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The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics
by Robin Marantz HenigThis acclaimed biography of 19th century scientist Gregor Mendel is &“a fascinating tale of the strange twists and ironies of scientific progress&” (Publishers Weekly). A National Book Critics Circle Award finalist In The Monk in the Garden, award-winning author Robin Marantz Henig vividly chronicles the birth of genetics, a field that continues to challenge the way we think about life itself. Tending to his pea plants in a monastery garden, the Moravian monk Gregor Mendel discovered the foundational principles of genetic inheritance. But Mendel&’s work was ignored during his lifetime, even though it answered the most pressing questions raised by Charles Darwin's revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species. Thirty-five years after his death, Mendel&’s work was saved from obscurity when three scientists from three different countries nearly simultaneously dusted off his groundbreaking paper and finally recognized its profound significance. From the perplexing silence that greeted his discovery to his ultimate canonization as the father of genetics, Henig presents a tale filled with intrigue, jealousy, and a healthy dose of bad timing. Though little is known about Mendel&’s life, she "has done a remarkable job of fleshing out the myth with what few facts there are" (Washington Post Book World).
The Monk in the Garden
by Robin Marantz HenigMost people know that Gregor Mendel, the Moravian monk who patiently grew his peas in a monastery garden, shaped our understanding of inheritance. But people might not know that Mendel's work was ignored in his own lifetime, even though it contained answers to the most pressing questions raised by Charles Darwin's revolutionary book, ON ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES, published only a few years earlier. Mendel's single chance of recognition failed utterly, and he died a lonely and disappointed man. Thirty-five years later, his work was rescued from obscurity in a single season, the spring of 1900, when three scientists from three different countries nearly simultaneously dusted off Mendel's groundbreaking paper and finally recognized its profound significance. The perplexing silence that greeted Mendel's discovery and his ultimate canonization as the father of genetics make up a tale of intrigue, jealousy, and a healthy dose of bad timing. Telling the story as it has never been told before, Robin Henig crafts a suspenseful, elegant, and richly detailed narrative that fully evokes Mendel's life and work and the fate of his ideas as they made their perilous way toward the light of day. THE MONK IN THE GARDEN is a literary tour de force about a little-known chapter in the history of science, and it brings us back to the birth of genetics - a field that continues to challenge the way we think about life itself.
A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life
by Wayne TeasdaleIn 1986, Brother Wayne Teasdale accepted an invitation to visit Father Bede Griffiths, an English Benedictine monk who had been living in India and studying Hinduism, in Shantivanam, his Christian ashram in Tamil Nadu, India. For millennia the land housing Shantivanam had been sacred, a consecrated place for sages, sannyasis, or monks, and mystics. More recently, it had become a refuge and sanctuary for countless pilgrims of many different traditions. On this, Teasdale's third visit to Shantivanam, with the new year approaching, Father Bede sent for him, and asked if he would consider taking sannyasa, or Indian monkhood, from him, as a Christian. Thus began Teasdale's life as an interreligious monk and mystic. In A Monk in the World, he explores what Griffiths? charge has meant for him ? to live as a monk outside the monastery, to integrate teachings from the world's religions with his own Catholic training, to combine his vigorous spiritual practice with the necessities of making a living and pursuing a course of social justice in a big American city as well as how readers can find their own spiritual path amidst the rigors of everyday life. Along the way, Teasdale explores the real world topics of friendship; time, work, and money; the problem and opportunity of the homeless; a contemplative understanding of suffering; the struggle to promote personal and social change; as well as the as the role of the church and nature in building spiritual understanding. Building on the success and insights of his first book, The Mystic Heart, Teasdale gives a compelling glimpse of the unique spiritual path he has followed, and how everyone can find their own internal monastery and bring spiritual practice into their busy lives.
The Monk of Mokha
by Dave EggersFrom the bestselling author of The Circle and What Is the What, the true story of a young Yemeni-American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sana'a by civil war.Mokhtar Alkhanshali grew up in San Francisco, one of seven siblings brought up by Yemeni immigrants in a tiny apartment. At age twenty-four, unable to pay for college, he works as a doorman, until a statue of an Arab raising a cup of coffee awakens something in him. He sets out to learn the rich history of coffee in Yemen and the complex art of tasting and identifying varietals. He travels to Yemen and visits countless farms, collecting samples, eager to bring improved cultivation methods to the countryside. And he is on the verge of success when civil war engulfs Yemen in 2015. The US Embassy closes, Saudi bombs began to rain down on the country, and Mokhtar is trapped in Yemen. Desperate to escape, he embarks on a passage that has him negotiating with dueling political factions and twice kidnapped at gunpoint. With no other options, he hires a skiff to take him, and his coffee samples, across the Red Sea. A heart-pounding true story that weaves together the history of coffee, the ongoing Yemeni civil war, and the courageous journey of a young man--a Muslim and a US citizen--following the most American of dreams.
The Monk of Mokha
by Dave Eggers<p><i>The Monk of Mokha</i> is the exhilarating true story of a young Yemeni American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sana’a by civil war. <p>Mokhtar Alkhanshali is twenty-four and working as a doorman when he discovers the astonishing history of coffee and Yemen’s central place in it. He leaves San Francisco and travels deep into his ancestral homeland to tour terraced farms high in the country’s rugged mountains and meet beleagured but determined farmers. But when war engulfs the country and Saudi bombs rain down, Mokhtar has to find a way out of Yemen without sacrificing his dreams or abandoning his people.</p>
The Monk of Park Avenue: A Modern Daoist Odyssey
by Yun RouPriceless Wisdom from a Modern Tao Te Ching Odyssey“...this book will completely absorb your attention from the beginning...” —Emanuele Pettener, PhD, assistant professor of Italian and writer in residence at Florida Atlantic University#1 New Release in Chinese Poetry, Asian Poetry, and Tao Te ChingA literary memoir like no other, Monk of Park Avenue recounts novelist and martial master Monk Yon Rou’s spiritual journey of self-discovery. Learn from Yon Rou as he tackles tragedy and redemption on an unforgettable soul-searching odyssey.A spiritual journey with extraordinary encounters. Yon Rou’s memoir is a kaleidoscopic ride through the upper echelons of New York Society and the nature-worshipping, sword-wielding world of East Asian religious and martial arts. Monk of Park Avenue divulges a privileged childhood in Manhattan, followed by the bitter rigors of kung fu in China and meditations in Daoist temples. Join Yon Rou’s adventure as he encounters kings, Nobel laureates, and the Mob. Witness this martial master’s incarceration in a high-mountain Ecuadorian hellhole and fight for survival in Paraguay’s brutal thorn jungle. Meet celebrities along the way. A story of love, loss, persistence, triumph, and mastery, The Monk of Park Avenue is peopled with the likes of Milos Forman, Richard Holbrooke, Paul McCartney, Warren Beatty and now-infamous opioid purveyors, the Sackler Family. Yun Rou’s memoir is no mere celebrity tell-all, but a novelist and martial master’s path to self-discovery.The Monk of Park Avenue offers you:Paths for personal and spiritual growthAnecdotal stories of self-discovery and insights into how to liveAn eloquent, candid exploration of spiritual transformationIf you loved Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, To Shake the Sleeping Self, or Lao Tzu by Ursula K. Le Guin, you’ll love The Monk of Park Avenue. Also, be sure to read Monk Yon Rou’s Mad Monk Manifesto, winner of both the Gold & Silver 2018 Nautilus Book Award.
A Monk Swimming: A Memoir
by Malachy MccourtAn autobiography of McCourt's life, his journey from Ireland to America, and the barriers he overcame in the process.
A Monk Swimming: A Memoir
by Malachy McCourtIn this darkly humorous New York Times–bestselling memoir, the Irish American writer and actor shares charming stories from his first decade in the US. Malachy McCourt left behind a childhood of poverty and painful memories of his father and mother in Limerick, Ireland, when he followed his brother, Frank, to America in 1952. In A Monk Swimming, McCourt recounts the decade that followed. With not much else to his name other than his sharp wit and knack for storytelling, McCourt was unsure what he would do after arriving in New York City. He worked as a longshoreman on the Brooklyn docks, became the first celebrity bartender in a Manhattan saloon, performed on stage with the Irish Players, and told tales to Jack Paar on The Tonight Show. Although McCourt gained success, money, women, and, eventually, children of his own, he still carried memories of the past with him. So, he fled again. He found himself in the Manhattan Detention Complex, otherwise known as the Tombs. He was arrested several times: poolside in Beverly Hills, in Zurich with gold-smugglers, and again in Calcutta with sex workers. McCourt&’s journey also took him to Paris, Rome, and even Limerick again, until finally he was forced to grapple with his past. Praise for A Monk Swimming&“[A] funny, oddly winning book.&” —The New York Times&“A rollicking good read that, as the Irish say, would make a dead man laugh.&” —The Philadelphia Inquirer&“Malachy McCourt, who has habitually regurgitated English in glorious colors to his fellow Irishmen and New Yorkers, here makes his vivid, whimsical, raucous, murderous joy and voice available to the rest of us in tales of riot and glory which build on the story of the McCourts&’ early life so dazzlingly told in Angela&’s Ashes by his brother Frank.&” —Thomas Keneally, author of the international bestseller Schindler&’s List
Monkey House Blues: A Shanghai Prison Memoir
by Dominic StevensonIn 1993, Dominic Stevenson left a comfortable life with his girlfriend in Kyoto, Japan, to travel to China. His journey took him to some of the most inhospitable and dangerous places in the world, from the poppy fields of the Afghan-Pakistan border to the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road, before he was arrested for drug smuggling while boarding a boat from Shanghai to Japan. After eight months on remand in a Chinese police lock-up, Stevenson was sentenced to two and a half years in one of the biggest prisons in the world, the Shanghai Municipal Prison aka 'The Monkey House'. There, he was imprisoned alongside just five westerners amongst five thousand Chinese criminals in a block for death row inmates and political prisoners, where the guards drank green tea and let the prison run itself. The experience led him to reflect on his previous life in Japan, India and Thailand, during which time he took on a varied array of jobs, including English teacher, karaoke-bar host, factory worker, busker, crystal seller and dope smuggler. From Afghan gun shops to Tibetan monasteries, Thai brothels and the stirrings of the rave culture in Goa, Monkey House Blues is a tale of discovery and rediscovery, of friendship and betrayal.
Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety
by Daniel SmithAnxiety once paralyzed Daniel Smith over a roast beef sandwich, convincing him that a choice between ketchup and barbeque sauce was as dire as that between life and death. It has caused him to chew his cuticles until they bled, wear sweat pads in his armpits, and confess his sexual problems to his psychotherapist mother. It has dogged his days, threatened his sanity, and ruined his relationships. <P><P>In Monkey Mind, Smith articulates what it is like to live with anxiety, defanging the disease with humor, traveling through its demonic layers, and evocatively expressing its self-destructive absurdities and painful internal coherence. With honesty and wit, he exposes anxiety as a pudgy, weak-willed wizard behind a curtain of dread and tames what has always seemed to him, and to the tens of millions of others who suffer from anxiety, a terrible affliction.
The Monkey on My Back: A Memoir
by Debbi MorganA deeply personal memoir spanning three generations of women, this is the intimate autobiography of Emmy Award–winning actress Debbi Morgan, best known as Angie Hubbard on the long-running soap opera All My Children.Raised in the South Bronx and beloved for the diverse and captivating characters she’s played, Debbi Morgan enjoyed a thirty-year tenure on All My Children before joining the cast of The Young and the Restless and later appearing opposite Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson in several films. But this book is not about her career, and it’s not about Hollywood. It’s not even about her rise to stardom. Charting her family history as well as her own life from childhood to the present in this compelling memoir, Debbi reveals the fear, doubt, and insecurities she’s struggled with for much of her life—and how she escaped a vicious cycle of pain to find self-confidence, happiness, and success.Early on in her family history, an ugly pattern of abuse developed into fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and emotional trauma, which passed down from one generation to the next. From her maternal grandmother, who was beaten by her husband as they struggled through the Great Depression, to Debbi’s mother, who became pregnant as a young teen and suffered the same abuse as her mother, down to Debbi, who internalized the physical abuse she watched her mother endure, a deep-rooted fear plagued all three generations of women. But through it all, Debbi endured, and with a good dose of humor and self-compassion, she emerged with the deepest love of herself—and her mojo quite intact!Told with intense emotion, candor, and a barrage of belly laughs, Debbi shares a deeply moving, explosive, yet inspirational journey about what it took to break the cycle and emerge as a confident, fearless woman.
Monks and Mystics: Chronicles of the Medieval Church (History Lives #2)
by Brandon Withrow Mindy Withrow<p>Let history come to life - just the way it should be. <p>Read the stories of Gregory the Great, Boniface, Charlemagne, Constantine Methodius, Vladimir, Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Sienna, John Wyclif and John Hus.</p>
A Monk's Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st century
by Gelong ThubtenA guide to meditation and mindfulness written by Buddhist monk Gelong Thubten.Modern life is fast-paced and demanding - we're constantly racing from one place to the next, mentally and physically, but how often do we pause and consider whether we're truly happy?A Monk's Guide to Happiness is an insightful and practical guide to meditation, mindfulness and the nature of true, lasting happiness. This book will help you to understand the power of meditation, living in the present, and how this can transform your life. Thubten's expertise lies in teaching meditation and he's introduced mindfulness and calm into the lives of many. He's taught everywhere from law firms and banks to schools and prisons; he will teach you how to choose happiness and mental calm. Gelong Thubten draws upon all that he has learned during his many years of meditation practice, including several years in intensive retreats, and also his many years of experience teaching people from all walks of life and backgrounds, making this book accessible and rooted in reality.In A Monk's Guide to Happiness, Thubten teaches us how to meditate, how to be more 'awake' in life, how to train our minds and reprogramme our stress response and how to introduce 'micro moments' of mindfulness into our daily lives. Through mindfulness we can discover the deeper potential of the mind - our inherent compassion, wisdom and true freedom.(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love, and Terror in Algeria
by John W. KiserBack Cover: "In the spring of 1996 armed men broke into a Trappist monastery in war-torn Algeria and took seven monks hostage. pawns in a murky negotiation to free imprisoned terrorists. Two months later the monks' severed heads were found in a tree; their bodies were never recovered. The village of Tibhirine had sprung up around the monastery because it was a holy place protected by the Virgin Mary, revered by Christians and Muslims alike. But napalm. helicopters, and gunfire had become regular accompaniments to the monastic routine as the violence engulfing Algeria drew closer to the isolated cloister high in the Atlas Mountains." The author shows the different shades of Islam and how Christians and Moslems can live in harmony if they are given the correct set of conditions.
The Monk's Record Player: Thomas Merton, Bob Dylan, and the Perilous Summer of 1966
by Robert HudsonThe story of a monk, a minstrel, and the music that brought them together In 1965 writer-activist-monk Thomas Merton fulfilled a twenty-four-year dream and went to live as a hermit beyond the walls of his Trappist monastery. Seven months later, after a secret romance with a woman half his age, he was in danger of losing it all. Yet on the very day that his abbot uncovered the affair, Merton found solace in an unlikely place—the songs of Bob Dylan, who, as fate would have it, was experiencing his own personal and creative crises during the summer of 1966. In this striking parallel biography of two countercultural icons, Robert Hudson plumbs the depths of Dylan&’s surprising influence on Merton&’s life and writing, recounts each man&’s interactions with the woman who linked them together—Joan Baez—and shows how each transcended his immediate troubles and went on to new heights of spiritual and artistic genius. Readers will discover here a riveting story of creativity and crisis, burnout and redemption, in the tumultuous era of 1960s America.
Monodies and On the Relics of Saints
by Jay Rubenstein Guibert Of Nogent Joseph McalhanyThe first Western autobiography since Augustine's Confessions, the Monodies is set against the backdrop of the First Crusade and offers stunning insights into medieval society. As Guibert of Nogent intimately recounts his early years, monastic life, and the bloody uprising at Laon in 1112, we witness a world-and a mind-populated by royals, heretics, nuns, witches, and devils, and come to understand just how fervently he was preoccupied with sin, sexuality, the afterlife, and the dark arts. Exotic, disquieting, and illuminating, the Monodies is a work in which the dreams, fears, and superstitions of one man illuminate the psychology of an entire people. It is joined in this volume by On the Relics of Saints, a theological manifesto that has never appeared in English until now.
Monopolizing the Master
by Michael AneskoHenry James defied posterity to disturb his bones: he was adamant that his legacy be based exclusively on his publications and that his private life and writings remain forever private. Despite this, almost immediately after his death in 1916 an intense struggle began among his family and his literary disciples to control his posthumous reputation, a struggle that was continued by later generations of critics and biographers. Monopolizing the Master gives a blow-by-blow account of this conflict, which aroused intense feelings of jealousy, suspicion, and proprietorship among those who claimed to be the just custodians of James's literary legacy. With an unprecedented amount of new evidence now available, Michael Anesko reveals the remarkable social, political, and sexual intrigue that inspired—and influenced—the deliberate construction of the Legend of the Master.
Mons, Anzac and Kut: A British Intelligence Officer In Three Theatres Of The First World War, 1914-18
by Aubrey HerbertA brilliant British memoir from three different theatres of the First World War; widely regarded as one of the finest written during the early period after the war. Despite being badly short-sighted, the author wished to serve his country with a passion and started off his military carrier as an interpreter. However, it wasn't long before he found himself in the thick of the fighting in 1914. At the forefront, in the confused fighting around Mons as the British turned at bay, he was wounded and captured. In a throwback to earlier days of chivalry, he was exchanged for a German prisoner of equal rank and standing.Out of the frying pan and into the fire of Gallipoli, Herbert writes passionately of the experiences and suffering of his fellow Allied soldiers, but he is characteristically self-depreciating of his own heroic conduct under the shellfire. After the end of the campaign in the Dardanelles, the author was posted out to Mesopotamia as an intelligence officer, ending his military career."Fascinating, straightforward, and very well written, best on Mons and Gallipoli." - p. 120, Edward Lengel, World War I Memories, 2004, The Scarecrow Press, Lanham Maryland, Toronto, Oxford. Author - Herbert, Aubrey, 1880-1923.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in London, E. Arnold, 1919.Original Page Count - 251 pages.Illustrations -- 4 maps.
Mons, Anzac and Kut: By an MP (Lieutenant Colonel The Hon Aubrey Herbert MP)
by Edward MelotteAubrey Herbert was one of the most interesting figures of his age. He was twice offered the Albanian throne! Born almost blind, his sight even after surgery precluded him from official military service and he became a diplomat and politician. However in 1914 he attached himself unofficially to the Irish Guards on the outbreak of war on their way to France and was made an honorary Lieutenant. Despite his service overseas in France, the Dardanelles and then Egypt and Iraq, he remained an MP throughout the War. He was briefly captured in the Retreat from Mons and, after recovering from his wounds, he joined the Intelligence Bureau in Egypt before being attached to the New Zealand and Australian Division at Gallipoli. He personally persuaded General Ian Hamilton, the overall Commander, to agree a temporary truce with the Turks to enable the burial of the dead and the recovery of wounded men in no-mans-land. Later in Iraq, his efforts to buy the release of the beleaguered British garrison at Kut were less successful. His extraordinary war experiences brought him into close contact with a wide cast of characters, not least T E Lawrence, Compton McKenzie and leading military and political figures.
Monsieur de Saint-George
by Alain Guédé Gilda M. RobertsThe first full biography of one of the greatest figures of eighteenth-century Europe, known in his time as the "Black Mozart"Virtually forgotten until now, his life is the stuff of legend. Born in 1739 in Guadeloupe to a slave mother and a French noble father, he became the finest swordsman of his age, an insider at the doomed court of Louis XVI, and, most of all, a virtuosic musician. A violinist, he directed the Olympic Society of Concerts, which was considered the finest in Europe in an age of great musicians, including Haydn, from whom he commissioned a symphony, and Mozart, to whom he was often compared. He also became the first Freemason of color, embracing the French Revolution with the belief that it would end the racism against which-despite his illustrious achievements-he struggled his whole life. This is the life of Joseph Bologne, known variously as Monsieur de Saint-George, the "Black Mozart," and, because of his origins, "the American." Alain Guédé offers a fascinating account of this extraordinary individual, whose musical compositions are at long last being revived and whose story will never again be forgotten.
Monsieur Mediocre: One American Learns the High Art of Being Everyday French
by John von SothenA hilarious, candid account of what life in France is actually like, from a writer for Vanity Fair and GQAmericans love to love Paris. We buy books about how the French parent, why French women don't get fat, and how to be Parisian wherever you are. While our work hours increase every year, we think longingly of the six weeks of vacation the French enjoy, imagining them at the seaside in stripes with plates of fruits de mer.John von Sothen fell in love with Paris through the stories his mother told of her year spent there as a student. And then, after falling for and marrying a French waitress he met in New York, von Sothen moved to Paris. But fifteen years in, he's finally ready to admit his mother's Paris is mostly a fantasy. In this hilarious and delightful collection of essays, von Sothen walks us through real life in Paris--not only myth-busting our Parisian daydreams but also revealing the inimitable and too often invisible pleasures of family life abroad. Relentlessly funny and full of incisive observations, Monsieur Mediocre is ultimately a love letter to France--to its absurdities, its history, its ideals--but it's a very French love letter: frank, smoky, unsentimental. It is a clear-eyed ode to a beautiful, complex, contradictory country from someone who both eagerly and grudgingly calls it home.
Monsieur Proust
by Céleste Albaret André Aciman Barbara BrayCéleste Albaret was Marcel Proust's housekeeper in his last years, when he retreated from the world to devote himself to In Search of Lost Time. She could imitate his voice to perfection, and Proust himself said to her, "You know everything about me." Her reminiscences of her employer present an intimate picture of the daily life of a great writer who was also a deeply peculiar man, while Madame Albaret herself proves to be a shrewd and engaging companion.
Monsieur Proust's Library
by Anka MuhlsteinReading was so important to Marcel Proust that it sometimes seems he was unable to create a personage without a book in hand. Everybody in his work reads: servants and masters, children and parents, artists and physicians. The more sophisticated characters find it natural to speak in quotations. Proust made literary taste a means of defining personalities and gave literature an actual role to play in his novels. In this wonderfully entertaining book, scholar and biographer Anka Muhlstein, the author of Balzac's Omelette, draws out these themes in Proust's work and life, thus providing not only a friendly introduction to the momentous In Search of Lost Time, but also exciting highlights of some of the finest work in French literature.
The Monsoon Diaries: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing from the ER Frontlines to the Far Reaches of the World
by Calvin D. Sun"There are heroes among us, and Dr. Calvin Sun is one of them. Read this book." -Lisa Ling, journalistThe Monsoon Diaries is the firsthand account of Dr. Calvin Sun, an emergency room doctor who worked tirelessly on the front lines in multiple hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.Drawing upon the lessons he learned from his adventures traveling to more than 190 countries in ten years, as well as from the grief he experienced as a teen when his father died, Dr. Sun shares his journey, from growing up as a young Asian American in New York to his calling first to medical school and then to the open road.He believes that the fight for a better world creates meaning when all feels meaningless, and he hopes that telling his story will help readers reframe this tragic moment in our lifetimes into possibility, with the goal of building a more empathetic society.
Monsoon Diary
by Shoba NarayanIn the tradition of LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE, a sumptuous, mouth-watering memoir of growing up in India and bridging two cultures in America confirms a central truth: life is lived in the kitchen. In MONSOON DIARY Narayan seamlessly interweaves stories of her life on both sides of the globe with the memorable meals that have punctuated it. Tantalising recipes for potato masala, coconut chutney, sweet idlis (juicy rice and lentil dumplings) and other culinary delights emerge from tales that are as varied as Indian spices: of her childhood in Madras, her college days in America, her arranged marriage to a man she grew to love, and visits to her New York home from her delightfully eccentric family. A loving homage to Indian culture and cuisine, as well as the power of food to break through any barrier, Narayan's memoir is populated with unforgettable characters like Narayan's irrepressible father, the milkman Raju (who names his beloved cows after his wives), a New York city taxi driver who insists his wife prepare a 'proper' Indian meal for a homesick Shoba and the iron-man who daily sets up shop in her front yard, picking up red hot coals in his bare hands. In fact MONSOON DIARY's extended family is so vividly and affectionately detailed that you feel you could drop in for idlis and coffee if you were ever in Madras, Kerala, New York or Florida.