Page 76 - Book News

Understanding Netanyahu

If there is a master key to cracking the Bibi code, this insightful and readable book argues, it is his identity as someone who has always stood outside the mainstream

'Reimagining Pakistan' book review: Outpourings of a jaded campaigner

Husain Haqqani's latest book says nothing that other scholars have not said before, nor does he offer a new course for his troubled country

Bridging the optimism gap

The book is well worth reading nonetheless (Bill Gates and Warren Buffett both say they loved it) and the broad theses seems like an excellent antidote to the global pandemic of pessimism

Great thinkers and the 2008 crisis

The burden of the book is to examine how these economists would view the world of today - how they would have reacted to the policies adopted by governments and central banks to deal with the crisis

The hazards of idealism

The Moralist is a fluid account that feels shorter than its 600-plus pages. Despite its length, there isn't a passage that drags or feels superfluous

Travails With The Alien: When Satyajit Ray considered suing Spielberg

A book accounting Satyajit Ray's failed attempts to make a sci-fi film in Hollywood is a poignant reminder of his gullibility when it came to the business practices of the American film world

An argumentative Indian

This compendium of essays, brought out on the occasion of his 80th birthday, has been penned by authors, philosophers, economists, all of whom have enjoyed 'civic friendships' with Mr Nandy

Bowled over by cricket

It is perhaps this proximity to the players and the establishment that makes Mr Majumdar's narrative less than questioning and more than adulatory

The art of governing in India

It could as well serve a handbook of administrative leadership strategies as much as a primer on problem-solving and decision-making

The walls that Hillary built

Chasing Hillary is the best explanation so far of why that is. Ms Chozick describes Ms Clinton's press shop

In Italy, there was the pope and then there was Enzo Ferrari: Dal Monte

The company's success owes everything to its founder, who was born in 1898, and had little formal education

The Skull of Alum Bheg: Wagner unfolds chapter of 1857 uprising in Sialkot

The skull of Alum Bheg should perhaps stay in England to remind 'civilised' Englishmen how their forefathers dealt with recalcitrant colonial subjects

'Pakistan under Siege' book review: Paranoia as state policy

Based on the state promotion of "Pakistan Studies" as a compulsory subject, successive generations of students have acquired the most distorted views of their faith

Reinventing the HR wheel

The G3 is the first of seven steps this "playbook" outlines

'The RTI Story' book review: Truth may never prevail

After her monumental efforts, Ms Roy leaves the reader befuddled by ending her book with a two-worded question

'On Grand Strategy' book review: How to wage war

Ten lively essays proceed in chronological order from King Xerxes' invasion of Greece to Isaiah Berlin's thoughts on World War II and the Cold War

Lunch with BS: Historian Sunil Amrith talks about monsoon and migration

The MacArthur "Genius" grant awardee talks to Anjali Puri about Unruly Waters, the book he has just finished writing, and why history matters even more in an era of majoritarian politics

Paint of taint: How the IPL spot-fixing scandal hurt the gentleman's game

Here's an excerpt from Boria Majumdar's new book 'Eleven Gods and A Billion Indians'

Why PPP projects fail

The private sector can only take up the risks of project construction whereas the ability to manage the regulatory risk is that of the public sector

Infirmities of the welfare state

The author has x-rayed every beneficiary-target-oriented welfare programme launched by the Indian state for the past 70 years