Page 43 - Book Review

Bitter medicine for pharma regulation

The Gambian tragedy has raised uncomfortable questions about drug regulation in India. The Truth Pill is a depressing but eye-opening reality check of the regulatory landscape

Lines of control

We the People of the States of Bharat offers an excellent account of the considerations that have given the country its present internal boundaries to whet your appetite for history

'Insurgent' justice

Human rights activist and lawyer K G Kannabiran's memoir, translated into English from Telugu by his daughter, is a book worth reading and re-reading

From pest to ecosystem engineer

The writer Leila Philip adds to a genre of pro-beaver literature that turns out to be more populous than most of us may have known

Harappa between the lines

Nikhil Gulati and Jonathan Mark Kenoyer provide a clean but unconventional look at history

Line of duty

Mr Raza is an author, consultant, and poetry aficionado who continues to write and work even in his eighties

Pure maths and the natural world

The book adheres closely to the popular science principle Stephen Hawking articulated in avoiding equations and formulae in A Brief History of Time

A closer look at 'quiet diplomacy'

At a broader level Rahul Roy Chaudhary extols the UPA's role in projecting India as a significant player in a multipolar world, away from being perceived as a peripheral actor in the Asia-Pacific

India in the nitty-gritty

Former Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar's memoir is a remarkable account of the many events that took place during his tenure, including the Mumbai terrorist attack

A book of cheeky obituaries

The obit goes on to say that his friends loved Mountgarret, because he was an entertaining character

Anglo Indians beyond the stereotypes

In case you thought that this is a dry historic tome, perish the thought!

Colonial crime and punishment

Sunil Nair's collection of stories about crime in pre-independence India is a collage of micro pictures that takes us into the nitty-gritty of the British legal system

Reinventing social democracy

There is a growing disenchantment with liberal democracies. In 'A World of Insecurity', Economist Pranab Bardhan situates its root cause in the economic and cultural insecurity of people

The gas-coal riddle

Former coal secretary Anil Kumar Jain's book makes a strong case for using coal until renewable energy becomes ubiquitous in India

History of Hollywood

On-set stories, technical details, funny anecdotes about actors, the echoes of studio executives kvetching and various people complaining about critics

Thought experiments about the human condition

Neil deGrasse Tyson's collection of essays challenges common assumptions through counterfactual data and provocative thought experiments, leaving even the most informed readers much to chew on

Controversy in high places

"Flying Lies" dives into practically every dimension of the Rafale deal, producing an invaluable treatise on defence procurement in the process

Janet Yellen: For the people

Two recent biographies offer insights into the life and work of the US Treasury Secretary. One is a tad more absorbing than the other

The shifting local language mediascape

Mrinal Pande's books offers a bird's-eye view of India's language mediascape, its heft and business potential

On a wing and a prayer

Among the many virtues of John Lancaster's delightful The Great Air Race is how vividly it conveys the entirely different world of aviation at the dawn of the industry a century ago