India Books

Alexander the Great, was born on or around July 20, 356 B.C.E., and is my favorite personality to read about in history. To me he is the whole package general, statesman, conqueror, and philosopher. The smartest man who ever lived, Aristotle, tutored him. Alexander conquered more of the known world than any other figure in history, accomplishing all this before he dies at the ripe old age of 33. Some people called him conqueror and violent overlord. Some other called him civilizer and even God! All of them yet, called him "The Great". He was the first man in modern history that took this name, "The Great"! Even as a young boy, he shows great promise.

Curtius' work is the oldest extant work available and based on eyewitness accounts. He does a better job than most in explaining the battle scenes, and seems to be more balanced in his admiration and criticism of Alexander then any of the other early biographers. I love his Bucephalus Story, and I recount it here so you get a flavor of the promise this young Alexander shows.

The legend begins with Philoneicus, a Thessalian, bringing a wild horse to Philip for him to buy. None of the hands was able to handle it, and Philip grew upset at Philoneicus for bringing such an unstable horse to him. Alexander, however, publicly defied his father and claimed that he could handle the horse. The bet between Philip and Alexander was that if Alexander could ride the horse, Philip would buy it, if not, Alexander would have to pay the price of the horse, which was 13 talents, an enormous sum for a boy of Alexander's age to have.

Alexander apparently noticed that the horse had been shying away from its own shadow, and so he led it gently into the sun, so that its shadow was behind it, all the while stroking it gently and whispering into its ear, (Alexander seems to be the original horse whisperer). Eventually the horse let Alexander mount him, and Alexander was able to show his equestrian skill to his father and all who were watching. The incident so impressed Alexander's father, King Philip that he told the boy "Look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of you, for Macedonia is too little for thee". He named the horse Bucephalus, which means Ox head, and rode it across Asia, founding a city in its honor in India after its death. This story gives you an inkling about the man.

This book is a must read for students of Alexander, I also recommend Plutarch's and Arrian's work. Contemporary writers, J.F. C. Fuller and Tarn. Most of Alexander's greatest military traits are in the area of military logistics and to understand his genius in this area I highly recommend reading, "Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army," by Donald W. Engels.

As a retired U. S. Army Major, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in ancient warfare, and history.

Though her writing may appeal primarily to left-wing intellectuals, this book is a person every individual should have on his or her bookshelf. Her longest essay in this book, The Greater Common Good, focuses on large dam construction, but covers many issues of philosophical interest. Why take away from one and give to another? A utilitarian could make the argument that we should strive for the greatest good for the greatest number of people, but who is receiving the greatest good? We know that it is true that dams harm the environment in a variety of different ways -- e.g. waterlogging. Taking this into consideration along with the sheer costs and the number of people who suffer from dam building, is the utilitarian argument really valid? It seems to me, that it is in fact not even a utilitarian argument.

Arundhati Roy would agree. In this book, she explains that in most development projects throughout India, apart from the Sardar Sarovar project that has received so much attention, the displaced have no records, and they leave virtually no trace at all (Roy 104). This makes it nearly impossible for us to tell exactly or even approximately how many millions of people are suffering from the results of dam construction. Apart from this, according to Roy, the government of India has not issued a post-project evaluation on any of the 3,600 dams it has constructed (Roy 59). How, then, are we to know what good the dams are doing, if they are doing any good at all? Is it really worth it to not know, at the cost of the people?

Many other interesting topics are addressed in this book, and her unique writing style is sure to get a reaction out of you, whatever political beliefs you may hold. I guarantee that by the end of the first short essay you'll either be screaming "yes!" with passion in your voice, or banging your fists on the table in anger. Only a writer as good as Roy is capable of that.

Roy's beautiful, eloquent, and powerful writing style encourages many people in the West to consider issues they may have never considered otherwise. Roy's life has been devoted to the service of humankind, and I am forever in admiration of her strong, passionate spirit.

Read it, or miss out.

A book of magnitude and importance. This is one of the best books I have ever read on how to live from the soul and have heaven on earth. Just awe inspiring!

this book offers intimate portraits of people and cultures found along the ancient Silk Road. The pictures give a wonderful impression of human values and cultures in one of the oldest travelled routes in the history of mankind.

I have tried a few recipes from this book and they are very good. They have a twist to the original recipes and easy to prepare. So far I have tried the Coconut lentil Pilaf, Avocado mint chutney and ginger jam. They turned out very well. I made the squash cheddar paratha using a tortilla maker and it packed very well for lunch.
A good recipe book for vegetarians.

Easily a five-star book. This is by far the best book available for anyone planning to do business in India. It is especially helpful for small businesses that have some experience in exporting and/or FDI but not a lot. In one small book, Makar manages to cover every aspect of doing business for a country as large and complex as any you will find. His insights into conflicting cultural anomalies are especially helpful.

It is impossible to overestimate the impact Gene Smith has had on Tibetan Studies. Smith is universally respected by Tibetologists, Western Buddhists, and Tibetan Lamas. The essays compiled in this book have something for everyone. Their scope covers all four of the major Tibetan lineages, their depth and specificity will interest specialists, their brevity and clarity will interest amateurs. Unfortunately so many publications these days lose their value shortly after publication. Despite their age (up to forty years old), Smith's essays still read like cutting edge research because he proposes so many roads of enquiry yet untrodden.

This is really a wonderful little tale. Having no familiarity with any of Jhabvala's other work, I'm not sure how To Whom She Will compares with her better known novels, such as Heat and Dust, or how it might be representative of any consistent style or theme with which she writes, but I'm certainly now excited to learn and confident that I've found another author whose fruits I enjoy.

To Whom She Will is a light, quick, and rewarding read, marked by nuanced, intelligent, and perceptive humor and rich with unpresuming moral substance, as well, whose relevance is probably timeless; a good choice with which to space out more demanding literature. It is a skillful satire primarily of the grandiosity and vanity and dumb, empty arrogance of the leisure classes in 1950's India (who are constantly tortured by self-constructed angst and console themselves with salves of righteousness and scorn) and of the vulnerability of youth to delusional romanticism, self-preoccupation, whimsy, melodrama, and the fascinating appeal of the ideals of Suffering and Love.

All of Jhabvala's characters are caricatures of a kind, and by them, I think, Jhabvala gently ridicules our wont to take ourselves and our chosen ambitions overly seriously. To Whom She Will lead me to reflect on the constant, furious human endeavor of interpreting-of inventing, really-our individual lives; on our tendency to become easily distracted from living by our ceaseless efforts at scripting and performing our own stories, desperate to make them glamorous and honorable, willfully deluding ourselves in order to believe we live passionate lives, that we have transcended the quotidian, that we love with a great, awesome love, that our personal suffering is exceptionally puissant, that ours is a struggle with Fate and Tragedy, that we require the greatest courage to navigate the circumstance and choices we face, and perhaps-ultimately-that our lives have meaning and significance.

Jhabvala's characters invoke ridicule and disdain. It is natural to laugh at them. Indeed, the evolution of Jhabvala's plot I found remarkably adroit in its manner of illuminating her characters' various follies and vanities with levity, but her characters are no less real or realistic for their unadulterated weaknesses. After having relished my amusement, the more lasting effect of Jhabvala's tale, for me, was in taking pause to ruminate humbly again on my own delusions.

This biography in fictional form portrays the life of Amy Carmichael a young woman who went to India as a missionary. After saving one little girl from temple prostitution, Amy and her collegues started orphanages to house these children. An invalid the latter part of her life, Amy continued to encourage her "kids" and collegues and many others through her books. I enjoyed reading about her life.

I read this book, I am Indian woman, raised in Indian Hindu tradition. This book is sincerelly very good, about a young woman, her husbands ambition to educate woman and her struggle to become a doctor and help other woman in the society. I honestly feel every women and men in every society must read this book. Sincerely, Sindhu M. Golhar 298 Shelburne Place Belle mead, NJ.08502 908-359-2018