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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep‎. given the newly found sources. Liz Read! Talk! 02:44, 20 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Speedpost (book)

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Speedpost (book) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)
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One solid review already linked in the page, nothing else to fulfill NBOOK. Redirect to Shobhaa De? This on Google Books says something about it but I can't figure out if it's useful since the preview cuts off. PARAKANYAA (talk) 00:11, 13 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Comment can anyone manage to look at what the Google Books link is for? It looks like sigcov but I really can't tell. :/ PARAKANYAA (talk) 07:00, 14 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources. Wikipedia:Notability (books)#Criteria says:

    A book is presumed notable if it verifiably meets, through reliable sources, at least one of the following criteria:

    1. The book has been the subject of two or more non-trivial published works appearing in sources that are independent of the book itself. This can include published works in all forms, such as newspaper articles, other books, television documentaries, bestseller lists, and reviews. This excludes media re-prints of press releases, flap copy, or other publications where the author, its publisher, agent, or other self-interested parties advertise or speak about the book.
    Sources
    1. Banker, Ashok (1999). "Penguin Books India: Speedpost". Indian Review of Books. p. 28. Retrieved 2024-09-18 – via Google Books.

      The review notes: "... Then again, never before has there been anyone quite like Shobha Dé. The letters themselves are readable, as Dé's writing always is. There's even a lot of good advice here. And some genuine insights and observations into Dé's extremely balanced and sensible approach to parenting. No argument with that at all. But the good sense is constantly overshadowed by one inescapable fact: Speedpost and its accompanying hype does more to introduce use to Dé's six children than anything else. To launch them, so to speak. To present these six specimens of perfect parenting with a flourish. This, rather than the good advice, is what you're left with at the end of this book, if you can call it a book. In previous ages, an aristocratic parent would organize a sumptuous 'coming-out' party for her scion when she came of age. A debutante ball. In an age where the media itself is one big high society party, Speedpost provides the ultimate debutante ball for Dé's six children. In doing so, she publicly exposes even that most private of human areas: a parent and child's intimate relationship. That itself damages Dé's claim to good parenting irreparably."

    2. Bose, Brinda (2000-01-03). "Book review: Shobha De's 'Speedpost'". India Today. Archived from the original on 2024-09-18. Retrieved 2024-09-18.

      The review notes: "The most important fact about these letters authored by De is that they were never sent - by speedpost, e-mail or snail mail - to any of her children at any time of their lives. They were created as part of an innovative new project launched at the beginning of 1999 by a best-selling fiction-writer, as a millennium gift for her six children (and herself and her publisher, inconsequentially. ... The book is a feel-good autobiographical tale with a structural innovation - but it comes in a spontaneous-and-personal disguise, and the fakeness of the enterprise leaps from between the lines. ... But De is climbing the bestseller charts."

    3. Patidar, Renu (2013). Shobha De's Contribution to Post-colonial Indian English Fiction (PhD thesis). Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya. pp. 193–195. ProQuest 2314278468.

      The PhD thesis notes: "Speedpost. This is one of De's best books and she has dedicated it purely to her children. The letters are about living, loving, caring, and coping with this world. She touches almost each and every emotion of the human mind and slowly but carefully prepares the children to face the world. She tells her children to think rationally and be witty to act. Her tone is soft, persuasive and lovable. Her intentions are worried and positive as a mother of young growing children. Each letter is written separately to a different child covering topics like—family values and tradition, and other dilemmas of parents. She knows growing up kids have their own anxieties and problems and parent's harsh and cruel behavior is only in their intention for the child's good. She is not hesitant to discuss sensitive topics with her children as she understands the need of the time and wants them to know what they should but correctly and through someone experienced and guiding."

      The PhD thesis notes: "It is one of her bestselling books. It is close to anyone's heart who reads it. This is a firm slap on the face of contemporary critics who tell that her work is erotic, cheap and outright thrash. Here in this book one doesn't find the three or four letter word, literary none. She knows what else sells in this world except eroticism and she bags that in her book. Themes which can be categorized as love, emotions, family and above all mother. She mentions in the initial page 'God must be a mother'."

      The PhD thesis spends a few additional paragraphs discussing the book.

    4. Less significant coverage:
      1. Muteba, Bertha (2007). Curry, Jennifer; Ramm, David; Rich, Mari; Rolls, Albert (eds.). World Authors, 2000–2005. New York: H. W. Wilson Company. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-8242-1077-9. Retrieved 2024-09-18 – via Internet Archive.

        The book notes: "Dé next published Speedpost: Letters to My Children about Living, Loving, Caring and Coping with the World (1999), which touched on family values and adolescent anxieties, written in the form of a series of letters to her six children. "The letters were a literary device to raise certain issues. It was my way of marking [the new millennium]. And my kids loved it too," she told Subha J. Rao for the national Indian newspaper the Hindu (February 10, 2003). The book has found a large audience and has been translated into Hindi (the official language of India) and Marathi (spoken mainly in the Indian state of Maharashtra and in the central part of the country), with upcoming versions in Malayalam (spoken by about 35 million people, mainly in southwest India) and Gujarati (the official language of the Indian state of Gujarat on the country's west coast, spoken by about 40 million people)."

      2. Krishnan, Mini (2005). "Letters (India)". In Benson, Eugene; Conolly, L.W. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2 ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415-278850. ProQuest 2137908344.

        The book notes: "Shobha Dé, the pulp fiction writer, has used the epistolary form in her non-fiction book, Speedpost: Letters to My Children about Living, Loving, Caring and Coping with the World (1999)."

    There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow Speedpost to pass Wikipedia:Notability#General notability guideline, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject".

    Cunard (talk) 10:44, 18 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Cunard Thank you! This is enough for me to change my vote to keep. Also, how did you manage to look at the google books preview? PARAKANYAA (talk) 11:10, 18 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi PARAKANYAA (talk · contribs). Thank you for revising your position! Here are some Google Books searches I did:
  1. Speedpost Shobhadid
  2. "special human bond there is . In this book , best"
  3. "and child in the twenty - first century : family values and tradition"
  4. "growing pains and adolescent anxieties about love , sex and friendship"
Each Google Books search revealed more of the book's text in the search results. I used the quote at the end of each search to do my next search. This allowed me to combine all the quotes together in Banker 1999. If you want the text before a quote, you can use the asterisk character at the beginning of the search:
  • "*special human bond there is . In this book , best"
In Google Books, this returns:
  • "... most special human bond there is . In this book , best - selling author Shobha De writes a series of letters to her six children on the key concerns of every mother and child in the twenty - first century : family values and tradition"
This approach works in many cases but doesn't always work. If the page has a header or footer that's repeated on every page, that could be included in the result and make it impossible to get the text. Cunard (talk) 08:31, 19 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
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