Sethji by Shobha De Sethji is the head of the ABSP, a crucial coalition partner in the government. Shrewd, ruthless and an inveterate fighter, he is a man who refuses to play by any moral codes or lose a single battle. Easing his way is Amrita, his ravishing and aloof daughter-in-law who guards her own secrets. But when two of the country's most powerful men team up to challenge Sethji, the wily old politician has to fight the deadliest battle of his life a battle in which he must stake everything. The one person he is forced to trust is Amrita, a woman who gives nothing away, not even to Sethji. Exposing the dark, venal heart of Indian politics, Sethji is a powerful novel about ambition, greed and above all trust. Gripping, revelatory and absolutely unputdownable, this is De at her dazzling best.Read More...Hide Pages: 256
The Bhutto Murder Trail : From Waziristan To GHQ by Amir Mir It is no longer important if I become the prime minister for the third time. What is important is that my country is in danger. So I had to return even if it meant risking my life... Benazir Bhutto, hours before she was assassinated in Rawalpindi.
Drawing on personal anecdotes, meetings, off-the- record conversations with Benazir Bhutto, and the emails that he exchanged with her just before her death, Amir Mir brings us a carefully documented reconstruction of the assassination that rocked the world, the events leading to it, and its aftermath. His meticulously researched book is also a chilling expose of the symbiotic relationship between Pakistan s formidable military and intelligence agencies, and the radical Islamic terrorist groups entrenched there.
From the murky details of the election rigging cells that Bhutto was on the brink of exposing, inside information about her designated killers , the dubious security cover, the wanton destruction of evidence at the crime scene, the cover-up that began soon after the murder, the scapegoats, the arbitrary arrests and the compromised investigations, to the outright deceptions of various military top brass and even members of her own party, the book reveals it all.
Other highlights include excerpts from the reports of high-level investigations carried out by different organisations, rare pictures related to the suicide attack on Bhutto s convoy, her last speech delivered minutes before she was killed, and her hand-written political will which her party released after her death. The richly textured narrative is supported by exclusive information that sheds fresh light on various conspiracy theories, and will almost certainly evoke controversy and debate.
Pakistan Democracy, Terror And The Building Of A Nation by Iftikhar Harider Malik In August 2008, Pervez Musharraf stood down as Pakistan's president after having already resigned the posts of Chief of Army Staff and Prime Minister. It was a final end to a doctorial rule that started when he seized power in a military coup in 1999, and seemed to many to be the inevitable conclusion to a government that had started in idealism but had ended in corruption - another example of the cycle of army intervention-idealism-corruption-failure-coup that has blighted Pakistan's political history. In this book, Asian politics and Islamic expert Iftikhar Malik discusses why this pattern has such a hold on Pakistan's government and sets out to discover if this cycle is one that can be broken and if so, where hope for the future lies. Following an in-depth look at Pakistan's political and social history and current situation, the book considers: the power of individual personalities and dynasties such as the Bhutto in party politics; the different priorities of democracy and liberalism; Pakistan's external relations with neighbors such as India and Afghanistan; Pakistan's role in the 'war on terror' and the tensions between Western security priorities and those of ordinary Pakistanis; Muslim perceptions of global alienation fuelling the rise of political Islam within Pakistan and consequences of this move; and, opportunities for democracy and nation-building presented by factors such as the expanding, liberal middle class and devolution of power within the country. Opinionated and critical, Professor Malik's book discusses the issues and challenges facing Pakistan at this critical juncture in its history.
Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell Nineteen Eighty Four-revealed George Orwell as one of the twentieth century's greatest mythmakers. While the totalitarian system that provoked him into writing it has since passed into oblivion, his harrowing cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare has had the opposite fate: its relevance and power to disturb our complacency seem to grow decade by decade. In Winston Smith's desperate struggle to free himself from an all-encompassing, malevolent state, Orwell zeroed in on tendencies apparent in every modern society, and made vivid the universal predicament of the individual.Read More...Hide Pages: 349
What's Left? by Nick Cohen Nick Cohen investigates the confusing current status of his own political affiliates, the Left, in this hard-hitting, no-holds-barred survey. He searches for the seemingly impossible answers to such questions as: Why are apologies for a militant Islam which stands for everything the liberal-Left is against coming from the Left? After the American and British wars in Bosnia and Kosovo against Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansers, why were men and women of the Left denying the existence of Serb concentration camps? Why is Palestine a cause for the liberal-Left, but not China, the Sudan, Zimbabwe, or North Korea? And exactly who or what are the Left fighting for? With biting satire and sharp insight, this sprawling survey reclaims the values of democracy and solidarity, identifies the core tenets of modern liberal thought, and established a new, proactive definition of the Left.Read More...Hide Pages: 386
Political and Incorrect: The Real India Warts and All by Tavleen Singh The book captures the country's mood and its politics over the two decades, and highlights the things that do not change. Such as politicians and bureaucrats, and their self serving ways.... Pages: 312
My China Diary 1956-88 by K Natwar Singh In My China Diary 1956-88, K Natwar Singh recounts the events which occurred when he served as a diplomat in Bijing. He speaks of what transpired during Premier Chou En-lai's ill-fated visit to India in April 1960 and of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's path-breaking passage to China. The book offers new insights about the complexities of India-China bilateral relations between 1956 and 1988. With a fascinating overview, My China Diary 1956-88 is illuminating, provocative, stimulating and hard to put down.Read More...Hide Pages: 224
Audacity Of Hope by Barack Obama In this bestselling book, Obama discusses the importance of empathy in politics, his hopes for a different America with different policies, and how the ideals of its democracy can be renewed.With intimacy and self-deprecating humour, Obama describes his experiences as a politician, about balancing his family life and his public vocation. His earch for consensus and his respect for the democratic process inform every sentence. A senator and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a sceptic, Barack Obama has written a book of transforming power that will inspire people the world over.Read More...Hide Pages: 250
An Ordinary Person' Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy Just in time for the elections, Arundhati Roy offers us this lucid briefing on what the Bush administration really means when it talks about "compassionate conservativism" and "the war on terror." Roy has characteristic fun in these essays, skewering the hypocrisy of the more-democratic-than-thou clan. But above all, she aims to remind us that we hold the essence of power and the foundation of genuine democracy-the power of the people to counter their self-appointed leaders' tyranny.Read More...Hide Pages: 432
Road to Raisinia by K P Singh Best friends Azim Khan and karan Nehru never considered politics as a career choice,but then fate decreed otherwise....Forced by circumstance to rethink their profesions, the two friends find themselves willy-nilly contesting the elections.Slowly but surely, Azim makes western Uttar Pardesh his electroal fiefdom and begins his journey to becoming the leaders of Muslims: Karan establish himself asd the overlord of eastern Uttar Pardesh and the adjoining states.....Together they make their way to top, never compromising theif friendship, until, finally , as a cabinet ministers in a shaky coalition govt. under the prime minstership of the wily congressman Y.K .Naidu...Read More...Hide Pages: 352
After three years, Jace Montgomery is still grieving over his fianc - e Stacy'smysterious suicide. He hasn't been interested in another woman since her passing, and her family still blames him for her death. While flipping throughone of her old paperbacks, Jace discovers a photo of a house stuck between thepages, bearing the cryptic message, "Ours again. Together forever. See you there." The note was dated the day before her death.
Obsessed by the possibilityof understanding Stacy's suicide, Jace seeks out the property - Priory House, abig brick fortress in Margate, England - and buys it.
It doesn't take long to learn that the house is haunted by a headstrong andfeisty ghost, Ann Stuart, whom he must tangle with if he's ever to solve themystery. Ann died under circumstances similar to those of his late fianc - e, andhe has a hunch that there is a connection between the two.
Through his owninvestigations and with the help of a beautiful foreign correspondent who is worn out by what she's seen in the world, Jace is forced to reconcile hisfianc - e's life and her death. What follows is a satisfying and seductive discovery of both time and love by one of America's favorite storytellers.
The Thorn Birds
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
Now, 25 years after it first took the world by storm, Colleen McCullough's sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback returns to enthrall a new generation. As powerful, moving, and unforgettable as when it originally appeared, it remains a monumental literary achievement -- a landmark novel to be read . . . and read again!
The Face
The Face by Dean Koontz
He's Hollywood's most dazzling star, whose flawless countenance inspires the worship of millions and fires the hatred of one twisted soul. His perfectly ordered existence is under siege as a series of terrifying, enigmatic messages breaches the exquisitely calibrated security systems of his legendary Bel Air estate.
The boxes arrive mysteriously, one by one, at Channing Manheim's fortified compound. The threat implicit in their bizarre, disturbing contents seems to escalate with each new delivery. Manheim's security chief, ex-cop Ethan Truman, is used to looking beneath the surface of things. But until he entered the orbit of a Hollywood icon, he had no idea just how slippery reality could be. Now this good man is all that stands in the way of an insidious killer and forces that eclipse the most fevered fantasies of a city where dreams and nightmares are the stuff of daily life. As a seemingly endless and ominous rain falls over southern California, Ethan will test the limits of perception and endurance in a world where the truth is as thin as celluloid and answers can be found only in the illusory intersection of shadow and light.
