Science can be Cool, and Funny
Randall Munroe’s ‘What If’ is a collection of answers to the interesting and/or weird questions users posted on his wildly popular Web comic, XKCD (www.xkcd.com). A physics graduate and former NASA employee, Munroe is a rock-star in the world of science, tech and all things geek. As he says in his introduction, trying to answer to a stupid question can take you to some pretty interesting places. What would happen if everyone on earth jumped at the same time? How long could a nuclear submarine last in space? From what height do you need to drop a steak so that it is cooked when it hits the ground? The answers take science, curiosity, math and humour and take you on a journey of creativity and imagination. The book is peppered with jokes, funny stick cartoons and hilarious asides, including footnotes! The answers make you think and you end up learning something new in every page. This is the kind of book that shows you how cool science is and if you didn’t already agree, it gets you interested.
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Short Stories about the Indian Middle Class
Hats and Doctors is a collection of Hindi and Urdu short stories by Upendranath Ashk, translated by Daisy Rockwell. The stories are set in India at a time when trains had an Intermediate Class and a Third Class and when Lahore wasn’t a city across the border. Even so, the keen observations Ashk makes about the Indian middle class would hold true even today. The characters in his stories are believable and one can see their contemporary versions around us today. The stories are funny and sometimes sad. The translation is very good though sometimes I couldn’t help trying to translate a particularly funny line back to Hindi to see how it would sound. Recommended reading.
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When you feel nostalgic about the time you still felt wonder
Olivia, on her seventeenth birthday, awaits her first dance with a mix of excitement and terror. Being on the threshold of womanhood, when you are just beginning to become fully yourself. Being the awkward one in the corners of rooms. Moments divided between daydreaming and despairing. Suddenly maturing into a new-found wisdom, suddenly retreating into the safety of childhood. Everything seems possible. Adulthood beckoning the encounter with “real” people – kind, miserable, cruel, grasping – and also “real” issues. In a single night, along with Olivia, you will relive your first encounter with life.
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When you seek to escape
Penelope’s uneventful life takes a heady turn when she meets the charismatic Charlotte and plunges into her eccentric world. The dreamy teenage years. Stumbling your way towards an adulthood imagined in vivid colours. Waiting for real life to begin but being so afraid. When that real-life bursts in, feeling terrified and joyful all at once! New friendships and first loves. A head-reeling, heart-pounding journey into life as it begins. Opening yourself to astounding new experiences, but also to vulnerabilities. Rice evokes an immense nostalgia for what one used to be in one’s uncynical years.
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