Page 32 - Book Reviews

Afghanistan: Reports from the wreckage

Ms Basu describes with aplomb the sense of urgency and fear of life that every decision would entail

Leader as 'friction fixer'

Successful friction-fixers are assured of a long-lasting functional job that is for sure

Climate change is making us paranoid and angry

Some of the revelations in this "Pandora's box of horrors" raise practical questions

Tripping on the high road

Cannabis has a storied past in Odisha's history across class and occupation until the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act came in 1985

China's strongman party

The author was one of the journalists who has been at the receiving end of Xi Jinping's tightening control over media

The paradoxical freedom of living by the clock

Anyone who feels they lack a firm grip on their day should read Marc Zao-Sanders' Timeboxing and adopt its tenets

A destiny in Aligarh

In general, one's childhood is a scintilla of emotions, but in the author's case it appears to become a handy guide to survive a riot

Congress talks the walk

Will the Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) be able to defeat the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?

The quickest path to WWIII

The Return of Great Powers argues that we are living through a Cold War redux

REAL.E scary

The collaboration has worked wonderfully though the final product is not for the faint hearted as well as those who are not already following the progress of AI

Reconciling 'development' dilemmas

Accelerating India's Development is about enhancing development and growth by improving public service delivery

The enduring myth of the 'West'

Western capitals, anxious to continue their political, economic and military hegemony in the face of emerging challenges from new players, are unlikely to pay much heed to this sobering intervention

Embedding AI in strategy

Gathering data, analysing it, using it to sell products or getting more attention is something that made digital native companies successful

The long road to liberalisation

The return of Indira Gandhi and the subsequent takeover by Rajiv Gandhi saw one of the periods of highest economic growth initially but these and associated investments were powered by dollops of debt

Speed date with the liberal world order

The study of revolution can tell us 'how and why the world has come to be what it is today and whither it is going.'

Faith between the covers

The gods abhorred abstinence and even though the consequences were not always as dire as the one that Hippolytus faced, abjuring sex never went unpunished or unreformed in the ancient world

Lajpat Rai beyond the Hindutva construct

Vanya Bhargav's book on Lajpat Rai, depicting him as someone who envisioned the nation differently at various times while always believing in inclusivity, renders it significant in today's context

The waning spirit of independent inquiry

In his latest book, N Bhaskara Rao provides a prescription to rejuvenate the social research landscape and stem the decline in its standards - something India can ignore only at its own peril

Bihar's half revolution

'Broken Promises' is a political history of Bihar, offering a meticulous account of the interplay of land, caste, crime and politics that has kept the state in perpetual poverty

Two is company

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's book portrays ordinary yet remarkable lives of the Murthys before Infosys, offering a captivating narrative of resilience and sacrifice that went into building the company