Seabiscuit: An American Legend
Seabiscuit was the horse that held up the spirits of not just it's owner but thousands of Americans during the Great Depression. The horse had gone unnoticed until it came into the stable of Charles Howard, a successful America car dealer. Charles Howard appointed Tom Smith to train the horse …
read moreSomanatha: The Many Voices of a History
The plunder of Somanatha by Mahmud of Ghazni was supposed to be a watershed moment in Indian history. It is usually summed up as the start of Islamic rule in India and the oppression of majority Hindus.
Romila Thapar investigates if that is the case. She concludes that is not …
read moreEarly India From the Origins to 1300AD
When one generally talks of Indian history, we immediately assume the story of Kings, wars, their golden administration and vilification of the other neighbouring kingdoms. But Romila Thapar's "Early India from the Origins to 1300AD" is a different kind of a history book.
It emphasises little on kings and stories …
read moreAnnihilation of Caste
Annihilation of Caste was supposed to be the last speech to have been delivered by Dr. B.R Ambedkar before he gave up Hinduism and converted to Buddhism. The speech was to have been delivered before an anti-caste organization in Lahore in the 1930s. But the anti-caste group found Ambedkar's …
read moreNature's Spokesman
M.Krishnan was amongst India's earliest nature conservationist and policy expert. This book is a collection of short stories on his tryst with nature's creations.
Some of the stories are everyday stories like the author's encounter with a snake in his backyard or with common birds like crows. Others being …
read moreThe Price of Inequality
One of the reasons for the Arab Spring protests in 2010 and the subsequent Occupy movement in the 2012 was the symptom of globalization, rampant inequality.
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize awarded economist and the author of this book discusses the causes of inequality and the ways to fix it …
read moreAlexander the Great
Alexander built one of the largest empires in the shortest time and at a young age. But how did he manage this? Was he blessed with unmatchable valour or did he rule through an iron fist? There were a lot of such questions in my mind before I started reading …
read moreWaves
"Waves" is a collection of short-stories written in Tamil by Sundara Ramaswamy (Su.Ra) and translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom.
These breezy stories are mostly set in a middle-class Tamil Brahmin households some time in the 1960-70s.
read moreNo Logo
A study asked kids under the age of 12 from an impoverished African country to name their favourite logo. McDonald's ended up very high on that list. This in a country that didn't have a single McDonald store! That's branding for you.
"No Logo" dissects brands for you but not …
read moreTinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Smiley has retired but the events that brought about his abrupt retirement still plague him. He runs into a former colleague with information that he suspected for long, the existence of a mole amongst the intelligence sleuths. Smiley is requested to investigate this discreetly and expose the spy.
After …
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