By IANS,
(IANS Books This Week)
New Delhi : Let your hair down this weekend with an exciting pile of books.
1. Book: “Finding Delhi”; Written by Bharati Chaturvedi; Published by Penguin India; Priced at Rs.399
It is a book that tells you what happens on the way to becoming a world-class city. A century after the British built New Delhi as the capital of India, it is in the middle of furious, sometimes haphazard, growth in a race against time to become a “world-class” city. As the metropolis is re-imagined, dug up and built upon, the lives of its 20 million inhabitants, and the ways in which they negotiate the sprawling city, are also changing. “Finding Delhi” examines the nature of this transformation: what kind of spaces and opportunities are becoming available to some of the 20 million, and how much is being taken away from others.
2. Book: “Our Kind of Traitor”; Written by John Le Carre; Published by Penguin Books; Priced at Rs.299
Britain is in the depth of recession. A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain’s Intelligence establishment.
3. Book: “MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949”; Written by Keith Jeffery; Published by Bloomsbury/Penguin-Books; Priced at Rs.799
A ground-breaking book, this unprecedented study is the authoritative account of the best-known intelligence organisation in the world. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of espionage, the two world wars, modern British government and the conduct of international relations in the first half of the twentieth century. “MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service between 1909-1949” is a uniquely important examination of the role and significance of intelligence in the modern world.
4. Book: “Nine Man-Eaters and One Rogue”; Written by Kenneth Anderson; Published (reprinted) by Rupa & Co ; Priced at US $10 (approx Rs.450)
“Nine Man Eaters and One Rogue”, a wildlife classic, narrates the hunting episodes of several man-eating tigers, leopards and a rogue elephant that roamed the southern Indian jungles of Mysore, Chennai, Hyderabad and northern Malabar. It is one man’s crusade to save lives in the jungles of southern India in the first quarter of the last century. A Scotsman, Anderson officially shot eight man-eating leopards, seven tigers, nearly 20 panthers and over 20 tigers. He also shot rogue elephants.
5. Book: “The story of Ram and his friends in the Forest”; Written by Pratibha Nath; Published by Rupa & Co, Priced at US$25 (approx Rs.1,125)
An unusual retelling of “Ramayan”, with the focus on the forest and the animals and demons who lived there. Drawing on Valmiki, Tulsidas and popular sources, the author’s graphic descriptions of nature and characters skilfully bring alive the timeless epic. Complementing and reflecting the mood of the text, Sujasha Dasgupta’s superlative illustrations make the book a vibrant visual treat.