Want to know what books Patrick French recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Patrick French's favorite book recommendations of all time.
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India: The Cookbook is the first comprehensive guide to Indian cooking, with over 1,000 recipes covering every aspect of India's rich and colourful culinary heritage. Unlike many other Indian cookbooks, it is written by an Indian culinary academic and cookbook author who lives and works in Delhi, and the recipes are a true reflection of how traditional dishes are really cooked all over India. They have been carefully edited to ensure that they are simple to follow and achievable in western kitchens, with detailed information about authentic cooking utensils and ingredients. Indian food... more India: The Cookbook is the first comprehensive guide to Indian cooking, with over 1,000 recipes covering every aspect of India's rich and colourful culinary heritage. Unlike many other Indian cookbooks, it is written by an Indian culinary academic and cookbook author who lives and works in Delhi, and the recipes are a true reflection of how traditional dishes are really cooked all over India. They have been carefully edited to ensure that they are simple to follow and achievable in western kitchens, with detailed information about authentic cooking utensils and ingredients. Indian food has been hugely popular in the UK for many years, and the appetite for Indian food shows no sign of diminishing. Now, for the first time, a definitive, wide-ranging and authoritative book on authentic Indian food is available, making it simple to prepare your favourite Indian dishes at home, alongside less well-known dishes such as bataer masalydaar (marinated quails cooked with almonds, chillies and green cardamom), or sambharachi kodi (Goan prawn curry with coconut and tamarind). The comprehensive chapters on breads, pickles, spice pastes and chutneys contain a wide variety of recipes rarely seen in Indian cookbooks, such as bagarkhani roti (a rich sweet bread with raisins, cardamom and poppy seeds) and tamatar ka achar (tomato and mustard-seed pickle). India: The Cookbook is the only book on Indian food you'll ever need. less 
Patrick FrenchThis is the first complete Indian cookbook. It’s rather like Italy’s The Silver Spoon, in that it’s inexhaustible. It tells you everything that you are going to need to know about Indian cooking (Source)
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Love marriages around the world are simple: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married. In India, there are a few more steps: Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl. Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family. Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.
Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don't agrees. To convert their love story into a love marriage,... more Love marriages around the world are simple: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married. In India, there are a few more steps: Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl. Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family. Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.
Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don't agrees. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it?
From the author of blockbusters Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The 3 Mistakes of My Life, comes another witty tale about inter-community marriages in modern india. less Patrick FrenchChetan Bhagat is one of the most commercially successful novelists in India at the moment. I find him a very entertaining and revealing writer. It’s a boy-meets-girl story, about Krish and Ananya. (Source)
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B. R. Ambedkar, Valerian Rodrigues | 4.42
Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956) is both the towering symbol of protest against age-old and contemporary forms of exploitation in India and a scholar-sage proposing fair terms of social association. An untouchable himself, he led a resolute and adroit struggle against untouchability and
attempted to reformulate the terms of nationalist discourse in India. This selection draws from his major works, speeches, letters and memoranda.
These writings span across forty years (1915-1956) and are organised into eleven sections: reminiscences, concepts, methodology, ideology,... more Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956) is both the towering symbol of protest against age-old and contemporary forms of exploitation in India and a scholar-sage proposing fair terms of social association. An untouchable himself, he led a resolute and adroit struggle against untouchability and
attempted to reformulate the terms of nationalist discourse in India. This selection draws from his major works, speeches, letters and memoranda.
These writings span across forty years (1915-1956) and are organised into eleven sections: reminiscences, concepts, methodology, ideology, religion, caste, untouchability, identity, economics, nationalism, constitutionalism and law. The introduction by the editor Valerian Rodrigues provides a
glimpse of his momentous life,the framework and content of his writings, and the reasons for his growing stature in India over the years. Every section and excerpts included within it are introduced and endnotes support citations and incomplete references in the excerpts. Suggestions for further
readings are offered through a classification of all his writings and speeches and writings on him and his work. The chronology of events anchors the context of the writings.
The work is the first of its kind on Ambedkar and is a representative collection of the whole range of issues that engaged his attention. as the most comprehensive compilation on him and his works, this volume is going to be an indispensable reference for concerned students, scholars and activists. less Patrick FrenchAmbedkar was born at a time when even getting an education for somebody from an ‘Untouchable’ background was almost impossible. (Source)
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Sonia Faleiro was a reporter in search of a story when she met Leela, a beautiful and charismatic bar dancer with a story to tell. Leela introduced Sonia to the underworld of Bombay's dance bars: a world of glamorous women, of fierce love, sex and violence, of customers and gangsters, of police, prostitutes and pimps. When an ambitious politician cashed in on a tide of false morality, and had Bombay's dance bars wiped out, Leela's proud independence faced its greatest test. In a city where almost everyone is certain that someone, somewhere, is worse off than them, she fights to survive, and... more Sonia Faleiro was a reporter in search of a story when she met Leela, a beautiful and charismatic bar dancer with a story to tell. Leela introduced Sonia to the underworld of Bombay's dance bars: a world of glamorous women, of fierce love, sex and violence, of customers and gangsters, of police, prostitutes and pimps. When an ambitious politician cashed in on a tide of false morality, and had Bombay's dance bars wiped out, Leela's proud independence faced its greatest test. In a city where almost everyone is certain that someone, somewhere, is worse off than them, she fights to survive, and to win. Beautiful Thing, one of the most original works of non-fiction from India in years, is a vivid and intimate portrait of one reporter's journey into the dark, pulsating and ultimately damaged soul of Bombay. less Patrick FrenchThis books really shows the sex trade from a woman’s perspective in a way that is very rarely written about. But it’s also a lot more than that. It’s about the human condition. (Source)
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A magisterial account of the pains, the struggles, the humiliations, and the glories of the world's largest and least likely democracy, Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi is a breathtaking chronicle of the brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation and the extraordinary factors that have held it together. An intricately researched and elegantly written epic history peopled with larger-than-life characters, it is the work of a major scholar at the peak of his abilities... more A magisterial account of the pains, the struggles, the humiliations, and the glories of the world's largest and least likely democracy, Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi is a breathtaking chronicle of the brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation and the extraordinary factors that have held it together. An intricately researched and elegantly written epic history peopled with larger-than-life characters, it is the work of a major scholar at the peak of his abilities... less 
Kaushik BasuAs a book on recent India, it’s one of the best, maybe the best, that I’ve read – a mammoth amount of information, put together in a way that anybody can read. (Source)
Pankhuri PathakIf I were only allowed...
One cuisine: Mughlai
One author: J K Rowling
One musician: Jagjeet Singh
One season: Monsoon
One city: Varanasi
One game: Tekken 3
One book: India After Gandhi by Ramchandra Guha
One movie: PS I Love You
One colour: Black
How about you? https://t.co/yG0cfCzRBj (Source)
Patrick FrenchIt gets right inside that period of the first few decades after independence in a way that I don’t think any other book does. (Source)
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