Recalling books from October 2012

Planning to take a break and getting some time off from your work and lie under the bare sun in the sands of some exotic beaches or planning to have some time with yourself in the comfort of your home? The guys, you really need a good book which can give you a good company. So, just have a look at the below mentioned some exciting books that I have taken from my bookshelf, which dates to around two years back revising the books that released in October, 2012, something that’s sure to keep you flipping pages!

Lovetorn by Kavita Daswani

This international lifestyle journalist has returned, this time with a highly enjoyable, which attracts young adult chick-lit. Lovetorn is the tale of a teenage girl in the hunt for the help on the critical issue of love. The book is about a girl who moves to US along with her family and after reaching there, how she faces the awkwardness she faces in regard with her looks and personality, the fight to make friends and the challenge to stay loyal to the one she got engaged to before moving to the US.

Guru Dutt by Arun Khopkar and Shanta Gokhale

This book discloses the groundbreaking cinematic approach one of the masters of world cinema, Guru Dutt. Well-known filmmaker and intellectual Arun Khopkar and Gokhale is a Mumbai-based Marathi novelist, bilingual columnist, theatre historian, playwright, translator, and critic, personally observe and scrutinize the three best films of Sunil Dutt such as Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool and Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam. Along with discovering the chronological context in which these films are set, the ins and outs of the cinematic means – like acting, music, lighting, editing and rhythm – are also examined and evaluated by Khopkar and Gokhale. The novel also emphasizes the point of view of Guru Dutt, for whom art was not just a thing of magnificence but an imperative element of living itself.

Books available at lelobooks, best online bookstore in India and avail attractive discounts. Hurry now and grab your book by placing an order through online book shopping.

Sweet, sensual and steamy distractions…

Book review: Eighteen Plus: Bedtime Stories. For Grown Ups by Apurv Nagpal

The novel, Eighteen Plus: Bedtime Stories. For Grown Ups is a wickedly Desi, quirky laugh-out-loud work of short stories. The book is written in a hilarious manner and has shown how men look at women, observing them by scanning in and out of them  the elements infused in the books are absolutely humorous  along with the addition of some of the naughtiest appraisals that are triumphantly combined to unfold a fresh redolence of a perfect recipe for cool bold generation of today.

I personally found the cover very scintillating and seductive as it magnetized me to just grab this book and have a look. The author has also chosen an apt title alerting the readers before only that it is meant for adults and not kids.

It consists of 18 stories and all the 18 stories have the wildness and naughtiness rendering a flavor of spice to the book. The stories complied in the book are a mix of passion and decision making ability of every individual. The narration has been kept in such a smooth and flowing way that each story after one and another, shaking you out of reverie. It creates a scene of gaucheness at first, but has a lot of potential in it. The stories are demanding with their open ended discussion on many insightful subjects all allied to sex in some or the other way. The stories have been incorporated with some real time adventures blended with fiction, which render the book a pretty interesting prospect for the readers.

The downside of the book is having a repetitive theme of sex hungry women in many stories. According to my opinion, it could have been changed a bit writing in the view of both the sides. Few stories like story no. 5,6,10 and 15 could have been touched in a more authentic and rational manner.

All in all, the book will provide you with a humorous experience by reading an anthology based on sex, modern day predicaments and will provide you with a rich mix of youth and old and their share of experiences. It’s not a regular romantic book, but has a different touch with its contemptible audacity and sheer impudence. The book has all the s of spicy, saucy, raunchy along with infusing a bit of realistic element as well. It’s hard to guzzle it at first, but it can be absorbed and enjoyed in a slow and steady manner by a reader.

The book is sure to be enjoyed and adored by gen-next which is becoming more and more liberal in both thoughts and in its sexual expression and certainly describes well the  coming of age n true sense as it  claims to be.

The book is racy and colorful enough to make it a delightful read. The stories are light-hearted and fun to read with an appealing writing style of prose. It is a great package of entertainment and the wit and humor in it, will intrigue you, leaving you rolling on the floor laughing

If you are looking for a quick fix of tasteful risqué amusement for your laid back lazy weekend.

About the Author:

A graduate from the Shri Ram College of Commerce and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, Apurv Nagpal has worked in the corporate world in various capacities for over twenty years. His interests, other than writing, include sports (he saw the last four FIFA Soccer World Cups live), travel (he has been to all the seven continents and once nearly drove to the North Pole), wines, cocktails and cinema (he regularly reviews the latest movies on his blog.) His Twitter handle is @apurvnagpal.

The book is available at lelobooks, the best online bookstore in India! So just place an order to grab your book at an attractive price.

Throwing light on Indian mentality…

Book Review: More Men on My Mind by Radha Thomas

More Men on My Mind is a novel with a capricious, idiosyncratic outlook on sex from a woman’s point of view. The book has been penned by a female author Radha Thomas, thus provides even a minute detail about sex with a viewpoint of a woman.

The book will take you to the land of men, who expects your love skills to comprise the acrobatics the imaginative, the unmatched. There, you are a girl, tries to meet the baffling requirements of the men who walk in and out of your life. It is a book which has this quest of hunting for a good man, who can take the girl in the book not only around the world, but also into her own soul  and when she finds men in her life, they are not what she expected for.

The girl in the journey of finding a suitable match for her, speeds down illegally to the avenues of New York with Italian men in their alfa Romeos to the hospitals of Brooklyn with doctors who like stirrups, from charming, silver-tongued oriental drug dealers to musicians who alternately delight and terrorise her, there is nothing predictable about her adventures.

In the course of life, she learns various lessons from life in a tough manner, but she dusts herself off practically and soldiers on, dodging danger and flirting with potentially atrocious endings.

More Men on My Mind will take you directly into the psyche of the modern woman, courageously revealing its intimate workings.

The book is very entertaining in a hilarious way and there is not even a single moment in the book, when you can find yourself getting bored as every leaf of the book carries some interesting and hilarious elements that will bind the readers till the end. On occasions, you will find yourself terrified gut-wrenched, leaving you rolling on the floor laughing.

Interesting Facts

•    Keeping in mind the sales input for the cover of Men on My Mind (1st in the series), More Men on My Mind is jacketed in a bright red colour, highlighting the mood of the book.

•    Target audience-both men and women alike, age group – 18+

•    Although this book is a sequel, it can be read independently, creating much amusement for readers to pick up the first one too.

•    With its upbeat story telling technique and sassy first person narrative style, this book makes for a fun-filled and breezy summerish read.

Radha Thomas was born in Tamil Nadu, grew up in Mumbai and Delhi and left for the USA to pursue her dream of becoming a jazz singer. When she discovered that music wasn’t going to keep body and soul together, she found a variety of day jobs, while singing in clubs at night, sharing the stage with many of New York’s renowned jazz artists. Thomas returned to Bengaluru, India, after about twenty years.

She leads UNK: The Radha Thomas Ensemble—performing all over India, and is Executive Vice President at Explorcity.com.

Stay tuned with lelobooks, an online bookstore in India and get the review of books touching the social issues of India!

Tips for setting up of an online bookstore

While opening an online bookstore, there are a number of things that you should keep in mind as to make it big in the online industry. Just opening your bookstore in the online industry as to make it popular in the global world is not enough, as in order to have its online survival you need to put in various efforts. Thus, follow the below mentioned tips in order to have an ideal online bookstore.

Always be ready to serve: In order to be on time with your products for the customers, be ready with the ordered books and take it in advance from the booksellers. You should consider the fact that you need to have all types of books available with your booksellers as to make it instantly available to your customers and fill their orders.

Always remember to provide an adequate research system to your customers. The more simpler the finding tolls will be, the more useful customers will find your online bookstore. So, just keep it simple with the navigation of your website by using the keywords and just by a single term, a list of options should come in your search tool bar.

Possess a huge data base: An ideal bookstore should have a huge list of books comprising books from all categories old to new, bestsellers to academics, classic to modern, out of print to recently printed ones, low priced to high priced.

Thus, follow the above tips and you are set to open up an online bookstore and can see its bright future.

3Have a Huge Database. An ideal book store has a voluminous inventory with thousands of books from old to new, bestsellers to academics, classic to modern, out of print to recently printed ones, low priced to high priced. You can almost get every book in these online stores. Make sure that the hard to find titles are also available in your store as some are in high demand.

4Have affordable Prices. Customers want to buy books at an affordable price so it is another aim of a book store to provide books at the best possible rate. So don’t make the prices outrageous; the best way to find out a good price is to check the prices of some books in your local book shop and see if you agree with that.

5Have a Secure mode of payment. Your book store should have an arrangement with a secured payment gateway so that customers feel safe when they pay online. They want convenience as well.

6Encourage Feedback. This section is important so that readers can post their reviews or comments on the books they have read. It will be helpful for the customers to be able to go through the reviews before choosing and purchasing the one they want.

Book Review: We the people – behind a veil by Lalima Yadav

We, the people is a novel that has been penned by a 19 year old girl from Uttrakhand, who by writing this book makes an attempt to heal and understand the hearts of the victims of various crimes in the country. Through this book, the author throws light on the lives of the victims of crimes like racism, discrimination, illiteracy, child sexual abuse, bullying and various others, which lead them to suffer from the various consequences. In the book, with her heart deeply touched by the emotions of these victims, the author has provided an open chance for everyone of us to think about how can we help in eradicating it and what all we need to do in order to cease these crimes, by leaving open ended question in front of us like how to get out of it? What to do?

The author is in her last year of graduation as a bachelor in Science from Kumaun University and has a deep thought about the social issue. While writing her book, she has taken the theme, ‘Penning down with a view’

In the book, she has given her point of view about the solution which can help in eradicating the social evils and shape a better society with literature. Through literature, this little author with profound thinking by penning down her feelings and emotions on the behalf of the victims of such social evils so that people could realize their pain and agony buried in their hearts. The book is an absolute initiative  to create awareness in the society especially the young minds. It is a motivating key which will pave a way to take a stand and raise your voice against the crimes and criminals. Each endeavor that is undertaken by anyone against evils is a worth contribution to the society.

The title of the book is itself very creative and unifying and the book makes an emphasis over the issues of the society and with its own range it can reach into everyone’s heart as we all are a part of this world,where the social evils exist and time has come to be a part of a nobel deed and transform the society.

Her view about literature:

“Writing is not my hobby, it is my love and so it is a reason that I am surviving for.”

My take:

A highly recommended book by the youngest author of the country. Available at lelobook, an online bookstore in India. Indulge in online book shopping and avail attractive discounts.

cinema icons gliters the stage on the launch of autobiography by Dilip Kumar

June 9, glittered the stage with the presence of the icons of Hindi cinema such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Aamir Khan, while the trio along with the celebrated actress Saira Banu and author Udaya Tara Nayar, launched thespian Dilip Kumar’s much anticipated memoir “The Substance and The Shadow” in his presence at the event in the evening. It was decided that at the event the legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar would sing, but she couldn’t make it.

The launch of the book was held at Grand Hyatt in Santa Cruz, where the red carpet of the event witnessed celebrities from all the walks of life ranging from the old and gold age to the new generation who gathered here for the momentous night.

The celebrity stars who all turned up at the event and attended the gala are Zeenat Aman, Danny Denzongpa, Farida Jalal, and Vyjayanthimala, Subhash Ghai, Ayan Mukerji, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani, Madhuri Dixit and Priyanka Chopra.

The beautiful wife of this veteran actor Dilip Kumar, Saira Banu, looked resplendent in a gorgeous green sari, hoping for the book to be appreciated  was overwhelmed to see the fraternity’s participation in the event, which witnessed Karan Johar as a host.

Prior to the event, she said: “Please pray that the dedication we have written the book, it is received by the readers in the same way. Every chapter in the book is important and you all will read something that you have not read before about him.”

Born Muhammad Yusuf Khan, the actor entered filmdom with the 1944 release “Jwar Bhata”, and thereafter dedicated six decades of his life working in much appreciated films like “Mela”, “Naya Daur”, “Devdas”, “Madhumati” and “Mughal-E-Azam”.

The biography of Dilip Kumar is a record of his 91 year old life, capturing the instances of his love, life and marriage. The book also covers his childhood years to present, covering all thethe ups and downs in his life, his family, career, wife and more, as told by him to Nayar, who is a close family friend.

Aamir, who recited a poem penned by Prasoon Joshi specifically for the occasion, said: “We all were eagerly waiting for this big day. I am a huge fan of Yusuf sahab and I was waiting to read his book and his experiences.”

Actress Priyanka Chopra, who walked the red carpet, said she was “honored” to be invited for the event. “I’m so happy for them today. They have been close to my family for a long time. I have seen all his films and I really admire him,” she said.

For Madhuri Dixit, who walked in with her husband Sriram Nene, it was a proud moment to be part of the event. She stated, “Dilip Kumar is a legend in himself and it’s a big day. He has been an inspiration for everybody”.

Keep yourself updated with the latest news around the world by staying tuned with lelobooks, a fast paced online book store.

Lelobooks excerpt: Lethat Spice by Swati Kaushal

When I saw the cover of the book and read its title, it grabbed my interest and convinced me for reading. The cover of the book has a soft background with a bottle of spice. The book is a nice murder mystery, which hinges around its three main aspects the canvasser, the fatality and the reason. Then, there are the other two factors, which also play  vital role in forming the murder mystery including the suspects and the speed.

The blurb:

A hundred-year-old stage steeped in tradition. Then, there are six contestants in the book, which showcases the story by having the potential to gain the world and everything to lose. The three judges, who stand between these contestants and their dreams. It is October in Shimla. The air is crisp, the mist is rising and the stakes are sky-high as the finalists of India’s No. 1 reality cooking show, Hot Chef, are pitted against each other in a live shoot at the historic Gaiety Theater. The spices are ground, the fires are lit, the knives have been sharpened… Then things start to go horribly wrong. As she picks her way through a maze of testimonies and motives, Shimla’s Superintendent of Police, Niki Marwah, is more determined than ever to get to the bottom of a perplexing mystery–a mystery that this time around is dangerously close to her heart.

The story: It is a story about Hot Chef, India’s No 1 reality cooking show is being shot in Shimla, the first ever shoot with a live audience with six contestants from varied backgrounds and three judges on 14th October, 2012.

The contestants namely Pallavi Aanand, the talented granddaughter of multi-crore Aanand Group of Resorts and Hotels; Leena Dixit, who gave up her seat in an Engineering college to look after her invalid father and siblings; Vicky Gulati, son of doctor parents, a boarding school reprobate, medical –college dropout, self-taught guitarist and amateur chef; Shaqeel Khan, Shaq, had worked his way up in the world, waiting tables in Lucknow’s dhabas to running kitchens at the Gurgaon Taj; Sharon Sen, an avant-garde painter, was the controversial dare-all, bare-all contestant and Dev Nair, son of a family who owned a jewelry store, rejected fifty eight timed in various reality shows.  The host of the show is Rajat Tripathi and the judges are Mala Joseph, the winner of the first Hot Chef; Kemaal Kapoor, KK, of Kemaal’s Kebabs and Ashika De, an actress, guest judge for the current episode. SP Niki Marwah gets a call about a poison-gas attack at the Gaiety Theatre and announces that it is a Code Red condition only to find the victim who died, not of gasping venomous gas, but taking in a dose of cyanide. The book has been alienated into three segments and the anonymity moves from Shimla to Madhya Pradesh to Mumbai and then Goa with the contestants.

Read and find out that the victim is Mala Joseph, who died on the stage, is it a suicide or a homicide???

My take:

The story is fast pace, which kept me stuck to the book and I only got relieved when reached its end. Truly a thrilling story with a good level of mystery, which only glued me to it.

A very well-versed book with well-developed characters. The author has done a great job with its research. A must read book, especially if you like thrilling stories. Available at lelobooks, an online bookstore in India.

Follow the footsteps of Gandhi…

Read out Grandfather Gandhi by Arun Gandhi  (Author), Bethany Hegedus  (Author), Evan Turk (Illustrator)

The book is presented in the account of the first-person about Mohandas Gandhi through the eyes of his then 12-year-old grandson. In the book, there is a depiction of a time when Arun, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi arrived at his ashram (Sevagram) in Delhi, where he used to live. The book tells the time when Gandhi’s family members greet their famous relative and start participating in the simple lifestyle of morning prayers, chores and pumpkin mush.

It is a challenge for the boy, who had  a habit of living in the latest and the basic amenities like electricity; and was used to watch movies and fears of language lessons. The bottom line of the story takes its central point at the moment, when Arun got tripped and wounded at some stage while playing a soccer game. He picks up a rock and feels the weight of familial potential and opportunities. He then discovers various aspects of his grandfather and learns the surprising fact that Gandhi gets angry too. The his grandfather, who is better known as the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi lovingly explains that anger is like electricity: it “can strike, like lightning, and split a living tree in two…. Or it can be channeled, transformed….Then anger can illuminate. It can turn the darkness into light.” The book is rich in symbolic meaning and is valiant and is incorporated with easy-to-read imagery, contribute greatly to the emotional world binding. Especially, watercolor, gouache and cut paper play a major role in setting up of the scenes, while fabric clothes the primary players. Gandhi’s spinning wheel is a repeated pattern in the story which is in the scene signals Arun’s frustration.

This exceptional title has worked wonders by not burdening by its message, this extraordinary title works on manifold levels; it is both a prominent introduction to a singular symbol and forms a compelling story about the universal experience of a child who is in the hunt for approval of a venerated adult.

The illustrations used by Turk in the book have added much to the book.  He has aptly used mixed media and offered oranges, purples, deep pinks and more that show the heat, not only of the type of weather but of Arun’s antagonism.  Throughout the book, he has used fabrics for the clothing, giving three-dimensional depth to the paintings.  When Arun’s emotions flames up in the story, the author has beautifully illustrated it with tangles of black thread that all bring readers back to the image of Gandhi spinning neat white thread.  The contrast is delicate and reflective.

The book is  a personal and noteworthy read. A must read book for the children of 5 to 8 years. Available at lelobooks, an online bookstore in India, offering attractive discounts on online book shopping from the store!

Book Review of Anticipating India: The Best of National Interest by Shekhar Gupta

The novel penned by Shekhar Gupta revolves around the national interest and has been aptly titled as Anticipating India. The front cover of the book gives a look, which describes it as “a riveting first draft of modern Indian history”. Shekhar has raced through the last 18 years, wielding his weapon, cracking arrogance, two-facedness and falsehood, whenever and wherever he found these elements, he  has acclaimed his heroes and degrading the villains.

To him, the villains are from the same class, where he belongs to and his background. He has described in his book with a column of 2011,  the upper-caste configuration of the Anna movement, where Shekhar stated “the upper-caste upper crust of our country is the most prejudiced, but dominant, minority in any democracy in the world”. A comprehensive slit of the weapon if ever there was any.

There is a compilation of columns by Shekhar Gupta, who describes in the book  about two of the most verbal groups in the upper crust he loathes so thoroughly as “the most retrograde environmental and jholawala movements in the history of mankind”.

To his rescue Shekhar says, “I am a shameless, old-style reporter type. I never stop talking to anybody my writing may have torn into, or not answer phone calls from anybody whomsoever. Generally, Indian politicians have that quality as well … I have not just argued, but even fought, with the three who so remarkably personify the shift in our politics that is generational as well as political and philosophical: Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi … All three will evolve in the months to come: Modi towards mainstream moderation, Kejriwal towards a little establishmentarian calm and Rahul will shed some diffidence and risk avoidance. Together, the trio will lead a brilliant cast of political characters who—and I say this with absolute certainty and unbounded gratitude—will never leave me short of an idea when I sit down to write the next National Interest.”

The book describes about the modern India politics by putting across various questions to the politicians like, how many, in a Mumbai room full of Hermes ties and finance whizkids, are Dalit? What if Mahesh Bhatt’s son, David Headley’s friend, had been a Muslim? Why is Delhi getting better as a city and Mumbai going downhill?

Looking forward to the progress and development of India, covering every crucial and central aspect Shekar answers the questions like When did the Congress first start shrinking its prime minister? When did it become clear that Narendra Modi would take over his party? Who are the HMTs? And what does an angry Arvind Kejriwal say about us?

Raising questions like this, which is the trademark of Shekhar Gupta’s National Interest, the most fervently anticipated news and current affairs features in Indian journalism. Well-versed by more than three decades ago about formidable reporting and a credibility that gives Gupta unparalleled entrée of the decision makers in government, politics and business, have been perfectly described by him in his columns in the book Anticipating India give details and construe, incite and envisage modifications for more than a billion people.

Each and every chapter in Anticipating India, is in the format of questioning power, its use and abuse, carries within it ideas of India challenging conventional wisdom, destroy stereotypes and, in the end, question our long-held postulations and statements of who we are as a nation and its pupil.

Leaving nothing to the imagination, Rihanna goes nude at the CFDA Awards

Rihanna and her barely-there dress has gathered all the attention, seeming that no one at the CFDA Awards night could take off their eyes away from Rihanna, who wore a translucent dress featuring sheer Swarovski crystals to accept her Fashion Icon award at Awards function. However, there were other fashion figures present at the function, who found it worth noting at this oh-so-central fashion display. The attire that Rihanna wore at the awards function was  made of fishnet and was studded with Swarovski crystals were quite the scene-stealers at the night of the CFDA Awards in New York City, where the ever-audacious Fashionista took home the Fashion Icon Award.

 

It is said that fashion rules are made to be broken and Rihanna proved that while dictating this statement to the glittering crowd of fashion industry at the Awards function. Her outfit spectacularly conveyed a message: a sheer fishnet gown, gleaming with thousands of studded crystals, that left little beneath to the mind’s eye.

The singer cemented her personality as a fashion celebrity by receiving the 2014 Fashion Icon Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She was presented her trophy from presented by Anna Wintour, the powerful Vogue editor, who kept a statement about Rihanna that, “the point is to be audacious — even jaw-dropping or button-pushing.”

Accepting the award, Rihanna conversed about her origins in Barbados, where “I didn’t have a lot of access to fashion.” Further, she stated, “Fashion has always been my defense mechanism.” She told to the crowd that even as a child, she used to think: “She can beat me, but she can’t beat my outfit.” “I can compensate for all my weaknesses with my fashion,” she said, adding: “There are rules, but rules are meant to be broken.”

The celebrity, honored at the annual CFDA ceremony at Lincoln Center was crowded by a number of top designers. Joseph Altuzarra won the womenswear award, and the menswear prize went to Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne, the duo behind the Public School label. Sisters Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen of The Row won the accessories award.

The international award went to Raf Simons of Dior, and the CFDA lifetime achievement award went to designer Tom Ford, who quipped that he hoped it didn’t spell the end of his career.

The annual CFDA show, hosted this year by director and screenwriter John Waters, drawn a mix of fashion insiders and Hollywood. This year, among the biggest names was Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o, presented the Womenswear award to Altuzarra.

Other Hollywood stars in attendance integrated at the function were Blake Lively, who wore a short Michael Kors dress and Emmy Rossum, wore a green chiffon J. Mendel gown. Greta Gerwig was seen in a bright orange Zac Posen gown.

Nevertheless, none made as big a splash as Rihanna with her translucent outfit, which was designed by Adam Selman. The gown was escorted by complementing elbow-length gloves and a dazzling headscarf.

Speaking about Rihanna prior to the show, designer Posen called the pop star a fashion risk-taker who dexterously healed the red carpet glamour with a seditious streak and states to The Associated Press that “She takes risks and she marches to her own drum and she knows what she likes”. Posen added,”That’s why people love to dress her”.

There were other popular designers who were singing the praises of this celebrated singer, Rihanna like  Alexander Wang, a nominee for both the Womenswear and accessories awards and he said “I love my girl RiRi. She’s fearless. She has guts. Even in sweatpants, she owns it!”