The book in my hand - July 24, 2016

A weekly column on what well-known personalities are reading and planning to read. This week, it is P.K. Hormis Tharakan and Susan Abulhawa

P.K. Hormis Tharakan

I am reading

The Flowering of the Renaissance and

The Florentine Renaissance by Vincent Cronin. The two volumes have been with me for almost three decades, and I have often browsed through them. Now I am getting around to finally reading them, and what a fascinating read they are.

P.K. Hormis Tharakan was formerly with the Research and Analysis Wing.

Susan Abulhawa

I typically juggle two or three books at a time: one by my bedside that I read before sleeping, one on audio that I listen to in the car or while doing mundane tasks, and one that I keep in my purse and pull out whenever I have reading time. I also consume “easy reading” books, among which, recently, is Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend . I just finished reading James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and W.E.B. Du Bois’ Dark Princess . I am currently reading The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen and The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill.

Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin and The Blue Between Sky and Water