By IANS,
(IANS Books This Week)
New Delhi : From the irrepressible Shobhaa De to a passionate defence of art by Milan Kundera, here’s a stimulating pile of books to spend the weekend with.
1. Book: “When the Penny Drops: What’s Not Taught”; Written by R. Gopalakrishnan; Published by Penguin-Books India; Priced at Rs.299
For centuries, we have learnt what’s not taught through our own experiences and the stories of others. Even today, only three percent of leadership development occurs due to classroom training and coursework.
R. Gopalakrishnan, author of the best-selling “The Case of the Bonsai Manager”, uses the framework from the Tata Management Training Center (TMTC) and the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), to establish the three worlds of the manager – the inner world, the world of relationships and the world of getting things done; the importance of emotional quotient (EQ) to progress as well as intelligence (IQ) to get ahead in your career.
2. Book: “A Journey Down the Melody Lane: The Making of a Hindi Song”; Written by Raju Bharatan; Priced at Rs.399
The Hindi film song has held millions spellbound for nearly eight decades. In this unputdownable “labour of love”, India’s leading film song historian, Raju Bharatan, delves deep into his treasure trove to tell us how singing is all about romancing, how composing is all about feelings, how the twain, stardom and songdom, do meet to make the vintage film number a part of the nation’s psyche.
He reconstructs song happenings over the last 60 years and the legendary star hook-ups to show how with the pairing comes the vibe, with the vibe comes the tune, and with the tune unfolds cinema that is a ‘Madhuballad’ all the way.
3. Book: “Shobhaa at Sixty: Secrets of Getting It Right at Any Age”; Written by Shobhaa De; Published by Penguin-India/Hay House; Priced at Rs.350
Shobhaa De is known to live life by her own rules. Declaring sixty as “the new forty”, she shares some of her most intimate secrets that are valuable at any age. From beauty tips, dealing with anxiety and ageing to spiritual quests, seeking solace and tranquillity, Shobhaa wants you to have a joyous and fulfilling existence.
In “Shobhaa at Sixty”, she helps the reader rejuvenate their life, giving wise, honest and practical advice on how to cope with the daily challenges and stresses we face in today’s fast-paced world. She shares her own experience from her life spanning six decades, claiming the inspiration for penning this book was, in her own words, “to free people from the cage of age”.
4. Book: “Encounter Essays”; Written by Milan Kundera; Published by Penguin-India; Priced at Rs.499
Milan Kundera’s new collection of essays is a passionate defence of art in an era that, he argues, no longer values art or beauty. With the same dazzling mix of emotion and idea that characterises his novels he illuminates the art and artists who remain important to him and whose work helps us better understand the world. An astute and brilliant reader of fiction, Kundera applies these same gifts to the reading of Francis Bacon’s paintings, Leos Janácek’s music, the films of Federico Fellini, as well as to the novels of Philip Roth, Dostoyevsky and Garcia Márquez, among others.
5. Book: “Two Virgins”; Written by Kamala Markandaya; Published by Penguin-India; Priced at Rs.250
Saroja lives in a village with her parents, aunts and beautiful elder sister Lalitha. Saroja’s life is uncomplicated and simple things give her joy like the birth of a calf or a taste of one of Chinglepat’s sweets.
Lalitha, on the other hand, believes she is good for her village and her dream is realised when a filmmaker casts her in his documentary. She becomes the talk of the town. Her latent sexuality is brought to the fore with fame – and sister Saroja basking in her sister’s success is caught in a mire of greed, ambition – and confusion.
6. Book: “Battle for Bittora”; Written by Anuja Chauhan; Published by Harper-Collins India; Priced at Rs.299
Twenty-five-year-old Jinni lives in Mumbai; works in a hip animation studio and is perfectly happy with her creative and independent existence. Until her bossy grandmother shows up and announces that it is Jinni’s “duty” to drop everything and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election from their sleepy hometown, Bittora. Her rival is an ex-royal, Zain Altaf Khan, an irritatingly idealistic though undeniably lustworthy individual with whom Jinny shares a complicated history.