Book

TRIBUTE / Story of an ‘Unaccompanied Minor’: A tribute to Matthew Perry

It's almost as if Matthew Perry was destined to write this book.

BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / ‘Decibels, dollars, days: down’: An experiential novel about hearing and loss

Callahan’s novel came to her during the pandemic when she found herself waking up with a large ringing noise in her head.

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / An enigma amongst nations

In Alex Christofi’s newly published fascinating book—Cypria: A Journey to the Heart of the Mediterranean—we get a deep close-range look at one of world civilisation’s interesting hotspots that has long swayed between the cross-currents of the rise and fall of the great monotheisms.

INTERVIEW / Speaking with Arunava Sinha about Sanya Rushdi’s ‘Hospital’: A translator extraordinaire

"...it is our responsibility to contribute to ways in which more translators can work well, be compensated fairly and find the work worthwhile enough to continue doing it"

A thoughtful gift from co-star overwhelms Tariq Anam Khan

In the entertainment industry, celebrities often exchange expensive gifts, which are usually commonplace for them. However, this time, a gift truly worthy of being seared into memory was given—a book to a colleague amidst the otherwise glitzy crowd.

Conquering that stack: 5 ways to finish a book in a week

Let's face it. Our to-be-read piles have started to look like a leaning tower of literary Pisa now. If you are a bookworm, you will relate to this one much too well.

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Stories of survivorship, courage, and hope for a country that cares

A closer look into these stories reveal reasons why cancer continues to be dreaded—it is not just fear of the malady itself, but also the challenges of undergoing treatment through an overburdened healthcare system and its exorbitant costs.

BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / A tale of existential crisis in the modern world

The plot sheds light on a privileged modern experience where time stands still, stopping the clock as the days and nights roll and go.

ESSAY / The ethics of ghostwriting in fiction

Ghostwriting is not new, and Millie Bobby Brown is not the first celebrity to hire a ghostwriter. But, soon after she published her book, she came under fire for using one.

March 20, 2023
March 20, 2023

'Teestar Kanna' brings Teesta shoal residents to tears

Poet and writer Ishor Dulon Roy, author of Teestar Kanna, told The Daily Star that many of his relatives live on the Teesta shoal. Once they were all rich, all now lost to the river erosion.

March 19, 2023
March 19, 2023

‘Monstrous fancies, misshapen dreams’: My ambivalence with ‘Dorian Gray’

“How tragic it would be if you were wasted”, made me smile in a melancholic way. I know moments when “unnecessary things are our only necessities”. And I’ve not been hesitant to give “rebellion its fascination” and “disobedience its charm.”

March 7, 2023
March 7, 2023

Children's books everyone should read

Children’s books might end up giving us more as adults than they did to us as children.

March 2, 2023
March 2, 2023

The ins and outs of banking, simplified

“I got the courage to start writing and felt that, if the market practices and regulations of a particular issue are in one place it may help the bankers, customers as well as students”, the author writes. 

February 23, 2023
February 23, 2023

An intimate history of Bangladesh cricket

The information in the book was either in the public domain scattered everywhere, maturing in secret cellars or in somebody's heart never discussed in public. It needed a herculean teamwork of coordination and passion to present the game of cricket.

February 20, 2023
February 20, 2023

The struggles of being a bookworm

Bookworms are simple creatures. All they want in life is to read. While it is a simple desire, it is equally frustrating and sometimes, an anxious one.

February 20, 2023
February 20, 2023

What makes Professor Shonku so special to us?

As Bengalis, we have grown up reading Satyajit Ray. Who does not remember the clever, witty, and adventurous detective, Feluda? Or the highly revered Professor Shonku, an eccentric scientist, inventor, explorer, and polyglot? Today, we celebrate one of these characters, Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku, paying a humble tribute to the Bengali maestro that is Satyajit Ray. For many of us, Ray was the entrance to Bengali literature, and the Shonku series — an influential work of science fiction in the Bengali language.

February 12, 2023
February 12, 2023

How Darwin’s 'On the Origin of Species' impacted me

In memory of Charles Darwin, born on this day in 1809.

December 26, 2022
December 26, 2022

The art of buying your best bookshelf

If you belong to that crowd who wants to buy a bookshelf for either you or any of your loved ones, keep in mind the following useful tips and you would make the most satisfying purchase.

November 24, 2022
November 24, 2022

Hope over fate

Finding himself at the epicentre of the disaster, Abed realised that a large number of deaths (an estimated 500,000) in the “world’s deadliest known tropical cyclone” were not necessarily caused by the natural disaster.