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Asian Indians figure prominently among the educated, middle class subset of contemporary immigrants. They move quickly into residences, jobs, and lifestyles that provide little opportunity with fellow migrants, yet they continue to see themselves as a distinctive community within contemporary American society. In Life Lines Bacon chronicles the creation of a community--Indian-born parents and their children living in the Chicago metropolitan area--bound by neither geographic proximity, nor institutional ties, and explores the processes through which ethnic identity is transmitted to the next generation.Bacon's study centers upon the engrossing portraits of five immigrant families, each one a complex tapestry woven from the distinctive voices of its family members. Both extensive field work among community organizations and analyses of ethnic media help Bacon expose the complicated interplay between the private social interactions of family life and teh stylized rhetoric of "Indianness" that permeates public life.This inventive analysis suggests that the process of assimilation which these families undergo parallels the assimilation process experienced by anyone who conceives of him or herself as a member of a distinctive community in search of a place in American society. ... Read more

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Defining and Redefining Ethnic Identity
Jean Bacon presents an insightful overview through a narrative and analytical approach of the life and experiences of first and second generation Asian Indian immigrants in Chicago.Based on interviews conducted with five immigrant families, the author examines how race, culture, class, gender and assimilation shapes the formation of the Indian family, Indian identity and Indian community in the American society. ... Read more

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How does an immigrant become an ethnic American? And does American society fundamentally alter because of these newcomers?

In Ethnic Routes to Becoming American, Sharmila Rudrappa examines the paths South Asian immigrants in Chicago take toward assimilation in the late twentieth-century United States, where deliberations on citizenship rights are replete with the politics of recognition. She takes us inside two ethnic institutions, a battered women’s shelter, Apna Ghar, and a cultural organization, the Indo American Center, to show how immigrant activism, which brings cultural difference into public sphere debates, ironically abets these immigrants’ assimilation. She interlaces ethnographic details with political-philosophical debates on the politics of recognition and redistribution. In this study on the under-researched topic of the incorporation of South Asian immigrants into the American polity, Sharmila Rudrappa compels us to rethink ethnic activism, participatory democracy, and nation-building processes. ... Read more

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Illiterate Heart is an intensely autobiographical book of poems exploring both the foreign and the familiar. ... Read more

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This photographic guidebook catalogs more than 2,500 ethnographic North American Indian baskets, dating from the late eighteenth century to 1984. In this expanded second edition, the volume includes an index that significantly enhances the book's value as a research tool. Basket photographs and descriptions are grouped by geographic region, then subdivided by tribal affiliation. Collection dates and descriptions of basic technology are provided, and proveniences, function, materials, and maker are referenced when known.

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Survey of a great collection
This is a survey book of the most basic kind.It, with its supplementary companion volume compiled by Susan Haskell in 1998, is a complete photographic handbook of the Peabody's extraordinary collection of Native American baskets.What you'll find is almost 500 pages of baskets, six baskets to a page, organized by geographic area (i.e., Southeast) and further subcategorized by nation (i.e., Seminole).Only the most basic info. is attached to each piece:accession no., tribe, place of manufacture, type of basket ('bowl'), artist's name, provenance, and technique ('coiled, bundle foundation').Shows the same type of object over and over again (100+ Hopi wicker plaques), making it the perfect book for comparison.Has some basic, generalized info. on basketry in introduction.Indispensable! ... Read more

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A pioneering piece of ethnohistory, The Hollow Crown uses a variety of interdisciplinary means to reconstruct the sociocultural history of a warrior polity in south India between the fourteenth and the twentieth centuries. Central to the book is the belief that comparative sociology has systematically denied the importance of the Indian state and obscured the political basis of Indian society by representing caste as fundamentally a religious system. In reconstructing the history of the polity that eventually became the colonial princely state of Pudukkottai, Dr Dirks therefore raises a whole series of issues concerning the methodologies of history and anthropology, the character of Tamil kingship and social organization, the relationship between politics and ritual, the impact of colonialism and 'modernization', and the dynamics of the whole last millennium of south Indian history. ... Read more

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Outstanding piece of ethnohistory
The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom, by Nicholas B. Dirks, is an "ethnohistory" of Pudokottai, a "little kingdom" in south India. Dirks describes Pudokottai as a "little kingdom" due in part to its size - about 12,000 square miles - but also due to the fact that Pudokottai's limited amount of arable land limited its political role to that of a lesser kingdom rendering tribute to greater kingdoms. These greater kingdoms included not only Hindu kingdoms such as the Colas and Vijayanagar, but also Muslim Sultanates and the British Raj. Dirks traces Pudokottai's political and religious evolution from the time of the Pallava Dynasty (6th to 9th centuries), and includes ethnographic material from as late as the early 1980s. It is important to keep in mind that Pudokottai is a region and not a dynasty, and was ruled by various family and caste groups. Because of the aid they gave the British against the Nawab of Arcot, Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, and against rebel palaiyakkarars, the Tondaiman kings - then the ruling house of Pudokottai - were exempted from the Permanent Settlement of 1803 that would have converted them into zamindaris. They were the last sovereigns of south India.

One of the more interesting points in Dirks' analysis is how much the local ecology conditioned political and social relations in Pudokottai. Pudokkottai was a dry area with frequent droughts, and so was associated with risk and uncertainty. The amount of arable land was limited, which made large scale agriculture untenable. Largely due to this situation, the Pudokottai kings mostly relied on raiding of neighboring kingdoms for their income. The lack of a stable, large-scale agricultural base also meant that they weren't able to retain a standing army, instead relying on a network of lesser chiefs and kings, to whom they gave grants of land and royal emblems, in return for which they would supply armed men for war. This delegation of royal authority penetrated all the way down to the village level, a theme to which we shall return later. Dirks describes this as a "segmented" system, and it is easy to see how different versions of this form of socio-political organization were deployed by ruling houses all over South Asia and beyond. Even the British had to rely on a system of alliances with local rulers, of whom Pudokottai was one of the more important. Thus, well into the 19th century the British needed the south Indian little kings to administer their lands.

Dirks thoroughly analyzes the integral link existing between kingship, religious institutions and the caste-system. Dirks' approach is based on what he calls ethnohistory, which is a combination of "... the social and cultural forms studied by anthropologists with the multiple contexts and temporal dimensions invoked and identified by historians." In other words, ethnohistory combines the study of synchronic cultural forms in a certain time and place with the diachronic study of the changes in those cultural forms through time. Ethnohistory also rejects the view of older generations of Orientalist scholars that pre-modern Indians were not interested in history in the western sense, but rather were interested in mythology, and so the modern scholar must now untangle historical fact from mythological fancy. Instead, Dirks seeks to analyze historical texts (which includes inscriptions) to reconstruct the historical and culturally-informed symbolic worlds of the actors involved, including how they related to authority and pursued prestige and social mobility. Thus, Dirks explains that "... ethnohistory is the reconstruction of an indigenous discourse about the past."

Political struggle and the pursuit of prestige and wealth were expressed in religious forms. Religious symbols were not epiphenomenal to politics and social relations, but rather expressed them and made them possible: "Myth did not simply record a part of the past: it created the whole of it," as Dirks says. In south India before the colonial period, according to Dirks, Brahmins were not the dominant caste, contrary to what Louis Dumont had hypothesized. Caste structure, ritual form and political process were dependent on relations of power, and power was regulated by the king, though not monopolized by him. Dirks explains that a form of kingship developed in which the king was looked upon as descended from Vishnu or Shiva. The king held exclusive rights to all the land in his realm and gifted estates of various sizes to influential people such as Brahmins and lesser kings and chiefs who had rendered some sort of service to him, such as subduing bandits. In addition to land, royal emblems were also given, such as banners, fly whisks, palanquins and elephants. Through these royal emblems the king shared a part of his own sovereignty and made of the recipient a subordinate. The subordinate chiefs and kings thereby became necessary and integral parts of the royal ritual, and so the rituals brought into being the relationships expressed in the ritual. Dirks makes the point that in this system the honors from the king were more important than land or its usufruct. This is, therefore, a social system in which prestige is the most valued thing, surpassing even wealth in importance.

The festival of Durgotsava (or Durgapuja), as performed in the Vijayanagara kingdom illustrates vividly the inseparability of religion, politics and social relations. On the tenth day of the festival the Vijayanagara king went in a major procession to Durga's temple. There the goddess was worshipped by the king, and during this puja the king was coronated. The ritual was thought to infuse the king with cosmic power for another year, as the king and deity were identified with one another, as were their emblems, with the deity sitting on the king's throne. Thus, the king's emblems were the deity's and the deity's emblems were the king's. It was an honor during the festival if the king allowed one to kiss his feet, as he would not allow his hands to be kissed. It is very noteworthy that the king at this time in the ritual received land-rents from his captains, at which time he would give them scarves for their personal use. The kissing of the king's feet replicates the tirupatam rite, in which one worships the feet of the deity. All of this functioned to symbolize the incorporation of the subordinates into the person of the king, and just as the lesser kings were incorporated into the person of the king, so the king was incorporated into the body of the god.

Military readiness was based on this system of subordinate chiefs, as well as connections through marriage alliances, and not on a standing army. The system of royal grants sustained military organization, village ritual, the network of temples, as well as settlements gifted to Brahmans and their families. Within each village the headmen were given lands in recognition of their rights to local authority. In village rituals, headmen could not perform their prescribed duties without displaying the emblems granted by the king. Furthermore, various village officials, artisans and servants were given grants of inam, or tax-free land. Each village servant was also entitled to shares of the village grain heap. In all, one-ninth of the harvest went to servants, before the Raja and the village got their share. Thus, the redistributive political economy penetrated all aspects of society, including the caste system, and defined the nature of authority, social groups and resource allocation at each level.

Thus, the political-economy of medieval south Indian kingship permeated and constituted both religious life and social forms such as caste, and so to comprehend any of those things one has to comprehend the others. The caste system was directly shaped by the social forms imposed by the patronage system of the royal court, in which authority even at the village level was manifested through the display of royal emblems (given by the king) by village headmen and other leaders. Although the system was permeated with inequalities, it was also humane, as most people would be provided with at least minimal subsistence. For example, according to Dirks, in 1888 there were thirteen thousand holders of inams. In the last decades of the 18th century, there were at least another 5,000 amaram tenures, which were grants given to soldiers and retainers. As the proceeds of each inam were shared among families and sometimes patrilineages this meant that as much as sixty percent of the population was supported by inam land, at least in part. In many of the smaller states of Tamil Nadu in the 18th century between 60-80% of arable land was given away to military chiefs, retainers, temples, Brahmins, village officers, priests, servants and artisans.

Dirk's also goes into great detail on the significance of the temple in social life. Indeed, the temple is synonymous with community and even constitutes the community as an integrated unit. This is so as the distribution of honors and the division of labor in worship and in festivals laid out the social hierarchy. In south India villages were organized into ranked parts, each caste group having its own temple with its patron god, and each village had a temple where all castes present came together. In some cases the deity of the head lineage in a natu (a regional administrative unit) was also the patron deity of the entire natu, though this did not mean that that deity was exclusively worshiped. Everyone in the state, however, worshiped the family deity of the Tondaimans. As temples were supported by the king and local nobles, patronage also became a way for groups to advance socially. Ironically, the hierarchical status given to groups through the distribution of temple honors generated disputes over the ordering of rank, which would then be settled by the king or another noble, which then further reinforced the king's status in the system.

Dirks' ethnohistorical approach is a powerful methodological tool that combines the study of political and economic organization with religious symbolism (including both mythology and theology), creating a very balanced, three-dimensional view that also puts human agency into a cultural context in which status was paramount, and wealth secondary, though still important. This is completely different than the Protestant bias of religious studies, in which religious texts and theological ideas are torn out of the historical context that produced them. It has always been ironic to me, for example, that one can take a class or read a book on "Indian philosophy" and not hear much of anything about an Indian person and absolutely nothing about an Indian community. Furthermore, Dirks work also brings out the fact that notions such as moksha and nirvana were elitist scholastic terms, and so completely inadequate to explain the religious lives of even most religious specialists in India and elsewhere
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A compelling analysis of the complex history, identities, and self-determination of diasporic Africans (Habshis/Siddis) of Karnataka, South India. It addresses African Indian religious beliefs and practices, their deployment of expressive cultural expressions and forms of social and political power through which they engage effecitvely Indian's multi-religious, and complex social stratification systems. ... Read more

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Domicile and Diaspora investigates geographies of home and identity for Anglo-Indian women in the 50 years before and after Indian Independence in 1947.Theoretically informed and substantively grounded, the book draws on interviews and focus groups with over 150 Anglo-Indians, as well as archival research. Key themes include: imaginative geographies of Britain as fatherland and India as motherland before Independence; the establishment of Anglo-Indian homelands; Anglo-Indian migration under the British Nationality Act of 1948 and the White Australia Policy; and the spatial politics of home for Anglo-Indians today in India, Britain and Australia.

As well as exploring what it means to be Anglo-Indian, Domicile and Diaspora makes a distinctive contribution to debates about home, identity, hybridity, migration and diaspora. ... Read more

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Chapters: Anuj Sharma, Antara Mitra, Amey Date, Amit Tandon, Abhijeet Sawant, Meenal Jain, Sandeep Acharya, Ravi Shukla, Prajakta Shukre, Amit Sana. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 44. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Anuj Sharma (Hindi: ) born in a small town Rehan of Himachal Pradesh in India, getting the fame again as he is launched by Universal Music India in March 2010 with solo album KHWAAB; the music given by Gaurav Dayal and Saibal Basu. Anuj Sharma began his career while recording a Himachali Folk album in the late 1996. Since then he recorded more than 40 albums in Himachali Folks on number of recording companies. He was among final 3 appeared in Indian Idol 2, the Indian version of Pop Idol. For last 3 and half years after Indian Idol Fame, he has delivered a variety of critically acclaimed live performances in India and abroad. He also had been awarded by number of organizations for his success. Anuj Sharma's Khwaab Khwaab contains 8 tracks...... Anuj Sharma was born in Rehan, India. His father 'Yograj Sharma (a retired teacher)' and his mother 'Payari Devi (a housewife)' live in Rehan. He has an elder brother 'Manoj' who works in Belgium and younger sister 'Anupam' who lives in Pathankot. Anuj's big brother 'Manoj' is the reason for him to be in the music profession. After passing the 12th, it was 'Manoj' who suggested him to take up music for further studies. He attended 'Government Senior Secondary School Rehan' for his primary and secondary level education. He joined 'Wajir Ram Sing Government College Dehri' as Music Student where he started his music learning. Although 'Anuj' was good singer from his childhood but his interest and talent paid when he won the best singer award in his first year in college in an inter college competition of Himachal Pradesh Univers...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=6761328 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Aamir Khan, Abul Kalam Azad, Dilip Kumar, Feroz Khan, Kader Khan, Celina Jaitley, Imran Khan, Zayed Khan, Sanjay Khan, Fardeen Khan, Kabir Khan, Tahir Hussain, Saleem Iqbal Shervani, Akbar Khan. Excerpt:Aamir Khan Aamir Khan (Hindi : , Urdu : , pronounced ; born Aamir Hussain Khan on 14 March 1965) is an Indian film actor , director and producer . Khan has worked in a number of critically and commercially successful films and has established himself as one of the leading actors of Hindi cinema . He is also the founder-owner of Aamir Khan Productions . Starting his career as a child actor in his uncle Nasir Hussain 's film Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Khan began his professional career eleven years later with the film, Holi (1984). He had his first commercial success with his cousin Mansoor Khan 's film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), for which he won a Filmfare Best Male Debut Award . After seven previous nominations during the 1980s and 1990s, Khan received his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in the major grosser Raja Hindustani (1996). In 2001, he made his debut as a film producer with the Academy Award -nominated Lagaan . Khan played the lead role in the film and earned his second Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance. After a four-year break from acting, Khan made his comeback with Ketan Mehta 's Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005), and later won a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance for his role in Rang De Basanti (2006). In 2007, he made his directorial debut with Taare Zameen Par ( Like Stars On Earth ), for which he received a Filmfare Best Director Award . This was followed by Ghajini (2008), which became the highest grossing film of that year. In 2009 Khan appeared in a commercially and critically acclaimed film 3 Idiots , which became th... ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Sonia Gandhi, Sanjaya Malakar, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra, Dino Morea, Swami Yogananda Giri. Excerpt:Dino Morea Dino Morea (Hindi : ; born 9 December 1975) is an Indian actor and former model . Biography Dino Morea was born in Bangalore to an Italian father and an Indian mother. He is the second of three brothers. Nicolo Morea is his older brother, and Santino Morea is his younger brother. His family moved to Bangalore, Karnataka. He attended and graduated from St. Josephs College in Bangalore and also went to Bangalore Military School . He was first noticed when he was modeling for a fashion company, and he soon received his first film offer. His debut Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi opposite Rinke Khanna was a flop, but he got his breakthrough roles with the Rajiv Menon film Kandukondain Kandukondain and the horror film Raaz . He used to date actress Bipasha Basu and Lara Dutta . Morea is also known to speak Hindi , Italian , Punjabi , English , and some Kannada . He is going out with Mumbai socialite and fashion designer Nandita Mahtani. Filmography Year: Title: Role: Notes References (URLs online) Websites (URLs online) A hyperlinked version of this chapter is at P... ... Read more

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In the midst of the manifold utterances and discussions on the burning question of to-day,--the War in South Africa,--there is one side of the subject which, it seems to me, has not as yet been considered with the seriousness which it deserves,--and that is the question of Slavery, and of the treatment of the native races of South Africa. Though this question has not yet in England or on the Continent been cited as one of the direct causes of the war, ... Read more

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History, culture, and outlook based on research : a handbook for counselors, educators, and all who want a deeper understanding of Asian Indians ... Read more

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The author's third book of poetry, parts of which have won a Pushcart Prize and an Allen Ginsberg Prize, explores images of India in art and culture and the Indian experience in America, including the author's own experiences. Original." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

I THINK IT'S ONE OF DIVAKARUNI'S STRONGEST WORKS
India-born Chitra Divakaruni is one of my favorites. She holds a Ph.D. in Literature from UC Berkeley and teaches at Foothill College on the San Francisco Peninsula. She's won both Allen Ginsberg and Pushcart Prizes for poetry. This is my favorite of her works, a book of award winning poetry about the experience of Indians coming to the United States. Beautiful, powerful work illuminating a population I knew little about.

Universal, Beautiful
While many of the stories she tells in her poems are clearly set in specific times and places -- a convent school in India run by Irish nuns; Yuba City, California in the years between 1900 and 1940, for example -- the themes of those stories resonate much beyond those locales.

Shining like beacons, the moments of joy or happiness in these poems relieve the otherwise unremitting sadness evoked by the painful lengths of abuse, suicide and death, and fear in so many of the poems. For example, the exhiliration of the 19-20 year old narrator escaping the family home for the big city lights of Las Vegas or Los Angeles, in the eponymous poem, is palpable. And although it's clear that she's not just a teenager escaping any home -- she's a teenager escaping a restrictive traditional home with a possible arranged marriage in her future -- the poem easily evoked the same sense of a caged animal smelling freedom in me, someone who never lived in that kind of household.

Beautifully written.

Beautiful, haunting poems
I love Divakaruni's writing, and this collection of poetry is no exception.She paints an incredible tapestry with her words.At times the tapestry is painful to look at, but it is always compelling.

Purveyor of the fictional exotic to the pseudo intellectuals
Ms. Divakaruni's output is likely to be forgotten in a short time -perhaps a few years. In the mean time, she masquerades as an interpreter of the east to the sort-of-educated white audience. Along with her fellow Bengali woman author, Bharati Mukherjee, this lady continues the insults of Sikhs, this time from Yuba City.Perhaps this attitudeis rooted in their upbringing in Calcutta, where Sikhs drove Taxi Cabs, buses, and trucks and (like another minority group in the US) were blessed with legendary equipment - in stark contrast to their own bengali men - who though so intellectual just did not have this physical dimension.

Poems - mostly about Indian women - that tell little stories
This is the kind of collection that will turn poetry haters into poetry lovers (or at least poetry likers).Divakaruni tells moving little stories -- rather than addressing abstract ideas -- in these entertaining poems.My favorites were "Woman With Kite" and "The Makers of Chili Paste." Her poems are mostly about Indian women, though I found them universally moving ... Read more

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Great exhibition catalog featuring works in the collections of Smith College. 100 black and white illustrations of works of art - painting, drawing, sculpture, Asian art, Native American Indian art, photography. Illustrated artists include: Carl Andre, Signac, Georgia O'Keeffe, Leger, Matisse, Picasso, Nolde, Julia Cameron, Degas, Giacometti, Henry Moore, Durer, Delacroix and other artists. Exhibit checklist.Softcover. 82 pages. Measures 8 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches. Interesting book / exhibtion catalog, nicely illustrated. ... Read more

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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Dimple's parents are from India, and she's spent years rebelling against their customs. The novel humorously portrays a South Asian American girl's efforts to balance her Indian culture with her American sensibilities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (93)

Good read...
Its good read...though lot of it is not true anymore. east asian 2nd generation americans have started relating to american as well as Indian culture and are pretty comfortable and proud of it.
Its a hilarious book, good for weekend lazy read.

Drugs, Sex, Alcohol, and Southern Asians
I got this last friday at Borders or barnes and nobel for only 98cents!!! HARDCOVER! I already finished it. I'm 22 and a religious studies major. I was looking for some summer reading, specifically of the cultural kind. One of my favorite movies is The Namesake. I've never read the book that The Namesake was based on but this reminded me a bit of that. Unfortunately this did not have as much culture as I was hoping for. I learned a little about Dimple, the main characters, culture but overall it just felt like any other teen novel. I could easily relate to the main character and I am not Southern Asian, a term the novel introduced me to.

Overall, I felt the main character was very weak and I absolutely hated her best friend, Gwyn. There was drug use, sex, and A LOT of alcohol use for someone 16 going on 17. If I had a daughter I still might let her read this. I have an 8 year old sister and I'll let her borrow it when she's about 15. I say that because, this is normal stuff that I had to deal with as other teenagers have to deal with. I just hope my sister is more like myself, strong and powerful almost outspoken, and less like the main character, weak and easily swayed by peer pressure and very submissive.

If you're interested in the book go to Borders or Barnes and Noble it is only 98cents HARDCOVER!!!

makes absolutely no sense.
As a well read non-indian, I can tell you this is ridiculous!! And I find it deeply offensive that you make sound that this wonderful, talented girl is fine to fall for a loser (cool) guy that uses drugs, has no future in an educated profession and that her values are so poor she would just do whatever others wanted of her. All she needed in life was find a man!!!! Terrible!!!She sounds more like a 12 year old than 17.

Not the way I want my teenage daughter to find her identity
I pre-read this book before giving it to myteenage niece to read. I am glad that I did. On the surface, it sounded great, all about a teenage girl challenging her identity issues and finding herself. Wonderful. My first thought, when starting the book was how childish it seemed. The beginnning is horribly slow, the writing very amateurish. A lot could have been edited out. Then I got the the part where she uses a fake ID to get drunk. Then I got the part where her date wants to sleep with her drunk. Then I got to the part where the "good" guy, a potential Indian boyfriend, gets her high on pot. Not sure about you, but this isn't really the path I want my daughter, or any other girl, to take in finding herself: getting drunk, getting high, running around to clubs underage, and lying to her parents. Everybody sows some wild oats, but this isn't a model that I want to hold up for my child, or anyone else's. The book got junked, not even garage saled.

Four Stars
Born Confused is the story of 17 year old Dimple Lala, an Indian-American girl who feels "not quite Indian and not quite American." Dimple is best friends with blonde-haired, blue eyed Gwyn. Dimple's identity crisis comes to a head when her parents decide to fix her up with a "suitable Indian boy" hoping that she will marry one eventually. They introduce her to Karsh, the son of their friends from India. Dimple is not impressed with Karsh on first meeting him but Gwyn is so Dimple helps Gwyn pursue him. Along the way she embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

I liked this book a lot and learned a lot about Indian-America culture and perspectives from it. I listened to the audio book and the narrator, Marguerite Gavin did a fabulous job. She did a wide range of Indian, British, and Teenager accents flawlessly.

The only thing I didn't like about this book was that the pace could be really slow at times. The author had several times when she got on a descriptive tangent, using all kinds of over the top metaphors when I really just wanted her to get on with the story. The book is told in first person from Dimple's point of view and it was pretty unbelievable that a 17 year old had that kind of language skills, especially since this book is classified as young adult. ... Read more