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The Vague Woman's Handbook
They are bad with directions; they never know when the credit card bill is due. They have perfected the art of turning over a new leaf tomorrow. Meet the vague women in this delightful first novel that doesn’t star a woman looking for the right man – because she’s already found him! At twenty-two, Sharmila Chatterjee has just married her sweetheart of a few years, Abhimanyu Mishra, a somewhat eccentric if handsome twenty-three-and-a-half year old with obscure academic interests and a small fellowship that never arrives on time. They start a household in a tiny rented flat, learning to fend for themselves in the big, bad and snotty world of south Delhi, with penny-pinching landlords, some romance, and a lot of anxiety. At fifty-two, Indira Sen is not sure just how she meandered to where she finds herself now. A senior government officer and single mother, she lives with her daughter and three opinionated old people in a rambling house, drives a battered car, and has a history of credit-card induced shopaholism. The Vague Woman’s Handbook is a story told with equal parts of humour, hysteria and tenderness, about the sparkling friendship between two women as they hurtle through life and its mini-crises while trading secrets in the art of survival.
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Tanzeem
Deep in Waziristan, the Ameer-ul-Momineem, a powerful terrorist warlord, embarks on a deadly mission to take the jihad across international borders. To carry out his horrific plan, he puts together the Tanzeem, a group of leaders spread across the continents. Supporting him are the Mullah in Quetta and the Director of Pakistan’s ISI. Or do they have their own agendas? Across the border in India, a young man named Iqbal, devastated by the death of his wife at the hands of the Ameer’s henchmen, sets out with a singular focus – to find the Ameer and take him down. Supporting him is the spirited Force 22, India’s strike action team. Will Iqbal be able to stop the jihadi terror machine in time? Find out in this taut, thrilling finale to the Lashkar series, where India’s literary storm trooper, Mukul Deva, tells us how the scourge of terrorism began and where it is likely to end.
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Faith & Fire
Hailed as the Indian version of The Celestine Prophecy, this is the true story of a young couple’s yearning for a meaningful life. Madhu and Rajeev left the city to join a small community in the Himalayas. For seven years they lived under the tutelage of Aropa, an Englishman who had taken sanyas (renunciation). Madhu and Rajeev grew their own food, built their own mountain hut, and lived a truly simple life, all under Aropa’s spiritual leadership. The couple followed his philosophy, believing that every experience is viewed as an opportunity to grow. Over time, questions arose that made Madhu and Rajeev’s life perplexing; doors appeared to close on them, and their personal dilemmas peaked. But through it all, they never gave up hope. Their story speaks to the spirit as it lays bare a struggle to transcend suffering and discover what lies beyond it. By sharing the simple practices that intensified their search, as well as the powerful role of dreams, Madhu Tandan offers us her conviction that there are no dead ends in life; and gives us a glimpse of the mysterious, magical, uplifting support we can receive at every step of such a journey.
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Battle For Bittora
Twenty-five-year-old Jinni lives in Mumbai, works in a hip animation studio and is perfectly happy with her carefree and independent existence. Until her bossy grandmother shows up and announces that it is Jinni s 'duty' to drop everything and come and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from their sleepy hometown, Bittora. Of course Jinni swears she won't. But she soon ends up swathed in cotton saris and frumpy blouses, battling prickly heat, corruption and accusations of nymphomania as candidate Sarojini Pande, a daughter of the illustrious Pande dynasty of Pavit Pradesh. And if life isn t fun enough already, her main opposition turns out to be Bittora ex-royal, Zain Altaf Khan an irritatingly idealistic though undeniably lustworthy individual with whom Jinni shares a complicated history... Enlivened by Chauhan s characteristic brand of wicked humour and sexy romanticism, this is a rollicking new tale of young India.
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Keep Off The Grass
What do you do when you are a twenty-five-year-old Yale graduate making half-a-million dollars a year as a hotshot investment banker on Wall Street? You bust your ass and become a millionaire by thirty, of course. Not if you are Samrat Ratan, born in the USA to immigrant Indian parents; you quit and enrol in business school in India instead. Samrat's rollercoaster journey begins at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bangalore, where he spends his time getting high on marijuana while his grades and self-confidence plummet. Soon, Samrat's quest for identity turns increasingly bizarre as it takes him places he hadn't planned on visiting prison, for example and makes him do things he hadn't banked on doing: 'meditating' stoned with a sexy Danish hippie in the Himalayas, hanging out with a cannibal on the banks of the Ganga, and peddling soap to the formidable Raja Bhaiya in Benares. Does Samrat Yale valedictorian, investment banker, convict, pothead survive his fall from grace?
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The Taking
On the morning that will mark the end of the world they have known, Molly and Niel Sloan awaken to the drumbeat of rain on their roof. It has haunted their sleep, invaded their dreams, and now they rise to find a luminous silvery downpour drenching their small California mountain town. A strange scent hangs faintly in the air, and the young couple cannot shake the sense of something wrong. As hours pass and the rain continues to fall, Molly and Niel listen to disturbing news of extreme weather phenomena across the globe. Before evening, their little town loses television and radio reception. Then telephone and the Internet are gone. With the ceaseless rain now comes an obscuring fog that transforms the once-friendly village into a ghostly labyrinth. By nightfall the Sloans have gathered with some of their neighbors to deal with community damage…but also because they feel the need to band together against some unknown threat, some enemy they cannot identify or even imagine. In the night, strange noises arise, and at a distance, in the rain and the mist, mysterious lights are seen drifting among the trees. The rain diminishes with the dawn, but a moody gray-purple twilight prevails. Soon Molly, Niel, and their small band of friends will be forced to draw on reserves of strength, courage, and humanity they never knew they had. For within the misty gloom they will encounter something that reveals in a terrifying instant what is happening to their world—something that is hunting them with ruthless efficiency. Epic in scope, searingly intimate and immediate in perspective, THE TAKING is an adventure story like no other, a relentless roller-coaster read that brings apocalypse to Main Street and showcases the talents of one of our most original and mesmerizing novelists at the pinnacle of his powers.
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Married But Available
The first ten years are the most eventful, they say, in anybody's working life. They certainly are in the case of Abbey, who walks into a job at Balwanpur Industries, fresh from B-school. Working in HR is fun, he soon discovers. What isn'tis the fact that there's hardly anybody in the company who doesn't have a view of who Abbey is and what Abbey does-or should do. Add to this the complications of being newly married to a woman more successful than he is, a crusty boss, and a sudden turn in the company's fortunes that catches Abbey unawares. It's up to him now, to apply all that HR wisdom learnt in business school to the dilemmas confronting him at work and in love. Can he hold down his job or will it end the way his marriage threatens to-rapidly and without too many regrets?
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Inspired India
Zara Murao is news editor with the Hindustan Times in Mumbai. A graduate in literature from Sophia College, University of Mumbai, she earlier worked with the Indian Express, heading the city desk there and later at HT. She has written several travelogues for both newspapers and worked on a number of special series.
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Keep The Change
The uncoolness of her name plagues B. Damayanthi, along with the bunch of unsuitable prospective husbands her Amma throws at her, a dead-end job as an accountant in a decrepit firm, the oppressiveness of Chennai. When she finally jettisons her job and some of her inhibitions to join a bank in Mumbai, Amma’s parting words are: ‘Be good. Don’t do anything silly.’ Translation: ‘Stay away from sex and alcohol! ’ Soon Damayanthi is negotiating competitive corporate corridors and big-city life. Aided by dubious words of wisdom from the cherub-faced Jimmy, she must impress the intellectual C.G., who has a low opinion of her; battle Sonya Sood, flatmate and size-zero sophisticate, for the TV remote; choose between resisting or giving in to temptation in the form of the seductive Rahul; deal with the moral dilemma of ‘stealing’ a million-dollar idea for her project. Can a good girl have a really good time? Can the conservative, curd-rice-eating Damayanthi become a cool, corporate babe? Keep the Change is a rollicking, wickedly witty story of every girl’s journey to fulfil her dreams and find her own place in the world.
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The Book Of Tomorrow
Tamara Goodwin has always got everything she's ever wanted. Born into a family of wealth, she grew up in a mansion with its own private beach, a wardrobe full of designer clothes, a large four poster bed complete with a luxurious bathroom en-suite. She's always lived in the here and now, never giving a second thought to tomorrow. But then suddenly her dad is gone and life for Tamara and her mother changes forever. Left with a mountain of debt, they have no choice but to sell everything they own and move to the country to live with Tamara's Uncle and Aunt. Nestled next to Kilsaney Castle, their gatehouse is a world away from Tamara's childhood. With her mother shut away with grief, and her aunt busy tending to her, Tamara is lonely and bored and longs to return to Dublin. When a travelling library passes through Kilsaney Demesne, Tamara is intrigued. She needs a distraction. Her eyes rest on a mysterious large leather bound tome locked with a gold clasp and padlock.What she discovers within the pages takes her breath away and shakes her work to its core. A mesmerising story about how tomorrow can change what happens today
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The Duchess Of York Her father And Me
In 1990 Lesley Player organized the first-ever women's polo tournament. She instantly became a part of an international jet set - and the object of an obsessive love from the Duchess of York's father Major Ferguson. Her story tells of the affair, her times with Sarah and Andrew and her encounters with Steve Wyatt and John Bryan. Her story, which resulted in personal and financial ruin for her, is a story of glamour and opportunism that went disastrously wrong.
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Who Killed Change?
Every day organizations around the world launch change initiatives—often big, expensive ones—designed to improve the status quo. Yet 50 to 70 percent of these change efforts fail. A few perish suddenly, but many die painful, protracted deaths that drain the organization's resources, energy and morale.Who or What Is Killing Change?That's what you'll find out in this witty whodunit.
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Just Desserts
"Katherine Bourne has been a member of that endangered species, the full-time house-wife, for over twenty years, but things have finally turned sour. While she disembowels her delicious home grown tomatoes she dreams of mudering her husband. Why can't Harry hav an affair with a younger woman and just leave, like normal men?But Harry has no intention of giving up his home comforts; he's been sampling forbidden fruits for a long while. Glamorous banker Carol accompanies him on weekend trips and business beanos, but she too is beginning to find that the pleasure's growing stale.So who's fooling who? Harry, happy in his illusion that he's a sex god and that all his women love him really? Katherine and Carol, unlikely partners in Harry's parallel lives?Against a background of succulent suppers, cosy Cambridge cafes and the unexpected joys of unexplored freedom, the women decide that revenge is a dish best eated cold. And discover the perfect recipe..."
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Narnia
One year after the incredible events of The Chronicles of Narnia: The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the four Pevensive children are summoned back to Narnia by Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the Narnian throne, only to discover that more than 1000 years have passed in Narnian time. Caspian's life is in danger and his evil Uncle Miraz has usurped the throne. The Narnians, led by the mighty King Peter and Prince Caspian, embark on a remarkable journey to find Aslan, rescue Narnia from Miraz's tyrannical hold and restore magic and glory to the land. This paperback edition is brought to life with cover illustrations from Cliff Nielsen. The Chronicles of Narnia return to the silver screen in May 2008 with the eagerly awaited Prince Caspian!