There is nothing more satisfying than reading a book while sipping a hot cup of tea.
My to-be-reviewed pile for 2022 is long and toppling over. Before I forget all about the books, here are just a couple of lines about nine of them. So in no particular order: Death of a Hollow Man (1987): I had enjoyed Caroline Graham's The Killings at Badger's Drift, the first in her Inspector Barnaby's … Continue reading Crammed together: Nine Books
The German Literature month has given me a wonderful opportunity to read three authors who had long been on my wishlist. Splinter by Sebastian Fitzek (2009) 'Back to the default position?' said Marc. 'A total reset?' Marc Lucas is a psychiatrist who has enough problems of his own. A few months prior to the beginning … Continue reading #GermanLitMonth: Three Crime Novels
The great events of world history are at bottom profoundly unimportant. In the last analysis the essential thing is the life of the individual. This alone makes history, here alone do the great transformations first take place, and the whole future, the whole hist. of the world ultimately spring as a gigantic summation from these … Continue reading Reaction to Reading: FROM A CLEAR BLUE SKY: SURVIVING THE MOUNTBATTEN BOMB by TIMOTHY KNATCHBULL
Today is 23 March. A day when we remember the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev, three young men who laid down their lives for the freedom of India. I thought this would be an appropriate occasion to talk about books related to them that I read recently.Professor S. Irfan Habib's To Make the … Continue reading 23 March: A Remembrance in Books
Convents, monasteries, dargahs, mathhs, are places separated from the world. The deceit and falsehood that is so abundant in the outside world, one thinks, will never be able to penetrate those hallowed walls. Unfortunately, it does not happen. Greed, lust, corruption, everything seeps in; the only thing is that there is a veil of secrecy … Continue reading Review: Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun by Sister Jesme
In my early school-going days, Sherlock Holmes was THE DETECTIVE. My bhuaji's husband (whom as is wont in our family, we called Jijaji) told us enthusiastically about how as a young boy in Quetta, he and some of his schoolmates, who knew English, would narrate the adventures of Holmes to the village elders. So impressed … Continue reading Sherlock Holmes Deconstructed: Partha Basu’s The Curious Case of 221B
As schoolchildren we have always been taught that Vasco Da Gama discovered the sea-route to India. That momentous event led to the establishment of European companies in India. The companies fought amongst themselves and with the Indian kings. Commercial establishments soon began to harbour imperialistic designs.Prior to reading Keki N. Daruwalla's For Pepper and Christ, … Continue reading Review: Keki N. Daruwalla’s For Pepper and Christ
Muzaffar Jung is the detective in Madhulika Liddle's mysteries set during the Mughal times.Here is how the author describes him:A tall young man stood at the prow of the boat watching the spectacle. He was about twenty-five years old, broad-shouldered and fine-featured. He wore no beard, and his moustache was short and well-trimmed. The rich … Continue reading J is for Jung, Muzaffar
'Then Ned - so threatened is he, wherever he may be while I am talking to you, dreary - should live to all eternity!'Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Charles Dickens: The Mystery of Edwin Drood'I will tell you how I see it. … Continue reading D is for Drood: The Mystery Continues
The Case of the Imaginary DetectiveWhat happens when your godmother not only makes your father a character in her book but also goes ahead and presents him as a murderer, of his wife, no less?This is the interesting premise that gripped me when I started reading Karen Joy Fowler's The Case of the Imaginary Detective. Rima’s … Continue reading C is for Case of the Imaginary Detective
a hot cup of pleasure 