The Toss of a Lemon


Padma Viswanathan - 2008
    Hanumarathnam, a village healer with some renown as an astrologer, has approached her parents with a marriage proposal. In keeping with custom, he provides his prospective in-laws with his horoscope. The problem is that his includes a prediction, albeit a weak one, that he will die in his tenth year of marriage. Despite the ominous horoscope, Sivakami’s parents hesitate only briefly, won over by the young man and his family’s reputation as good, upstanding Brahmins. Once married, Sivikami and Hanumarathnam grow to love one another and the bride, now in her teens, settles into a happy life. But the predictions of Hanumarathnam’s horoscope are never far from her new husband’s mind. When their first child is born, as a strategy for accurately determining his child’s astrological charts, Hanumarathnam insists the midwife toss a lemon from the window of the birthing room the moment his child appears. All is well with their first child, a daughter, Thangam, whose birth has a positive influence on her father’s astrological future. But this influence is fleeting: when a son, Vairum, is born, his horoscope confirms that his father will die within three years.Resigned to his fate, Hanumarathnam sets himself to the unpleasant task of readying his household for his imminent death. Knowing the hardships and social restrictions Sivakami will face as a Brahmin widow, he hires and trains a servant boy called Muchami to help Sivakami manage the household and properties until Vairum is of age.When Sivakami is eighteen, Hanumarathnam dies as predicted. Relentless in her adherence to the traditions that define her Brahmin caste, she shaves her head and dons the white sari of the widow. With some reluctance, she moves to her family home to raise her children under the protection of her brothers, but then realizes that they are not acting in the best interests of her children. With her daughter already married to an unreliable husband of her brothers’ choosing, and Vairum’s future also at risk, Sivakami leaves her brothers and returns to her marital home to raise her family.With the freedom to make decisions for her son’s future, Sivakami defies tradition and chooses to give him a secular education. While her choice ensures that Vairum fulfills his promise, it also sets Sivakami on a collision course with him. Vairum, fatherless in childhood, childless as an adult, rejects the caste identity that is his mother’s mainstay, twisting their fates in fascinating and unbearable ways.

Eclipse


John Banville - 2000
    Now that he’s fifty and has returned to his boyhood home to recover from a breakdown on stage, he is not surprised to find the place still haunted. He is surprised, however, by new presences. And he is soon overwhelmed by how they, coupled with an onslaught of disturbing memories, compel him to confront the clutter that has become his life: ruined career, tenuous marriage, and troubled relationship with an estranged daughter.

Apprentice of Magic


K.M. Shea - 2019
     Her time in the magical academy has been a long chain of criticisms, reprimands, and punishments. Her war-like ability to control any weapon has earned her nothing but the fear and scorn of fellow students and instructors. And now, she finds herself before the highest council just one vote away from having her magic sealed forever. Until Enchanter Evariste appears. The mysterious prodigy is one of the few with the authority to go against the Council. Which is exactly what he does when he takes Angelique as his apprentice. Though his lessons are challenging and eccentric he shows her more kindness than she ever hoped to receive. Everything seems perfect. But things are changing in the world. Dark things. Evil things. Once upon a time is about to become very real… Apprentice of Magic is an epic fantasy fairy tale adventure mixed with clean romance and humor. This new series is a companion to the bestselling Timeless Fairy Tales series.

Outlaw Souls MC Box Set: Books 1-6


Hope Stone - 2020
    Get ready for a ride of a lifetime in this binge-worthy series! RyderLife...it broke me from a young age.Oh, I’m way too beast for this beauty.And yet, my hardened heart...it wanted her.I’m her nightmare.Her saviour.And the best fucking thing to walk into her life.Time to see what this sassy little sunflower’s made of.I warned her she was mine, and I meant it.PinClaire Stone’s a woman with a purpose.A skilled private investigator.A beautiful curse.She was a stranger to me until the day she barged into my life, looking for answers.I’m pretty sure she’s never found a problem she can't solve.Until me.The man of her dreams and her nightmares all in one.Who knew I’d meet my match in this smoking little spitfire?Problem is, Claire’s not just a girl, she’s made herself my enemy…Guess nobody told her you don’t go digging around in club business without savage consequences.When karma rears its ugly head, I can’t promise to be her shield,She’s faced me with an impossible choice,Love, loyalty, or survival...I’m falling, crashing, half-crazy for a girl who should have never been mine.If I bring her out of this alive, I want something in return.TrainerFierce. Protective...and Broken.Beautiful and surprisingly strong, this woman’s got a secret she’s not sharing.All I know for sure is she’s walked through hell and lived, and that ain’t easy.Who am I? I’m the best damn thing to ever walk into her life.When her past comes for her, hear my threat...I’ll become the monster she fears and hunt him down.She can hate me all she wants,But I warned her she was mine,And I’ll do anything to protect what’s mine...anything, even if I come back from hell.BladeThere's a fine line between love and hate. Blade came into my life like a wrecking ball. Tearing down my walls and rocking my world. Then I found out he was a member of Outlaw Souls. That was a problem, since my loyalty was to their enemy, Las Balas. My connection to them was one of blood, through my father and brother. I couldn’t turn my back on that, no matter how much I wanted Blade. DiegoI wanted a clean slate. La Playa carried too many painful secrets of my past. What was a bad boy rider like me doing with a hot Latino doctor to be? All I know is we were like two moths to one another’s flame. But an Outlaw gang member can’t be caught in a secret love affair can he?ColtA bad boy cowboy isn’t what I was looking for. But there’s deeper layers to Colt Winters that I yearn to know. He’s an Outlaw with a troubled existence. With a dead girlfriend, five year jail sentence and a baby girl waiting for him. Colt Winters isn’t exactly the type you take home to Mama. But… my brother’s in trouble and he’s just the man to help. In my world I save people like Colt from themselves, I fight for justice in an unjust system. Maybe this cowboy has a lot more to offer me than first meets the eye. Can we get past all the obstacles long enough to make it work?

The Swastika Killer


Mahendra Jakhar - 2017
    A MANIC JEW. OR A NEO-NAZI...2006, GERMANY, FIFA WORLD CUP.In Berlin, a killer begins targeting the most dangerous criminals and brands his victims with the symbol of the swastika. The day of each murder coincides mystically with the navagrahas, the days sacred to the nine planetary gods in Hindu mythology. And the dates correspond to hidden horrors of the historical past.Only one man can decipher and look beyond symbols — the unassuming Bala, the sharpest sleuth in the Indian Intelligence Bureau.The chase of a lifetime begins!7/11, MUMBAI EXPLODESThree friends who were born and grew up in the city's brothels, thrown apart by riots, are brought together by the swastika.The killer takes them into the streets of Mumbai, to the den of underworld kings, inside prison complexes, terrorist cells and the snake pit called Bollywood.They will need more than friendship, love, and luck to survive.Is the swastika killer a self-proclaimed vigilante, out to end evil?To find out, and put an end to the killings, Bala will have to go to the beginning. The past that lies hidden in the streets of Old Delhi.KILLING FIELDSThe killer moves through Afghanistan and Pakistan to target the world’s most guarded man. It will change the course of our history.Friendship will be tested with blood and death.Can Bala stop the killer?Can the blood-thirsty navagrahas be pacified?

Switchgear Protection And Power Systems (Theory, Practice & Solved Problems)


Sunil S. Rao
    Switchgear Protection And Power Systems: Theory, Practice & Solved Problems Book Description

Masala Lab : The Science of Indian Cooking


Krish Ashok - 2020
    Just like memorizing an equation might have helped you pass an exam but not become a chemist, following a recipe without knowing its rationale can be a sub-optimal way of learning how to cook.Exhaustively tested and researched, and with a curious and engaging approach to food, Krish Ashok puts together the one book the Indian kitchen definitely needs, proving along the way that your grandmother was right all along.