Of cookery, marketing and spying (IANS Books This Weekend)

Get insights into methods of cooking, and various features of a professional kitchen; learn about the use of digital resources such as social media and web analytics for the purpose of marketing; read about a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new; and flick through tales around a fictional place -- Pandupur -- teeming with life, much like the river Dhun that flows alongside.

The IANS bookshelf has a lot of knowledge and fun to offer this weekend.

1. Book: Theory of Cookery; Author: Parvinder S. Bali; Publisher: Oxford University Press; Pages: 230; Price: Rs 325

"Theory of Cookery" is designed for students of diploma and food craft courses in hotel management. Catering to the syllabus of the National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology, the book elaborates on the concept of cookery, methods of cooking, and various features of a professional kitchen.

The book begins with an introduction to cookery, standards of personal hygiene, protective clothing and safety procedures in handling equipment that a chef needs to maintain.

It also gives an overview of the origin of modern cookery and provides a list of culinary terms. Following this, the book discusses organisational structure and layout of a professional kitchen, along with duties and responsibilities of various chefs. Basic menu planning, aims and methods of cooking food as well as commodities used for cooking have been explained at length too. The book also includes chapters on salads, soups, eggs, meat, and fish cookery.

2. Book: Internet Marketing; Author: Moutusy Maity; Publisher: Oxford University Press; Pages: 359; Price: Rs 425

Internet Marketing, designed with the purpose of explaining concepts of the subject from an India-specific context, also provides comparisons of ways online marketing is dealt with in India and in the West. An apt textbook for students of MBA specialising in marketing, it also describes the importance of digital resources such as social media and web analytics for the purposes of digital marketing.

The book is divided into seven sections discussing Internet users and usage in India; search engine marketing; the consumers; social media marketing; mobile marketing; e-mail marketing; online marketing strategy; and the existing challenges and emerging areas of opportunities surrounding the adoption of the Internet in the country.

Besides students, the book with its application-oriented approach would also be useful to marketing professionals.

3. Book: A Legacy of Spies; Author: John le Carre; Publisher: Penguin; Pages: 264; Price: Rs 599

Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the southern coast of Brittany when a letter from his old service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him.

Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinised by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justification.

4. Book: Growing Up in Pandupur; Authors: Adithi Rao and Chatura Rao; Publisher: Scholastic; Pages: 117; Price: Rs 199

With its bustling marketplace and honking traffic, posh colonies and shanty towns, railway station and looming dam, forests and playgrounds, Pandupur is teeming with life, much like the river Dhun that flows alongside it.

In "Growing Up in Pandupur", sisters Adithi and Chatura Rao weave a web of stories of life lessons, laughter and tears, insecurity, and surprising friendship in this fictional town. The book builds a map of Pandupur through the lives of its youngest residents. Characters in the 13 stories are faced with bullying, gender stereotyping, poverty and privilege. In the process of tackling these issues, they learn valuable lessons about the human heart and about growing up. The book will resonate in the hearts and minds of children and those who are young at heart.

--IANS

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