Page 2 - Literature

Food for drama

Shobhaa De's book oscillates between the sombre and serious and is delightful in its description of everything Bengali

Making gender budgeting work

Social mores cannot be changed by fiscal fiats, but gender budgeting is a starting point, argues Lekha S Chakraborty in her book, which could serve as a useful primer to guide policymakers

Meaner than the metaverse

If the internet is the fictional doctor and scientist Bruce Banner, furtive and a little troubled but basically benign, meganets are Incredible Hulks, snarling and uncontainable

Inside Narasimha Rao's PMO

Many books have been written on P V Narasimha Rao, but the latest one is unique because of the author's proximity to the PM

An indictment of terror trials

Mayur R Suresh's book delves into the myriad ways terror accused and the justice system interact in a trial, and is replete with stories of human foibles, quirks, unlikely friendships, and anxiety

Party time in China

"The Party Leads All" offers an in-depth perspective on the changes underway under Xi Jinping and how they could affect China in the long term

After Roald Dahl, Agatha Christie's novels revised by 'sensitivity readers'

The recent revisions to Christie's novels are part of a trend to edit the works of several classic writers. This includes names like Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming

An incomplete history of the CIA

How the CIA's daily presidential briefings have shaped history over the past 75 years is recounted in Current Intelligence, although with some notable events missing from the narrative

The highs and lows of Indian business

Through the stories of four men and their business empires, Nandini Vijayaraghavan's book takes a hard look at the business environment and culture in India and the unpleasant reality of rivalries

China's expansionist playbook: A case study

A collection of essays brings out the various challenging facets of Sri Lankan politics and its foreign policy, constantly attempting to balance the pulls and pressures of its geopolitical environment

Reorienting an empire

The Ottomans leaves the reader with much to ponder on how societies viewed each other in an era of emerging uber-nationalism where religion was the key marker of belonging

A classical understanding of Chinese exceptionalism

Plato Goes to China is a treatise for anyone keen to understand the process of discourse-building in Chinese domestic politics

A bird's eye view of India's long history

From the making of the Indian landscape to the reign of Narendra Modi, A New History is a single volume historical account where sound scholarship is interwoven with state-of-the-art photographs

Rushdie's City of Words

His version of the history of the Vijayanagara Empire puts at rest doubts about his creative talents that may have crept up after his last few works of fiction

Colditz beyond the myth

Ben Macintyre's book takes in the stories of those excluded from the manly myth of Colditz, the storied Nazi POW camp at the heart of many daring escape plots

Rewriting Roald Dahl's work: What, why, how and the story behind it

Dahl has long been called out for his antisemitic views, but the recent changes have been criticised on two grounds, one, the extent of the changes and two, the nature of the changes

YouTube: From chaos to command

YouTube is now a mature product and a money machine but is no longer considered the hotbed of innovation

Countering non-tariff barriers

Tanu Singh's book demystifies the World Trade Organization jargon on tariffs and is a valuable source of information for both industry and academia

History matters

Through a series of essays, Sudeshna Guha's book examines the history of prehistoric and modern-day artefacts and the ethics of heritage-making that nationalises a past bereft of nation states

The Bachchan Chronicle

A coffee table book covers the well-worn story of the superstar's life but still manages to be an enjoyable read