Tag Archives: India

Looking ahead & some also-reads

Posted on January 31, 2017 by smellincoffee

I intentionally launched this year off with some fun reading, so we’re off to a good start and there’s more on the way.  Yesterday Amazon held a flash sale for science books, and I picked up a few relatively recent … Continue reading →

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The Big Necessity

Posted on January 21, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Big Necessity: the Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why it Matters © 2008, 2014 Rose George 238 pages In its initial publication, The Big Necessity may have been an eye-opening look into how many human beings still suffer … Continue reading →

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In the Land of the Tiger

Posted on January 15, 2017 by smellincoffee

In the Land of the Tiger: A Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent© 1997 Valmik Thapar285 pages Imagine a Planet Earth episode focused entirely on India, and then presented in book form. The result is In the Land of the … Continue reading →

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Glimpses of World History

Posted on December 26, 2016 by smellincoffee

Glimpses of World History© 1942 Jawaharlal Nehru1192 pages In 1930,  a man who would later become the first prime minister of India was thrown in jail for a period of two years. There, removed from his family and regretful that … Continue reading →

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Lost Enlightenment

Posted on November 28, 2016 by smellincoffee

Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane © 2015 S. Frederick Starr618 pages Lost Enlightenment takes readers back to a time when Central Asia was the crossroads of the world, a hub of both commercial and … Continue reading →

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The Space Between Us

Posted on July 23, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Space Between Us© 2007 Thrity Umrigar321 pages “A hard land, yes, full of mountains, but toughness has its own beauty.” p. 200 The Space Between Us is a modern Indian tragedy, told through the plight of two women who guide … Continue reading →

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The Story of My Experiments with Truth

Posted on June 28, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Story of my Experiments with Truth © 1927 Mohandas K. Gandhi480 pages Dover Press cover The Story of my Experiments with Truth is a piecemeal autobiography of Mohandas Gandhi,  who earned acclaim by leading India to independence from the British … Continue reading →

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Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet

Posted on April 13, 2013 by smellincoffee

Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet352 pages© 2008 Michael T. Klare For much of the 20th century, a handful of industrialized countries enjoyed access to a seemingly infinite supply of oil. But a century of economic progress has seen global demand for … Continue reading →

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Our Oriental Heritage

Posted on September 3, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage © 1935 Will Durant 1048 pages “Civilization is social order promoting cultural creation.”  (Opening sentence.) Our Oriental Heritage is the introductory volume of a greater work, an eleven-book set covering prehistory to the last days of Napoleon. Judging … Continue reading →

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Nehru: the Invention of India

Posted on April 13, 2010 by smellincoffee

Nehru: the Invention of India© 2003 Shashi Tharoor282 pages  The movie Gandhi introduced me to many of the key figures in India’s independence movement and early political leadership, and beyond Gandhi no man interested me more than the Mahatma’s right … Continue reading →

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