Book Genre: Bookends Recommends

Bring meaning and joy to all your days with this internationally best-selling guide to the Japanese concept of ikigai - the happiness of always being busy - as revealed by the daily habits of the world's longest-living people.

"Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years." (Japanese proverb)

According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai - a reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese village with the world's longest-living people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Having a strong sense of ikigai - the place where passion, mission, vocation, and profession intersect - means that each day is infused with meaning. It's the reason we get up in the morning. It's also the reason many Japanese never really retire (in fact there's no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense it does in English): They remain active and work at what they enjoy, because they've found a real purpose in life - the happiness of always being busy. In researching this book, the authors interviewed the residents of the Japanese village with the highest percentage of 100-year-olds - one of the world's Blue Zones. Ikigai reveals the secrets to their longevity and happiness: how they eat, how they move, how they work, how they foster collaboration and community, and - their best-kept secret - how they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own ikigai. Because who doesn't want to find happiness in every day?

Great Stories for Children is a potpourri of short stories that effectively transports the reader to the fascinating world of its endearing characters. The ensemble includes Tutu the monkey who is fond of troubling the no-nonsense Aunt Ruby, a pet python who makes sudden appearances at the most unusual places, a troublesome Pret who enjoys stirring up the household he resides in, three young children stranded on the Haunted Hill, Himalayan bears who feast on pumpkins, plums and apricots, a crafty thief who has a change of heart, and Ruskin Bond himself who meets a ghost at a resort in the middle of the night.

When you're with Geronimo Stilton, it's always a fabumouse adventure!

My cousin Trap was opening a superstore! I was excited for the grand opening but, holey cheese, it was a disaster! The lights wouldn’t go on, the speakers were broken, and something was stinking up the place. Someone was trying to sabotage the store. But who could it be… and why?

When you're with Geronimo Stilton, it's always a fabumouse adventure!

New Mouse City was having its first film festival! Famouse directors around the world had submitted their very best movies for a chance at the big prize. But at the big screening, Mousen Scorsese's newest film goes missing! Who could have stolen it and why? Hercule and Geronimo spring into action to solve the case!

India, That Is Bharat, the first book of a comprehensive trilogy, explores the influence of European 'colonial consciousness' (or 'coloniality'), in particular its religious and racial roots, on Bharat as the successor state to the Indic civilisation and the origins of the Indian Constitution. It lays the foundation for its sequels by covering the period between the Age of Discovery, marked by Christopher Columbus' expedition in 1492, and the reshaping of Bharat through a British-made constitution-the Government of India Act of 1919. This includes international developments leading to the founding of the League of Nations by Western powers that tangibly impacted this journey.

Further, this work also traces the origins of seemingly universal constructs such as 'toleration', 'secularism' and 'humanism' to Christian political theology. Their subsequent role in subverting the indigenous Indic consciousness through a secularised and universalised Reformation, that is, constitutionalism, is examined. It also puts forth the concept of Middle Eastern coloniality, which preceded its European variant and allies with it in the context of Bharat to advance their shared antipathy towards the Indic worldview. In order to liberate Bharat's distinctive indigeneity, 'decoloniality' is presented as a civilisational imperative in the spheres of nature, religion, culture, history, education, language and, crucially, in the realm of constitutionalism.