Keep Your Kids Safe On The Internet
By: Simon Johnson

Reviewed by: Colin Ong Tau Shien | 27 March 2005

Review:
Simon has written a guidebook that appeals to parents and educators who may not be too comfortable with IT - lingo. Thus his approach is to present the internet safety message with ample screen snap-shots (black & white though), online references and bullet points loaded with tips. The language is not overly technical and he is meticulous in his research and in providing readers insights into how he makes his recommendation.

This book is a great help to busy parents as it helps understand and pre-empt any potential online security threats.

Favourite Excerpt:
Some of the book highlights:
On page 71, Simon introduces a host of commonly used acronyms in Internet Chat Rooms and Instant Messages. A3 for instance, refers to Anytime, Anwhere, Anyplace - very useful for parents who are confused about the "new language" of children.

On page 116, Simon embarks in thoroughly testing content-filtering software and has ranked CYBERsitter in first place. What is of special interest is how Simon describes the parameters of his testing.

Slammerkin
By: Emma Donoghue

Reviewed by: Deepanjali Pandey | 10 March 2005

Review:
Slammerkin - in 18th century parlance it means (a) a loose gown and (b) a loose woman. Slammerkin is inspired by real life events that took place in England and Wales in 1763.

It is the story of Mary Saunders, a young teenager, who lives with her sewing mistress mother and stepfather in a cellar, in London. In her drab, harsh life, Mary dreams of colours, clothes, textures that are beyond her grasp. A series of unfortunate incidents makes her a prostitute at the tender age of 13, but she continues the profession at her own will. Life on the streets makes her mature beyond her years. Finally she can afford the silks, gossamers and gowns she has always liked. She learns the tricks of the trade, till she is forced to run away to a small 'crow town' to save her life. How will Mary Saunders fit into the strait laced life? Will her passions be her undoing?

Read this deeply moving novel to find out.

Favourite Excerpt:
"Lying in bed she spared a thought for Daffy. Was he asleep, or lying awake cursing her? How her life might have changed all at once with the slip of a syllable, a simple yes. To be a wife and mother in a small country town was the life millions led and other millions prayed for. What gave Mary the right to resent the dull round of domestic duties, to demand a life of silks and gold?"

The Five Temptations of a CEO
By: Patrick Lencioni

Reviewed by: Sanip Ali | 25 February 2005

Review:
This is a good book for those who are managing a business or want to be an entrepreneur!

Favourite Excerpt:

The Namesake
By: Jhumpa Lahiri

Reviewed by: Sunila Albuquerque | 24 February 2005

Review:
When I read Jhumpa Lahiris's debut collection of short stories, "The Interpreter of Maladies" I wondered why it had made her an international bestseller overnight. Perhaps my expectations were too high given all the hype about it.

Despite that I was drawn to her first novel 'The Namesake', by the name I guess. But it remained buried in a suitcase. When it finally saw the light of day, it made it to the hands of several friends, who ended up giving it rave reviews. When it finally found its way back to my home, it sure enough became an overnight reading book.

'The Namesake', is unputdownable from the word go. In the opening chapter she describes the heavily pregnant and perspiring Ashima Ganguli standing in her Central Square apartment, concocting a simple snack of Rice Krispies, Planters peanuts, lemon, chopped onion and sliced green pepper. I could literally taste the crisp tanginess of this "humble approximation of the snack" that so reminds Ashima of home.

The author then goes on to skillfully capture the ethos of the immigrant experience in her captivating tale of a young Bengali couple's gradual transformation from duty and tradition bound Indians to a modern American family. The Gangulis are initially introduced to the reader through the experiences of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli.

Later on, the novel's main protagonist, Gogol Ganguli who is enmeshed in a culture clash takes centre-stage. He strives to escape from the ways of his parents in myriad ways. And it all begins with his valiant fight to fit into the American way of life by changing his name from 'Gogol' to 'Nikhil'. He wants to reinvent his persona and distance himself from his Indian roots in the process, only to realise that the strange name with which he is 'burdened', is actually a lasting legacy from his parents. In a way, it represents the hardships and struggles they have experienced as immigrants in an alien land.

It is into this world, that the master story teller draws her readers into. Lahiri has the innate ability of describing even simple things in rich detail.

For instance, Ashima's love for her father back home, is captured through seemingly mundane descriptions:
"The trip to Calcutta is four months away. At breakneck speed Ashima knits sweater-vests for her father, her father-in-law, her brother, her three favourite uncles. They are all the same, V-necked, pine green yarn, knit five, purl two…. The exception is her father's, done in a double-seed stitch with two thick cables and buttons down the front; he prefers cardigans to pullovers, and she remembers to put in pockets for the deck of cards he always carries with him, to play patience at a moment's notice...... In addition to the sweater, she buys him three sable-haired paintbrushes from the Harvard Coop, sizes he's requested by mail. Though they are wildly expensive, more so than anything else she's ever bought in America…"

Lahiri deftly conveys Ashima's emotions and social status through her vivid descriptions of Ashima's shopping expeditions. She spends hours
buying mismatched teaspoons, percale pillowcases, coloured candles and soaps on ropes. In a drugstore she buys a Timex watch for her father-in-law, Bic pens for her cousins…. On the train home she is exhilarated, exhausted, nervous with anticipation of the trip. And in that exhiliration she ends up leaving all her stuff on the train.

For the rest of the afternoon she is furious with herself, humiliated at the prospect of arriving in Calcutta empty-handed apart from the sweaters and the paintbrushes. But when Ashoke comes home he calls the MBTA lost and found; the following day the bags are returned, not a teaspoon missing. Somehow, this small miracle causes Ashima to feel connected to Cambridge in a way she has not previously thought possible, affiliated with its exceptions as well as its rules.

Just after all that excitement comes the shock in the form of a late night telephone call from her brother in India telling her about the death of her father, who died playing patience on his bed.

With her compassionate and quirky insights into the lives of her characters, Lahiri entices readers like me to step into the shoes of each member of the Ganguli family. Their successes, disappointments and search for an identity span of three decades.

Although all the voices in this coming of age tale about the protagonist Gogol are compelling, it is Ashima's voice that lingers the longest. As an immigrant myself, I shed tears for Ashima when she lost her loved ones thousands of miles away, and could completely understand her fear of the late night call (It could only mean bad news). I rejoiced with her when she went about building a new life for herself much as all of us do, and laughed and cried with Gogol as he stumbled along straddling two worlds. I saw a little bit of my father in Ashoke, in his stoicism, his love of books, his preoccupation with education, and his sense of duty to his family back home.

To me, "The Namesake" is not a novel, but an almost nostalgic journey into a world of characters not much different from the ones I have come across in real life. No surprise then that I eagerly await Lahiri's next literary endeavour.

Favourite Excerpt:
"Why did Rana go to the trouble of calling just now? It's so expensive. It doesn't make sense." She turns to look at Ashoke. " What did he say to you, exactly?" Ashoke shakes his head. He presses her to the bed, lying on top of her, his face to one side, his body suddenly trembling. He holds her this way for so long that she begins to wonder if he is going to turn off the light and caress her. Instead he tells her what Rana told him a few minutes ago, what Rana couldn't bear to tell his sister, over the telephone, himself: that her father had died yesterday evening, of a heart attack, playing patience on his bed."

ABOUT JHUMPA LAHIRI:
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in 1967 in London to Bengali Indian parents and was raised in Rhode Island. She holds a Doctorate in Renaissance Studies and has taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design. She now lives in New York with her husband and son.

Her debut collection of nine short stories, 'Interpreter of Maladies', won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It was translated into twenty-nine languages and became a international bestseller.

In addition to the Pulitzer, it also received the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New Yorker Debut of the Year award, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Addison Metcalf Award, and a nomination for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Stones From The River
By: Ursula Hegi

Reviewed by: Deepanjali Pandey | 21 February 2005

Review:
A heroine who is a 'Zwerg' - German for 'dwarf woman' is perhaps an unlikely character to grace the pages of this ambitious novel set in Germany between the two World Wars.

As a child she is aware of her 'different' status and how that reality drove her mother away. As an adult she is passionate and clever, weaving the stories of the town she lives in, almost invisible to the radar of people around her,living with a gentle father, with little hope for the drama of a real life romance or marriage which so many young girls take for granted.

The true strength of Trudi and her father is evident at a time when the brutal face of Nazism shatters the fabric of their small town, pitting neighbours against each other, inciting betrayal and deaths.

Favourite Excerpt:
"As a child Trudi Montag thought everyone knew what went on inside others. That was before she understood the power of being different. The agony of being different. And the sin of ranting against an ineffective God. But before that-for years and years before that- she prayed to grow. Every night she would fall asleep wth the prayer that while she slept, her body would stretch itself, grow to the size of that of other girls her age in Burgdorf - not even the taller ones like Eva Rosen who would become her best friend in school for a brief time - but into a body with normal length arms and legs and with a small well shaped head. To help God along Trudi would hang from door frames by her fingers till they were numb, convinced she could feel her bones lengthening, many nights she'd tie her mothers scarves around her head one encircling her forehead and another below her chin to keep her head from expanding. How she prayed. And every morning when her arms were still stubby and her legs would not reach the floor, as she'd swing them from her mattress, she'd tell herself that she hadnt prayed hard enough or that it wasnt the right time yet, so shed keep wishing and keep praying believing that anything you prayed for this hard surely would be granted if only you were patient."

Kite Runner (Movie Tie In)
(Hosseini, Khaled)

Afghan
(Forsyth, Frederick)

Quest
(Smith, Wilbur)

Exit Music
(Rankin, Ian)

On Chesil Beach
(McEwan, Ian)

Nineteen Minutes
(Picoult, Jodi)

Treasures Of Khanl
(Cussler, Clive)

Short History Of Tractor In Ukraine
(Lewycka, Marina)

Anybody Out There?
(Keyes, Marian)

Alchemist
(Coelho, Paulo)

Extreme Future
(Canton, James)

New Earth
(Eckhart Tolle)

Innocent Man
(Grisham, John)

Secret
(Bryne, Rhonda)

Persuasion
(Borg)

Yajyza Moon
(- )

Ten Day Mba
(Silbiger, Steven)

Logic Of Life
(Harford, Tim)

One Page Project Manager
(Campbell)