Penguin

21 Mar

Of love and appreciation: A contemplative memoir of family affairs

Book: Fathers; Author: Sam Miller; Publisher: Penguin Random House UK; Price: Rs 699; Pages: 250 This recent memoir by former BBC journalist and author Sam Miller comes across as a pleasant offering to the rather overburdened nonfiction bookshelf of our times. Not only does the memoir achieve what it sets out to do -- remember the times of the subject of the book -- but also reminds us of the immense potential that memoirs and biographies have. Time and again, writers of nonfiction have turned to fiction, pointing out that the creative freedom that one seeks in establishing a clear…

22 Jun

Reporting from Pakistan: Adventures in a mirror-image land?

Title: Reporting Pakistan; Author: Meena Menon; Publisher: Viking/Penguin Random House; Pages: 340; Price: Rs 599 The hardest border to cross is the one constructed or fostered in our minds. Though many Indians are quite fond of citing "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", or the world being one family, the sentiment may not only stop at their western frontier but also doesn't prevent "borders" being drawn deep within the country. Why wouldn't suspicions and misconceptions flourish? Just a few years after she became a journalist in 1984 and decades before her short stint of reporting from Pakistan, Meena Menon recounts she came across a "border"…