HT Picks: The Most Interesting Books of the Week

NO REGRETS BY KAVEREE BAMZAI

189pp, Rs 299; HarperCollins

This is not a self-help book. It’s a book that tells us what not to do, what to remember and what to forget. From being a mother to lessons leant from our own mothers, managing money to marriage, coping with pain and anger to taking ownership of our health and growing old, Kaveree Bamzai, first woman editor of one of India’s largest newsmagazines, a wife and mother of two boys and two dogs, tells us how to live a guilt-free life, with a little help from a host of highly accomplished women.
With sparkling advice from Naina Lal Kidwai, Arianna Huffington, Sudha Murty, Smriti Irani, Twinkle Khanna and Sania Mirza,among others, No Regrets is the go-to book as we fumble and stumble through life.*
*copy from book flap

THE TESTAMENTS BY MARGARET ATWOOD

Pp419, Rs 799, Penguin

Margaret Atwood’s dystopian masterpiece, The Handmaid’s Tale, has become a modern classic—and now she brings the iconic story to a dramatic conclusion in this riveting sequel.
More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.
Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.
As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.*
* From www.penguinrandomhouse.com

TALKING TO STRANGERS BY MALCOLM GLADWELL

Pp 379, Rs 799; Penguin

The routine traffic stop that ends in tragedy. The spy who spends years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon. The false conviction of Amanda Knox. Why do we so often get other people wrong? Why is it so hard to detect a lie, read a face or judge a stranger’s motives?
Through a series of encounters and misunderstandings - from history, psychology and infamous legal cases - Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual adventure into the darker side of human nature, where strangers are never simple and misreading them can have disastrous consequences.
No one challenges our shared assumptions like Malcolm Gladwell. Here he uses stories of deceit and fatal errors to cast doubt on our strategies for dealing with the unknown, inviting us to rethink our thinking in these troubled times.*
*From www.penguin.co.uk