Page 110 - Book Reviews

Cheering madrasas

Madrasas, according to Ms Borker, changed the lives of Muslim girls. Otherwise, they may have been still stuck at home, changing nappies

Bhagat Singh's real legacy

The message of this edited volume is that an individual who is not in tune with the mainstream ideas of his own society is liable to be punished, and Bhagat Singh was no exception

I'm brimming with sadness, writing alleviates pain: Novelist Anees Salim

The writer won Sahitya Akademi award for his novel The Blind Lady's Descendants

The best bookshelf of 2018

2018 was a commendable year for offerings in history and biography

From Dark Circles to The Children Act: The most evocative books of 2018

My book of 2018 is David Gilmour's delightful study of the British in India. It may be long and detailed but it's a joy to read, says the author

Inside the sorting hat of stories

The author includes many folk myths in her collection and considers these a symbol of the reciprocal traditions of storytelling in the region

India's tryst with free enterprise

Merchants from the north or south of India looked up to the state for mainly one role and that was the provision of political security

Profiting from market cycles

Being contrarian and going against the wisdom of the crowds pays off richly in the markets

An American journey

"Becoming" is refined and forthright, gracefully written and at times laugh-out-loud funny, with a humbler tone

Book review: Capturing 365 historical events, one for each day of the year

A TV presenter makes history come alive by focusing on an event that took place on each day in the calendar, but from an essentially Western perspective

'Stillborn Season' depicts a world bound by compassion in face of tragedy

Despite some shortcomings, its invocation of empathy in the face of tragedy upon tragedy is Stillborn Season's triumph

Muhammad Ali in the details

Muhammad Ali was conscious about leaving behind a rich legacy and he hoarded memories.

A conundrum called "Britishness"

This book is part of a new "ethnic noir" genre in publishing and follows a spate of memoirs by prominent Asians and Afro-Caribbeans

Between god and state

The author devotes considerable space examining religious organisations engaged in providing public services

Creating the US Supreme Court

Life of Marshall reminds us of the urgent importance of Roberts's efforts to persuade his colleagues to unite around a shared commitment to defending legitimacy of SC by rising above partisan politics

Gyan Prakash's book explains how the Emergency was allowed to happen

It is odd to find Narendra Modi's 2014 victory on page three of a book about the Emergency. But Prakash makes it work

GenNext in Indian politics

In her profiles of Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ms Sahgal refuses to engage with the question of why these leaders' constituencies, Amethi and Guna respectively, continue to be backward

Small steps in energy transition

For someone who doesn't know anything about the mess in Jharia, this comprehensive account offers much interesting information

The challenge of counsel

The book bears the former CEA's distinctive writing style - conversational, long sentences - with which we are familiar from his eminently readable Economic Surveys

Analysing what ails America

Someday, an intellectual historian cite both these books to lament that the contemporaries are not as eloquent that arose in Trump's era to combat the threats to our way of life