It would hold no wonder that one hasn’t heard of ‘The Sensualist’. Perhaps it is because, Ruskin Bond, the writer, has never been associated with literature of this kind. Also, the fact that even though The Sensualist was written over two decades ago and only recently re-published makes it difficult to know about it, unless one is Ruskin Bond fan.

The Lost Symbol is the fifth book by author Dan Brown, after his major bestsellers, Digital Fortress (1998), Angels and Demons (2000), Deception Point (2001), and The Da Vinci Code (2003). Out of all Brown’s books, The Da Vinci Code was credited with the most controversial reception, and was accused of morally attacking the Catholic Church.

The title ‘Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid’ is a rather counter-intuitive title, hinting at the poor of the world being a source of money. But this is exactly what this book is about. It not only introduces, but proves conclusively, that there is a lot of money to be made serving the bottom 80% of the world.

Based on the 1936 best selling novel by Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind stands as one of the most unforgettable American epic films. Primarily a love story, it is a sweeping tale of southern America grappling with the Civil War, it’s aftermath and problems of reconstruction.

Subroto Bagchi is the co-founder of MindTree, an international IT consulting company, started in 1999. He stepped out of the role of Chief Operating Officer, to assume the responsibility of being the “Gardener” of the company.

2 States is Chetan Bhagat’s fourth book after 3 immensely popular novels; Five Point Someone, One Night at the Call Center & The 3 Mistakes of My Life.

Recently I read the book ‘On War’ which is a classic military text, written by General Carl Von Clausewitz. He makes an attempt to understand the rapidly changing nature of war in Napoleonic Europe, as the old military order was destroyed and first national armies were raised.

I finished reading “The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay” today and feel totally in awe of this masterpiece by Siddharth Shanghvi. Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, the 32-year-old author of the book, has been compared to the likes of Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith and Vikram Seth.

Fiction Based on the assassination has always been an interesting topic in the modern era which is pregnant with instances of terrorism and genocide. Mohammed Hanif’s first book takes the same subject, and the novel is a plot about men plotting to murder other men.

Favouring righteousness, questioning the social norms and demanding one’s rights have always been matters of a continuous struggle, huge problems, utter chaos and pains for everyone, but when it comes to someone like Taslima Nasrin, it becomes a matter of swinging somewhere between life and death.

Most coming of age stories have middle aged creators reminiscing of what it was like to be young and there would be long winded discussions or depictions of the various clichés that have come to be associated with youth, like being carefree, impulsive, awkward and unable to handle the contrast between their external and internal worlds and their constant struggle to...

‘Iff’ the water genie is the one who fixes and disconnects the flow of magical story waters to story tellers. ‘Butt’ the Hoppoe, is a bird, which helps Haroun on his journey to the worlds of ‘Gup’ and ‘Chup’ on the moon ‘Kahani’. Princess Batcheat of the land of Gup has been kidnapped, and Prince Bolo wants to rescue her, from the evil ‘Khattam Shud’,...

Published in 1951, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is the only full-length written by the American author Jerome David Salinger. In 1948, he wrote the critically acclaimed short story named ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’, and then he chose to write a perfect fictional novel – ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ – which for most of the part turned out to be auto-biographical.

It was the annual event Art lovers were eagerly awaiting. New Delhi recently hosted an extraordinary event: the India Art Summit. Held at Pragati Maidan, it showcased a variety of Art works ranging from larger than life installations and sculptures to contemporary paintings from over fifty galleries. It also introduced new artists and their masterpieces.

Aravind Adiga, an emerging player of contemporary writing in India, has debuted with the Man Booker Prize winner – “The White Tiger”. A journalist by profession and an author by passion, Aravind has exposed the Grey outlook of the human “Gray Matter” and simultaneously depicted the “Rags to Riches” rise of an underdog from the dark with ease.

“Everything possible to be believed is an image of the truth.” Being something of an aficionado in the genre of fantasy, I’ve come across many authors with their claims to fame. Most are fairly predictable in terms of plot and character, whilst some do surprise you from time to time. A few are very good, weaving magic into their words and painting pictures so colourful...

I have rarely trusted recommendations, least of all when it comes to books. When I was told that this was a memoir of a drug addict detailing his journey of rehabilitation towards sobriety, it was hard for me to reserve judgment and not to succumb to preconceptions. Brushing those aside, I decided to give it a shot.

Recent years have seen emergence of many young authors but the name of Aravind Aravind Adiga is quite distinguishable. Aravind Adiga’s name shot into fame as his book ‘The White Tiger’ was adjudged as the winner of prestigious ‘Man booker prize’.

Dan Brown is the author of bestsellers such as ‘Digital Fortress’, ‘Angels and Demons’ and ‘Deception Point’. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy where he has taught English and Creative writing. ‘The Da Vinci Code’, written by Dan Brown has a computer game feel to it. The protagonists are dropped almost immediately into a situation...

Teenagers need fads. Even the brooding intellectual kind need a standard to conform around. The more fantastic, the better. Thus This explains the mega success of book series like Harry Potter or film trilogies like Pirates of the Caribbean.

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug”. This sentence reverberates in Kafka literature in the same way as the opening lines in Albert Camus’ The Stranger.

What would you do if you planned to spend the Mothers Day weekend with family but on your way from the airport, your dad, who had come to receive you, gets kidnapped? The ransom demand to get your father back ALIVE is no less than a million-dollar!

Mr Navtej Sarna, an Indian Foreign Service bureaucrat cum writer of 3books – We Weren’t Lovers Like That, The Book of Nanak and Folk Tales of Poland, in this fourth attempt at writing has come out with ‘The Exile’. Mr. Sarna’s sketch of Duleep Singh, the last maharaja of Punjab, is as much about deport within as it is about his rift from his land.

There are many people who are adventurous and many more who are world-travelers. In today’s world of the internet and rich media streaming one can easily be an armchair traveler who can see the world from the comfort of their homes.

Message in a bottle, the second romantic novel written by US Best seller, Nicholas Sparks tries to portray the journey of love followed by grief and grief followed by love. The story is set in the mid-late 1990s, then-contemporary Wilmington, North Carolina, and has been even converted into a motion picture by the same name in 1999 produced by and starring Kevin Costner.

“Daughters of Arabia” by American author Jean Sasson is a sequel to the international bestseller Princess and is the second book in the Princess trilogy which also includes “Desert Royal.” The book is a true story of life behind the veil and exposes the claustrophobic and inhumane treatment meted out to women in Saudi Arabia. Though it is a real story, but certain...

The Gitanjali Album is a collection of poems and notes written by a young girl named Gitanjali Ghei who died of cancer at the young age of sixteen. It was the ailment which inspired her to write poems describing her state of mind and the agony she went through.

Who is an interpreter? He’s the one who is capable of interpreting, of understanding the various subtle meanings of life. What is a malady? It’s an undesirable, unwholesome condition. A trouble.

Miguel Street (1959) is the first novel that V S Naipaul’s first written novel wrote, though it was published third: after Mystic Masseur (1957) and The Suffrage of Elvira (1958). Naipaul, the Nobel Prize winner in Literature has also won the Booker Prize award in 1971

My most recent read was a non fictional book written by Pakistan’s premier war journalist, Ahmed Rashid which who talks about the rise of Islamic extremism in Central Asia and how the war against such extremism is being fought on a losing ground.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” These lines of William Arthur Ward come to mind when confronted with this masterpiece of literature and social commentary- E.R. Braithwaite’s novel To Sir, With Love.

When first published, The Second Sex evoked a wide variety of responses – ranging from personal attacks on Simone de Beauvoir for her unwomanliness to praise for women from different sections of the society. By and large, The Second Sex was regarded more as an affront to sexual decency than a political indictment of patriarchy or a phenomenological account of the meaning...

Every famous person’s autobiography faces a huge challenge. It is very easy for the writer to veer off the trail of truth. There is a very fine line between talking about your personal achievements and blowing your trumpet. ‘Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman’ balances this act wonderfully.

It was just another foray into the world of ‘Crossword’ at the GVK Mall at Hyderabad when ‘The Last Lecture’ caught my eyes. Considering my fancy for book stores and the time I spend there

A nice quiet holiday is a book I stumbled across in my boss’ office while interning this summer. I was quite intrigued by the back cover and all that it promised to offer and since I had a short break for lunch and thought I’d read it for a bit, before I got back to work.

‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho is a book that teaches us the wisdom to lead life and the courage to follow our dreams. The book involves a lot of symbolism and adventure. It teaches us that it’s not the final destination that counts but the hardships that we face in the process which make us internally strong. The people that we meet in life and the lessons we...

“Grisham? No way. Go for someone like Dostoyevsky or Dalrymple or even Amitav Ghosh. Nobody reviews a John Grisham novel by choice”, was how my friend and fellow members at the college newspaper board responded when I told them that I wanted to review The Testament

The author of the book “The Secret”, Rhonda Bryne is one of the world’s 100 influential women of 2007(as reported by Time magazine).The Australian writer and producer is known for her unparalleled works. Her other books include books like “The Secret Daily Techniques” and ” The Secret Gratitude Book”

Rich Dad Poor Dad is a book written by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. The book is an autobiographical account of Robert Kiyosaki’s aim of achieving financial security. The book is the first in a series of books written by Kiyosaki on achieving financial freedom and unraveling the secrets of success of the rich.

Work is worship. Ayn Rand has proved the same in this 1943 classic, which can be described as ‘a hymn in the praise of an individual’. She has created a new style of writing with ‘The Fountainhead’ and her a subsequent novel ‘Atlas Shrugged’(1957). Both are valuable pieces of writing, having sold more than 5 million copies each. Rand, a Russian who migrated...

Aravind Adiga was born in Madras (now Chennai) in 1974. He completed his schooling partly from Karnataka and rest from Sydney (Australia). He went to Columbia University, New York, to pursue higher education in English Literature. He began his career as a financial journalist with The Financial Times.

Mitch Albom, the author of Tuesdays with Morrie is a renowned American best-selling author, sports writer , a lyricist, journalist , radio broadcaster , screenwriter , playwright ,and an accomplished musician. He was born in 1958 in New Jersey.

“Everyone lives in a story…stories are all there are to live in, it’s just a question of which one you chose. “ Amitav Ghosh chooses to tell a story that pervades through the seams of reality and fiction, of time and space, of memories and beliefs. The Shadow Lines is Ghosh’s second novel, who has overtime secured his place as one of the India’s most celebrated...

Carl Sagan- The man who taught the world about the Universe- needs no introduction. He has, for the unapprised, published hundreds of research papers, is the co-author of many books, and has written books like “Contact” and “Pale Blue Dot”, both of which were quite popular on the bookstands.

Being a jet pilot by profession, Richard Bach has always been known for his books related to flying/aviation. He is very passionate about flying and that is truly reflected in his novels. Some of his famous books include Illusions, The Bridge Across Forever and One, Out of My Mind and of course, Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

One of the most acclaimed authors of recent times, Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘The Remains of the Day’ has won the Booker Prize in 1989 and his other three novels An Artist of the Floating World, When We Were Orphans and his most recent work, Never Let Me Go have been short-listed for the same, the latter also being part of the TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923...

‘A Million Little Pieces’ is the most moving and comprehensive book based on alcohol and drug addiction of this generation. It is a memoir of James Frey’s tryst with drug addiction and his experiences while recovering at a rehabilitation facility center in Minnesota.

Godfather is a 1969 crime novel written by Mario Puzo after he had heard anecdotes about Mafia organizations during his time in pulp journalism. Puzo was born in a poor family of Neapolitan immigrants living in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. Many of his books draw heavily on this heritage. Once, in an interview with the veteran American television...

An Ordinary Person’s Guide to an Empire is the work of famous writer Arundhati Roy in her known fearless, straight perfect pitch. She has discussed about how governments overlook the basic rights of poor people and how they mould their policies to benefit the richer ones.

Would you like to learn from the teacher who taught Warren Buffet ‘Value Investing’? Benjamin Graham’s classic text, The Intelligent Investor, lays out the foundation of value investing. Buffett himself has called it “the best book on investing ever written.”

“The Case of the Waylaid Wolf” is the hundredth book in the Perry Mason series written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Arlene Ferris works as a secretary at the Lamont Rolling, Casting, and Engineering Company. She is an efficient worker and is always careful to meet her deadlines, even if she has to work overtime to achieve them.

When it started off, it seemed as if the book is a collection of fictional stories. But as I continued reading, the picture became clearer. I realized, author Swami Paramhansa Yogananda is no ordinary man. How can someone get healed by just looking at their Guru’s (teacher’s) picture?

To try and describe Bill Bryson’s writing in anything less than his own breezily humorous manner would be to do him a disservice, and yet for us normal mortals to aspire to write the way he does would be quite impossible. There’s a reason his books are bestsellers

Riot by Shashi Tharoor is a book of great moral, social, religious, and political complexity. Tharoor is an ex-United Nations official and currently, State Minister of External Affairs. The story chronicles the events surrounding the murder of Priscilla

For everyone in this world no matter where the person what matters the most is that all his wishes are fulfilled and all his prayers are answered. Every human being on this earth lives to make his dreams come true. One takes various approaches

“If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater

Nicholas Sparks, a prolific writer, is an internationally acknowledged bestselling American Author, writing novels on themes such as Christianity, Romance, Fate and Affliction. His works include widely acknowledged bestsellers like “A Walk to Remember”, “Message In A Bottle”, “Rescue” and he has been greatly appreciated for his articulate and heartfelt work...

On a lazy summer afternoon, I picked up a book that my friends had often spoken about and which has been lying in my bookshelf for over a year. Little did I know that the book would touch me so deeply that never again would I see any of my friends in the same light as before.

To finish a book in almost just a day, it either has to be short and succinct or paced and entertaining. To find both the qualities in classics is rare, with their elaborations and imagery. While there will be many arguments on this statement of mine,

After having emerged from the greatest exhibition of democracy in the world, with our elections, it would perhaps not be unfitting to delve into a book about the nature of democracy itself. Don’t let the topic fool you; the book which undertakes

In the words of Socrates, “An unexamined life is not worth living”. Bertrand Russell’s ‘Marriage & Morals’, assists the reader to examine the inter-related societal themes of sexual ethics and marriage, and traces their evolution.

R.K. Narayan (1906-2001), a product of British India, belongs to the earliest generations of Indian Writing in English. Hailing from an academic family, boasting also of the cartoonist R.K. Laxman, he started writing at a very young age.

In 2008, a book “Who’s your city? ISBN 0465003524” was written by Richard Florida, an American urban theorist to challenge the idea of globalization. If someone had read the nonfiction book “The world’s flat” by The New York Times columnist

Being a princess is every girl’s dream as she grows up. The fairy-tales are full of Princesses, who are damsels in distress, and get rescued by a dashing knight in the shining armour, and they live happily ever after. The story of ‘A Little Princess’

The author Mr. Robert Kiyosaki is a person who claims to have had the privilege to be guided by two dads (so to say)-rich dad and the poor dad and hence the title of his well renowned book –Rich Dad poor Dad. While this book primarily revolves

I pulled out this book, “Freedom at Midnight” on a dull Friday afternoon just to kill time, hoping that it would put me to sleep soon. But the book completely took me by surprise! It came as a package of niceties about history, religion,

Kiran Desai’s second novel, The Inheritance of Loss is about various issues of global world; like terrorism, multiculturalism, economic disparities and immigration. The book’s fine narration of intricacies of contemporary concerns gained it

If the novel ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ had delighted you, Mitch Albom’s ‘The Five People You Meet In Heaven’ transcends all expectations! The author can well be considered the master of enchanting fables that stir those feelings buried deep and

Marley and Me is a fine amalgamation of memoir of Marley; Grogan’s wiggly, overzealous, yellow Labrador retriever and an autobiographical account of a married couple’s journey, from newly weds to a picture perfect family of five

Canadian author, Margaret Atwood, Booker price winner and author of the bestseller, The Handmaid’s Tale delivers another disturbingly breathtaking dystopia, in her novel Oryx and Crake

Daddy Long-Legs is the story of a young orphaned woman, Judy Abbot. The book is written by Alice Jane Chandler Webster, who wrote under the pseudonym Jean Webster. She was born into a literary family and was Mark Twain’s

Banat-al-Riyadh is the first novel by Saudi author, Rajaa Alsanea. Its English version is called ‘Girls of Riyadh’. It has popularly come to be known as the ‘Sex and the City’ of the Arab world. Initially, this book was banned in Saudi Arabia

Palagummi Sainath is a Mumbai based freelance journalist. His work on rural poverty won him several accolades and fellowships including the prestigious European Commission’s journalism award, the Lorenzo Natali prize. He has been a visiting lecturer in journalism, development and politics at universities in India, Canada, U.S

‘The Death Maze’ is a historical thriller written by English journalist-cum-author Ariana Franklin who was born in Dover and quit her job as a journalist after getting married, and it was at this point that she immersed herself in the study

Another impulsive mystery novel by Dan Brown of The Da Vinci Code fame (which was surprisingly written later), this book is a thrilling cat and mouse quest that will keep the reader hooked right up till the final revelation. A frantic paced,