Page 54 - Book Review

And Aadhaar lived happily ever after…

The book is filled with irrelevant gossip about Mr Nilekani's Delhi stint and fails to further critical understanding on Aadhaar

The desi mindset

The most interesting parts of the book constitute sections in which Mr Sardar articulates his love for his homeland, evenings spent gorging gol guppas and paan

Waging war from the Oval Office

Presidents of War is a marvellous narrative that opens with James Madison, the father of the Constitution and a reluctant warrior during the War of 1812

The corruption poser

Dr Basu presents the issues through the prism of economic theories - using game theory in abundance, but at a philosophical level these have tremendous resonance in Indian society

The real risks of the Trump presidency

Mr Lewis himself seems to swing from civic optimism to abject nihilism, sometimes within the same perfect sentence

Girls, uninterrupted

The idea for Ms Adusumilli's book developed after she befriended some local girls at a friend's wedding

Much ado about democracy

The book takes readers on a roller-coaster ride about the past episodes of democratic failures interspersed with a whole variety of philosophical arguments

'Jihadis, faujis and Chinese' in PoK

This is a pioneering work on Azad Kashmir, which Indians prefer to call Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), by a Pakistani journalist who made eight visits for her fieldwork over 2016 and 2017

The rule of law through 'thick' and 'thin'

The book does not offer real-life examples, bar the odd reference to individual cases, which makes it somewhat academic to the lay reader

The ascent of Big History

Unlike conventional history, which deals with relatively small chunks of humanity divided by nation and sub nation, Big History deals with the entire species

Telling it like it is

As a history of Silicon Valley, this account largely omits a discussion of either Microsoft - which explains the 10-year gap from 1984 to 1994 - and Amazon

What are the biggest problems facing us in the 21st century?

While Harari's previous best sellers, Sapiens and Homo Deus, covered the past and future respectively, his new book is all about the present

Review of Ruby Lal's 'Empress': A remarkable story of Nur Jahan's reign

Ruby Lal has created a remarkable portrait of an empress by locating her in the historical situation in which she found herself, writes Rudrangshu Mukherjee

Lahore: Syncretic past, troubled present

In recounting the more contemporary history of Lahore since Partition, Haroon Khalid also offers a sober commentary on the tortured politics of Pakistan

Follies of the wise men

A chapter on assorted kings and other leaders features a bizarre cast of characters

Central Asia's cultural crossroads

Radhu describes how the Tibetan ruling elite in Lhasa was completely out of touch with the significant political changes taking place in both China and India

Priyanka Chopra: Work in progress

Her story does not end with the book

Scams deconstructed

This book describes interesting cases of fraud, some of which you will marvel for their ingenuity. One is the long-firm fraud, writes Sanjay Kumar Singh

What role do teachers play in education?

More than 85 per cent of the nation's children attend public schools, yet decades of privatising have damaged public education

Indians, Indians everywhere

Chinmay Tumbe's book 'India Moving - A History of Migration', the Foreword to which is written by Arvind Subramanian, former Chief Economic Advisor, is a breeze to read