The End of Men: And the Rise of Women


Hanna Rosin - 2012
    “Anchored by data and aromatized by anecdotes, [Rosin] concludes that women are gaining the upper hand." – The Washington Post Men have been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind. But Hanna Rosin was the first to notice that this long-held truth is, astonishingly, no longer true. Today, by almost every measure, women are no longer gaining on men: They have pulled decisively ahead. And “the end of men”—the title of Rosin’s Atlantic cover story on the subject—has entered the lexicon as dramatically as Betty Friedan’s “feminine mystique,” Simone de Beauvoir’s “second sex,” Susan Faludi’s “backlash,” and Naomi Wolf’s “beauty myth” once did. In this landmark book, Rosin reveals how our current state of affairs is radically shifting the power dynamics between men and women at every level of society, with profound implications for marriage, sex, children, work, and more. With wide-ranging curiosity and insight unhampered by assumptions or ideology, Rosin shows how the radically different ways men and women today earn, learn, spend, couple up—even kill—has turned the big picture upside down. And in The End of Men she helps us see how, regardless of gender, we can adapt to the new reality and channel it for a better future.

Grand Delusions: A Short Biography Of Kolkata


Indrajit Hazra - 2013
    He takes us to the eccentric paras (neighbourhoods) and clubs of the north and the south; past buildings crumbling silently into spectacular ruins; deep inside Park Street’s iconic restaurants and watering holes; through roads choked by political rallies; to rundown cinema halls haunted by lonely men; and into the lairs of soothsayers and tantric love gurus.Part personal essay, part documentary, part cultural history, Grand Delusions is utterly distinctive and full of surprises. Both intimate and provocative, it shines new light on a great and fascinating city.‘As someone whose formative years were spent in Kolkata, I read Indrajit Hazra’s book with keen interest—and delight. He conveys his deep knowledge of Kolkata’s history and culture with style and wit, deftly capturing the city’s glories and disenchantments, its ironies and its anxieties. The personal and the political are beautifully blended. I thought I knew Kolkata very well—now, after reading Hazra, I shall visit it afresh with new eyes, and greater understanding.’— Ramachandra Guha

Lunatic In My Head


Anjum Hasan - 2007
    It’s raining in Shillong. Eight-year-old Sophie Das has just realized she is adopted, but there is also the baby kicking inside her mother’s stomach whom she is dying to meet. IAS aspirant Aman Moondy is planning a first-of-its-kind Happening and praying the lovely Concordella will come. College lecturer Firdaus Ansari is going to finish her thesis, have a hard talk with her boyfriend, and then get out.Poetic, funny, tender and reflective, Lunatic in My Head is a moving portrait of a small town. And of three people joined to each other in an intricate web, determined to break out of their small-town destinies.

Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape


Susan Brownmiller - 1975
    In lucid, persuasive prose, Brownmiller has created a definitive, devastating work of lasting social importance.Chosen by THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW as One of the Outstanding Books of the Year

India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking


Anand Giridharadas - 2010
    An elderly passenger looked at him and said, "We're all trying to go that way," pointing to the rear. "You, you're going this way?"Giridharadas was returning to the land of his ancestors, amid an unlikely economic boom. But he was interested less in its gold rush than in its cultural upheaval, as a new generation has sought to reconcile old traditions and customs with new ambitions and dreams.In "India Calling," Giridharadas brings to life the people and the dilemmas of India today, through the prism of his emigre family history and his childhood memories of India. He introduces us to entrepreneurs, radicals, industrialists, and religious seekers, but, most of all, to Indian families. He shows how parents and children, husbands and wives, cousins and siblings are reinventing relationships, bending the meaning of Indianness, and enduring the pangs of the old birthing the new.Through their stories, and his own, he paints an intimate portrait of a country becoming modern while striving to remain itself."

The Unsolved case of an Indian woman


Puneeth JH - 2020
    

Tripura


Luis Fernandes - 2010
    Maya, their gifted architect, had created for them three cities fortified with iron, silver and gold and the great lord Brahma himself had decreed that these cities would be indestructible, unless struck by a single arrow. The three cities, known together as Tripura, orbited the earth and only once in a thousand years fell in a straight line, directly one above the other. Would Shiva be waiting to destroy them with a twang of his deadly bow?

The Mutiny


Julian Rathbone - 2007
    Not long arrived in this exotic colony is pretty Sophi Hardcastle, newly married but already disillusioned enough with her soldier husband to have fallen under the spell of a dashing and mysterious lieutenant, Bruce Farquhar. But a brutal awakening lies in store for the complacent British: one May night, after 30 years of abuse, the East India Company's native soldiers rise against their British officers. Thus begins the most savage episode in our imperial history.In the chaos that follows the uprising, Sophie's infant son Stephen becomes one of a dwindling band of lost children wandering the war-torn plains in the care of the Hardcastles' desperate native maid, Lavanya. As Sophie and her friend Catherine search for their children they find themselves bearing appalled witness to atrocities on both sides, including the massacre of British women and children in Cawnpore and the hideous reprisals that follow.Moving, sombre and thrilling, Rathbone's tale is told on a grand scale, ranging from the Cannings in Government House to the heroism of the humblest soldiers and peasants. It is as exhilarating as any Victorian adventure story, and yet, with its unflinching examination of religious fanaticism and the horrors of war, The Mutiny also carries a powerful message for the modern world.

Mandodari: Queen of Lanka


Manini J. Anandani - 2018
    In her story, she speaks about her struggles after her marriage, her insecurities and her pious nature that challenged her husband's growing aspirations. She narrates the rise of Ravana's power and the blunders he made that ultimately caused the downfall of Lanka.Despite her husband's faults, Mandodari loved him and advised him to follow the path of righteousness. Ravana's defeat in a thirteen-day war turned him into a villain. But what if he were the real hero on his side of the war? What if his downfall was a result of scheming to push him out of power? This is Mandodari's story.

Songs of Willow Frost


Jamie Ford - 2013
    On his birthday—or rather, the day the nuns designate as his birthday—William and the other orphans are taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song.Determined to find Willow, and prove his mother is still alive, William escapes from Sacred Heart with his friend Charlotte. The pair navigates the streets of Seattle, where they must not only survive, but confront the mysteries of William’s past and his connection to the exotic film star. The story of Willow Frost, however, is far more complicated than the Hollywood fantasy William sees onscreen.Shifting between the Great Depression and the 1920s, Songs of Willow Frost takes readers on an emotional journey of discovery. Jamie Ford’s sweeping book will resonate with anyone who has ever longed for the comforts of family and a place to call home.

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced


Nujood Ali - 2009
    Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.” Nujood Ali's childhood came to an abrupt end in 2008 when her father arranged for her to be married to a man three times her age. With harrowing directness, Nujood tells of abuse at her husband's hands and of her daring escape. With the help of local advocates and the press, Nujood obtained her freedom—an extraordinary achievement in Yemen, where almost half of all girls are married under the legal age. Nujood's courageous defiance of both Yemeni customs and her own family has inspired other young girls in the Middle East to challenge their marriages. Hers is an unforgettable story of tragedy, triumph, and courage.

الف ليلة وليلة - الجزء الثالث Volume 3 of 16


Anonymous - 2008
    The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection's genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the third of sixteen volumes translated by Burton.

Sangati: Events


Bama - 1994
    Written in a colloquial style, the original Tamil version overturns the decorum and aesthetics of upper-caste, upper-class Tamil literature and culture and, in turn, projects a positive cultural identity for Dalits in general and for Dalit women in particular. Sangati flouts received notions about what a novel should be and has no plot in the normal sense. It relates the mindscape of a Dalit woman who steps out of her small town community, only to enter a caste-ridden and hierarchical society, which constantly questions her caste status. Realizing that leaving her community is no escape, she has to come to terms with her identity as an educated, economically independent woman who chooses to live alone. In relating this tale, Bama turns Sangati into the story not just of one individual, but of a pariah community.23p intro + 126p

Mitches


Niki Jilvontae - 2015
    Gabbi experienced it all at the hands of MITCHES..all in the name of love! Drama, deceit, hate, lies, drugs, and murder were the recurring themes in Gabbi’s life until she found refuge in a hero…a MAN among MITCHES! Come on this emotional, drama filled journey with Gabbi and find out if there really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China


Leslie T. Chang - 2008
    But while these workers, who leave their rural towns to find jobs in China's cities, are the driving force behind China's growing economy, little is known about their day-to-day lives or the sociological significance of this massive movement. In Factory Girls, Leslie T. Chang tells the story of these workers primarily through the lives of two young women whom she follows over the course of three years. Chang vividly portrays a world where you can lose your boyfriend and your friends with the loss of a cell phone; where lying about your age, your education, and your work experience is often a requisite for getting ahead; where a few computer or English lessons can catapult you into a completely different social class. Throughout this affecting portrait of migrant life, Chang also interweaves the story of her own family's migrations, within China and to the West, providing a historical frame of reference for her investigation. At a time when the Olympics will have shifted the world's focus to China, Factory Girls offers a previously untold story about the immense population of unknown women who work countless hours, often in hazardous conditions, to provide us with the material goods we take for granted. A book of global significance, it demonstrates how the movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and the fates of families, transforming our world much as immigration to America's shores remade our own society a century ago.