Rise of the Planet of the Apes – science, sociology and sentience

Just saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  It was a thrilling ride, that kept me glued to the edge of my seat.  I was thinking I would do a review that looked at the some of the science in the film and then I came across THIS:

The queen of Regency romance – Georgette Heyer

Furious at Barbara Cartland … author Georgette Heyer pictured in 1923. Photograph: E O Hopp /Corbis Georgette Heyer wrote countless Regency romances where the romance ran as a constant thread but front and center was the Regency period of British history.

Warped genius! Sir Vidia’s Shadow (Paul Theroux)

I am more of a fiction reader – murder mysteries, historical romances, science fiction, fantasy and such.  But this book came highly recommended so I began to read what turned out to be part biography, part homage, part autobiography, detailing a friendship between two writing geniuses that spanned several decades and continents.  Paul Theroux (The [...]

And now for new year resolutions! ahoy there 2011

I decided to make this list before the revelry of the 31st made me lose my judgment. After a few margaritas and some loud music one tends to make all kinds of resolutions that seem foolish the next morning. And then the guilt sets in. So this year I am starting early. In 2011 I [...]

The best, the worst and the in-betweens! Adieu 2010

The year is racing to a finish, and it is time to look back at what went by, or rather whizzed by. I wish I could have read more, seen more films, traveled more places – and eaten less Films: There were some really good ones and there were some really bad ones, and then [...]

The road to Nyaka!

It was early 2005, and I was trying to claw my way out of a personal abyss.  The time of disbelief had somehow run smack into the time to play catchup with everything that had been sitting around waiting.  Work was wonderful as a way to keep demons at bay, and total immersion let me [...]

Who would have thought that Dame Colleen McCullough would disappoint me?

Who would have thought that Dame McCullough would disappoint me?

Tagore – 150th birth anniversary!

8th May marks the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel laureate, poet, story teller, painter, composer. His stories were often the inspiration for films, and often were intimate tales of the lives of women. Charulata told the story of a woman bored with her life, as her husband works away at his newspaper, the [...]

William Dalrymple’s The Last Mughal – Delhi in the 1850s

William Dalrymple wrote the City of Djinns and The White Moghuls but I have skipped straight to The Last Moghul – my favorite period in Indian history. Call it the Great Indian Mutiny or the first War of Indian Independence, the sequence of events at that time has fired countless imaginations and led to many [...]