The White House estimated that during Barack Obama's administration, between 64 and 116 civilians had died in drone strikes, and between 2,372 to 2,581 combatants. The deaths occurred in 473 strikes from January 20, 2009 to December 31, 2015. In this immensely thought provoking and engaging book, Gregoire Chamayou dwells at length about the 'philosophical' … Continue reading Drone Theory by Grégoire Chamayou, Janet Lloyd (translator)

It is the year 2022. Francois is a bored and laconic lecturer at the New Sorbonne University. Having lived his entire four-odd decades of life within the Fifth Arrondissement in Paris, Francois leads a life uneventful and insipid. Devoid of an active love life and lacking the steady benefits of a stable relationship, Francois regularly … Continue reading Submission by Michel Houellebecq, Lorin Stein (Translator)

Samuel Beckett, in September 1933 dispatched a collection of ten stories to the London Publishing house Chatto & Windus. Acknowledging receipt of the manuscript and accepting the same as worthy of printing, Charles Prentice, the Editor at Chatto & Windus, solicited yet another story from Beckett which would 'help the book' by adding weight to … Continue reading Echo’s Bones by Samuel Beckett

A battery of world renowned scholars spanning the realms of Economics, Psychology, Philosophy, Neuroscience, Contemplative Science and business assembled at Zurich in April 2010 for a conference that was unique in both content and context. Imaginatively titled "Altruism and Compassion in Economic Systems", the conference was hosted under the auspices of the Mind and Life … Continue reading Caring Economics: Conversations on Altruism and Compassion, Between Scientists, Economists, and the Dalai Lama by Tania Singer (Editor), Matthieu Ricard, Dalai Lama XIV (Foreword)

A taut socio-psychological thriller (if this is a genre, that is), this lengthily titled book is primarily a sequential series of conversations conducted between the protagonist Thomas and seven other persons whom he has happened to kidnap (yes you read that right) and shackled to posts in different quarters of an abandoned military barracks in … Continue reading Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers

The late Hyman Minsky once said, "[A] fundamental flaw exists in an economy with capitalist financial institutions, for no matter how ingenious and perceptive Central Bankers may be, the speculative and innovative elements of capitalism will eventually lead to financial usages and relations that are conducive to instability". It were these very speculative and innovative … Continue reading Why Minsky Matters: An Introduction to the Work of a Maverick Economist by L. Randall Wray

Often times when we plan what we hope will be a fun filled, exciting and fulfilling travel, we tend to portray images of such bliss in our minds. The layered images are invariably optimistic, lending a hallowed credence to the ensuing journey. However there is an extraordinarily explicit dichotomy between what we perceive to be … Continue reading The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

The genius of George Orwell lies in the economy of his words. The language employed by Orwell is so sparse and yet so incredibly rich. There is not a single sentence that is irrelevant nor a single passage that is not contextual. "Books v Cigarettes" is a collection of a handful of essays by George … Continue reading Books v. Cigarettes by George Orwell

Undoubtedly the best Rebus book till date! Don't we keep repeating this every time Ian Rankin comes up with a John Rebus thriller? But "Even Dogs In The Wild" has an allure about it which lends an unshakeable credence to a conviction that denies the fact that the existence of this intrepid detective from Edinburgh … Continue reading Even Dogs in the Wild (Inspector Rebus #20) by Ian Rankin

In this acerbic, polemical work, the controversial philosopher Slavoj Zizek attempts to tackle the problems posed by a growing influx of refugees from the Middle East into Europe. Combining a complicated narrative style with complex metaphysical analogies, Zizek compares the reaction of both authorities and the public in Western Europe to the flow of refugees … Continue reading Refugees, Terror and Other Troubles with the Neighbors: Against the Double Blackmail by Slavoj Žižek