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Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Subway reads: 10 books you can carry on your commute to look cooler than you are
From a pleasurable experience to a statement, we have come to an age where reading is cool and flexible. Celebrities carry it along as an accessory, as a part of their aesthetic. But they are not the only ones who can be blamed for their vanity; everyday commuters are in on it too. They carry it for various reasons, be it to calm their social anxiety, avoid meeting eyes with people, or just try to look cool. But the phenomenon is not all for the worse; who knows, the performative reading might also inspire someone to read further. Here are a few books that will not only make you look cool but also add to your overall development. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Genre: Historical Fiction 'If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.' A grand epic set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, War and Peace follows five Russian aristocratic families whose personal dramas unfold alongside history. With sweeping philosophical reflections on fate, war, and identity, Tolstoy blends love stories, political intrigue, and meditations on human nature. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy Genre: Literary Fiction 'It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined.' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Brain tumor has left my son feeling miserable; please help! Donate For Health Donate Now Undo Set in Kerala, India, this Booker Prize-winning novel tells the tragic story of fraternal twins Estha and Rahel, whose childhoods are shattered by caste politics, forbidden love, and generational trauma. . I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Genre: Memoir / Autobiography 'There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.' Maya Angelou's landmark memoir recounts her early life, growing up as a Black girl in the segregated American South. With unflinching honesty and lyrical grace, she explores trauma, identity, racism, and the power of words in shaping her voice. It's not just a story of survival—it's a testament to reclaiming one's narrative. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Genre: Absurdist Fiction 'I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.' One morning, traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. As he becomes isolated from his family and society, Kafka explores themes of alienation, guilt, and dehumanization in this surreal masterpiece. Though brief, the story's existential weight and eerie symbolism have made it a cornerstone of modern literature. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari Genre: Nonfiction / History ' You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.' Harari takes readers on a sweeping journey through 70,000 years of human evolution—from prehistoric tribes to modern capitalism. With bold insights and a knack for storytelling, Sapiens tackles everything from biology and sociology to religion and economics. It challenges conventional thinking and offers a thought-provoking narrative on who we are and how we got here. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini Genre: Historical Fiction 'One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.' Spanning three decades in war-torn Afghanistan, this moving novel tells the intertwined lives of Mariam and Laila—two women brought together by fate and suffering. Hosseini masterfully depicts resilience, love, and sacrifice amid violence and oppression. The story is both intimate and sweeping, with characters who stay with you long after the final page. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara Genre: Literary Fiction 'And so I try to be kind to everything I see, and in everything I see, I see him.' This devastating modern epic follows four college friends navigating adulthood in New York City, but it's really the harrowing story of Jude—brilliant, mysterious, and deeply wounded. Yanagihara doesn't shy away from trauma, chronic pain, or the complexities of survival, making the book as painful as it is profound. Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead Genre: Anthropology / Nonfiction 'The children must be taught how to think, not what to think. And because old errors die slowly, they must be taught tolerance, just as today they are taught intolerance.' Based on Mead's fieldwork in 1920s Samoa, this influential work challenged Western ideas about adolescence, sexuality, and culture. She documented how social norms are not biologically fixed but shaped by culture, sparking debate across anthropology and beyond. Though some of her conclusions have been contested, the book remains a foundational text. 1984 by George Orwell Genre: Dystopian Fiction 'Big Brother is Watching You.' In Orwell's dystopian future, individuality is crushed, surveillance is absolute, and even thoughts are policed. 1984 follows Winston Smith as he quietly rebels against the oppressive regime of Big Brother. With chilling relevance today, the novel explores propaganda, language manipulation, and totalitarian control. It's a sharp, compact statement piece. Holding it in public screams 'I see through the system'—and invites nods from fellow book nerds across the train car. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Genre: Semi-Autobiographical Fiction 'I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.' Sylvia Plath's only novel is a semi-autobiographical account of Esther Greenwood, a young woman whose promising life unravels under the weight of depression and societal expectations. With sharp, dark humor and poetic intensity, The Bell Jar explores mental health, gender roles, and the search for identity.
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
You're evil if you're not a socialist after reading legendary trilogy
By the third volume it was being accused of Stalinism, though the author never became an official Communist 'as they won't let me in'. He never lived to see the full horrors of Stalinism nor the morphing of socialism into a movement obsessed with lavatories. In his day, wrongs to be righted were clearer, more elemental. The ruling peeps, the economic elite, were transparently bad. All the brainy bods were on the Left, marrying morality to intellect, seeking to tip the balance towards equality, to equilibrium, and not – as now – past it to perpetual disharmony. Today, with a ruling elite more left-wing than the workers, no one knows what socialism means beyond something to do with minority rights and yonder environment. Among the proletariat in the schemes it's about as popular as Viz magazine's Leo Tolstoy action figures. As economic theory, i.e. more then mere cultural complaint, it prevails only among boomers, like the present writer, too embarrassed to revisit the certainties of their youth and still insistent, when drunk, that it could work if it weren't for human nature, bad people, lazy people, greedy people. Ye ken: real life. But here we're talking fiction, as set out in three beautifully lyrical volumes. We're talking about a pivotal work of 20th century Scottish literature, one whose first volume has not unnaturally been dropped as a set text in the school curriculum. Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described it as 'one of the first books that had me utterly captivated by the lyricism of language and the power of place'. Its heroine, Chris Guthrie 'spoke to, and helped me make sense of, the girl I was'. That was back in the day when she knew what a girl was. On 13 February 1901, a boy was born into a farming family at Hillhead of Seggat, Auchterless, Aberdeenshire. From the age of seven, that boy, James Leslie Mitchell – Grassic Gibbon's real name – was raised in Arbuthnott, in the former county of Kincardineshire. Educated at the parish school and at Mackie Academy in Stonehaven, he departed the latter precipitately after arguing with a teacher. h Novel approach Outside school, he upset the Mearns folk with opinions deemed inappropriate to their way of life. He'd stick his head in a book than into the soil. In 1917, aged 16, he ran away to Aberdeen, became a cub reporter on a local paper, and tried to make the city a soviet in solidarity with the Russian Revolution. Moving to Glasgow, he got a job on Farmers Weekly, where presumably he kept his doubts about agricultural work hidden, while the city's slums and Red Clydeside movement only intensified his zeal. This got him sacked – for fiddling expenses to make donations to the British Socialist Party. Attempted suicide followed, so his family took him back in, hoping rural life might steady him. It did not. In 1919, more for food and lodgings than patriotic duty, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps, serving in Iran, India and Egypt before enlisting as a clerk in the Royal Air Force in 1923, leading to more time in the Middle East. In 1925, Mitchell returned to Arbuthnott to marry local girl Rebecca (Ray or Rhea) Middleton. The couple moved to cheap lodgings in London, where the going was tough until they moved to Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, several million miles from the Mearns. Here, James began writing full time, producing 4,000-odd words a day, including journalism and travel literature. His first book, Hanno: or the Future of Exploration, was published in 1928. Drawing heavily on diffusionism – aye – it investigated the origin of cultural traits, contending that the North-East was full of Picts. READ MORE Rab McNeil: Get your Boots on, we're going shopping for unicorn hair gel Rab McNeil: No wonder the whole Scottish nation loves Nicola (no, not that one) Scottish Icons: William McGonagall - The poet who right bad verses wrote still floats some folk's vessel or boat Scottish Icons: There is a lot of tripe talked about haggis – so here's the truth Going ape In 1932, he used the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon, from his maternal grandmother's name Lilias Grassick Gibbon, for the first time, when Sunset Song was published. It was the first, and best, in A Scots Quair, which made Gibbon's name. Written in earthy dialect, Sunset Song begins the story of Chris Guthrie, described by Paul Foot in never popular magazine Socialist Review as 'more remarkable than any female character in Jane Austen, George Eliot or even the Brontes'. Her common sense, good nature and level head steer her through life's enervating tragedies, with a narrative matching her progress to the Mearns farming year. The First World War ruins everything, a way of life, the actual lives of young men, even the soil-securing trees (cut down for the war effort). On top of that, the economy had already been moving from rural agriculture to urban manufacturing, from past to future. Not that the old way of life was perfect, in a community riddled with lust, feuds and gossip. Grassic Gibbon was, to put it mildly, ambivalent about agricultural and rural life. Chris shares that ambivalence, drawn towards education and away from the drudgery and narrow horizons of a farming community. She has first to escape the clutches of her father, an ill-tempered, bullying, pious, hypocritical fellow. Men, eh? She marries one, Ewan Tavendale, but the War sees him off too: shot as a deserter. Sunset Song has a political message, but one shot through with humour: ' … Ellison said he was a Bolshevik, one of those awful creatures, coarse tinks, that made such a spleiter in Russia. They'd shot their King-creature, the Tsar they called him, and they bedded all over the place, folk said, a man would go home and find his wife commandeered any bit night and Lenin and Trotsky lying with her.' Grey outlook A Scots Quair moves from village to town to city. Often seen as Sunset Song's poorer companions, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite contrast the Christian socialism of Robert Colquhoun (Chris's second husband) with the hardline Communism of her son. Chris, a grounded quine, focuses more on the eternal verities, where only the land endures, however much subject to change. 'Change … whose right hand was Death and whose left hand Life might be stayed by none of the dreams of men …' Life's trancience ever haunts her: "Their play was done and they were gone …' Life was cruelly transient for Lewis Grassic Gibbon. On 7 February 1935, he died in Welwyn Garden City after an operation for a perforated gastric ulcer. He was 33-years-old. His ashes were buried in the Mearns.
Epoch Times
3 days ago
- Epoch Times
Leo Tolstoy's Search for Meaning
Torn between his duties and needs, Leo Tolstoy, one of Russia's greatest authors, abandoned his aristocratic lifestyle. Later in his life, he put on threadbare sandals and set off on a pilgrimage. Its outcome illustrates the intimate link between spiritual fulfillment and simplicity. Leo Tolstoy: Count, Soldier, Author Count Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 near Tula, Russia. He traced his ancestry to a legendary man named Indris, who migrated to the Ukraine in the 1300s. Indris converted to Orthodox Christianity, and the faith remained part and parcel of his descendants' lives. Tolstoy's parents died when he was very young, and relatives raised him with their own children. At age 16, he went to Kazan University to study law but was disappointed with the quality of education he received. His teachers thought him unwilling to learn, so he left in the middle of his studies, returned home, and began living the leisurely life of a typical aristocrat.
Toronto Star
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
What does it take to portray the beautiful, tragic, complex heroine of ‘Anna Karenina'? It's physically and emotionally demanding for the National Ballet dancers sharing the role
Among Western literature's tragic heroines Anna Karenina surely ranks among the most famous. And, like so many literary heroines, the title character of Leo Tolstoy's 1878 door-stopper novel has been lifted from the page to become the subject of stage dramas, films, operas and, to date, at least seven noted ballet versions. Reputedly there has even been an ice-dance production. The National Ballet of Canada, under Karen's Kain's artistic direction, performed an adaptation by American-born choreographer John Neumeier in 2018. Now Kain's successor, Hope Muir, is introducing Canadian audiences to the work of acclaimed German choreographer Christian Spuck with the North American premiere of his more compact — two- as opposed to almost three-hour — version.
Scoop
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Peaceful Demonstration Outside Wet Pets Pet Centre In Palmerston North
Sandra Kyle - Latest News [Page 1] The purpose of the protest is to call for a thorough investigation of Wet Pets, to raise awareness about the cold underbelly of the pet shop industry, and to spread the message 'Adopt, Don't Shop'. More >> Animals Going To Slaughter Reduce Activists To Tears Tuesday, 23 August 2022, 5:06 pm | Sandra Kyle Around thirty animal activists converged at two AFFCO meatworks in Whanganui on Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd to 'bear witness' to animals going to slaughter. The concept of bearing witness is inspired by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, who wrote: ... More >> New Trade Deal With UK A Disaster Wednesday, 27 October 2021, 11:39 am | Sandra Kyle Sandra is a Whanganui-based animal rights campaigner, writer and teacher. This week I watched the news with dismay as Jacinda Ardern and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson congratulated each other on their new trade deal. In the new arrangement Aotearoa ... More >> Waitotara Stock Truck Crash Tuesday, 30 March 2021, 2:12 pm | Sandra Kyle On Monday the 35-year old driver transporting cattle to slaughter was airlifted to Whanganui hospital after he lost control of his truck. The man was subsequently discharged, but many of the cows aboard had to be euthanised. The state of their ... More >>
