On my bookshelf...

....are a lot of books that I've bought and received over the last few weeks. Thanks to the book fair, the Jaipur litfest and my current job as a book reviewer, I've managed to collect quite a number of books; some of which I will probably start reading in another lifetime. Here's a quick list


1) Berlin by Antony Beevor: This was a book which I bought accidentally and, to a certain extent, unintentionally. I went to the World Book Fair in Delhi looking for Beevor's much-acclaimed work Stalingrad and his latest book D-Day and while I did spot both the books on weekdays, they were sold out over the weekend. In fact, the only Antony Beevor book which remained untouched was Berlin, which is a narrative account of the people who were caught during the final collapse of the Third Reich. A blurb at the back of the book states that Berlin is "even better" than Stalingrad (although the Book Fair stalls indicated otherwise). Haven't started reading it yet but, given the amount of praise I've heard about Beevor, I will probably read it soon


2) A Matter of Taste: The Penguin Book of Indian Food Writing edited by Nilanjana Roy: A few months before I actually bought this book (in Jaipur), I had just finished reading the hugely enjoyable Rude Food by Vir Sanghvi and realised that there weren't very many Indian memoirs written about food. I did a quick Google search to prove myself wrong, and the only other book which showed in the results section was A Matter of Taste. Initially, I was a bit hesitant to buy a copy since I'd read a read an unkind review of it on the net. But, given the authenticity and accuracy of internet reviews,  I decided to buy a copy anyway. And I'm glad I did. Because even though a lot of essays are extracted from books, the range of memoirs they capture (for want of a better phrase) are fantastic. There's Behram 'Busybee' Contractor reminisces about eating chapatis with his morning tea. Rohinton Mistry writes an endearing account of a Parsi family's tryst with chicken. Suketu Mehta's extracted essay from his terrific book Maximum City is a terrific and horrific account of the sacrificing of a goat by Mumbai's "black collar workers". Other writers whose works feature in the book include Salman Rushdie, Raj Kamal Jha, Radhika Jha, Mukul Kesavan and Vir Sanghvi. I hope Nilanjana does a sequel to this book - it's been almost six years since this one came out and it's high time we got to read another one.


3) The Picador Book of Indian Cricket edited by Ramchandra Guha:  Bought this one from the book fair as well. For anybody interested in the history, personalities, quirks and the evolution of the game, this one is a must read. Not only because it's edited by Ram Guha but because of the range and quality of the essays in the book. While the contributors to this anthology are formidable writers themselves, it is Guha's superb skills as editor which stand out. His ability to choose from top quality cricket writing and his reasons to choose them  give the book its intellectual tone and character. I haven't read the whole book but a few outstanding essays include the ones on Sachin Tendulkar, Malcolm Marshall, Waqar Younis and Brian Lara from the personalities section. There's a wonderful piece in the initial part of the book which traces the origin of Test cricket and a few pieces on the food at cricket grounds which I'm looking forward to read.


4) Broken News by Amrita Tripathi: A new chick-lit novel by the CNN-IBN journalist, the book is a satirical take on the TV news business and office culture in India. Broken News is the story of a not-so-young TV journalist and anchor (NOT Amrita) who battles craziness, chaos on a daily basis as part of her job. She's almost had a nervous breakdown, a horrible breakup and after eight years on the job, has become quite cynical of her profession. In between, she also plays mentor to a newbie hack who's just graduated from a J-school. If you are an aspiring TV journo with idealistic dreams of anchoring on the second day of your job (like yours truly was not too long ago) then this is just the sort of book you should read. Not only will it kill some of that idealism, but it'll also give you an insight into the chaotic world called 'behind-the-scenes'. I'm already 50-odd pages down and am enjoying the book very much. There are a few glitches (lots of commas) but barring that this book's a fun read. Grab a copy ASAP


5) A Corner Of A Foreign Field by Ramchandra Guha: There was a time in my life when I thought of historians as 'bloody boring'. Part of this thought process should be attributed to a rather ordinary school life where if you admitted you liked history, you were immediately labelled 'weird' (and in some cases unceremoniously thrown out of your peer group) Ram Guha's book was released exactly at that point and I kick myself for not buying/reading it then. This 500 page tome isn't really a 'cricket book'; it's a book which looks at India's socio-political tapestry from the prism of cricket. In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to say this is a book is more profound than Guha's most acclaimed work till date - India After Gandhi for it blends all of Guha's profiles; cricket writer, historian, biographer, anthropologist and political commentator. Again, I haven't started reading the book yet (yes, I know I suck but blame it on the profession please) but I doubt I'll be able to put it down once I do. 


That's it for now. Back to work and to do some reading. 


P.S. For all you Ram Guha fans, grab a copy of the latest Caravan magazine; he's written a cover story tracing the history of the Congress Party. Also, read the wonderful interview he gave to Chandrahas Choudhury about India After Gandhi