books
REFLECTIONS / The tiny space between science and literature
"Growing to love something, and allowing that to change me is not immediate, it is not profound. Nor is it something caused just by reading a handful of books"
THE SHELF / Book-to-screen adaptations to look forward to in the second half of 2024
The first half of this year has treated us with some truly amazing book-to-screen adaptations like Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Ripley. The second half is also unlikely to disappoint. Here are some book-to-screen adaptations to pack the rest of your year with.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Unseen chains of consequences
When a few boys arrive at the couple’s flat to seek out their college-going daughter, Rekha, the parents are thrown into a whirlwind of adventure.
ESSAY / Evil never looked this good
Even without a full-blown sympathetic backstory, a villain’s motivations can be complex.
ESSAY / Musings of a romance reader
Navigating the lines between gender politics, feminist beliefs and love for romance
THE SHELF / Beyond the page: Podcasts discussing POC authors
The following are podcasts that focus on POC writers, a list made because of the heavy Eurocentrism still present in the lists and bookstores known around Bangladesh.
Beyond Nilkhet: Dhaka’s second-hand book markets
The second-hand book market is a buoyant one and there are places in Dhaka, other than Nilkhet, where your desire to buy books meets affordability. With a keen eye and some bargaining skills, it is possible to make a deal at these places.
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: FICTION / It’s ‘Mean Girls’ meets ‘Heathers’ meets ‘The Craft’
The best part of this book is perhaps the fact that all the weird, bonkers cultish stuff just happens with no rhyme or reason to it.
Has the Boi Mela been reduced to photographic aesthetics and vacuous controversies?
In the last few years, there has been a paradigm shift in the traditional book fair culture. The commercialisation and curation of hyper nationalist books have led to the absence of literature and stories of “others”.
Ekushey Boi Mela: Children's books and what to expect
With only a few days to go, there’s still a chance to take the younger ones to the book fair and check out the wide range of books available
BTS of Ekushey Boi Mela: Is our publishing industry overly reliant on one event?
Most publishing companies in Bangladesh are not big enough for them to have a fully functioning marketing team or a viable marketing strategy.
Dynamics of race and riches in ‘Such a Fun Age’
In the thick of it is a young woman of colour who’s a late bloomer and eventually finds her footing.
Rifat Munim on Bangladeshi fiction: ‘This is a diverse terrain you are going to tread on’
In the foreword, I wanted to capture how I, as a child, grew up listening to different stories: ghost stories, mythical stories from both Sanatana and Islamic religious scriptures, and fairy tales from 'Thakurmar Jhuli', compiled by Dakkhinaranjan Mitra Majumdar. It was a time when there were no boundaries for my imagination.
Turning the pages of Ekushey Boi Mela
Boi Mela is more than a clickable link we see on our phone screens; it is more than the controversies and public debates.
A tale of forced displacement and uncertain futures
Review of ‘The Displaced Rohingyas: A Tale Of A Vulnerable Community’ (Routledge, 2024), edited by SK Tawfique M Haque, Bulbul Siddiqi, and Mahmudur Rahman Bhuiyan.
The dairyman that won our hearts
It doesn’t get sweeter than a 90-year-old curd seller being awarded the second highest civilian award in Bangladesh, the Ekushey Padak.
Anubad Sahitya Puraskar 2024: Celebrating the achievements of translators
Speakers talked about the losses and the gains of the meaning of text after having undergone translation, about the responsibility and the power that a translator holds in taking an author’s words and transforming it for a different reader base.
Navigating the Ekushey Boi Mela
With rows upon rows of book stalls offering everything from timeless classics to contemporary bestsellers, navigating through this maze of books can be both exhilarating and overwhelming
