Books To Add To Your Reading Shelf This Summer

Books, Non-fiction 23 comments

Alright, May is over and here I’m with the mini reviews of the books I read. I choose to read non-fiction this summer and Tharoor’s latest book was the one on my list initially. Later ,I came across a few interesting reads(both fiction and non fiction) that summed up my reads for May to 3. So here we go with the mini reviews of the 3 books I read this May.

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The Bhutto Murder Trail by Mir Amir

This book is a testimony of an assassination that shook the world a decade ago. I picked this book from the kindle store with the hope of knowing in detail about the murder trail. The book gives a detailed picture of the tragedy. The author has shared a few of his experiences and interviews with Ms Bhutto, emails from her, excerpts from the reports of UN inquiry commission, Bhutto’s death report published by the government and anecdotes from a few other books and journals. At one point it becomes too much of information shared and the same information is repeated in several places. Unstructured flow makes it hard to read. However,an interesting read that speaks very bold against the military rule in Pakistan, the Islamic establishments and other sources who disliked Bhutto and her ideologies. The book ends with a translated version of her last speach, a few old photographs and her handwritten letters. To sum up,this read leaves the million dollar question unanswered.

Srirangathu Devadhaigal by Sujatha –

 I received this book from a fellow reader friend. Sujatha needs no introduction to anyone who reads Tamil. This book is a collection of 14 short stories reminiscing his adolescent years and takes us through the streets and life of Srirangam. His impeccable narration , the characters, the colloquial ‘Iyyengar’ slang all addsabeauty and teleports you to the 60s and 70s .There were chapters that evoked a deep sense of emotion and chapters that made me laugh out loud. My favorite chapters – cricket match, snake, ra-vi-ra and almost a genius.As I finished the book, I only wondered how a tight-lipped Sujata turned out to be a genius story teller and a super smart script writer for Shankar’s and Mani Ratnam’s movies. I cannot do justice to his work with a mini review. Just go grab this and read if you haven’t.

Why I am a Hindu  by Shashi Tharoor

“Whosoever comes to me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me.”

I developed a sort of liking for Tharoor’s books off-late and this book was an instant buy when I found it on Amazon on 50% sale. Why I am Hindu takes you through the multiple dimensions of Hinduism and its ideologies during the first half of the read. It is informative and loaded with facts which many would have heard through their life and read in school and history text books. Most of the content appears to be a copy paste in several places. Repetetiveness. The second half serves the whole(only) purpose of criticizing the BJP government at the center and condemning the Hindutva ideologies.Unfortunately Tharoor deviates from the core essence of picturing “Why I am Hindu” and makes it more of a  political rant with liberal sprinkle of his rodomontade-ism.

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“We tend to reduce everyone else to the limits of our own mental universe and begin privileging our own ethics, morality, sense of duty and even our sense of utility. All religious conflicts arose from this propensity to judge others. If we indeed must judge at all, then it must be “according to his own ideal, and not by that of anyone else”.”

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So, that’s it for May. As we jump in to June, I turn a year older and I hope to read wiser. I have sorted out the three reads for the new month. Any guess on the genre? Watch out the Instagram page and FaceBook for the June updates.

23 comments

  3. 3 books in a month? I’m jealous 🙂 I am also big fan of Srirangathu Devadhaigal , infact to all the works of Sujatha.

    Reply

    1. It will only be a surprise if anyone who had read Sujata not like his work 🙂

      Reply
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