Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

For a review of Murakami's Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage head to the Quiet/Interesting page

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Head to Interesting Reads for a review of Ishiguro's The Buried Giant.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the need to rethink ideal body types.

The link I've put here is to a much needed article--not about books--but about women and their bodies.
http://time.com/3964758/body-shaming-black-female-athletes/?xid=newsletter-brief

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

For a review of David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks proceed to the Interesting Reads page.

Taiye Selasi on African Writers

An intelligent article by Taiye Selasi on the burden faced by African writers today.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/04/taiye-selasi-stop-pigeonholing-african-writers

Non-fiction category dissovled

I have removed the category of non-fiction.  Instead the books under that listing have been placed under amazing, good reads, and interesting.  I have labelled them as non-fiction against the book title to avoid any confusion regarding their nature.

Suggestions for Teens by Huffington Post

An interesting list of books for older teens put together by Huffington Post.  I read Adiche's book a long time ago and really enjoyed it.  As for More Than This by Patrick Ness, my daughter is raving about it.  Book number 8 is a brutally frank look into the life of a boy soldier in Africa, grim but should be compulsory reading.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/29/young-adult-summer-reading_n_7688722.html?ir=Books&utm_hp_ref=books

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

For a review of Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North turn to the Overrated page.

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje

For a review of Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje refer to the Amazing page.

Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man by U.R. Ananthamurthy

For a review of Ananthamurthy's Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man turn to the Good Reads page.

Continent by Jim Crace

For a review of Jim Crace's Continent proceed to the Good Reads page.

Family Life by Akhil Sharma

To find out why Akhil Sharma's Family Life should be avoided check out the Overrated page.

The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

For a review of  The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar please refer to the Quiet & Intersting Reads page.

The Second World War by Antony Beevor

For a review of Antony Beevor's The Second World War please refer to the non-fiction page.

Literature: Issues of Classification

For an insightful article on the perils of classifying literature check out Aminatta Forna's article, "Don't Judge a Book by its Author" on The Guardian's website.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/13/aminatta-forna-dont-judge-book-by-cover

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

For a review of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Memories of My Melancholy Whores please proceed to the easy reads page.

One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan

For a review of One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan please proceed to the Good Reads page.

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

For a review of The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami please proceed to the Easy Reads page.

JLF 2015 Day 3

I woke up on Friday, 23rd of Jan to receive the news that horror of horrors: Jhumpa Lahiri was the winner of the the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2015!  Having read The Lowland (refer to the Overrated page for a review of the book) last year, I was shocked to learn that Lahiri had won the prize, a sentiment echoed by friends who had also read her book. Don't tell me the other books were worse than hers, was the first thought that ran through my head. Wait, is it even possible to have worse books than The Lowland was the second. I then felt that well, the judges must have been biased and taken in by Lahiri's pretty face. I then chided myself for being so nasty and instead checked out who the other contenders for the prize were. So, the other contenders were:
Bilal Tanweer: The Scatter Here is Too Great
Kamila Shamsie: A God in Every Stone
Romesh Gunesekera: Noontide Toll   
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi: The Mirror of Beauty
Upon going through the list I suffered another shock--SR Faruqi had not won.  Yes, I have not read his book, but after hearing him speak the previous day, I found it hard to believe that he had been by-passed in favour of Lahiri.  Being a PYT definitely pays!
Post breakfast one proceeded to the fest.  I first caught a session on The Art of Memoir where one was impressed by Anchee Min's frank candor.  Brigid Keenan was a natural storyteller who adeptly provoked laughter from the audience.  I then moved to Valmik Thapar's session on The Tiger--it was so heartening to hear that tigers are now doing better in India, though there is still a lot of work that need tot be done for their conservation.  In my zest to catch BN Goswamy's talk I caught the tail end of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar's q and a and promptly put his book The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey on my reading list.  BN Goswamy's presentation on Indian masterpieces was a real feast for my soul...what exquisite works....
The post-lunch talk on Ibrahim Adil Shah I of Bijapur was such a revelation...for here was a figure experimenting with syncretism in the Deccan at the same time as Akbar was in the North--and despite being a student of Indian history I had no idea of his existence!  I then caught Rick Stroud's riveting account of how British officers kidnapped a Nazi General off the occupied island of Crete--definitely great spy movie  material.   The last session of the day was a set of fun readings by Jonathan Gil Harris and Sam Miller of their accounts of Firangis in India.
Thus ended my sojourn at the JLF in 2015.  I was taking back with me new knowledge and perspectives, despite organisational glitches.  Perhaps, next year I'll catch the fest from the comfort of my home.

JLF 2015 Day 2

Had a busy time in Jaipur hanging out with the friends and returned to an equally busy time in Delhi with family and catching both a symposium on Nauras: The Many Arts of the Deccan and the India Art Fair, hence the really late updates on JLF.

As mentioned earlier, Day 2 of JLF was witness to a lot of rain; but not a surprise as all the weather forecasts had been predicting rain on Thursday for over a month.  So, when William Dalrymple excused the failure of the organisers to make provisions for the rain  by the trite observation that Jaipur is a desert and therefore rain was never quite expected, I failed to find the humour in the statement.  Needless to say, given that the festival was a Teamwork production, chaos reigned supreme.  The venues were reduced from 6 to 3 for the first half of the day and programs shrunk from 60 to 30 minute presentations.  Not a bad idea....BUT why did the information desk have no information about what was happening when and where?  The volunteers were clueless every time there was a deviation from the schedule.  Sure, there were updates being posted on the festival's FB page, but there was no accessible wifi at the venue and 3G was barely operable, hence, as an audience member one could not access the updates.  Not surprisingly, I missed the session on Terror and Faith as it's venue was changed and no one could tell me where it was!!!!!
So, what were the highlights of the day?  Excellent sessions by Neil Rennie on Pirates of the Indian Ocean, SR Faruqi on Of Beauty and Truth (I'm definitely picking up his book The Mirror of Beauty to read) Daud Ali on Courtly culture in Early Medieval India, Saryu Doshi took us through a Jain Pancha-kalyanaka Pata, LLewelyn Morgan on the Buddhas of Bamiyan.  The session Writing Back was interesting as Sahar Delijani, Kamila Shamsie, Meena Kandasamy and Eimar McBride discussed the gender bias in the publishing world, making me wonder just how little change there has been since the time  of the Bronte sisters.
The session by Mandy Ord and Annie Zaidi began enticingly...a retelling of  the Anarkali legends in comic form...but once I saw that their research material was not all true to their period--a Rajput fort belonging to a later period was their model for an earlier Mughal Fort--along with their cavalier dismissal of the fact when pointed out--I tuned off!

JLF 2015 Day 1

Too Much of a Good Thing...


Ok, I confess, I might be a JLF junkie, given that this is the sixth time that I am attending the fest!  Though in my defense, I do have to admit that I was planning to skip it this year, but then my friends arm twisted me to Jaipur with them in tow.  Can't complain though as I am having a great time hanging out with them.
As for the festival, as always there are great speakers and not so great speakers, intelligent moderators and inept ones.  The ones that stood out are: Molly Emma Aitken, William Pinch, Jung Chang on Cixi, Llewelyn Morgan, Daud Ali, Tom Holland, and Bettany Hughes.  More on them later.
At the end of the day, I did feel like an old-timer at the fest unhappy with the changes this year.  Entry to the fest disappointed me as chaos reigned supreme...disorderly lines with the lack of information guidance resulting in a mess at the registration counter....a brutal change from the previous years of seamless entry.
At the bookstore, I had a heart attack....my familiar faces of Full Circle had been replaced by the mechanical ones of Amazon.  Yes Amazon does give discounts, but shouldn't a lit fest support bookshops???  That too when they were their original book partners?
And finally on a slightly trivial note, my frozen yogurt store had been replaced by a tea shop, boo hoo.
Well, I guess one can't have it all!

PS: have woken up to rain in jaipur....hope the venue is not swamped!

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson

For a review of Life after Life by Kate Atkinson proceed to the Easy Reads page.

Book of Rachel by Esther David

For a review of Esther David's Book of Rachel proceed to the Quiet Reads page.

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

For a review of Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds proceed to the Overrated page please.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

For a review of  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce check out the Quiet Reads page.

The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin

For a review of The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin proceed to the Amazing page.