Nikunj's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 22 Jul 2024 15:25:24 -0700 60 Nikunj's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Breaking Up: Your Guide to Getting Divorced]]> 20094914 250 Mrunalini Deshmukh 8184756585 Nikunj 3 4.00 2012 Breaking Up: Your Guide to Getting Divorced
author: Mrunalini Deshmukh
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2015/04/19
date added: 2024/07/22
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]]> The Art of War 16099819
Thomas Huynh guides you through Sun Tzu’s masterwork, highlighting principles that encourage a perceptive and spiritual approach to conflict, enabling you to:

� Prevent conflicts before they arise
� Peacefully and quickly resolve conflicts when they do arise
� Act with courage, intelligence and benevolence in adversarial situations
� Convert potential enemies into friends
� Control your emotions before they control you

Now you can experience the effectiveness of Sun Tzu’s teachings even if you have no previous knowledge of The Art of War. Insightful yet unobtrusive facing-page commentary explains the subtleties of the text, allowing you to unlock the power of its teachings and help prevent and resolve the conflicts in your own life.]]> 252 Thomas Cuong Huynh 8184950888 Nikunj 5 4.13 2008 The Art of War
author: Thomas Cuong Huynh
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/19
date added: 2024/06/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Collected Works of Kahlil Gibran: The Prophet / The Wanderers / Sand and Foam / The Madman / The Forerunner / The Earth Gods / ...]]> 17567111 690 Kahlil Gibran 9380005016 Nikunj 2 4.41 1964 Collected Works of Kahlil Gibran: The Prophet / The Wanderers / Sand and Foam / The Madman / The Forerunner / The Earth Gods / ...
author: Kahlil Gibran
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1964
rating: 2
read at: 2019/04/27
date added: 2024/03/05
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I became a fan of Khalil Gibran after reading 'The Prophet'. However his other works have been a bitter disappointment considering there are poetry and long stories which have occasional doses of wisdom in them. Seems like too little, too late. Overall not worth your time but to each his own.
]]> <![CDATA[Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?]]> 7999079 308 Michael J. Sandel 0141041331 Nikunj 2 4.35 2007 Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
author: Michael J. Sandel
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 2016/01/23
date added: 2023/10/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Neighbours in Arms: An American Senator’s Quest for Disarmament in a Nuclear Subcontinent]]> 35837166 This book reveals what went on behind the scenes in the years when the Pressler Amendment was in force, through a cast of characters that include presidents, prime ministers, senators and generals in the US, India and Pakistan. It exposes the enormous power wielded by the military-industrial complex, which the author terms 'Octopus', and how it controls significant aspects of the American presence in the Indian subcontinent.
The book provides a comprehensive account of how US foreign policy in the subcontinent was formed from 1974 till today, and ends with recommendations of a new US-India alliance that could be a model for American allies in future.]]> 264 Larry Pressler 9386815281 Nikunj 3 3.88 Neighbours in Arms: An American Senator’s Quest for Disarmament in a Nuclear Subcontinent
author: Larry Pressler
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2018/03/07
date added: 2022/11/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Me Against the Mumbai Underworld]]> 40577837 Me against the Mumbai Underworld is the story of Isaque Bagwan, three-time recipient of the President's Police Medal for Gallantry and a small-town boy who pursued his big-city dreams and ambitions as an upright police officer. Bagwan, who is credited with carrying out the first encounter in the history of Mumbai Police, was witness to several of the city's defining moments-the 1980s when smuggling was at an all-time high, the blasts that tore through Bombay in the '90s, the gang wars that marked the city, and the devastating 26/11 terror attack. His life, which has captured the imagination of many writers and filmmakers, is presented here with all its gut-wrenching details.]]> 346 Isaque Bagwan 9353051126 Nikunj 3 4.14 Me Against the Mumbai Underworld
author: Isaque Bagwan
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2019/03/17
date added: 2022/07/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Justice versus Judiciary: Justice Enthroned or Entangled in India?]]> 45212310 judges must be made accountable not only in respect of their personal conduct and integrity, but also in respect of the judicial verdicts they deliver. The work emphasizes that the need for judicial accountability has increased in recent times as the judiciary is, nowadays, performing not only
judicial functions, but virtually executive functions also, for which the government is accountable to the people. The author, in particular, critically discusses Articles 141, 142, and 144, which make the Supreme Court the most powerful institution in the country, and Articles 32 and 136, which
also confer wide powers on it. Using these powers, the apex court sometimes, unmindful of the budgetary and other vital implications, passes orders which are simply not implementable. For example, the intervention of the Supreme Court in the matter of the interlinking of rivers, a policy decision
which falls clearly in the domain of the Executive. The book advocates the need for judicial accountability to save the institutions of justice from turning autocratic and narcissistic.
]]> 320 Sudhanshu Ranjan 019949049X Nikunj 4 4.50 Justice versus Judiciary: Justice Enthroned or Entangled in India?
author: Sudhanshu Ranjan
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/08/13
date added: 2022/02/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy]]> 55736730 Tamal Bandyopadhyay has been a keen student of Indian banking. A lifelong reporter and journalist, he is an award-winning national business columnist and a bestselling author. He is widely recognised for ‘Banker’s Trust�, a weekly column whose unerring ability to anticipate and dissect major policy decisions in India’s banking and finance has earned him a large print and digital audience around the world. The column won Tamal the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism (commentary and interpretative writing) for 2017. Banker’s Trust now appears in Business Standard, where he is a Consulting Editor.Previously, Tamal has had stints with three other national business dailies in India, and was a founding member of Mint newspaper and Livemint.com. He is also a Senior Adviser to Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd. Between 2014 and 2018, as an adviser on strategy for Bandhan Bank Ltd, he had a ringside view of the first-ever transformation of a microfinance institution in India into a universal bank.Author of five other books, Tamal is widely recognised as a contributor to the Oxford Handbook of the Indian Economy and Making of New Transformation Under Modi Government. In 2019, LinkedIn named him as one of the ‘most influential voices in India�.]]> 640 Tamal Bandyopadhyay 8194643368 Nikunj 4 4.18 Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy
author: Tamal Bandyopadhyay
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2021/12/26
date added: 2022/01/07
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]]> <![CDATA[A Wall Street View of Rural India]]> 54758568 135 Sujit Sahgal Nikunj 3 3.85 A Wall Street View of Rural India
author: Sujit Sahgal
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/12/25
date added: 2022/01/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know]]> 43848929 Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers -- and why they often go wrong.

How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to each other that isn't true?

While tackling these questions, Malcolm Gladwell was not solely writing a book for the page. He was also producing for the ear. In the audiobook version of Talking to Strangers, you'll hear the voices of people he interviewed--scientists, criminologists, military psychologists. Court transcripts are brought to life with re-enactments. You actually hear the contentious arrest of Sandra Bland by the side of the road in Texas. As Gladwell revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, and the suicide of Sylvia Plath, you hear directly from many of the players in these real-life tragedies. There's even a theme song - Janelle Monae's "Hell You Talmbout."

Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don't know. And because we don't know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.]]> 388 Malcolm Gladwell 0316478520 Nikunj 4 4.00 2019 Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/01/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law]]> 44326245


"This is a wonderful piece of work, richly detailed and beautifully written. It is the best, sanest, and most comprehensive evaluation and critique of the American way of law that I have seen. Every serious scholar concerned with justice and efficiency, and every policymaker who is serious about improving the American legal order, should read this trenchant and exciting book."
--Lawrence Friedman, Stanford University

"A tour de force. It is an elegantly written, consistently insightful analysis and critique of the American emphasis on litigation and punitive sanctions in the policy and administrative process."
--Charles R. Epp, Law and Society Review]]> 432 Robert A. Kagan 0674238362 Nikunj 4 4.00 Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law
author: Robert A. Kagan
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/07
date added: 2021/10/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Zero-Cost Mission/The Wily Agent]]> 40389011 204 Amar Bhushan 9352779037 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.63 The Zero-Cost Mission/The Wily Agent
author: Amar Bhushan
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.63
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/08/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wit and Wisdom of Nani A. Palkhivala]]> 27558466 152 Jignesh R. Shah 812913747X Nikunj 5 3.84 The Wit and Wisdom of Nani A. Palkhivala
author: Jignesh R. Shah
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2016/06/03
date added: 2021/04/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Untouchables: Who were They and Why They became Untouchables?]]> 12461945 152 B.R. Ambedkar Nikunj 0 currently-reading 4.48 1948 The Untouchables: Who were They and Why They became Untouchables?
author: B.R. Ambedkar
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1948
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/19
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Annihilation of Caste 8521879
B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar � a figure like W.E.B. Du Bois � offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. The world’s best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to the provocation. The hatchet was never buried.]]> 100 B.R. Ambedkar 8187190442 Nikunj 3 4.61 1936 Annihilation of Caste
author: B.R. Ambedkar
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.61
book published: 1936
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/13
date added: 2021/02/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Judiciary, Judges and the Administration of Justice]]> 56758369 255 Justice R. Banumathi 8194772362 Nikunj 2 2.00 Judiciary, Judges and the Administration of Justice
author: Justice R. Banumathi
name: Nikunj
average rating: 2.00
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2021/01/30
date added: 2021/01/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ultimate Goal: A Former R&AW Chief Deconstructs How Nations Construct Narratives]]> 56096941
A 'narrative' may not necessarily be based on truth, but it does need to be plausible, have a meaning and create a desired perception. During most of the twentieth century, intelligence agencies helped shape narratives favourable to their countries' agendas through literature, history, drama, art, music and cinema. Today, social media has become crucial to manipulating, countering or disrupting narratives, with its ability to spread fake news disinformation, and provoke reactions.]]> 304 Vikram Sood 9353579511 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.62 The Ultimate Goal: A Former R&AW Chief Deconstructs How Nations Construct Narratives
author: Vikram Sood
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.62
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date added: 2021/01/10
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]]> The Discovery of India 154126 In conjunction with the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund in New Delhi, Oxford proudly announces the reissue of Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India, two famous works by Jawaharlal Nehru. One of modern day's most articulate statesmen, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a on a wide variety of subjects. Describing himself as "a dabbler in many things," he committed his life not only to politics but also to nature and wild life, drama, poetry, history, and science, as well as many other fields. These two volumes help to illuminate the depth of his interests and knowledge and the skill and elegance with which he treated the written word!!

]]> 656 Jawaharlal Nehru 0143031031 Nikunj 3 4.09 1946 The Discovery of India
author: Jawaharlal Nehru
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1946
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/06
date added: 2021/01/06
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]]> Republic of Religion 51086773
Thought-provoking and impeccably argued, Republic of Religion reasons that the secular structure of the colonial state in India was imposed by a colonial power on a conquered people. It was an unnatural foreign imposition, perhaps one that was bound, in some measure, to come apart once colonialism ended, given colonial secularism's dubious origins.]]> 320 Abhinav Chandrachud 0670092452 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.00 Republic of Religion
author: Abhinav Chandrachud
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.00
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rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/15
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]]> Dark Age Ahead 85397
But this is a hopeful book as well as a warning. Drawing on a vast frame of reference—from fifteenth-century Chinese shipbuilding to Ireland’s cultural rebirth—Jacobs suggests how the cycles of decay can be arrested and our way of life renewed. Invigorating and accessible,  Dark Age Ahead  is not only the crowning achievement of Jane Jacobs� career, but one of the most important works of our time.]]> 256 Jane Jacobs 1400076706 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.62 2004 Dark Age Ahead
author: Jane Jacobs
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity]]> 34189710 -Dr. Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury and Master of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge “Akbar Ahmed’s profound and careful inquiries have greatly enriched our understanding of Islam in the modern world. His latest study, based on direct research with a group of young scholars, explores the complex interfaith reality of Europe, both in history and today, from an Eastern perspective, reversing the familiar paradigm. It is sure to be yet another influential contribution, one greatly needed in a world riven by conflicts and misunderstanding.�
-Professor Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus), Massachusetts Institute of Technology An unprecedented, richly detailed, and clear-eyed exploration of Islam in Europe and the place of Islam in European history and civilization Daily headlines tell of escalating tensions surrounding Muslims in the refugee crisis, repeated episodes of terrorism, and cultural differences over language and female dress have helped shape a growing rift between the communities, while the parallel rise of right-wing, nationalist political parties throughout the continent, often espousing anti-Muslim rhetoric, has shaken the foundation of the European Union to its very core. Over the past decade, the relationship between European and Islamic societies has been defined by steadily escalating tension. Many Europeans see Islam as an alien, even barbaric force that threatens to overwhelm them and their societies. Muslims, by contrast, are facing conflicting attractions to Europe’s economic opportunities and repulsion to intolerance in the region, with Islamophobia reaching extreme levels in all corners of Europe. Amid this conflict, the Jewish community and other minority groups are finding themselves caught in a similar onslaught of xenophobic rhetoric, with anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination causing many to feel unwelcome in their European homes. Akbar Ahmed, widely acknowledged as a leading scholar of contemporary Islam, and a team of researchers have traveled across Europe over the last several years and interviewed Muslims and non-Muslims from all walks of life. They spoke with some of Europe's most prominent figures, including presidents and prime ministers, archbishops, chief rabbis, grand muftis, heads of right-wing parties, and every-day Europeans from a variety of backgrounds. Their findings reveal both of the misunderstandings and the opportunities for Europe and its Muslims to improve their mutual relationship. Along with an analysis of what has gone wrong and why, this urgent, unprecedented study, the fourth in a quartet of studies examining relations between the West and the Muslim world, features recommendations for promoting integration and pluralism in the twenty-first century.]]> 591 Akbar Ahmed 0815727585 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.80 Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity
author: Akbar Ahmed
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.80
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date added: 2020/12/04
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]]> <![CDATA[A Wall Street View of Rural India]]> 54758569 Pradeep Kashyap
Founder
MART Global - Demystifying Rural Markets for 25 years]]> 176 Sujit Sahgal 1788305981 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.00 A Wall Street View of Rural India
author: Sujit Sahgal
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.00
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rating: 0
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date added: 2020/11/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?]]> 50364458
Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the polarized politics of our time, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalisation and rising inequality. Sandel highlights the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind. He offers an alternative way of thinking about success - more attentive to the role of luck in human affairs, more conducive to an ethic of humility, and more hospitable to a politics of the common good.]]> 272 Michael J. Sandel 0241407605 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.18 2020 The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?
author: Michael J. Sandel
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/11/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires]]> 28220858
For half a century, the American Mafia outwitted, outmaneuvered, and outgunned the FBI and other police agencies, wreaking unparalleled damage on America’s social fabric and business enterprises while emerging as the nation’s most formidable crime empire. The vanguard of this criminal juggernaut is still led by the Mafia’s most potent and largest New York’s Five Families.

Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New York’s premier dons, from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and others. This definitive history brings the reader right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law-enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime.

This updated tenth-anniversary edition features a new preface by the author.]]> 816 Selwyn Raab 1250101700 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.24 2005 Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
author: Selwyn Raab
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/11/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Dalit Women: Vanguard of an Alternative Politics in india]]> 44181795 350 S. Anandhi and Karin Kapadia 1138098442 Nikunj 0 to-read 0.0 Dalit Women: Vanguard of an Alternative Politics in india
author: S. Anandhi and Karin Kapadia
name: Nikunj
average rating: 0.0
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rating: 0
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date added: 2020/09/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)]]> 48710539
A new understanding of how and why early democracy took hold, how modern democracy evolved, and what this history teaches us about the future

Historical accounts of democracy’s rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer—democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished—and when and why they declined—can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future.

Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, Stasavage first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent—as in medieval Europe—rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong—as in China or the Middle East—consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. He then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world—and its transformation is ongoing.

Amidst rising democratic anxieties, The Decline and Rise of Democracy widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance.]]> 424 David Stasavage 0691177465 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.78 The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
author: David Stasavage
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.78
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rating: 0
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date added: 2020/08/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism]]> 648076

Halley also invites feminism to abandon its uncritical relationship to its own power. Feminists are, in many areas of social and political life, partners in governance. To govern responsibly, even on behalf of women, Halley urges, feminists should try taking a break from their own presuppositions.


Halley offers a genealogy of various feminisms and of gay, queer, and trans theories as they split from each other in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. All these incommensurate theories, she argues, enrich thinking on the left not despite their break from each other but because of it. She concludes by examining legal cases to show how taking a break from feminism can change your very perceptions of what's at stake in a decision and liberate you to decide it anew.]]> 424 Janet Halley 0691127379 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.33 2006 Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism
author: Janet Halley
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/08/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[After Sex?: On Writing since Queer Theory (Series Q)]]> 10434370 After Sex? prominent contributors to the development of queer studies offer personal reflections on the field’s history, accomplishments, potential, and limitations. They consider the purpose of queer theory and the extent to which it is or is not defined by its engagement with sex and sexuality. For many of the contributors, a broad notion of sexuality is essential to queer thought. At the same time, some of them caution against creating an all-embracing idea of queerness, because it empties the term “queer� of meaning and assumes the universality of ideas developed in the North American academy. Some essays recall the political urgency of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when gay and lesbian activist and queer theory projects converged in response to the AIDS crisis. Other pieces exemplify more recent trends in queer critique, including the turn to affect and the debates surrounding the “antisocial thesis,� which associates queerness with the repudiation of heteronormative forms of belonging. Contributors discuss queer theory’s engagement with questions of transnationality and globalization, temporality and historical periodization. Meditating on the past and present of queer studies, After Sex? illuminates its future.Contributors. Lauren Berlant, Leo Bersani, Michael Cobb, Ann Cvetkovich, Lee Edelman, Richard Thompson Ford, Carla Freccero, Elizabeth Freeman, Jonathan Goldberg, Janet Halley, Neville Hoad, Joseph Litvak, Heather Love, Michael Lucey, Michael Moon, José Esteban Muñoz, Jeff Nunokawa, Andrew Parker, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Richard Rambuss, Erica Rand, Bethany Schneider, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Kate Thomas]]> 336 Janet Halley 0822349094 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.80 2007 After Sex?: On Writing since Queer Theory (Series Q)
author: Janet Halley
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/08/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Scam: from Harshad Mehta to Ketan Parekh]]> 23509108
The Scam, a chronicle of two of the most famous scams in the Indian stock markets, is now back in a digital avatar. The story told by Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu, can't find a more credible and informed couple of storytellers for these events. First published in April 1993, the book was an immediate bestseller but had been out of print for a while.
This 8th edition of the scam includes the original Harshad Mehta Scam and the Ketan Parekh Scam, while also delving into the JPC Fiasco and the Global Trust Bank Scam. The basic question that the book deals with is, "what really happened in the two great Indian scams?" The answer to this question, detailed in the book, brings up another important one, "Have we learnt anything since, so that such things don't happen again?"]]> 378 Sucheta Dalal Nikunj 3 3.97 1993 The Scam: from Harshad Mehta to Ketan Parekh
author: Sucheta Dalal
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1993
rating: 3
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date added: 2020/08/20
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]]> Caste Matters 51724545
He describes his gut-wrenching experiences of growing up in a Dalit basti, the multiple humiliations suffered by Dalits on a daily basis, and their incredible resilience enabled by love and humour. As he brings to light the immovable glass ceiling that exists for Dalits even in politics, bureaucracy and judiciary, Yengde provides an unflinchingly honest account of divisions within the Dalit community itself—from their internal caste divisions to the conduct of elite Dalits and their tokenized forms of modern-day untouchability—all operating under the inescapable influences of Brahminical doctrines.

This path-breaking book reveals how caste crushes human creativity and is disturbingly similar to other forms of oppression, such as race, class and gender. At once a reflection on inequality and a call to arms, Caste Matters argues that until Dalits lay claim to power and Brahmins join hands against Brahminism to effect real transformation, caste will continue to matter.]]> 304 Suraj Yengde 0670091227 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.10 Caste Matters
author: Suraj Yengde
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty]]> 52884091 'A must-read. Acemoglu and Robinson are intellectual heavyweights of the first rank . . . erudite and fascinating' Paul Collier, Guardian, on Why Nations Fail

By the authors of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail, based on decades of research, this powerful new big-picture framework explains how some countries develop towards and provide liberty while others fall to despotism, anarchy or asphyxiating norms- and explains how liberty can thrive despite new threats.

Liberty is hardly the 'natural' order of things; usually states have been either too weak to protect individuals or too strong for people to protect themselves from despotism. There is also a happy Western myth that where liberty exists, it's a steady state, arrived at by 'enlightenment'. But liberty emerges only when a delicate and incessant balance is struck between state and society - between elites and citizens. This struggle becomes self-reinforcing, inducing both state and society to develop a richer array of capacities, thus affecting the peacefulness of societies, the success of economies and how people experience their daily lives.

Explaining this new framework through compelling stories from around the world, in history and from today - and through a single diagram on which the development of any state can be plotted - this masterpiece helps us understand the past and present, and analyse the future.

'An intellectually rich book that develops an important thesis with verve' Martin Wolf, Financial Times, on Why Nations Fail

]]> 560 Daron Acemoğlu Nikunj 3 4.20 2019 The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty
author: Daron Acemoğlu
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/07/17
date added: 2020/07/23
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]]> <![CDATA[White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism]]> 43708708 7 Robin DiAngelo 0807071161 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.14 2018 White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
author: Robin DiAngelo
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/18
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]]> How to Be an Antiracist 40265832 How to be an Antiracist, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.

In this book, Kendi weaves together an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism. How to Be an Antiracist is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.]]> 305 Ibram X. Kendi 0525509283 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.36 2019 How to Be an Antiracist
author: Ibram X. Kendi
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Old is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born: From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump and Beyond]]> 42900929 Neoliberalism is fracturing, but what will emerge in its wake?

Across the globe politics as usual are being rejected and faith in neoliberalism is fracturing beyond repair. Leading political theorist Nancy Fraser, in conversation with Jacobin publisher Bhaskar Sunkara, dissects neoliberalism's current crisis and argues that we might wrest new futures from its ruins.

The global political, ecological, economic, and social breakdown--symbolized, but not caused, by Trump's election--has destroyed faith that neoliberal capitalism is beneficial to the majority. Fraser explores how this faith was built through the late twentieth century by balancing two central tenets: recognition (who deserves rights) and distribution (who deserves income). When these began to fray, new forms of outsider populist politics emerged on the left and the right. These, Fraser argues, are symptoms of the larger crisis of hegemony for neoliberalism, a moment when, as Gramsci had it, "the old is dying and the new cannot be born."

Explored further in an accompanying interview with Jacobin publisher Bhaskar Sunkara, Fraser argues that we now have the opportunity to build progressive populism into an emancipatory social force, one that can claim a new hegemony.]]> 63 Nancy Fraser 1788732723 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.92 2019 The Old is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born: From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump and Beyond
author: Nancy Fraser
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Cultural Proficiency: A Manual for School Leaders]]> 6790548 344 Randall B. Lindsey 141296363X Nikunj 0 to-read 3.88 1999 Cultural Proficiency: A Manual for School Leaders
author: Randall B. Lindsey
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man]]> 29401973
New Featuring 15 explosive new chapters, this expanded edition of Perkins's classic bestseller brings the story of economic hit men (EHMs) up to date and, chillingly, home to the US. Over 40 percent of the book is new, including chapters identifying today's EHMs and a detailed chronology extensively documenting EHM activity since the first edition was published in 2004.

Former economic hit man John Perkins shares new details about the ways he and others cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Then he reveals how the deadly EHM cancer he helped create has spread far more widely and deeply than ever in the US and everywhere else—to become the dominant system of business, government, and society today. Finally, he gives an insider view of what we each can do to change it.

Economic hit men are the shock troops of what Perkins calls the corporatocracy, a vast network of corporations, banks, colluding governments, and the rich and powerful people tied to them. If the EHMs can't maintain the corrupt status quo through nonviolent coercion, the jackal assassins swoop in. The heart of this book is a completely new section, over 100 pages long, that exposes the fact that all the EHM and jackal tools—false economics, false promises, threats, bribes, extortion, debt, deception, coups, assassinations, unbridled military power—are used around the world today exponentially more than during the era Perkins exposed over a decade ago.

The material in this new section ranges from the Seychelles, Honduras, Ecuador, and Libya to Turkey, Western Europe, Vietnam, China, and, in perhaps the most unexpected and sinister development, the United States, where the new EHMs—bankers, lobbyists, corporate executives, and others—“con governments and the public into submitting to policies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer.�

But as dark as the story gets, this reformed EHM also provides hope. Perkins offers a detailed list of specific actions each of us can take to transform what he calls a failing Death Economy into a Life Economy that provides sustainable abundance for all.]]> 384 John Perkins 1626568944 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.80 2016 The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
author: John Perkins
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/12
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]]> India's China War 27399879 549 Neville Maxwell 8181582500 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.91 1970 India's China War
author: Neville Maxwell
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1970
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead]]> 16071764 Lean In is a massive cultural phenomenon and its title has become an instant catchphrase for empowering women. The book soared to the top of bestseller lists internationally, igniting global conversations about women and ambition. Sandberg packed theatres, dominated opinion pages, appeared on every major television show and on the cover of Time magazine, and sparked ferocious debate about women and leadership. Ask most women whether they have the right to equality at work and the answer will be a resounding yes, but ask the same women whether they'd feel confident asking for a raise, a promotion, or equal pay, and some reticence creeps in. The statistics, although an improvement on previous decades, are certainly not in women's favour � of 197 heads of state, only twenty-two are women. Women hold just 20 percent of seats in parliaments globally, and in the world of big business, a meagre eighteen of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women. In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg � Facebook COO and one of Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business � draws on her own experience of working in some of the world's most successful businesses and looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale.]]> 217 Sheryl Sandberg 0385349947 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.94 2013 Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
author: Sheryl Sandberg
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion-Dollar Business]]> 40190694 233 T.T. Jagannathan 9353050375 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.97 Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion-Dollar Business
author: T.T. Jagannathan
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Power of Positive Confrontation: The Skills You Need to Handle Conflicts at Work, at Home, Online, and in Life, completely revised and updated edition]]> 18596492
When slighted, misunderstood, cut in front of, annoyed, taken advantage of, or treated rudely, most people avoid their bosses, ignore coworkers, change hairdressers, complain to friends, pound their fists, or rant on social media. They often miss the most positive, effective alternative of confronting positively. Now, for everyone who was never taught or never realized that between "bully" and "wimp" is a range of behavior that is positive, dignified, and effective for dealing with life's bothersome situations, there is The Power of Positive Confrontation.

This book teaches you the vital skills you need to confront others, communicate effectively, and live a more conflict-free life. In this updated edition, communications expert Barbara Pachter shares a practical, step-by-step guide to tackling conflicts in any situation. The Power of Positive Confrontation consequences of not confronting or of confronting negatively;How to accurately assess what is bothering you and why;Three essential steps of polite and powerful confrontation;Vital verbal and nonverbal skills that make or break communication, including common language pitfalls;Strategies for assertive communication, whether face to face, in writing, by phone, or online.]]> 264 Barbara Pachter 073821759X Nikunj 3 3.97 1999 The Power of Positive Confrontation: The Skills You Need to Handle Conflicts at Work, at Home, Online, and in Life, completely revised and updated edition
author: Barbara Pachter
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1999
rating: 3
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date added: 2020/05/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam]]> 33584231
The Strange Death of Europe is the internationally bestselling account of a continent and culture caught in the act of suicide. Douglas Murray takes a step back and explores the deeper issues behind the continent's possible demise, from an atmosphere of mass terror attacks and a global refugee crisis to the steady erosion of our freedoms. He addresses the disappointing failure of multiculturalism, Angela Merkel's U-turn on migration, and the Western fixation on guilt. Murray travels to Berlin, Paris, Scandinavia, and Greece to uncover the malaise at the very heart of the European culture, and to hear the stories of those who have arrived in Europe from far away.

Declining birth rates, mass immigration, and cultivated self-distrust and self-hatred have come together to make Europeans unable to argue for themselves and incapable of resisting their own comprehensive alteration as a society and an eventual end. This sharp and incisive book ends up with two visions for a new Europe--one hopeful, one pessimistic--which paint a picture of Europe in crisis and offer a choice as to what, if anything, we can do next. But perhaps Spengler was "civilizations like humans are born, briefly flourish, decay, and die."]]> 352 Douglas Murray 1472942248 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.12 2017 The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam
author: Douglas Murray
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society]]> 250824 160 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. 0393309878 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.50 1991 The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society
author: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Future Is Asian: Global Order in the Twenty-first Century]]> 43893184
The “Asian Century� is even bigger than you think. Far greater than just China, the new Asian system taking shape is a multi-civilizational order spanning Saudi Arabia to Japan, Russia to Australia, Turkey to Indonesia—linking five billion people through trade, finance, infrastructure, and diplomatic networks that together represent 40 percent of global GDP. China has taken a lead in building the new Silk Roads across Asia, but it will not lead it alone. Rather, Asia is rapidly returning to the centuries-old patterns of commerce, conflict, and cultural exchange that thrived long before European colonialism and American dominance. Asians will determine their own future—and as they collectively assert their interests around the world, they will determine ours as well.

There is no more important region of the world for us to better understand than Asia � and thus we cannot afford to keep getting Asia so wrong. Asia’s complexity has led to common misdiagnoses: Western thinking on Asia conflates the entire region with China, predicts imminent World War III around every corner, and regularly forecasts debt-driven collapse for the region’s major economies. But in reality, the region is experiencing a confident new wave of growth led by younger societies from India to the Philippines, nationalist leaders have put aside territorial disputes in favor of integration, and today’s infrastructure investments are the platform for the next generation of digital innovation.

If the nineteenth century featured the Europeanization of the world, and the twentieth century its Americanization, then the twenty-first century is the time of Asianization. From investment portfolios and trade wars to Hollywood movies and university admissions, no aspect of life is immune from Asianization. With America’s tech sector dependent on Asian talent and politicians praising Asia’s glittering cities and efficient governments, Asia is permanently in our nation’s consciousness. We know this will be the Asian century. Now we finally have an accurate picture of what it will look like.]]> 448 Parag Khanna 1474610676 Nikunj 2 3.30 The Future Is Asian: Global Order in the Twenty-first Century
author: Parag Khanna
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.30
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2019/11/20
date added: 2020/05/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Adding Insult to Injury: Nancy Fraser Debates her Critics]]> 6131976 368 Nancy Fraser 1859842232 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.85 2008 Adding Insult to Injury: Nancy Fraser Debates her Critics
author: Nancy Fraser
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Power, Policy, and Protest: The Politics of India's Special Economic Zones]]> 21110712 variations within and between eleven states. Detailed case studies investigate differences in the nature and extent of SEZ-related political mobilization and the means employed by governments to manage dissent. By covering a broad range of regional contexts, industrial sectors, and political conditions, this volume furnishes a comprehensive picture of the politics surrounding one of India's most controversial reform measures.]]> 384 Rob Jenkins 0198097344 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.00 2014 Power, Policy, and Protest: The Politics of India's Special Economic Zones
author: Rob Jenkins
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Bureaucracy But Were Afraid to Ask]]> 52543960 272 T.R. Raghunandan 0143442279 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.55 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Bureaucracy But Were Afraid to Ask
author: T.R. Raghunandan
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.55
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rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/22
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]]> An Indian Spy in Pakistan 11111806 329 Mohanlal Bhaskar 8188575194 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.76 1984 An Indian Spy in Pakistan
author: Mohanlal Bhaskar
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Judicial Review: Process, Powers, and Problems (Essays in Honour of Upendra Baxi)]]> 50665269 Salman Khurshid 110887018X Nikunj 3 3.33 Judicial Review: Process, Powers, and Problems (Essays in Honour of Upendra Baxi)
author: Salman Khurshid
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2020/04/15
date added: 2020/04/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Dangerous Sex, Invisible Labor: Sex Work and the Law in India]]> 12819350 312 Prabha Kotiswaran 1400838762 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.25 2011 Dangerous Sex, Invisible Labor: Sex Work and the Law in India
author: Prabha Kotiswaran
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Never Done and Poorly Paid Women's Work in Globalising India]]> 28755888 185 Jayati Ghosh 8188965448 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.00 Never Done and Poorly Paid Women's Work in Globalising India
author: Jayati Ghosh
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.00
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rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle]]> 53051858 256 Silvia Federici 1629637971 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.29 2012 Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle
author: Silvia Federici
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China]]> 37861785 How the Feminist Five and the rise of China's feminist movement threatens China's authoritarian government

On the eve of International Women’s Day in 2015, the Chinese government arrested five feminist activists and jailed them for 37 days. The Feminist Five became a global cause célèbre, with Hillary Clinton speaking out on their behalf, and activists inundating social media with #FreetheFive messages. But the Feminist Five are only symbols of a much larger feminist movement of civil rights lawyers, labor activists, performance artists and online warriors that is prompting an unprecedented awakening among China’s urban, educated women. In Betraying Big Brother, journalist and scholar Leta Hong Fincher argues that the popular, broad-based movement poses the greatest threat to China’s authoritarian regime today.

Through interviews with the Feminist Five and other leading Chinese activists, Hong Fincher illuminates both the challenges they face and their “joy of betraying Big Brother,� as Wei Tingting—one of the Feminist Five—wrote of the defiance she felt during her detention. Tracing the rise of a new feminist consciousness through online campaigns resembling #MeToo, and describing how the Communist regime has suppressed the history of its own feminist struggles, Betraying Big Brother is a story of how the movement against patriarchy could reconfigure China and the world.]]> 240 Leta Hong Fincher 1786633647 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.18 2018 Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China
author: Leta Hong Fincher
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age]]> 25246861
To see our growing dependency, you need only look at your smartphone: cerium buffs the glass; indium allows your screen to respond to touch; terbium makes images more vibrant; and lithium helps it store energy. Abraham provides readers with a front-row seat to the life of these metals, tracing the paths of these high-tech elements through a dozen countries from the mine to our pockets.

But it’s not just smartphones that rely on these metals; they are the building blocks of modern society because they are critical for nearly all our electronic, military, and “green� technologies. Just as oil, iron, and bronze revolutionized previous eras, so too will these metals. The challenges this book reveals, and the plans it proposes, make it essential reading for our rare metal age.]]> 336 David S. Abraham 0300196792 Nikunj 4 4.08 2015 The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age
author: David S. Abraham
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/09
date added: 2020/04/09
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]]> The Cases That India Forgot 50255465 183 Chintan Chandrachud 9353450837 Nikunj 4 4.14 The Cases That India Forgot
author: Chintan Chandrachud
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/06
date added: 2020/04/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier]]> 9897152
America is an urban nation. More than two thirds of us live on the 3 percent of land that contains our cities. Yet cities get a bad they're dirty, poor, unhealthy, crime ridden, expensive, environmentally unfriendly... Or are they?

As Edward Glaeser proves in this myth-shattering book, cities are actually the healthiest, greenest, and richest (in cultural and economic terms) places to live. New Yorkers, for instance, live longer than other Americans; heart disease and cancer rates are lower in Gotham than in the nation as a whole. More than half of America's income is earned in twenty-two metropolitan areas. And city dwellers use, on average, 40 percent less energy than suburbanites.

Glaeser travels through history and around the globe to reveal the hidden workings of cities and how they bring out the best in humankind. Even the worst cities-Kinshasa, Kolkata, Lagos- confer surprising benefits on the people who flock to them, including better health and more jobs than the rural areas that surround them. Glaeser visits Bangalore and Silicon Valley, whose strangely similar histories prove how essential education is to urban success and how new technology actually encourages people to gather together physically. He discovers why Detroit is dying while other old industrial cities-Chicago, Boston, New York-thrive. He investigates why a new house costs 350 percent more in Los Angeles than in Houston, even though building costs are only 25 percent higher in L.A. He pinpoints the single factor that most influences urban growth-January temperatures-and explains how certain chilly cities manage to defy that link. He explains how West Coast environmentalists have harmed the environment, and how struggling cities from Youngstown to New Orleans can "shrink to greatness." And he exposes the dangerous anti-urban political bias that is harming both cities and the entire country.

Using intrepid reportage, keen analysis, and eloquent argument, Glaeser makes an impassioned case for the city's import and splendor. He reminds us forcefully why we should nurture our cities or suffer consequences that will hurt us all, no matter where we live.]]> 352 Edward L. Glaeser 159420277X Nikunj 4 3.91 2011 Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier
author: Edward L. Glaeser
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/05
date added: 2020/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Half Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India]]> 30741724
With exclusive access to Rao’s never-before-seen personal papers as well as over a hundred interviews, this definitive biography provides new revelations on the Indian economy, nuclear programme, foreign policy and the Babri Masjid. While tracing Rao’s life from a village in Telangana through his years in power and humiliation in retirement, the book never loses sight of the inner man, his difficult childhood, his corruptions and love affairs, his lingering loneliness.]]> 392 Vinay Sitapati 0670088226 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.45 2016 Half Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India
author: Vinay Sitapati
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India's Most Famous]]> 34837705
They say that prison can be a great leveler � but does this apply if you are a VIP inmate in an Indian prison? Maybe not.

Based on extensive first-hand interviews with some of India’s most well-known inmates, award-winning journalist Sunetra Choudhury gives you a peek into the VIP prison life. It includes some interesting anecdotes about the lives of the rich and powerful prisoners: What does Peter Mukherjea do all day in his 4 x 4 cell in Arthur Road Jail? How does a 70-year-old Doon school alumnus who has spent more than 7 years in jail find a will to continue petitioning the state and fight his cases? Who came to visit Amar Singh during those 4 fateful days and why this scarred him and his wife for life, determining his future friends and allies?

Apart from certain depictions in popular culture or the occasional news reports, there is little information about how rules are bent and law takes a backseat when it comes to people like Sanjeev Nanda, Vikas and Vishal Yadav, Anca Varma and Manu Sharma, who were given special benefits and often sent out on parole and furlough for their good behaviour.

For the first time, India’s most famous prisoners share their own stories � from terror tales of ‘bladebaaz� to torture chambers, from air conditioners in cells to food from five-star hotels, from cushy beds to private parties � and how they negotiate life in prison or the so-called ‘jail-ashram�.

With unbelievable details of the life inside prison and the sorry state of hundreds of undertrials languishing in jails, this book questions the primary purpose of imprisonment � is it actually reform, punishment or just misusing the system we are a part of?]]> 288 Sunetra Choudhury Nikunj 0 3.68 2017 Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India's Most Famous
author: Sunetra Choudhury
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2017/01/01
date added: 2020/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[What Congress And Gandhi Have Done To Untouchables]]> 27876195 472 B.R. Ambedkar 9380688245 Nikunj 5 4.46 What Congress And Gandhi Have Done To Untouchables
author: B.R. Ambedkar
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2020/04/02
date added: 2020/04/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Agrarian and Other Histories: Essays for Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri]]> 34924492 Bengal Past and Present, on "Some Problems of the Peasantry of Bengal after the Permanent Settlement." His extensive opus surveys the agrarian economy of eastern India and all its protagonists: peasant households, zamindars and the state, non-peasant rural agents such as moneylenders, affluent landholders, farmers, and agrarian intermediaries (jotedars), all of whom played their decisive role in the rural agrarian structure of eastern India. His later research explored the impact of colonial rule on tribes and forest dwellers, who were in the process of transition to quasi-peasant communities by the middle of the twentieth century. In his pioneering work, The Growth of Commercial Agriculture in Bengal: 1757-1957, which developed out of his doctoral thesis, Chaudhuri discussed the two important phenomena that shaped the contours of the agrarian economy of Bengal--first, the demographic factor, namely population growth, combined with a simultaneous growth of agricultural production; second, the role of external demand that determined peasant production for the market. He placed value, additionally, on factors such as climate change, natural disasters, and political instability arising out of war and invasions, which affected agricultural production in India.

It is difficult to do justice to B. B. Chaudhuri's academic work given its depth and range. An inadequate attempt is made here under four broad heads: (i) his concept of the peasantry; (ii) the growth of commercial agriculture in eastern India; (iii) the process of 'depeasantization' by which small and marginal peasants gradually lost their land and turned into sharecroppers or hired labor; and finally, (iv) the more or less forcible induction of a large number of tribes and forest dwellers into settled agriculture, resulting in spates of rebellion. The essays in this volume are on diverse themes. A number are on different aspects of the agrarian world, the major subject of Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri's academic research. Many other papers discuss aspects of social and cultural history, which have always interested and inspired Prof. Chaudhuri. There are three essays on Rabindranath Tagore, the towering figure he venerates like most intellectuals of his generation from Bengal, and with whom he also happens to share his own birthday.]]> 352 Shubhra Chakrabarti 9382381953 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.00 Agrarian and Other Histories: Essays for Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri
author: Shubhra Chakrabarti
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.00
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date added: 2020/03/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Do It Like a Woman... and Change the World]]> 23206108 326 Caroline Criado Pérez 1846275792 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.15 Do It Like a Woman... and Change the World
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/03/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men]]> 41104077
Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women�, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]> 448 Caroline Criado Pérez 1419729071 Nikunj 5 4.35 2019 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/26
date added: 2020/03/26
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One of the best books of this century. For all those people who feel that feminism is all about females making needless noise and demanding unfair privilege I urge you to read this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko]]> 452373 nothing is too lavish for your living. Lt Viktor Belenko was a MIG-25 pilot - one of Russia's elite warriors and the supreme expression of the ideal communist man. Or so everyone believed.
Thwn on September 6, 1976, while on a routine training flight, Lt. Belenko veered off course - and embarked on an incredible escape, an unforgiveable betrayal of his nation, and a daring and torturous personal journey of hope and courage.
MIG PILOT is the thrilling true story of how Russia's greatest air military secret was stolen and delivered right into America's lap. But it's more - it's the fascinating life story of a peasant's son who grew up to possess every luxury and honor Russia can bestow. And who threw it all away for one desperate chance to possess a dream. The American Dream.]]> 224 John Daniel Barron 0070038503 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.09 1980 Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko
author: John Daniel Barron
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/03/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Power and Diplomacy: India's Foreign Policies During the Cold War]]> 41551881
All the crises examined in this book will resonate with the present because they each also speak to contemporary questions regarding a specific facet of India's foreign policy. Whether it is about crafting a sustainable set of equations with competing great powers, formulating an intelligent policy towards Pakistan, finding the appropriate approach in managing India's special ties with its smaller neighbours, dealing with China's rise and the attendant power flux in Asia, responding to a Sino-American crisis, or developing a sustainable Indian role in Asia, this book aims to strike at the heart of today's policy conversations.
]]> 380 Zorawar Daulet Singh 0199489645 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.33 Power and Diplomacy: India's Foreign Policies During the Cold War
author: Zorawar Daulet Singh
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.33
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rating: 0
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date added: 2020/03/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Go!: India's Sporting Transformation]]> 51115157 312 Nandan Kamath 0143447858 Nikunj 4 4.20 Go!: India's Sporting Transformation
author: Nandan Kamath
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/08
date added: 2020/03/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Courage Beyond Compare How Ten Athletes Overcame Disability and Adversity to Become Champions]]> 28804329 284 Sanjay Sharma 8129131196 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.14 2014 Courage Beyond Compare How Ten Athletes Overcame Disability and Adversity to Become Champions
author: Sanjay Sharma
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/03/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis]]> 41716904 Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in his third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises while adopting selective changes -- a coping mechanism more commonly associated with individuals recovering from personal crises.

Diamond compares how six countries have survived recent upheavals -- ranging from the forced opening of Japan by U.S. Commodore Perry's fleet, to the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, to a murderous coup or countercoup in Chile and Indonesia, to the transformations of Germany and Australia after World War Two. Because Diamond has lived and spoken the language in five of these six countries, he can present gut-wrenching histories experienced firsthand. These nations coped, to varying degrees, through mechanisms such as acknowledgment of responsibility, painfully honest self-appraisal, and learning from models of other nations. Looking to the future, Diamond examines whether the United States, Japan, and the whole world are successfully coping with the grave crises they currently face. Can we learn from lessons of the past?

Adding a psychological dimension to the in-depth history, geography, biology, and anthropology that mark all of Diamond's books, Upheaval reveals factors influencing how both whole nations and individual people can respond to big challenges. The result is a book epic in scope, but also his most personal book yet.]]> 512 Jared Diamond Nikunj 5 3.87 2019 Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
author: Jared Diamond
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/07
date added: 2020/03/07
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]]> <![CDATA[India vs Pakistan: Why Can t We Just be Friends?]]> 30232415 200 Husain Haqqani 8193237250 Nikunj 4 3.83 India vs Pakistan: Why Can t We Just be Friends?
author: Husain Haqqani
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/04
date added: 2020/03/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War]]> 29385554 Despite Pakistan's efforts to coerce India, it has achieved only modest successes at best. Even though India vivisected Pakistan in 1971, Pakistan continues to see itself as India's equal and demands the world do the same. The dangerous methods that the army uses to enforce this self-perception have brought international opprobrium upon Pakistan and its army. And in recent years, their erstwhile proxies have turned their guns on the Pakistani state itself.
Why does the army persist in pursuing these revisionist policies that have come to imperil the very viability of the state itself, from which the army feeds? In Fighting to the End, C. Christine Fair argues that the answer lies, at least partially, in the strategic culture of the army. Through an unprecedented analysis of decades' worth of the army's own defense publications, she concludes that from the army's distorted view of history, it is victorious as long as it can resist India's purported drive for regional hegemony as well as the territorial status quo. Simply put, acquiescence means defeat. Fighting to the End convincingly shows that because the army is unlikely to abandon these preferences, Pakistan will remain a destabilizing force in world politics for the foreseeable future.]]> 368 C. Christine Fair 0199467072 Nikunj 3 4.10 2014 Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War
author: C. Christine Fair
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2020/03/01
date added: 2020/03/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Supreme Whispers: Conversations with Judges of the Supreme Court of India 1980-89]]> 40279270 326 Abhinav Chandrachud 9353050219 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.90 Supreme Whispers: Conversations with Judges of the Supreme Court of India 1980-89
author: Abhinav Chandrachud
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/02/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems]]> 51014619
Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change--these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there--what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable.

In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect and show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of the day. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.]]> 417 Abhijit V. Banerjee Nikunj 4 4.23 2019 Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems
author: Abhijit V. Banerjee
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/02/06
date added: 2020/02/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Taking Bail Seriously - The State of Bail Jurisprudence in India]]> 50272726 467 Salman Khurshid Nikunj 4 4.67 Taking Bail Seriously - The State of Bail Jurisprudence in India
author: Salman Khurshid
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/16
date added: 2020/01/16
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]]> Indian Fiscal Federalism 43918395 The book offers a historical perspective on fiscal federalism, in particular the interplay and overlap of institutional mechanisms. In doing so, it examines persistent as well as immediate concerns, and offers a way forward.
A contemporary, timely, and comprehensive analysis of fiscal federalism in India, this is a must-read for all those interested in the subject.]]> 304 Y.V. Reddy 0199493626 Nikunj 3 3.50 Indian Fiscal Federalism
author: Y.V. Reddy
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2020/01/15
date added: 2020/01/16
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]]> Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir 43969859
In Coming Out as Dalit, Dutt recounts the exhausting burden of living with the secret and how she was terrified of being found out. She talks about the tremendous feeling of empowerment she experienced when she finally stood up for herself and her community and shrugged off the fake upper-caste identity she’d had to construct for herself. As she began to understand the inequities of the caste system, she also had to deal with the crushing guilt of denying her history and the struggles of her grandparents and the many Dalit reformers who fought for equal rights.

In this personal memoir that is also a narrative of the Dalits, she writes about the journey of coming to terms with her identity and takes us through the history of the Dalit movement; the consequences of her community’s lack of access to education and culture; the need for reservation; the paucity of Dalit voices in mainstream media; Dalit women’s movements and their ongoing contributions; and attempts to answer crucial questions about caste and privilege. Woven from personal narratives from her own life as well as that of other Dalits, this book forces us to confront the injustices of caste and also serves as a call to action.

Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar Award 2020.]]> 223 Yashica Dutt 9388292413 Nikunj 4 4.24 2019 Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir
author: Yashica Dutt
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/30
date added: 2019/12/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Class of 83: The Punishers of Mumbai Police]]> 48596158
Famed even within this batch, trigger-happy senior police inspector Pradeep Sharma understood that to save the city from the clutches of the underworld, he would need to dilute rival gangs. The Class of 83 delves deep into the most famous (or infamous) encounters conducted by Sharma and his batch mates. Pradeep Sharma was arrested by the same department he had served for two-and-a-half decades. He faced the ignominy of jail, clubbed in the same cell as the criminals he had arrested. However, he fought for his honour, was acquitted and reinstated into service.

In The Class of 83, S. Hussain Zaidi presents a one-of-a-kind story of a policeman's triumphs, struggles and redemption.]]> 237 S. Hussain Zaidi 9353056616 Nikunj 4 4.05 The Class of 83: The Punishers of Mumbai Police
author: S. Hussain Zaidi
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/28
date added: 2019/12/28
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]]> <![CDATA[A Century Is Not Enough: My Roller-coaster Ride to Success]]> 38337485
What does it take to perform when the pressure is skyhigh? How do you fight back and win? How do you make a name for yourself when you are young and have started the journey which is closest to your heart? As Sourav takes you through his life, he looks at how to overcome challenges and come out a winner. Time and time again]]> 258 Sourav Ganguly 9386228564 Nikunj 4 3.94 2018 A Century Is Not Enough: My Roller-coaster Ride to Success
author: Sourav Ganguly
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/28
date added: 2019/12/28
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]]> Inside an Elusive Mind 6505281 290 M.R. Narayan Swamy 9558095354 Nikunj 4 4.50 2003 Inside an Elusive Mind
author: M.R. Narayan Swamy
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/25
date added: 2019/12/25
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]]> <![CDATA[We-Men@Work: A Conversation Starter For Practicing Gender Neutrality at Indian Workplaces]]> 49204231 0 Sanchita Ganguly Nikunj 4 4.50 We-Men@Work: A Conversation Starter For Practicing Gender Neutrality at Indian Workplaces
author: Sanchita Ganguly
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/01
date added: 2019/12/23
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]]> Dawood's Mentor 44587102 300 S. Hussain Zaidi 0143425978 Nikunj 4 3.91 2019 Dawood's Mentor
author: S. Hussain Zaidi
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/23
date added: 2019/12/23
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]]> Jihadist Threat To India 29522054 366 Tufail Ahmad 8193122046 Nikunj 5 4.27 Jihadist Threat To India
author: Tufail Ahmad
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/16
date added: 2019/12/22
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]]> Bandhan: The Making of a Bank 30526930 On 17 June, 2015, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh stepped out of the Reserve Bank of India building in Mumbai with the much-coveted banking licence, beating some of the country's top corporate houses. This moment compensated for all the frustrations that had come along the way. A year later, Bandhan Bank was launched with 6.7 million small borrowers.
So, how did Ghosh build India's biggest MFI from scratch and then, along with his team, transform it into a universal bank? The Making of a Bank chronicles that journey.
This is also Ghosh's personal story-of a boy growing up in small-town Agartala struggling with poverty, but relentless in his ambition to make it big. He battles competition, hostile moneylenders, a tough economic climate and the perpetual lack of resources. Nobody in India perhaps knows better than him the psyche of a small borrower and the alchemy of doing business with the poor, profitably.
This is one of India's biggest entrepreneurial stories.]]> 336 Tamal Bandyopadhyay 9386057204 Nikunj 3 3.77 Bandhan: The Making of a Bank
author: Tamal Bandyopadhyay
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2019/12/15
date added: 2019/12/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe]]> 26530390 448 Joseph E. Stiglitz 039325402X Nikunj 4 3.80 2016 The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe
author: Joseph E. Stiglitz
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/12
date added: 2019/12/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Vital Point Strikes: The Art & Science of Striking Vital Targets for Self-Defense and Combat Sports]]> 5411429 418 Sang H. Kim 1934903051 Nikunj 3 3.97 2008 Vital Point Strikes: The Art & Science of Striking Vital Targets for Self-Defense and Combat Sports
author: Sang H. Kim
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2019/12/07
date added: 2019/12/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World]]> 43260847
Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world's top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.

David Epstein examined the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters and scientists. He discovered that in most fields--especially those that are complex and unpredictable--generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They're also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can't see.

Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range makes a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.]]> 352 David Epstein 1509843493 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.15 2019 Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
author: David Epstein
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/11/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Reminiscences of the Nehru Age]]> 632319 Mathai was the only one to know everything about Nehru, most especially the first Prime Minister's private thoughts about Politics, Congress leaders, Bureaucrats, Money, Women, Sex, Alchohol along with much else that attracted his attention off and on.
The author reveals all with much candor and sincerity, and says "Before I started writing this book, I suspended from my mind all personal loyalties of a conventional nature; only my obligation to history remained."
Mathai writes about Nehru's style, Krishna Menon's personal habits, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit's extravagance, Feroze Gandhi's ambitions and Mountbatten's weakness for titles and honors.

This work is a major contribution to modern Indian history as it gives and insider's view of how the powerful often tried to manipulate Nehru for purposes that were not always conductive to nation-building]]> 299 M.O. Mathai 0706906217 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.66 1978 Reminiscences of the Nehru Age
author: M.O. Mathai
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/31
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]]> It Happened in India 20764935 232 Kishore Biyani Nikunj 4 3.66 2007 It Happened in India
author: Kishore Biyani
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/10/08
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]]> Turning Point 30197037 Turning Point 146 Madhava Menon Prof. N.R. 8175348186 Nikunj 3 3.50 Turning Point
author: Madhava Menon Prof. N.R.
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2019/10/03
date added: 2019/10/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization]]> 36950075 The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world--sand--and the crucial role it plays in our lives.

After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives--and our future.

And, incredibly, we're running out of it.

The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it--and sometimes, even kill for it. It's also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters.]]> 294 Vince Beiser 0399576428 Nikunj 5 4.05 2018 The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization
author: Vince Beiser
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/28
date added: 2019/09/28
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]]> Oh Shit, Not Again 12603770 Librarian's Note: Alternate-cover edition for ISBN 8190591908 / 9788190591904

Have you ever experienced what happens when a porn movie is mistakenly played in front of your grandma and the CD player refuses to stop?

Have you ever experienced what happens when mixture of vodka and soft drink is served to hundreds of people gathered for a party?

Have you ever experienced what happens when a boy is kicked in the groin by a girl when he attempts to kiss her?

Have you ever experienced what happens when a college-going student has an affair with a married woman whose husband carts a gun?

Have you ever experienced what happens when you are conspired into a murder that you had merely witnessed?

Welcome to hilarious story of five friends named Raj (the flirt chap), Arti (the sweet female lead), Andy (the creepy leader), and Sam (the biggest problem of Raj's messed up life). These people can answer all the above questions in this fun tickling novel.Are you ready to experience the roller coaster ride of events? If yes, then sit back and enjoy!]]> 262 Mandar Kokate Nikunj 3 2.82 2009 Oh Shit, Not Again
author: Mandar Kokate
name: Nikunj
average rating: 2.82
book published: 2009
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/09/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win]]> 23848190 320 Jocko Willink 1250067057 Nikunj 4 4.23 2015 Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
author: Jocko Willink
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2019/09/27
date added: 2019/09/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lost Decade (2008-18): How India's Growth Story Devolved into Growth Without a Story]]> 45162304
In 2019, India's GDP is growing at the rate of 7 per cent, making it the fastest-growing major economy in the world, but little on the ground suggests that Indians are actually better off. Economic discontent and insecurity are on the rise, farmers are restive and land-owning classes are demanding quotas in government jobs. The middle class is palpably disaffected, the informal economy is struggling and big businesses are no longer expanding aggressively.

India is not the star it was in 2008 and in effect, the 'India growth story' has devolved into 'growth without a story'. The Lost Decade tells the story of the slide and examines the political context in which the Indian economy failed to recover lost momentum.]]> 340 Puja Mehra 9353054990 Nikunj 4 4.09 The Lost Decade (2008-18): How India's Growth Story Devolved into Growth Without a Story
author: Puja Mehra
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2019/09/24
date added: 2019/09/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State]]> 39340850 359 Elizabeth C. Economy 0190866098 Nikunj 3 3.75 2018 The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State
author: Elizabeth C. Economy
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/22
date added: 2019/09/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Dragon on Our Doorstep: Managing China Through Military Power]]> 33819845 The most populous countries and fastest growing economies in the world—India and China—have cultural and economic relations that date back to the second century bc. But over the years, despite the many treaties and agreements between the two nations, border clashes (including the disastrous 1962 war) and disagreements over Tibet and Jammu and Kashmir have complicated the relationship. For decades China kept a low profile. However, since 2008, when it was recognized as an economic power, China has become assertive. Today, this Himalayan balancing act of power is clearly tilted towards China, in whose view there is room for only one power in Asia. In this rise, Pakistan has emerged as China’s most trusted and crucial partner. The partnership between China and Pakistan, whether in terms of military interoperability (ability to operate as one in combat), or geostrategic design (which is unfolding through the wide-sweeping One Belt One Road project), has serious implications for India. The best that India can do is try and manage the relationship so that the dragon’s rise is not at the cost of India.]]> 488 Pravin Sawhney 9382277269 Nikunj 5 3.97 2017 Dragon on Our Doorstep: Managing China Through Military Power
author: Pravin Sawhney
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/22
date added: 2019/09/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Peak Japan: The End of Great Ambitions]]> 42250160 272 Brad Glosserman 1626166684 Nikunj 0 3.25 Peak Japan: The End of Great Ambitions
author: Brad Glosserman
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2019/09/20
date added: 2019/09/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Balanced Constitutionalism: Courts and Legislatures in India and the United Kingdom]]> 33930259
This book examines the promise of the new model against its performance in practice by comparing judicial review under the HRA to an exemplar of the old model of judicial review, the Indian Constitution. It argues that although the HRA fosters a more balanced allocation of powers between legislatures and courts than the Indian Constitution, it does so for a novel reason. Balanced constitutionalism is not achieved through the legislative rejection of judicial decision-making about rights. Instead, the nature of the remedy under the HRA enables British courts to assert their genuine interpretations of rights in situations in which Indian courts find it difficult to do so.]]> 352 Chintan Chandrachud 0199470588 Nikunj 3 4.10 Balanced Constitutionalism: Courts and Legislatures in India and the United Kingdom
author: Chintan Chandrachud
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/19
date added: 2019/09/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Treasure Islands: Dirty Money, Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole Your Cash]]> 11111804 WITH NEW AND UPDATED MATERIAL

Billionaire Warren Buffet, currently the third wealthiest man in the world, paid the lowest rate of tax among his office staff, including his receptionist.

In 2006 the world's three biggest banana companies did nearly £400 million worth of business in Britain but paid just £128,000 in tax between them.

In January 2009, US law enforcement fined Lloyds TSB $350 million after it admitted secretly channelling Iranian and Sudanese money into the US banking system.

Tax havens are the most important single reason why poor people and poor countries stay poor. They lie at the very heart of the global economy, with over half the world trade processed through them. They have been instrumental in nearly every major economic event, in every big financial scandal, and in every financial crisis since the 1970s, including the latest global economic downturn.

In Treasure Islands, Nicholas Shaxson shows how this happened, and what this means for you.]]> 332 Nicholas Shaxson 0099541726 Nikunj 4 4.20 2011 Treasure Islands: Dirty Money, Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole Your Cash
author: Nicholas Shaxson
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2019/09/19
date added: 2019/09/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Tech Titans of China: How China's Tech Sector is challenging the world by innovating faster, working harder, and going global]]> 43522558
The rise of China's tech companies and intense competition from the sector is just beginning. This will present an ongoing management and strategy challenge for companies for many years to come. Tech Titans of China is the go-to-guide for companies (and those interested in competition from China) seeking to understand China's grand tech ambitions, who the players are and what their strategy is. Fannin, an expert on China, is an internationally-recognized journalist, author and speaker. She hosts 12 live events annually for business leaders, venture capitalists, start-up founders, and others impacted by or interested in cashing in on the Chinese tech industry. In this illuminating book, she provides readers with the ammunition they need to prepare and compete.

Featuring detailed profiles of the Chinese tech companies making waves, the tech sectors that matter most in China's grab for super power status, and predictions for China's tech dominance in just 10 years.]]> 256 Rebecca Fannin 1529374499 Nikunj 0 to-read 3.55 Tech Titans of China: How China's Tech Sector is challenging the world by innovating faster, working harder, and going global
author: Rebecca Fannin
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.55
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth]]> 22715974
In his first book, The Looting Machine, Tom Burgis exposes the truth about the African development miracle: for the resource states, it's a mirage. The oil, copper, diamonds, gold and coltan deposits attract a global network of traders, bankers, corporate extractors and investors who combine with venal political cabals to loot the states' value. And the vagaries of resource-dependent economies could pitch Africa's new middle class back into destitution just as quickly as they climbed out of it. The ground beneath their feet is as precarious as a Congolese mine shaft; their prosperity could spill away like crude from a busted pipeline.

This catastrophic social disintegration is not merely a continuation of Africa's past as a colonial victim. The looting now is accelerating as never before. As global demand for Africa's resources rises, a handful of Africans are becoming legitimately rich but the vast majority, like the continent as a whole, is being fleeced. Outsiders tend to think of Africa as a great drain of philanthropy. But look more closely at the resource industry and the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world looks rather different. In 2010, fuel and mineral exports from Africa were worth 333 billion, more than seven times the value of the aid that went in the opposite direction. But who received the money? For every Frenchwoman who dies in childbirth, 100 die in Niger alone, the former French colony whose uranium fuels France's nuclear reactors. In petro-states like Angola three-quarters of government revenue comes from oil. The government is not funded by the people, and as result it is not beholden to them. A score of African countries whose economies depend on resources are rentier states; their people are largely serfs. The resource curse is not merely some unfortunate economic phenomenon, the product of an intangible force. What is happening in Africa's resource states is systematic looting. Like its victims, its beneficiaries have names.
]]> 352 Tom Burgis 1610394399 Nikunj 0 to-read 4.05 2015 The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth
author: Tom Burgis
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
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date added: 2019/09/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Independence and Accountability of the Higher Indian Judiciary]]> 45425700 332 Arghya SenGupta 1108485650 Nikunj 4 4.00 Independence and Accountability of the Higher Indian Judiciary
author: Arghya SenGupta
name: Nikunj
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/27
date added: 2019/08/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Bal Thackeray & The Rise of the Shiv Sena]]> 19012333 This book tells the complete story of Bal Thackeray and the rise, fall and split of the Shiv Sena. It examines Thackeray the person and his intriguing political personality, his party’s militaristic methods of operation, its controversial role at major junctures, the fight between Thackeray’s nephew Raj and son Uddhav, the end of an era in Maharashtra politics after his death in November 2012 and the future of the Shiv Sena without his imposing presence. A must-read for an understanding of contemporary Indian politics and the rise of the Hindu nationalist phenomenon.]]> 317 Vaibhav Purandare Nikunj 3 3.83 2012 Bal Thackeray & The Rise of the Shiv Sena
author: Vaibhav Purandare
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2012
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/08/22
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author: nariman
name: Nikunj
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2019/08/19
date added: 2019/08/19
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