Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Eliot Stein GENRE: Nonfiction, Travel, Sociology. PUBLICATION DATE: December 10, 2024 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: An astounding nonfiction work chronicling the endeavours of some “custodians of wonder”, people who are among the last few practitioners of their craft. Covers a variety of rare skills/jobs from ten countries, including one from India. Informative, insightful, dismaying, heartwarming. A beautiful book for those who still believe in the importance of traditions and want a ray of genuine hope in this fake/filtered world. Globalisation and modernisation have brought many benefits to humankind, no doubt. Unfortunately, a globalised world also ends up diminishing and even destroying localism. In this age of digitization and outsourcing, there are so many skills that are either considered obsolete or abandoned for easier, machine-made options. Even for something as basic as cooking, every subsequent generation is opting for simpler recipes and faster cooking method...

Author: Piya Bahadur Genre: Travelogue, Nonfiction. Rating: 2.5 stars, mainly for their riding than for the writing. In a Nutshell: Good but left me feeling disconnected, partly because of the writing and partly because of my relative disinterest in the topic. Travelogues aren’t really my preferred genre. I’d rather travel than read a travel book. But I won a copy of this book through an online reading challenge organised by the Brunch magazine published by Hindustan Times. Moreover, I have been on a 20-day motorcycle trip (as a pillion rider 😄) through one of the toughest terrains in India (the Leh-Ladakh highway, known to be the world’s highest motorable road at almost 20000 feet above sea level– ‘motorable’ being a very relative word, of course.) I felt like comparing biking experiences with these women. ‘Road to Mekong’ is a travelogue, detailing the motorcycle journey of four Indian women from Hyderabad (a city in the state of Telangana in South India), passing through North-East...

Author: Darlene Foster Series: Amanda #9 Genre: Children's Fiction, Travel, Rating: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A nice children’s book that is part travelogue and part mystery. Works fairly well. Amanda has arrived in Paris with her friend Leah and Leah’s Aunt Jenny, where they are volunteers at a famous bookstore. As the bookstore job hardly take as a few hours, they use the rest of the time to explore Paris. However, there are some strange occurrences during their trips: a bomb threat at the Opera House, flickering lights at the Louvre, and, worst of all, a devastating fire at the Notre Dame. Each time something bad happens, a mysterious man pops up at the scene. Who is this person and how is he involved in the mysterious proceedings? This is the ninth title in the Amanda series, but the books are standalone reads. On the pro side, the book is a very quick and easy read. It is aimed at middle graders and suits that audience well. Amanda’s trips to the famous locations in Paris r...

AUTHOR: Richard Happer GENRE: Nonfiction, Photography, Travel PUBLICATION DATE: October 8, 2015 RATING: 4.5 stars. There are so many places that humans have settled, thrived in, and then abruptly departed from. What brought people to that place? What was life like for them? Why did they leave? The book seeks to answer these questions with stunning photographs of 60 such abandoned places from all over the globe and detailed historical information about each of them.  It is a delight for every history/anthropology lover.