Nonfiction

Madam Vice President

This biography was published in 2019, so this book is the story of Harris’ childhood and career till then:  as district attorney for San Francisco, then as California’s attorney general, before becoming California’s US Senator. One reads keeping in mind...

Classes under a canopy of trees

This review was first published in Parabaas, and is reproduced here with permission. Shivani’s Amader Shantiniketan is one of those books where the foreword is almost as interesting as the book itself. This is not surprising, since the foreword is...

“A weird boy wonderland”

Too often, inventors are painted as heroic, with their faults glossed over in our accepted narrative. Most are damaged in a significant way, usually from early in their lives. […] By the time they grew to be adults, many were...

Redemption Song

Say the word ‘Rastafarian’, and many people will think of Bob Marley and reggae. Beyond the catchy, unmistakeable rhythm of the songs, few people in America, including myself, know much about the Rastafari religion. Safiya Sinclair’s arresting new memoir, How...

A sedative, a stimulant and a hallucinogen

Pollan’s book seems intended to get us thinking a little differently about plants and drugs and the effects of certain chemical compounds on us and in our lives. He divides the book up into 3 sections: the first deals with...

Taxi Driver

The title of The Shanghai Free Taxi refers to a rather charming and novel way to meet people, but the author intends it to be quite a bit more: a snapshot of modern China. Frank Langfitt had driven a taxi...

A picture is worth….

‘The Talk’ usually means a discussion about sex and reproduction that parents are supposed to have with their children at some point. For black kids, though, ‘The Talk’ has a much heavier meaning: the discussion of racism and implicit bias,...

Grow Up, Grow in Love, Grow Apart

‘Arranged marriage’ is likely one of the most examined social aspects of India. What of the men and women who make their own marital choices and go against the weight of societal expectation? Three such real-life couples are the focus...