Outside the norm
Rumina Sethi
Chasing the Good Life: On Being Single
ed Bhaichand Patel.
Penguin/Viking. Pages 188. Rs. 325.
At first sight, the book promises to be hugely interesting because it is about being single and how good that sort of life can be. Now who among us does not have single friends from both sexes? A single female friend I have was viewed as some kind of specimen and onlookers related all her oddities to her single status.

Traveller's impressions
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu
A Barbarian in Asia
by Henri Michaux
Rupa. Pages 185. Price 295.
Nothing accords a travel enthusiast more excitement than getting a chance to read the experiences of a fellow traveller. The period, place or purpose of travel is completely immaterial. With an unshakeable belief in the famous maxim by Lao Tzu, "a good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving," I prepared myself for a virtual journey alongside Henri Michaux with A Barbarian in Asia.

Juggling the human brain
Aditi Garg
Creative Learning: A handbook for teachers and trainers
by Vijoy Prakash. Viva.
Pages 390. Rs. 395.
The ability of the human brain to think creatively sets it apart from other living creatures. Just being able to think does not mean that the species is superior, but being able to think of new thoughts and improvise to make significant changes in one’s lifestyle signifies that the thought process has evolved beyond that of the animal kingdom. At this point in time, when the flow of information is free and instantaneous, to keep abreast, thinking out of the box becomes imperative.

Violence as a means to a corrupt end
Kanwalpreet
Forms of Collective Violence, Riots, Pogroms and Genocide in Modern India.
by Paul R. Brass. Three Essays Collective.
Pages 184. Rs 250.
Revealing and shocking. The reader feels a sense of disgust towards some elements of the Indian political system as he goes through this slim volume. Paul Brass is an authority on the political history of India and has many titles to his credit, including Language, Religion and Politics in North India and Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison.

Road to the White House may be lined with books
A. Goldfarb
Can you write your way into the White House? A number of prospective 2008 presidential candidates are betting that the free publicity that comes with the release of a book can’t hurt. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democrat from New York, will re-release her book, It Takes a Village, 10 years after she published the book as first lady.

Design divine
The Taj Mahal represents the heavenly garden where the departed await entry to heaven, according to archaeologist Ebba Koch who spoke to Vimla Patil on her bestseller The Complete Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal, standing majestically on the banks of the River Yamuna in Agra, is known all over the world as the ultimate tribute to the romance between Emperor Shah Jahan and his beloved queen Mumtaz Mahal. Ebba Koch, professor of AsianArt in the Department of Art History at the University of Vienna, Austria, researched the architecture and history of this monument for 30 years.

PUNJABI REVIEW
For better and for verse
Surinder Singh Tej
Bachpan Ghar Te Mein
by Parminderjeet
Chetna Parkashan, Ludhiana
Pages 120. Rs 120
Parminderjeet is a big name in contemporary punjabi poetry. He has created a unique niche for himself by experimenting with form and formulations and adding a new meaning to the mundaneness of daily occurances. The sensitivity he imparts to his feelinngs and emotions, lifts the reader’s spirit and makes poetry an enriching and evolutionising experience.

Cops must read this one
Maneesh Chhibber
Maintenance of Public Order and Police Preparedness
Ed Maja Daruwala
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Price: Not mentioned
This book is a must-read for all police officers, upwards from the rank of sub-inspector, and lawyers and human rights activists. For, it deals with a subject about which little is known among those who are supposed to be in the know of things: how to effectively deal with riots and riot-like situations.

Loss and hurt
Indian-origin author Kiran Desai's bestselling novel The Inheritance of Loss, that won the Man Booker prize for fiction this year, has created a hullabaloo in Nepal with readers calling her insensitive, colonial and prejudiced.

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