The novel, written for kids 9 and over, is primarily about the upheavals that occur in the life of an Indian-Canadian family when the grandmother (Naniji) visits from India. The protagonist is Tara a lively and sensitive 15-year-old. She is initially resentful of her visiting grandmother because the grandmother seems to disapprove of Tara's mother's somewhat Western ways and indeed of the Canadian ways of the whole family: the kids don't know Hindi, nor about Diwali; they don't play the sitar and, worst of all, know nothing of the family's role and sacrifice during the Indian Independence movement.

This is too much for Tara: "This is the world I live in. But how do I fit? I'm not one of the true natives, the First Nations, and not one of the whites who marauded the globe colonizing, who tell the history of Canada from when they arrived. I'm too dark for the Samanthas and the rednecks, but not dark enough for Tolly, or Indian enough for Naniji, too Canadian, too Western. Always too something. Never just right."

Tara reads a paper at school about Naniji's role in the Indian Independence movement. The most evocative part of the book occurs when Tara alternates between wanting to read the paper to her class, and not wanting to because of how her friends will react to it and to her (how it will affect her acceptance within the group). She reads the paper anyway. As she had feared, some of her classmates do "shutter down" - close up by seeming to brand her as "other". But, unexpectedly, some of them actually congratulate her and thank her for introducing her to an aspect of history and of herself of which they had been unaware.

Her mother and Naniji are proud of her - that is, until Naniji hears Tara proclaim how she, Tara, is a "regular" Canadian. At this point Naniji "shutters down" because she cannot countenance the fact that her granddaughter is a proud Canadian - what of the family's heritage, sacrifice and history back in India? What of their allegiance to India?

"Naniji catches me staring and tries to smile. She's stiff, but it's not like before, with the criticism and disapproval and the hostility. Her eyes - they are hurt."

The resolution of the conflict within the family and within Tara's own mind is handled by Ms. Gilmore with great maturity and eloquence. She articulates opposing points of view with clarity and grace. Without talking down to the reader, she addresses sensitive issues such as race and color, assimilation and alienation, head-on. This is important especially because these issues are hardly ever addressed in a safe, non-ideological way, without putting one or the other side down as the victim or the aggressor, the turncoat or the conservative.

I highly recommend this book - not just for kids in this age group, but even for their parents and grandparents. In fact, I would go so far as to say this book should be made required reading for all kids (on any rung of the assimilation ladder) because it will create a better understanding and awareness of the inner script that guides our public lives.

To read more of this review, go to desijournal.com

This is the most beautiful collection of poems I have read anywhere. Catch these love poems and fall in love.

A great read. Although Amazon's editorial review says it is "...the first Dalit autobiography to be published in English..." this is not quite true. "Viramma: Life of an Untouchable" was published in 1997. However both of these titles make compelling reading and I highly recommend them.

THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BOOK, I HAVE EVER READ.THE PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN HIGHLIGHTED AND SHOULD BE SOLVED TO HAVE A BETTER SOCIETY LEADING THE WORLD TOWARDS PERFECTION.

This book was also published in paperback in the United States under the title A Time for Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991). Informed and entertaining, the book is a combination travelogue-history; the author visits China, India, and a few other tea-related places (Boston, as in Tea Party), all the while telling us how tea is grown, processed, and drunk; how it was first discovered; and how it came to be exported to the West. I found it totally engrossing. Had it been written by an American, I would class it in the category of New-Yorker-style writing: intelligent, witty, light - yet informative. I suppose the book may now be out of print in the American version, but it's certainly worth tracking down. Highly recommended.

This 2volume book is an excellent reference work on Gupta gold coins with the Garuda banner. Volume II lists a comprehensive collection of coin images-many from private collections and Museums not published before.

This book is a must for anyone studying Gupta numismatics!

People have been drinking tea for hundreds of years. Sylvia Schneider not only provides numerous tea recipes from China, Japan, India, Tibet, Arabia, the Americas, and Europe, she also includes the history and traditions of tea, as well as tea recipes for a wide range of ailments.

The popularity of tea combined with the popularity of herbs as medicine makes this title not only an interesting and informative book, but a practical one as well. The reader will enjoy learning about the history of these teas and the ingredients from which they are made. Preparing and drinking these teas, which can improve health and well-being, will also be an enjoyable experience.

The Healthy Cuisine of India is a GREAT cookbook. I LOVE the recipes in this book. This is my first and only Indian cookbook so I can't really compare it to other Indian cookbooks. But I do know that I enjoy the food from these recipes even more than eating out at Indian restaurants. The author gives lots of details explaining the different types of spices and how to prepare them. There is also some discussion of the lore associated with the various recipes. And the food tastes GREAT. Highly recommended.

For anyone working on - or interested in - medical anthropological issues of Ladakh, this book must not be missed! A medical dissertation based on fieldwork conducted in a village near Leh in 1985, it focusses on the different types of healers and therapies present in Ladakh, giving special importance to lay views concerning health and sickness, patterns of resort, and social values. It explains the basic premises of Tibetan medicine as practiced in Ladakh, includes life narratives of Amchi and Lhamo/Lhapa (shamans), gives interesting insights into Ladakhi village life, as well as an outline of the methods used in research. To my knowledge it is still the only book dealing with the whole medical spectrum of Ladakh including lay practices/beliefs, monks/rinpoche, shamans, amchi, muslim healers, astrologers, and allopathic doctors. An excellent and well written piece of work, though one has to keep in mind that its purpose is descriptive and not analytical.