Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Nina Mack GENRE: Nonfiction, Self-Help, Psychology. PUBLICATION DATE: July 1, 2026 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A “fact”-debunking book of sorts. Takes various generalised statements from popular psychology and informs us of their veracity. Eye-opening in various ways. Not exactly my genre, but the intent drew me in and the content kept me fairly engrossed. Will click even better with fans of motivational nonfiction, though this isn't a motivational book. Definitely recommended. I've never been a fan of the self-help genre. Almost every motivational book I begin ends up a DNF, so much so that I don’t even try the genre anymore. The only book that has worked to some extent for me is ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear . But when I saw the tagline of this book, I simply couldn't resist giving it a go: “89 Popular Psychology Ideas Examined and Explained”. Not any small number, but 89, showing the grand extent to which psych theories are popular with general people who m...

AUTHOR & NARRATOR: Cory Doctorow GENRE: Tech Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: October 7, 2025 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An engrossing exposé on the enshittification of the internet and all its components over the last few years. Well-researched with substantial and concrete examples. Informative without getting too techy. Don’t be fooled by the cover; this is a serious and scary book. Much recommended. Canadian author Cory Doctorow has been an internet activist for more than twenty-five years. He has worked on digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics, among other themes, and has actively lobbied for liberalising copyright laws. Doctorow coined the term ‘enshittification’ in a blog post in 2022, to indicate the process by which online products and service gradually decay in quality until they are *shit*. While the concept was already being spoken of, his term caught on and became a widespread neologism, chosen as the ‘Word of the Year’ by The American...

AUTHOR: Hallie Rubenhold NARRATOR: Louise Brealey. GENRE: Historical Biography, True Crime. PUBLICATION DATE: February 28, 2019 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A historical account of the women supposedly murdered by Jack the Ripper. Focuses more on the historical and social circumstances and the biographical sketches of the victims than on the murderer or the crime. Informative, but also slightly speculative. Recommended, not to true crime fans but to those looking for a picture of the dark underbelly of Victorian England. I don't read true crime books anymore. With reality being so nightmare-inducing, I don't want anything else to add to my stress and fears. But as this book promised to focus more on the victims than on the crimes, I was intrigued. The resulting reading experience has been quite informative. ‘Jack the Ripper’ is one of the world’s most infamous undetected serial killers. He is known not just for evading capture and identity reveal, but also for choosing stree...

EDITOR: Alice Hoffman GENRE: Essay Collection PUBLICATION DATE: March 10, 2026 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of essays by various authors about some best dogs in the world. Given the reputation of the contributing authors, it’s not surprising that this is one well-written collection. A love letter to dogs and a must-read for all dog owners and dog lovers. At times, the cover of a book is such that you are tempted to grab it without doing any other due diligence. Look at the cover art of this book! Just see that unbridled bliss on that beautiful dog’s visage! Add to this, that amazing title! How is one to resist?! Thankfully, the book delivers exactly as the cover and the title promise, not making me regret my impulsive decision for even a second. I don’t often read essay collections, but if the theme of the essays is close to my heart, then I am willing to try the book. This book contains fourteen essays celebrating the joys and challenges of their canine companions. ...

AUTHOR: Victoria Grace Elliott GENRE: Graphic Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: November 30, 2021 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A graphical non-fiction exploring the development of popular desserts. Contains a good mix of history, pseudo-interviews, stories, and recipes. Quite comprehensive and entertaining. A tempting [pun intended!] read for those with a sweet tooth. 😄 If you ask various people what they consider the yummiest dish, chances are that a majority of the responses you receive will mention some or the other dessert. Even those of us who don't have a sweet tooth enjoy at least some dessert once in a while. Cakes, ice-creams, donuts, pies,… ( gulab jamun, kulfi, and kaju katli for my desi friends 🤤) – there is at least one dessert we like, if not love. But have you ever thought about how these desserts came into being? This graphical book aims to enlighten and entertain you at the same time on the scrumptious topic of desserts. There are eight chapters in this book, cover...

AUTHOR: Jean-Baptiste Aubin GENRE: Maths PUBLICATION DATE: February 3, 2026 RATING: 5 stars! In a Nutshell: Exactly as the title states. A big book of everything pi. Fascinating and hilarious. Not at all dry. Totally enjoyed this book. If only math textbooks were like this! If someone had told me in my school years that I would relish a book about that infernal concept called pi π, I would have laughed right in their face! Not that I didn’t enjoy maths, but so many geometrical formulae involved the use of pi that it became a bugbear. I wish such a book had existed in my childhood. Pi is known to be one of the most enigmatic concepts in mathematics, even when humans (with the aid of computers) have unfurled its decimals to much more than practically necessary. This book seeks to shatter the dread surrounding this concept without sounding like a school textbook, and it is VERY successful in this endeavour. The uniqueness of the approach is that the content is almost conversational despit...

EDITOR: Sarah Mirk ILLUSTRATORS: Gerardo Alba, Kasia Babis, Alex Beguez, Tracy Chahwan, Nomi Kane, Omar Khouri, Kane Lynch, Maki Naro, Hazel Newlewant, Jeremy Nguyen, Chelsea Saunders, Abu Zubaydah GENRE: Graphic Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: September 8, 2020 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: An illustrated anthology containing true-life narratives related to the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison. Horrifying and infuriating. Definitely recommended, but make sure you are in a good headspace when you read this. The below review comes from an angry place; I apologise if it sounds aggressive. I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s sentiments, but I found it impossible to control my emotions while penning this. I wrote and rewrote my review for this book thrice before finally giving up on all hopes of diplomatic politeness. Each time, no matter how much I tried to stay on point, I was going off topic into a rant about US politics ( both present and past ), its spiteful attitude towards people of non-w...

AUTHOR: Dan Nott GENRE: Graphic Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: March 14, 2023 RATING: 3 stars. A graphic novel revealing the workings behind three systems we use every day without even thinking about them or how they work: internet, electricity, and waterworks. The content gets a bit technical and dry at times. The scope of the topic is huge, so some parts feel rushed. In the electricity and waterworks sections, the focus seemed to be more historical than contemporary. The graphics are fairly simple, but this helps in keeping the focus on the text. Basically, informative on the whole, but doesn’t always succeed in making the proceedings fluid and/or interesting. Aimed at teenagers, though adults wanting to know more about these systems might also give this a go.

AUTHOR: Edward Brooke-Hitching ILLUSTRATOR: Oksana Drachkovska GENRE: Children's Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: October 9, 2025 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of 365 trivia from assorted subject areas. As mindboggling and amazing as the title suggests. Some of the inclusions sounds too wild to be true, but they are. Much recommended! The title clearly indicates what this book is, but it also constrains the actual scope of the book. 365 – that’s the official count of entries in the book. But there’s a surprise at the end. Amazing – Well, the content is amazing, but it is too prosaic a word for such a fabulous collection. True Things – accurate enough. Every entry is true, even if it seems wildly wild! To read in bed – Again, valid. But such a limiter! The book can be read anywhere and anytime! Of course, the introductory note by the author does mention that while you can read the book anywhere, the best place to open it would be your bed. He justifies this though...

AUTHOR: Eliot Stein GENRE: Nonfiction, Travel, Sociology. PUBLICATION DATE: December 10, 2024 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: An astounding nonfiction work chronicling the endeavours of some “custodians of wonder”, people who are among the last few practitioners of their craft. Covers a variety of rare skills/jobs from ten countries, including one from India. Informative, insightful, dismaying, heartwarming. A beautiful book for those who still believe in the importance of traditions and want a ray of genuine hope in this fake/filtered world. Globalisation and modernisation have brought many benefits to humankind, no doubt. Unfortunately, a globalised world also ends up diminishing and even destroying localism. In this age of digitization and outsourcing, there are so many skills that are either considered obsolete or abandoned for easier, machine-made options. Even for something as basic as cooking, every subsequent generation is opting for simpler recipes and faster cooking method...

AUTHOR: Emma TRANSLATOR: Una Dimitrijevic SERIES: Un autre regard, #3-4 GENRE: Graphic Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: March 3, 2020 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A graphic novel highlighting certain feminist and social issues in modern society. This volume collects books 3 and 4 of the author’s feminist comics series. The tone is much more aggressive this time and the content is also too text-intensive. While this raises some good points, I didn’t like it as much as the first volume. Author Emma runs a podcast as well as creates comic strips aiming to generate insightful queries and discussions on contemporary societal culture. She has published four books in her “Un autre regard” series, the latter two of which are combined in this English edition. I don’t really have much to add on this as most of my review for the first volume, "The Mental Load" , is applicable to this volume as well. The main content is divided into nine topic-wise chapters, with a much greater focus ...

AUTHOR: Emma SERIES: Un autre regard, #1-2 GENRE: Graphic Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: October 23, 2018 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A graphic comic highlighting several systemic social and feminist problems in modern society, especially but not only related to women and women’s rights. This collects books 1 and 2 of the author’s feminist comics series. As the tagline indicates, this is “feminist”, and in the right way, not in the male-bashing way. Some of the topic choices were unexpected, but most left a mark. The translation didn’t satisfy me a few times. A worthy read, nonetheless. Author Emma is a Parisian running a successful podcast as well as creating comic strips that make us question many things society takes for granted. She has published four books in her “Un autre regard” series, the first two of which are combined in this English edition. The book works like a social manifesto, making a call for action not through unjustified aggression or finger-pointing, but throu...

AUTHORS: Alex L. Combs & Andrew Eakett GENRE: Graphic Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: May 13, 2025 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A non-fiction graphic novel detailing trans history from ancient times to contemporary times. Very informative and fairly well-researched. Contains many examples of historical as well as current-day trans people. Generalises some facts at times and gets a bit dry in the historical bits. But a good option for those who wish to learn more about the topic. While there are many labels about gender and sexual identities these days ( Sometimes, I feel like I can't even catch up with the existing ones before there's another new label in circulation! ), one label that has existed for quite some time now is "transgender". Though we now know that a trans identity isn't just "transgender" people, many of us don't realise what the term actually encompasses. Worse, a few of us dismiss "trans-ness" as a mental disease or ...

AUTHOR: Collins Kids GENRE: Nonfiction, Trivia PUBLICATION DATE: September 11, 2025. RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: As the title indicates, a collection of “curious facts” on a multitude of topics. Great for trivia lovers. The title tell you that the book contains “Curious Facts About Everything”. The tagline informs you that this book contains 1500 interesting facts to amaze you. The GR page indicates that the book is just 160 pages long. All this together tells you one key feature of the book: it’s a bit crowded. The book does contain 1500 facts. ( They are numbered, so we don’t need to actually count them to verify the claim. ) However, as the thin size of the book indicates, the facts are in a numbered list. Each page contains anywhere between 6 to 15 pieces of trivia. I am not sure if all the entries can be called “curious” in the sense of “strange” or “unusual”, but the compilation is interesting and meticulous. The content is listed topic-wise, taken from seventy-six points...

AUTHOR: Devoney Looser GENRE: Literature, Biography PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2025 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A nonfiction investigation of the ‘wildness’ contained in Austen’s writing, her life, and in the extraneous ventures capitalising on her name. Thus divided into three sections, the first section was easily my favourite. The second was a bit boring and the third went the mixed way. Might work for some Austen fans, though this Austenite was only partly impressed. Given that 2025 has the 250th birth anniversary of the evergreen Jane Austen, there are plenty of books coming out this year celebrating Austen and her timeless works. As a huge fan of all of Austen’s writing, I feel like I have a bonanza of Austen nonfiction to choose from. I have read three such titles so far. I loved ‘ Jane Austen’s Bookshelf ’ and found ‘ The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen ’ decent enough. This book, however, wasn't that easy to rate. I absolutely loved some chapters and was thoroughly bore...