<i>At a glance</i>

The Great Partition
The Making of India and Pakistan
Yasmin Khan
Yale University Press
This is a fresh new look at a happening that has people wondering even to this day about the compulsions that caused the partition of a country. Yasmin Khan belongs to a new generation of historians, born much after 1947, and goes into a study of the details of that period from her own perspective. The work makes a lot of sense.
The Sexual Life of Catherine M.
Catherine Millet
Corgi Books
As the title suggests, the work is fundamentally confessional in nature. Millet does not, however, give the reader any feeling that she regrets anything of the past. Indeed, she projects her sexuality as more an experiment in human behaviour than an indulgence in pleasure. The reader will of course not fail to note the spasms of happiness in Millet.
Web of Deceit
Britain's Real Role in the World
Mark Curtis
Vintage
Mark Curtis goes for some severe criticism of British foreign policy as it evolved and operated under Tony Blair. He notes that Britain moved fundamentally away from its traditional worldview when the former prime minister linked up with the Bushies in Washington to go demonstrating western power in the troubled regions of the globe.
Everyday Life in South Asia
Diane P. Mines, Sarah Lamb, eds.
Indiana University Press
This work is a highly readable collection of essays by a variety of writers on the lives that are lived in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. The question of love and ageing among Bengalis, politics in Tamil newspapers, a world of spirits in Nepal all make riveting reading here.