Kumar's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 29 May 2022 19:47:23 -0700 60 Kumar's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Mirror of Beauty 18296832
Beginning with the story of an enigmatic and gifted painter in a village near Kishangarh, The Mirror of Beauty embarks on an epic journey that sweeps through the death-giving deserts of Rajputana, the verdant valley of Kashmir and the glorious cosmopolis of Delhi, the craft of miniature painting and the art of carpet designing, scintillating musical performances and recurring paintings of mysterious, alluring women. Its scope breathtaking, its language beguiling, and its style sumptuous, this is a work of profound beauty, depth and power.]]> 984 Shamsur Rahman Faruqi Kumar 0 to-read 4.38 1998 The Mirror of Beauty
author: Shamsur Rahman Faruqi
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> Ramayana 141155 492 ī쾱 8172763654 Kumar 4 4.22 1957 Ramayana
author: ī쾱
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1957
rating: 4
read at: 2015/03/18
date added: 2021/03/14
shelves:
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]]> A Man Called Ove 18774964
Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.]]> 337 Fredrik Backman 1476738017 Kumar 4 4.35 2012 A Man Called Ove
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2017/07/18
date added: 2017/07/18
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]]> Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 Kumar 0 currently-reading 4.01 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/12
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Half a Rupee Stories 17923969 A suicide bomber in a small town plans out her last day, getting herself photographed before she goes and blows up the prime minister. A drunkard in a Mumbai slum tries to compete with the torrential rain, even as it washes his dwelling away. An army man at the border has become so accustomed to speaking over the wireless that he ends every sentence with ‘Over!� And in the title story, a cop drags a dead cow from Vinayak Rao Patwardhan Road to the adjoining Bapu Road, since the latter is so much easier to spell.
From real-life stories about Javed Akhtar, Sahir Ludhianvi and Kuldip Nayyar to tales set in Kashmir, in the hinterland, in the modern megapolis and on the LoC, from anecdotes of love and betrayal to fables of courage and conviction, this is an enthralling collection available in English for the very first time.]]> 232 गुलज़ार 0143068792 Kumar 4 3.80 2013 Half a Rupee Stories
author: गुलज़ार
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2017/07/08
date added: 2017/07/08
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]]> The Laws of the Spirit World 8068001 book 342 Bhavnagi Khorshed 817992985X Kumar 3 4.04 2009 The Laws of the Spirit World
author: Bhavnagi Khorshed
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2017/07/06
date added: 2017/07/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ministry of Utmost Happiness]]> 34114024 The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on an intimate journey of many years across the Indian subcontinent, from the cramped neighborhoods of Old Delhi and the roads of the new city, to the mountains and valleys of Kashmir and beyond, where war is peace and peace is war.

The engine of Roy's story is a hijra (India's third gender) named Anjum, and the story begins with her unrolling a threadbare Persian carpet in a city graveyard she calls home. Anjum's charisma draws a vibrant assemblage of outcasts to join her--other hijras, Kashmiri freedom fighters, activists, orphans, low-caste Hindus and Muslims, and a host of animals. Anjum's home is a place where the formerly unwanted embrace each other's true selves.

We encounter the odd, unforgettable Tilo and the men who loved her, including Musa, sweetheart and ex-sweetheart, lover and ex-lover. Their fates are as entwined as their arms used to be and always will be. We meet Tilo’s landlord, a former suitor, now an intelligence officer posted to Kabul, and then we meet the two Miss Jebeens. The first is a child born in Srinagar and buried in its overcrowded Martyrs� Graveyard. The second is found at midnight, abandoned on a concrete sidewalk in the heart of New Delhi.

As this ravishing, deeply humane novel braids these lives together, it reinvents what a novel can do and can be. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness demonstrates on every page Arundhati Roy’s storytelling gifts.]]> 465 Arundhati Roy 1524733164 Kumar 5 Masterpiece 3.57 2017 The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
author: Arundhati Roy
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/07/04
date added: 2017/07/04
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Masterpiece
]]> Godan 19301931 410 Munshi Premchand Kumar 5 4.35 1936 Godan
author: Munshi Premchand
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1936
rating: 5
read at: 2017/06/29
date added: 2017/06/29
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]]> When Breath Becomes Air 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naïve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]> 208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 Kumar 4 4.41 2016 When Breath Becomes Air
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2017/06/29
date added: 2017/06/29
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]]> Manto: Selected Stories 7518598 130 Saadat Hasan Manto 8184000499 Kumar 5 4.20 2003 Manto: Selected Stories
author: Saadat Hasan Manto
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2017/06/20
date added: 2017/06/20
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]]> Stardust 16793 Alternate cover edition can be found here

Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria—even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie—where nothing not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.]]> 248 Neil Gaiman 0061142026 Kumar 0 to-read 4.10 1999 Stardust
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> Giovanni’s Room 38462 here.

Baldwin's haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality, and a classic of gay literature. In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls into a lengthy affair with an Italian bartender and is confounded and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two.

Examining the mystery of love and passion in an intensely imagined narrative, Baldwin creates a moving and complex story of death and desire that is revelatory in its insight.]]> 159 James Baldwin Kumar 0 currently-reading 4.31 1956 Giovanni’s Room
author: James Baldwin
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1956
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/06/12
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Murder in Mahim 33971757
Jerry Pinto’s new novel—set in Mumbai, the city he writes about like no other—is a gripping murder mystery. It is also a compelling exploration of loneliness, ambition and greed in the great metropolis.]]> 224 Jerry Pinto 9385755293 Kumar 4 3.36 Murder in Mahim
author: Jerry Pinto
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.36
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2017/06/12
date added: 2017/06/12
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whodunit story deserved a little more spicy ending.
]]> Love Among the Bookshelves 22012117 185 Ruskin Bond 0670087343 Kumar 0 currently-reading 3.87 2014 Love Among the Bookshelves
author: Ruskin Bond
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/06/08
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Cuckold 109326 609 Kiran Nagarkar 8172232578 Kumar 0 currently-reading 4.18 1999 Cuckold
author: Kiran Nagarkar
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Desire: Vintage Minis 33952849
Selected from Haruki’s Murakami’s short story collections The Elephant Vanishes, Blind Willow Sleeping Woman and Men Without Women.]]> 109 Haruki Murakami 1784872636 Kumar 0 currently-reading 3.87 2017 Desire: Vintage Minis
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/06/08
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Ghost Children 1182702 191 Sue Townsend 1569471177 Kumar 3 3.58 1997 Ghost Children
author: Sue Townsend
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2017/05/08
date added: 2017/05/08
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]]> One Part Woman 20655934 One Part Woman lays bare with unsparing clarity a relationship caught between the dictates of social convention and the tug of personal anxieties, vividly conjuring an intimate and unsettling portrait of marriage, love and sex.]]> 240 Perumal Murugan 0670086517 Kumar 4 3.77 2010 One Part Woman
author: Perumal Murugan
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2015/04/05
date added: 2017/05/02
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]]> These Foolish Things 1214270 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and this year’s The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Dev Patel and Penelope Wilton

Enticed by advertisements for a luxury retirement home in India, a group of strangers leave England to begin a new life.

On arrival, however, they discover the palace is a shell of its former self, the staff are more than a little eccentric and the days of the Raj appear to be long gone.

But, as they soon discover, life and love can begin again, even in the most unexpected circumstances.]]> 256 Deborah Moggach 0099461846 Kumar 2 3.38 2004 These Foolish Things
author: Deborah Moggach
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 2017/02/07
date added: 2017/03/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl]]> 130105
Containing all the stories from Roald Dahl's world-famous books � Over to You, Someone Like you, Kiss Kiss and Switch Bitch � plus eight further tales of the unexpected, this is the definitive collection by one of the great masters of the short story. Macabre, unsettling and deliciously enjoyable, these stories make the perfect bedtime read � but be warned, once you've started reading you won't be able to stop . .]]> 768 Roald Dahl Kumar 5 4.40 2006 The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl
author: Roald Dahl
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2006
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/02/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Red Lipstick: The Men in My Life]]> 31538619 220 Laxmi 0670089184 Kumar 2 3.01 Red Lipstick: The Men in My Life
author: Laxmi
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.01
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2017/02/07
date added: 2017/02/07
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]]> What Belongs to You 22929602
What Belongs to You is a stunning debut novel of desire and its consequences. With lyric intensity and startling eroticism, Garth Greenwell has created an indelible story about the ways in which our pasts and cultures, our scars and shames can shape who we are and determine how we love.

Listening length: 6 hours, 11 minutes]]> 195 Garth Greenwell 0374288224 Kumar 0 currently-reading 3.79 2016 What Belongs to You
author: Garth Greenwell
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/01/27
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Parcel 28185967 Finalist for the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and for the Governor General's Literary Award, this powerful new work, about a transgender sex worker in the red-light district of Bombay who is given an unexpected task, is a gripping literary page-turner--difficult and moving, surprising and tender. Anosh Irani's best novel yet, and his first with Knopf Canada.

The Parcel's astonishing heart, soul and unforgettable voice is Madhu--born a boy, but a eunuch by choice--who has spent most of her life in a close-knit clan of transgender sex workers in Kamathipura, the notorious red-light district of Bombay. Madhu identifies herself as a "hijra"--a person belonging to the third sex, neither here nor there, man nor woman. Now, at 40, she has moved away from prostitution, her trade since her teens, and is forced to beg to support the charismatic head of the hijra clan, Gurumai. One day Madhu receives a call from Padma Madam, the most feared brothel owner in the district: a "parcel" has arrived--a young girl from the provinces, betrayed and trafficked by her aunt--and Madhu must prepare it for its fate. Despite Madhu's reluctance, she is forced to take the job by Gurumai. As Madhu's emotions spiral out of control, her past comes back to haunt her, threatening to unravel a lifetime's work and identity. This is a dark, devastating but ultimately redemptive novel that promises to be one of the most talked-about publications of the year.]]> 280 Anosh Irani 0345816749 Kumar 5 sheer pain and disturbing, leaves your heart wide open]]> 3.90 2016 The Parcel
author: Anosh Irani
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2017/01/21
date added: 2017/01/21
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for madhu, wretched souls, third world and discarded bodies, saved by stories talisman.
sheer pain and disturbing, leaves your heart wide open
]]> <![CDATA[The Illicit Happiness of Other People]]> 13707645 The Illicit Happiness of Other People—a smart, wry, and poignant novel—teases you with its mystery, philosophy, and unlikely love story.]]> 352 Manu Joseph 0393338622 Kumar 5 4.10 2012 The Illicit Happiness of Other People
author: Manu Joseph
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2014/12/20
date added: 2016/12/19
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]]> The God of Small Things 9777
Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family—their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts).

When their English cousin, Sophie Mol, and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, arrive on a Christmas visit, Esthappen and Rahel learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river "graygreen." With fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night, the broken yellow moon in it.

The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.

The God of Small Things takes on the Big Themes—Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite Joy. Here is a writer who dares to break the rules. To dislocate received rhythms and create the language she requires, a language that is at once classical and unprecedented. Arundhati Roy has given us a book that is anchored to anguish, but fueled by wit and magic.]]> 321 Arundhati Roy 0679457313 Kumar 5 3.97 1997 The God of Small Things
author: Arundhati Roy
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2013/12/15
date added: 2016/12/19
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]]> Gone Girl 21480930 560 Gillian Flynn 0553418351 Kumar 5 4.05 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2016/12/19
date added: 2016/12/19
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]]> Bhima 27209842 time. I have violated my dharma and murdered a man in cold blood.
I have, single-handed, wiped out a whole generation of my kinsmen.
I have committed acts of unspeakable brutality on the battlefield.
I have done it all for the love of one woman. A woman who loves
my brother.
I am Bhima, the second Pandava. This is my story.
Possessed of amazing strength, fierce loyalty and great
tenderness, Bhima as a character is almost always eclipsed
by Yudhishtira and Arjuna. In spite of his many virtues,
he is destined to be remembered as all brawn and biceps.
Now, in Vikas Singh’s retelling of the Mahabharata,
India’s greatest epic is narrated through the eyes of a
hero who has never got his due. A fascinating account
of a fascinating character—his extraordinary courage,
his obsessive love for Draupadi, his deeply conflicted
emotions about his brother, Arjun—this stunning work,
written in a racy, entertaining style, provides the definitive
answer to the question: What was it like to be Bhima?]]> 204 Vikas Singh 9385152270 Kumar 4 3.72 2015 Bhima
author: Vikas Singh
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/19
date added: 2016/12/19
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]]> Human Acts 28172483 Gwangju, South Korea, 1980. In the wake of a viciously suppressed student uprising, a boy searches for his friend’s corpse, a consciousness searches for its abandoned body, and a brutalized country searches for a voice.

Human Acts is a riveting, poetic and unrelentingly powerful examination of humanity at its most appalling, and its most hopeful. It is an act of extraordinary resistance and a refusal to forget.

In a sequence of interconnected chapters the victims and the bereaved encounter censorship, denial, forgiveness and the echoing agony of the original trauma. Throughout Human Acts the ghost memory of the boy Dong-Ho wanders, refusing to disappear, and so in turn other characters refuse to stop asking ‘Why?� Why does power exert itself with brutality? Why does the state silence the enquiries of the bereaved? Why does remembrance pose such a threat to the powerful?

Human Acts is a radically brave novel about an atrocious episode in Korean history, but it is also a universal book, utterly modern but profoundly timeless. Already a controversial bestseller and award-winning book in Korea, it confirms Han Kang as a writer of immense importance.]]> 224 Han Kang 1846275962 Kumar 4 4.22 2014 Human Acts
author: Han Kang
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/19
date added: 2016/12/19
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]]> Yuganta: The End of an Epoch 961520
Irawati Karve, thus, presents a delightful collection of essays, scientific in spirit, yet appreciative of the literary tradition of the Mahabharata. She challenges the familiar and formulates refreshingly new interpretations, all the while refusing to judge harshly or venerate blindly.]]> 217 Irawati Karve 8125014241 Kumar 4 4.14 1967 Yuganta: The End of an Epoch
author: Irawati Karve
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/19
date added: 2016/12/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma]]> 6971900
The Mahabharata is obsessed with the elusive notion of dharma - in essence, doing the right thing. When a hero falters, the action stops and everyone weighs in with a different and often contradictory take on dharma. The epic's characters are flawed, but their incoherent experiences throw light on our familiar dilemmas.

Gurcharan Das's best-selling book India Unbound examined the classical aim of artha, material well being. This, his first book in seven years, dwells on the goal of dharma, moral well being. It addresses the central problem of how to live our lives in an examined way - holding a mirror up to us and forcing us to confront the many ways in which we deceive ourselves and others. What emerges is a doctrine of dharma that we can apply to our business decisions, political strategies and interpersonal relationships - in effect, to life itself.]]> 488 Gurcharan Das 0670083496 Kumar 4 4.11 2009 The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma
author: Gurcharan Das
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/19
date added: 2016/12/19
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]]> A River Sutra 129136 304 Gita Mehta Kumar 3 3.90 1993 A River Sutra
author: Gita Mehta
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2016/11/08
date added: 2016/11/08
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]]> In an Antique Land 215678
Combining shrewd observations with painstaking historical research, Ghosh serves up skeptics and holy men, merchants and sorcerers. Some of these figures are real, some only imagined, but all emerge as vividly as the characters in a great novel. In an Antique Land is an inspired work that transcends genres as deftly as it does eras, weaving an entrancing and intoxicating spell.]]> 400 Amitav Ghosh 0679727833 Kumar 0 3.85 1993 In an Antique Land
author: Amitav Ghosh
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at: 2016/09/11
date added: 2016/09/11
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]]> Gone Girl 19288043 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 415 Gillian Flynn 0307588378 Kumar 4 4.22 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/06
date added: 2016/09/06
shelves:
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]]> Kafka on the Shore 4929 Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle—yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.]]> 467 Haruki Murakami 1400079276 Kumar 4 4.14 2002 Kafka on the Shore
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/01
date added: 2016/09/01
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]]> Abba Abba 230130 128 Anthony Burgess 0749390387 Kumar 1 3.45 1977 Abba Abba
author: Anthony Burgess
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1977
rating: 1
read at: 2016/08/21
date added: 2016/08/21
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]]> The Gene: An Intimate History 27276428
The story of the gene begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856 where a monk stumbles on the idea of a ‘unit of heredity�. It intersects with Darwin’s theory of evolution, and collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics in the 1940s. The gene transforms post-war biology. It reorganizes our understanding of sexuality, temperament, choice and free will. This is a story driven by human ingenuity and obsessive minds � from Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel to Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin, and the thousands of scientists still working to understand the code of codes.

This is an epic, moving history of a scientific idea coming to life, by the author of The Emperor of All Maladies. But woven through The Gene, like a red line, is also an intimate history � the story of Mukherjee’s own family and its recurring pattern of mental illness, reminding us that genetics is vitally relevant to everyday lives. These concerns reverberate even more urgently today as we learn to “read� and “write� the human genome � unleashing the potential to change the fates and identities of our children.

Majestic in its ambition, and unflinching in its honesty, The Gene gives us a definitive account of the fundamental unit of heredity � and a vision of both humanity’s past and future.]]> 592 Siddhartha Mukherjee Kumar 4 4.34 2016 The Gene: An Intimate History
author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2016/08/09
date added: 2016/08/09
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Centuries of curiosity and knowledge condensed in 500 pages ! Wow
]]> <![CDATA[Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers]]> 181343 This anthology is essential reading for anyone with an interest in South Asian writers and the dynamic, important tales they have to tell.]]> 448 Shyam Selvadurai 0618576800 Kumar 0 to-read 3.90 2004 Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers
author: Shyam Selvadurai
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> Mistress 101285 428 Anita Nair 0312349475 Kumar 4 3.63 2005 Mistress
author: Anita Nair
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2016/07/18
date added: 2016/07/18
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]]> Season of the Rainbirds 473848
The narrative segues between several characters—the judge’s family, a cleric troubled by local inhabitants� lapses, a Muslim deputy commissioner defiantly involved with a Christian woman, a feudal landlord and a crusading journalist reporting on the delivery of the mail packet—and comes to a head when the journalist disappears and the country lurches between fear and uncertainty following an assassination attempt on the president.

One of the most exquisite fictional debuts, Season of the Rainbirds is a compelling portrayal of a society in strife, of a timeless world where daily rituals are played out against an ominous landscape of oppression, decadence, bigotry and power.]]> 208 Nadeem Aslam 0571224792 Kumar 2 3.26 1993 Season of the Rainbirds
author: Nadeem Aslam
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.26
book published: 1993
rating: 2
read at: 2016/07/18
date added: 2016/07/18
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]]> Maps for Lost Lovers 44086 Maps for Lost Lovers.

Jugnu and Chanda have disappeared. Like thousands of people all over England, they were lovers and living together out of wedlock. To Chanda’s family, however, the disgrace was unforgivable. Perhaps enough so as to warrant murder. As he explores the disappearance and its aftermath through the eyes of Jugnu’s worldly older brother, Shamas, and his devout wife, Kaukab, Nadeem Aslam creates a closely observed and affecting portrait of people whose traditions threaten to bury them alive. The result is a tour de force, intimate, affecting, tragic and suspenseful.]]> 400 Nadeem Aslam 1400076978 Kumar 5 3.80 2004 Maps for Lost Lovers
author: Nadeem Aslam
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2015/12/01
date added: 2015/12/01
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Cypress Tree: A Love Letter to Iran]]> 11127693
The Cypress Tree is Kamin's account of her journey home, to rediscover her Iranian self and to discover for the first time the story of her family: a sprawling clan that sprang from humble roots to bloom during the affluent, Biba-clad 1960s, only to be shaken by the horrors of the Iran-Iraq War and the heartbreak of exile, and toughened by the struggle for democracy that continues today.

This moving and passionate memoir is a love letter both to Kamin's extraordinary family and to Iran itself, an ancient country which has survived so much modern tumult but where joy and resilience will always triumph over despair.]]> 288 Kamin Mohammadi 0747591520 Kumar 3 3.71 2011 The Cypress Tree: A Love Letter to Iran
author: Kamin Mohammadi
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2015/12/01
date added: 2015/12/01
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]]> The Collaborator 9555685
Only one of their friends, the son of the headman, is left behind.

The families in the village begin to think it's time to flee, to search for a place of greater safety. But the headman will not allow his family to leave. And, whilst the headman watches his dreams give way beneath the growing violence, his son, under the brutal, drunken gaze of the Indian army captain, is seemingly forced to collaborate, and go into the valley to count the corpses, fearing, each day, that he will discover one of his friends, lying amongst the dead.

'The Collaborator' is a stunningly humane work of storytelling, with a poignant and unpredictable hero at its heart. In one of the most shocking and brilliantly compelling novels of recent times.

Mirza Waheed lights our way into the heart of a war that is all too real.]]> 336 Mirza Waheed 0670920525 Kumar 5 3.67 2011 The Collaborator
author: Mirza Waheed
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2015/06/14
date added: 2015/06/14
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Monk, the Moor and Moses Ben Jalloun]]> 13421029 The Monk, the Moor and Moses Ben Jalloun is a novel about a deliberately forgotten history; a history that remains hidden in the hallowed inner sanctums of Western academic institutions. Four young people, students in an American university in 2008, set out to discover those truths on their own: not just because they need to know, but because they see how the past affects their own lives in very real ways. Parallel to their lives is the tale of Rehana, an Iranian from the eleventh century, and her many passions: her husband, her teacher, her culture and, always, her quest to learn.

Using intersecting narratives, soliloquies, legends and a host of colourful characters, real and imagined, Mirza dismantles the carefully manufactured European myth about the making of the modern world. He brings to life an Islamic civilization that was the flourishing, crackling centre of the sciences and liberal arts. As much a literary installation as a fictionalized history, Mirza's novel will help us take a fresh look at the past and, hopefully, understand the great game that is being played in the present.]]> 247 Saeed Akhtar Mirza Kumar 2 4.04 2012 The Monk, the Moor and Moses Ben Jalloun
author: Saeed Akhtar Mirza
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2015/05/29
date added: 2015/05/29
shelves:
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]]> In Other Rooms, Other Wonders 4657432
In the spirit of Joyce's Dubliners and Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches, Daniyal Mueenuddin's collection of linked stories illuminates a place and a people through an examination of the entwined lives of landowners and their retainers on the Gurmani family farm in the countryside outside of Lahore, Pakistan. An aging feudal landlord's household staff, the villagers who depend on his favor, and a network of relations near and far who have sought their fortune in the cities confront the advantages and constraints of station, the dissolution of old ways, and the shock of change.

Mueenuddin bares—at times humorously, at times tragically—the complexities of Pakistani class and culture and presents a vivid picture of a time and a place, of the old powers and the new, as the Pakistani feudal order is undermined and transformed.

Nawabdin Electrician
Saleema
Provide, Provide
About a Burning Girl
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Our Lady of Paris
Lily
A Spoiled Man]]> 247 Daniyal Mueenuddin 0393068005 Kumar 3 3.76 2009 In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
author: Daniyal Mueenuddin
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2015/05/27
date added: 2015/05/27
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]]> Delhi Noir 6488278
The eyes of the world are gazing at India—the world’s largest democracy. But the books you read about this Asian giant only show part of the picture.

Delhi Noir’s fourteen original stories are written by the best Indian writers alive today—the ones you haven’t yet heard of but should have. They are veteran authors who have appeared on the Booker Prize short list and budding geniuses who your grandchildren will read about in English class. Delhi Noir is a world of sex in parks, male prostitution, and vigilante rickshaw drivers. It is one plagued by religious riots, soulless corporate dons, and murderous servants. This is India uncut, the one you’re missing out on because mainstream publishing houses and glossy magazines can’t stomach it. offers bone-chilling, mesmerizing takes on the country’s chaotic capital, a city where opulence and poverty are constantly clashing, where old-world values and the information age wage a constant battle.

Editor Hirsh Sawhney has written for the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, Time Out New York, Outlook, and the Indian Express. He splits his time between Delhi and Brooklyn.]]> 304 Hirsh Sawhney 193335478X Kumar 4 3.20 2009 Delhi Noir
author: Hirsh Sawhney
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2015/05/03
date added: 2015/05/03
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]]> The Clear Light of Day 795554 304 Penelope Wilcock 0781445531 Kumar 2 3.30 2004 The Clear Light of Day
author: Penelope Wilcock
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 2015/04/30
date added: 2015/04/30
shelves:
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]]> The Twelve Chairs 158516 395 Ilya Ilf 0810114844 Kumar 0 to-read 4.43 1928 The Twelve Chairs
author: Ilya Ilf
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. (Josephine Bonaparte, #1)]]> 70287 The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. is the first in a trilogy of fictional novels tracing the actual rise of a young European noblewoman who would one day stand next to Napoleon. From the heartbreak of lost loves to the horror of revolution to the hope of new days, it's an intimate epic any romance lover will love.]]> 436 Sandra Gulland 0684856069 Kumar 0 to-read 4.12 1995 The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. (Josephine Bonaparte, #1)
author: Sandra Gulland
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Case of Exploding Mangoes 2153793
Ali Shigri, Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of the Fury Squadron, is on a mission to avenge his father's suspicious death, which the government calls a suicide. Ali's target is none other than General Zia ul-Haq, dictator of Pakistan. Enlisting a rag-tag group of conspirators, including his cologne-bathed roommate, a hash-smoking American lieutenant, and a mango-besotted crow, Ali sets his elaborate plan in motion. There's only one problem: the line of would-be Zia assassins is longer than he could have possibly known.]]> 323 Mohammed Hanif 0307268071 Kumar 5 3.79 2008 A Case of Exploding Mangoes
author: Mohammed Hanif
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2015/04/16
date added: 2015/04/18
shelves:
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]]> Tamarind Woman 1043382
Tamarind Woman is the author's debut novel.]]> 272 Anita Rau Badami 0747560218 Kumar 4 3.60 1997 Tamarind Woman
author: Anita Rau Badami
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2015/03/25
date added: 2015/03/25
shelves:
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]]> The Forbidden Daughter 3553026
When Nikhil is discovered brutally murdered, Isha is convinced it had something to do with his reaction to the doctor's hideous "solution" to their problem. Alone, grief-stricken, and relentlessly oppressed by in-laws who believe her baby is a bad omen, Isha sets out on her own. Born into a privileged class, Isha doesn't know the first thing about fending for herself, but to protect her precious daughters, she will learn. And she will cling to the hope given to her by a strange old mystic: that her baby will arrive on the auspicious night of Kojagari Purnima, the full harvest moon, and be a gift from Lakshmi, the goddess of well-being. Isha and her girls will need all the blessings they can get, for the greatest danger of all lies ahead. . .

Praise for Shobhan Bantwal and The Dowry Bride

"Splendidly depicts passion, brutality, and cultures in conflict." --Dorothy Garlock

"Vivid, rich. . .expertly portrays a young woman caught between love and duty, hope and despair." --Anjali Banerjee]]> 324 Shobhan Bantwal 0758220308 Kumar 0 to-read 3.65 2008 The Forbidden Daughter
author: Shobhan Bantwal
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Telling of Lies 823136 The Telling of Lies (SIGNED) 368 Timothy Findley 0140241159 Kumar 0 to-read 3.78 1986 The Telling of Lies
author: Timothy Findley
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Invisible Lives 360378 280 Anjali Banerjee 1416517057 Kumar 0 to-read 3.45 2006 Invisible Lives
author: Anjali Banerjee
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> All the Light We Cannot See 18143977
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here]]> 544 Anthony Doerr 1476746583 Kumar 0 to-read 4.31 2014 All the Light We Cannot See
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> Being and Time 92307 589 Martin Heidegger 0060638508 Kumar 0 to-read 4.04 1927 Being and Time
author: Martin Heidegger
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1927
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Patience Stone 6624282 The Patience Stone, Atiq Rahimi gives face and voice to one unforgettable woman–and, one could argue, offers her as a proxy for the grievances of millions…it is a rich read, part allegory, part a tale of retribution, part an exploration of honor, love, sex, marriage, war. It is without doubt an important and courageous book.� from the introduction by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

In Persian folklore, Syngue Sabour is the name of a magical black stone, a patience stone, which absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. It is believed that the day it explodes, after having received too much hardship and pain, will be the day of the Apocalypse. But here, the Syngue Sabour is not a stone but rather a man lying brain-dead with a bullet lodged in his neck. His wife is with him, sitting by his side. But she resents him for having sacrificed her to the war, for never being able to resist the call to arms, for wanting to be a hero, and in the end, after all was said and done, for being incapacitated in a small skirmish. Yet she cares, and she speaks to him. She even talks to him more and more, opening up her deepest desires, pains, and secrets. While in the streets rival factions clash and soldiers are looting and killing around her, she speaks of her life, never knowing if her husband really hears. And it is an extraordinary confession, without restraint, about sex and love and her anger against a man who never understood her, who mistreated her, who never showed her any respect or kindness. Her admission releases the weight of oppression of marital, social, and religious norms, and she leads her story up to the great secret that is unthinkable in a country such as Afghanistan. Winner of the Prix Goncourt, The Patience Stone captures with great courage and spare, poetic, prose the reality of everyday life for an intelligent woman under the oppressive weight of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.]]> 141 Atiq Rahimi 1590513444 Kumar 4 3.69 2008 The Patience Stone
author: Atiq Rahimi
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2015/03/19
date added: 2015/03/19
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]]> <![CDATA[How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company]]> 14347714 How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company by Varun Agarwal is a compelling and humorous account of the fulfilment of entrepreneurial dreams.

How does an unfocused young person such as Varun Agarwal, become the co-founder of a million dollar company? How does he get pesky Anu Aunty off his trail? The book is an interesting real-life story of how the author, Varun Agarwal, managed to brave all odds to reach the peak of his career.

Varun Agarwal is shown to be an unfocused human being, with no real interest in pursuing a career, even though he does harbour dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur. Varun whiles away his time, hopping from pub to pub, spending time with friends and keeping a track of his love interest on Facebook.

These traits worry his mother to the bone, compelling her to put the very meddlesome Anu Aunty on the job, to help get her son moving in the right direction in life. Anu Aunty does a rather good job of this, much to Varun's dismay. He then does all that he can to get her off his track, while pursuing his dreams to become an entrepreneur.

How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company is the author’s debut novel and is on its fourth reprint already. Having sold twenty thousand copies in only a month, the book has become a bestseller by national standards. It has also occupied a firm foothold on the bestseller charts for eighty days at a stretch. The author attained initial popularity with his Facebook blog posts, a few of which were sent to his publishers. The book was conceived once they demanded a full manuscript.]]> 250 Varun Agarwal 812911979X Kumar 3 3.70 2012 How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company
author: Varun Agarwal
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2015/03/10
date added: 2015/03/10
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]]> Our Lady of Alice Bhatti 11787752
Alice is a candidate for the position of junior nurse, grade 4. It is only a few weeks since her release from Borstal. She has returned to her childhood home in the French Colony, where her father, recently retired from his position as chief janitor, continues as part-time healer, and full-time headache for the local church. It seems she has inherited some of his gift.With guidance from the working nurse’s manual, and some tricks she picked up in prison, Alice brings succour to the thousands of patients littering the hospital’s corridors and concrete courtyard. In the process she attracts the attention of a lovesick patient, Teddy Bunt, apprentice to the nefarious ‘Gentleman Squad� of the Karachi police. They fall in love; Teddy with sudden violence, Alice with cautious optimism.Their love is unexpected, but the consequences are not.

Alice soon finds that her new life is built on foundations as unstable as those of her home. A Catholic snubbed by other Catholics, who are in turn hated by everyone around them, she is also put at risk by her husband, who does two things that no member of the Gentlemen Squad has ever done � fall in love with a working girl, and allow a potentially dangerous suspect to get away. Can Teddy and Alice ever live in peace? Can two people make a life together without destroying the very thing that united them? It seems unlikely, but then Alice Bhatti is no ordinary nurse...

Filled with wit, colour and pathos, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is a glorious story of second chances, thwarted ambitions and love in unlikely places, set in the febrile streets of downtown Karachi. It is the remarkable new novel from the author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes.]]> 240 Mohammed Hanif 0224082051 Kumar 5 3.43 2010 Our Lady of Alice Bhatti
author: Mohammed Hanif
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2015/03/02
date added: 2015/03/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Good Muslim (Bangla Desh, #2)]]> 11331177
Pankaj Mishra praised A Golden Age, Tahmima Anam's debut novel, as a "startlingly accomplished and gripping novel that describes not only the tumult of a great historical event . . . but also the small but heroic struggles of individuals living in the shadow of revolution and war." In her new novel, The Good Muslim, Anam again deftly weaves the personal and the political, evoking with great skill and urgency the lasting ravages of war and the competing loyalties of love and belief.

In the dying days of a brutal civil war, Sohail Haque stumbles upon an abandoned building. Inside he finds a young woman whose story will haunt him for a lifetime to come. . . . Almost a decade later, Sohail's sister, Maya, returns home after a long absence to find her beloved brother transformed. While Maya has stuck to her revolutionary ideals, Sohail has shunned his old life to become a charismatic religious leader. And when Sohail decides to send his son to a madrasa, the conflict between brother and sister comes to a devastating climax. Set in Bangladesh at a time when religious fundamentalism is on the rise, The Good Muslim is an epic story about faith, family, and the long shadow of war.]]> 304 Tahmima Anam 0061478768 Kumar 3 3.68 2011 The Good Muslim (Bangla Desh, #2)
author: Tahmima Anam
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2015/02/18
date added: 2015/02/18
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]]> The Book of Gold Leaves 23035984
'The Book of Gold Leaves' is a heartbreaking love story set in war-torn Kashmir. In an ancient house in the city of Srinagar, Faiz paints exquisite papier mache pencil boxes for tourists. Evening is beginning to slip into night when he sets off for the shrine. There he finds the woman with the long black hair. Roohi begs for the boy of her dreams to come and take her away. She wants a love story, an age-old tale of love, war, temptation, duty and choice.]]> 336 Mirza Waheed 0241968119 Kumar 5 3.75 2014 The Book of Gold Leaves
author: Mirza Waheed
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2015/02/08
date added: 2015/02/08
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[A Wild Sheep Chase (The Rat, #3)]]> 11298 353 Haruki Murakami 037571894X Kumar 4 3.96 1982 A Wild Sheep Chase (The Rat, #3)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2015/01/26
date added: 2015/01/26
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]]> Bonsai Kitten 16171116 296 Lakshmi Narayan Kumar 3 3.19 2012 Bonsai Kitten
author: Lakshmi Narayan
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2015/01/15
date added: 2015/01/15
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]]> When Crows Are White 17256060 Jerry Pinto Kumar 3 3.96 When Crows Are White
author: Jerry Pinto
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2014/12/28
date added: 2014/12/28
shelves:
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]]> Surviving women 1339062 207 Jerry Pinto 0140287159 Kumar 0 3.22 2000 Surviving women
author: Jerry Pinto
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at: 2014/12/25
date added: 2014/12/25
shelves:
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]]> A Married Woman 1000072 310 Manju Kapur 0571215661 Kumar 0 to-read 3.30 2002 A Married Woman
author: Manju Kapur
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Good Indian Wife 2234083
Leila is a thirty-year-old teacher in Neel’s family’s village who has watched too many prospective husbands come and go to think her newest suitor will be any different. She is well past prime marrying age; her family has no money for a dowry; and then there’s the matter of an old friendship with a Muslim boy named Janni.

Neel and Leila struggle to reconcile their own desires with the expectations of others in this riveting story of two people, two countries, and two ways of life that may be more compatible than they seem.]]> 384 Anne Cherian 0393065235 Kumar 0 to-read 3.54 2008 A Good Indian Wife
author: Anne Cherian
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> Desirable Daughters 88670 Joy Luck Club, Bharati Mukherjee has written a remarkable novel that is both the portrait of a traditional Brahmin Indian family and a contemporary American story of a woman who has in many ways broken with tradition but still remains tied to her native country.

Mukherjee follows the diverging paths taken by three extraordinary Calcutta-born sisters as they come of age in a changing world. Moving effortlessly between generations, she weaves together fascinating stories of the sisters' ancestors, childhood memories, and dramatic scenes from India's history.

]]> 320 Bharati Mukherjee 0786885157 Kumar 0 to-read 3.33 2002 Desirable Daughters
author: Bharati Mukherjee
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> No Full Stops in India 791184
'The ten essays, written with clarity, warmth of feeling and critical balance and understanding, provide as lively a view as one can hope for of the panorama of India.� K. Natwar-Singh in the Financial Times]]> 336 Mark Tully 0140104801 Kumar 0 to-read 3.81 1991 No Full Stops in India
author: Mark Tully
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[English, August: An Indian Story]]> 75703 English, August is a comic masterpiece from contemporary India. Like A Confederacy of Dunces and The Catcher in the Rye, it is both an inspired and hilarious satire and a timeless story of self-discovery.]]> 326 Upamanyu Chatterjee 1590171799 Kumar 0 to-read 3.78 1988 English, August: An Indian Story
author: Upamanyu Chatterjee
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits]]> 17265065 258 Rahul Pandita 8184000871 Kumar 0 to-read 4.24 2013 Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits
author: Rahul Pandita
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer 15752549
Derived from a true story, Cyrus Mistrys extraordinary new novel is a moving account of tragic love that, at the same time, brings to vivid and unforgettable life the degradation experienced by those who inhabit the unforgiving margins of history.]]> 224 Cyrus Mistry 8192328058 Kumar 0 to-read 3.76 2012 Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer
author: Cyrus Mistry
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Killer Smile (Rosato & Associates, #9)]]> 84831
Everybody around lawyer Mary DiNunzio has decided she isn't allowed to be a Young Widow anymore, even though she didn't know there was an official cutoff. They're all trying to fix her up -- her South Philly Italian parents, her best friend Judy Carrier, even the office security guard.

All Mary wants to do is immerse herself in a case everybody else calls "The History Channel", a pro bono representation of the Brandolini estate. The roots of the matter sink deep into the past, when Amadeo Brandolini emigrated to Philadelphia, started a family, and built up a small fishing business. At the outbreak of World War II, Brandolini was arrested by the FBI as part of a mass internment of Italian-Americans and was sent to a camp in Montana, where he eventually committed suicide. Now, more than sixty years later, his son's estate hires Mary to sue for reparations.

Mary vows to vindicate Amadeo even though it won't be easy. With only a lock of hair, an old wallet, and a sheet of paper filled with odd doodles to go on, the tenacious lawyer begins to research the case but finds instead puzzling new questions. Someone doesn't want Mary to find the truth, and before long, her life is threatened. Suddenly, the quiet, squeaky-clean good girl who never left Mercer Street is risking life and limb to finger a killer and lay a beloved ghost to rest.

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline delivers a stunning new tale filled with witty dialogue, vibrant characters, and breakneck pacing, in which true-life history reinforces her hallmark themes of justice and family. As entertaining as it is poignant, Killer Smile is a surefire bestseller from a writer at the peak of her talents.]]> 417 Lisa Scottoline 0060514965 Kumar 2 3.79 2004 Killer Smile (Rosato & Associates, #9)
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 2014/12/08
date added: 2014/12/08
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]]> The Company of Women 109201 232 Khushwant Singh 0140290478 Kumar 5 3.21 1999 The Company of Women
author: Khushwant Singh
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.21
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2014/11/29
date added: 2014/11/29
shelves:
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]]> Kamadeva: The God of Desire 22724133
Best friends with Indra, the King of the Gods, tutor to the Apsaras in the art of lovemaking, Kamadeva lives a dream life in the magnificent Kingdom of Amaravathi - until danger strikes when he incurs the wrath of Shiva because of a preordained curse. Follow Kama as he hurtles towards his destiny and the Destroyers dreaded third eye. Find out if he will rise from the ashes to reign supreme as the King of Hearts or if he will be doomed to spend an eternity as Ananga - The bodiless one.

In Kamadeva - The God of Desire, the author masterfully marries imagination with stellar research to bring to vivid life one of the most intriguing Gods of the Hindu pantheon. Laced with wit and narrated in contemporary flavour, Kamadeva will take you on a rollicking ride into the heart of desire and its tantalizing dark side.]]> 326 Anuja Chandramouli 8129134594 Kumar 2 3.46 2014 Kamadeva: The God of Desire
author: Anuja Chandramouli
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2014/11/14
date added: 2014/11/14
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]]> Ladies Coupé 109728
This wonderfully atmospheric, deliciously warm novel takes the reader into the heart of women's lives in contemporary India, revealing how the dilemmas that women face in their relationships with hunsbands, mothers, friends, employers and children are the same world over.]]> 320 Anita Nair 0312320876 Kumar 4 3.66 2001 Ladies Coupé
author: Anita Nair
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2014/11/04
date added: 2014/11/04
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief]]> 8201466
From V. S. “For my travel books I travel on a theme. And the theme of The Masque of Africa is African belief. I begin in Uganda, at the center of the continent, do Ghana and Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and Gabon, and end at the bottom of the continent, in South Africa. My theme is belief, not political or economical life; and yet at the bottom of the continent the political realities are so overwhelming that they have to be taken into account.
“Perhaps an unspoken aspect of my inquiry was the possibility of the subversion of old Africa by the ways of the outside world. The theme held until I got to the South, when the clash of the two ways of thinking and believing became far too one-sided. The skyscrapers of Johannesburg didn’t rest on sand. The older world of magic felt fragile, but at the same time had an enduring quality. You felt that it would survive any calamity.
“I had expected that over the great size of Africa the practices of magic would significantly vary. But they didn’t. The diviners everywhere wanted to ‘throw the bones� to read the future, and the idea of ‘energy� remained a constant, to be tapped into by the ritual sacrifice of body parts. In South Africa body parts, mainly of animals, but also of men and women, made a mixture of ‘battle medicine.� To witness this, to be given some idea of its power, was to be taken far back to the beginning of things.

“To reach that beginning was the purpose of my book.�

The Masque of Africa is a masterly achievement by one of the world’s keenest observers and one of its greatest writers.]]> 256 V.S. Naipaul 0307270734 Kumar 4 3.22 2010 The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief
author: V.S. Naipaul
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2014/11/01
date added: 2014/11/01
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]]> The Witch of Portobello 816720
That is the central question of international bestselling author Paulo Coelho's profound new work, The Witch of Portobello. It is the story of a mysterious woman named Athena, told by the many who knew her well—or hardly at all.]]> 320 Paulo Coelho 0007251866 Kumar 3 3.55 2006 The Witch of Portobello
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2014/10/23
date added: 2014/10/23
shelves:
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]]> Smell 105222 307 Radhika Jha 1569472882 Kumar 3 3.11 1999 Smell
author: Radhika Jha
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.11
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2014/10/13
date added: 2014/10/13
shelves:
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]]> The Reluctant Fundamentalist 88815
Changez is living an immigrant's dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by an elite valuation firm. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore.

But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his relationship with Erica shifting. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.

"Extreme times call for extreme reactions, extreme writing. Hamid has done something extraordinary with this novel." —Washington Post

"One of those achingly assured novels that makes you happy to be a reader." —Junot Diaz

"Brief, charming, and quietly furious . . . a resounding success." —Village Voice

A Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
A New York Times Notable Book]]> 184 Mohsin Hamid 0151013047 Kumar 4 3.69 2007 The Reluctant Fundamentalist
author: Mohsin Hamid
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2014/10/06
date added: 2014/10/06
shelves:
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]]> Last Man in Tower 10854908 422 Aravind Adiga 1848875169 Kumar 2 3.54 2011 Last Man in Tower
author: Aravind Adiga
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2014/09/29
date added: 2014/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Boy in the Striped Pajamas]]> 39999
Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter one.]]> 224 John Boyne 0385751079 Kumar 5 4.17 2006 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
author: John Boyne
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2014/09/17
date added: 2014/09/17
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]]> Cobalt Blue 14760312 224 Sachin Kundalkar 8174865381 Kumar 5 3.94 2006 Cobalt Blue
author: Sachin Kundalkar
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2014/09/08
date added: 2014/09/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Em and The Big Hoom 13601144 240 Jerry Pinto 8192328023 Kumar 5 4.20 2012 Em and The Big Hoom
author: Jerry Pinto
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2014/09/06
date added: 2014/09/06
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sita's Curse : The Language of Desire]]> 22019846 344 Sreemoyee Piu Kundu Kumar 2 2.67 2014 Sita's Curse : The Language of Desire
author: Sreemoyee Piu Kundu
name: Kumar
average rating: 2.67
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2014/08/27
date added: 2014/08/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny]]> 25409 240 Amartya Sen 0393329291 Kumar 0 3.86 2006 Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny
author: Amartya Sen
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2014/08/22
date added: 2014/08/22
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]]> The Great Indian Democracy 22301559 197 Manivannan K 8192681033 Kumar 1 3.36 2014 The Great Indian Democracy
author: Manivannan K
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2014
rating: 1
read at: 2014/07/12
date added: 2014/07/12
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]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Kumar 5 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 5
read at: 2014/06/20
date added: 2014/06/20
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Khalifa Brothers, #1)]]> 4835 Haroun and the Sea of Stories inhabits the same imaginative space as Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz. In this captivating novel, Haroun sets out on an adventure to restore the poisoned source of the sea of stories. On the way, he encounters many foes, all intent on draining the sea of all its storytelling powers.]]> 224 Salman Rushdie 0670886580 Kumar 5 3.99 1990 Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Khalifa Brothers, #1)
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2014/06/11
date added: 2014/06/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Time Traveler's Wife 18619684 537 Audrey Niffenegger 1939126010 Kumar 4 4.07 2003 The Time Traveler's Wife
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2014/06/08
date added: 2014/06/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Arranged Marriage 94668 Arranged Marriage, her first collection of stories, spent five weeks on the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list and garnered critical acclaim that would have been extraordinary for even a more established author.For the young girls and women brought to life in these stories, the possibility of change, of starting anew, is both as terrifying and filled with promise as the ocean that separates them from their homes in India. From the story of a young bride whose fairy-tale vision of California is shattered when her husband is murdered and she must face the future on her own, to a proud middle-aged divorced woman determined to succeed in San Francisco, Divakaruni's award-winning poetry fuses here with prose for the first time to create eleven devastating portraits of women on the verge of an unforgettable transformation.]]> 307 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 0385483503 Kumar 3 3.77 1995 Arranged Marriage
author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2014/05/30
date added: 2014/05/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays]]> 11987 212 Albert Camus Kumar 0 4.23 1942 The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
author: Albert Camus
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at: 2014/05/20
date added: 2014/05/20
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unbearable Lightness of Being]]> 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.]]> 314 Milan Kundera 0571224385 Kumar 5 4.12 1984 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
author: Milan Kundera
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at: 2014/05/07
date added: 2014/05/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Temple-Goers 7478803 304 Aatish Taseer 0670918504 Kumar 0 2.85 2010 The Temple-Goers
author: Aatish Taseer
name: Kumar
average rating: 2.85
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2014/04/22
date added: 2014/04/22
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]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297 272 Oscar Wilde Kumar 5 4.13 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 5
read at: 2014/03/26
date added: 2014/03/26
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]]> Sunlight on a Broken Column 231534 319 Attia Hosain 0140123504 Kumar 4 3.95 1961 Sunlight on a Broken Column
author: Attia Hosain
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1961
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/29
date added: 2014/03/26
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]]> The Idiot 12505 667 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0679642420 Kumar 0 4.22 1869 The Idiot
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Kumar
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1869
rating: 0
read at: 2014/03/26
date added: 2014/03/26
shelves:
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]]> The Pregnant King 3086194 360 Devdutt Pattanaik Kumar 3 3.82 2008 The Pregnant King
author: Devdutt Pattanaik
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2014/03/12
date added: 2014/03/12
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Stranger to History: A Son's Journey through Islamic Lands]]> 13538056 “Indispensable reading for anyone who wants a wider understanding of the Islamic world, of its history and its politics.� —Financial Times

Aatish Taseer’s fractured upbringing left him with many questions about his own identity. Raised by his Sikh mother in Delhi, his father, a Pakistani Muslim, remained a distant figure. Stranger to History is the story of the journey he made to try to understand what it means to be Muslim in the twenty-firstcentury. Starting from Istanbul, Islam’s once greatest city, he travels to Mecca, its most holy, and then home through Iran and Pakistan. Ending in Lahore, at his estranged father’s home, on the night Benazir Bhutto was killed, it is also the story of Taseer’s divided family over the past fifty years. Recent events have added a coda to Stranger to History, as his father was murdered by a political assassin. A new introduction by the author reflects on how this event changes the impact of the book, and why its message is more relevant than ever.]]> 352 Aatish Taseer 155597628X Kumar 3 3.73 2007 Stranger to History: A Son's Journey through Islamic Lands
author: Aatish Taseer
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2014/01/29
date added: 2014/01/29
shelves:
review:

]]> The Calcutta Chromosome 67100 The Calcutta Chromosome takes readers on a wondrous journey through time as a computer programmer trapped in a mind-numbing job hits upon a curious item that will forever change his life. When Antar discovers the battered ID card of a long-lost acquaintance, he is suddenly drawn into a spellbinding adventure across centuries and around the globe, into the strange life of L. Murugan, a man obsessed with the medical history of malaria, and into a magnificently complex world where conspiracy hangs in the air like mosquitoes on a summer night.]]> 320 Amitav Ghosh 0380813947 Kumar 4 Gripping for what its worth! 3.49 1996 The Calcutta Chromosome
author: Amitav Ghosh
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.49
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2013/10/05
date added: 2014/01/10
shelves:
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Gripping for what its worth!
]]> Inferno (Robert Langdon, #4) 17212231 ‘Seek and ye shall find.�

With these words echoing in his head, eminent Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon awakes in a hospital bed with no recollection of where he is or how he got there. Nor can he explain the origin of the macabre object that is found hidden in his belongings.

A threat to his life will propel him and a young doctor, Sienna Brooks, into a breakneck chase across the city of Florence. Only Langdon’s knowledge of hidden passageways and ancient secrets that lie behind its historic facade can save them from the clutches of their unknown pursuers.

With only a few lines from Dante’s dark and epic masterpiece, The Inferno, to guide them, they must decipher a sequence of codes buried deep within some of the most celebrated artefacts of the Renaissance � sculptures, paintings, buildings � to find the answers to a puzzle which may, or may not, help them save the world from a terrifying threat�

Set against an extraordinary landscape inspired by one of history’s most ominous literary classics, Inferno is Dan Brown’s most compelling and thought-provoking novel yet, a breathless race-against-time thriller that will grab you from page one and not let you go until you close the book.]]> 463 Dan Brown 0385537859 Kumar 3 3.88 2013 Inferno (Robert Langdon, #4)
author: Dan Brown
name: Kumar
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2014/01/10
shelves:
review:

]]>