Sunday, 14 June 2020


READING DAY AND READING WEEK: 
“MOST FAVOURITE AUTHORS AND BOOKS”



Author
Book Name
Apoorva Kumar Singh
A Commentary and Digest on The Air, Act 1981
Abhay K.
The Bloomsbury Anthology of Great Indian Poems
Amit Shah
Karmayoddha Granth

Author
Book Name
R P N Singh
Politics of Opportunism
Akkitham Achuthan Namboodri
Malayalam poetry
Margaret Atwood
The Testaments
Jokha Alharthi
Celestial Bodies
Vasdev Mohi
Cheque book
Richard Powers
The Overstory
PM Narendra Modi
The Braille edition of the book Exam Warriors
Viswanathan Anand and Susan Ninan
Mind-Master
Hemant Karkare's daughter Jui Karkare
Hemant Karkare: A Daughter’s Memoir
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi
"Courts of India"
Karkare's Daughter Jui Karkare
Hemant Karkare: A Daughter’s Memoir
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Braille Edition of ‘Exam Warriors’
Shri N Chandrasekaran
Bridgital Nation
Neha J Hiranandani
Girl Power: Indian Women Who Broke The Rules
Roopa Pai
From Leeches to Slug Glue: 25 Explosive Ideas that Made (and Are Making) Modern Medicine
‘150 Years of Celebrating the Mahatma–the South African Legacy’
Fakir Hassen
Rahul Agarwal and Bharathi S Pradhan
Turbulence and Triumph: The Modi Years
Ministry of fisheries
Handbook on Fisheries Statistics - 2018
Vikram Sampath
 Savarkar: Echoes from a forgotten past, 1883-1924
Indian Diaspora Club
Glorious Diaspora-Pride of India
Habiburahman, Sophie Ansel
First They Erased Our Name: A Rohingya Speaks
Peter Baker
Obama: The Call of History
Iqbal Chand Malhotra and Maroof Raza
Kashmir’s untold story: Declassification
Satyarth Nayak
“Sridevi: Girl Woman Superstar”
Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Persistent Systems
Manav
St James House and the History of Parliament Trust
‘The Commonwealth at 70: From Westminster to the World’
Adi Shankaracharya
Vivekadeepini
Venkaiah Naidu
Listening, Learning and Leading
Baba Ramdev
'My Life, My Mission'
Meenakshi Lekhi
'The New Delhi Conspiracy'
Tridip Suhrud
‘The Diary of Manu Gandhi’
Sushil Kumar
"A Prime Minister to Remember- Memories of a Military Chief"
Adi Shankaracharya
Vivekadeepini
Anupam Kher
“Lessons Life Taught Me Unknowingly”.
Ashis Ray
“Cricket World Cup: The Indian Challenge”
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
My Journey
Dr. Bibek Debroy
Making of New India
Dr. Krishna Saksena
"Whispers of Time"
Dr. Y.V. Reddy
Indian Fiscal Federalism
Jairam Ramesh
‘Chequered Brillance: The Many Lives of V K Krishna Menon’
Kamlesh Patel Alias Daaji
‘Designing Destiny: The Heartfulness Way’
Kamlesh Patil & Joshua Pollock
‘The Heartfulness way: Heart-Based Meditations for Spiritual Transformation’
Lamar Odom
Darkness to light
Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh
Fire and Fury Corps -- Saga of Valour, Fortitude and Sacrifice',
M Venkaiah Naidu
Quality, Accreditation, and Ranking – A Silent Revolution in the Offing in Indian Higher Education
Malala Yousafzai
We are Displaced
Manoshi Sinha Rawal
‘Saffron Swords’
Meenakshi Lekhi
“The New Delhi Conspiracy”
Mool Chand Sharma
‘Law, Justice and Judicial Power- Justice P N Bhagwati’s Approach’
Mr. Suri
‘Khooni Vaisakhi’
Navin Chawla
‘Every Vote Counts- The story of India’s Elections’
Neeraj Jha, Vidhanshu Kumar
‘Virat: The making of a Champion’
P. Chidambaram
‘Undaunted: Saving the Idea of India’
R Uma Maheswari
From Possession to Freedom
Raghuram Rajan
The Third Pillar
Ruchir Sharma
‘Undaunted: Saving the Idea of India’
Saba Naqvi
Politics of Jugaad: The Coalition Handbook
Shahid Afridi
Game Changer
Sharad Dutt
‘Kundan: Saigal’s Life & Music’
Shri Harivansh and Shri Ravi Dutt Bajpai.
"Chandra Shekhar - The Last Icon of Ideological Politics";
Sonia Singh
‘Defining India: Through Their Eyes’
Vinit Goenka
'Function of Data Sovereignty - The Pursuit of Supremacy'
Valay Singh
‘Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord’

Book Name
Authors Name
A Rural Manifesto – Realising India’s Future through her Villages
BJP MP Varun Gandhi
Changing India
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Timeless Laxman
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Arivu
Dr Murali Mohan Chuntharu
The Fire Burns Blue: A History of Womens Cricket in India
Karunya Keshav and Sidhanta Pathak
Maharana Pratap: The Invincible Warrior
Rima Hooja
The Paradoxical Prime Minister
Shashi Tharoor
The Rule Breakers
Preeti Shenoy
Experiential Learning -- Gandhiji's Nai Talim
Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar
From Lehman to Demonetisation: A Decade of Disruption, Reforms and Misadventures
Tamal Bandyopadhyay
Poonachi or the Story of a Black Goat
Perumal Murugan
Making of Legend
Bindeshwar Pathak
Diabetes with Delight
Anoop Misra
The Last White Hunter
Donald Anderson with Joshua Mathew
Indian Cultures as Heritage
Romila Thapar
Strangers No More: New Narratives from Northeast
Sanjoy Hazarika
Matoshree
Sumitra Mahajan
Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy
Yasser Usman
Indian Instinct
Miniya Chatterjee
The Coalition years
Pranab Mukherjee
Dreamers: How Young Indians are Changing Their World
Snigdha Poonam
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump Whitehouse
Michael Wolff
Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life
Sheila Dikshit
Mere Sapno Ka Bharat
Tarun Vijay
Born to be Hanged: Political Biography of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Syeda Saiyidan Hameed
Ants Among Elephants
Dujatha Gidla
The Constitution of India: Miracle, Surrender, Hope
Rajeev Dhavan
A Ringside Affair
James Lawton
The Year of the Hawks
Kanwaljit Singh
How May I Help You
Deepak Singh
A World of Three Zeroes: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Carbon Emission
Mohammad Yunus
Do We Not Bleed? Reflections of a 21st-Century Pakistan
Mehr Tarar
Xi Jinping's China
Jayadev Ranade
The Book Hunters of Katpadi
Pradeep Sebastia
All the Worlds Between
K Srilata and Fiona Bolger
Hit Refresh
Satya Nadella
Letters to a Young Philosopher
Ramin Jahanbegloo
Imperfect (autobiography)
Sanjay Manjrekar
Immortal India
Amish Tripathi
Maharana Pratap: The Invincible Warrior
Rima Hooja
Conflicts of Interest: My Journey Through India’s Green Movement
Sunita Narain
2G Saga Unfolds
A Raja
Two
Gulzar
Status Single
Sreemoyee Piu Kundu
An Ordinary Mans Guide to Radicalism
Neyaz Farooquee
What happened
Hilary Clinton
Artemis
Andy Weir
Drone
Adam Rothstein
Why I am hindu
Shashi Tharoor
A dairy of deomestic diva
Shilpa Shetty
The New Wealth of Nations
Surjit S Bhalla
Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature
Jairam Ramesh
Dreamers: How Young Indians are Changing Their World and Yours
Poonam
My Enemy’s Enemy: India in Afghanistan from the Soviet Invasion to the US Withdrawal
Avinash Paliwal
A state of freedom
Neel Mukerjee
Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017
Ian Black
I do what I do
Raghuram Rajan
Indian Political Theory: Laying the Ground work for Swaraj
Aakash Singh Rathore
Hisaab Kitaab
Anjana Sukani
Songs of a Coward
Perumal Murugan
An unsuitable boy
Karan johar
Stalin: Waiting for Hitler 1928-1941
Stephen Kotkin
281 and Beyond
V V S Laksman
4321
Paul Auster
History of Wolves
Emily Fridlund
Exit West
Mohsin Hamid
Elmet
Fiona Mozley
Lincoln in the Bardo
George Saunders
Autumn
Ali Smith
Writing Pakistan: Conversations on ldentity, Nationhood and Fiction
Mushtaq Bilal
The Bengalis: A Portrait of a Community
Sudeep Chakravarti
Moments ofTruth: My Life with Acting
Roshan Taneja
The Goat Thief
Perumal Murugan
The Widow of Malabar Hills
Sujata Massey
The Vanishing
Prerna Singh Bindra
Where India Goes
Diane Coffey and Dean Spears
The Nationalist
Minhaz Merchant
Political Violence in Ancient India
Upinder Singh
The tall man biju patnaik
Sundar Ganesan
A Tale of Two Victoria Crosses
Lt Gen Baljit Singh
Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy
Tim Harford
New Wealth of Nations
Surjit Bhalla
The Emergency: Indian Democracy's Darkest Hour
A Surya Prakash
No Room for Small Dreams
Shimon Peres
A Horse Walks Into a Bar
David Grossman
An Ordinary Life: A Memoir
Nawazuddin Siddiqui with Rituparna Chatterjee
Democracy’s XI: The Great Indian Cricket Story
Rajdeep Sardesai
A Republic in the Making: India in the 1950s
Gyanesh Kudaisya
Durand's Curse: A Line Across the Pathan Heart
Rajiv Dogra
Origin
Dan Brown
The Crisis Within: On Knowledge and Education in India
GN Denvy
Inside Parliament: Views From the Front Row
Derek O'Brien
India Turns East: International Engagement and US-China Rivalry
Fredrick Grare
Weather Information Portal for Indian Power System
R K Singh
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Arundhati Roy
China & India War: Collision Course on the Roof of the World
Bertil Lintner
Cadres ofTibet
Jayadeva Ranade
Unstoppable: My Life So Far
Maria Sharapova
The Book of Chocolate Saints
Jeet Thayil
Conflict of Interest
Sunita Narain
Atal Ji Ne kaha
Birendra Rehi
Confessions of a dying mind: the blind faith of atheism
Kiren Rijiju and Haulianlal Guite
Available Light
CP Surendran
Ashoka: Satrap of Taxila
Ashok K Banker
Sea Prayer
Khaled Hosseini
Loyal Stalkers
Chhimi Tenduf La
No Spin
Shane Warne
Attendant Lords
TCA Raghvan
The Driver in the Driverless Car
Vivek Wadhwa with Alex Salkever
Life Among the Scorpions: Memoir of a Woman in Indian Politics
Jaya Jaitely
Gorbachev: His Life and Times
William Taubman
Ambedkar Gandhi and Patel: The Making of India’s Electoral System
Raja Shekhar Vundru
Evolution
Emmanuel Macron
Exam Warriors
Narendra Modi
Evil in the Mahabharata
Meena Arora Nayak
Happy Dreams
Jia Pingwa
6 TIMES THINNER
N N Vohra
Rohingya Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide
Azeem Ibrahim
Myanmar's Enemy Within: Buddhist Nationalism and Anti-Muslim Violence
Francis Wade
Reimagining Pakistan
Husain Haggani
Born to be Hanged: Political Biography of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Syeda Hameed
Reporting Pakistan
Meena Menon
Who We Are and How We Got Here
David Reich
A Century ls Not Enough
Sourav Ganguly
Winning Like Sourav: Think & Succeed Like Ganguly
Abhirup Bhattacharya
The Perils of Being Moderately Famous
Soha Ali Khan
Directorate S: The CLA and Americas Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Steye Coll
Economics for the Common Good
Jean Tirole
Political Tribes
Amy Chua
Dividing Lines: Contours of the India-China Discord
KN Raghavan
My Journey from Marxism-Leninism to Nehruvian Socialism
CH Hanumantha Rao
Triple Talaq: Examining Faith
Salman Khurshid
Kashmir: Exploring the Myth Behind the Narrative
Khalid Bashir
The Only Story
Julian Barnes
She Goes to War Women Militants of India
Rashmi Saksena
The Future of Humanity
Michio Kaku
Governing the Ungovernable: Institutional Reforms for Democratic Governance
Ishrat Husain
The Unseeing ldol of Light
KR Meera
Across the Universe
Ajoy Bose
Anita Gets Bail: What Are Our Courts Doing? Whal Should We Do About Them?
Arun Shourie
Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians
Borta Majumdar
Indian Railway- The weaving of a National Tapestry
Bibek Debroy
An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradiction
Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze
Lethal White
Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje
In a Free State
VS Naipaul
Michael Ondaatje
Warlight
Yug Purush, Bharat Ratna, Atal Ji
Ramesh Pokhriyal
Moon Tiger
Penelope Lively
Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel
Lincoln in the Bardo
George Saunders
The Only Story
Julian Barnes
Like a Psalm
Perumbadavam Sreedharan
Indian Cultures as Heritage: Contemporary Pasts
Romila Thapar
Note by Note: The India Story 1947-2017
Ankur Bhardwaj, Seema Chishti and Sushant Singh
Vedvigyan Alok (Maharishi Aitareya Mahidas Praneet - Aitareya Brahmina ki Vaigyanik Vyakhya)
Acharya Agnivarat Naishthik
The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Guided Age
James Crabtree
India Moving: A History of Migration
Chinmay Tumbe
Blessings from Beijing: Inside China's Softpower War on Tibet
Greg Bruno
The Unending Game: Insights into Espionage
Vikram Sood
Straight Talk
Abhishek Manu Singhvi
The President Is Missing
Bill Clinton and James Patterson
Vernon Subutex
Virginie Despentes
The White Book
Han Kang
The World Goes On
Laszlo Krasznahorkai
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Munoz Molina
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Flights
Olga Tokarczuk
Travails with the Alien
Satyajit Ray
The Spy Chronicles: RAW ISI and the Illusion of Peace
Asdulat, Aditya Sinha, Asad Durrani
The Zero Cost Mission/The Wily Agent
Amar Bhushan
The Most Dangerous Place: A History of the United States in South Asia
Srinath Raghavan
Eleven Gods and a Billion lndians
Boria Majumdar
Syama Prasad Mookerjee: Life and Times
Tathagata Roy
Republic of Caste
Anand Teltumbde
Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World (1914-1948)
Ramachandra Guha
The Way I See It
Gauri Lankesh, edited by writer and sociologist Chandan Gowda
Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji
Manu Pillai
From Kargil to Coup: Events That Shook Pakistan
Nasim Sehra
Kashmir: Glimpses of History and the Story of Struggle
Saifuddin Soz
President’s Lady
Sangeeta Ghosh
Republic of Caste: Thinking Equality in the Time of Neo-liberal Hindutva
Anand Teltumbde
Missing
Sumana Roy
God Save the Hon'ble Supreme Court
Fali S Nariman
Pakistan Adrift: Navigating Troubled Waters
Asad Durrani
Ten ldeologies: The Great Asymmetry Between Agrariansm and Industrialism
S Jaipal Reddy
Author Name
Book Name
Mann Ki Baat – A Social Revolution on Radio
Devendra Fadnavis
Rahul Agarwal, Bharathi S Pradhan
Turbulence And Triumph The Modi Years
Vikram Sampath
Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past
Peter Baker
Obama-The Call of History
Maroof Raza, Iqbal Chand Malhotra
Kashmiri’s Untold Story: Declassification
Satyarth Nayak
Sridevi: Girl Women Superstar
Venkaih Naidu( Vice-President-India)
Listening, Learning And Leading
Lamar Odam
Darkness to Light
P.Chidambharam
Undaunted-Saving the Idea of India
Malala Yousafzai
We Are Displaced
Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb
I Am Malala
Baba Ramdev
My Life, My Mission
Venkaih Naidu
Quality, Accreditation, and Ranking – A Silent Revolution in the Offing in Indian Higher Education
Meenakshi Lekhi
The New Delhi Conspiracy
Sushil Kumar
A Prime Minister to Remember- Memories of a Military Chief
Tridip Suhrud
The Diary of Manu Gandhi
Adi Sankaracharya
Vivekadeepini
Anupam Kher
Lessons Life Taught Me Unknowingly
Ashis Ray
Laid to Rest: The Controversy Over Subhas Chandra Bose’s Death
Ashis Ray
Cricket World Cup: The Indian Challenge
Dr. Bibek Debroy
Making of New India
Manoshi Sinha Rawal
Saffron Swords
Jairam Ramesh
Chequered Brillance: The Many Lives of V K Krishna Menon
Jairam Ramesh
Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature
Kamlesh Patel Alias Daaji
Designing Destiny: The Heartfulness Way
Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh
Fire and Fury Corps — Saga of Valour, Fortitude, and Sacrifice
Dr. Krishna Saksena
Whispers of Time
Suri
Khooni Vaisakhi
Neeraj Jha, Vidhanshu Kumar
Virat: The making of a Champion
Shahid Afridi
Game Changer
Sharad Dutt
Kundan: Saigal’s Life & Music
Sonia Singh
Defining India: Through Their Eyes
R Uma Maheswari
From Possession to Freedom
Valay Singh
Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Changing India
Narendra Modi
Timeless Laxman
Narendra Modi
Exam Warriors
Nirmala Sitharaman
A Journey towards self-reliance
Varun Gandhi
A Rural Manifesto – Realising India’s Future through her Villages
Shashi Tharoor
The Paradoxical Prime Minister
Shashi Tharoor
Why I am Hindu
Shashi Tharoor
Nehru: The Invention of India
Shashi Tharoor
An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India
Shashi Tharoor
Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st
Century
Shashi Tharoor
Bookless in Baghdad
Andy Marino
Narendra Modi: A Political Biography
Anna Burns
Milkman
Preeti Shenoy
The Rule Breakers
Arvind Subramanian
Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi-Jaitley Economy
Yashwant Sinha
India Unmade
Michelle Obama
Becoming
Barack Obama
The Audacity Of hope
Hillary Clinton
What Happened
Sudha Menon
Feisty at Fifty
Robin Sharma
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
Salman Khurshid
Triple Talaq: Examining Faith
Sourav Ganguly
A Century Is Not Enough
Sachin Tendulkar
Playing It My Way
VVS Laxman
281 and Beyond
Kapil Dev
Straight from the Heart: An Autobiography
Vijay Goel
Bebak Baat
Sheila Dikshit
Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life
Mary Kom
Unbreakable
Maria Sharapova
Unstoppable: My Life So Far
Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist
Shane Warne
No Spin: My Autobiography
Jawaharlal Nehru
 An Autobiography
Jawaharlal Nehru
The Discovery Of India
Sonia Gandhi
The Red Sari
Twinkle Khanna
Pyjamas are Forgiving
Sanjay Manjrekar
Imperfect
Phoolan Devi
The Bandit Queen Of India
Pranab Mukherjee
The Coalition Years
Vikram Seth
Two Lives
APJ Abdul Kalam
India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium
APJ Abdul Kalam
Wings of Fire: An Autobiography
APJ Abdul Kalam
Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India
APJ Abdul Kalam
Target 3 Billion
APJ Abdul Kalam
Transcendence: My Spiritual Experiences with Pramukh Swamiji
Arundhati Roy
The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy
Kashmir: The Case for Freedom
Arundhati Roy
Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on
Democracy
Arundhati Roy
The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy
The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness
Amitav Ghosh
The Calcutta Chromosome
Amitav Ghosh
Sea of Poppies
Amitav Ghosh
Flood of Fire
Rabindranath Tagore
Gitanjali
Chetan Bhagat
The Girl in Room 105
Chetan Bhagat
Making India Awesome
Chetan Bhagat
One Indian Girl
Chetan Bhagat
Half Girlfriend
Chetan Bhagat
Revolution 2020
Chetan Bhagat
What Young India Wants
R. K. Narayan
Trilogy on Malgudi- Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The English Teacher
Jhumpa Lahiri
Unaccustomed Earth
Jhumpa Lahiri
The Namesake
Amish Tripathi
Shiva Trilogy-  The Immortals of Meluha,  Scion of Ikshvaku, The Secret of the Nagas, The Oath of the Vayuputras
Amish Tripathi
Ram Chandra Series-  Scion of Ikshvaku, Sita: Warrior of Mithila, Raavan: Orphan of Aryavarta
Amish Tripathi
Immortal India
Sumitra Mahajan
Matoshree
David Grossman
A Horse Walks Into a Bar
Rajiv Mehrishi
India 2017 Yearbook
Rajeev Dhavan
The Constitution of India: Miracle, Surrender, Hope
Kapil Sibal
Shades of Truth
Anand Neelakantan
Vanara The Legend of Baali,Sugreeva
J.K. Rowling
Lethal White
Khuswant Singh
Train to Pakistan
Khuswant Singh
The Freethinkers Prayer Book
Nirad C Chaudhary
Autobiography of an unknown Indian
Nirad C Chaudhary
The Passage to England
Mulk Raj Anand
Coolie
RK Narayan
The Guide
RK Narayan
Swami and his friends
Raja Rao
Kanthapura
Raja Rao
Serpent and the rope
Anita Desai
Cry, the peacock
Anita Desai
The Artist of Disappearance
Anita Desai
The Village by the Sea
Nayantara Sehgal
Rich Like Us
Nayantara Sehgal
A Time to be Happy
Nirad C Chaudhari
Continent of Circe
Salman Rushdie
Midnight’s Children
Salman Rushdie
Satanic Verses
Vikram Seth
A Suitable Boy
Amitav Ghosh
The Glass Palace
Amitav Ghosh
River of Smoke
Arundhati Roy
The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy
Walking with the Comrades
Jhumpa Lahiri
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
The Lowland
Jhumpa Lahiri
In Other Words
Kiran Desai
The Inheritance of Loss
Upmanyu Chatterjee
The Mammaries of a Welfare State
Arvind Adiga
White Tiger
Arvind Adiga
Last Man in Tower
Kishwar Desai
Witness by Night
Jeet Thayil
Narcopolis
Cyrus Mistry
Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer
Anuradha Roy
Sleeping on Jupiteer
Neel Mukherjee
The Lives of Others
Mahatma Gandhi
My Experiments with Truth
Mahatma Gandhi
Hind Swaraj
Mahatma Gandhi
Key to Health
Jawaharlal Nehru
Discovery of India
Jawaharlal Nehru
Glimpses of World History
Subhash Chandra Bose
The Indian Struggle 1920-1942
Indira Gandhi
My Truth
Sarojini Naidu
Golden Threshold
Sarojini Naidu
The Broken Wing, Songs of Life, Death & the Spring
Sarojini Naidu
The Birds of Time, Songs of Life, Death & the Spring
Sarojini Naidu
The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India
Sarojini Naidu
The Feather of the Dawn
Dr. Rajendra Prasad
India Divided
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
India Wins Freedom
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Ghubar-e-khatir
Lala Lajpat Rai
Unhappy India
Dadabhai Naoroji
Poverty and Un-British Rule in India
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Geeta Rahashya
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
The Arctic Home in the Vedas
V.D. Savarkar
The Indian War of Independence of 1857
PV Narasimha Rao
The Insider
LK Advani
My Country My Life
APJ Abdul Kalam
Wings of Fire
APJ Abdul Kalam
Ignited Minds
APJ Abdul Kalam
You Are Unique
APJ Abdul Kalam
India 2020
APJ Abdul Kalam
Indomitable Spirit
APJ Abdul Kalam
Turning Points - A Journey through Challenges
APJ Abdul Kalam and Srijan Pal Singh
Target 3 Billion
APJ Abdul Kalam
My Journey - Transforming Dreams into Actions
APJ Abdul Kalam
Governance for Growth in India
VV Giri
Jobs for Our Millions
Adolf Hitler
Mein Kampf
R Venkataraman
My Presidential Years
M Hidyatullah
My Own Boswell
Jayaprakash Narayan
Prison Diary
Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
Without Fear or Favour
Boris Yelstin
Midnight Diaries
Barrack Obama
The Audacity of Hope
Barrack Obama
Dreams From My Father
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
Indian Philosophy
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
Hindu View of Life
I K Gujral
Matters of Discretion: An Autobiography
P Chidambaram
A View from the Outside
P Chidambaram
Undaunted, Saving the Idea of India
Bill Clinton
Back to Work
Hillary Clinton
Hard Choices
Nelson Mandela
Long Walk to Freedom
Shri Pranab Mukherjee
Beyond Survival: Emerging Dimensions of Indian Economy
Shri Pranab Mukherjee
Saga of Struggle and Sacrifice
Shri Pranab Mukherjee
Challenges before the Nation
Shri Pranab Mukherjee
The Dramatic Decade: The Days of Indira Gandhi
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Changing India
Narendra Modi
Exam Warriors
Mamata Banerjee
My Unforgettable Memories
Hamid Ansari
Citizen and Society
Sheila Dikshit
Citizen Delhi: My Life, My Times
Yashwant Sinha
India Unmade
Author
Name of the Book
Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin
The Voyage of the Beagle
Marie Curie
Radioactive Substances
Edwin Hubble
The Realm of Nebulae
Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking
The Grand Design
Stephen Hawking
Black Holes and Baby Universes
Stephen Hawking
Brief Answers to the Big Questions
Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Gene
Carl Sagan
Pale Blue Dot
Albert Einstein
Ideas and Opinions
Albert Einstein
Relativity - The Special and the General Theory
Albert Einstein
The World As I See It
Albert Einstein
The Meaning of Relativity
James D Watson
The Double Helix
Robert Hooke
Micrographia
Nicolaus Copernicus
On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies
Primo Levi
If this is a Man
Primo Levi
Periodic Table
Sigmund Freud
General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud
The Interpretation of Dreams
Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell
Principia Mathematica
Dhyan Chand
Goal!
Milkha Singh
The Race of my Life
Ricky Ponting
At Close of Play
M.C. Mary Kom
Unbreakable
Sachin Tendulkar & Boria Majumdar
Playing it my way
Abhinav Bindra
A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold
Chris Gayle
Six Machine: I don't like cricket.. I love it
Sania Mirza
Ace Against Odds
Saina Nehwal
Playing to Win
Novak Djokovic
Serve to Win
Arunima Sinha
Born Again on the Mountain
Anil Kumble
Wide Angle
Kapil Dev
Straight from the Heart; Cricket, My Style
Vijay Hazare
A Long Innings
EAS Prasanna
One More Over
Sunil Gavaskar
Sunny Days; Idols; Runs & Ruins
Yuvraj Singh
The Test of My Life
Imran Khan
All Round View
Wasim Akram
Wasim
Shoaib Akhtar
Controversially Yours
Usain Bolt
Faster than Lightning: My Story
Andre Agassi
Open: An Autobiography
Michael Phelps
No Limits: The Will to Succeed
Rafael Nadal
Rafa: My Story
Mike Tyson
Undisputed Truth: My Autobiography
Lance Armstrong
It's not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
Michael Holding
No Holding Back
Dennis Lillee
Menace: The Autobiography
Vivian Richards
Hitting Across the Line
Martina Navratilova
Shape Yourself; Killer Instinct; Tennis my Way
Ian Botham
Head On; Beefy's Cricket Tales
Saurav Ganguly
One Century is Not Enough
Sanjay Manjrekar
Imperfect
Shane Warne
No Spin: My Autobiography
Mithali Raj
Unguarded
Vishwanathan Anand
Mind Master
Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Lewis Carroll
Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass
Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels
Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe
Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days
Jules Verne
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
JK Rowling
Harry Potter series
Herman Melville
Moby Dick
RL Stevenson
Treasure Island
Alexander Dumas
The Three Musketeers
Charles Dickens
David Copperfield
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
Anna Sewell
Black Beauty
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Carlo Collodi
The Adventures of Pinocchio
Howard Pyle
The Merry Adventures of Robinhood
L Frank Baum
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
E.B. White
Stuart Little
Johanna Spyri
Heidi
Rudyard Kipling
Jungle Book
Hugh Lofting
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
Valmiki
Ramayana
Ved Vyas
Mahabharata
Tulsidas
Ramcharit Manas
Homer
Illiad
Homer
Odyssey
Virgil
Aeneid
Dante
Divine Comedy
Servantes
Don Quixote
Thomas More
Utopia
John Milton
Paradise Lost
Omar Khayyam
The Rubaiyat
Premchand
Godan
Premchand
Shatranj ke Khiladi
Sharat Chandra Chatterjee
Devdas
Rabindranath Tagore
Chandalika
Rabindranath Tagore
Ghare Bhaire
Thakazi Sivasankara Pillai
Chemeen
Ashapurna Devi
Pratham Pratisurti
Amrita Pritam
Kagaz te Kanvas
P.V.Akilandam
Chitttrappavai
Mahasweta Devi
Hajar Churashir Ma
Satyajit Ray
Feluda, Professor Shonku
Rudyard Kipling
Mowgli
Agatha Christie
Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot
Cervantes
Don Quixote, Sancho Panza
PG Wodehouse
Jeeves, Bertie Wooster
RK Narayan
Swami
Charles Dickens
David Copperfield, Oliver Twist
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes
Ian Fleming
James Bond
Jules Verne
Phileas Fogg, Passeportout
Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe
Mark Twain
Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn
Anant Pai
Amar Chitra Katha
Pran Kumar Sharma
Chacha Choudhary
RK Laxman
Common man
Mario
Bundledass, Nimbupani
Walt Disney
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck
Bill Watterson
Calvin
A. A. Milne
Winnie the Pooh
Hank Ketcham
Denis the Menace
Jim Davis
Garfield
E.C. Segar
Popeye
Bob Montana
Archie
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan
Stan Lee
Spiderman
Lee Falk
Phantom
William Hanna and Joseph Barbara
Tom and Jerry
William Hanna and Joseph Barbara
Flintstones
Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel
Superman
Bob Kane
Batman
George Orwell
Animal Farm
Joseph Heller
Catch-22
JD Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye
Margaret Mitchell
Gone with the Wind
Vladimir Nobokov
Lolita
George Orwell
1984
EM Forester
A Passage to India
Harper Lee
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms
Samuel Beckett
Waiting for Godot
James Joyce
Ulysses
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of Baskerville's
HG Wells
The War of the Worlds
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
Salman Rushdie
Midnight's Children
D.H. Lawrence
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express
Boris Pasternak
Dr. Zhivago
Aldous Huxley
Brave New World
Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin
Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on Western Front
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
Jane Austen
Emma
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights
Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre
Pearl S. Buck
The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck
A House Divided
Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf
Orlando
Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
Middlemarch
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
The Mill on the Floss
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
Silas Marner
Harper Lee
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Harper Lee
Go Set a Watchman
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Mary Shelley
Frankenstein
Nadine Gordimer
The Conservationist
Toni Morrison
Beloved
Doris Lessing
The Grass is Singing
Doris Lessing
The Golden Notebook
Doris Lessing
The Good Terrorist
Alice Munro
Dear Life
Alice Munro
Runaway
Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence
Margaret Mitchell
Gone with the Wind
Alice Walker
The Color Purple
Jane Smiley
A Thousand Acres
Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin
Eleanor Catton
The Luminaries
AS Byatt
Possession: A Romance
Adam Smith
The Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith
The Invisible Hand
Adam Smith
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Adam Smith
The Money Game
J.M. Keynes
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
J.M. Keynes
The Economic Consequences of the Peace
J.M. Keynes
Essays in Persuasion
J.M. Keynes
A Treatise on Money
J.M. Keynes
Indian Currency and Finance
Milton Friedman
Capitalism and Freedom
Milton Friedman
Money Mischief
Milton Friedman
Why Government is the Problem
Milton Friedman
There is no such thing as a Free Lunch
Milton Friedman
Price Theory
F.A. Hayek
The Road to Serfdom
F.A. Hayek
The Pure Theory of Capital
F.A. Hayek
The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism
F.A. Hayek
The Constitution of Liberty
Karl Marx
Das Kapital
Karl Marx
Theories of Surplus Value
Karl Marx
Wage, Labour and Capital
Karl Marx
The Poverty of Philosophy
Alfred Marshall
Principles of Economics
Alfred Marshall
Money, Credit and Commerce
Thomas Malthus
Principles of Political Economy


READING DAY AND READING WEEK:BOOK REVIEW "WINGS OF FIRE"



Kalam introduces us to his early life in Rameswaram where he was born and raised in a secure middle-class Tamil family. He proceeds to describe the communal harmony in Rameswaram and the stable atmosphere for healthy discussion of spiritual matters.
Hailing from a predominantly Muslim locality, Kalam learned respect for other faiths from his parents. During Kalam’s early life, his close relatives encouraged Kalam to excel in studies and would talk about the discoveries of literature and science beyond Rameswaram. Inspired to fulfill his dreams, he left his home to attend Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram.
Kalam throws light on the time he got selected at Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) for engineering when admission fees were expensive. His elder sister stood by him and helped him financially which deeply moved Kalam to study hard for a scholarship. At MIT, he dreamed to fly an aircraft and hence chose aeronautical engineering.
Kalam sends a message to the future engineering students that when they choose their specialization, the essential point to consider is whether the choice articulates their inner feelings and aspirations’.
Kalam was determined to join either the Air Force or a job at Directorate of Technical Development and Production, DTD&P (Air) at the Ministry of Defence. However, Kalam was not successful in joining the Indian Air Force and could not fulfill his dream to fly.
Frustrated, Kalam turned to Swami Sivananda who taught him to accept his destiny and go ahead with life. He learned that this was not in his destiny. He got accepted as a Senior Scientific Assistant at DTD&P (Air). Here, Kalam faced his first failure.
His indigenous Hovercraft ‘Nandi’ was shelved by a new ministry which favored imported hovercrafts. Kalam learned the harsh truth that certain events may be out of control in life.
However, ‘Nandi’ had created interest by then and as if destiny came knocking, Kalam was called for an interview at Indian Committee for Space Research for the post of Rocket Engineer. At this interview, he met Prof. Sarabhai, father of the Indian space program.
In the section Creation, Kalam gives a glimpse of his keen eye while training at NASA. He recollects seeing a painting depicting heroism of Tipu Sultan’s army using rockets against the British.
He learned many valuable management and leadership lessons from Prof. Sarabhai. At an early stage of his career, Kalam trusted that leadership with the free exchange of views was more desirable than giving directions. Kalam also learned that leaders exist at every level.
Kalam throws light on his work schedule when he started leading projects. On entering his office he would first clean the table, prioritize papers for immediate action & remove everything else from sight.
If you want to leave your footprints
On the sands of time
Do not drag your feet
This memorable line has aged well which tells us to take action now when we are interested in doing a good thing and want to be remembered for it. Interestingly, Kalam preferred a daring attitude with persistence to perfection.
He favored allowing mistakes as a learning process as they are inevitable but generally manageable. He advocated building own education, skills and keeping up-to-date.
Kalam narrates his experience when he was faced with three deaths in his family. He faced failure when the first flight trial of Indian SLV-3 crashed for which Kalam took responsibility as a leader. Kalam describes two visionaries Prof. Dhawan and Dr. Brahm Prakash who mentored him during such days.
In the book we learn how Kalam started his career in Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) and was involved in the design of a hovercraft. Later he moved to Indian Space Research which was the brain child of Vikram Sarabhai. In 1963, Kalam went to NASA facility in Maryland(USA) as part of a training program on sounding rocket launching techniques. There he came across a painting which depicted Tipu Sultan’s rocket warfare against the British,
Here, I saw a painting prominently displayed in the reception lobby. It depicted a battle scene with a few rockets flying in the background. A painting with this theme should be the most commonplace thing at a Flight Facility, but the painting caught my eye because the soldiers on the side launching the rockets were not white , but dark-skinned, with the racial features of people found in South Asia.

One day, my curiosity got the better of me, drawing me towards the painting. It turned out to be Tipu Sultan’s army fighting the British. The painting depicted a fact forgotten in Tipu’s own country but commemorated here on the other side of the planet. I was happy to see an Indian glorified by NASA as a hero of warfare rocketry.
The book covers a lot of "behind the scene" information and technical details about India’s satellite and missile program (SLV-3, Prithvi, Agni, Thrisul, Akash and Nag). This might interest technically inclined readers but is sure to put off readers who bought the book to get to know Kalam or to know his principles/ideas. Space and missile programs are huge complex projects and managing them is extremely challenging.

The book is a journey of dreams, hopes, successes and failures. The life of this great personality was none different than the normal person, only thing different was how he perceive the world around him and how he’s willing to go that little extra to achieve his dreams, how he’s willing to sacrifice for common good and how he never forgets who he really is (some qualities common to visionaries and great men like him). This book gives confidence to Indians that ‘we can do and we can do from India’.

It is story of courage, inspiration leadership and motivation. The book tells us how important it is to value the people around us in order to grow as a person. The book talks about the millions of people who have contributed to the life of Mr. Kalam, which tells us that a great personality is just not one person but a collective effort of many.
The book is also the journey of India’s technological advancement, lists how the success and failures were the integral part of the missions. Though there was a lot of hue and cry from the nation about huge money being pumped in for war purposes when half of the nation is below the poverty line. I too thought that such kind of advancement brings no good.

But this book gives a scientist’s point of view and I realized that sometimes it is necessary to solve the puzzle to complete the picture. The hardest battles are those when you are fighting with your own family and indeed the scientists were fighting for a cause for which the nation gave them the least support.

Through this book, Mr. Kalam states that missiles were not build to bring war but to become self reliant, to show the world that one cannot rule over others just because they are superior in warfare. This book is not a story of self praise or personal feat but about a person who had the fire in him to give his dreams wings to fly. Through this book he wants the youth to know that no efforts can go waste, no goals can remain unfulfilled and no life can be ordinary. Each of us needs to realize our potential, give away the feeling of being inferior and fight our own battles in order to fly high up in the sky with our WINGS OF FIRE!!!!!

Through Wings of Fire, we come across some brilliant people who worked behind Indian space research  such as Vikram Sarabhai and Dr. Brahm Prakash. The book also contains about 24 photos and I found the ones from the early days of Indian space program very interesting. This alone is worth the price of the book!

One of the things that stands out throughout the book is Kalam’s positive thinking. He held many high ranking positions in various organizations. Yet in the book he rarely mentions anything about lethargy/corruption of bureaucracy or politicians. The secret to his success seems to be his ability to ignore negative things around him. The book also gives a clue to his popularity in India. Kalam is a simple, secular, inspiring humanitarian.

Book details:

Title:                               Wings of Fire
Author:                 APJ Abdul Kalam
Genre:                   Autobiography
ISBN:                              978-81-7371-146-6
Publishers:            Universities Press
Price:                               INR. 275


READING DAY AND READING WEEK : BOOK REVIEW "DIARY OF A WIMPY KID THE GETAWAY"


Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway is the twelfth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. The book was unveiled during the 2017 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Virtually Live Event which was live streamed via YouTube as part of the 10th anniversary of the first book.  The book was published and released on November 7, 2017. 
This book is about a normal family that has nothing to do on Christmas. The Heffleys, a family of five people, have an idea of going on a vacation to Isla de Corales. The family is Frank Heffley the dad, Susan Heffley the mom, Rodrick Heffley the oldest brother, Greg Heffley the middle child, and Manny Heffley the baby brother. Greg Heffley and his family see an advertisement for Isla de Corales, a resort where his parents went for their honeymoon, on TV. To Greg's dismay, they skip Christmas to go to the resort instead. 
After multiple mishaps at the airport, such as their flight being delayed, the Heffleys board the plane. Greg is disappointed that he has to sit in the economy seats, and is annoyed when he is seated between a different family.
After they land at the resort, Greg and his family find out that the resort has changed since his parents' honeymoon, and most of the activities they did are now on the adult-only section. In their hotel room, they notice that they claimed the wrong suitcase and theirs was sent back home. 
After a visit to a crowded pool, Greg getting scared by an iguana, and a meal being ruined by birds and slugs, the Heffleys go to sleep for the night. In the morning, Greg has an encounter with a tarantula that climbed into his slippers, and he loses track of where it went. He and his family go out to ride a banana boat because Greg's mom wants to get a Christmas card photo, but the boat gets punctured.
Greg's mother goes to visit the spa, and Greg is left to take care of his little brother, Manny. He lets Manny play at a water park, but ends up falling in water that he believes to be contaminated with urine. 
After this, Greg's mother books a snorkeling trip for the family, but Greg worries about getting stung by a box jellyfish. He takes a gulp of water by accident and believes that he has swallowed a sea horse, ending the snorkeling trip early.
The Heffleys return to the pool, and Manny's box jellyfish, contained in a bucket, gets into the pool. During the commotion, Greg and his family sneak back to their room. Greg visits a tennis court, out of fear that the tarantula will reappear. 
The other kids recognize Greg as one of the people involved with the box jellyfish incident, so he is chased out of the court and runs back to his family in the hotel room.
Manny knocks over the suitcase, and his family tries on the clothes inside. They go out to eat in a clubhouse and play golf, but are caught by security for having stolen another family's clothes and are ordered to leave the resort. 
The Heffleys stay at the airport hotel, and the next day, Greg's parents choose to end things on a high note and sneak back in for a family picture. After taking the picture, the family split up and run off, with Greg ending up in a private beach on the adult side of the resort. 
He runs away and notices his family on the other side through a hole in the wall. The wall falls down, and a lot of people rush in, letting the Heffleys escape the resort.
After he gets home, Greg visits the Isla de Corales website and finds that he and his family have been banned from the resort, which is now appealing for information about their identities.
Originally published7 November 2017
Pages217 story pages (224 altogether)
GenresHumour, Children's literature, Graphic novel, Diary fiction
Publisher: Amulet Books(US) & Puffin Books(UK)
ISBN : 978-1-4197-2545-6



READING DAY AND READING WEEK  : 

BOOK REVIEW- "THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL"


Anne Frank was a young thirteen year old girl, who lived during the time period of Second World War.She was born in Frankfurt,  and her family moved to  Amsterdam  when she was four years  old.

On her thirteenth birthday, she got a diary from her parents as a birthday gift, and since then she started to confide in her diary, whom she named Kitty.

She wrote this diary for over two years. In the beginning, she wrote about her school life, her normal and usual teenage girl’s life. Describing her friends, her crush in school. Her favorite subjects and many other little things.
But in the time of war how can there be a life so unsurprising and normal?
Her sister Margot got a call up orders of the German Army. Anne’s family was frightened, but they had already anticipated the situation coming, so her father, Otto Frank has already prepared a place to hide, which Anne called The Secret Annexe.  
In this Annexe they had food and all those things which they would need during hiding. They moved there with one more family, Vaan Daans, and Mr. Dussel a dentist. Of course they were helped by some friends outside who will bring everything which they would need from time to time.
Here in this annexe she wrote her diary entries. She wrote about how she felt left out in the house, how she often face nagging  from Vaan Daans and Mr. Dussel. She also wrote about her relationship with her mother, with whom she did not feel any emotional attachment. 
She adored her father, but never confided in him. In between she developed good friendship with Peter Van Daan, the  teenage son of Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan. Though her father was first reluctant about her friendship with him, but eventually he got used to it.
But the book is not only about this. In these two years, Anne gained maturity in her thoughts, she had questions about the war, about the condition which has occurred due to it, she questioned who made Jews different from others.
The young girl had dreams, dream to become a writer, dream to be not a regular home centered women, but a career oriented one.There were days when she was frustrated and just wanted to go outside, wanted to be unshackled, without giving any thought to consequences, she just wanted to be free.
Everyone in the house was optimistic about the war, they had hoped that it will end soon and they will live a normal peaceful life. During the end of the book, she was happy that the day will come soon when she will go outside and witness the beautiful nature.
The diary ended abruptly on August 1, 1944, the last entry of Anne’s diary.
I expected another diary entry, but there were none to read.
What happened to her, why the diary ended so abruptly? Did she get this opportunity to go out, to be a free bird?
What happened to her and her family after this was heartbreaking. Otto Frank was the only survivor, he got Anne’s diary from Miep, one of their helpers. And he decided to fulfill his daughter’s dream. He edited the diary and got it published.
Oh yes, she is a writer, but sadly she was not there to witness her dream come true.
Themes and charaters
Mr. and Mrs. Frank and their teen-age daughters Anne and Margot, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan and their teen-age son Peter, and Mr. Dussel all share the cramped space of the attic refuge.
 Other important characters are the Dutch-Elli, Miep, Mr. Kraler, and Mr. Koophuis-who risk their own lives to hide the Jews and bring them food.
In her diary, Anne reveals herself as an active, playful tomboy, who at first feels that nothing she does is right. By the conclusion of the story, she has developed maturity and confidence. Uprooted from her home and friends, Anne experiences a nightmarish ordeal, constantly facing the threat of the concentration camps and death. 
In this tense situation, Anne is constantly surrounded by the same adults, with whom she has frequent conflicts. She favors her father’s companionship over her mother’s. “Mother doesn’t understand me,” she protests as her mother tries to communicate with her. Jealous of frequent comparisons with her sister Margot, Anne fights to overcome sibling rivalry. Her relationship with Mrs. Van Daan fluctuates between friendly and antagonistic. 
An incessant talker, Anne is always at odds with Mr. Dussel, her roommate, who longs for quiet. Despite the endless personality clashes, magnified by the group’s claustrophobic quarters, Anne manages to adjust to her plight.
Very much aware of the outside world, Anne listens to radio reports of the war’s progress. She fears for her best friend Lies, who has been taken to a concentration camp, and for herself and her companions as the sounds of air raids and gunfire penetrate their shelter. 
In an effort to overcome her fears, Anne confides in her diary, which she names “Kitty” and treats as a personal friend. Anne shows strength and courage in her writing, retaining her faith in human beings: “In spite of everything, I still believe in the goodness of man.”
Anne’s optimism contrasts Peter Van Daan’s initial pessimism. Rather quiet and bewildered by the sudden turn in his life, he spends much time locked in his own room. 
Anne gradually develops a romantic interest in Peter and convinces him not to succumb to pessimism but to hope for a better future. On dates limited to going from room to room, they talk, share ideas, and support each other.
Mrs. Van Daan seems to be an ordinary, doting mother at the book’s beginning, but as the tension builds, she becomes panicky and neurotic. Moody and constantly complaining, she also boasts about her youth, her numerous boyfriends, and her active social life, much to the embarrassment of her son Peter. 
As the story develops, she begins to nag her husband and disturb the other people in hiding, fighting with Mrs. Frank over trivial matters such as whose dishes to use. Mr. Van Daan, on the other hand, remains reticent and tries to cover for his wife’s shortcomings. But after desperation drives him to steal potatoes from the others, the roles are reversed, and Mrs. Van Daan tries to protect her husband.
Anne portrays her own family in more sympathetic terms. She depicts her mother as a quiet woman who attempts unsuccessfully to communicate with her. 
Mrs. Frank is puzzled because Anne lacks the natural affection and respect for her that Margot demonstrates. Kind and intelligent, Margot’s reserved nature and obedience contrast sharply with her sister’s rebelliousness. 
Anne’s father leads the group, making the decisions, enforcing the rules, and providing encouragement.
Despite the selflessness and courage of some, such as the Dutch who feed and shelter the Jews, an underlying theme of Anne’s account is man’s inhumanity to man. 
Simply because of her religious beliefs, Anne is confined and lives in constant fear of death. Eventually, she does die, along with over six million other Jews during World War II.
The theme of imprisonment is also important. Confined to a small area for more than two years, the eight people are trapped by a hateful society. They must follow specific rules so as not to be detected by the workmen in the warehouse below: during the day, they must walk in stocking feet and cannot flush the toilet. 
They can never leave the building, and every unexpected phone call and every suspicious noise from below causes fear and apprehension. That Anne continues to grow mentally and emotionally under these conditions suggests the ability of the human spirit to transcend physical imprisonment.
Because the diary traces Anne’s emotional growth as she exchanges childlike behavior and attitudes for a more adult outlook on life, Anne Frank is a coming-of-age story. 

Originally published        25 June 1947
Author:                            Anne Frank
Original language:            Dutch
Original title:                   Het Achterhuis
Original text:                   Het Achterhuis at Dutch Wikisource
Genres:                            Biography, Autobiography




READING DAY AND READING WEEK CELEBRATION : What,Why & When ?