Active Holidays— Cafe Coffee Day’s Guide to action Packed Holidays across India; (pp, 171, Rs 150) India Resort’s Survey — is an independent, comprehensive resource for travel lovers with information and advice on the best holiday and leisure options right across the country. From bird watching, angling and wildlife safaris to trekking, mountain climbing and skiing, holiday thrill seekers have a whole new world of options. This book is a complete guide to the finest action packed holidays across India.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians — the Lightening Thief; Rick Riordan (Puffin: 2005, pp 400, £ 3.25) 2000 BC meets 2000 AD in this fantasy adventure. The gods of Olympus are alive in the 21st century. They still fall in love with mortals and have children who might become great heroes, but most of these children meet horrible fates at the hands of monsters by the age of twelve. Only a few learn the the truth of their identity and make it to Half Blood Hill, a long Island summer camp dedicated to training young demigods. Such is the revelation that launches young Percy Jackson on a quest to help his real father Poseidon avert a war among the gods.

The Girls from Overseas (New Edition); Nargis Dalal (New Delhi: Penguin, 2005, pp 210, Rs 200) The Dun valley in the 1970s; the enclave of the idle affluent— quiet, green and temperate, as much of India is not. Just the kind of place where the Girls from overseas, five white women married to Indian men, should feel least displaced. Yet Gertrude, Jane, Michelle, Sandy and louise are vaguely unhappy. An unsparing examination of marriage, displacement and the many small compromises that make up life, The Girls From Overseas, first published in 1979, shines with wit and intelligence.

A General Speaks; General S Padmanabhan PVSM, AVSM, VSM (New Delhi: Manas Publications, 2005, pp 234, Rs 495) The book raises vital questions of war and peace and identifies the key players who will determine which conditions shall prevail in 21st century South Asia. It traces the evolution of modern armies and assesses how well prepared the Indian army is to face the challenges ahead. The author’s reviews of the years 2001 and 2002, when he was in command of the Indian army, will be read with considerable interest, as India and Pakistan came to the brink of war in 2002.

Beyond a Boundary; C L R James (London: Yellow Jersey Press, 2005, pp 355, Pounds 4.75) C L R James— one of the foremost thinkers of the 20th century— was devoted to the game of cricket.

In this classic summation of half a lifetime spent playing, watching and writing about the sport, he recounts the story of his overriding passion and tells us of the players he knew and loved, exploring the game’s psychology and aesthetics and the issues of class, race and politics that surround it.

Two Lives; Vikram Seth (New Delhi: Viking, 2005, pp503, Rs 695) Shanti Behari Seth was brought up in India in the late years of the Raj and was sent by his family in the 1930s to Berlin— though he could not speak a word of German— to study medicine and dentistry. It was here, before he migrated to Britain, that Shanti’s path first crossed that of his future wife. Seth’s new book is the story of a century and of a love affair across a racial divide.

In Defence of Democracy; Edited by Ko Chennabasappa (Bangalore: Published by Justice D M Chandrashekar Memorial Publication Committee, 2005, pp 382, Rs 250) On 25th June 1975, a dark, thick cloud descended upon this country in the form of the Emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The demon of dictatorship in the garb of democracy stuck to the seat of power. With this context we shall see the judgement rendered by Chief Justice Chandrashekar and his colleague Justice Sri B Venkataswamy in Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Habeas Corpus Writ petition.

Encyclopaedia of Quotable Couplets; M R Shetty (New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2005, pp 680, Rs 950) Two lines of verse that have rhyme and metre are called couplets. It is a spontaneous form of expression used by man since pre history to communicate from one generation to the next. The author has coined the term Amusings to describe his work. They are thoughts that occurred to him in moments of ‘muse’. He has chosen only those the couplets or “Poetic rhymes in parallel lines to be the contents of this book”.

Wild Tigers of Ranthambhore (Second Edition); Valmik Thapar, Fateh Singh Rathore (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005 (First edition published in 2000) pp 171, Rs 995) Tracking the many moods of the tiger, this book traces the progress of efforts to save the magnificient animal in India. Documenting Tiger watching in Rantambhore from the 1970s to the late 1990s, the second, enhanced edition discusses the tiger tragedy of winter-spring 2004-2005 and argues for new and more radical initiatives to protect the tiger and by extension, wilderness itself.

The Girls from Overseas (New Edition); Nargis Dalal (New Delhi: Penguin, 2005, pp 210, Rs 200) The Dun valley in the 1970s; the enclave of the idle affluent— quiet, green and temperate, as much of India is not. Just the kind of place where the Girls from overseas, five white women married to Indian men, should feel least displaced. Yet Gertrude, Jane, Michelle, Sandy and louise are vaguely unhappy. An unsparing examination of marriage, displacement and the many small compromises that make up life, The Girls From Overseas, first published in 1979, shines with wit and intelligence.

Structure, Style and Usage; K S Yadurajan (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp 235, Rs 395) This volume, a companion to the author’s earlier book, Current English, comprehensively covers points of structure, style and usage in the English language. An invaluable guide, it explains issues of grammer that baffle the non-native speaker and pose problems even for native speakers in a witty and accessible manner.