Synopsis: Memoirs of the experiences of Beijing literature scholar and her husband during the Cultural Revolution.
My Take: While I have a strong aversion to “suffering Chinese women literature” (eg “Wild Swans”, “Good Women of China”, “Mao’s Concubine” etc etc – I get it ok, women suffered in China, but so did lots of other [...]
Entries Tagged as 'History'
"Lost in The Crowd: A Cultural Revolution Memoir", Yang Jiang
June 21st, 2009 · No Comments · Chinese, History, Non-Fiction
Tags:Yang Jiang
"The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words", Simon Winchester
June 20th, 2009 · No Comments · English, History, Non-Fiction
Synopsis: The story of the 70 year process of compiling for first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and the relationship between the primary editor, Dr James Murray and the most proflific contributor, the institutionalised and certifiably insane, Dr W.C. Minor.
My Take: A great read. An interesting story, engagingly told.
I was struck while reading this [...]
Tags:Simon Winchester
"Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found", Suketu Mehta
June 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Asian, History, Non-Fiction, Travel
Synopsis: Expat Mumbaiker returns to the city of his childhood, enmeshes himself into the human fabric of the mega-city and over seven years produces a 600 page living biography of one of the world’s biggest, badest and most bustling cities. Prepare to have your eyes opened.
My Take: It might be living life once removed, but [...]
Tags:Suketu Mehta
"Charlie Wilson’s War", George Crile
June 13th, 2009 · No Comments · American, History, Non-Fiction, Politics
Synopsis: Alcoholic philanderer, good time guy and congressmen funds personal war against the Communists in Afghanistan breaking multiple principles of governance and ethics and (allegedly) winning the Cold War.
My Take: Last year I saw the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War”. To be honest, while it was a great story, I didn’t exactly love the film (other [...]
Tags:George Crile
"One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich", Alexander Solzhenitzyn
June 10th, 2009 · No Comments · Fiction, History, Literature, Politics
Synopsis: The story of a day in the life of soviet gulag prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov.
My Take: I enjoyed this book tremendously. I’ve had a bit of a hit and miss history with Russian writers, some I’ve loved while others I’ve found interminable and depressing. What made this book so rewarding for me was that [...]
"The Pianist", Wladyslaw Szpilman
June 7th, 2009 · No Comments · History, Non-Fiction
Synopsis: The true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jewish pianist who survives the German invasion of Poland, the Warsaw ghetto and the ultimate destruction of the city.
My Take: It’s sad to say but at a certain point, first hand accounts of holocaust survival start to have a numbing affect. It’s hard to know whether it’s [...]
Tags:Wladyslaw Szpilman
"The Fall of Yugoslavia", Misha Glenny
June 5th, 2009 · No Comments · History, Non-Fiction, Politics
Synopsis: A German, Czech, Serbo-Croat and Greek speaking BBC war correspondent’s first hand account of the collapse of Yugoslavia and its descent into civil war.
My Take: A friend had recommended this book to me as a comprehensive account of recent history of the Balkans so on a sunny afternoon in Bosnia last year, I sat [...]
Tags:Misha Glenny
"On the Wealth of Nations", P.J. O'Rourke
May 29th, 2009 · No Comments · American, Economics, History, Non-Fiction, Policy
Synopsis: Libertarian polemicist digests Adam Smith’s ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments’ and ‘The Wealth of Nations’ and then regurgitates them along with satirical commentary.
My Take: I love the concept of this book – the first in a series on “Books That Changed the World” read and paraphrased by prominent authors “so you don’t have to.” Just the [...]
Tags:P.J. O'Rourke
"Everything is Illuminated", Jonathan Safran Foer
May 27th, 2009 · No Comments · American, Fiction, History
Synopsis: Eponymous Jewish American author/protagonist travels to the Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his grandfather’s life during the Holocaust. The Journey is aided by a ‘premium’ local translator/narrator Alex, his blind grandfather and their ’seeing eye bitch’, Sammy Davis Jnr, Jnr.
My Take: Truly a bizarre book.
Half mythical/surrealist history of the real life [...]
Tags:Jonathan Safran Foer