Ruskin
Bond, Varanasi's allure and much more
Stories
picked up from Ruskin Bond's body of work to a journey into the intoxicating
city of Varanasi - the IANS bookshelf this week has a melange of options for
bookworms. Take a look.
1. Book: A Gathering of Friends: My favourite Stories; Author: Ruskin Bond;
Publisher: Aleph; Pages: 244; Price:Rs.395
The 21 stories in the book are the greatest pieces of fiction written by the
Padma Bhushan recipient. Chosen by the author himself, from a body of work
built up over 50 years - starting with his award-winning first novel "The
Room on the Roof", this collection includes well-known masterpieces like "The
Night Train at Deoli", "The Woman on Platform 8", "The Blue
Umbrella", "The Eyes Have It", "Most Beautiful" and
"Panther's Moon", as well as newer stories like "An Evening at
the Savoy with H.H"
and "Dinner with Fosters".
2. Book: Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi; Author: Piers Moore Ede;
Publisher: Bloomsbury; Pages: 210; Price: Rs.399.
The author first fell in love with Varanasi when he passed through it on his
way to Nepal in search of wild honey hunters. In the decade that followed, it
continued to exert its pull on him, and so he returned to live there, to press
his ear to its heartbeat - and to discover what it is that makes India's
spiritual capital of India so unique.
In this intoxicating "city of widows" where funeral pyres smoulder
beside the river in which thousands of pilgrims bathe, and holiness and
corruption walk side by side, the author encounters sweet-makers and sadhus,
mischievous boatmen and weary bureaucrats, silk weavers and musicians - and
discovers a remarkable interplay between death and life, light and dark.
3. Book: The Addict: A Life Recovered; Author: Diya Sethi; Publisher: Harper
Collins; Pages: 189; Price: Rs.250
Narrating the story of a girl who escaped humiliation and rejection, the book
chronicles her "war with herself, a war she kept losing until she
"learnt to surrender".
In her journey of survival and self-discovery, the girl became a different
person - someone who found solace in addiction known as anorexia-bulimia.
Honest and heart-warming, this tale of perseverance leaves the reader feeling
inspired and moved.
Field Notes From A Catastrophe; Author: Elizabeth Kolbert; Publisher: Bloomsbury; Pages: 306; Price: Rs.299
4. Book:
The world has known about global warming since the late 1870s, yet little has
been done to halt it. The threat, if we fail, will be nothing less than
catastrophic - the flooding of coastal communities, the extinction of species
and entry into a climate regime of which humans have no experience. Exploring
the relationship between what we know and what we refuse to know, the author
takes us on an urgent journey from the Arctic to Central America in this new
edition.
The author has interviewed researchers and environmentalists for the book and
has asked vital questions about global warming and what we should do about it.
