Santaclaus in Baghdad!

This is an unbelievable compilation of short stories by Elsa Marston and it throws a different angle into the lives of teens in Arab World. The first look gave me the impression that life runs same whichever part of the world you are in; the daily struggles and small droplets of happiness makes it complete. Be it among the refugees of a camp or highly educated family reduced to eating from the floor owing to poverty, there are rays of hope and the glittering visions of future that goads them on.

The story in the same title from Iraq deals with a family and the kid hopes for his little red car from Santa Claus - the girl in the family gets a gift for their favorite teacher; I was thrilled reading this story. It might sound simple but there was truth and beauty in the narration. The story called “Honor” talks through honor killings in Jordan and “The Plan” is a wonderful storyline about brothers trying to ‘woo’ a teacher. There are other stories each with its unique way of capturing the hearts.

I liked the collection and would recommend…

Feluda

I have been re-reading the "Feluda" series by Satyajit Ray, after years. Picked up the omnibus, in two volumes, this time in Calcutta.
These novelettes used to be available for Rs.20 when I was in school, and I used to devour them. My uncle, my father's younger brother possessed a pretty nice collection as well. A few years back, Satyajit Ray's son, Sandip, put together this collection of all the stories.
Perceptions change with time. Feluda, the main character, whom I thought the Perfect Man as a teenager, seems like this totally arrogant know-it-all, spouting information which people are AWARE of in any case, and his cousin's hero-worship is sometimes pretty hard to digest. Jatayu still remains the lovable bumbler, though it's a bit difficult to accept that anyone can be THAT ignorant of certain well-known facts-such as the difference between the walrus and the hippopotamus and that penguins can only be found in Antarctica.
That said I still loved reading the stories. Ray is good at drafting a plot, even though I think he is a better film-maker than a writer. He does detailed travel descriptions too-and sends his detective trio to the most amazing places to solve crimes, from Ellora to Gangtok, from Shimla to -well, nowhere in South India really. Suppose he did not need to come here to shoot movies (it's said that he used to use the locales he shot in as a background for the books).The only thing that irritates me is that the trio spend more time solving crimes and rescuing each other and bringing the evil-doer to book, than in sight-seeing.......but I suppose that's natural if you are a detective?
Also I like the fact that the novels are CLEAN; read, no crimes passionnelle, or however you spell it, no sex,only a minuscule amount of violence, strong bonding between the characters, and thank god, practically none of that stock in trade of detective fiction, the bungling inspector.
Another thing I liked was that different types of crime are dealt with, petty theft, fraud, imposture,smuggling, illegal trade in arts and antiquities, drugs, forgery, even a case of grave robbing, all accompanied by a corpse or two.
Though for a Christie addict, the solutions seem a little too simple and not far-fetched enough :))))..I think these books are definitely for a younger audience.
Read the original Bengali of course, but I think translations are available.

Books about Israel

So,, there are two books related to the topic of the last session which I would really like to recommend.
I can't talk about the first one in detail because I read it way back in college when I was going through this entire Le Carre phase.

 Good review here

Writing is more  intense than in other books by Le Carre except maybe one. It villainised neither side, or both, though in the latter part of the book, there seemed to be a greater sympathy towards the Palestinians.

The other one is "From Beirut to Jerusalem" from Thomas Friedman.

Friedmann talks about his years as a journalist in war-torn Lebanon and afterwards, Israel. The book is full of both horrifying and humorous anecdotes, both side by side, which makes it a roller-coaster of a read. There are hilarious accounts of Arafat and the PLO living it up in Beirut with Arab money, a crooked wheeler-dealer who could procure you anything you wanted and who also happened to be a very good friend of the author's. Simultaneously there are stories about how an entire generation grows up without any kind of security and the knowledge they could die in the next hour,continuous bomb blasts, yet parties continue in the midst of it all.

The Israel part of the book however has less of the comic and more analyses of the situation, about the divisions of opinions within the Israelis themselves and the main strands of thought. However since it's more of a journalistic rather than an academic work, it remains a very easy, and therefore informative read. The author gives concise summaries of the historical background as as well which are also very useful. There are predictions about the future, advice, but it seems a bit outdated, because it ends after the Oslo Accords but before Rabin's assassination( I think, I am always a bit confused about M.E. History) and on a highly optimistic note. 

There are parts where it becomes very obvious that he is writing for a western readership, where he analyses the mistakes the of the Americans during their intervention in Lebanese politcs and in the most telling chapter of the book  "Hama Rules". This describes how 'the Syrian Army(under Assad) levelled .... a portion of its own city, Hama, to put down a rebellion by Sunni Muslim fundamentalists there in 1982." Hama rules means no rules at all except destroying before being destroyed,  compromise is interpreted as weakness .I think this is a sound analysis of dynamics in regions which are basically tribal in nature, not just the middle east, but Afghanistan as well,it is completely impractical to try to super-impose a political format on a society which has no experience or understanding of it and then complain because it turns into a farce. Amusing is that it is in this chapter that it becomes clearest that he is writing for a Western rather than an Oriental readership, because he goes to great pains to explain this ;), whereas it hardly requires any explanation to an Asian reader. I also found an intersting article by him later on here

This is NOT only a book about war or politics. It's ultimately about human energy and ability to survive  , hope and actually enjoy life through it all. A very very good read. I read this from the library six months back. Will definitely pick up a hard copy if I can find it.

A good review here

http://selectedcraps.blogspot.com/2010/11/brief-encounters-with-che-guvara.html

Tears of the Giraffe

The second part in the No:1 Ladies Detective agency series, this follows the protagonist Precious Ramotswe. As expected, this was an easy breeze read and enjoyed the feel. Ramotswe continues to explore and solve the cases and the changes to her personal life comes in as a pleasant surprise to the reader. There seems to be some philosophical notes spread across the book which gave some room to ponder including the emphasis on Botswana morality and the way it erodes in the new generations.

A recommended read and I would be looking forward to complete the series…

Into the High Ranges

This book, labeled as mountain writings contains snippets or excerpts from other books by various authors on mountains, the culture surrounding them and some memoirs, edited by Ravina Agarwal. It even gives a glimpse into the eco conservation themes.

It was an okay read and I didn't complete it - I was expecting the feel of an arm chair traveler...

Man Booker Prize 2010

Howard Jacobson won the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, on Tuesday night for “The Finkler Question,” a comic novel about friendship, wisdom and anti-Semitism.

"The other titles that did make the short list were: “In a Strange Room,” by Damon Galgut; “The Long Song,” by Andrea Levy; “Room,” by Emma Donoghue; and “Parrot and Olivier in America,” by Peter Carey.

a Fourth Millenium?

Excerpt from http://journalstar.com/entertainment/arts-and-culture/books/article_2f421a8a-d57e-11df-a978-001cc4c002e0.html

Stieg Larsson was close to completing a fourth Lisbeth Salander book. According to a new interview with his father and brother, the Swedish author, who died in 2004 at age 50, was nearly finished with a fourth book. Apparently, it was chronologically the fifth book in what Larsson had intended as a 10-book series. After writing "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," Larsson jumped ahead to the fifth entry and intended to go back to the fourth. The fourth (fifth, whatever) Millennium book likely won't see the light of day because of a dispute between Larsson's family and his longtime partner.

And the Nobel goes to....

The 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Mario Vargos Llosa, a Peruvian author for his "cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"

This is an author I wanted to read and have seen his books in Blossoms few times. Will try once and post my thoughts :)

Some of his writings are here -

1959 – Los jefes (The Cubs and Other Stories, 1979)
1963 – La ciudad y los perros (The Time of the Hero, 1966)
1966 – La casa verde (The Green House, 1968)
1969 – Conversación en la catedral (Conversation in the Cathedral, 1975)
1973 – Pantaleón y las visitadoras (Captain Pantoja and the Special Service, 1978)
1977 – La tía Julia y el escribidor (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, 1982)
1981 – La guerra del fin del mundo (The War of the End of the World, 1984)
1984 – Historia de Mayta (The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta, 1985)
1986 – ¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero? (Who Killed Palomino Molero?, 1987)
1987 – El hablador (The Storyteller, 1989)
1988 – Elogio de la madrastra (In Praise of the Stepmother, 1990)
1993 – Lituma en los Andes (Death in the Andes, 1996)
1997 – Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto (Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, 1998)
2000 – La fiesta del chivo (The Feast of the Goat, 2002)
2003 – El paraíso en la otra esquina (The Way to Paradise, 2003)
2006 – Travesuras de la niña mala (The Bad Girl, 2007)