The Lowland

Author: Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri tells the tale of two brothers, Subhash and Udayan who grow up in Tollygunge, Calcutta in a middle-class family during the second half of the twentieth century. She provides a overview of the historical events that were centered around West Bengal in the late sixties and early seventies.

The book moves really fast and there is constantly a new turn of events that will make it hard for you to put down the novel once you start reading it. I found it hard to identify with any of the characters as they seemed rather aloof. Overall this is another book that will surely be picked up by a lot of Jhumpa Lahiri fans. However, I found the story rather unsatisfying and hesitate to recommend this.

Gnostic Gospels

Author: Elaine Pagels


At a recent social gathering one of my friends mentioned the Gnostic Gospels and a potential link to Indian religions. I was reading Reza Aslan's "Zealot" at the time and was intrigued with this possibility. I scoured the internet to find a book that would enlighten me on this prospect and Elaine Pagel's book was highly acclaimed. I have to confess that I had high expectations when I started reading this book and was quickly disappointed as much of this was covered in Reza's highly readable book. Elaine writes a scholarly treatise on the gospels that were unearthed in Nag Hammadi. It offers clear proof that early Christianity -- if you may even call it that -- was not a united religion. There were folks with divergent views. The Gnostics emphasized self-knowledge above worship of divine powers and bears much similarity with some Asian religions. I was hoping to find out more about who influenced whom, and that is not clear from this book.  Read this only if you are a religious scholar, or wanna-be.

Beautiful Ruins

Author: Jess Walter


The "beautiful" in the title can be equally applied to this book. The location is the Cinque Terre islands in the beautiful Italian Riviera. The characters are beautiful Hollywood actors. The writing is beautiful and sprinkled with many pithy Italian quotes. The pace is rapid and the many twists will keep you turning the pages.

This is a great book to read on the beach in the summer.

The Testament of Mary

Author: Colm Toibin


At 81 pages,  this book is short and to the point. It presents a novel way to present the life and death of Jesus, as seen through the eyes of his mother Mary.  I expected the author to have attempted to recreate the environment that was prevalent at the time, and there are a few vignettes, but not much you can hang your hat on. Most of the events seem to have been lifted from the regular Gospels in the New Testament and there wasn't much originality in their presentation. Nevertheless, I found it it hard to escape the realism of the crucifixion.  

Since this book does not require much investment of your time, I recommend you read it and form your own opinion.