book review

‘The Dark Elf Trilogy’: The synergy between the novels and graphic novels

By visually capturing the characters, landscapes, and action scenes, the graphic novels enhance the reading experience and offer a fresh perspective on the beloved story.
13 September 2023, 13:55 PM

Navigating the maze of nutrition myths

Unlike online influencers and their various outright claims of right and wrong, Dr Wolrich’s approach is grey.
8 September 2023, 13:55 PM

Reflecting on ‘Amar Dekha Rajnitir Ponchash Bochor’

As I delved into the autobiographical works of Abul Mansur Ahmad, it became evident that he had a penchant for plain speaking, avoiding embellishments.
3 September 2023, 18:00 PM

Mood mirror

Whenever depression is depicted in pop culture, it is shown in some visible extreme, with blue-grey lighting, dark rooms, ashen faces peering out through rainy windows, bodies curled up in bed.
30 August 2023, 18:00 PM

“Pettiness, Prejudice, and Pets with Panache”

I first came across Anastasia Ryan’s work through my Instagram wanderings and was instantly intrigued by the sound of her recently released novel. Not least by its title, You Should Smile More.
30 August 2023, 18:00 PM

The minority report in India

In Another India, Pratinav Anil unambiguously faults Nehruvian secularism—the very mantle championed by historians such as Mushirul Hasan for whom “the congress best represented the Muslim interests from the fifties on.”
28 August 2023, 13:55 PM

Memory is a treacherous and wonderful thing

Around 14 years ago, I left my life behind in Nigeria. After almost half a decade spent in a land far from home, leaving felt crushing.
16 August 2023, 18:00 PM

Tech bias: not a glitch, but a structural problem

With statistics backing her up, Broussard does a stellar job of portraying this bias for the readers with stories from individuals who have faced such discrimination. The book opens with the story of Robert Julian-Borchak Williams who gets wrongfully identified by a police facial recognition technology and gets taken into custody.
3 August 2023, 12:55 PM

Of losses and languages: reviewing Han Kang’s 'Greek Lessons'

There is a sense of inexorable catharsis, and dare I say— spirituality—when the protagonists begin their journey into one another since they alone embody the ideas and predicaments of the text. 
21 July 2023, 09:00 AM

The pirates of Madagascar

In this posthumous effort, 'Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), Graeber posits, in characteristic fashion, that the Enlightenment would not have happened if not for the pirates around the Malagasy coast.
5 July 2023, 14:47 PM

Yuval Noah Harari’s take on the history of humanity

About the history of the ancient people, Harari skilfully depicts the men and the women, nature, and the environment of prehistoric times, their patterns, and the characteristics of the rough life in the wild-mountainous region.
12 June 2023, 13:00 PM

Exploring nostalgia over coffee

Although the story doesn’t talk about how this particular cafe became a time-travelling spot to begin with, reading through to the last page made me feel that the café was always there-since the beginning of time.
9 June 2023, 13:00 PM

Grief is something pure and stark in Han Kang’s ‘The White Book’

Han Kang explores the nature of her existence and it is all portrayed through objects and ideas unified by a single color: white. 
19 May 2023, 04:00 AM

The Setting Sun: Dazai’s depiction of the dusk after the end of war

This novel would become eponymous for the death of a nation and its rebirth. 
17 May 2023, 09:31 AM

Language can be the ultimate colonial weapon

Despite these heavy themes, Babel remains inherently readable. It is quick to attract the reader’s attention and then hold it captive, making it a very difficult book to put down.
4 May 2023, 08:42 AM

What to take away from Amanda Palmer's The Art of Asking

The Art Of Asking shows us how to create a close-knit family of friends and supporters by being honest
1 May 2023, 12:45 PM

South of the Border, West of the Sun – A love story that haunts you

This book is a fantastic introduction to Haruki Murakami’s world of literature.
19 April 2023, 10:56 AM

When readers write the book

This public typewriter experiment was also a personal experience for him as he first fell in love with typewriters when he came across his grandfather’s 1930s Smith Corona. As a struggling writer at that time, this machine was what made writing to him a joyous experience.
12 April 2023, 12:45 PM

No Longer Human: Dazai’s tale of distortion, degeneration, and decay

No Longer Human is perhaps more relevant today than it has ever been.
6 April 2023, 08:17 AM

Homegrown heroine

This story, which originally began as a short story, features a headstrong heroine putting her desires above what society expects of her, in order to realise her destiny.
5 April 2023, 19:22 PM