As President Abdul Kalam prepares to move out of Rashtrapati Bhavan, he can look back with satisfaction on at least one unassailable achievement: he is PenguinIndia's bestselling author to date. With 2,50,000 copies of Ignited Minds sold,he's left literary icons like Vikram Seth and Rushdie far behind. But ask anyone who has the book whatit's about, and they're at a loss for words. Perhaps, like that other bestseller by a famous scientist, StephenHawking's Brief History of Time, it's a book that everyone feels they must buy, but few actually read.
Spatially Inclined
For all those Indian groupies who sang bhajans, lit candles, and painted their faces for SunitaWilliams' safe return from space, Rupa has rushed out a biography (or rather, hagiography) at breakneck speed. But just how'Indian' is Sunita? Here she seems to be as American as apple pie. For example, one chapter has a Q&A session, in whichshe's asked what her favourite food in space is. Her answer: "Peanut butter and marshmallow on a tortilla.It's my favourite on earth too." So much for our media reports that what she really craved during her space odyssey was samosas and gulab jamun.
Random HarvestRandom House is repackaging Anita Desai, bringing the reclusive author on an India tour to promote new editions of her backlist, with introductions by Salman Rushdie, Suketu Mehta and Mira Nair. Read and decide whether, as many critics think, her three Booker-nominated titles were really more deserving of the prize than her daughter KiranDesai's The Inheritance of Loss.
