The Blog of Small Things

Name :  "Karunanidhi: A Life in Politics" Author : Sandhya Ravishankar Year of Publication : 2018 Genre : Biography , Politics Rating : ** (2 stars out of 5) This is an introduction to the events in the leader's life. But mere reportage cannot amount to a biography and the book falls way short of calling it a biography. The author is unsure as to how to approach the leader's life-thematically or chronologically. This dilemma ensures that the book is a confused mix of repetitive stuff. For such a short book,Sudhagaran's marriage (which is peripheral to the life of Karunanidhi) is mentioned twice with full quotes from New York Times. The book does not dwell much on his cinema avatar as well. For a non-Tamil,this is the first biography of the veteran he/she will get to read and that way,the author has done injustice to the subject by writing the book the way it has been.  

Name : Devil's advocate  Author : Karan Thapar Year of Publication : 2018 Genre : Memoir, Current Affairs Rating : * (1 star out of 5) "No wonder journos who write about themselves end up becoming crashing bores" - This is a quote from one of the author's articles (quoted in the book). Sadly , he goes on to prove just that by boring us with stories of his privileged upbringing and education. The author unwittingly reveals himself to be a cold, calculative and heartless person in many instances by revealing sources who trusted him with confidential information, leaking to a newspaper about a domestic fight at Big B's home and pushing a champion cricketer to cry more ("I instinctively felt I had to ensure that he continued to cry till the end"). After all the privilege and access he has enjoyed through his life, it is downright laughable to see him whine over how Modi has shut him out.It is not very easy to like many of the politicians he has in...

I vividly remember a  review of "India after Gandhi" published in "Outlook". I had cleared my twelfth standard exams then with a percentage of 95%. My mother was ready to gift me the world and I asked for a copy of Ramachandra Guha's book instead.I raided the Landmark bookshop in Nungambakkam and ended up with a haul of some 15 books in addition to Guha's book . Book reviews in "Outlook" and "Wisden Asia cricket" (2002-2005.RIP) introduced me to books, which in turn led me to more books.  This blog will be home to short book reviews ( 100-200 words, Milliblog style) which strongly conclude whether you should read a book or not. Some reviewers (like Mani Shankar Aiyar) start reminiscing about a golden past forgetting the purpose with which they began writing the review. This blog has no such pretensions. I was already publishing these reviews on my "Goodreads" profile but a suggestion by my brother Mir Mohammed Ali opene...