'Criti....que not Criti....cize'

The Peacock Feather by Sudhir Kapoor My rating: 3 of 5 stars http://www.freepressjournal.in/book-r... Name of the book: The Peacock Feather Authors: Sunil Kapoor and Sudhir Kapoor Publisher: Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2017 ISBN 978-81-291-4459-1 Genre: Fiction Also available as an e-book Price: Rs. 395 Pages: 195 This review can also be read at https://www.freepressjournal.in/book-reviews/the-peacock-feather-by-sunil-kapoor-sudhir-kapoor “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.” ― Gilda Radner Delicious ambiguity is what this book is about – a slice of life itself. With ten vivid short stories to grip the reader from the very first page, ‘The Peacock Feather’ h...

Perhaps Tomorrow by Pooranam Elayathamby and Richard Anderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Name of the book: Perhaps Tomorrow – The Memoir of a Sri Lankan Housemaid in the Middle East Name of Author: Pooranam Elayathamby with Richard Anderson Publisher: First published by Wheatmark,USA 2014; IN India in paperback by Speaking Tiger 2017 ISBN: 978-81-933141-6-6 Genre: Non-fiction/ Memoir Price: Rs 299 Pages: 244 Imagine carrying a thirty-kilo sack of rice on your back, even before puberty struck, and carrying it door-to-door to sell it. Add to it the scorching summer and a barefooted you; and adding further salt to the wound, your former classmates are off to school to do what you have always loved to do—study—while you slog knowing that there is no other option if you want your family of a widowed mother and five sisters to survive. This was just a part of Sandy’s (born Pooranam Elayathamby) routine in her early years in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. ...

Jump: Take the Leap of Faith to Achieve Your Life of Abundance by Steve Harvey My rating: 3 of 5 stars Name of the book: Jump Author: Steve Harvey with Leah Lakins Publisher: Amistad – An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 978-0-06-222035-6; e-book available Price: USA $25.99/ Canada 431.99 Number of pages: 196 ‘Take the leap of faith to achieve your life of abundance’ is written on the book’s jacket. Steve stands in his signature suit with his bald head, flashing one of his widest smiles. ‘Jump’ – the text is not screaming at the reader but there is something that makes the reader want to flip the pages. As I was in the process of reading it, a family friend visited. On seeing the book, she asked me, “Isn’t he the same guy who goofed up on stage while announcing the name of the Miss Universe, sometime back?” It was then that it struck me too. I had totally forgotten that incident. I then started reading the book with renewed interest, won...

Gurus: Stories of India's Leading Babas by Bhavdeep Kang My rating: 4 of 5 stars Find the review here too : https://www.freepressjournal.in/book-reviews/gurus-stories-of-indias-leading-babas-by-bhavdeep-kang Name of the book: Gurus – Stories of India’s Leading Babas Name of the author: Bhavdeep Kang Publisher: Westland Limited Genre: Non-Fiction Price: Rs. 295 Number of pages: 240 Also available as an ebook In the author’s own words: “This book is not a piece of investigative journalism; definitely not an exercise in PR. This book neither debunks nor celebrates the subjects. Also, it isn’t a collection of thumbnail biographies. Nor is it a work of scholarship. It is not, even remotely, a philosophical study, a sociological commentary or a psychological analysis. It is a peek at the men (and woman) behind the guru personas.” She has based their profiles on subjective impressions, interviews and research (a lot of it), viewing them from as many angle...

Fatal Accidents of Birth by Harsh Mander My rating: 4 of 5 stars Fatal Accidents of Birth (Stories of Suffering, Oppression and Resistance) Author: Harsh Mander Publisher: Speaking Tiger Price: Rs. 499 Pages: 203  The review also appeared in The Free Press Journal on January 1, 2017. Find the review here. ‘Our task is to change some conditions that appear to me as obviously against the beauty of being human’, said Paulo Freire. The quote greets the reader first. Little did I know that as I would turn the pages, I would learn so much about the inhuman intricacies woven into human lives, at times by circumstances and at other times simply because of one’s ignorance about the bigger picture while nitpicking over the supposedly misplaced tiny details. The preface Other Lives, Other Worlds is hard-hitting and delivers the chills even before the human coldness starts storming in from the seventeen stories ahead. Far from the hustle and bustle of rural India, where p...

Never Gone by Anusha Subramaniam My rating: 3 of 5 stars Name of the book: Never Gone Name of the Author: Anusha Subramanian Publisher: Penguin Books by Penguin Random House India 2016 ISBN: 9780143424963 Price: Rs.299; Pages: 268 Before writing about the book, it is important to mention here that the author is one of the youngest published authors in India. She was 15 while penning this tale. Also, she happens to be the daughter of banker-turned-writer Ravi Subramanian, who at 36 wrote his first book ‘If God was a banker’ and more recently, ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’. Coming to the book, considering the author’s age and experiences till now, it’s a reflection of new-age school kids on the cusp of being adults – their friendships, relations with parents, their fears for the future and so much more. For elders, reading the book would be like revisiting the school days with its own share of fun and frolic tinged with board exam stress. For young adults, th...

  Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern My rating: 2 of 5 stars Name of the book: Lyrebird Author: Cecelia Ahern Publisher: HarperCollins Pages: 416 Price: Rs 350 Lyrebird- ‘She will change your life forever’ greets you the moment you pick up the book. The cover is designed beautifully by Heike Schüssler and it foretells what is about to be experienced by the reader in the first few pages. Reading Cecelia’s tales are like free falling. You never know where you will land up. The plot just keeps you guessing. Often, the landing is in a lovely state of mind that leaves one spellbound, with a bittersweet feeling. That was the case with many of her previous books which I read over a period of time right from my school days. Be it P.S.I love You , Where Rainbows End , The Year I Met You ,  The Book of Tomorrow or The Time of My Life , they all had something to offer that remained with the reader long after the storytelling ended. Cecelia has that rare power of great storytelling that remai...