Tag: Books

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Political power, religion, and perpetual dissent

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Mohammed Hanif, Booker-longlisted author’s lively and rich novel about the power of language, friendship, and protest in the face of political turmoil. Rebel English Academy is set during the rapid descent of semi-socialist Pakistan into neither its first nor last period of military dictatorship. In 1979, the army’s hanging of leftist prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto precipitates mysterious changes in the Punjab province.  Sir Baghi, a closeted gay communist English teacher who stopped volunteering his critiques of the government after being subjected to brutal torture, when a widow and former track runner Sabiha Bano, on the run arrives at his door … Continue reading Political power, religion, and perpetual dissent

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A tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.

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“Every Successful marriage has its own private language.” So it is for baby boomer Kate and her beloved architect husband Jack, thirty years into their seemingly idyllic metropolitan North London life. It is for spiky millennial screenwriter Phoebe and her charming loafer of a partner, Tony. John Lanchester, a former restaurant reviewer, brochettes the pretensions affluent, middle-aged metropolitans when architect Jack says at a Notting Hill dinner party that Yotam Ottolenghi had destroyed British cooking and “done more damage to this country than the Luftwaffe”. Jack’s wife Kate, who is one of the novel’s two narrators, finds him dead from … Continue reading A tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.

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Family tensions amid America’s immigration policies

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Lionel Shriver’s A Better Life, is a provocative novel addressing contemporary immigration, where a New York family takes in a Honduran migrant- who may or may not be the innocent paragon she claims to be. Shriver rages about the influx of illegal immigrants to America, but when asked if he writes op-eds about this, he replies “Oh no, no, no, no,.. I most certainly do not,”. Gloria Bonaventura, living in a sprawling house in Brooklyn with her 26-year-old son Nico, an Italian American engineering major  who spent  four years since graduation telling on the dime of his divorced mother of three, decides … Continue reading Family tensions amid America’s immigration policies

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Guilt and regret

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Fila, a protagonist of Michelle Steinbeck’s Favorita, receives an anonymous phone call from Italy telling her that her mother Magdalena is dead, her instinctive feeling is one of relief. Fila hasn’t seen her in years, not since she disgraced their family by advertising her brothel in the newspaper. Fila is already unmoored by the recent death of her grandmother Lavinia, who raised her. In Lavinia’s kitchen in Switzerland Fila now sits, listening to the voice on the “mortadella-coloured rotary telephone” that says “they say it’s because of her liver, but I can assure you that it was not her liver… … Continue reading Guilt and regret

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Insider’s guide to boom-and-bust

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Lloyd Blankfein, head of an institution legendary for its culture of success writes a candid memoir of global leadership in an age of extreme turbulence. Blankfein is quiet scary smart about people, markets, and life generally, as his 10, 000 Small Businesses idea proved to be a huge winner. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Lloyd acted decisively and he tells the story of what happened with unique insights. When Blankfein was attacked as a Wall Street fat cat, he had to smile, thinking of his precarious childhood in the notorious public housing projects of East New York, Brooklyn, and attending … Continue reading Insider’s guide to boom-and-bust

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Focus on Parenting

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Narrator Sandra embarks on an odyssey through the afterlife to her autistic son, who is literally and figuratively lost at sea: a hilarious and deeply moving voyage of the body and the mind. “It was a strange experience, speaking to someone who didn’t tune in to you. It was like talking hallucinogens” Sandra said. Following a documentary producer who dies and desperately tries to rescue her child while her spirit still roams the earth, Amie Barrodale’s debut novel Trip as much about neurodivergence and the impossibility of human empathy as it is about the bizarreness of the afterlife. Trip is … Continue reading Focus on Parenting

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Thinking sideways can propel you to success and happiness

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Chess is the art of the possible, as there are more possible chess moves than atoms in the universe. Essential life lessons from the world of chess so that making smarter choices to building focus and confidence from Jennifer Shahade, a former two-time chess U.S. Champion and professional poker player. Chess players are experts in considering their options, allowing them to seize an opportunity idea, or move that no one else saw. In today’s hyper competitive world, thinking sideways can help you win at life. Shahade reveals you don’t have to be a great chess player to think more like … Continue reading Thinking sideways can propel you to success and happiness

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Redemptive power of friendship

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Set in 2011, Crux is a story of intense friendship between two Californian teenagers, bookish Dan and his near-feral best friend Tamma, a lesbian from the wrong side of the tracks and grit, two-down-and-out teens escape the hopelessness of their lives and chase a different future through rock-climbing- from Gabriel Tallent, the New York Times bestselling author of My Absolute Darling. Dan and Tamma are two teenagers in their last year of high school in the southern Mojave Desert, are passionate climbers, one is a gifted golden child, the other a mouthy burnout, who spend their evenings and weekends conquering … Continue reading Redemptive power of friendship

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Murder of a politician

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A third-two-year-old sex worker is shocked when she’s approached by undercover government agents to aid them in a top-secret plot to assassinate a politician known as Meat Neck. But once the deed is done, she realizes what-made her the perfect recruit: She’s 100 per cent disposable. Holed up in an off-the-grid cabin in the woods, she now has only two days, her wits, and a laptop to save her own life. Her best bet is to reach out to the wildly popular feminist investigative podcast Justice for Bimbos, in a hastily typed series of emails, the newly minted “Murder Bimbo” … Continue reading Murder of a politician

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Money, power and family feud: Where getting everything you want costs everything you love

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Rupert Murdoch’s business gave him control over his children, as they wanted his approval and so they fell into his trap. When Murdoch made a fateful decision about who should inherit his media colossus, he believed that pitting his children against each other would produce the most capable heir. Twenty-five years later, that gamble would tear apart one of the world’s most powerful families and trigger a multi-billion dollar reckoning in a succession battle featuring betrayals, lawsuits, and revenge plots. Estrangements between famous fathers and their children are often grabbing news headlines: King Charles and Prince Harry, David andf Brooklyn … Continue reading Money, power and family feud: Where getting everything you want costs everything you love