Page 2 - Book Review

Bombay, blockbuster style

This is also a cinema book. Dixit might be a journalist, but he has a flair for drama

Reorienting an empire

The Ottomans leaves the reader with much to ponder on how societies viewed each other in an era of emerging uber-nationalism where religion was the key marker of belonging

The worth of land value tax

The book dives deep into an innovative land valuation model used in the city of Baybay, Philippines to fit the purpose

The last days of Mughal Delhi

The best sections in the book are those that deal with the revolt of 1857 in Delhi

Betrayal and survival

In The Collaborators, some readers may find Buruma's permissiveness toward his subjects' conduct and moral barometers disturbing

Pashtunwali and Islam

Tilak Devasher's deep study of this ethnic group explains how it negotiates its identity and religiosity in a deeply contested geography

The man behind the PPPs

'The Difficulty of Being Gajendra Haldea' tells the tale of a civil servant who was determined to change the level of infrastructure in India by providing a framework for private participation

What's in an Indian woman's surname?

Yashika Singla's book reminds us of the distance women are yet to cover even in seemingly small, everyday things

Vivekananda as universalist

Historian Ruth Harris' book presents Vivekananda as a multidimensional person and succeeds in its attempt to restore an "understanding of the monk's complexity"

The electrome syndrome

Sally Adee has written an absorbing and fast-paced account of a field of research that could thus herald a whole new era of paradigm-shifting medicine

A classical understanding of Chinese exceptionalism

Plato Goes to China is a treatise for anyone keen to understand the process of discourse-building in Chinese domestic politics

Personal finance 101 from an industry veteran

The Bee, the Beetle and the Money Bug is a welcome addition to the rather sparse list of books that attempt to equip readers with the fundamentals of financial planning

A bird's eye view of India's long history

From the making of the Indian landscape to the reign of Narendra Modi, A New History is a single volume historical account where sound scholarship is interwoven with state-of-the-art photographs

The Dalai Lama's pursuit of united Tibet

Lodi Gyari's memoirs contain valuable insights into Chinese thinking and negotiating tactics, of which careful note should be taken

Unlikely rebels with a cause

But it was the early 1960s; women at high levels of science were as rare as snow leopards

Rushdie's City of Words

His version of the history of the Vijayanagara Empire puts at rest doubts about his creative talents that may have crept up after his last few works of fiction

Colditz beyond the myth

Ben Macintyre's book takes in the stories of those excluded from the manly myth of Colditz, the storied Nazi POW camp at the heart of many daring escape plots

The Churchill question

From the 1920s onwards, Churchill was firm - even quixotic - in opposing any proposal resembling genuine self-rule for India

Ahmad Shah Massoud, guerilla extraordinaire

Mr Gall paints a vivid picture of Massoud as a guerilla leader - someone who is precise and methodical in his approach and whose decision making is clinical and rarely driven by impulse or sentiment

YouTube: From chaos to command

YouTube is now a mature product and a money machine but is no longer considered the hotbed of innovation