Prepare yourself for success

By being in the right place at the right time, you can dramatically increase your chances for success in any endeavor. Just like in a race or game of chess, you must position yourself to make the right move."

There are many times in our lives when the path ahead is unclear or when we're not quite sure of which direction we should choose. Often, merely the process of preparation the activity itself will provide clarity and certainty to our plans. Following are some points to enhance your preparedness:

Health & Vitality: You can't get-up-and-go if you don't have a reserve of energy and god health. You know what to do eat right, get adequate rest, and take good care of your body.

Education & Skills: What you know and what you can do in terms of skills is a big part of your positioning. It will not only increase your preparation quotient, but will also keep you feeling stimulated even young.

Contacts: The people you know and the relationship you've developed over the years can be a virtual gold mine to you. It's imperative you cultivate and build your associations in order to obtain help and round up talent for your projects.

Self-Image and Self-Esteem: How you feel about yourself comes across to others. There is no status quo. We either build or tear down our self-esteem. Integrity is the essence of everything successful.

Finances and Credit: Most opportunities involve an investment of money as well as time and energy. Having money in the bank can go a long way in your favor. Pay off those debts and create some savings.

Attitude: People with good attitudes not only attract opportunity but also the people who can help them.

It's not easy, but remembers, as Coach Bear Bryant said, "Is not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference."

Life is Beautiful

Enjoy It!

Internet in rural India

The Asia Paific region had 484 million users (Sept 2009), which represents a 22% growth from the year-ago period. India had 35.8 million Internet users (excluding visits from net cafes and handhelds), up 17% year-on-year while China registered a 31% growth during the period and now has 220 million Internet users. Although most of the Internet users in India are familiar with more than one language, it is only that users in smaller cities are avid users of applications and services offered in local language. One of the primary reasons of low levels of adoption in rural India is due to

1. Large percentage of people in rural India are not familiar to English. There are 22 constitutionally approved languages spoken in India and over 1600 regional dialects. Out of the total literate population in India, 37% are English literate in urban areas and 17% in rural. The remaining (i.e. 63% in urban areas and 83% in rural) are not familiar with English.
2. Lack of localization.

China, Japan and Korea are the most matured markets in terms of localisation. These countries have been very active in their efforts towards standardized localisation. The result of this is that most of the software is already localized in these languages and now these countries are moving towards localizing cutting edge technology applications such as OCR and Text to Speech.

There has also been a good penetration of internet in South America that include countries like Peru, Central Amazon and Andean regions.

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

'The Story of My Experiments with Truth' an autobiography by Mahatma Gandhi would be a challenging read for readers not familiar with the Indian history. Moreover, readers who want to read about life of Gandhi will also find this book incomplete since it was published in 1927 and he continued to live for over two decades after that. Most of his more important work was done after 1927. Nonetheless, this is a good insight into Gandhi, the man rather than Gandhi, the public figure.

The book gives you a greater insight into the life passage of a greatest man of the century. Gandhi has written in an uninhibited style and flavour. He has never shyed away from letting the user know his entire life history describing each and every minute happenings in his life. A great read for anyone!

Books on Criminology

A crime is an act that violates the basic values and beliefs of society. Those values and beliefs are manifested as laws that society agrees upon. Criminology is the study of the nature, causes, extent and control of criminal behavior in society. The term "criminology" was coined in 1885 by Italian law professor Raffaele Garofalo as criminologia. In the mid-18th century, criminology arose as social philosophers gave thought to crime and concepts of law. Over time, several schools of thought have developed namely Classical, Positivst, Italian and many more. Theoretical perspectives used in criminology include psychoanalysis, functionalism, interactionism, Marxism, econometrics, systems theory, postmodernism, etc. Areas of study in Criminology include Criminal Behavior, Domestic Violence, Crime Prevention, Juvenile Delinquency and many more. Comparative criminology is the study of the social phenomenon of crime across cultures, to identify differences and similarities in crime patterns. Some good books on Criminology include The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. It is the most comprehensive and authoritative single volume text on the subject.

We don't always see what we think we see.

If your brain works normally this is neat. This is another example of an amazing illusion!!! The last sentence is so true.

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, the dots will remain only one color, pink.

However if you stare at the black " +" in the centre, the moving dot turns to green.
Now, concentrate on the black " + " in the centre of the picture. After a short period, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see only a single green dot rotating.
It's amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot , and the pink ones really don't disappear. This should be proof enough, we don't always see what we think we see.

Google search: Tip to search better on Google

Search on google is pretty simple: just type whatever comes to your mind & hit Enter or click on the Google Search button and you more than often find exactly what you were looking for. However the following tips can help you refine your technique to make the most of your searches:

1. Put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. If you put quotes around "electric curtains," Google won't waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word "electric" and another set containing the word "curtains."

2. Similarly, put a hyphen right before any word you want screened out. If you're looking up dolphins, for example, you'll have to wade through a million Miami Dolphins pages unless you search for "dolphins - Miami ."

3. Google is a calculator. Type in an equation ("32+2345*3- 234=").

4. Google is a package tracker. Type a FedEx or UPS package number (just the digits); when you click Search, Google offers a link to its tracking information.

5. Google is a global White Pages and Yellow Pages. Search for "phonebook:home depot norwalk , ct," Google instantly produces the address and phone number of the Norwalk Home Depot. This works with names ("phonebook: robert jones las vegas , NV") as well as businesses. Don't put any space after "phonebook."

6. Google is an atlas. Type in an area code, like 212, to see a Mapquest map of the area.

7. Google is a units-of-measurement converter. Type "teaspoons in a gallon," for example, or "centimeters in a foot."

8. Google is a stock ticker. Type in AMZN or GOOG, for example, to see a link to the current Amazon or Google stock price, graphs, financial news and so on.

9. Google is Wal-Mart's computer. Type in a UPC bar code number, such as "12345250015, " to see the description of the product you've just "scanned in." (Thanks to the Google Blog, http://google. blogspace. com , for this tip and the next couple.)

10. Google is an aviation buff. Type in a flight number like "United 22" for a link to a map of that flight's progress in the air. Or type in the tail number you see on an airplane for the full registration form for that plane.

11. Google is the Department of Motor Vehicles. Type in a VIN (vehicle identification number, which is etched onto a plate, usually on the door frame, of every car), like "VJ3SE1157MT001832, " to find out the car's year, make and model.

12 . Google is a curreny convertor. Type USD to INR to get the current x-change rate.

Amazon vs Walmart: Price war?

Is the value of a good book immeasurable? Think again! Walmart and Amazon have a feeling that it hovers somewhere under 10 bucks. The two online giants have begun a deep-discount war that is more reminiscent of neighboring delis or much like the fight between the Ambani's of India. It all started with Walmart's promotion offering of their top 10 pre-ordered books (including Sarah Palin’s memoir and new books from Stephen King, James Patterson, John Grisham, and Michael Crichton) for only a sawbuck — including free shipping. Amazon responded by matching their price, but as of this morning, both deals had slipped down another notch to a staggering $9 per popular new hardcover.

Due to the costs of producing; warehousing; shipping; selling; and marketing books, hardcovers cost way more than $9 to get onto the store shelves. Paperbacks are cheaper to produce, but a lot of costs were absorbed in hardcover publication. Besides, American reviewers still don’t take paperback originals seriously, and review attention is a major part of publicity for a book (as radio is for music). The economics behind book publishing is very tight, and margins for all involved (aside from a few big name authors) are very slim.

Although it might spell better deals for the common man, it’s hardly an auspicious sign for the vitality of the industry. It’s even worse news for independent booksellers who aren’t able to compete at anything near the level of Sam Walton’s little corner store.

nofollow and pagerank sculpting in seo

what is page rank?

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. It is named after Larry Page and is used by the Google Internet search engine.

what is nofollow?

"nofollow" is an HTML attribute value used to instruct some search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target's ranking (i.e. show not pass on page rank) in the search engine's index. It is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing from occurring. In common mans words "nofollow" is method (introduced in 2005 and supported by multiple search engines) to annotate a link to tell search engines “I can’t or don’t want to vouch for this link.” In Google, nofollow links don’t pass PageRank and don’t pass anchor text.

what has changed?
According to Matt Cutts (Google) offers a simplified description of the PageRank process, where a page's value flows out to the various pages it links to equally. When the nofollow attribute originally came on the scene, Google would just remove those links from the equation, according to Cutts. So if a page with 10 "PageRank points" to share had ten links on it, and five were nofollowed, each regular link would pass two PageRank points.

Cutts today said that Google changed this practice more than a year ago to keep the nofollowed links in the equation, but not passing any PageRank points. So in that same example, the regular links would each pass 1 PageRank point, and the nofollowed links would still "use up" their allotted points, even though they did not pass those points on. You can read the full article here...

find out of print books

Out of Print Books are hard to find. But here is a list of places that you can look for on the internet!

1. Amazon - partners with Bibliofind so that it will automatically check for used copies of any title which includes out of print books.

2. ebay - the largest marketplace for books infact any item for that matter

3. lulu : - they do print on demand. You might be able to print some of the our of print books.

4. infibeam - partners with retail book outlets which sell old/used copies of books.

5. Old Children's Books

6. Better World Books . A good place to shop for books because it sells libraries' unneeded books and splits the profits of the sales between the libraries and organizations promoting literacy worldwide.

7. Abebooks
Claims to be "the world's largest online marketplace for used, rare, and out-of-print books." Note there are also Abebooks sites in France, Germany and the UK. It is a subsidiary of Amazon.

8 Biblio: Used Books, Rare Books, and Out of Print Books http://biblio.com/

9 Bookfinder -- another meta-search engine for used book catalogs.

10 Main Book Shop -- claims to be "the largest selection of publisher's overstocks and remainder books in the world."

dashes vs underscores in url for SEO

Which parameter is a better separator for words in a URL for SEO purposes?
a) hyphens/dashes (-)
b) underscores (_)

There is none other to answer this question other than Matt Cutts. Infact one of matt cutts responses clarifies it in a nutshell "if you already have a system set up to do underscores and have links/rankings, it’s probably not worth changing things over. But if you’re starting on a new domain, I’d go with dashes." In this post Matt describes in detail of how google treats dashes and underscores and atleast as of now dashes is a better choice for Google!

Some more results about google based on SERP counts

1. Google searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for george washington, George Washington, and gEoRgE wAsHiNgToN will all return the same results.
2. _ < & are treated like letters/numbers, not word separators
3. Google thinks ? [ ] ` { } are treated like spaces separating words
4. ‘ . / = \ are treated like spaces separating words if they are within quotes. If they are not inside quotes, they are treated as if they are spaces and are inside quotes.

Alexa Rank: boost alexa ranking

What is Alexa? According to alexa.com
Alexa is useful resource for people to discover information about websites. You can use Alexa to discover how popular a site is (based on its alexa rank), to find new sites, to learn who owns a site and a lot more. Whether you are a web professional trying to size up your online competition or you're just trying to find the best website to buy a new TV, Alexa is for you.

How does it work?
Alexa ranks sites based on tracking information of users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer and from integrated sidebars in Mozilla and Netscape.

Is it accurate?
There is some controversy over how representative Alexa's user base is of typical Internet behavior. If Alexa's user base is a fair statistical sample of the Internet user population e.g., a random sample of sufficient size, Alexa's ranking should be quite accurate. In reality, not much is known about the sample and possible sampling biases. A known source of bias is the self-selecting, opt-in nature of Alexa traffic tracking software installation, but the significance of this bias on rankings is not known

Other issues:
* Alexa does not get you much direct traffic (unless you get into the top 100). It gets mostly Ego searches from webmasters looking at their own domain.
* With a small sample audience minor changes in site traffic can represent huge changes in Alexa rating
* In simplest terms, Alexa is truly biased toward a webmaster audience
* On April 16, 2008 many users reported dramatic shifts in their Alexa rankings. Alexa confirmed this later in the day with an announcement that they had released the new Alexa ranking system, claiming that they now take into account more data sources "beyond Alexa Toolbar users".

Also, The Alexa toolbar is regarded by many vendors, such as Symantec and McAfee, as spyware!

Why do you hear so much about Alexa and why is it being promoted so heavily by some e-marketer’s?

* Sometimes (not in call cases) webmasters, advertisers and ad networks use your blog’s Alexa rank as a gauge to determine the worth of a link on your website. If you depend on link or site selling as a form of monetization you’ll definitely want to increase your Alexa rank, because it’ll increase your bargaining power when it comes to ad pricing.
* Sorry to say, though, it’s mainly ignorance–most people don’t read the fine print about how the stats are being generated. The rankings aren’t worth much-except for ego.
* Most people see graphs and rankings and think automatically it’s legit. Numbers can’t lie can they? (Note sarcasm) We get that it’s hard to believe. I mean who wouldn’t be concerned when you go to Alexa.com and see certain sites, maybe competitors websites, higher than yours. You are competitive and want your to be higher. But really, who cares about rank, if you don’t actually get more business?
* Another trick is the quick con of shady e-marketers by getting website owners to install the toolbar to inflate the stats by having them visit their own site, and sell the results back to them as being some kind of expert. People love numbers and graphs. Few ask questions on how the info is determined.
* Think of this, if we were pushing you to install the Alexa Toolbar, and we know you are a regular reader of this blog, then my Alexa rating would also rise (along with your site). In short, a pyramid scheme of Alexa ranking.

So if you still think you want to increase your rank, read the rest!

1. Write content that is related to webmasters. This can fall in the category of domaining and SEO, two fields in which most webmasters will have the Alexa toolbar installed. Promote your content on social networking websites and webmaster forums.
2. Write or Blog about Alexa. Webmaster and bloggers love to hear about ways to increase their Alexa rank. They’ll link to you and send you targeted traffic (i.e. visitors with the toolbar already installed). This gradually has effects on your Alexa ranking.
3. Flaunt your URL in webmaster forums. Webmasters usually have the toolbar installed. You’ll get webmasters to visit your website and offer useful feedback. It’s also a good way to give back to the community if you have useful articles to share with others.
4. Install the Alexa toolbar or Firefox’s SearchStatus extension and set your blog as your homepage. This is the most basic step.
5. Encourage others to use the Alexa toolbar. This includes friends, fellow webmasters as well as site visitors/blog readers. Be sure to link to Alexa’s full explanation of their toolbar and tracking system so your readers know what installing the toolbar or extension entails.
6. Work in an Office or own a company? Get the Alexa toolbar or SS Firefox extension installed on all computers and set your website as the homepage for all browsers. Perhaps it will be useful to note that this may work only when dynamic or different IPs are used.
7. Get Dugg or Stumbled. This usually brings massive numbers of visitors to your website and the sheer amount will have a positive impact on your Alexa Rank. Naturally, you’ll need to develop link worthy material.
8. Pay Cybercafe owners to install the Alexa toolbar and set your website as the homepage for all their computers. This might be difficult to arrange and isn’t really a viable solution for most. I’m keeping this one in because some have suggested that it does work.

Horror Books too good to put down

Books by Stephen King Of course. It's hard to choose the best one, since the best of his works do different things.

1. The Dead Zone is also about pure evil, and our responsibility to fight it. The hero, Johnny, has an accident that should have killed him. Instead, it puts him into a prolonged coma. When he wakes up from it, he has psi abilities--he can see the future, and he can read a people's past by touching them or their belongings. Confronted with a politician whose future capability for evil he can see clearly, Johnny has no choice but to prevent this future.

2. The Stand is especially interesting in that, after having a military virus escape and wipe out most of the population, he shows society rebuilding itself. One community rebuilds along democratic lines (though King makes it clear that without determined and somewhat autocratic leadership, democratic institutions would not survive); the other society is driven by Randall Flagg--either the devil or his close kin. Inevitably, the society of evil feels compelled wipe out the democracy, and the democracy has to protect itself. The Stand contains some of King's most interesting characters, including the Trashcan Man, Randall Flagg, and Glenn, the sociologist/philosopher (who clearly is spouting Stephen King's own ideas). Critics scoff at the idea that King has anything serious to say, but this book presents a convincing argument that there are a few genuinely good people, a few genuinely evil people (or hideously damaged people), but the great majority of the human race is morally neutral, ready to go either direction depending on their surroundings.

3. It: Children are the chosen victims of a timeless monster, but they are also the only people capable of seeing and understanding the threat. King is one of those rare people who has never forgotten what it feels like to be a child. He understands more than most that children experience present reality in a way that adults, protected by their ideas of how the world is supposed to be, cannot; confronted by the same evil the children see, the adults deny the evidence of their senses. This means that the children must deal with an evil far too great for them, alone. And even then, they only thwart the evil--it's still there, lurking, so that many years later, they must go back and kill the monster forever. The children are well-drawn characters, each of them outcast and bullied (another of King's standard themes is how adults choose to ignore the bullying that makes children's lives miserable).

2 states by chetan bhagat

'2 States' is a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don’t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it? From the author of blockbusters Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The 3 Mistakes of My Life, comes another witty tale about inter-community marriages in modern India. 2 states brings out the complexity involved in an Indian wedding especially when people across castes enter into a marriage. Its not about convincing the immediate families but the bigger families as well. Love marriages around the world are simple:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.
They get married.

In India, there are a few more steps:

Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl’s family has to love boy. Boy’s family has to love girl.
Girl’s Family has to love Boy’s Family. Boy’s family has to love girl’s family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

So as one can see Chetan bhagat has tried to capture this intricate system in his latest book. The book is a good read, though thoroughly predictable it was probably meant to be that way so as to identify with the reader. Some dialogues are really funny, like the "kick ass and need ice" simile brings a smile to your face... all in all the best part of the book is the Dedication. Have fun all you readers!!!!

The idea of Justice by Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics, is Lamont University Professor, Harvard University. He is known for his contributions to welfare economics, for his work on human development theory, welfare economics, famine, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, gender inequality, and political liberalism. He is a distinguished economist-philosopher who won the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on welfare economics.

Amartya Sen has one idea in his "the idea of Justice". He claims that John Rawls' theory of justice relies on just institutions working with a social contract towards a transcendental (i.e. unachievable?) vision of a perfectly just society. Sen critiques this for ignoring real actual achievable outcomes, excluding wider interests and failing to address behavior. He proposes instead that justice should operate by comparing actual outcomes through a process of `unrestricted'(page 44) public reasoning. He offers one example, of whether a flute should belong to a child who can play it, a child who has no other toys, or the child who made it (although he frequently but vaguely refers to meta-examples of slavery and women's rights).

The author argues that economists have tended to content themselves with an overly simple picture of human motivation, rationality and well-being. The author argues that people are not purely self-interested. They care for others and observe social norms. They do not always reason mechanistically, seeking least-cost to given ends. They question the point of their aims and the worth of their wants. Well-being has no single measure but is comprehensible. Its elements are many and do not amount to just utility or some cash value equivalent.

Tying the whole together is the author's confidence that, though values are complex, economics provides tools for thinking clearly about complexity.

The author concludes with democracy which can take many institutional forms. But non succeds without open debate about values and principles. To that vital element in public reason, 'The Idea of Justice' is an important contribution.

Cinema and Censorship: The Politics of Control in India

Cinema and Censorship: The Politics of Control in India covers every area of Indian cinema such as feature films in all languages, documentary films, docu-features made by independent documentary filmmakers, and even foreign films that came under the scissors of the CBFC. It is a critical, incisive, research-based analysis of the political factors that continue to dog the concept of film censorship in India by turning the CBFC into a stringed puppet influenced, dominated, pressured and controlled by ruling political parties. The arguments are often placed against the lack of censorship on television, throwing up questions of irony and contradiction.

Thus far, only a few authors have studied the subject because there are few books that exclusively address the problem of censorship in Indian cinema. The last noted book on censorship was Liberty and Licence in the Indian Cinema by Aruna Vasudev (1978). Gender and Censorship, edited by Brinda Bose, appeared in 2006; this book gives detailed accounts of the Board's war with filmmakers over gender issues. This book offers a model frame of reference on censorship of cinema in India for administrative heads, bureaucrats, filmmakers, scholars and students of Indian cinema.

The book, after a long preface by the author, is divided into nine chapters beginning with Mapping the Field and concluding with A Medium in Chains. The preface observes that film censorship was not the only inheritance of the system imposed by colonial period on post-colonial India; the police, military, intelligence, paramilitary institutions and the criminal procedure and penal codes are other such inherited machines.

Bhowmik, who obtained his Ph.D. on film censorship in India's colonial period, is currently Research Scientist with the Educational Multimedia Research Centre, St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. He has researched and written extensively on the sociological aspects of cinema and television in both English and Bengali.

Evolution of God by Robert Wright

Evolution of GOD from acclaimed author Robert Wright is a well-researched one covering a great deal of territory. It should be read in its entirety to be properly understood. In it he discusses the history of religion with a focus on western Abrahamic faiths, although not entirely neglecting eastern religions. Straddling popular science, ancient history, and theology, this ambitious work sets out to resolve not only the clash of civilizations between the Judeo-Christian West and the Muslim world but also the clash between science and religion.

Wright begins with the five types of primitive hunter-gatherer supernatural beings: elemental spirits, puppeteers, organic spirits, ancestral spirits, and the high gods. In these societies the Shaman was the "first step toward an archbishop or ayatollah" who had contact with these otherwise hidden forces and could help focus their powers to heal, protect, and provide.

With the arrival of the city-states, kings needed divine legitimization and used the gods to solidify their rule over the people. The king was now the conduit of divine power. The character of the gods could differ between city-states, but many of them demanded human sacrifices or else there was chaos. Along with this development came moral obligations, which if they were not met caused sickness and death.

Wright concludes that in our day "we've reached a stage in history where the movement toward moral truth has to become globally momentous." In short, God has some "some growing to do," and Wright seems confident this will happen, given what he wrote in his previous book, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny. Whether he can be this optimistic depends on the case he made there.

Purnanuru

As its name suggests, ''Purananuru'' poems deal with the ''puram'' (external or objective) concepts of life such as war, politics, wealth, as well as aspects of every-day living. Some of the poems are in the form of elegies in tribute to a fallen hero. These poems exhibit outpourings of affection and emotions.

''Purananuru'' is an excellent source of information on the political and social history of pre-historic Tamil Nadu. There is a wealth of information on the various rulers who ruled the Tamil country before and during the Sangam era (200 BCE – 100 CE). It is part of the ''Ettuthokai'' anthology which is the oldest available collection of poems of Sangam literature in Tamil. ''Purananuru'' contains 400 poems of varying lengths in the ''Akaval'' meter.

It is not know exactly how many authors wrote the poems in ''Purananuru''. There are 147 different names found from the colophons. However some of these could denote the same author. For example, Mangudi Kizhaar and Mangudi Maruthanaar could denote the same person. Fifteen of the authors were women, one of whom was Auvaiyar who is credited with 33 poems. Some of the authors of the poems such as Kapilar and Nakkirar have also written poems that are part of other anthologies.

Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence by Jaswant Singh

Jaswant Singh is a well-known Indian politician and an X-member of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Jaswant Singh was born on 3rd January, 1938 in the village of Jasol in the Barmer district of Rajasthan, India. He is the son of Late Thakur Sardar Singhji and Shrimati Kunwar Baisa. After completing his education and training from institutions like Mayo College in Ajmer and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, he went on to serve as an officer in the Indian Army during the 1960’s. Jaswant Singh entered active politics in 1980, after he was elected to the Rajya Sabha, and since then has held important positions during his political tenure. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, from July 2004 onwards.

Jaswant Singh has been having an uneasy relationship with the party leadership ever since the Lok Sabha elections on which he had circulated a note demanding thorough discussion on the debacle. Jaswant Singh's book Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence eulogising Mohd Ali Jinnah has come under attack from BJP and the Sangh parivar, was on Wednesday expelled from the BJP.

The partition of India, 1947, some call it vivisection as Gandhi had, has without doubt been the most wounding trauma of the twentieth century. It has seared the psyche of four plus generations of this subcontinent. Why did this partition take place at all? Who was/is responsible -- Jinnah? The Congress party? Or the British? Jaswant Singh attempts to find an answer, his answer, for there can perhaps not be a definitive answer, yet the author searches. Jinnah’s political journey began as ‘an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity’ (Gopal Krishna Gokhale), yet ended with his becoming the ‘sole spokesman’ of Muslims in India; the creator of Pakistan, the Quaid-e-Azam: How and why did this transformation take place?

Intermediate Accounting by Donald E Kieso

The bestselling book on intermediate accounting, Kieso is an excellent reference for practicing accountants and an invaluable resource for anyone entering the field. It integrates FARS/Codification exercises, cases, and simulations into the chapters. This introduces readers to the codification project. They’ll learn how to leverage everyday accounting programs like Excel, GLS, and other computerized accounting software giving them a strong background in the tools needed in the accounting profession. The new concepts in this edition are:

* New IFRS content
* Updated Fair Value Discussions
* FASB Codification
* Revised End-of-Chapter Material
* Expanded CPA-Prep Professional Simulations
* Updated real-world focus

In this book New and existing content is arranged in a way to offer accountants a chance to review key concepts.

Mastering the Art of French-Cooking

Rarely are we able to say with certainty that a book is at the top of its subject in regard and quality. This book, `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck is certainly in that most unique position among cookbooks written in English and published in the United States.

The recipes are well thought out, with step by step insrtructions and illustrations. The illustrations are priceless, cooking is a lot of technique, and the illustrations walk you through it. Oh, and ingredients. She assumes that the grocery store is the only place you have to shop. So she notes how to adjust for canned or frozen vs fresh, and what you can substitute. Not some cute ethnic market in New york city where everything is always in season from the 4 corners of the world. You can literally take the book to the grocery store to buy your ingredients. and come out with everything you need.

The book is revolutionary in its approach because:
• It leads the cook infallibly from the buying and handling of raw ingredients, through each essential step of a recipe, to the final creation of a delicate confection.
• It breaks down the classic cuisine into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of recipes; and many more... read to find out...

Unmasked The final years of michael jackson by Ian Halperin

Ian Halperin is author/coauthor of five books, including the bestsellers Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Story, and Celine Dion: Behind the Fairytale, as well as a number of exposes on the modeling industry. He coauthored Who Killed Kurt Cobain? with Max Wallace. He is also a former winner of the Rolling Stone magazine Award for Investigative Journalism. Ian is a regular correspondent for Court TV and has contributed to 60 Minutes 2.

In late December 2008, Ian Halperin told the world that Michael Jackson had only six months to live. His investigations into Jackson's failing health made headlines around the globe. Six months later, the King of Pop was dead. Friends and associates paint a tragic picture of the last years and days of his life as Jackson made desperate attempts to prepare for the planned concert series at London's 02 Arena in July 2009. These shows would have earned millions for the singer and his entourage, but he could never have completed them, not mentally, and not physically. Michael knew it and his advisors knew it. Anyone who caught even a fleeting glimpse of the frail old man hiding beneath the costumes and cosmetics would have understood that the London tour was madness. Why did it happen this way? After an intense five year investigation, New York Times bestselling author Ian Halperin uncovers the real story of Michael Jackson's final years, in UnMasked a suspenseful and surprising thriller. Whatever the final autopsy results reveal, it was greed that killed Michael Jackson. For other books on Michael Jackson click here...

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Thirteen linked tales from Strout (Abide with Me, etc.) present a heart-wrenching, penetrating portrait of ordinary coastal Mainers living lives of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection. The opening Pharmacy focuses on terse, dry junior high-school teacher Olive Kitteridge and her gregarious pharmacist husband, Henry, both of whom have survived the loss of a psychologically damaged parent, and both of whom suffer painful attractions to co-workers.

Their son, Christopher, takes center stage in A Little Burst, which describes his wedding in humorous, somewhat disturbing detail, and in Security, where Olive, in her 70s, visits Christopher and his family in New York. Strout's fiction showcases her ability to reveal through familiar details—the mother-of-the-groom's wedding dress, a grandmother's disapproving observations of how her grandchildren are raised—the seeds of tragedy. Themes of suicide, depression, bad communication, aging and love, run through these stories, none more vivid or touching than Incoming Tide, where Olive chats with former student Kevin Coulson as they watch waitress Patty Howe by the seashore, all three struggling with their own misgivings about life. Like this story, the collection is easy to read and impossible to forget. Its literary craft and emotional power will surprise readers unfamiliar with Strout.

Rules of Vengeance by Reich Christopher

Christopher Reich gives us Rules of Vengeance (sequel to Rules of Deception). Sequels are rarely as good as the original, but, Rules of Vengeance turns out to be that rare exception—where the novel not only stands up to its predecessor, but actually takes the story and characters in new—and completely surprising—directions. Again we meet Dr. Jonathan Ransom, a surgeon for Doctors Without Borders. The story begins with his arrival in London to deliver an address at a prestigious international medical conference, and it takes off from there at mach speed, offering more twists than the Monaco Grand Prix. Ransom quickly finds himself in trouble not of his own making. And, once again, he is forced to maneuver between the good guys and the bad guys in order to figure out just what he’s been pulled into, and then make sure that no one else suffers because of it. The stakes are sky high. The locales are exotic. The plot is ripped from tomorrow’s headlines and Reich controls the story with a deft hand from beginning to end.

What’s particularly appealing about Jonathan Ransom is he is not a spy or a trained assassin. He is, in fact, the opposite: a doctor who has devoted his life to helping others—a loner working outside political boundaries who exemplifies the best in us all. But like each of us, he has a dark side that is both frightening and compelling. You do not want to make this man angry.

As for Christopher Reich, he—like Ransom—also may not be a trained spy or assassin (at least not to the best of my knowledge). But he certainly does manipulate the twists, summon the adrenaline, and create a landscape of thrills that can only leave readers with one lasting impression: Chris Reich is the real deal. For other books click here

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

Warmly and realistically drawn... Weiner, creator of widely popular female characters, injects an element of suspense into her latest, Best Friends Forever. This book begins on an unexpected note of violence, but the friendship of the title is at its heart. Two estranged onetime high-school chums -- one now a television weathergirl and the other one of Ms. Weiner's lovable, snack-obsessed frumps -- are thrown together to find out what happened in that opening scene and to hash out old grievances.

Best Friends Forever is a story of suspense, friendship, adventure and secrets and is told via 1st person and 3rd person from two different characters and also weaves tales of the past into the present via flashbacks. Where these elements could be awkward if not done well, it actually not only flows perfectly, but adds great interest for the reader. When Addie and Valerie became neighbors as children, Addie was certain they would remain BFFs forever. However a negative high school incident left Addie (the overweight and loyal friend) hurt--and tore the two into two directions where they remained until, 15 years later, Valerie (high school cheerleader, now weather girl) entered Addie's life again...and with blood on her sleeve and in need of help.

There is a message here - which basically is that you never know what will happen in your life and looks and appearance can be deceiving and that, in your life, friendship and support are extremely important and worth fighting for.

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson is that rare thing - a sequel that is even better than the book that went before. A suspenseful, remarkably moving novel . . . This is the best Scandinavian novel to be published in the U.S. since Smilla’s Sense of Snow . . . Salander is one of those characters who come along only rarely in fiction: a complete original, larger than life yet firmly grounded in realistic detail, utterly independent yet at her core a wounded and frightened child .

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.

But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander—the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire.

As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

Much like his (Stieg Larsson) first book the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, this complex novel is not just a thrilling read, but tackles head-on the kind of issues that Larsson himself railed against in society, such as endemic establishment corruption and the exploitation of women.

The Shack by William Young

Young approaches the popular topic the love of God and human suffering in a story. Jesus taught in parables and object lessons becasue we learn well from stories. Young's story is an attempt describe a God's character to his children. But God's character is essentially indescribable. We can only understand a part of God's characteristics by what we know and experience in human relationships.

William P. Young's book "The Shack" has an intriguing premise. Years ago, a father name MacKenzie Phillips took his children camping and lost one of them to a man who has kidnapped and killed others. Mack has grieved since then. His marriage has struggled. Understandably, his relationship with God has suffered. Then, one wintry day, he receives a note in his mailbox inviting him back to the woods, to the shack in which his daughter's dress and bloodstains were found. The note, it would seem, is from God.

From this simple yet effective premise, Young leads Mack Phillips back to his point of despair and anger. The encounters he then has with God there in "The Shack" serve as thought-provoking moments for both Mack and the reader. This is not the God of stodgy Sunday school classes. This is not a flannel-graph Jesus. This is not limited to a fluttering dove of the Holy Spirit. The descriptions here are startling, while remaining true to the nature of God's love and grace as portrayed through Scripture. Not only are they startling, they're wise and moving and beautiful.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is about a young white woman in the early 1960s in Mississippi who becomes interested in the plight of the black ladies' maids that every family has working for them. She writes their stories about mistreatment, abuse and heartbreaks of working in white families' homes, all just before the Civil Rights revolution. It is so much more than just stories of their sufferings.

Set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement, the story is narrated by the three principal characters...Minny and Aibileen, two black maids, and Miss Skeeter, a young, white woman newly graduated from college. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams.

This is a book about love and suffering, hatred and faith, fear and courage. It is about women of strength and dignity who carry on and manage to care about others despite an unjust system. It is a beautiful book, unforgettable in many ways. It is touching, thought-provoking, humorous and compelling. The Help by Kathryn Stockett gentle, yet powerful, moving without being melodramatic, and most of all, realistic in every detail.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger a clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study and a touching love story. On the surface, Henry and Clare Detamble are a normal couple living in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Henry works at the Newberry Library and Clare creates abstract paper art, but the cruel reality is that Henry is a prisoner of time. At random times, Henry suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. This leads to some wonderful paradoxes. From Henry's point of view, he first met his wife, Clare, when he was 28 and she was 20. She ran up to him exclaiming that she'd known him all her life. He, however, had never seen her before. But when he reaches his 40s, already married to Clare, he suddenly finds himself time traveling to Clare's childhood and meeting her as a 6-year-old.

The book alternates between Henry and Clare's points of view, and so does the narration. Reed ably expresses the longing of the one always left behind, the frustrations of their unusual lifestyle, and above all, her overriding love for Henry. Likewise, Burns evokes the fear of a man who never knows where or when he'll turn up, and his gratitude at having Clare, whose love is his anchor. The expressive, evocative performances of both actors convey the protagonists' intense relationship, their personal quirks and their reminiscences, making this a fascinating audio.

Audrey Niffenegger did a beautiful job taking some of the most complex ideas - time travel, marriage, love, children, friends, literary and artistic allusions, religion, death, drugs, childhood, growing, loss, and what it means to be human - and weaving them together poetically and with amazing clarity. For other books on similar subject click here

Hoshruba by Musharraf Ali Farooqi

The Tilism-e-Hoshruba is the subcontinent’s first wholly indigenous Indo-Islamic fantasy epic. It tells the stories of Amir Hamza’s military forces, his grandson and his loyal band of tricksters (masters of wit and disguise) as they go to war with Afrasiyab, the sorcerer who rules the magical land of Hoshruba.

In late nineteenth century Lucknow, Syed Muhammad Husain Jah and Ahmed Husain Qamar, two rival story-tellers, wrote Tilism-e Hoshruba a fantasy in the Urdu language whose equal had not been heard before, and which has never been rivalled since. The writers claimed that the tale had been passed down to them from story-tellers going back centuries: it was a part of the beloved oral epic, The Adventures of Amir Hamza which had come to the Indian subcontinent via Persia and had gained in popularity during the reign of Akbar, the Mughal emperor.

Fantasy, the occult, adventure and romance play themselves out in a typically Indian setting as wizards, sorceresses, tricksters and royalty pitch themselves into the battle for Hoshruba. The characters of the epic are marvels of literary creation, and are much more colourful and dashing than those of the Amir Hamza cycle of tales. For more books click here

Your're Hired by Nasha Fitter

Your're Hired by Nasha Fitter all you need to take your first important steps up the corporate ladder. Whether you are applying for a new job or want to perform better in your present position, You’re Hired! How to Get That Job and Keep It Too will help you answer those questions you just didn’t know whom to ask.

Is this you? Have you every applied for a job and not been called for the Interview? Ever wondered why? Don’t be discouraged! Finally, an easy, step-by-step, written specially for Indian job contexts and situations, is here to help. Fun and easy-to-follow, Your're Hired uses actual CVs, emails and resume's to show you the communication and soft skills errors that prevent people from getting ahead, and how you can avoid them. For other books on Job search refer here...

A New Earth Awakening to Your Life by Eckhart Tolle

Taking off from the introspective work he began with The Power of Now, the number one bestseller that has sold millions of copies worldwide, Tolle provides the spiritual framework for people to move beyond themselves in order to make this world a better, more spiritually evolved place to live. Eckhart Tolle's first full length book in eight years "A New Earth Awakening to Your Life" will be a cornerstone for personal spirituality and self-improvement for years to come. Shattering modern ideas of ego and entitlement, self and society, Tolle lifts the veil of fear that has hung over humanity during this new millennium, and shines an illuminating light that leads to happiness and health that every reader can follow.

Eckhart Tolle is one of the bestselling spiritual teachers of our time. A wise counsellor in this ever changing, chaotic and often violent world, Tolle draws on essential spiritual teachings of all ages and traditions to reveal a fresh evolutionary model of spiritual life for the 21st Century. The simple message in his international bestseller The Power of Now, the that of living in the present, of enjoying the journey rather than always looking to the next goal, has spread fast. For a list of spiritual books click here...

We are like that only by Rama Bijapurkar

Taking cues from economics, demography, history, culture, philosophy and good old common sense, Rama Bijapurkar tries to make sense of the complex and inscrutable Indian market—the many Consumer, their diverse and schizophrenic consumer behaviour and the way to make your company’s fortune in this billion plus market. In "We are like that only" Bijapurkar answers many questions like, Why is the India market untenable? Will India really be the world’s next consumption powerhouse? Does the Indian middle class really exist? What is the exact purchasing power of this market? Is there really a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid? Why are demand patterns so capricious? Is rural India a sophisticated or a primitive market?

Quote from the book: ‘The Indian market is about a lot of people consuming a little bit each that adds up to a lot . . . the Indian DNA is about continuity with change; it is about “THIS as well as THAT”; about cobbling together clever and low-cost solutions that are ingenious combinations and adaptations of products available in the market.’

Irreverent and insightful, Bijapurkar answers all these questions as it casts an unblinking eye on twelve key facets of Consumer India. It successfully fathoms how much Indians earn, how they consume, what they consume and what dictates their consumption choices. A list of good related books...

Books on JavaScript

JavaScript is the Netscape-developed object scripting language used in millions of web pages and server applications worldwide. Contrary to popular misconception, JavaScript is not "Interpretive Java". In a nutshell, JavaScript is a dynamic scripting language supporting prototype based object construction.

JavaScript can function as both a procedural and an object oriented language. Objects are created programmatically in JavaScript, by attaching methods and properties to otherwise empty objects at run time, as opposed to the syntactic class definitions common in compiled languages like C++ and Java. Once an object has been constructed it can be used as a blueprint (or prototype) for creating similar objects. The basic syntax is intentionally similar to both Java and C++ to reduce the number of new concepts required to learn the language. Language constructs, such as if statements, for and while loops, and switch and try ... catch blocks function the same as in these languages (or nearly so.)

The first ever JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich at Netscape, and has since been updated (in JavaScript 1.5) to conform to ECMA-262 Edition 3. This engine, code named SpiderMonkey, is implemented in C. The Rhino engine, created primarily by Norris Boyd (also at Netscape) is a JavaScript implementation in Java. Like SpiderMonkey, Rhino is ECMA-262 Edition 3 compliant. Netscape's JavaScript is a superset of the ECMA-262 Edition 3 (ECMAScript) standard scripting language, with only mild differences from the published standard. To see a list of related books click here

Books on Rakhi

Raksha Bandhan is the sacred festival that falls in the auspicious shravan month i.e,in the month of july-august every year.It is being considered as the day to express the eternal love between brothers and sisters.The reason considered behind the celebration is- sister pray for the well being of brother and brother inturn promise the sister to be with her throughout her life and to accompany her in all situations of life.

The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The elder brother in return offers rakhi gifts to his sister and vows to look after her same while an elder sister returns offers to her younger brother. The brother and sister traditionally feed each other sweets. With the advancement in technology one can send customized rakhi gifts too. One can choose from photo gifts or rakhi greeting cards

The origin of this festival is usually traced back to the historical incidents of Indra's fight with Vritra-Indra that resulted in Indra's loss. Then, his wife had tied a thread around his wrist and empowered it with divine powers to make sure Indra emerged victorious in the duel that followed.

In parts of Gujarat, day is celebrated as Pavitropana. On this day people perform the grand pooja or the worship of Lord Shiva. It is the culmination of the prayers done through out the year. A few noted books on Rakhi are Rakhis Ma Rasebase.

Vedic Mathematics by Bharati Krsna Tirthaji Maharaja, V. S. Agarwala

Vedic Mathematics is the name given to the ancient system of Mathematics which was rediscovered from the Vedas between 1911 and 1918 by Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji (1884-1960). the real beauty and effectiveness of Vedic Mathematics cannot be fully appreciated without actually practising the system. One can then see that it is perhaps the most refined and efficient mathematical system possible.

According to Bharati Krishna's research all of mathematics is based on sixteen Sutras or word-formulae. For example, 'Vertically and Crosswise` is one of these Sutras. These formulae describe the way the mind naturally works and are therefore a great help in directing the student to the appropriate method of solution. But

In the Vedic system 'difficult' problems or huge sums can often be solved immediately by the Vedic method. These striking and beautiful methods are just a part of a complete system of mathematics which is far more systematic than the modern 'system'. Vedic Mathematics manifests the coherent and unified structure of mathematics and the methods are complementary, direct and easy.

Interest in the Vedic system is growing in education where mathematics teachers are looking for something better and finding the Vedic system is the answer. Research is being carried out in many areas including the effects of learning Vedic Maths on children; developing new, powerful but easy applications of the Vedic Sutras in geometry, calculus, computing etc. To see a list of all books click here

The lost symbol by Dan Brown

The Lost Symbol will be the third book to involve the character of Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon; the first two were 2000's Angels & Demons and 2003's The Da Vinci Code. The Lost Symbol, formerly known under the working title as The Solomon Key, is an unreleased novel by American writer Dan Brown.The book will be published on 15 September 2009 with an initial print run of 6.5 million copies.

"This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey," said Brown. "Weaving five years of research into the story's twelve-hour timeframe was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon’s life clearly moves a lot faster than mine."

Brown’s longtime editor, Jason Kaufman, Vice President and Executive Editor at Doubleday said, “Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. This book’s narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, Dan’s readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises.”

“The Lost Symbol is a brilliant and compelling thriller. Dan Brown’s prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book. This is one of the most anticipated publications in recent history, and it was well worth the wait,” said Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor in Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

For the entire listing of books click here...

Tribute to Michael Jackson continued

Time described Jackson's influence at that point as "Star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too". Jackson suffered a setback on January 27, 1984, which was to have repercussions for the rest of his life. While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, he suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center. On May 14, 1984, he was invited to the White House to receive an award from President Ronald Reagan for his support of charities that helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse.

With the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated.[48] It had lower sales than Thriller, but was still a substantial commercial success, spawning seven hit singles in the U.S., five of which ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana") reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, more than any other album.[49] As of 2008, the album had sold 30 million copies worldwide.

Jackson's skin had been a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, but starting in the early 1980s, it gradually grew paler. The change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that he was bleaching his skin.[37] In 1986, he was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus; the vitiligo partially lightened his skin, and the lupus was in remission; both illnesses made him sensitive to sunlight.

To view a list of good albums, music and books go here

Tribute to Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana to a working-class family. The son of African-American parents Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson and Katherine Esther, he was the seventh of nine children. Jackson showed musical talent early in his life, performing in front of classmates and others during a Christmas recital at the age of five. In 1964, Jackson and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by brothers Jackie, Tito and Jermaine.

Jackson later began performing backup vocals and dancing; at the age of eight, he and Jermaine assumed lead vocals, and the group's name was changed to The Jackson 5. The Jackson 5 recorded several songs, including "Big Boy", for the local record label Steeltown in 1967 and signed with Motown Records in 1968. the band continued to tour internationally, releasing six more albums between 1976 and 1984. From 1976 to 1984, Michael Jackson was the lead songwriter of the group.

Jones and Jackson jointly produced Off the Wall. Released in 1979, it was the first album to generate four US top 10 hits, and eventually sold over 20 million copies worldwide. After Jackson's early 1982 contribution, "Someone In the Dark", to the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which won him a Grammy for Best Album for Children,[28] Epic issued his second album, Thriller. In what would turn out to be the apex of his career, the album remained in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for 80 consecutive weeks, 37 at the peak.

To be continued... to see a list of books click here

A few books on Michael Jackson

* On Michael Jackson
* Michael Jackson the Early Years
* The Solo Years

Mahashweta by Sudha Murthy

Mahashweta by Sudha Murthy is an inspiring story of courage and resilience in a world marred by illusions and betrayals. This poignant tale offers hope and solace to the victims of the prejudices that govern society even today. The story is about Anupama, who's fairytale marriage to Anand falls apart when she discovers a white patch on her foot and learns that she has leukoderma. She is abandoned by her uncaring in-laws and insensitive husband and is forced to return to her fathers home in the village. The social stigma of a married woman living with her parents, her stepmothers continual barbs and the ostracism that accompanies her skin condition force her to contemplate suicide. Determined to rebuild her life against all odds, Anupama goes to Bombay where she finds success, respect and the promise of an enduring friendship.

Sudha Murthy has portrayed various aspects of Indian society – arranged marriages, dominating mother in-law, helpful friends, hypocrite relatives, a cursing stepmother, and worried parents of a young Indian girl.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, an MIT professor, combines economic theory with some interesting experiments that test people's behavior to unravel why we act irrationally under certain circumstances. The introduction is a pretty good sample of what you'll be getting. If it doesn't appeal to you, don't bother continuing.

Dan Ariely discusses how behavior changes in social vs. economic realms. (Turns out we're happy to help for free--a social norm--but not so much if we're paid--we transition to a market norm.) He goes through concepts such as arbitrary coherence (once we associate a price to something, even arbitrarily, we use that price as a baseline from then on); the "decoy effect" (if we are given 3 options and 1 of them is a carefully placed, undesirable decoy, we will be unwittingly guided to one of the remaining choices, but not the other); the placebo effect; priming; the power of "free" (and our overriding fear of loss); and cheating (how we would never do it in some circumstances but don't really think of it in others).

It reminded me of Daniel Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness. It will likely appeal to folks who liked Freakonomics, Stumbling on Happiness, or something by Malcolm Gladwell. For similar books click here...

Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis

Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis needs no introduction, enjoying popularity since its first print. Ask youself- Do you always use the right word? Can you pronounce and spell it the right way? Do you know how to avoid illiterate expressions? Do you speak grammatically correct language? If the answer to any of these questions is NO, you ought to read Word Power Made Easy. Now thoroughly revised to eliminate outmoded references and to to reflect current idioms, it remains the best and quickest means to a better vocabulary in the English language.

Each chapter of ends with review. Each section ends with a progressive check. With progress checks and reviews, you can even keep a tab on your improvement rate, and see how fast you are broadening your vocabulary. Numerous tests will help you increase and retain the knowledge you acquired. Word Power Made Easy does more than just ass words to you vocabulary. It teaches ideas and a method of broadening knowledge as an integral part of the vocabulary building process. And the latest word list has alos been included. There is no reason to wait anymore for this wonder by Norman Lewis!

For a good list of books on English and grammar click here

10% Discount on Books : coupon code BOOKSDISC010

Dear readers you can now avail 10% Discount on all Book purchases using the coupon code BOOKSDISC010 during checkout. The discount applies on all purchases above Rs 500 on Infibeam.com. The offer is for a limited time only (first come first serve). Recently Infibeam.com have added a good collection of Indian books recently, that include Amar Chitra Katha, tinkle and many others...

Outliers: The Story Of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

In this stunning new book Outliers (from the bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink) Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an invigorating intellectual journey to show us what makes an extreme overachiever. Why are people successful? For centuries, humankind has grappled with this question, searching for the secret to accomplishing great things. He reveals that we pay far too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where successful people are from: their culture, their family, and their generation. Brilliant and entertaining, this is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

A brilliant new book OutLiers examines how the careers of Bill Gates and the performance of world-class football players are alike; what top fighter pilots and The Beatles have in common; why so many top lawyers are Jewish; why Asians are good at maths; and why it is correct to say that the mathematician who solved Fermat's Theorem is not a genius. Just as he did in Blink, Gladwell overturns many of our conventional notions and creates an entirely new model for seeing the world.

For a good list of books click here.

Unruly Times by Prashant Bhawalkar

Unruly Times by Prashant Bhawalkar is a satire on the Indian novel in English. Prashant Bhawalkar was born in Mumbai and studied English Literature at St. Xavier's College. Upon graduation, he worked briefly as a journalist and went on to study journalism at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Sydney, Australia.

The main character, Dushyant, is an advertising copywriter in New York, who wants to publish a novel. He is told by people in the industry that he won't be marketable unless he writes a novel about something Indian, There is a double narrative running through the novel - Dushyant's struggle to write as well as the plot of the novel itself. Unruly Times main pre-occupation is the exploitation of identity politics by post-colonial writers. For a good list of related books click here

Sonia by Rasheed Kidwai

In Sonia, A Biography, Rasheed Kidwai tells the extraordinary story of one of India’s most enigmatic women, whose journey from the small Italian town of Orbassano to 10 Janpath, New Delhi, is one of the most fascinating in contemporary India.

Rasheed Kidwai tracks the evolution of Sonia Gandhi against the backdrop of the Congress party’s return to power after years in the Opposition. The last five years have witnessed the Congress president’s growing assurance in her dealings with party stalwarts, with coalition partners and Opposition leaders. Drawing on his long experience as a political journalist, Kidwai chronicles how Rahul Gandhi’s smooth passage into the front rank of the party’s leadership was achieved.

Sonia Gandhi’s transformation from an unsure Congress party president to the unchallenged political chief of the ruling United Progressive Alliance government happened with some speed in the aftermath of the Congress-led coalition’s surprise victory in the 2004 general election. Her renunciation of the prime minister’s post enhanced her moral stature in the public eye, but it is her skilled handling of the equation with the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, that indicates the emergence of a self-confident politician, secure in her position at the helm of national affairs. Rasheed also gives a vivid account of how Sonia Gandhi navigated such critical moments as the ‘office of profit’ crisis, the presidential election, the Indo-US nuclear deal and the vote of confidence. For other books on Sonia click here

My Favourite Wife by Tony Parsons

"My Favourite Wife" by Tony Parsons (The world-wide, mega selling author of "Man and Boy") is a book about where sex, romance and obsession ends, and where true love begins. My Favourite Wife a sizzling tale of sex, romance and second wives. Hot shot young lawyer Bill Holden and his wife Becca move to the booming, gold-rush city of Shanghai. Shanghai, a place of enormous wealth and crushing poverty, where fortunes are made and foreign marriages come apart in spectacular fashion, has a few surprises at stake for Bill. Bill's law firm houses the Holden family in Paradise Mansions - a luxury apartment block where newly rich Chinese men install their second wives: fabulous young beauties like JinJin Li, ex-school teacher, crossword addict and the Holdens' neighbour. After Becca witnesses a tragedy that awakens her to the reality of life beyond the glitzy surface of the city, she returns temporarily to London - and Bill and JinJin are thrown together. Bill wants to be a better man than the millionaire who keeps JinJin Li as a second wife on the side. A better man than anyone who cheats. Becca is his best friend. And, in the end, adrift without his young family, can he give JinJin anything better than she had before? For other books on similar category click here