Book picks similar to
Railonama by Anupama Sharma
india
travel
non-fiction
short-stories
Acquired Tastes
Peter Mayle - 1991
The author of A Year in Provence takes readers on an around-the-world journey, showing them where to find the best of everything, including caviar, custom-made shoes, and more.
The Fried Twinkie Manifesto: and other tales of disaster and damnation
Ryan Moehring - 2011
While maintaining a voice unmistakably his own, Moehring evokes the wild imagination of Tom Robbins, the soul of Sedaris, and the wisdom of Vonnegut. Though readers will more often than not find themselves laughing out loud, Moehring's eye for the profound and his unyielding honesty ensure that they are just as likely to cry-or cringe.
Mestengo: A Wild Mustang, a Writer on the Run, and the Power of the Unexpected
Melinda Roth - 2013
Her goal: a simpler life in rural Illinois that would let her pursue her passion for writing. But then real life intervened. A fire at a neighboring farm and a misinterpreted gesture of kindness transformed her into the reluctant caretaker of a homeless menagerie of animals. Roth, coauthor of the New York Times-bestseller From Baghdad with Love, writes vividly, movingly, and often humorously of the chaos that descended into her life. One of her new tenants was a wild mustang, broken but not bowed, his restless spirit propelling him to escape the fences and pens that enclosed him—a far different life than before he was violently captured by a government-sponsored “round-up.” Ultimately these two fiercely independent characters each provide the catalyst for the other’s life-changing and life-affirming decisions. Mestengo is a captivating, emotional account that taps into readers’ love of animals: Marley and Me meets The Horse Whisperer. An entertaining and delightful read, it is a cinematic, sometimes tense, but always beautiful story of the power of healing.
Rebirth: A Fable of Love, Forgiveness, and Following Your Heart
Kamal Ravikant - 2017
It is on this path that he begins reflecting on relationships and forgiveness, to find answers we all seek. As Amit runs from his life, it soon becomes clear that it's impossible to run from himself. It is a universal pilgrimage, and a teaching-tale about love, forgiveness, and facing our fears.Told in the traditions of Paulo Coelho and Mitch Albom, the story gets to the heart of some of life's most enlightening lessons about family, devotion, and ambition.
My Heart Is an Idiot: Essays
Davy Rothbart - 2012
Constantly. He falls helplessly in love with pretty much every girl he meets—and rarely is the feeling reciprocated. Time after time, he hops in a car and tears across half of America with his heart on his sleeve. He’s continually coming up with outrageous schemes, which he always manages to pull off. Well, almost always. But even when things don’t work out, Rothbart finds meaning and humor in every moment. Whether it’s humiliating a scammer who takes money from aspiring writers or playing harmless (but side-splitting) goofs on his deaf mother, nothing and no one is off-limits.But as much as Rothbart is a tragically lovable, irresistibly brokenhearted hero, it’s his prose that’s the star of the book. In the tradition of David Sedaris and Sloane Crosley but going places very much his own, his essays show how things that are seemingly so wrong can be so, so right.
Detour from Normal
Ken Dickson - 2013
What happens next is downright frightening.Surgery saves Ken’s life but improper care sends him spiraling into madness. Unable to fend for himself, his wife Beth takes charge. She does her best to save him but the unyielding stigma of mental illness hampers his recovery at every turn until he is beyond hope.Desperate to get Ken the help that he needs, Beth makes a heartbreaking decision: she brands the man she loves a “danger to himself and others” and commits him to psychiatric treatment. A police SUV then delivers him to a high-security facility where the real nightmare begins. Plagued by the pitfalls of contemporary psych wards, Ken struggles through living hell. Nevertheless, as the days stretch to weeks, he finds solace by befriending the lost and forgotten and helping patients with worse problems than his.Featured in Amazon Prime Reading and spotlighted as Great on Kindle, Detour from Normal will touch your heart in ways that you never imagined and make you question your faith in our medical and mental health systems.What readers are saying:“A massive amount of emotion rolled into a page-turner.”“An enlightening and dare I say frightening glimpse into the world of mental health care.”“This is a story you will want to share with the people you know and love.”“Scary, life-changing and inspiring!”“Powerful and gripping.”“A psychological thriller, medical mystery, and compelling drama—made all the more vivid because it actually happened.”
Dream Beyond Shadows: No Ordinary Tourist
Kartikeya Ladha - 2020
Feeling stuck and overwhelmed by society's pressures, how can we learn, in today's fast paced and results driven world, to truly dream beyond shadows? Having touched the hearts of readers across the globe, Dream Beyond Shadows has now been published in its second edition, to celebrate the raw and compelling art of storytelling inscribed in its pages. The book chronicles a turning point in the author's life, a moment when he decided to turn against the current of his life and move in the opposite direction of social expectations and his own conditioned fears.
Christmas Stories: 7 Original Short Stories
Kevin Moore - 2016
Each tale in author Kevin Moore’s debut collection celebrates the hope, magic, and memories so central to the true meaning of Christmas. Celebrate the season of miracles with this collection of short stories about the lives of ordinary people and the lessons they learn during an extraordinary time of year. You’ll meet a young boy who reevaluates his perceptions after he’s forced to spend Christmas with his stern grandfather, an attorney who seemingly has everything but really has very little; a burned-out homecoming queen who grows weary of her own excuses for failure; and many other memorable characters. As Moore’s protagonists face adversity and sadness, they learn important lessons, gain hope, and experience powerful transformations. The perfect length for reading before bed, on your daily commute, or during a quiet hour, these tales offer you the opportunity to step away from your own life and into a world where it’s always Christmas and where—despite the often painful realities of life—there is always a lesson to learn and a reason to celebrate.
Psychos: Serial Killers, Depraved Madmen, and the Criminally Insane
John SkippJack Ketchum - 2012
Tales of their grisly conquests have kept us cowering under the covers, but still turning the pages.Psychos is the first book to collect in a single volume the scariest and most well-crafted fictional works about these deranged killers. Some of the stories are classics, the best that the genre has to offer, by renowned writers such as Neil Gaiman, Jack Ketchum, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Bloch, and Thomas Harris. Other selections are from the latest and most promising crop of new authors.John Skipp, who is also the editor of Zombies, Demons and Werewolves and Shapeshifters, provides fascinating insight, through two nonfiction essays, into our insatiable obsession with serial killers and how these madmen are portrayed in popular culture. Resources at the end of the book includes lists of the genre's best long-form fiction, movies, websites, and writers.
Daughters Of The Brothel: Stories from Delhi's Red-light District
Deepak Yadav - 2019
The initial days were tough but now it gives me pleasure. I have inherited the art of making love from my grandmother.” -Roopal, a sex worker from the Bedia community in brothel number 56. Nath Utrai ceremony is nothing but the auction of the girl by the highest bidder near Bharatpur in Rajasthan. “Everyone believes that all hijras are castrated, but this is not true. We call it nirvana. Castration is usually optional. It cannot be forced upon a hijra.” -Sharmila, a eunuch from the streets of Varanasi The narrator spends a considerable amount of time in G.B. Road, the famous red-light district in New Delhi during his stint with an NGO. He records the narratives of the sex workers of brothel number 56, insights of their daily lives, local lingos, quarrels, and the ins and outs of their business with an honest stoicism that does not dilute the terrible pathos of their lives. Through this voyage within the walls of pleasurable cells, the writer learns that the G.B. road is an inexorable web...but only because the women trapped in it believe it to be so.
African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan
Thomas Lockley - 2019
Samurai. Legend.The life of history’s first foreign-born samurai, and his journey from Northeast Africa to the heights of Japanese society.When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned (in local tradition) Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan’s martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society.
India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond
Shashi Tharoor - 1997
Tharoor is undersecretary general for communications and public information at the United Nations. He lives in New York City.
The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action
Wendy Northcutt - 2000
Marvel at the thief who steals electrical wires without shutting off the current. Gape at the lawnchair jockey who floats to a height of 16,000 feet suspended by helium balloons. Learn from the man who peers into a gasoline can using a cigarette lighter. All three -- and many more -- contend for Darwin Awards when their choices culminate in magnificent misadventures. These tales of trial and awe-inspiring error--verified by the author and endorsed by website readers--illustrate the ongoing saga of survival of the fittest in all its selective glory.
Sunshine State: Essays
Sarah Gerard - 2017
There she meets its founder, who once modeled with a pelican on his arm for a Dewar’s Scotch campaign but has since declined into a pit of fraud and madness. He becomes our embezzling protagonist whose tales about the birds he “rescues” never quite add up. Gerard’s personal stories are no less eerie or poignant: An essay that begins as a look at Gerard’s first relationship becomes a heart-wrenching exploration of acquaintance rape and consent. An account of intimate female friendship pivots midway through, morphing into a meditation on jealousy and class.Sunshine State offers a unique look at Florida, a state whose economically and environmentally imperiled culture serves as a lens through which we can examine some of the most pressing issues haunting our nation.BFF --Mother-father God --Going diamond --Records --The mayor of Williams Park --Sunshine state --Rabbit --Before: an inventory
Mean Dads for a Better America: The Generous Rewards of an Old-Fashioned Childhood
Tom Shillue - 2017
He takes us back to a time when neighbors disciplined each other’s children without fear of being sued, when kids made it to the family table for dinner, when parents’ rules were gospel, when the occasional fistfight was considered a fair way to solve a problem, and when children were free to roam, make mistakes, and experience the first tastes of independence.Tom debates, debunks, and entertains with his hilarious approach to issues of the day, tackling the issues that confound many Americans, like our hypersensitive culture and overzealous parenting. As Tom celebrates the stability of family life and the sanity of days gone by, he encourages us to hold on to our sense of humor and look back at our own lives, as we work towards creating a better future for ourselves and our kids, all while making us laugh.