New Arrival

New Arrivals on Display : 31-May-2012

The following titles will be on display on the 'New Arrivals' shelf until 31-May-2012. You are welcome to reserve a book, if you wish to borrow any of them. Reservations will be entertained on a first-come, first served basis and do remember that if you have reserved more than one title, you will be given preference only on one. May we remind you that now you can also reserve the books through WEBOPAC from our website: www.indiahabitat.org

[ Architecture ] [ Arts ] [ Crime / Trafficking ] [ Delhi Documenta ] [ Economics ] [ Education ] [ Fiction ] [ Management ] [ Memoirs ]

Architecture

Eco structures: forms of sustainable architecture/ Leone, Sabrina. --Vercelli: Whitestar Publishers, 2009

The rapid depletion of resources and the continuous demand for new buildings are key issues facing city planners, architects, and policy makers today. This portfolio of cutting-edge eco structures from the world's leading architecture firms offers ideas on how to reinvent underdeveloped spaces and also supplies the know-how to plan new buildings that have reduced energy needs and low environmental impact. With detailed photographs of contemporary projects-including biometric structures and ones that blend into the natural surroundings-this volume provides an in-depth look at the latest in sustainable architecture.

Moshe Safdie I / Safdie, Moshe. --Victoria: Image Publishing, 2009

In volume one of this monograph, more than 30 of Safdie’s projects are illustrated with spectacular photography, original design sketches and text. These works include his seminal Habitat project for Expo’67 in Montreal, Canada; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Library square, Vancouver, Canada; Mamilla Centre and Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem; the Skirball Museum and Cultural Center, Los Angeles; and urban designs for Montreal and Keur Farah Pahlavi, Senegal. Together they demonstrate the depth of Safdie’s work, and an architectural vocabulary full of light and colour.

Moshe Safdie II / Safdie, Moshe. --Victoria: Image Publishing, 2009

Volume two features an essay by Safdie presenting his views on the significant issues facing architects today. Among the projects covered in these pages are, in the U.S., The Salt Lake City main Public Library, the Peabody Essex Museum and the U.S. Institute of Peace Headequarters; in Israel, the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem, the Yitzhak Rabin Centre and the new city of Modi in India, the Khalsa Heritage Memorial complex; and in China, the Guangdong Science Centre and the Guangzhou No. 2 Children’s Palace.

The New mathematics of architecture / Burry, Jane. --London: Thames & Hudson, 2012

From chaos and complexity theory to topology, from optimization to datascapes: the design and construction of complex, sublime buildings that will change the way we perceive major structures. This researched survey of some forty international projects—largely built—offers an overview of how different strategies are being employed through accessible illustrations and clear text. Each section presents case studies of projects by globally recognized architects through diagrams, photographs, and texts.

New tent architecture / Drew, Philip. --London: Thames & Hudson, 2008

Tents have been prized for centuries by nomadic cultures for their lightness, mobility, small footprint and structural elegance. This is the first major publication to look at the exciting possibilities of contemporary tensile building and the most interesting membrane structures created in recent years. This wide ranging international surveys begins with a substantial architectural and cultural history of the tent, considering its origins, meaning and ecological elegance. The core of the book features thirty recent projects, grouped by theme and presented extensively through accessible text descriptions, photographs and line drawings.

Arts

Mirror of the world: a new history of art / Bell, Julian. --London: Thames & Hudson, 2007 (Reference)

A vivid and compelling history of human artistic achievements, from the first stone fashioned into a figure by a hunter-gatherer to the latest new media and installation work. The author tells the story of how art has evolved through the millennia and across the world. He follows the changing trends in the making and significance of art in different cultures, and explains why the art of the day looked and functioned as it did. Key images and objects—some of them familiar works of art; others, less known but equally crucial to the story—act as landmarks on the journey, focal points around which the discussion always centers.

Crime / Trafficking

The Red market: on the trail of the world's organ brokers, bone thieves, blood farmers and child traffickers / Carney, Scott.--Gurgaon: Hachette India, 2011

The book reveals the rise, fall, and resurgence of this multibillion-dollar under¬ground trade through history, from early medical study and modern universities to poverty-ravaged Eurasian villages and high-tech Western labs; from body snatchers and surrogate mothers to skeleton dealers and the poor who sell body parts to survive. While local and international law enforcement have cracked down on the market, advances in science have increased the demand for human tissue—ligaments, kidneys, even rented space in women's wombs—leaving little room to consider the ethical dilemmas inherent in the flesh-and-blood trade.

Economics

Breakout nations: in pursuit of the next economic miracle / Sharma, Ruchir. --New Delhi: Penguin, 2012

This book tours the world to examine which nations are likely to flourish-or disappoint-in the new era of diverging economic prospects. To identify breakout nations it is key to travel with an eye toward understanding which economic and political forces are in play at the moment, and whether they point to growth, and at what speed. In a world reshaped by slower global growth, we need to start looking at the emerging markets as individual cases.

The Global social crisis: report on the world social situation 2011 / United Nations. Department of Economics and Social Affairs.--New York: United Nations, 2011 (Reference)

The report reviews the ongoing adverse social consequences of these crises after an overview of its causes and transmission. While a deeper, more prolonged global recession has been averted by coordinated stimulus measures, the recovery is nonetheless fragile and uneven. The economic slowdown has reduced social spending in most developing countries while the turn to fiscal austerity has undermined social spending in developed countries. The report points to the rapid rise in unemployment and vulnerability, especially in developing countries without comprehensive social protection in the wake of the global economic crisis.

Education

Elementary education in India: where do we stand?: district report cards 2009-10. --New Delhi: National University of Educational Planning and Administration, 2012 (2 vols.) (Reference)

The National University of Educational Planning and Administration has created a comprehensive database on elementary education in India under one of its most prestigious projects, known as, District Information System for Education (DISE). The project covers both primary and upper primary schools/sections of all the districts of the country. The national University has successfully developed School Report Cards of more than 1.3 million primary and upper primary schools/sections. In addition to quantitative information, the report cards also provide qualitative information and a descriptive report about individual schools. And, all that can now be accessed with the click of mouse. Even school specific raw data has also been provided online to users.

Fiction

The Case of the man who died laughing: from the files of Vish Puri, India's most private investigator / Hall, Tarquin. --New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011

The author takes the reader into a very Indian, very Delhi web of spirituality, sin, slums, and power broking, but all treated with a veneer of wit and intelligent absurdity.

The Case of the missing servant: from the files of Vish Puri, India's most private investigator / Hall, Tarquin. --New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010

The author evokes the colour and bustle of Delhi streets and the tang of contemporary India. This first novel is set in Delhi, where Vish Puri, founder and director of most Private Investigators, Ltd., performs discreet investigations into the backgrounds of prospective grooms, with surprising and often comic results.

Stupid guy goes back to India / Yamamatsu, Yukichi. --Chennai: Blaft Publications, 2011

In 2004, having never before left Japan, author travelled to India, armed with little money, less English, no sigmoid colon, and absolutely no idea of what to expect. He did, however, bring with him his formidable art skills, a missionary zeal for spreading Japanese comics culture, and a keen pair of eyes - through which we are treated to a hilarious, brutally honest look at India as it presents itself to the foreign visitor. This is the true story of author’s adventures - playing marbles, searching for bathrooms, betting on horses, visiting a brothel - and his madcap mission to sell Hindi translations of samurai manga on the mean streets of the nation’s capital.

Two states / Bhagat, Chetan. --New Delhi: Rupa, 2009

The book is the story of Krish and ananya who are from two different states of India, deeply in love with each other and want to get married. Of course, their parents don’t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couples has a tough battle ahead of them; for it is easy to fight and rebel, but much harder to convince.

Management

Judgment calls: twelve stories of big decisions and the teams that got them right / Davenport, Thomas H.--Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012

The authors share twelve stories of organizations that have successfully trapped their data assets, diverse perspectives, and deep knowledge to build an organizational decision-making capability-a competence they say can make the difference between success and failure. This book introduces a model that utilizes the collective judgment of an organisation so that the right decisions are made, and the entire organisation profits.

Memoirs

The World in our times: a memoir / Raychaudhuri, Tapan. --Noida: HarperCollins, 2011

This book reveals the hidden emotions behind the making of modern India, both in private life nd public struggle. This is not an autobiography in the simple sense of the term-the bildungsroman of a single man-but that of a nation, right from its inception to maturation. The wide arc of the book-the last days of the Raj with its attendant traumas, the building of a democracy and even an analysis of life in Oxford-does not preclude its detailed and compassionate human interests; a true reminder that grand and sweeping events, after all, compromise little people.

New Additions in Delhi Documenta
(For reference only)

25 management strategies for Delhi metro's success: the Sreedharan way.--New Delhi: Anuj Dayal, 2012

The idea of Delhi Metro took its birth as Delhi, a dynamic city, needed a proper public transportation system. Implementing a public transport infrastructure such as the Delhi Metro was not an easy task. The project could not in any way stop the city’s activities as that would affect the entire nation and, thus, the DMRC team had to navigate through various tight situations. DMRC ultimately got the job done ahead of time, breaking a few records and setting an example of management excellence for the entire world. This book provides crystal clear insights into how a project of such magnitude got done with such finesse and brilliance.

A Chance at happiness: a book of short stories / Vadehra, Aseem. --New Delhi: Roli Books, 2012

The stories in this collection revisit the life we live in the fast-paced world but forget to appreciate the little joys of our everyday existence. From meeting Mr. Alexander, an old school teacher one meets after years, to going back to long-lost memories; and from a loss of a dear friend, to a secret date in the by-lanes of Paharganj, the stories bring out our need for a chance at happiness.

Experience Delhi 100: places to see and things to do / Singh, Chetananand, ed.--New Delhi: Bennett, Coleman, 2012

Delhi is a city which seems to exist in several centuries at the same time. Old Delhi, once the capital of Islamic India, is a labyrinth of narrow lanes lined with crumbling havelis and formidable mosques. In contrast, the imperial city of New Delhi created by the British Raj is composed of spacious, tree-lined avenues and imposing government buildings. Delhi has been the seat of power for several rulers and many empires for about a millennium. Down the ages the city has been built, destroyed and then built.

Jashn-e-Khusrau: a collection / Aga Khan Trust for Culture. --New Delhi: Roli Books, 2012

This collection compiles the events of Jashn-e-Khusrau, a festival illuminating the genius of Amir Khusrau, held at Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti and India International Centre, Delhi in March 2010. The festival was organized and produced by Aga Khan Trust for Culture in collaboration with Archaeological Survey of India and India International Centre. It was funded by the Ford Foundation. Jashn-e-Khusrau celebrates the sûfîânâ kalâm (mystical poetry of Islam) of Amir Khusrau (1253 – 1325). Rendered in the khânaqâh (shrine) of his beloved pir, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (1238 – 1325), the kalâm has been kept alive for over 750 years by the qawwâlî singers in the shrines of the Chistiya silsilâ. The festival puts together an exclusive assembly of selected khânaqâhî qawwâl with different dargâh affiliations – each with distinctive style and repertoire. It includes several other related events such as lectures on the poetry of Amir Khusrau and its contribution to qawwâlî tradition; a discussion with the qawwâl on the development of the qawwâlî styles and contents; heritage walks in Nizamuddin Basti where Amir Khusrau lies buried next to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya; film screenings on sûfî music and on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – one of the greatest exponent of qawwâlî of our time; and an exhibition displaying Humayun’s Tomb, Sunder Nursery and Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti area urban renewal initiatives.

For more information, please contact:

Habitat Library & Resource Centre,
India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road,
New Delhi - 110 003.
Phone: 91-11-43662019/2020/2021/2022 (Direct)
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E-mail: hlrc@indiahabitat.org
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