Many, many years ago, in Maoist China, two teenage boys are sent to a village for ‘re-education’. The government wants to rid them of their western knowledge and the influence of their intellectual parents. On their arrival, the villagers come to inspect the boys’ belonging to ensure they bring no western or bourgeois objects. Our narrator and his friend Lou, whose story this novel is, find themselves in the odd position of defending their violin.…
Book Reviews
When the Assad government fell on December 8, 2024, the political nerd in me finally gave in to my ‘What’s this all about?’ bug. A quick online search led me to read the very accessible, informative and eye-opening Burning Country; Syrians in Revolution and War by Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami. How I picked this book When picking up books about areas of conflict, who writes the narrative is extremely important. I try to avoid…
When one thinks of World War II, there is a certain imagery that comes instantly to mind. Like the deathly concentration camps, Dunkirk, D-Day, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima-Nagasaki, the skeletal remains of European cities, etc. Western cinema and Hollywood have done its bit to aggrandize the heroics of the allies and to create a list of top recall in the world’s mind. However, in the stories of grand battles or unimaginable horrors, it is easy to…
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Review: The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey
by VipulaNo other book fits Around The World for Argentina more than The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey, written by probably one of the most famous & influential Argentinians ever. The travelogue and memoir by Ernesto “Che” Guevara, was from a time many years before his revolutionary days. Ernesto and his friend, two young, privileged doctors, embark on a road trip on a bike across South America to find the soul of the…
“I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well. ” ― Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red With that opening line, My Name Is Red pulls you straight into one of the most unique murder mysteries I’ve ever read. While multiple narrators pick up the thread of story telling, the first chapter is a banger, narrated by a body at the bottom of a well asking you to figuring…
Genre: Books Can Heal “I don’t think it really matters whether you know a lot about books or not. That said, I don’t know that much myself. But I think what matters far more with a book is how it affects you.” ― Satoshi Yagisawa, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop To recover from this awful experience above, I needed something familiar and cozy, like a novel set in a bookstore. Days At the Morisaki Bookshop…
Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Genre: Scary Future Let me start with the disclaimer: I only read Ready Player One because I really enjoyed the movie. It imagines a futuristic world where the have-nots escape the drudgery of their existence by living in OASIS, a virtual cyberworld, where they can be anyone or anything. The possibilities are endless. And in this future world, somewhere in Ohio, in a tottering city of trailer parks,…
Finally read this overhyped book, and I have to admit I’m a little underwhelmed. It’s got a great combination of feminism and humor going for it—and really, which woman doesn’t relate to the injustice of being constantly ignored in favor of her male colleagues? The plot, in brief, follows the life of an up-and-coming scientist, Zott, who—after being horrifically sexually assaulted—is left without a job or prospects. She eventually finds her footing in a new…
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