A look at the wonderful 1990s in Bollywood, chronicling the rise of a "frugal economy" in some Western countries and a super sleuth solving an unusual case. An assortment of films, economics and fiction, the IANS book stack this week has a variety of options. Take a look.
1. Book: 42 Lessons I learnt from Bollywood; Author: Sahil Rizwan; Publisher: HarperCollins; Pages: 384; Price: Rs.599
Movies affect our growing-up years more than we would like to admit. This is a jolly look back at the glorious decade for Hindi cinema that was the 1990s. Those were eventful years. The economy opened up. India changed. The Internet arrived. And Bollywood was like: "Wait for me, I can change too!"
This book is the story of that transformation, even if it wasn't always for the best. From "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" to "Khalnayak", 42 blockbusters - even some you may not have heard of - seen through the ever-attentive eyes of the Vigil Idiot - a widely read webcomics in the country.
2. Book: Frugal Innovation: How to Do Better With Less; Author: Navi Radjou and Jaideep Prabhu; Publisher: Hachette; Pages: 252; Price: Rs.599
In the global business landscape, increasingly trends such as the sharing economy and the maker movement, companies the world over are facing pressure from consumers, employees and governments to create and deliver first-rate, affordable and sustainable products and services using less energy, less capital and less time.
This has led to the development of a new model for business success: Frugal Innovation, or the ability to do more and better with less.
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In this book, two innovation experts have chronicled the rise of a frugal economy in the US, Europe and Japan, and show how the world's top companies across sectors are achieving great success by embedding frugality into their business models and corporate culture.
3. Book: Autobiography of a Mad Nation; Author: Sriram Karri; Publisher: FingerPrint; Pages: 381; Price: Rs.450
When Dr. M. Vidyasagar (Sagar), retired chief of the CBI, gets an unusual request from his old friend and the Indian president to privately investigate if Vikrant Vaidya - sentenced to death for motivelessly killing his teenage neighbour Iqbal - is innocent or not, little does he know how convoluted a conspiracy he is setting foot in.
With little time left for the president to demit office, the task sets the seasoned super-sleuth Sagar on a strange course, taking him back and forth in time and place.
As godmen, cricketers, politicians, journalists, war heroes and journalists get irredeemably linked in his investigation, Sagar finds himself in an India where politically-motivated killings or pardons get fixed, and innocent people come forward to take the blame and face a death sentence rather than tell the truth.
With a narrative that springs forth from and weaves its way through the emergency, anti-Mandal Commission protests, anti-Sikh riots post Indira Gandhi's assassination and the Godhra riots, readers will find themselves in the grip of a chimerical tale, asking and answering the question: Is India truly a mad nation?
4. Book: Magic Within; Author: Manal Shakir; Publisher: Fourth Estate;
Pages: 189; Price:Rs.499
Adnan cannot sleep, haunted as he is by discomfiting dreams of a mysterious circus and of a beautiful young woman, Shara, who must brave danger every night. His dreams - which he looks forward to seeing more - provide him a shelter from his loveless marriage.
Over time, Shara and Adnan share dreams where they at one point come extremely close to meeting each other.
But what hidden meanings do these dreams, which even pave the possibilities for them to meet in the real world, hold?
Penned by Chicago-based Manal Shakir, this debut book by her is a story of "troubled relationships and blurred realities, and of discovering the magic hidden within all of us".