Non Fiction

Five Morsels of Love

By Archana Pidathala My culinary skills are passable and any new recipe I need is just a call-to-mom away. I never saw the need to own a cook book until I came across this one. I ordered the book after reading about it on NY Times and was not disappointed.This cloth-bound, aesthetically pleasing book is … Continue reading Five Morsels of Love →

𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲: 𝐀 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐬 𝐊𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐥

By Taran N Khan In Shadow city, Taran Khan, toys with the idea of what makes a place one’s home. A Pashtun descendant, she was an audience to her grandfather’s nostalgic intrigue for the land of their ancestors. Her grandfather never lived or even visited Kabul but is intimately familiar with the place through books … Continue reading 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲: 𝐀 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐬 𝐊𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐥 →

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

As with other Kurt Vonnegut’s books, I have a nagging feeling I am missing some insightful hidden meaning. There is a lot happening in this book- apocalyptic science fiction, a made up religion, familial workings of a reclusive scientist and dry humor. Our narrator, Jonah sets out to write about the day America dropped atomic bombs … Continue reading Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut →

It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War

By Lynsey Addario “Trying to convey beauty in war was a technique to try to prevent the reader from looking away or turning the page in response to something horrible. I wanted them to linger, to ask questions.” In Lynsey Addario’s memoir, we witness the journey of a young girl experimenting with photography to becoming … Continue reading It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War →

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Wolf

Featured

This is an extended essay put together from 2 letters that Virginia Woolf wrote in response to being asked to speak about ‘Women in fiction’. We see Woolf’s signature stream of consciousness narrative or how Woolf puts it herself, rambling. Thoughts are fleeting in Woolf’s writing. She is always chasing them and taking us along … Continue reading A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Wolf →

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

By Neil Gaiman ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Grown-ups don’t look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they’re big and thoughtless and they always know what they’re doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. The truth is, there aren’t any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world. … Continue reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane →

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

⭐️⭐️⭐️ *A scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.... Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive.* The story of globalization is punctuated with exploitation, poverty and suppression. Chris Cleave’s Little Bee uses the oil conflict in the Niger Delta as a set-up for a poignant … Continue reading Little Bee by Chris Cleave →

Grumpy Monkey

Grumpy MonkeyBy Suzanne LangIllustrated by Max Lang This was an impulse purchase during the 2019 holiday season haul and I was glad I brought it home to my pre-schooler. This book was stacked on the Barnes and Noble display table as a bestseller, for good reason. Jim, the Chimpanzee, wakes up in a bad mood … Continue reading Grumpy Monkey →

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag

Image courtesy of goodreads.com By Vivek Shanbhag. Translated by Srinath Perur ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Vivek Shanbhag’s translated short story is an introspective narrative about a South Indian(Kannada) family on the cusp of a status change from middle class to one of high society. The title, Ghachar Ghochar, is a colloquial term for something that is tangled beyond repair. The narrator, … Continue reading Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag →