Bibliofile

Dull Days with Mum

The lady is simply irrepressible. Socialite and author Shobha De already has an entire imprint in her name with Penguin, which brings out books on lifestyle and fashion (My Yummy Mummy Guide by Karisma Kapoor, Breaking Up: Your Guide to Getting Divorced by Mrunalini Deshmukh etc). She, of course, is one of Penguin’s star authors. Now, Hay House, her other publisher, released her book Never A Dull De with them. There is buzz that De is already writing another book for Hay House, which will come out in mid-July. With age, Ms De is only getting more and more busy.

Picturebook Heroes

Roli Books has come out with an interesting comics series, the Param Vir Cha­kra, featuring stories on recipients of the highest gallantry award. The first two are Maj Somnath Sharma, hero of the battle of Badgam in 1947 in Srinagar, the first PVC recipient, and Lt Manoj Pandey, who was 24 when he was killed in Kargil. The books are written by Maj Gen Ian Cardozo and, though aimed at the young adults, are detailed enough to hold anyone’s attention.

Open Lives

What’s common between Virat Kohli, Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza, Unmukt Chand, M.S. Dhoni, Pappu Yadav, Mary Kom, Bina Ramani, and Yash Birla? All of them have written their autobiographies in recent months. How much do they sell? Who reads them? Isn’t it too early for some of them to be writing biographies? Read all about it in Outlook next week.