■ HOW IT'S MADE DREAM CARS, DIS-COVERY SCIENCE, 3.00 PM: The crewobserves the manufacturingprocess and inner working of the

1777: France recognised American independence.

1830: South American patriot Simon Bolivar diedin Colombia.

1895: George L Brownell received a patentfor his paper-twine machine.

1927: British police officer JohnSaunders was killed by Indian revolu-tionaries Bhagat Singh and ShivaramRajguru, who were supported in thisact by their compatriots SukhdevThapar and Chandrashekhar Azad.

1938: Discovery of nuclear fission using uraniumby Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann.

1961: India seized Goa and two other Portuguesecolonies.

1969: The US Air Force closed its Project "BlueBook" by concluding that there was no evi-

dence of extraterrestrial spaceshipsbehind thousands of UFO sightings.

1986: Davina Thompson becameworld's first recipient of a heart,lungs, and liver transplant.

1989: "The Simpsons" went on air.

2018: Dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster'sword of the year was "justice".

Aston Martin Vanquish, a grandtourer made in the UK.

■ MONKEY WEEK, ANIMAL PLANET,5.00 PM: Biologist Patrick Aryeetravels to wild locations across theglobe to reveal the amazing sto-ries of how each of the world's pri-mate species come to be.

■ YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, DIS-COVERY CHANNEL, 7.00 PM: Fromcreating a real-life lightsabre toriding the first bike that workson snow, individuals and inven-tors use science to make amaz-ing things.

■ THE OATH, &FLIX, 3.15 PM: Chrisand his wife are shocked afterlearning that citizens are ought tosign a loyalty oath to the president.A series of comical situations en-sue as the Thanksgiving deadlineto sign approaches.

■ IRON MAN, STAR MOVIES, 7.00 PM:When an industrialist is captured,he constructs a high-tech armouredsuit to escape. Once he manages toescape, he decides to use his suit

MOVIES ON TVTELEVISION

THISDAY THAT

YEAR

MUST DOMUST SEEDECEMBER17, 2019

to fight against evil forces and savethe world.

■ THE PINK PANTHER 2, MOVIES NOW,7.00 PM: Inspector Clouseau mustassemble a team of internationaldetectives in order to track downand catch the thief who excels instealing historical artefacts.

GUESS THE BOOK FROM THIS QUOTE

1. “Four things do not come back: thespoken word, the sped arrow, the pastlife, and the neglected opportunity.”

2. “Remember: The rules, likestreets, can only take you to knownplaces.”

3. ““Some people say that the cli-mate crisis is something we have allcreated. But that is just another con-venient lie. Because if everyone isguilty then no one is to blame.”

4. “Everyone looked better at a dis-tance. Everyone sounded sweetestwhen you did not have to hear themtalk too long.”

BOOKS

WATCH OUT FOR

03Books! Books! Books! There is no end to knowledge.All you need to do is flip through the pages to getthat extra dose of infotainment. So simply read on...

1. Ted Chiang’s ‘Exhalation: Stories’ 2. Ocean Vuong’s ‘On Earth We’re BrieflyGorgeous’ 3. Greta Thunberg’s ‘No One IsToo Small To Make A Difference’ 4. Julia Phillips’ ‘Disappearing Earth’ ANSWERS

BLOGSWITH STRONG OPINIONS

2 Highly popular, opinionatedblogs help authors and poetsreceive constructive criticism

and improve their storyline onthe basis of the same. One among

them, Wattpad, made reading easier thisyear with more e-books and audio

books than ever before.

Piushi Ajwani, class IX,

Jamnabai Narsee School,

Mumbai

BESTYEAR

2 019 saw therelease of fan-tastic works in

Science Fictionlike Ted Chiang’s‘Exhalation: Sto-ries’, JuliaPhillips’s ‘Disap-pearing Earth’;family saga’s likeChia-Chia Lin’s

‘The Unpassing’; fear-less debutslike OceanVuong’s ‘OnEarth We’reBriefly Gorgeous’, Lau-ren Mechling’s ‘HowCould She’. But we alsomourned the loss of lit-erary giants like ErnestJ Gaines, Toni Morrison,

Krishna Sobti andmore.

B NAMITHA VARSHINI,

class IX, The Hindu Sr

Sec School, Chennai

POLITICAL TELL-ALLS

I did not find anythinggood to read in list ofbooks released this year.

The only good read was ‘Milkman’that won the Booker prize last year.

I was expecting better books in fic-tion and non-fiction, but was

disappointed. A trend I noticedwas that authors came up with

books on mainstream po-litical drama – many of

them focused on US PresidentDonald Trump.

Bhargav Deka, class XII, Podar

International School, Ahmedabad

10/10

IN REMEMBERANCE

Clive JamesThe literary icon known for hisdry wit, passed away inNovember. Reviewing a memoirhe had once declared: “Here is abook so dull that a whirling dervishcould read himself to sleep with it. If you were torecite even a single page in the open air, birdswould fall out of the sky and dogs drop dead.”

Toni MorrisonOver the course ofher long and excep-tional literary career,

which included theNobel Prize in literature

in 1993, Morrison (who diedin August, aged 88) brought the plight ofblack life in America to millions of readersacross the globe.

10/10

THE DOUBLE MAN BOOKER

F louting the rules that called for a sin-gle winner, the judges presiding overthe Booker Prize,

awarded it jointly toMargaret Atwood and

Bernadine Evaristo, for their books‘The Testaments’ and ‘Girl,Woman, Other’, respectively. Thisalso made Evaristo the first blackwoman to win the Booker Prizeever. I was glad that thejudges did not adhere to theBooker Trustees’ rule thatthey must declare a singlewinner. I salute the idea ofchoosing multiple winnersfor a single prize.

NEHA SOSHA

Eapen, class IX,

Gregorian Public

School, Ernakulam

THE DOUBLE NOBLE

T he winners for last year and thisyear were announced together, withthe 2018 prize going to Poland’s

Olga Tokarczuk, and the 2019 award toAustria’s Peter Handke. This

comes after a no-show lastyear due to sex abuse al-legations that rocked theSwedish Academy. PeterHandke was heavily crit-

icised for his politicalviews. He had once called for

the Nobel Prize to be abolished, yet he wasthis year’s choice. Meanwhile, Tokarczukhas started a foundation to promote lit-erature as well as human rights and en-vironment awareness.

ANN MARIA THOMAS, class X, Bhavan’s Rajaji

Vidyashram, Chennai 6/10 LILY POTTERGOT INTO GRYFFINDOR

I n 2019, we heard less from HarryPotter. For a change the news wasabout Lily Luna Potter (Harry and

Ginny’s youngest daughter) getting intoGryffindor; Pottermore site was reinventedas the Wizarding World, where you can nowget your own wizarding passport and try outthe new sorting quiz. Besides this, Rick Ri-ordan, released the ‘Tryant’s Tomb’, partfour of the ‘Trials of Apollo’ that hassomething almost as sad as Jason’sdeath in part three. Greta Thun-berg’s book, ‘No One Is TooSmall To Make A Differ-ence’ was released.DHITI WADHWA, class IX, RajhansVidyalaya,Andheri(W)Mumbai

8/10

7/10

5/10

TREN

DIN

G THE RULE BREAKERSAccording to ‘Entertainment Weekly’, 2019 was theyear of audacious debuts with unconventional con-tent. For example: Ocean Vuong’s ‘On Earth We’reBriefly Gorgeous’ was a work of autofiction, for-matted as a letter to the protagonist’s (illiter-ate) mother; Julia Phillips’ ‘Disappearing Earth’

presented a literary thriller composed oflinked short stories; and Susan Choi’s awardwinning ‘Trust Exercise’ offered an originalyet twisted structure that divided readers.

HISTORICAL FICTION AND JOMOThis was the year when Gen Z learned to embrace JOMO, or the Joy of

Missing Out. We also witnessed readers and writersincreasingly look to earlier historical periods to

explore a world before technology.According to Wattapad, ‘Historical

Fiction saw standoutgrowth in 2019, reach-ing more than 600million reading min-utes for the year.’

WHERE THE RIVER RUNSGOLD by Sita Brahmachari

In a caste-divided,dystopian world, twochildren risk every-thing in search of abetter life.

THE BOY AT THE BACK OFTHE CLASS PAPERBACK by Onjali Q Rauf

Offers a child’s perspec-tive on the refugee cri-sis, and talks about theimportance of kindness.

RISE UP: ORDINARY KIDSWITH EXTRAORDINARYSTORIESby Amanda Li

An inspirational bookdetailing stories of 29amazing children.

CROSSWORD CHALLENGEFOR CLEVER KIDS by Chris Dickason andGareth Moore

Packed with challengesto complete, and pro-vides hours of fun.

KAALKOOT by S Venkatesh

Two special agents setout to stop the spreadof Kalkoot, a mysteri-ous and deadly poison,that may lead toanother World War.

FROM LEECHES TO SLUGGLUE by Roopa Pai

Offers a glimpse intothe glorious ways inwhich science and med-icine have advancedthrough the ages, across continents.

THOSE MAGNIFICENT WOMENAND THEIR FLYINGMACHINES by Minnie Vaid

An insight into the trialsand triumphs of women sci-entists who spearheadedMangalyaan — India’s mission to Mars.

THE PARROT AND THEMERCHANT by Marjan Vafaian

Acclaimed Iranianartist Marjan Vafaianillustrates this retellingof an ancient fable by Rumi.

31 FANTASTICADVENTURES IN SCIENCE by Nandita Jayaraj andAashima FreidogThe stories of trail-blazing women whowork in a diverse arrayof fields.

THE END AND OTHERBEGINNINGSby Veronica Roth

A collection of futuristicshort stories featuringstrange settings, newtechnologies and beings with strik-ing black-and-white illustrations.

PRINCE OF AYODHYA:RAMAYAN SERIES by Ashok Banker

A retelling the tale ofRama, through thegraphic medium.Illustrated by award-winning artist Sachin Nagar.

THE READING LISTA roundup of some of the most interesting books that

were released this year across a broad range of genres –including historical fiction, fiction, non fiction.

THE SPARK THATCHANGEDEVERYTHINGby Veena Prasad

This book reveals thestories behind themost significant breakthroughsthat humans have made.

BLESSEDby Deepa Agarwal

A younggirl bornto aweaver’sfamily dis-covers superpowers.

THE CURSE OFANUGANGA by HariniSrinivasan

A historicalfictionbased inthe Gupta Era (400 CE)

THE FOWL TWINSby Eoin Colfer

An epicnew adven-ture inwhich theFowl Twinshelp a troll on the run.

POET SEERS

This website, in existence since 2002,houses spiritual and inspirationalpoems from around the

world. Here, you will findthe works of over 150 po-ets, including Au-robindo Ghosh, Emi-ly Dickinson, Hafiz,John Keats, Lao Tsu,Mirabai, Rumi,Sarojini Naidu,Shakespeare, andWalt Whitman. Youcan browse poems bypoet, century, country oforigin, theme and more. Theaim of Poetry Seers is to introduce read-ers to verse that goes beyond beautifulwriting. See www.poetseers.org.

ELEVATE

If you have trouble remembering names,get distracted easily, or are slow withnumbers, you should try Elevate. This

brain-training app uses simple games tohelp you exercise your mem-

ory, improve focus, expressyourself clearly, read

faster and make less er-rors. Once you signup, the app creates apersonalised train-ing programme andpresents five game

sessions daily to testvarious abilities (writ-

ing, reading, speakingand math) and skills (brevi-

ty, expression, error avoidance,diction and comprehension ). Free on An-droid, iOS.

Julia Phillips

LilyPotter

Margaret Atwood

BernadineEvaristo

PeterHandke

OlgaTokarczuk

Ted Chiang

Susan Choi

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

in reviewTimes NIE youth bibliophiles help us remember

the biggest literary moments of the year, and rate them