Books

Politics is understandably prominent in the Dandavate prison letters

Book Extract | The Shortest History of Music by Andrew Ford

Fans of Rodgers and Hammerstein will notice that Do and Ti are missing from Guido’s scale.

‘What defines cults is not their label, but the methods they use to control, manipulate, and isolate people’

There isn’t much difference between cult leaders like Rampal, or other leaders who weaponize faith for control, or patriarchs who demand submission, writes Priyamvada Mehra in her memoir ‘The Cost of a Promised Afterlife’, which describes her family’s immersion into a cult.

Book review: Architect who built Nirav Modi’s now-demolished seaside bungalow releases his memoir, and it’s gently funny

An architect's memoir: Over 30 years, Matharoo Associates founder Gurjit Singh Matharoo has worked with a wide cast of clients, to design luxury homes, temples, institutions. His memoir offers a peek into what's changed, and what's remained the same, in these decades.

Book Extract | Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane

Is a River Alive? unfolds across three main landscapes.

Book Extract | Running behind Lakshmi: The Search for Wealth in India's Stock Market by Adil Rustomjee

India’s first bull run followed a pattern that was to repeat itself in subsequent episodes. Initially, a displacement occurs, which changes people’s belief in the future.

‘Artificial Intelligence has still a very long way to go before it can tell interesting stories’

Bhaskar Chattopadhyay has launched his own imprint titled Cipher Books (see logo). It is registered in Canada. The first book to be published under this imprint is The Wings of the Nike.

Book Extract | The Health and Wealth Paradox: How to Use First Principles Thinking to Achieve Both by Ankush Datar and Mihir Patki

With attention spans falling, few people have the patience or capacity for concentration to read and understand information in a more focussed manner

Bhagavad Gita for Everyday Living author Swami Mukundananda: 'AI handles information, and the Gita guides intention'

Swami Mukundananda on his new book 'Bhagavad Gita for Everyday Living: Selected Verses with Key Takeaways', what the Bhagavad Gita teaches us, and its relevance for modern living in the age of artificial intelligence and more scientific discoveries.

Book Extract: Fluke - Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters

Brian Klaas grew up in Minnesota, earned his DPhil at Oxford, and is now a professor of global politics at University College London. He is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, host of the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, and frequent guest on national television.

Book Extract: Excerpted with permission from the publisher The New Age of Sexism, Laura Bates, published by Simon and Schuster India

Book Extract: Excerpted with permission from the publisher The New Age of Sexism, Laura Bates, published by Simon and Schuster India

Book Extract: Excerpted with permission from the publisher Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global,‎ Laura Spinney, published by ‎William Collins

Book Extract: Excerpted with permission from the publisher Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global,‎ Laura Spinney, published by ‎William Collins.

‘The work of history is the work of civilization’ — Prof Ruby Lal on writing feminist history, erasures from history

South Asian History Professor at Emory University, US, Ruby Lal explains her approach to Mughal history; reading signs of Nur Jahan’s co-sovereignty in memoir, court documents and art history; and why erasures from history textbooks are a problem.

How to end gold smuggling in India and negotiate better gold prices for Indian buyers, an IIM-A professor explains

IIM-A Professor and author of 'The Power of Gold' Sundaravalli Narayanaswami explains why curtailing gold imports to manage current account deficit does not work in India, and how - when it comes to buying gold in India - culture eats economists for breakfast.

Book Extract | Language of the Immortals: A Concise Study of Sanskrit by G. N. Devy

The fact that the canonical status of texts did not depend on the genre in which they were composed but rather on the function they were expected to perform in the sphere of their reception needs to be stressed when we consider the history of Sanskrit literature.

Book Extract | A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile by Aatish Taseer

In Mongolia, the texture of sin felt less like a crime against God than against oneself. Three symbols are often associated with Danzanravjaa’s life and thought: a female figure representing his love of pleasure; a swan symbolizing the arts; and, lastly, a scorpion signifying the human potential for self-destructiveness

What if the UK were ruled by India in the near future? Scottish MP Alan Gemmell's novel engages with gritty fictional and real-world problems

Different kind of Raj novel: UK Labour MP Alan Gemmell on imagining Britain as a colony of India in his political thriller '30th State', teaching the history of empire in British schools, and returning art to former colonies.

Book Extract | 1975: The Year That Transformed Bollywood by Pratik Majumdar

The Emergency period was akin to a dark age for the Hindi film industry. Film-makers were unfairly forced to navigate an environment of intense scrutiny with curtailed artistic expression, and any deviation from state-approved narratives could lead to severe consequence

Book Extract | The Lion of Naushera by Ziya Us Salam and Anand Mishra

Within weeks of India gaining independence, Kashmir resembled a battlefield because of Pakistan's repeated incursions to capture the Muslim-dominated princely state.

[In]Complete Justice: Reflecting on the Supreme Court at 75 -- triumphs and trials

The book ‘[In]Complete Justice: The Supreme Court at 75, Critical Reflections’ critically examines the Supreme Court's evolution, highlighting its successes, failures, judicial activism, and key reforms. It explores the Court’s role in shaping India’s democracy, law, and social justice

Bharatanatyam practitioners across US, UK... India are giving the dance form a contemporary urgency: Leela Samson

Indian Classical Dance today: Dancer-choreographer Leela Samson unpacks histories and movements that have brought us to the present moment in Bharatnatyam, in 'Dance of Freedom: A Short History of Bharata Natyam'.

Book Extract| The CIA Book Club by Charlie English

In the late 1960s, against the backdrop of the Vietnam war, CIA activities were increasingly scrutinized by the media and public officials.

Book Extract | This is for Everyone by Tim Berners-Lee

Today, experts in the AI field are rather crudely characterized as ‘AI boomers’ or ‘AI doomers’.

Book Extract | How to Sleep Like a Caveman by Dr Merijn van de Laar

Data is available on mouth-taping and sleep, though this is mainly focused on a small sample of obstructive sleep apnoea patients.

'There's nothing Urduish about Urdu. Urdu is about the world the writer is living in': Rakhshanda Jalil

An anthology of Urdu short stories attempts to bust stereotypes around who writes in Urdu, and for whom. Editor Rakhshanda Jalil explains why she chose to keep the subtitle - Stories by Non-Muslim Urdu Writers - even though it made her 'cringe'.

Book Extract: 'This is for Everyone' by Tim Berners-Lee

The groundbreaking memoir from the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, is the story of our modern age.

Book review: Source Code by Bill Gates is also the story of a computer revolution

Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Rick, and many others developed software that made computers intelligible to the common man. Bill Gates' Source Code is the story of that revolution, and that moment in tech history.

Book Extract | The Shortest History of Migration by Ian Goldin

The legal limbo in which asylum seekers find themselves typically hinders them from working or establishing themselves in their host communities.

Book Extract | Every Living Thing by Jason Roberts

In sum, life appears to exult in blurring the boundaries we place upon it. Buffon’s observation from two and a half centuries ago seems more relevant than ever.

Book review: Arundhati Roy's candid memoir, about her relationship with mother Mary Roy, is unputdownable

Arundhati Roy shot to international fame after becoming the first Indian citizen to win the Booker Prize for her novel, 'The God of Small Things'. Her memoir, 'Mother Mary Comes to Me', is a moving account of her relationship with her influential mother.

Book Extract | [In]Complete Justice? The Supreme Court at 75‎ by S Muralidhar (Editor)

Gopal Subramanium was designated Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court at the young age of 35, and served as the Additional Solicitor General of India from 2005 to 2009, and as Solicitor General of India from 2009 to 2011.

Book Extract | How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence by Matt Richtel

The transition from childhood to adulthood is a natural, evolution-honed cycle that now faces radical change and challenge.

Book Review | A framework to make sense of our bewildering era

There’s an unprecedented shift in geopolitics, technology and balance of power in the backdrop of a looming climate shock. All of them are happening at the same time. It’s a book that takes the reader through the forces of transition and provides the means to connect dots.

Book Extract | What's Up With Women and Money?

The best time to negotiate your salary is during the offer stage. Many companies—especially large, highly structured corporations— limit the percentage an employee’s compensation can be raised by during a calendar year.

Book Extract |The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump: What the Trade War Means for the World by Philip Coggan

At times, Mr Trump seems to treat tariffs as a ‘miracle cure’ that can solve every ailment.

Book Extract | India in Triangles: The Incredible Story of How India was Mapped and the Himalayas Measured by Shruthi Rao and Meera Iyer

Triangulation is also important in geodesy, the science of measuring the Earth’s shape….

Book Extract | Song of India: A Study of the National Anthem by Rudrangshu Mukherjee

Many of the ideas presented above from Tagore’s writings around 1910 and 1912, exactly the period when he composed ‘Jana Gana Mana’, are reflected in the song.

Bestselling author Samantha Shannon: 'Twitter drove me to a dark place over the decade I was there'

Oxford University graduate Samantha Shannon on the latest book in her bestselling fantasy series 'The Bone Season', using social media, and the 'author preferred' version of her dystopian and fantasy novels.

Book Extract | The Piano Player of Budapest by Roxanne de Bastion

This is a story about a piano and its most prodigious player — how it, along with him, survived

Book Extract | How to Live - A Handbook of Stoic Philosophy: Discourses and The Enchiridion by Epictetus

Epictetus, a renowned ancient Greek philosopher, emerged as a prominent figure in Stoic philosophy during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

The Art of War and Peace: The Changing Face of 21st Century Warfare by Dr David Kilcullen and Dr Greg Mills

This is thus a book about human dynamics and tactical action as much as the need for strategy.

Book Extract | Ocean: Earth's Last Wilderness by Sir David Attenborough and Colin Butfield

Since the late 1980s multibeam sonar has been providing highly detailed images of a large area of the sea floor.

‘Hindustani music is not Brahmanical like Carnatic, which became so after 18th century’: Navayana publisher S Anand

Anti-caste publisher S Anand on co-founding Navayana, re-printing the memoir of Adivasi leader-Olympic hockey player-Constituent Assembly member Jaipal Singh Munda, rejecting Carnatic music for Kabir songs & seeing Kabir through the prism of BR Ambedkar in his latest book 'The Notbook of Kabir'.

Book Extract | The Kargil War Surgeon's Testimony by Arup Ratan Basu

There were booming sounds and then a clattering like a hailstorm on the roofs of the mess and the hospital ward.

Book Extract | Believer's Dilemma: Vajpayee and the Hindu Right's Path to Power by Abhishek Choudhary

Mapping the evolution of the Sangh Parivar, this book reveals a deeper pattern in Vajpayee’s character: his reflexive loyalty to his ideological family in moments of crisis

Rujuta Diwekar: 'Home-cooking is the OG form of self-love and self-care'

Nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar on her first book of recipes, the concept of Mitahara, mainstreaming forgotten foods, what to eat during monsoons, and her recipe for making goda masala at home.

Book Extract | We Will Not Be Saved by Nemonte Nenquimo & Mitch Anderson

The first memoir by an indigenous tribal leader in the Amazon, who fought Big Oil to preserve her tribe's territories, and thousands of acres of pristine rainforest.

Book Extract | The Color of North: The Molecular Language of Proteins and the Future of Life

Proteins also play a critical role in infectious diseases. Pathogens like bacteria and viruses often produce proteins to help them evade the immune system or to hijack host cells for their own reproduction