Amodini's Book Reviews

Book Reviews and Recommendations

Archive for the 'politics' Category

Audiobook Review : The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

[amazon_link id=”0307455874″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : The Audacity of Hope Author : Barack Obama Narrator : Barack Obama Publisher : Random House Audio Listening Length: 6 hours and 10 minutes Source : Library Rating : 4.5/5 I do not read much non-fiction but downloaded this audiobook on the recommendation of a friend, and have […]

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Book Review : Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani

[amazon_link id=”1451660472″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Equal of the Sun Author : Anita Amirezvani Genre : Historical Publisher : Scribner (Simon & Schuster) Pages : 464 Source : Publisher Rating : 4/5 Anita Amirrezvani’s previous novel “The Blood of Flowers” wove an intricate story of a female carpet-maker who must make her way in a […]

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Book Review : From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant

[amazon_link id=”0670023191″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant Author : Alex Gilvarry Genre : Contemporary Publisher : Viking Source : Publisher ARC Pages : 302 Rating : 4/5 This book is told to us memoir style, by Boyet R. Hernandez, fashion designer. Hailing from a family of doctors, Boy […]

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The Great Indian tamasha : Tharoor and the IPL

All the Indian media can talk about is Shashi Tharoor and the IPL scandal. The head honchos of Indian politics are ready to make important decisions about his suitability as a Minister, and everyone’s horrified at the “inappropriate” behavior. Wow – you think that there may be some shady dealings in the IPL ? In […]

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Maharashtra : Falling from grace

An excellent editorial in the Indian Express : The second dimension of this crisis is the blot it represents on our freedoms. We tend to see each episode of Sena mania in isolation: sometimes it is taxi drivers, sometimes Shah Rukh Khan. The Sena may be a weakening electoral force. But the price it extracts […]

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Respect your MPs or else . . .

Reading this article by Amit Ahuja, in which he describes interactions with the governmental bureacracy as transactions where the “government official involved establishes himself not as a service provider but rather as a dispenser of favours“, one is filled with acute hatred for the ubiquitous, corrupt babu and the venal politicians that make this possible. Says Ahuja […]

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Saving Gandhi’s legacy : hypocrisy anyone ?

See my earlier post; it is indeed the week for stupidity. I refer of course to the efforts by the Government of India to save its “national heritage”. By “national heritage” I do not mean the beautiful, ancient buildings that lie neglected (the last time I visited the Taj Mahal, there were honeycombs on the […]

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The Congress Party and disassociation from reality

I know, I know – stupidity hath no bounds. Especially coming from India’s eminent political party which claimed credit for the Slumdog Oscar win : In an unmistakable resonance of the previous NDA government’s `India Shining’ slogan, Congress floated the idea of an `achieving India’ and listed among the milestones the Indo-US nuclear deal, Chandrayaan, […]

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McCain’s desperation shows

I have never watched so much CNN in my life. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve actually watched re-runs of the same program, on CNN. My husbands kids me about it – calls it my favorite channel. I have never read up, or followed politics as much as I follow now, via Salon, The […]

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Palin and sexism

Earlier this week, we found out that $150000 was spent on pretty-ing up Sarah Palin. So the hockey-mom who tries to identify with the Joe-sixpacks and the common man, shops at Neiman Marcus and Saks. Nice. If I was someone contributing to the McCain-Palin campaign, I would be pretty mad right now.Yeah, you send them […]

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