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Love, Stars, and All That

Kirin Narayan

Love, Stars is about the experiences of a desi graduate student studying anthropology at UC, Berkeley. When the white South Asian professor hits on Geeta, it seems like a situation you`ve heard of before. When Feroze talks about how tense desi women are with him- his irrational guilt, his retreat into detailed, impersonal political theory- one can relate to the context. And Narayan`s tale of love among political South Asian Americans rings both hopeful and true. It strokes one`s romantic side; it plays to one`s fatalism. It`s easy to fall in love with the possibilities - and with this book.

Karma Cola

Gita Mehta

What Love, Stars does for the heart, Karma Cola does for the mind. Mehta`s training as an essayist and journalist shows. She applies her scalpel-like pen and acid wit to one of the least understood exploitations of the century: the way the West buys and sells Indian culture. The `60s infatuation with India, the abuses by Indian holy men, the sex, drugs and promise of moksha - it`s all there. Gita is an author who is both incisive and deliciously funny. She has a huge palette of absurdity to choose from.