Sandeep's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 05 Oct 2021 17:13:06 -0700 60 Sandeep's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Love Sonnets of Ghalib, Deluxe Edition]]> 679617 For the first time, this edition includes Artistic renditions by Sadequain in color!

The entire book has now been proof read again and this time published from Pakistan by one of the most respected publisher, i.e. Feroz Sons.

The construction of the book allows the reader to enjoy the verses, both in Urdu and its Romanized transliteration side by side.

This book contains an extensive glossary of the vocabulary used in Ghalib's Urdu Ghazals.

An index of the first verse of each ghazal with page number has been made for the reader to easily locate the ghazal of choice.

]]> 844 Sarfaraz K. Niazi 9690017934 Sandeep 0 to-read 4.56 2009 Love Sonnets of Ghalib, Deluxe Edition
author: Sarfaraz K. Niazi
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Munshi Premchand's GODAAN Masterpiece Of Hindi Literature]]> 10497020 by Anurag Yadav

Godaan is one of the most celebrated novels of Munshi Premchand. Set in pre-independence India, the novel captures social and economic conflict in a north Indian village.

The story revolves around Horiram, a poor village farmer, and the struggle of his family to survive and maintain their self-respect. Horiram does everything in his capacity to fulfil his sole desire � to own a cow, which is considered a farmer's source of wealth and happiness.

One of the classics of Indian literature, the book offers an insight into the colonial history of India, captures the ethnic flavour of the Indian villages and also catches the human emotions in all their rawness.

For addition information on publishing your books on iBook,iPhone And iPad please visit]]> 0 Munshi Premchand Sandeep 0 2013 4.44 1936 Munshi Premchand's GODAAN Masterpiece Of Hindi Literature
author: Munshi Premchand
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1936
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2020/06/18
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> 'उमरावजान अद� [Umraojan Ada] 3895865
First published more than 100 years ago, the novel recreates the gracious ambience of old Lucknow and takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the palaces of wealthy nawabs, the hideouts of colourful vagabonds and the luxurious abodes of the city's courtesans. But more than evoking the ambience of a culture and decadence that was not merely aristocratic but inimitable, it is the complex characterisation of Umrao, and the life she lived as a courtesan, which makes the book memorable and significant.

'An excellent story-teller... Ruswa is one of the best Urdu prose writers of all times.' - Khushwant Singh]]> 192 Mirza Mohammad Hadi Ruswa 8181333314 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.60 1899 'उमरावजान अदा [Umraojan Ada]
author: Mirza Mohammad Hadi Ruswa
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1899
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Selected Stories 471287 Selected stories. 375 Saadat Hasan Manto 8170207061 Sandeep 0 to-read 4.26 1940 Selected Stories
author: Saadat Hasan Manto
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1940
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/07/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Women 38500 291 Charles Bukowski 0061177598 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.85 1978 Women
author: Charles Bukowski
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/09/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ham on Rye 38501 288 Charles Bukowski 006117758X Sandeep 0 2013 4.17 1982 Ham on Rye
author: Charles Bukowski
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/09/26
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ask the Dust (The Saga of Arturo Bandini, #3)]]> 46227 "Fante was my god." —Charles Bukowski, in his introduction to Ask the Dust

Arturo Bandini, a young, struggling Italian-American writer living in a seedy hotel in 1930s Los Angeles, falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. The pair embark on a strange and strained love-hate relationship, which slowly, but inexorably, descends into the realm of madness.

Ask the Dust is one of the truly great, yet unsung, American novels of the twentieth century. A tough and unsentimental story with a soft and tender heart, it remains as fresh and affecting as the day it was written.]]> 165 John Fante 0060822554 Sandeep 0 to-read 4.17 1939 Ask the Dust (The Saga of Arturo Bandini, #3)
author: John Fante
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/09/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Looking for Alaska 99561 Before. Miles “Pudge� Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps� even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .
After. Nothing is ever the same.]]> 221 John Green 1435249151 Sandeep 3 2013 This claim is as far from reality as a movie on 'Catcher in the rye'. What that nincompoop was thinking when making this claim is a puzzle that would have fascinated Douglas Adams.

Looking for Alaska is your feel good book that you might want to read because you want to spend next 4 hours of your life in a warm, cozy cafe (or a well air conditioned one, in case you are in Delhi) and have a nice feeling afterwards. If you are a teenager, you will be able to associate with characters in bits, if you are in 20's, you will think of them as young juveniles. John Green impresses in parts because of his humor quotient though.
]]> 3.97 2005 Looking for Alaska
author: John Green
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:
I read somewhere on our 'infernal internet' that Miles Halter, the narrator in this story is similar to Holden Caulfield.
This claim is as far from reality as a movie on 'Catcher in the rye'. What that nincompoop was thinking when making this claim is a puzzle that would have fascinated Douglas Adams.

Looking for Alaska is your feel good book that you might want to read because you want to spend next 4 hours of your life in a warm, cozy cafe (or a well air conditioned one, in case you are in Delhi) and have a nice feeling afterwards. If you are a teenager, you will be able to associate with characters in bits, if you are in 20's, you will think of them as young juveniles. John Green impresses in parts because of his humor quotient though.

]]> The Company of Women 109201 232 Khushwant Singh 0140290478 Sandeep 3 2013 3.21 1999 The Company of Women
author: Khushwant Singh
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.21
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town]]> 28239 Dark Star Safari the wittily observant and endearingly irascible Paul Theroux takes readers the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train. In the course of his epic and enlightening journey, he endures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances.

Gauging the state of affairs, he talks to Africans, aid workers, missionaries, and tourists. What results is an insightful mediation on the history, politics, and beauty of Africa and its people.

In a new postscript, Theroux recounts the dramatic events of a return to Africa to visit Zimbabwe.]]> 485 Paul Theroux 0618446877 Sandeep 3 2013 3.99 2002 Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town
author: Paul Theroux
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> The Bell Jar 6514 294 Sylvia Plath 0571268862 Sandeep 4 2013
In reality, this book turned out to be so exhilarating! The kind of exhilaration when your thoughts are expressed in beautiful words by someone. The kind when you listen to a fellow human and think 'Was I contemplating aloud?'.

It's a bit too feminine for me, but I think Esther Greenwood is the closest female Holden Caulfield that we will ever have. The first half of the novel when she is in NY, and states her apprehension and insecurities is superbly written. Second half is a bit drab, and hence 4/5 stars instead of 5. ]]> 4.05 1963 The Bell Jar
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:
I had people telling me that this was an utterly depressing novel, the one which you read when you deliberately want to dampen your mood. Hence, in preparation I had stacked a healthy quantity of Mother Diary's Caramel croquant in my refrigerator before reading this.

In reality, this book turned out to be so exhilarating! The kind of exhilaration when your thoughts are expressed in beautiful words by someone. The kind when you listen to a fellow human and think 'Was I contemplating aloud?'.

It's a bit too feminine for me, but I think Esther Greenwood is the closest female Holden Caulfield that we will ever have. The first half of the novel when she is in NY, and states her apprehension and insecurities is superbly written. Second half is a bit drab, and hence 4/5 stars instead of 5.
]]> Narcopolis 12384322
Outside, stray dogs lope in packs. Street vendors hustle. Hookers call for custom through the bars of their cages as their pimps slouch in doorways in the half-light. There is an underworld whisper of a new terror: the Pathar Maar, the stone killer, whose victims are the nameless, invisible poor. There are too many of them to count in this broken city.

Narcopolis is a rich, chaotic, hallucinatory dream of a novel that captures the Bombay of the 1970s in all its compelling squalor. With a cast of pimps, pushers, poets, gangsters and eunuchs, it is a journey into a sprawling underworld written in electric and utterly original prose.]]> 292 Jeet Thayil 0571275761 Sandeep 4 2013
Another wonderful book added to my list of books detailing life in India's one and the only sin city. (Here's the list as far as I can remember: Serious Men, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Fine Balance, Shantaram (this however romanticizes the slum and struggle in Bombay), Last man in Tower, Hasan Manto's short stories about Bombay's prostitutes)

As much as this book is about Bombay, it is equally about narcotics and the effect the drugs have on its lead characters. (Read Kevin's Rushby review's in Guardian about this book )

If you have read the review and know the charming characters (or even if you haven't but still want more motivation to read this), check out this prologue where the narrator and his smoking pipe are battling for their turns to speak.




Fantastic book!]]> 3.45 2012 Narcopolis
author: Jeet Thayil
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:
Bombay, Bombay, Bombay! I can't get enough of this city in literature!

Another wonderful book added to my list of books detailing life in India's one and the only sin city. (Here's the list as far as I can remember: Serious Men, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Fine Balance, Shantaram (this however romanticizes the slum and struggle in Bombay), Last man in Tower, Hasan Manto's short stories about Bombay's prostitutes)

As much as this book is about Bombay, it is equally about narcotics and the effect the drugs have on its lead characters. (Read Kevin's Rushby review's in Guardian about this book )

If you have read the review and know the charming characters (or even if you haven't but still want more motivation to read this), check out this prologue where the narrator and his smoking pipe are battling for their turns to speak.




Fantastic book!
]]> तम� 868210
भारत मे� सांप्रदायिकत� की समस्या एक यु� पुरानी हे और इसके दानवी पंजो� से अभी तक इस दे� की मुक्ति नही� हु� है� आज़ादी से पहले विदेशी शासकों ने यहाँ की ज़मी� पर अपने पाँव मजबू� करने के लि� इस समस्या को हथकंडा बनाय� था और आज़ादी के बा� हमार� अपने दे� के कु� राजनीति� दल इसका घृणि� उपयो� कर रह� हैं। और इस सारी प्रक्रिय� मे� जो तबाही हु� है उसका शिका� बनते रह� है� वे निर्दो� और गरी� लो� जो � हिंद� है�, � मुसलमा� बल्क� सिर्� इंसा� है�, और है� भारती� नागरिक�

भीष्� साहनी ने आज़ादी से पहले हु� सांप्रदायि� दंगो� को आधार बनाक� इस समस्या का सूक्ष्� विश्लेषण किया है और उन मनोवृत्तियों को उखाड़क� सामन� रख� है जो अपनी विकृतियो� का परिणाम जनसाधारण को भोगन� के लि� विवश करती हैं।]]> 310 Bhisham Sahni 8126715391 Sandeep 4 2013 4.19 1972 तमस
author: Bhisham Sahni
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1972
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> Train to Pakistan 785454 “In the summer of 1947, when the creation of the state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people—Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs—were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. One of these villages was Mano Majra.�

It is a place, Khushwant Singh goes on to tell us at the beginning of this classic novel, where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one day, at the end of the summer, the “ghost train� arrives, a silent, incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.

Introduction by Arthur Lall]]> 181 Khushwant Singh 0802132219 Sandeep 0 2013 3.92 1956 Train to Pakistan
author: Khushwant Singh
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time]]> 95887 The legendary Eat That Frog! (more than 450,000 copies sold and translated into 23 languages) provides the 21 most effective methods for conquering procrastination and accomplishing more. This new edition is revised and updated throughout, and includes brand new information on how to keep technology from dominating our time.]]> 144 Brian Tracy 1576754227 Sandeep 0 2013 3.90 2001 Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
author: Brian Tracy
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead]]> 17876 Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead (150th Anniversary Edition)

The compelling works presented in this volume were written at distinct periods in Dostoyevsky's life, at decisive moments in his groping for a political philosophy and a religious answer. From the primitive peasant who kills without understanding that he is destroying life to the anxious antihero of Notes from Underground—who both craves and despises affection—the writer's often-tormented characters showcase his evolving outlook on our fate.

Thomas Mann described Dostoyevsky as "an author whose Christian sympathy is ordinarily devoted to human misery, sin, vice, the depths of lust and crime, rather than to nobility of body and soul" and Notes from Underground as "an awe- and terror- inspiring example of this sympathy."]]> 233 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0451529553 Sandeep 0 2013 4.19 1864 Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1864
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> The Stranger 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Sandeep 0 2013 4.04 1942 The Stranger
author: Albert Camus
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> 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 Sandeep 0 2013 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> The Brothers Karamazov 4934
This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.]]> 796 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0374528373 Sandeep 0 2013 4.36 1880 The Brothers Karamazov
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1880
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> Steve Jobs 11084145 630 Walter Isaacson 1451648537 Sandeep 0 2013 4.15 2011 Steve Jobs
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama]]> 567720 320 Dalai Lama XIV 0060987014 Sandeep 0 2013 4.17 1990 Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama
author: Dalai Lama XIV
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> American Psycho 28676 American Psycho is a bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to confront.]]> 399 Bret Easton Ellis 0679735771 Sandeep 0 2013 3.82 1991 American Psycho
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> Fatherland 56842
The naked body of an old man floats in a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. In one week it will be Adolf Hitler’s 75th birthday. A terrible conspiracy is starting to unravel�

What if Hitler had won?

Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler's 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb.

As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth -- a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history.]]> 380 Robert Harris 0061006629 Sandeep 0 2013 4.01 1992 Fatherland
author: Robert Harris
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> Crime and Punishment 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky Sandeep 0 2013 4.26 1866 Crime and Punishment
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> <![CDATA[City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi]]> 124430 City of Djinns peels back the layers of Delhi's centuries-old history, revealing an extraordinary array of characters along the way—from eunuchs to descendants of great Moguls. With refreshingly open-minded curiosity, William Dalrymple explores the seven "dead" cities of Delhi as well as the eighth city—today's Delhi. Underlying his quest is the legend of the djinns, fire-formed spirits that are said to assure the city's Phoenix-like regeneration no matter how many times it is destroyed. Entertaining, fascinating, and informative, City of Djinns is an irresistible blend of research and adventure.]]> 350 William Dalrymple 0142001007 Sandeep 0 2013 4.12 1993 City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
author: William Dalrymple
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity]]> 11869272
In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human.

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees "a fortune beyond counting" in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter - Annawadi's "most-everything girl" - will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call "the full enjoy."

But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi.

With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century's hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.]]> 278 Katherine Boo 1400067553 Sandeep 0 2013 3.97 2012 Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
author: Katherine Boo
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> The Idiot 12505 667 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0679642420 Sandeep 0 2013 4.22 1869 The Idiot
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1869
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> Midnight’s Children 14836 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,� all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.

This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Twenty-five years after its publication, Midnight� s Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.]]> 647 Salman Rushdie 0099578514 Sandeep 0 currently-reading, 2013 3.98 1981 Midnight’s Children
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: currently-reading, 2013
review:

]]> Amsterdam 114226 178 Ian McEwan Sandeep 2 2013 3.33 1998 Amsterdam
author: Ian McEwan
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1998
rating: 2
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> <![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 Sandeep 4 2013 4.12 1984 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
author: Milan Kundera
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> Truth, Love & A Little Malice 109202 Writing of his own life, too, Khushwant Singh remains unflinchingly forthright. He records his professional triumphs and failures as a lawyer, journalist, writer and Member of Parliament; the comforts and disappointments in his marriage of over sixty years; his first, awkward sexual encounter; his phobia of ghosts and his fascination with death; the friends who betrayed him, and also those whom he failed.]]> 432 Khushwant Singh 0143029576 Sandeep 3 2013 3.94 2002 Truth, Love & A Little Malice
author: Khushwant Singh
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Sandeep 2 2013
I could not find any greatness in Great Gatsby, and the supposedly poetic nature of Fitzgerald prose didn't appeal me. (I would read Jeet Thayil again for that purpose) The characters were ordinary and had commonplace ambitions and goals (Take any character from Adiga, Manu Joseph and it is 10 times more convoluted and interesting than Nick Carraway, Gatsby, Tom, Daisy)

It is often praised lavishly that it mirrored a certain Jazz age of 1920's in America. Jack Kerouck's description of 1960s beat generation book 'On the road' made me jealous for not being born in that age. I felt no such pangs of jealousy for 1920's.

]]> 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 2
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:
Whether it was excessive targeted marketing, or the already existing stature of Fitzgerald, what made this book an instant American literature classic is currently beyond my grasp.

I could not find any greatness in Great Gatsby, and the supposedly poetic nature of Fitzgerald prose didn't appeal me. (I would read Jeet Thayil again for that purpose) The characters were ordinary and had commonplace ambitions and goals (Take any character from Adiga, Manu Joseph and it is 10 times more convoluted and interesting than Nick Carraway, Gatsby, Tom, Daisy)

It is often praised lavishly that it mirrored a certain Jazz age of 1920's in America. Jack Kerouck's description of 1960s beat generation book 'On the road' made me jealous for not being born in that age. I felt no such pangs of jealousy for 1920's.


]]> Amsterdam 6862 Amsterdam is "a dark tour de force, perfectly fashioned" ( The New York Times ) from the bestselling author of Atonement.

On a chilly February day, two old friends meet in the throng outside a London crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current Clive is Britain's most successful modern composer, and Vernon is a newspaper editor. Gorgeous, feisty Molly had other lovers, too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger tipped to be the next prime minister. In the days that follow Molly's funeral, Clive and Vernon will make a pact with consequences that neither could have foreseen�

Don’t miss Ian McEwan’s new novel, Lessons .]]> 208 Ian McEwan 0385494246 Sandeep 2 2013 3.46 1998 Amsterdam
author: Ian McEwan
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1998
rating: 2
read at: 2013/08/12
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> Ficciones 426504 Ficciones demonstrate the whirlwind of Borges's genius and mirror the precision and potency of his intellect and inventiveness, his piercing irony, his skepticism, and his obsession with fantasy. Borges sends us on a journey into a compelling, bizarre, and profoundly resonant realm; we enter the fearful sphere of Pascal's abyss, the surreal and literal labyrinth of books, and the iconography of eternal return. To enter the worlds in Ficciones is to enter the mind of Jorge Luis Borges, wherein lies Heaven, Hell, and everything else in between.

Part One: The Garden of Forking Paths
Prologue
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (1940)
The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim (1936, not included in the 1941 edition)
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote (1939)
The Circular Ruins (1940)
The Lottery in Babylon (1941)
An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain (1941)
The Library of Babel (1941)
The Garden of Forking Paths (1941)
Part Two: Artifices
Prologue
Funes the Memorious (1942)
The Form of the Sword (1942)
Theme of the Traitor and the Hero (1944)
Death and the Compass (1942)
The Secret Miracle (1943)
Three Versions of Judas (1944)
The End (1953, 2nd edition only)
The Sect of the Phoenix (1952, 2nd edition only)
The South (1953, 2nd edition only)]]> 174 Jorge Luis Borges 0802130305 Sandeep 4 2013 4.46 1944 Ficciones
author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1944
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> In Patagonia 79909 199 Bruce Chatwin 0142437190 Sandeep 4 2013
It is not a "single read without any google" book. There are so many stories, anecdotes (whose veracity is doubtful) that every few pages, you have to pause and go into a tangential direction reading stories about the equally colorful characters (e.g. Butch Cassidy, Magellan, Welsh settlers of Patagonia).

A second reading will give more idea about the actual journey and literal coherency of the book, but I am yet to do that.

One thing I know is that it changed the way travel books were perceived. Travel books ceased to be more descriptive about the actual places, but instead started focusing on the day to day lives, stories, beliefs, myths of the people of that area. A welcome change indeed.

]]> 3.69 1977 In Patagonia
author: Bruce Chatwin
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:
Monster of a book.

It is not a "single read without any google" book. There are so many stories, anecdotes (whose veracity is doubtful) that every few pages, you have to pause and go into a tangential direction reading stories about the equally colorful characters (e.g. Butch Cassidy, Magellan, Welsh settlers of Patagonia).

A second reading will give more idea about the actual journey and literal coherency of the book, but I am yet to do that.

One thing I know is that it changed the way travel books were perceived. Travel books ceased to be more descriptive about the actual places, but instead started focusing on the day to day lives, stories, beliefs, myths of the people of that area. A welcome change indeed.


]]> <![CDATA[The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas]]> 130515
Beginning his journey in Boston, where he boarded the subway commuter train, and catching trains of all kinds on the way, Paul Theroux tells of his voyage from ice-bound Massachusetts and Illinois to the arid plateau of Argentina's most southerly tip. Sweating and shivering by turns as the temperature and altitude shoot up and down, thrown in with the appalling Mr Thornberry in Limón and reading nightly to the blind writer, Borges, in Buenos Aires, Theroux vividly evokes the contrasts of a journey 'to the end of the line'.]]> 430 Paul Theroux 0140249796 Sandeep 3 2013 3.95 1979 The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas
author: Paul Theroux
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1979
rating: 3
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> The Catcher in the Rye 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 Sandeep 5 2013 3.81 1951 The Catcher in the Rye
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 5
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> The Bastard of Istanbul 98920
In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country’s violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the “bastard� of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul: Zehila, the zestful, headstrong youngest sister who runs a tattoo parlor and is Asya’s mother; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as a clairvoyant; Cevriye, a widowed high school teacher; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. Their one estranged brother lives in Arizona with his wife and her Armenian daughter, Armanoush. When Armanoush secretly flies to Istanbul in search of her identity, she finds the Kazanci sisters and becomes fast friends with Asya. A secret is uncovered that links the two families and ties them to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres. Full of vigorous, unforgettable female characters, The Bastard of Istanbul is a bold, powerful tale that will confirm Shafak as a rising star of international fiction.]]> 368 Elif Shafak 0670038342 Sandeep 4 2013 3.88 2006 The Bastard of Istanbul
author: Elif Shafak
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Naked Voices: Stories And Sketches]]> 7700096 141 Saadat Hasan Manto 8186939423 Sandeep 4 2013 They suck you in with grim tales of humanity, you start trusting the
character's instincts but when you are finally at rest within the
short narrative, they hit you with their darkest side leaving you
bewildered and in awe of the author's masterly narration of this short
story.

I was a bit disapponted with the Introduction by translator which gave away the endings of too many
stories. Instead of the sudden surprise at some point, these stories
now became a time bomb where I knew what was coming but was holding my
breath to delay it as much as possible.

[spoilers removed]]]> 4.06 2008 Naked Voices: Stories And Sketches
author: Saadat Hasan Manto
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/01
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:
Saadat Hasan Manto's short stories have an Edgar Allan Poe's quality.
They suck you in with grim tales of humanity, you start trusting the
character's instincts but when you are finally at rest within the
short narrative, they hit you with their darkest side leaving you
bewildered and in awe of the author's masterly narration of this short
story.

I was a bit disapponted with the Introduction by translator which gave away the endings of too many
stories. Instead of the sudden surprise at some point, these stories
now became a time bomb where I knew what was coming but was holding my
breath to delay it as much as possible.

[spoilers removed]
]]> Last Man in Tower 10854908 422 Aravind Adiga 1848875169 Sandeep 4 2013
Last man in Tower is a masterly novel about India's middle class's ambitions and dreams of a car, good education for their children, good house and to be better than their neighbors. Set up in Bombay (Again!), it shows the clash between a real estate magnate Shah (He would have beaten Howard Roark in India on any given day) and a retired old teacher Masterji.
While it is easy to understand the ambitions of Shah, Masterji is a much more enigmatic character with hard to pin point needs and wants.

After White Tiger, Adiga has again delivered with a wonderful book.

]]> 3.54 2011 Last Man in Tower
author: Aravind Adiga
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/04
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:
Aravind Adiga knows how to make his characters so realistic that with each one of them, you have a semblance of empathy. You can hate their particular actions, but you cannot hate their overall personas as in each one of them you will find something to relate to.

Last man in Tower is a masterly novel about India's middle class's ambitions and dreams of a car, good education for their children, good house and to be better than their neighbors. Set up in Bombay (Again!), it shows the clash between a real estate magnate Shah (He would have beaten Howard Roark in India on any given day) and a retired old teacher Masterji.
While it is easy to understand the ambitions of Shah, Masterji is a much more enigmatic character with hard to pin point needs and wants.

After White Tiger, Adiga has again delivered with a wonderful book.


]]> The Fault in Our Stars 11870085
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.]]> 313 John Green Sandeep 3 2013
The major problem with the book is that it turns out to be exactly the kind of text which Hazel Grace, one of the main protagonists, would have hated to the core; a sugar coated sweet fantasy book taking you away from the reality.

I would love to read a book on the Peter Van Houten though, the hedonistic and nihilistic author of 'An Imperial Affliction'. He was one character who was engaging, charming, bold, truthful until John Green decided to show his 'emotional' side too :(. ]]> 4.13 2012 The Fault in Our Stars
author: John Green
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2013/07/24
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:
Somewhere between 'Love Story' and 'A walk to Remember' with a healthy dose of 'We meet, we fall in love' phrases and cheesy one liners.

The major problem with the book is that it turns out to be exactly the kind of text which Hazel Grace, one of the main protagonists, would have hated to the core; a sugar coated sweet fantasy book taking you away from the reality.

I would love to read a book on the Peter Van Houten though, the hedonistic and nihilistic author of 'An Imperial Affliction'. He was one character who was engaging, charming, bold, truthful until John Green decided to show his 'emotional' side too :(.
]]> Dozakhnama 16178742 544 Rabisankar Bal Sandeep 5 2013 This novel oscillates between the history of dying Mughal era and India's partition. Mirza Galib describing the former in his melancholy words, Hasan Manto the latter in his gut wrenching words.

Rabishankar Bal has woven a novel of immense character and timelessness. One part of me wanted to keep turning page after page to read more dastans, ghazals, poems, stories and reach to the very end, whereas the other part wanted these very anecdotes to never end.

I am sure the urdu and farzi gazals lost 90% of their charm when translated to English, but Arunava Sinha has does a hell of a job. (or should I say dozakh ka kaam) in getting the sentiments across to an English reading community.

Thoroughly recommended.

]]> 4.11 2010 Dozakhnama
author: Rabisankar Bal
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2013/07/28
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: 2013
review:
By far, the finest novel of this year, 2013.
This novel oscillates between the history of dying Mughal era and India's partition. Mirza Galib describing the former in his melancholy words, Hasan Manto the latter in his gut wrenching words.

Rabishankar Bal has woven a novel of immense character and timelessness. One part of me wanted to keep turning page after page to read more dastans, ghazals, poems, stories and reach to the very end, whereas the other part wanted these very anecdotes to never end.

I am sure the urdu and farzi gazals lost 90% of their charm when translated to English, but Arunava Sinha has does a hell of a job. (or should I say dozakh ka kaam) in getting the sentiments across to an English reading community.

Thoroughly recommended.


]]> <![CDATA[Tales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings (Penguin Classics)]]> 97385 224 Alexander Pushkin 0140446753 Sandeep 0 to-read 4.25 1836 Tales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings (Penguin Classics)
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1836
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/09/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> No One Here Gets Out Alive 691520 384 Jerry Hopkins 0446697338 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.94 1980 No One Here Gets Out Alive
author: Jerry Hopkins
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell]]> 5128 The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell , both of which became essential for the counterculture during the 1960s and influenced a generation's perception of life.]]> 187 Aldous Huxley 0060595183 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.95 1956 The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Loved One 30935
A dark and savage satire on the Anglo-American cultural divide, The Loved One depicts a world where love, reputation, and death cost a very great deal.

This is an alternate cover edition: /book/show/3....]]> 127 Evelyn Waugh 0141184248 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.78 1948 The Loved One
author: Evelyn Waugh
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1948
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> God's Little Acre 191581 Tobacco Road, this novel chronicles the final decline of a poor white family in rural Georgia. Exhorted by their patriarch Ty Ty, the Waldens ruin their land by digging it up in search of gold. Complex sexual entanglements and betrayals lead to a murder within the family that completes its dissolution. Juxtaposed against the Waldens' obsessive search is the story of Ty Ty's son-in-law, a cotton mill worker in a nearby town who is killed during a strike.First published in 1933, God's Little Acre was censured by the Georgia Literary Commission, banned in Boston, and once led the all-time best-seller list, with more than ten million copies in print.]]> 224 Erskine Caldwell 0820316636 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.60 1933 God's Little Acre
author: Erskine Caldwell
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1933
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Diary of a Young Girl 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe� of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank Sandeep 0 to-read 4.19 1947 The Diary of a Young Girl
author: Anne Frank
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves, #7)]]> 105986 286 P.G. Wodehouse 1841591009 Sandeep 0 to-read 4.37 1938 The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves, #7)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1938
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Essays in Love 827681 224 Alain de Botton 0330440780 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.98 1993 Essays in Love
author: Alain de Botton
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Burmese Days 9650 276 George Orwell 1421808307 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.87 1934 Burmese Days
author: George Orwell
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1934
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> मीनाबाज़ार 13607339 123 Saadat Hasan Manto 8126703199 Sandeep 0 to-read 4.00 1962 मीनाबाज़ार
author: Saadat Hasan Manto
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)]]> 37781 Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.]]> 215 Chinua Achebe Sandeep 0 to-read 3.73 1958 Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)
author: Chinua Achebe
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A concise summary of Charles Duhiggs The power of habit-- in 30 minutes : a 30 minute expert summary.]]> 15899755
In his best-selling book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg, a business reporter for The New York Times, conveys his research in the fields of psychology and neuroscience to provide a scientific approach to understanding habits. The Power of Habit in 30 Minutes is the essential guide to creating change, breaking habits, understanding willpower, and comprehending the main ideas behind Charles Duhigg's best seller.

Drawing on illustrative case studies, the summary explains Duhigg's premise on how modification of the habit loop - a three-stage process of habit cues, routines, and rewards - can be a powerful force in effecting personal, organizational, and social change. Offering an overview of Duhigg's scientific investigations on the formation of habits, this concise executive summary highlights the essential points to breaking habits, and gives the reader the necessary tools for implementing successful change at both an individual and institutional level.]]> 52 Garamond Press 1623150086 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.87 2012 A concise summary of Charles Duhiggs The power of habit-- in 30 minutes : a 30 minute expert summary.
author: Garamond Press
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Delhi By Heart: Impressions of a Pakistani Traveller]]> 18001385
Why, asks Raza Rumi, does the capital of another country feel like home? How is it that a man from Pakistan can cross the border into 'hostile' territory and yet not feel 'foreign'? Is it the geography, the architecture, the food? Or is it the streets, the festivals and the colours of the subcontinent, so familiar and yes, beloved...

As he takes in the sights, from the Sufi shrines in the south to the markets of Old Delhi, from Lutyens' stately mansions to Ghalib's crumbling abode, Raza uncovers the many layers of the city. He connects with the richness of the Urdu language, observes the syncretic evolution of mystical Islam in India and its deep connections with Hindustani classical music � so much a part of his own selfhood. And every so often, he returns to the refuge of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the twelfth-century pir, whose dargah still reverberates with music and prayer every evening.

His wanderings through Delhi lead Raza back in time to recollections of a long-forgotten Hindu ancestry and to comparisons with his own city of Lahore � in many ways a mirror image of Delhi. They also lead to reflections on the nature of the modern city, the inherent conflict between the native and the immigrant and, inevitably, to an inquiry into his own identity as a South Asian Muslim.

Rich with history and anecdote, and conversations with Dilliwalas known and unknown,Delhi By Heart offers an unusual perspective and unexpected insights into the political and cultural capital of India.

About the Author
Raza Rumi is an international development professional based in Lahore. He has worked for national and international organizations such as the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank. He also edits and writes for the Friday Times and contributes to leading national dailies in Pakistan and abroad. He blogs at Jahane Rumi, a website devoted to Sufism and the arts and cultures of South Asia.]]> 352 Raza Rumi 9350294184 Sandeep 0 to-read 3.91 2013 Delhi By Heart: Impressions of a Pakistani Traveller
author: Raza Rumi
name: Sandeep
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Oxford India Ghalib: Life, Letters and Ghazals (Oxford India Collection)]]> 388304 information on the life and times of Ghalib.]]> 580 Ralph Russell 0195660374 Sandeep 0 to-read 4.44 2003 The Oxford India Ghalib: Life, Letters and Ghazals (Oxford India Collection)
author: Ralph Russell
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> गोदा� [Godaan] 694226 352 Munshi Premchand 8172242190 Sandeep 0 to-read 4.38 1936 गोदान [Godaan]
author: Munshi Premchand
name: Sandeep
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1936
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>