2014 నా పుస్తకాలు

గత సంవత్సరం వృత్తి జీవితంలో పెరిగిన వత్తిడి, రెండు ఇండియా ప్రయాణాలు, సంస్థాగత, వ్యక్తిగత విశేషాల వల్ల వ్యావృత్తులకు సమయం బాగా తగ్గిపోయింది. గత ఇరవై ఏళ్లలో ఇంత బిజీగా ఉన్న గుర్తులేదు. పుస్తకంలో, నవతరంగంలో దాదాపు ఏమీ వ్రాయలేదు. మొదలుబెట్టి పూర్తి చేయకుండా తిరిగి ఇచ్చేసిన లైబ్రరీ పుస్తకాలు చాలానే ఉన్నాయి ఈ సంవత్సరం. చదివిన పుస్తకాల జాబితా వ్రాసుకోవటమూ చేయలేదు. జ్ఞాపకంనుంచి వ్రాస్తుంటే కొన్ని పుస్తకాలు మిస్ అవుతున్నానని తెలుస్తుంది. గుర్తున్నంతవరకూ ఇదీ జాబితా. ఇందులో కొన్ని పుస్తకాలు అందించిన శ్రీ అట్లూరి, వాసిరెడ్డి నవీన్, దేవినేని మధుసూదనరావు, నవోదయా రామ్మోహనరావు, మధురాంతకం నరేంద్ర, నవోదయా కోటేశ్వరరావులకు, మోసుకొచ్చిన జయప్రకాష్ కు, కృతజ్ఞతలు.

Novels:

Speaking from among the bones – Alan Bradley; another Flavia DeLuce mystery

The Last Taxi Ride: a Ranjit Singh novel – A.X. Ahmad. A mystery set in New York with Indian characters. Ranjit Singh is an ex-army officer, now riding a cab in New York. He has to solve the mystery of an apparent suicide of a faded Indian movie star.

The Bughouse Affair: a Carpenter and Quincannon mystery – Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini. A mystery set in 1890s San Francisco.

Dante’s Poison: a Mark Angelotti novel – Lynne Raimondo. The remarkable thing about this book is that the central character in this mystery is a blind psychiatrist. Learned a lot about how technological advances are decreasing the difficulties of blind people.

Immortals of Meluha – Amish
The Secret of the Nagas – Amish
The Oath of the Vayuputras – Amish

Half A Girlfriend – Chetan Bhagat

Irrestible Henry House – Lisa Grunwald. Interesting novel about a ‘practice baby’ reared in a practice house for a Home Economics course in the 1940s. What happens to a baby reared by multiple mothers? In this author’s conception, they turn out to be charming pleasers that do not have their own vision or voice.

Kinder than Solitude – Yiyun Li. Li is being praised as one of the best young writers; this is an interesting novel of a death of an old friend /acquaintance affects three friends – one living in China, two outside. Offers some glimpses into the life in more recent times in China.

In the Heat of the Night – John Ball – The novel on which the famous movie was based. The sheriff in the novel is not nearly as noble as the one in the movie.

The Double – George Pelecanoes – a thriller novel featuring an ex-marine private eye, not worth the time.

Nine Days – Minerva Koenig. An unusual mystery with the lead being a 40 plus female in a witness protection program and the setting a really small South Texas town

Short Stories

14 Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray – Bhaskar Chattopadhyay. Chattopadhyay translated the original stories (all in Bengali except two by Premchand) that Ray made films out of. Great stories all of them. Didn’t realize that Ray made a film out of Mrinmoyi, the story of one of my all-time favorite films, Upahaar.

The Best American Short Stories 2013 – Ed: Elizabeth Strout with Heidi Pitlor

Nine inches – Tom Perrotta. Interesting stories.

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl – Yiyun Li . Some interesting short stories

Humor:

The Best of Wodehouse: an anthology – P. G. Wodehouse
Nothing serious – P.G. Wodehouse. Of course.

Bad Teacher: hilarious tales of staff misbehaving – Jenny Crompton. Truth is, sometimes, stranger than fiction

The 50 Funniest American Writers: an anthology of humor from Mark Twain to the Onion. (Ed) Andy Borowitz. Not all of them were that funny. Some were quite funny!

I Remember Nothing: and other reflections – Nora Ephron. Series of funny essays by the famous screenwriter (When Harry met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle)

Plays

August, Osage County – Tracy Letts; A family drama set in a home in rural Oklahoma; mother takes pills; father drinks. Father leaves one day and disappears; three daughters return home to be with mother. Each of them has her own issues. Barbara is separated from her husband; Karen is about to get married to an unsavoury character; and Julie is in a relationship – which is almost forbidden. And, the family secrets come tumbling out. I first saw this as a film (with Merryl Streep and Julia Roberts) and was quite impressed. A very tautly written play that won a Pulitzer.

History
West of the Revolution: an uncommon history of 1776 – Claudio Saunt. Filling in the gaps of our knowledge about what was happening in the rest of America in 1776 while the fight for independence was consuming the Eastern colonies.

Fire and light: how the Enlightenment transformed our world – James MacGregor Burns. Didn’t quite finish this interesting book talking about the power of ideas.

The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way – Bill Bryson. He knows how to make interesting and enjoyable stories out of history; one of my favorite writers.

Thank you for your service –David Finkel. Heart wrenching tales of Army veterans that returned from Iraq and trying to adjust (and that of their families).

Psychology and Social Sciences

The Rise: creativity, the gift of failure, and the search for mastery – Sarah Lewis. Failure doesn’t always mean just that. Sometimes, that is what propels the genius and the creative.

The Art of Thinking Clearly – Rolf Dobelli; translated by Nicky Griffin. Common errors in thinking and behavior.

The Geography of thought – Richard E Nisbett. Culture influences thinking styles, says the famous psychologist.

Intelligence and How to Get it – How schools and cultures count – Richard E Nisbett. Society shapes intelligence and culture

The Person and the situation – perspectives of social psychology – Les Ross and Richard E Nisbett. This is the point of origin for some of Malcolm Gladwell’s theses.

David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell; Another interesting book by Gladwell. The central thesis of the book is that what are considered conventionally as advantages are not always advantages and, for some people the disadvantages can really become advantages. He also talks about the inverted U curve how an excess of an advantage could actually become a disadvantage.

Super Freakonomics – Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner; Sequel to Freakonomics; more interesting tales and theories.

Shikhandi and other tales they don’t tell you – Devdutt Patnaik. An interesting compilation of stories from Indian mythology of gender transformation and homoerotic films.

Autobiographical:

The Substance and the Shadow – Dileep Kumar. An interesting life of a boy from Peshawar that became the ‘thespian’. Not much about films as about his life. The very well read Yousuf Khan (the name he apparently prefers) writes a little formally. Apparently, he and Raj Kapoor were from the same town in Pakistan and were lifelong friends. Saira Bano was quite obsessed with him despite their age difference. Several others also write about their impressions of him.

Conversations with Waheeda Rehman – Nasreen Munni Kabir. An engaging read about a favorite actress. She has not forgotten her early days in Andhra Pradesh and her debut in Rojulu Maaraayi. She apparently was quite feisty. Kept her original name despite pressure from her mentors during her Hindi debut. She says that there was another lovely song in Pyasa, which was however cut in the end as it does not fit the progression of the story.

And then One Day – Naseeruddin Shah. A rebellious underachiever that liked to act. Interesting story. A bit snarky at times. Left a lot unsaid, particularly about what happened after his early career. But very candid. Interesting tidbits – he spent a few days in Dilip Kumar’s house during his first attempt to get a foothold in films. His first screen appearance was as an extra in Hema Malini’s debut film – Sapnon Ka Saudagar.

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers – Maria Augusta Trapp. What happened to the Von Trapp family singers (The Sound of Music) after they left Austria? They emigrated to US, suffered extreme poverty, and then became famous again.

The Great Typo Hunt – Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson. An intrepid soul, on his quixotic quest to save the humanity, goes around America, correcting one typo at a time.

Health

Do You Believe in Magic? The sense and nonsense of alternative medicine – Paul Offit. Offit, a physician, looks at many claims behind ‘alternative medicine’ and celebrity purveyors of various treatments. He examines the scientific evidence behind many of these. An easy read, and an important read.

Being mortal – Atul Gawande. Easily the most thought provoking book for me this year. Perhaps it is my new professional responsibilities encompassing geriatrics and extended care; perhaps my aging parents and relatives, or perhaps my own aging. Gawande writes well, raises very relevant and timely questions, draws from his own experiences and suggest a few ways of dealing with issues of aging and death.

Photography

My India in 3D – Frank Mathys, Hans De Craemer. When Srisri Printers Visweswararao showed me this book, I was bowled over. I HAD to get this book (and, I did. Thank you Narendra gaaru!). Narendra of Pragati Printers in Hyderabad commissioned these photographers to take 3D photographs of various sights across India and then printed them in 3D. This was a gift to their father Sri Hanumantarao Paruchuri, who founded the press. This was the first time I saw 3D in print and some of the pictures are mind-blowing.

తెలుగు

ఆత్మకథలు, జీవిత చరిత్రలు

ఎం.ఎఫ్. గోపీనాథ్ – నా పొగరు మిమ్మల్ని గాయపరిచిందా
మా నాయన బాలయ్య – వై.బి. సత్యనారాయణ
మోహన మకరందం – మోహన్ కందా
శంకరంబాడి సుందరాచారి జీవిత చరిత్ర (రచయిత గుర్తు లేదు)
నరేంద్రమోడీ – యార్లగడ్డ లక్ష్మీప్రసాద్
పదండి ముందుకు: విజ్ఞాన్ రత్తయ్య జీవనకెరటాలు – అరుణ పప్పు
సమ్మాన్యుడు – చేంబోలు శ్రీరామశాస్త్రి
ఆత్మీయం సాహితీ కదంబం – దాసరి అమరేంద్ర
కొసరు కొమ్మచ్చి – బాపు రమణల గురించి
నెమరేసిన మెమరీస్ – ముళ్ళపూడి శ్రీదేవి
త్రిపుర ఓ జ్ఞాపకం – సం. అత్తలూరి నరసింహారావు, భమిడిపాటి జగన్నాధరావు + కె.కె.రామయ్య

నవలలు
కొల్లేటి జాడలు — అక్కినేని కుటుంబరావు
నేలదిగిన వాన – వేంపల్లి గంగాధర్
మూలింటామె — నామిని
ముగ్గురు కొలంబస్ లు – సోమరాజు సుశీల
భూచక్రం – మధురాంతకం నరేంద్ర
ఆమ్స్టర్ఢామ్ లో అద్భుతం – మధురాంతకం నరేంద్ర
కొమురం భీం – సాహు, అల్లం రాజయ్య
ఎగిరే పావురమా – కోసూరి ఉమాభారతి
గృహభంగం – ఎస్.ఎల్. భైరప్ప (అను: సంపత్)
ఆంధ్ర నగరి – సాయి పాపినేని
అపరిచితం – నరేష్ నున్నా
మరల సేద్యానికి – శివరామ్ కరంత్ (అను: తిరుమల రామచంద్ర)
బోయకొట్టములు పణ్డ్రెండు – కరణం బాలసుబ్రహ్మణ్యం పిళ్ళె
అసురుడు, పరాజితుల గాథ – ఆనంద్ నీలకంఠన్ (అను: ఆర్. శాంతసుందరి)

కథలు

కథ 2013
అమెరికా తెలుగు కథానిక -12
ప్రాతినిధ్య – 2 – సం. సామాన్య కిరణ్, ముసునూరి ప్రమీలాదేవి
కలశపూడి కథలు – కలశపూడి శ్రీనివాసరావు
పొయ్యిగడ్డ కతలు – రామక్కగారి సుమ
గుల్జార్ కథలు – గుల్జార్ (అను: మృణాళిని)
లక్ష్మీ కటాక్షం – తోలేటి జగన్మోహనరావు
ఆపద్ధర్మం – అర్నాద్ కథలు
చిట్తచివరి రేడియో నాటకం – వి. చంద్రశేఖర రావు
న్యూయార్క్ కథలు – కూనపనేని కుమార్
ఘర్షణ – అపర్ణ ములుకుట్ల గునుపూడి
ఊహాచిత్రం –అరిపిరాల సత్యప్రసాద్
పరాయోళ్ళు – ఉమామహేశ్వర్
కథ నేపధ్యం -2
దిద్దుబాటలు

కవిత్వం

6thఎలిమెంట్ – మువ్వా శ్రీనివాసరావు
నివేదన – టాగోర్ కొరొ జాగొరితొ (Where the mind is without fear)కు 99 తెలుగు అనువాదాలు (సం: మోదుగుల రవికృష్ణ)
పునశ్చరణం – వైదేహీ శశిధర్
ప్యాసా – తనికెళ్ళ భరణి
నదీమూలం లాంటి ఆ ఇల్లు – యాకూబ్ కవిత్వం

ఇతరాలు

పలక –పెన్సిల్ – పూడూరి రాజిరెడ్డి
రియాలిటీ చెక్ – పూడూరి రాజిరెడ్డి
తొలి తెలుగు శాసనం – వేంపల్లి గంగాధర్
అమెరికాలో తెలుగు సంఘాలు – చెన్నూరి వెంకట సుబ్బారావ్
కథావరణం – సింగమనేని నారాయణ
అమెరికా తెలుగు కథాసాహిత్యం – ఒక సమగ్ర పరిశీలన –వంగూరి చిట్టెన్‌రాజు, తన్నీరు కల్యాణ్ కుమార్