and effectiveness with the help of these projects; these initiatives have also made these organizations more accessible and accountable. The enormous cost-saving opportunities alone make e-Governance the best tool of governance. This book would motivate not only other government agencies, but also those in the corporate sector who feel that the time has come to increase transparency, efficiency and accountability in the working of companies through corporate e-Governance.

Publisher: PENGUIN ENTERPRISE]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/speaking-for-myself-2-95904.html Speaking for Myself

Author: ed: Sukrita Paul Kumar and Malashri Lal  Publisher: PENGUIN ENTERPRISE]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/blogprint-2-95902.html The best of the Blogprint online writing contest Sulekha.com, the largest online community connecting Indians worldwide and one of the most eclectic online writing platforms on the Internet, hosted an online writing competition in 2007-2008 with the intent of encouraging and rewarding the burgeoning world of online writers. The contest went on to become the biggest competition of its kind on the net with thousands of entries. This exciting book brings you the finest entries of BLOGPRINT: The Sulekha.com-Penguin Online Writing Contest. The winning entries in this anthology are as varied as the Internet itself; some entries argue a point, others tell stories that allow us glimpses of life in India, still others seek to simply entertain. From an amateur photographer writing about his first-hand experiences of the 9/11 disaster to a poignant short story which explores the relationship between a postman and an old widow, from the chronicle of a ‘miracle’ in a middle-class Mumbai home to the lamentations of a blogger on patriarchy, BLOGPRINT is testimony in ink and paper to the diversity of the blogosphere.

Author: Sulekha.com  Publisher: PENGUIN ENTERPRISE]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/where-the-rain-is-born-:-writi-2-95901.html The southernmost part of India was born, it is said, when the mighty Parasurama—sixth avatar of Vishnu—threw his battle axe to carve out the territory that would henceforth be his. And thus begins the story of Kerala, the land of coconut palms (kera), backwaters and lagoons; joyous temple festivals, classical kathakali and ayurvedic healing. In this anthology, writers as diverse as Arundhati Roy, Ramachandra Guha, O.V. Vijayan, Vaikkom Mohammad Basheer and Kamala Das combine to bring alive the languid beauty and charged social and political ethos of this tiny state that has been listed as one of the top fifty holiday destinations in the world. Shashi Tharoor writes of indolent summer vacations spent in his grandmother’s house in a small village in southern Kerala; Alexander Frater captures in mesmerizing prose the spectacle of the dark monsoon clouds as they rush towards the coast, heralding the arrival of the south-west monsoon in India; Pankaj Mishra describes his experience in a ‘no-Indians please’ seaside hotel in Kovalam. Salman Rushdie’s evocation of life in Cochin, with its mixed Jewish and Portuguese legacies, brings alive the historical roots of the ancient port city, while Dalrymple, walking the narrow streets of contemporary Kochi, is surprised by the discovery of a living church of St. Thomas—the first known Christian visitor to these parts. At the other end of the spectrum are Father Alphonse and his band of villagers in idyllic Mayyazhi, Mukundan’s Mahe, where French and Malayali influences fight for dominance. Changing lifestyles and the gradual erosion of past values and traditions in favour of a seemingly modern, yet paradoxically conservative society engage the interest of several of the writers featured in this collection. The tempered nostalgia of being a part of the royal family of Thiruvananthapuram, the fierce patriotism of the ‘Gulf-returned’ Malayali, and the reality of male-female hierarchies in a community that likes to boast of its strong matrilineal traditions make for a bitter-sweet depiction of today’s Kerala where high literacy and excellent health care are balanced by the highest rates of suicide and unemployment in India. A combination of essays, short stories, poems and extracts from published works both in English and Malayalam—including perennial favourites like Chemmeen and The Legends of Khasak—this anthology affords a tantalizing glimpse into the rich and varied layers of experience that Kerala has to offer. Contributors include: Arundhati Roy Pankaj Mishra David Davidar William Dalrymple O.V. Vijayan M.T. Vasudevan Nair Sreekumar Varma Jaishree Misra Suresh Menon M. Mukundan Vijay Nambisan Kamala Das Geeta Doctor Vaikom Muhammad Basheer

Author: Nair, Anita (Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/untold-charminar-the-2-95900.html A dazzling collection that captures the essence of Hyderabad, offering glimpses of the various strands that go into its making – fact and legend; old-world quaintness and the highest hi-tech; eccentricity and intrigue; the calm of genteelness and the fury of rebellion Hyderabad is a city once ruled by the world’s richest man who invested most lavishly in his state, most shabbily in his wardrobe; it holds stories of a courtesan who fought wars, counselled prime ministers, sang her own verse and enthralled luminaries who mattered; of a chief minister who transformed it into a hi-tech hub; and of a sports star who brought the young glamour of India to every tennis court in the world. Home as much to the Golconda as to Jacob, the 187-carat diamond used as a paperweight by the Nizam, and to rock landscapes two and a half million years old, Hyderabad is a city that forever mixes cultures, cuisines, religions and languages. Here, Persian turned alloy with Telugu, Marathi and Arabic to yield a special version of Urdu, Dakhini. And here, as Andhra mingled with Telangana, a smiling mildness has survived, disarming at every turn, just as grace under pressure, regardless of gender, is unfailing. In The Untold Charminar readers will discover a city they will want to explore, as Sarojini Naidu, Sir Mark Tully and William Dalrymple rub shoulders with Ian Austin, Meenakshi Mukherjee and Anees Jung, regaling you with their feast of hard facts and hearsay; as each foreign visitor shares his story through Narendra Luther; as the film-makers Shyam Benegal and Nagesh Kukunoor paint their vivid memories of home; as poets, not just the maverick Makhdoom and Gaddar, raise their voices in song; as statesmen, academics and aficionados hold forth on the completely different Hyderabad each experienced. And when Tejaswini Niranjana profiles the vigilante Vijayasanthi and Dharmender Prasad picks out place names and explains their sometimes almost mystic origins, as Bachi Karkaria, Omkar Goswami and Harsha Bhogle share their typically offbeat views of a favourite city, readers will be persuaded to believe they have encountered not a city but the inner workings of a very complex character.

Author: Imam, Syeda (ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/unbordered-memories-2-95899.html If Partition changed the lives of Sindhi Hindus who suffered the loss of home, language and culture, and felt unwanted in their new homeland, it also changed things for Sindhi Muslims. The Muslims had to grapple with a nation that had suddenly become unrecognizable and where they found themselves to be second-class citizens. Not used to the Urdu, the mosques and the new avatars of domination, they were bewildered by the new Islamic state of Pakistan. Sindh as a nation had simultaneously become elusive for both communities. In Unbordered Memories we witness Sindhis from India and Pakistan making imaginative entries into each other’s worlds. Many stories in this volume testify to the Sindhi Muslims’ empathy for the world inhabited by the Hindus, and the Indian Sindhis’ solidarity with the turbulence experienced by Pakistani Sindhis. These writings from both sides of the border fiercely critique the abuse of human dignity in the name of religion and national borders. They mock the absurdity of containing subcontinental identities within the confines of nations and of equating nations with religions. And they continually generate a shared, unbordered space for all Sindhis— Hindus and Muslims.

Author: Kothari, Rita (Edited and Translated)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/that-man-on-the-road-2-95897.html That Man On The Road

Author: Rao, Ranga  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/tiger-tales-2-95898.html The tiger’s enduring appeal has generated a vast body of literature. This anthology, compiled from non-fiction sources by tiger scientist and conservationist K. Ullas Karanth, opens up a captivating world of rich descriptions, deeply felt personal experiences and serious reflections by hunters, amateur naturalists and wildlife scientists who encountered this most charismatic of all animal species. The first section of the book explores tiger hunting and old-style natural history, and revives some of the earliest essays on the tiger. Historian Mahesh Rangarajan’s overview of the pre-colonial and colonial periods, when ruthless hunting of tigers was the dominant social ethos, sets the stage for English forester C.E.M. Russell’s narration of tiger hunting in Mysore, published in 1900. Then follow tales by hunter-naturalists Dunbar Brander, Fred Champion, Kenneth Anderson, William Baz

Author: Karanth, Ullas K (Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/ruskin-bond-s-book-of-nature-2-95896.html A delightful read… no one understands nature like Ruskin Bond and it takes his ability to put this wonder into words’—Deccan Chronicle For over half a century, Ruskin Bond has celebrated the wonder and beauty of nature as few other contemporary writers have, or indeed can. This collection brings together the best of his writing on the natural world, not just in the Himalayan foothills that he has made his home, but also in the cities and small towns that he lived in or travelled through as a young man. In these pages, he writes of leopards padding down the lanes of Mussoorie after dark, the first shower of the monsoon in Meerut that brings with it a tumult of new life, the chorus of insects at twilight outside his window, ancient banyan trees and the short-lived cosmos flower, a bat who strays into his room and makes a night less lonely… This volume proves, yet again, that for the serenity and lyricism of his prose and his sharp yet sympathetic eye, Ruskin Bond has few equals. ‘Once again this writer from Mussoorie captivates with his collection of nature pieces —Sunday Midday ‘Bond uses his pen as a brush to paint sensuous images of his experiences with nature and beckons his readers into his imagination … a book that relaxes the eyes, rests the mind, lulls the noise and lets one drift into the idyllic life with nature that most of us are unable to lead’—Dawn

Author: Bond, Ruskin  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/non-fiction-collection-1-:-20-years-of-p-2-95894.html For some years now, it’s been happy season for books and publishing in India. But the most  enduring success story in English-language trade publishing in the country—indeed in all of Asia—began long before this. The present gold rush owes a great deal to the foresight of Penguin, easily the most prestigious global publisher, which made a home here when the world wasn’t yet in thrall to the Indian market. Penguin India began operating at a time when trade publishing in English was virtually unknown in the country. The company launched its local programme in 1987 with seven titles: two novels in English and one in translation from Bengali, two biographies, a travelogue and a book of poems. Two decades on, it publishes 200 new books annually across a wide range of genres. Along the way, it has published authors from every country in the Subcontinent. In 2005, with the launch of its Hindi list, Penguin became the first global publisher to publish in an Indian language other than English, and now releases over sixty titles every year in Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and Urdu. When it was set up in a two-bedroom flat in New Delhi, Penguin India’s most valuable asset was a boardroom table made of teak, at which strategies were devised, contracts signed and commitments made. Today, the table is no longer listed among the company’s assets. Instead, it can boast the finest list of Indian authors (or authors of Indian origin) anywhere in the world. And the list keeps growing: among the long-admired names we’ll publish in the coming months are Kamala Markandaya, with her posthumous novel Bombay Tiger, and Amitav Ghosh, with his stunning new novel Sea of Poppies, the first in a trilogy. Penguin India’s publishing remains as vibrant and confidently eclectic as our first clutch of titles promised. Our best authors, our true wealth, have stayed with us through the years, and helped us bring the best in contemporary Indian and international literature to readers everywhere. These commemorative volumes of the finest writing we’ve published up to our twentieth year are dedicated to each one of them. Showcased here are authors who have topped best-seller charts in India and abroad, and won virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Jnanpith Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. It is unlikely you will find a richer, more representative collection of writing from or about South Asia. Now, when virtually every major international trade publisher is present in India, the fastest-growing English-language publishing market in the world, Penguin India remains committed to the vision laid out on that teak table twenty years ago. It is a vision that has ensured that Penguin in India, as in the rest of the world, is the publisher of choice for the best writers and the most discerning readers. And this is exactly how things will be twenty years from now.

Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/non-fiction-collection-2-:-20-years-of-p-2-95893.html For some years now, it’s been happy season for books and publishing in India. But the most  enduring success story in English-language trade publishing in the country—indeed in all of Asia—began long before this. The present gold rush owes a great deal to the foresight of Penguin, easily the most prestigious global publisher, which made a home here when the world wasn’t yet in thrall to the Indian market. Penguin India began operating at a time when trade publishing in English was virtually unknown in the country. The company launched its local programme in 1987 with seven titles: two novels in English and one in translation from Bengali, two biographies, a travelogue and a book of poems. Two decades on, it publishes 200 new books annually across a wide range of genres. Along the way, it has published authors from every country in the Subcontinent. In 2005, with the launch of its Hindi list, Penguin became the first global publisher to publish in an Indian language other than English, and now releases over sixty titles every year in Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and Urdu. When it was set up in a two-bedroom flat in New Delhi, Penguin India’s most valuable asset was a boardroom table made of teak, at which strategies were devised, contracts signed and commitments made. Today, the table is no longer listed among the company’s assets. Instead, it can boast the finest list of Indian authors (or authors of Indian origin) anywhere in the world. And the list keeps growing: among the long-admired names we’ll publish in the coming months are Kamala Markandaya, with her posthumous novel Bombay Tiger, and Amitav Ghosh, with his stunning new novel Sea of Poppies, the first in a trilogy. Penguin India’s publishing remains as vibrant and confidently eclectic as our first clutch of titles promised. Our best authors, our true wealth, have stayed with us through the years, and helped us bring the best in contemporary Indian and international literature to readers everywhere. These commemorative volumes of the finest writing we’ve published up to our twentieth year are dedicated to each one of them. Showcased here are authors who have topped best-seller charts in India and abroad, and won virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Jnanpith Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. It is unlikely you will find a richer, more representative collection of writing from or about South Asia. Now, when virtually every major international trade publisher is present in India, the fastest-growing English-language publishing market in the world, Penguin India remains committed to the vision laid out on that teak table twenty years ago. It is a vision that has ensured that Penguin in India, as in the rest of the world, is the publisher of choice for the best writers and the most discerning readers. And this is exactly how things will be twenty years from now.

Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/matter-of-taste-2-95892.html A delectable collection of writing on food and its place in our lives that brings together some of the most significant Indian voices over the last century From lavish meals, modern diets and cooking lessons that serve as a rite of passage to fake fasts and real ones, fish, feni, and fiery meals that smack of revenge, this book has something to satisfy every palate. Gandhi’s guilt-ridden account of his failed flirtation with eating meat starkly complements Ruchir Joshi’s toast to the senses as he describes his characters discovering a truly alternative use for some perfectly innocent shrikhand. In unique gastronomic takes on history, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and Saadat Hasan Manto ensure that we will never look at chutney, a Tibetan momo or jelly in quite the same way again. Food becomes the less appetizing religious ‘line of control’ for Abdul Bismillah’s ‘guest’ when a simple meal illustrates the rather thin divide between guest and host, while subtler shades of deprivation mark Anjana Appachana’s Anu as she keeps a fast that reeks of prejudice. And in faraway lands, ‘across the seven seas’, the search for fresh fish accentuates the loneliness of a life without familiar moorings for Jhumpa Lahiri’s Mrs Sen even as Anita Desai’s Arun learns from his American hosts the importance of ‘keeping the freezer full’. As much about food as it is about good writing, A Matter of Taste serves up a veritable feast for the senses and food for thought to sample or devour, as one pleases.

Author: Roy, Nilanjana S. (Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/first-proof-5-2-95891.html ‘Certain publishers remain resolute in their quest to discover and nurture new writing, driven possibly by the conviction that in the sea of unheard voices, there are several worth listening to and taking a chance on…[First Proof is] worth waiting for. Year after year’ —The Hindu In First Proof we continue to publish the best new writing from India. You will discover exciting first-time writers and encounter familiar names writing in new genres. This fifth volume includes outstanding translations, travel writing, poetry, memoir, short stories and portraits both fictional and real. First Proof: The Penguin Book of New Writing from India 5 confirms that there is no better time to be a writer. Or a reader. Non-fiction Aditya Sinha Bishakha Datta Krupakar, Senani and S.R. Ramakrishna Rita Kothari Samanth Subramanian Satnam and Vishav Bharti Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade Vamsee Juluri Fiction Aditya Sudarshan Batul Mukhtiar Cheryl-Ann Couto Chitralekha Basu Girish Khera K.R. Meera and J. Devika Nirupama Dutt Radha Nair Sheela Indra and Abha Sah Swarnalatha Rangarajan

Author: Various  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/first-proof-2-2-95888.html Penguin's annual offering, First Proof showcases new writing and new writers, the purpose being to highlight emerging talent as well as writers who have enjoyed acclaim but not as wide a readership as they clearly deserve. The few established authors you might find here are writing in a genre completely new to them. A selection of luminous prose and sparkling poetry, First Proof 2 covers diverse styles and genres. From reflections and memories to portraits and biographies; from society and media trends to travel and history, this second volume includes works in progress, essays, short stories and, for the first time, poetry. Praise for First Proof 1 ‘This anthology is a godsend'  — The Tribune ‘The good thing about this collection is the variety'  — Businessworld ‘Perfect blend of fact, fiction…undoubtedly a collector's item' — Deccan Herald ‘The first-of-its-kind initiative to provide a platform for upcoming writers'  —Sujata Sen, Director, British Council (East India) ‘Good, fresh'  — The Telegraph ‘What First Proof says is, buy the ticket, take your chances, come on board -the view's pretty good from where we sit'  — Time Out Mumbai

Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/first-proof-3-2-95889.html First Proof, Penguin India’s anthology of new writing in English, is here to stay and how! Now in its third year, this volume boasts of poetry and an extract from a graphic novel apart from a feast of non-fiction and fiction selections from unpublished or relatively new authors as well as established names in genres that are new to them. Some of the contributors to this volume are Sankar Sridhar, Neel Kamal Puri, Kishore Valicha, Nirupama Dutt, Ashok Malik, Jahnavi Barua, Shakti Bhatt, Parismita Singh and Temsula Ao.

Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/first-proof-4-2-95890.html First Proof, Penguin India’s anthology of new writing in English is here to stay and how! Now in its fourth year, this volume boasts of memoirs, stories and poetry in translation from Indian languages and a photo essay on Tibet apart from a feast of non-fiction and fiction selections from unpublished or relatively new authors. Some of the contributors to this volume are Anjum Hasan, Omair Ahmad, Revathi, Mayank Austen Soofi, Soma Sarkar, Jairaj Singh, Jaya Jaitly, Sandeep Kumar, Salil Chaturvedi, Avik Chanda, Yumlam Tana, Aseem Kaul and Viky Arya. Praise for First Proof 3 ‘This anthology traverses an impressive trajectory’—The Statesman ‘A good read’—Indian Express ‘Unputdownable variety [of fiction and nonfiction]…You get everything here. And it leaves you craving for more’—First City ‘It’s a…wonder that despite its uncertain commercial prospects, certain publishers remain resolute in their quest to discover and nurture new writing, driven possibly by the conviction that in the sea of unheard voices, there are several worth listening to and taking a chance on…[First Proof is] worth waiting for. Year after year’—The Hindu PRAISE FOR FIRST PROOF 2 ‘Sequels have a nasty habit of flopping. Even with anthologies. But it is to the credit of the publishers that the second book of new writing in India has included a neat list of authors who have explored uncharted territories’—The Hindu ‘When the first edition of First Proof came out, one was not quite sure whether the experiment would last…but full credit to Penguin for making sure that the series does not come to an abrupt end’—Sahara Time ‘Like First Proof 1, this book, too, has something for everyone…it is a great read’—The Tribune ‘Sequels rarely live up to their billing, but this one does…this second edition of new writing from India has some outstanding work’—Time Out Mumbai PRAISE FOR FIRST PROOF 1 ‘Perfect blend of fact, fiction…undoubtedly a collector’s item’ —Deccan Herald ‘Unlike the tag “new” that is often given by desperate advertising agencies to reinvent sagging sales of old products, this volume lives up to its reputation’—The Hindu ‘This anthology is a godsend’—The Tribune ‘The good thing about this collection is the variety’—Businessworld ‘A new vocabulary…Fine proof that original Indian writing in English is alive and kicking’—Harmony ‘Good, fresh and not established’—The Telegraph ‘It’s an idea whose time has come’—Hindustan Times ‘What First Proof says is, buy the ticket, take your chances, come on board—the view’s pretty good from where we sit’—Time Out Mumbai

Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/fiction-collection-2-:-20-years-of-pengu-2-95887.html For some years now, it’s been happy season for books and publishing in India. But the most  enduring success story in English-language trade publishing in the country—indeed in all of Asia—began long before this. The present gold rush owes a great deal to the foresight of Penguin, easily the most prestigious global publisher, which made a home here when the world wasn’t yet in thrall to the Indian market. Penguin India began operating at a time when trade publishing in English was virtually unknown in the country. The company launched its local programme in 1987 with seven titles: two novels in English and one in translation from Bengali, two biographies, a travelogue and a book of poems. Two decades on, it publishes 200 new books annually across a wide range of genres. Along the way, it has published authors from every country in the Subcontinent. In 2005, with the launch of its Hindi list, Penguin became the first global publisher to publish in an Indian language other than English, and now releases over sixty titles every year in Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and Urdu. When it was set up in a two-bedroom flat in New Delhi, Penguin India’s most valuable asset was a boardroom table made of teak, at which strategies were devised, contracts signed and commitments made. Today, the table is no longer listed among the company’s assets. Instead, it can boast the finest list of Indian authors (or authors of Indian origin) anywhere in the world. And the list keeps growing: among the long-admired names we’ll publish in the coming months are Kamala Markandaya, with her posthumous novel Bombay Tiger, and Amitav Ghosh, with his stunning new novel Sea of Poppies, the first in a trilogy. Penguin India’s publishing remains as vibrant and confidently eclectic as our first clutch of titles promised. Our best authors, our true wealth, have stayed with us through the years, and helped us bring the best in contemporary Indian and international literature to readers everywhere. These commemorative volumes of the finest writing we’ve published up to our twentieth year are dedicated to each one of them. Showcased here are authors who have topped best-seller charts in India and abroad, and won virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Jnanpith Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. It is unlikely you will find a richer, more representative collection of writing from or about South Asia. Now, when virtually every major international trade publisher is present in India, the fastest-growing English-language publishing market in the world, Penguin India remains committed to the vision laid out on that teak table twenty years ago. It is a vision that has ensured that Penguin in India, as in the rest of the world, is the publisher of choice for the best writers and the most discerning readers. And this is exactly how things will be twenty years from now.

Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/country-is-yours-the-2-95885.html Modern Nepali literature started late, in the 1930s. As a response to state censorship, one group of high modernists sought to locate human freedom in the play of language. Another group wrote more directly in favour of social justice. From these pioneers emerged the ‘democrats’ and the ‘progressives’, the distinctions between which have gradually blurred since the re-establishment of democracy in 1990. The Country is Yours is a collection of contemporary Nepali literature. Organized in four sections—‘The Perplexity of Living’, ‘The Right to Desire’, ‘The Imminent Liberation’ and ‘Vision’—the stories and poems of the forty-nine writers included here offer insights into the upheavals of Nepali society, politics and identity leading up to and after 1990. They also speak of the universal joys and sorrows of the human condition. Introduced and translated by Manjushree Thapa, this volume sensitively captures the spirit of a society at the threshold of utter transformation.

Author: Thapa, Manjushree (Translated & Intr. by  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/fiction-collection-1-:-20-years-of-pengu-2-95886.html For some years now, it’s been happy season for books and publishing in India. But the most  enduring success story in English-language trade publishing in the country—indeed in all of Asia—began long before this. The present gold rush owes a great deal to the foresight of Penguin, easily the most prestigious global publisher, which made a home here when the world wasn’t yet in thrall to the Indian market. Penguin India began operating at a time when trade publishing in English was virtually unknown in the country. The company launched its local programme in 1987 with seven titles: two novels in English and one in translation from Bengali, two biographies, a travelogue and a book of poems. Two decades on, it publishes 200 new books annually across a wide range of genres. Along the way, it has published authors from every country in the Subcontinent. In 2005, with the launch of its Hindi list, Penguin became the first global publisher to publish in an Indian language other than English, and now releases over sixty titles every year in Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and Urdu. When it was set up in a two-bedroom flat in New Delhi, Penguin India’s most valuable asset was a boardroom table made of teak, at which strategies were devised, contracts signed and commitments made. Today, the table is no longer listed among the company’s assets. Instead, it can boast the finest list of Indian authors (or authors of Indian origin) anywhere in the world. And the list keeps growing: among the long-admired names we’ll publish in the coming months are Kamala Markandaya, with her posthumous novel Bombay Tiger, and Amitav Ghosh, with his stunning new novel Sea of Poppies, the first in a trilogy. Penguin India’s publishing remains as vibrant and confidently eclectic as our first clutch of titles promised. Our best authors, our true wealth, have stayed with us through the years, and helped us bring the best in contemporary Indian and international literature to readers everywhere. These commemorative volumes of the finest writing we’ve published up to our twentieth year are dedicated to each one of them. Showcased here are authors who have topped best-seller charts in India and abroad, and won virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Jnanpith Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. It is unlikely you will find a richer, more representative collection of writing from or about South Asia. Now, when virtually every major international trade publisher is present in India, the fastest-growing English-language publishing market in the world, Penguin India remains committed to the vision laid out on that teak table twenty years ago. It is a vision that has ensured that Penguin in India, as in the rest of the world, is the publisher of choice for the best writers and the most discerning readers. And this is exactly how things will be twenty years from now.

Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/city-of-sin-and-splendour-2-95884.html The ancient whore, the handmaiden of dimly remembered Hindu kings, the courtesan of Mughal emperors’, the ‘Paris of the East’, Lahore is more than the grandeur of Mughal forts and gardens, mosques and mausoleums; the jewel colours of everlasting spring. It is also the city of poets, the city of love, longing, sin and splendour. This anthology brings together verse and prose; essay, stories, chronicles and profiles by people who have shared a relationship with Lahore. From the mystical poems of Madho Las Hussain and Bulleh Shah to Iqbal’s ode and Faiz’s lament, from Maclagan and Aijazuddin’s historical treatises and Kipling’s chronicles’ to Samina Quraeshi’s intricate portraits of the Old City and Irfan Hussain’s delightful account of Lahori cuisine, City of Sin and Splendour is a marriage of the sacred and profane. While Pran Nevile paints a vivid sketch of Lahore’s Hira Mandi, Shahnaz Kureshy brings alive the legend of Anarkali and Khalid Hasan pays a tribute to the late ‘melody queen’ Nur Jehan. Mohsin Hamid’s essay on exile, Bina Shah’s account of the Karachi vs Lahore debate and Emma Duncan’s piece on elections are essential to the understanding of modern-day Lahore. But the city is also about Lahore remembered. Ved Mehta and Krishen Khanna write about ‘going back’ as Khushwant Singh writes about his pre-Partition years in Lahore. Sara Suleri’s memories of her home town, the landscape of Bapsi Sidhwa’s fiction, Khaled Ahmed’s homage to Intezar Hussain and Urvashi Butalia’s Ranamama are tributes to memory as much as they are tributes to remarkable lives and unforgettable places. Including fiction old and new—from Manto and Chughtai to Ashfaq Ahmed and Zulfikar Ghose; Saad Ashraf and Sorayya Khan to Mohsin Hamid and Rukhsana Ahmad, City of Sin and Splendour is a sumptuous collection that reflects the city it celebrates.

Author: Sidhwa, Bapsi ( Ed.)  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/bitter-fruit:v-best-of-manto-2-95883.html The most widely read and the most translated writer in Urdu, Saadat Hasan Manto constantly challenged the hypocrisy and sham morality of civilized society. Out of this rebellious streak, and fuelled by the burning restlessness of his imagination, he produced a powerful body of work that continues to challenge complacency and demand attention. More than half a century after his death at the age of forty-three in Lahore, he remains anathema to the establishment. Saadat Hasan Manto wanted to be remembered as the greatest short-story writer ever; as his epitaph would have it, his only competitor is God. Indeed, he is best known for his Partition stories, where he lays bare the absurdity of the religious divide that would forever unhinge the lives of two nations. No other writer has been able to capture the devastation of Partition as Manto has. But, as this exhaustive anthology shows, Manto’s best work sweeps across genres and states of mind. The short stories shock and seduce; the sketches wring out the sharp brevity of truth; the biographical portraits entice with their candour; the letters to Uncle Sam drip with sarcasm; while the lone play smoulders with desire that finds fulfilment in death. Manto also gives us his take on the Bombay film world of his time, a world that both amused and fascinated him and which he recalled with nostalgia in his last years. This collection also carries intimate observations about Manto by his family and friends. Khalid Hasan’s brilliant translation brings to English Manto’s bite, his lyricism and the authenticity of his voice, making Bitter Fruit the perfect treasury for long-time fans of Manto and first-time readers alike. MANTO’S PRAYER Dear God, master of the universe, compassionate and merciful: we who are steeped in sin, kneel in supplication before your throne and beseech you to recall from this world Saadat Hasan Manto, son of Ghulam Hasan Manto, who was a man of great piety. Take him away, Lord, for he runs away from fragrance and chases after filth. He hates the bright sun, preferring dark labyrinths. He has nothing but contempt for modesty but is fascinated by the naked and the shameless. He hates sweetness, but will give his life to taste bitter fruit. He will not so much as look at housewives but is in seventh heaven in the company of whores. He will not go near running waters, but loves to wade through filth. Where others weep, he laughs; and where others laugh, he weeps. Faces blackened by evil, he loves to wash with tender care to make visible their real features. He never thinks about you but follows Satan everywhere, the same fallen angel who once disobeyed you.

Author: Manto, Saadat Hasan  Publisher: PENGUIN]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/reheated-cabbage-2-87894.html In these pages you can enjoy Christmas dinner with Begbie, and see how warmly Franco greets his sister’s boyfriend and the news of their engagement. You will discover, in ‘The Rosewell Incident’, how aliens addicted to Embassy Regal have Midlothian under surveillance, and plan to install the local casuals as the new governors of Planet Earth. You will not be surprised to read that a televised Hibs v. Hearts game might matter more to one character than the life of his wife, or that two guys fighting over a beautiful girl might agree – on reflection, and after a few pills and many pints of lager – that their friendship is actually more important. And you will be delighted to welcome back ‘Juice’ Terry Lawson, and to watch what happens when he meets his old nemesis, retired schoolmaster Albert Black, under the strobe-lights of a Miami Beach nightclub.

Author: Welsh, Irvine  Publisher: Vintage]]> Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/puffin-book-of-classic-stories-for-boys--2-84072.html Timeless stories for boys, and those who remain boys at heart. Pick up an alien’s egg; go crocodile hunting; run with a gang of pickpockets; get lost in a magical maze. All this and more in these stories of adventure, humour and imagination. Oliver Twist leaves behind his gang of criminals for a better life; an open window is just what a fertile mind needs in Saki’s ‘The Open Window’; Satyajit Ray’s Badan Babu has a brush with a Pterodactyl’s egg; Rabindranath Tagore recollects boyhood days spent dreaming in an abandoned palanquin; and Sherlock Holmes sets off to solve the mystery of the engineer’s thumb. Featuring the works of such renowned authors as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Premchand, Mark Twain and others, and a lively introduction by well-known children’s author Paro Anand, The Puffin Book of Classic Stories for Boys is a matchless collection from the masters of world literature for boys of all ages.

Author: Anand, Paro (Intro)  Publisher: PUFFIN]]> Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/puffin-book-of-classic-stories-for-girls-2-84074.html Timeless stories for girls, and those who remain girls at heart. Pick up a dainty blue umbrella, skip around a secret garden; spend a day in the mountains, playing amongst the goats and birds; save a little pig from a dreadful fate. All this and more in these stories of magic, whimsy and humour. Read the miraculous story of Pollyanna; explore a magical land with Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz; feel the warmth of love, and bond with the March sisters in Little Women; follow the travails of the mischievous Katy as she gets into scrapes at school; and watch out for Matilda’s extraordinary tricks. Featuring the works of such renowned authors as Lewis Carroll, Jane Austen, Roald Dahl, Ruskin Bond, Rabindranath Tagore and others, and a sparkling introduction by celebrated author Manjula Padmanabhan, The Puffin Book of Classic Stories for Girls is a matchless collection of stories from the masters of world literature for girls of all ages.

Author: Padmanabhan, Manjula (Intro)  Publisher: PUFFIN]]> Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/world-of-jacqueline-wilson-the-2-42417.html Everything you could ever want to know about Jacqueline Wilson and her books in one adorable, small, pink package. This is a must-have for fans, bursting with new titbits from Jacky herself, info about the characters and plots, artwork from Nick Sharratt and more.

Author: Wilson, Jacqueline  Publisher: Doubleday Childrens]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/jacqueline-wilson-biscuit-barrel-2-42638.html Two books in one: CLIFFHANGER Tim hates sports, so he’s dreading a week of action-packed games on an adventure holiday. Luckily, his new friend Biscuits isn’t very interested in the activities either – except for eating! BURIED ALIVE! Tim and Biscuits are off on holiday again – and this time they’re in for an adventure of an unexpected kind!

Author: Wilson, Jacqueline  Publisher: Yearling]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/mere-anarchy-2-42906.html ‘I am greatly relieved that the universe is finally explainable. I was beginning to think it was me.’ Thus begins ‘Strung Out’, Woody Allen’s hilarious application of the laws of the universe to daily life. Mere Anarchy, Woody Allen’s first new collection in over 25 years, features eighteen witty, wild and intelligent comic pieces – eight of which have never been in print before. Surreal, absurd, rich in verbal play, bitingly satirical and just plan daft in the mode we have grown to love from his finest films, this flight-of-fancy collection includes tales of a body double who, mistaken for the film’s star, is kidnapped by outlaws; a pretentious novelist forced to work on the novelisation of a Three Stooges film; a nanny secretly writing an expose of her Manhattan employers; crooks selling bespoke prayers on eBay; and how to react when you’re asked to finance a Broadway play about the invention and manufacture of the adjustable showerhead.

Author: Allen, Woody  Publisher: Ebury Press]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/jacqueline-wilson-collection-the-2-42917.html THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER I'm Tracy Beaker. This is a book all about me. I'd read it if I were you. It's the most incredible dynamic heart-rending story. Honest... SHORTLISTED FOR THE SMARTIES PRIZE AND CARNEGIE MEDAL Winner of The Oak Tree Award & the Sheffield Children's Book Award THE BED AND BREAKFAST STAR I'm Elsa, and I'm hoping to be a big star one day. I tell jokes all the time to try and cheer my family up. Trouble is, no-one seems to laugh much any more. Not since we lost our lovely house nad had to move into a bed and breakfast hotel... WINNER OF YOUNG TELEGRAPH FULLY BOOKED AWARD Two lively and hilarious tales from one of today's most popular authors for young readers.

Author: Wilson, Jacqueline  Publisher: Yearling]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/jacqueline-wilson-double-decker-2-42918.html Meet the terrible twosome, Ruby and Garnet, in DOUBLE ACT – twins with identical looks and identical interests, but different hopes… And in BAD GIRLS, there’s Mandy who’s desperate to escape being teased at school. Friendship with Tanya seems like a great solution – even though Mum says she’s a bad girl…

Author: Wilson, Jacqueline  Publisher: Yearling]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/jacqueline-wilson-s-superstars-2-42919.html Two of the best from the popular prize-winning author: THE SUITCASE KID Andy is always moving from A to B; one week with Mum, one week with Dad. Winner of the Children's Book Award THE LOTTIE PROJECT Charlie finds her double, whose life is much tougher than her own, back in Victorian times. A fantastic compilation.

Author: Wilson, Jacqueline  Publisher: Yearling]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/birthday-stories-2-43179.html In this enviable gathering, Haruki Murakami has chosen for his party some of the very best short story writers of recent years, each with their own birthday experiences, each story a snapshot of life on a single day. Including stories by Russell Banks, Ethan Canin, Raymond Carver, David Foster Wallace, Denis Johnson, Claire Keegan, Andrea Lee, Daniel Lyons, Lynda Sexson, Paul Theroux, William Trevor and Haruki Murakami, this anthology captures a range of emotions evoked by advancing age and the passing of time, from events fondly recalled to the impact of appalling tragedy. Previously published in a Japanese translation by Haruki Murakami, this English edition contains a specially written introduction.

Author: Murakami, Haruki  Publisher: Vintage]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/love-stories-2-86011.html Love Stories brings together a captivating assortment of short stories inspired by romantic entanglement in its many forms: first love, infatuation, obsession, unrequited love, marriage, adultery, jealousy, and the complicated bonds of those who have spent their lives together. An array of writers evoke a variety of moods, from the raw, erotic passion of Lawrence and Colette to the wickedlycynical comedy of Dorothy Parker and Roald Dahl; from the agonizing madness of jealousy in Nabokov’s ‘That in Aleppo Once ...’ to romantic illusions in Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Winter Dreams’. Objects of passion range from a glamorous silent-movie star in Elizabeth Bowen’s haunting ‘Dead Mabelle’ to a faithful ghost in Kawabata’s ‘Immortality’ and a successful heart surgeon and serial husband in Margaret Atwood’s ‘Bluebeard’s Egg’. Jhumpa Lahiri plumbs the depths of a couple sundered by tragedy while Lorrie Moore movingly portrays a husband and wife brought together by it. Katherine Mansfield, Tobias Wolff and William Trevor explore the intricacies of long-term relationships, while Maupassant, Calvino and T. C. Boyle convey the elemental force of love in extremely different ways. Together these nineteen stories make an enticing gift for lovers at any stage of life. Perfect for Valentine’s Day.

Author: Tesdell, Diana Secker  Publisher: Everyman]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/east-west-2-43190.html In these nine stories Salman Rushdie looks at what happens when East meets West, at the forces that pull his characters first in one direction, then the other. Fantasy and realism collide as a rickshaw driver writes letters describing his film star career in Bombay; a mispronunciation leads to romance and an unusual courtship in sixties London; two childhood friends turned diplomats live out in a violent world fantasies hatched by Star Trek; and Christopher Columbus dreams of consummating his relationship with Queen Isabella. The stories in East, West show the extraordinary range and power of Salman Rushdie's writing.

Author: Rushdie, Salman  Publisher: Vintage]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/roald-dahl-treasury-the-2-43511.html The Treasury is divided into four parts and is over 400 pages long. There are complete picture tales as well as excerpts from Dahl's longer stories, poetry (some previously unpublished) autobiographical material and letters, some written as a young boy to his mother. Outstanding artwork is a feature of the Treasury. While the core artwork is by Dahl's most successful collaborator, Quentin Blake, there will be illustrations by other distinguished artists such as Raymond Briggs, Posy Simmonds, Ralph Steadman, Patrick Benson, Charlotte Voake and Babette Cole.

Author: Dahl, Roald  Publisher: Jonathan Cape]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/tell-me-no-lies-2-50444.html At a time when journalism is under attack as never before, Tell Me No Lies could not be more timely. It is a celebration of the very best investigative journalism, and some of the greatest practitioners of the craft: Seymour Hersh on the My Lai massacre; Paul Foot on the Lockerbie cover-up; Wilfred Burchett, the first Westerner to enter Hiroshima following the atomic bombing; Israeli journalist Amira Hass, reporting from the Gaza Strip in the 1990s; Gunter Wallraff, the great German undercover reporter; Jessica Mitford on 'The American Way of Death'; Martha Gelhorn on the liberation of the death camp at Dachau. The book, a selection of articles, broadcasts and books extracts that revealed important and disturbing truths, ranges from across many of the critical events, scandals and struggles of the past fifty years. Along the way it bears witness to epic injustices committed against the peoples of Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor and Palestine. John Pilger sets each piece of reporting in its context and introduces the collection with a passionate essay arguing that the kind of journalism he celebrates here is being subverted by the very forces that ought to be its enemy. Taken as a whole, the book tells an extraordinary 'secret history' of the modern era. It is also a call to arms to journalists everywhere - before it is too late.

Author: Pilger, John  Publisher: Vintage]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/life-s-too-short-2-86004.html What does it feel like to drive a lorry that’s out of control? What really goes on in a school full of unruly children? Could you travel all over the world for work? Whether we love it or hate it, work has a huge impact on our lives and in recent times working life has totally changed. So what is life really like at work today? From builder to baker to social care worker, these writers let us know. Some of their stories might surprise you. Some will make you laugh and some might make you cry. The one thing they all prove is that you can never be sure what your working day will bring.

Author: Authors, Various  Publisher: Bantam]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/purple-decades-the-2-86005.html The Purple Decades brings together the author's own selections from his list of critically acclaimed publications, including the best from The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Radical Chic, From Bauhaus to Our House, The Right Stuff and the complete text of Mau-Mauing and the Flak Catchers. An essential introduction to the non-fiction writing of the inventor of New Journalism.

Author: Wolfe, Tom  Publisher: Vintage]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/the-optimist-s-pessimist-s-handbook-2-86007.html Are optimists just reckless dreamers? Are pessimists miserable doom-mongers or just erring on the side of caution? Is the glass half empty or half full? Brilliantly compiled and beautifully written, this is a rich anthology of evidence from both sides of any argument. Covering everything from Beauty to Happiness, Patriotism to Walking, it is the perfect tool for squabbling families, a counterbalance for arguing couples and a mine of detail for the quarrelsome. The Optimist on the Afterlife: My heaven will be filled with wonderful young men and dukes. (Dame Barbara Cartland) And the Pessimist: 'That’s what Hell will be like, small chat to the babbling of Lethe about the good old days when we wished we were dead. (Samuel Beckett)

Author: Cramsie, Petra, Edworthy, Niall  Publisher: Black Swan]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/wit-wisdom-of-p-g-wodehouse-the-2-86008.html The Wit and Wisdom of the Master – all compacted into 128 pithy pages! Tony Ring, the president of the Wodehouse Association and author of the 600,000-word Millennium Wodehouse Concordance, has drawn on his extensive knowledge and even more wonderful enthusiasm to compile an absolutely cracking anthology, which answers all our Christmas present problems in one volume. Here are not only witty epigrams we all know and love (and perhaps lots we don’t!) but also longer humorous extracts which are full of wisdom. Evelyn Waugh has written that Wodehouse produced three wholly original similes on every page he wrote – which, even allowing for exaggeration, must make this one of the most original gift books ever! It will certainly be one of the funniest…

Author: Ring, Tony  Publisher: Arrow]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/everyman-book-of-nonsense-2-86009.html Wonderful collection of nonsense verse, from Chesterton to Dahl, Lear to Carroll. With beautitul, original illustrations, both full colour and black & white.

Author: Guinness, Louise  Publisher: Childrens Classics]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/stories-to-get-you-through-the-night-2-86010.html Stories to Get You Through the Night is a collection to remedy life’s stresses and strains. Inside you will find writing from the greatest of classic and contemporary authors; stories that will brighten and inspire, move and delight, soothe and restore in equal measure. This is an anthology to devour or to savour at your leisure, each story a perfectly imagined whole to be read and reread, and each a journey to transport the reader away from the everyday. Immersed in the pages you will follow lovers to midnight trysts, accompany old friends on new adventures, be thrilled by ghostly delights, overcome heartbreak, loss and longing, and be warmed by tales of redemption, and of hope and happiness. Whether as a cure for insomnia, to while away the hours on a midnight journey, or as a brief moment of escapism before you turn in, the stories contained in this remarkable collection provide the perfect antidote to the frenetic pace of modern life – a rich and calming selection guaranteed to see you through the night. Featuring stories by: Katherine Mansfield, Alice Munro, Anton Chekhov, Oscar Wilde, Haruki Murakami, Wilkie Collins, Kate Chopin, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Brothers Grimm, John Cheever, Arthur Conan Doyle, Virginia Woolf, Rudyard Kipling, Helen Simpson, Richard Yates, James Lasdun, Martin Amis, Angela Carter, Somerset Maugham and Julian Barnes

Author: Authors, Various  Publisher: Vintage Classics]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/frank-o-connor-omnibus-2-86012.html The contents have been intriguingly divided into eight narrative threads that influenced and informed O’Connor’s oeuvre. War includes the famous ‘Guests of the Nation’, set during the Irish War of Independence; Childhood draws on autobiographical writings to present a revealing picture of the author as a boy, the only child of an alcoholic father and doting mother; Writers bears witness to his literary debt to Yeats and Joyce. The stories in Lonely Voices movingly demonstrate O’Connor’s theory that in this genre can be achieved ‘something we do not often find in the novel - an intense awareness of human loneliness’; yet they are counterparted by his wonderfully polyphonic tales of family, friendship and rivalry in Better Quarrelling. In Ireland come poems, stories and articles inspired by the native land he loved but never sentimentalized, while from Abroad the writer in exile discourses upon universally relevant themes of emigration, hardship, absence and return. Finally, Last Things contains O’Connor’s thoughts on religion, the church, the soul and its destiny, but remains above all a celebration of humanity ‘who for me represented all I should ever know of God’.

Author: O'Connor, Frank  Publisher: Everyman]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/black-mischief-scoop-the-loved-one-and-the-ordeal-of-2-86013.html 0

Author: Waugh, Evelyn  Publisher: Everyman]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/from-me-to-you-2-65054.html As a writer, an editor and, above all, as a woman, Sathya Saran derives meaning from life’s events that otherwise just pass us by. Whether it’s the little flower girl at a temple, a spider on the wall, or the view from her window, her thoughts and insights connect with and inspire you—no matter who or where you are. Culled from her writings over the years, in the column that has touched readers’ lives for two decades, this anthology is a reflection of the ever-changing face of the world Saran inhabits. Perceptive, lyrical and moving, this is a book you will dip into time and again. The column continues till date, in Me, the magazine she now edits for DNA.

Author: Sathya Saran  Publisher: Westland]]> Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/friends-forever-2-76816.html Meet all kinds of witty, weird and wonderful friends in this book of terrific stories and poems by some of India's best-known children's writers.

Publisher: HI-LO]]> Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/give-me-a-cowboy-2-77274.html Alaine LeDoux is pure tomboy - and she likes shooting and riding more than dresses and tea. Good thing Mr Morgan Payne turns out to be one hell of a cowboy under his citified suit.

Author: THOMAS, JODI &PACE, DEWANNA  Publisher: HBGAG]]> Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/in-bed-with--2-77693.html About The Book When the small town of Melville is caught in a freak storm, its inhabitants must do everything they can to survive. But with a ruthless eco-terrorist at large, and no chance of rescue from the outside world, the townsfolk are on their own, facing one of the greatest environmental threats the world has ever seen. Dramatic, powerful and bursting with adventure, Storm is an un-putdown-able thriller

Author: ADAMS, JESSICA/EDWARD-JONES, IMOGEN  Publisher: LBUK]]> Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:30:00 +0100 http://www.bookvook.com/book/details/best-loved-children-s-stories-2-79135.html BEST-LOVED CHILDREN'S STORIES

Author: KIPLING/BRENT  Publisher: LBUK]]> Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:30:00 +0100