It's that time of the month again when I shift gears and introduce you to a new book. This month, on this site, I'll be showcasing Kamil Shamsie's new book, Broken Verses.

“Combining the personal with the political, Broken Verses is a thrilling journey through the sights and sounds of modern-day Pakistan, a carefully coded mystery, and an emotionally charged mother-daughter story that asks how we forgive a mother who leaves.”

Coincidentally, the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) is presenting a book reading by Kamila Shamsie on Friday, May 20th at 7:00 p.m., at Barnes & Noble, Astor Place, New York City. If you are in the city, please attend the reading.

Time to swap the book out of Tiffinbooks. Thanks to Pooja Makhijani for allowing me to post her book on this site from March 15 to today.

For the next month, I'll feature Suketu Mehta's book, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. It has received rave reviews and has been short-listed for several illustrious prizes, including the Pulitzer. Mehta recently won the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for this book.

I do hope you will buy, read and enjoy the book. If Suketu's break-neck schedule has eased up, I am going to do my best to invite him for an online interview. I'll keep you posted on any developments on this.

Ok, this is going to sound like a plug for Amazon. Trust me, it is not. I just think Amazon Prime, the new program Amazon launched, may actually save you some money over the long run. If you buy books, dvd's or anything else that Amazon is attempting to push, the $79 a year charge isn't all that bad. Again, you have to rationalize the upfront fee and calculate how many items shipped in two days will get you to break even. I say eight purchases (of whatever) will be my break-even point. Over the course of the last year, though, I think I bought only four books through Amazon. And given that they were all over $25, the shipping was free anyway. I hope Amazon isn't thinking of ending that option in favor of this new program.