Daily Star Books
FROM PAGES TO PIXELS / Why Dune stands the test of time
I recently had the sublime experience of watching the recent adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune (Chilton Books, 1965), a 2021 and 2023 two-part movie series directed by the passionate Denis Villeneuve. It is, in my mind, a cinematic triumph, and I am thrilled to witness the surge interest these movies have driven for Herbert’s science fiction book series of the same name.
THE SHELF / 5 atmospheric books to read during a kalboishakhi jhor
As long-awaited summer showers arrive to offer respite from the sweltering heat we have been experiencing, here are a few books to accompany you as you cosy up in bed and watch the rain beat down on your windows.
ESSAY / Musings of a romance reader
Navigating the lines between gender politics, feminist beliefs and love for romance
INTERVIEW / A perfect cup of literary ‘saa’
Priyanka Taslim greets me with a gentle smile as we meet over Zoom. She is eloquent and our conversation flows organically, akin to an adda over a cup of saa (cha).
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Should this lost novel have been found?
Articles on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s last novel to be published by his sons against the author’s wishes built up my anticipation and I couldn’t wait for April to arrive. Thanks to Bookworm, I got my copy the moment they had it in store and I read it twice. It didn’t impress me the first time as it was just a string of chapters describing how a promiscuous woman drove herself into the arms of different men on her annual August 16 visits to a Caribbean island.
EVENT REPORT / Sister Library reads Sehri Tales
The aim of the event was to promote the vibrant tales written by female writers who participated in the Sehri Tales challenge this year
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.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / (Re)visit to the alleys of contestation, narratives, and memories that the Partition left behind
The book discusses the lack of sensitivity among policymakers in acknowledging the distinct socio-cultural differences and linguistic and community identities of the refugees that often got merged. It explores how different categories of refugees received different treatments.
BOOK REVIEW: GRAPHIC NOVEL / A love letter to traveling with friends
A review of ‘Roaming’ (Drawn and Quarterly, 2023) by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
INTERVIEW / The stories we want to tell: In conversation with Gemini Wahhaj
In Gemini Wahhaj’s debut novel, The Children of This Madness (7.13 Books, 2023), the follow the lives of engineering professor Nasir Uddin and his daughter Beena, an aspiring PhD candidate living in the US.
THE SHELF / 6 Books to add to your summer reading list
As summer rolls around and our lifestyle changes to adjust to the heat, so do a lot of our books! So here are a few books that might make a good addition to this year’s summer reading list.
Sheikh Zayed Book Award announces winners for the 18th edition
The winners were announced on 4 April, 2024, with the ceremony being hosted by Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, chairman of the SZBA Board of Trustees
A mesmerising journey of life’s twists and turn
The Covenant of Water by physician and author Abraham Verghese tells the story of three generations of an Orthodox Saint Thomas Christian family in Kerala. Through suffering and loss, triumphs and victories, the importance of familial ties is examined and supported. In the Kerala of the 1940s, blood ties were sacred, but “family” also meant helpers who worked for you. Members of the three-generational family seem to be under a curse which causes its members to drown in water. The mystical power of water in our lives is explored with precision and sensitivity in the novel.
A peripatetic poet’s pleasing musings
The title of this book suggests that it is based in Bengal but it really meanders deftly across time and space, more often than not in “mazy motion”.
‘Temple Lamp’: A view of Ghalib’s rich cultural Persian inheritance
A review of ‘Temple Lamp: Verses on Banaras’ (India Penguin Classics, 2023) by Mirza Ghalib, translated by Maaz Bin Bilal
A change of perspective
I love reading about popular inventions which were originally created with a different purpose in mind. For instance, did you know that bubble wrap, that oh-so-ubiquitous packing material that doubles as a stress-relieving toy, was initially intended to be wallpaper? Imagine that! On the one hand, you have hours and hours of bubble-popping fun. On the other hand, probably a trypophobe’s nightmare, so maybe not. Either way, March Chavannes and Alfred Fielding, the co-inventors of the material, thought they had a dud on their hands until IBM started looking for better packing materials for their delicate new computers. The rest is history.
‘Shubeik Lubeik’, wishes, and the vulnerability of human beings
In Deena Mohamed’s Shubeik Lubeik (originally published in 2015 and translated in 2023 by Mohamed herself), wishes have not only drastically altered the fabric of daily life in Egypt, but the world at large.
Meditations on sanity in ‘Hospital’
Though on its surface Sanya Rushdi’s Hospital, translated into English by Arunava Sinha and recently longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize, looks to be a breezy, short read—it is anything but. With her rather flattened, sparse prose, Rushdi has managed to write an enduring piece of autofiction, a compelling account of psychosis that neither sensationalises nor withers away any sentimentality from the struggles of mental health.
A case for funding the Bangladeshi English-writing scene
If the country’s literary potential is not given generous support, we may never create favourable conditions for aspiring writers to devote time and energy to the art
In conversation with Shazia Omar: Fiction, wellness, readership, and everything in between
'I would like to see more writing coming out of Bangladesh,' Shazia Omar said. 'We are still behind'
To read as an academic: The transformative journey of a reader turned student
I became curious as to how the experience of reading might change for someone who studied it for a living, and how the lens of a literature student might differ from that of a creative writing one
