Ash Talks Books

‘Stories at work: Unlock the secret to business storytelling’ by Indranil Chakraborty, Portfolio/Penguin, Gurgaon 2018. The boredom-killing stratagem of storytelling has become the new business in business communication and invaded boardrooms. CEOs are discovering the virtues of storytelling as the medium for their message in this age of information overload and attention deficiency. Storytelling has also provided a platform for the voices of Kalawatis and Sufiya Begums for larger causes. Indranil Chakraborty is one of the small tribe of business storytelling trainers in the world with the gift of the gab and with experience in large organisations. He has authored the book, which is halfway between a magazine article and a research paper, a la mode, to be a bedside companion for corporate czars and their cohorts. Stories can range in size from a six-word gut-wrenching terribly tiny tale by Ernest Hemingway to the monumental epic Mahabharata, which seeks to point the moral com...

I finished Zac O' Yeah's hashtag # book , 'A walk through Barygaza' on hashtag # amazonprime last night. Barygaza is the old name for Bharuch in Gujarat. I had first heard of the writer in 2014 when he was scheduled to attend a book event at Urban Solace, Bangalore. I had even bought his book 'Mr. Majestic' then, but could neither read the book nor attend the event. So when I saw this hashtag # travelogue by this hashtag # Swedish hashtag # writer who is settled in hashtag # Bangalore , I read it immediately. It was entertaining, written with positivity and humour and also strewn with facts he had unearthed through extensive research. I have read very few travelogues, but this one encourages me to read more of them.

The first time I read ‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves’ by Lynne Truss was over a decade ago. I had written about it on another one of my blogs here.   I was thrilled that a book on punctuation was so darn funny, but I was also pleased with myself for having discovered an ‘error’ in the book. On the cover, it said ‘The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation”. As an enthusiastic copy editor, I insisted it should be ‘The Zero-Tolerance Approach to Punctuation’. Then I found numerous other word zealots like me had discovered this very ‘error’. Now, of course, a search on the Internet for this ‘error’ on her book throws up articles both in favour of and against the presence of that hyphen. Not too long ago, I had a heated exchange of words in a Reading Group I belong to, with a 70-year-old man, no less, about this. To be fair, I hadn’t known his age, else I might have been predisposed to be more polite. Anyway, coming back to the book, when I re-read it now cover to cover,...

When I was working in an e-learning company way back in 2004, my colleagues had asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I quickly said ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King. And it is this copy of Stephen King’s  memoir that I re-read after all these years in 2018. “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”, says King.  He then goes on to say that every writer needs a writers’ toolbox. He says the commonest tool is vocabulary, which goes on the top shelf of the toolbox. The next tool is grammar, followed by the elements of form and style. He argues that the paragraph, not the sentence is the basic unit of writing—"Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe."   #StephenKing's #memoir 'On Writing' takes us to his childhood when he wrote stories and collected rejection slips. Some of the anecdotes shared also give us a peek into his rebellious...

‘Wonder Girls’ by Varsha Adusumilli by Juggernaut Books was a splendid read. I highly recommend it to all girls and women, regardless of age. This book outlines the childhoods and choices of 15 remarkable young women who are from fields as diverse as rugby, neurosurgery, rock climbing or the film industry and the media. Many of these young achievers featured here had several qualities in common. They followed their heart, were strong, persistent and often had to face challenges such as a lack of money in their childhoods. Some of them are introverted, some of them from small villages and towns, some of them extroverted. What stands out is their commitment to their careers, their strength, their ability to go out of their comfort zones and excel. Each story is preceded by a statistic. For example, the story about the rugby captain leads with the statistic that only one per cent of Indian girls have played any kind of organized sport in their lives. But what follows each stat...

I first heard of 'A wrinkle in time' only in 2016 when I worked with Ogilvy and used to write content for the Amazon Books page. This was one of the featured books for science fiction. Later, i read that it was being made into a movie. Today, I found out that Oprah Winfrey played a part in the movie. This was one of the three books I chose for my #bookbingo with my #bookclub. I chose it for the category 'Time travel' although it is not strictly a time travel book. The children travel to other planets in search of their father. They "tesser" from one planet to another and all's well that ends well. The book only has around 200-odd pages, so I finished it in a day. I found the book okay. At least it kept me turning the pages. But I'm not exactly dying to read the other four books in this quintet. Also, was surprised to read that this children's classic has been banned more than once. Didn't find anything ban-worthy in the book. And no, I...

 I started #HyperboleAndAHalf one morning and finished it by late noon. It was one of the three books I chose for my #bookbingo under the 'Based on a True Story' category or 'BOATS.' First, it had those cute illustrations that I've seen in memes based on the book. Second, it was laugh-out-loud funny in places. Of course, there were a couple of serious chapters on #depression, but they ended with me laughing out loud, so I guess that's cool. I recommend this to people who think a lot, are introverted or are self-indulgent. Ooh! And to dog-lovers!