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Reuters blog archive
from India Insight:
Bestselling author Amish Tripathi says writing career was thrust upon him
It's hard to believe Amish Tripathi when he says he never set out to be a writer. The banker-turned-author of the popular Shiva trilogy recently won a million-dollar advance for a new series - and he hasn't even finalized the topic yet.
Before his books took pride of place in shop windows, Tripathi was already living what some would call a charmed life. A management degree at one of India’s top business schools had led to a successful career in private and retail banking. But it was his admiration for Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, that catapulted him to literary stardom in India.
When “The Immortals of Meluha” and “The Secret of the Nagas” topped bestseller lists, the 38-year-old quit his job to become a full-time writer. “The Oath of the Vayuputras,” the third book in the mythological fantasy series, was launched in March.
Tripathi spoke to Reuters about his unexpected success, why he chose to write about Shiva, and what he plans to do next.
from The Human Impact:
Conway book urges united global action plan to end hunger
Global food security can be achieved for almost 1 billion chronically undernourished people by promoting strong political leadership, technological innovation, investment in smallholder farmers and efficient markets, according to a new book.
In “One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?”, author Gordon Conway, a professor of international development and director of advocacy group Agriculture for Impact at Imperial College London, emphasises the importance of reducing hunger and poverty by increasing food production within an environmentally sustainable framework, which recognises climate change as a serious hindrance to future food security.
from MediaFile:
Journalist gets up close and personal with killer-quintet
Radio journalist Nancy Mullane has gone behind the walls of California’s infamous San Quentin state prison to chronicle how life unfolds for five inmates convicted of murder.
Andreessen Horowitz Partner Margit Wennmachers introducing Don Cronk, Jesse Reed, Ed Ramirez and author Nancy Mullane
from Entrepreneurial:
How to cope with a control-freak boss
So says Kaley Klemp, an executive coach and co-author of “The Drama-Free Office: A Guide to Healthy Collaboration with Your Team, Coworkers, and Boss”.
from FaithWorld:
U.S. religious publishers reap rewards with Justin Bieber and the Bible
(A woman reads her Bible during a weekly bible study meeting at the West Unity Methodist Church in Unity, New Hampshire July 5, 2011/Brian Snyder)
Religious publishers in the United States are busy these days, releasing such new books as a biography of pop music phenom and devout Christian Justin Bieber -- entitled “Belieber!: Fame, Faith and The Heart of Justin Bieber.” Other tomes mix spirituality with memoir and self-help topics. New editions of the Bible have also been released recently, as well as e-books and audio book downloads by popular religious authors.
from FaithWorld:
Seeds of Arab Spring sown in Islam’s past, Turkish author says
(Mustafa Akyol at the Council on Foreign Relations 'Religion and the Open Society' Symposium In New York March 25, 2008 in this publicity photo released to Reuters July 13, 2011/Council on Foreign Relations)
Eight year-old Mustafa Akyol was looking at a book in his grandfather's library when he saw something that shocked him: a passage advising parents to beat impious children. Now, Akyol is a journalist in Turkey, and he hopes the Arab Spring shows a different side of Islam: one where there is no conflict between Islam and political freedom.
from FaithWorld:
Pope’s Jesus book raps religious violence, explains exoneration of Jews
(A priest reads Pope Benedict XVI's book "Jesus of Nazareth" in a book shop in Rome March 10, 2011/Max Rossi )
Pope Benedict has condemned violence committed in God's name and personally exonerated Jews of responsibility for Jesus' death in his latest book, released on Thursday. The book, the second in a planned three-part series on the life of Jesus, is a detailed, highly theological and academic recounting of the last week in Jesus' life.
from FaithWorld:
New pope book says Jews not guilty of Jesus Christ’s death
(Pope Benedict XVI waves during his Wednesday general audience at the Vatican March 2, 2011/Tony Gentile )
Pope Benedict, in a new book, has personally exonerated Jews of allegations they were responsible for Jesus Christ's death, repudiating the concept of collective guilt that has haunted Christian-Jewish relations for centuries. Jewish groups applauded the move. The Anti-Defamation League called it "an important and historic moment" and hoped that it would help complicated theology "translate down to the pews" to improve grass roots inter-religious dialogue.
from India Insight:
Does Indian literature owe its global success to the Raj?
As close to 50,000 people prepare to celebrate India's bulging roster of nationally and internationally renowned authors and poets at the seventh annual Jaipur Literary Festival, a public spat between its British organiser and an Indian magazine over allegations of perpetuating "a Raj that still lingers" threatens to ignite a decades-old debate over the role of colonial English in the country's literary success.
As Delhi-based William Dalrymple and his fellow organiser stress the festival's intent to showcase works from India's array of states and dialects to thousands of book lovers, an article in India's Open magazine this month claimed the festival matters "because of the writers from Britain it attracts".
from FaithWorld:
Condoms still banned for birth control: Vatican
Pope Benedict's acknowledgement that using condoms may be justified to stop the spread of AIDS did not signify a change in the Catholic Church's ban on their use as contraception, the Vatican said Tuesday.
(Image: Heading of statement on condom use, Dec 21, 2010/ Bollettino Sala Stampa della Santa Sede)
In a statement, the Vatican's doctrinal department said there had been "erroneous interpretations" of the pope's words which had caused confusion concerning the Church's views on sexual morality. In a book published last month entitled "Light of the World", the pope used the example of a prostitute to say there were cases where using a condom to avoid transmitting HIV could be justified as a "first step" toward moralization, even though condoms were "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection."
