Aerogrammes and Other Stories

Aerogrammes and Other Stories
Author: Tania James
Publisher: Random House India
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2012-09-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 818400334X

From the highly acclaimed author of Atlas of Unknowns (“Dazzling . . . One of the most exciting debut novels since Zadie Smith’s White Teeth”—San Francisco Chronicle; “An astonishment of a debut”—Junot Díaz), a bravura collection of short stories set in locales as varied as London, Sierra Leone, and the American Midwest that captures the yearning and dislocation of young men and women around the world. In “Lion and Panther in London,” a turn-of-the-century Indian wrestler arrives in London desperate to prove himself champion of the world, only to find the city mysteriously absent of challengers. In “Light & Luminous,” a gifted dance instructor falls victim to her own vanity when a student competition allows her a final encore. In “The Scriptological Review: A Last Letter from the Editor,” a young man obsessively studies his father’s handwriting in the hope of making sense of his death. And in the marvelous “What to Do with Henry,” a white woman from Ohio takes in the illegitimate child her husband left behind in Sierra Leone, as well as an orphaned chimpanzee who comes to anchor this strange new family. With exuberance and compassion, Tania James once again draws us into the lives of damaged, driven, and beautifully complicated characters who quietly strive for human connection.

Loot

Loot
Author: Tania James
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2024-06-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593469658

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero’s quest, a love story, the story of a young artist coming of age, and an exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years. A Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Kirkus Reviews “Addictively absorbing.” —The New York Times Book Review This wildly inventive, irresistible feat of storytelling from a writer at the height of her powers is "an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel about war, displacement, emigration, and an elusive mechanical tiger" (Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait). Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe. Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu’s palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.

Shaping the World

Shaping the World
Author: Manju Kapur
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9384544213

Shaping the World: Women Writers on Themselves addresses these very questions. The array of formidable writers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – acclaimed both nationally and internationally – share their insecurities and triumphs that occurred on their journeys to becoming writers. Was it easy? The answer is No. Many of them were closet writers, not sharing their writings with the world. Writing was no career, they were told. But they persevered. And they wrote. Because they had to. Because it was their calling. The writers reveal their inspirations: be it another writer, a personal tragedy, or triumph, a fascination with the English language, or a passion for putting pen to paper and finding wings. Shaping the World: Women Writers on Themselves is an anthology of intimate, honest and brave accounts that will provide the reader with an insight into the realm of writing: its adventurous terrain of highs and lows and how it continues to shape these 24 women and the world we all inhabit. The contributors are: Ameena Hussein (www.ameenahussein.com), Amruta Patil (www.amrutapatil.blogspot.in), Anita Nair (www.anitanair.net), Anjum Hasan (www.anjumhasan.com), Anuradha Marwah, Bapsi Sidhwa (www.bapsisidhwa.com), Bina Shah (www.binashah.net), Jaishree Misra (www.jaishreemisra.com), Janice Pariat (www.janicepariat.com), Kavery Nambisan (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kavery-Nambisan/671608229544955), Lavanya Sankaran (www.lavanyasankaran.com), Maniza Naqvi, Manju Kapur (www.manjukapur.com), Meira Chand (www.meirachand.com), Mishi Saran (www.mishisaran.com), Moni Mohsin (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moni_Mohsin), Namita Devidayal, Ru Freeman (www.rufreeman.com), Shashi Deshpande (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashi_Deshpande), Shinie Antony, Susan Visvanathan (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Visvanathan), Tania James (www.taniajames.com), Tishani Doshi (www.tishanidoshi.com)

Nation at Play

Nation at Play
Author: Ronojoy Sen
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 397
Release: 2015-10-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231539932

Reaching as far back as ancient times, Ronojoy Sen pairs a novel history of India's engagement with sport and a probing analysis of its cultural and political development under monarchy and colonialism, and as an independent nation. Some sports that originated in India have fallen out of favor, while others, such as cricket, have been adopted and made wholly India's own. Sen's innovative project casts sport less as a natural expression of human competition than as an instructive practice reflecting a unique play with power, morality, aesthetics, identity, and money. Sen follows the transformation of sport from an elite, kingly pastime to a national obsession tied to colonialism, nationalism, and free market liberalization. He pays special attention to two modern phenomena: the dominance of cricket in the Indian consciousness and the chronic failure of a billion-strong nation to compete successfully in international sporting competitions, such as the Olympics. Innovatively incorporating examples from popular media and other unconventional sources, Sen not only captures the political nature of sport in India but also reveals the patterns of patronage, clientage, and institutionalization that have bound this diverse nation together for centuries.

Parakeet Races and Other Stories

Parakeet Races and Other Stories
Author: Cindy Hall Ranii
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2012-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1468547321

Parakeet Races and Other Stories is a memoir that recounts the challenges and escapades of a family of six children in the 1950's which faces the premature death of its mother. Always authentic, each self-contained story can be read in just a few richly rewarding minutes that may leave the reader laughing out loud, crying, or both. Together the stories recount the collective memories of a remarkable set of siblings, three boys and three girls, the father who gives it his very best, and the mother whom the children can barely remember. The stories explore the "mystery" of the mother's death and reflect how the death of a parent in that era was often a topic not to be discussed or processed. The author, Cindy Hall Ranii, is the oldest daughter in the Hall Family, and beyond sharing the memories of her childhood and that of her siblings, she also shares her experiences as a world traveler, first as a teenager in Finland, then as a college student in India and finally as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran. With her keen powers of observation and respectfulness of different cultures she gives the reader the opportunity to eavesdrop on other peoples and other places. In the final segment of Parakeet Races Dr. Ranii takes the reader into the world of disability. Stricken with Transverse Myelitis, a rare neuro-immunologic disorder, she went from playing golf one day to being paralyzed from the chest down four days later. Her accounts of this chapter of her life are told with the same delicious, rhythmic writing style as the other two segments of the book. The author skillfully weaves her stories from decade to decade, taking the reader on a journey that captivates, entertains and challenges.

Aerogrammes

Aerogrammes
Author: Tania James
Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Incorporated
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2012
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307268914

The author of Atlas of Unknowns presents a collection of stories that explores the yearning and dislocation of characters from various world regions, including a gifted Indian dance instructor who falls victim to her insecurities and a widower who travels Kentucky highways to bury roadkills. 20,000 first printing.

Once Upon a Time In. . . L.A, Hollywood and Other Stories

Once Upon a Time In. . . L.A, Hollywood and Other Stories
Author: Denny Dormody
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 102
Release: 2022-02-22
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1665549971

Denny's Call Sheets: Seabiscuit. The Grifters. Entourage. Indiana Jones: Crystal Skull. Hail Caesar. Atlas Shrugged. Simone. War of the Worlds. Bosch. Mad Men. Grey's Anatomy. 24. Vice. A Bride's Revenge. Aftermath. Gaslit and many more. Actors, Writers. Directors. As Mank might write and as Bette might say: "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumopy, fun read." You coudln't buy this education. Until now. . .

Modern American Counter Writing

Modern American Counter Writing
Author: A. Robert Lee
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2010-01-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1135161658

The dissident voice in US culture might almost be said to have been born with the territory. Its span runs from Roger Williams to Thoreau, Anne Bradstreet to Gertrude Stein, Ambrose Bierce to the New Journalism, The Beats to the recent Bad Subjects cyber-crowd. This new study analyses three recent literary tranches in the tradition: a re-envisioning of the whole Beat web or circuit; a consortium of postwar "outrider" voices – Hunter Thompson to Frank Chin, Joan Didion to Kathy Acker; and a latest purview of what, all too casually, has been designated "ethnic" writing. The aim is to set up and explore these different counter-seams of modern American writing, those which sit outside, or at least awkwardly within, agreed literary canons.