The secret life of streets by Sarayu Ahuja, Penguin, Rs 295
Streets impart a personality to cities. Some are broad and indolent, others brisk and efficient. Sarayu Ahuja strolls through streets in cities as different as Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Mumbai, viewing them not in terms of design alone but also in the context of their history and their sights, smells, sounds and people.
Vulnerable India by Anu Kapur, Sage, Rs 850
This book demystifies the often repeated claim of India being inherently vulnerable to natural disasters and puts forward socio-economic factors as the cause for the recurrence of disasters. With the aid of comparative statistical analyses and illustrative maps, it provides insight into disasters across 594 districts of the country.
Justice for the Poor, Perspectives on Accelerating Access, Edited by Ayesha Kadwani Dias, Gita Honwana Welch, OUP, Rs 89
This book contends that legal strategies are indispensable in efforts to secure rights, civil, political, socio-economic or cultural.
The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plant by Anna Pavord, Bloomsbury, US $30
Over a long period in Europe, plants acquired what we know as their scientific names. Anna Pavord takes us on a thrilling adventure into botanical history, travelling from Athens in the third century BC, through Constantinople, Venice, the medical school at Salerno to the universities of Pisa and Padua.
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