Simply Tolstoy by Donna Tussing Orwin

This was one of the occasions when I felt like cheating. I wanted to read Tolstoy's biography, and this one seemed like a quick one. And yes this was super quick.

It was so quick that Anna Karenina, and War and Peace got just ten odd pages. And I immediately regretted picking this up.

So if you're not a student in trouble who is looking for some quick content to write that stupid exams of your's on your favourite writer (which happened to be Tolstoy) than don't read this book.

This is going to spoil you to get over with things faster which actually need more time.

Looking forward to an actual biography or autobiography.

Love

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie

Not a fan of Rushdie but I do enjoy his writings, and yes I've read all the good ones (and some are still on list).

This was on the list for sometime, and was not a quick read.

It's full of Rushdie's signature style magical-realism, and a modern take on Cervantes' Don Quixote (one of may all time favourite).

I'll not get too much into the plot because more than the storyline it's the whole book itself which needs to be read.

Well it will not disappoint you but 400 pages may exhaust you :)

Love

Jesus or Muhammad? by Steven Masood

My reading has improved these days.

So this is what you picked when the title sounds scandalous. I thought this to be on of those propaganda books that try to prove their points against the others.

I'll say this in not really propaganda but yes this is heavily biased. The narrative is stretched a lot for driving the same point, and after finishing it I realised that I could have just read the epilogue to save the effort without missing out anything the author wants to drive.

You can read this with an open mind as it has a lot of good comparison, and points covered.

However, I'd recommend Reza Aslan (Zealot and No God but God) for the better understanding of things. I read them long back but looks still a good read on similar topics.

Peace

Why I am a Hindu by Shashi Tharoor

I always liked him speaking, and tweeting because of the style but I never read any of his books.

So I picked up this one not because this has a catchy title but I guess this was the one which was available.

I can say that I really liked the way whole narrative flows specially in the initial part which explains Hindu. This puts forward a lot of rational points, and calls out the absurdities in the same breath.

The later part condemns the current status of Hinduism, and sounds like a political commentary on government in power.

Religion is a very personal choice and state should not have any say into it. But then there is a thin line where politics get into the religion and vice versa. To cross it or not is a very important question and there is no right answer to that. But if you have to choose, choose one which is more human.

Peace

P.S. - Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan, and Mahabharat are not the right references if you're looking for answers.

Koh-I-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond by William Dalrymple, Anita Anand

The first memory that I had was that of a condom and a basmati brand Koh-i-noor. And for quite some time I believed that, that was what it meant.

Over a period of time I realised that these products were named after the biggest diamond the world has ever seen. Which got busted later when I came to know that there are at least 80 more diamonds which are known to world, and bigger, brighter, better than Kohinoor.

So what makes this diamond such a legend? The most common reason is that the myth which were told around it by the owners of this diamond.

As in case of all the historical things the history of Kohioor is also not very clear, and it does comes in bits and pieces from different sources reliable or otherwise.

This book tries to put all the myths in a sequence which make the book legible but doesn't really guarantee a lot of points where we can't separate facts from fiction.

One thing which this book points out is that Kohinoor was the reason of a lot bloodshed, and it changed many hands before it ended up in London. The value of this stone was also calculated differently by different owners.

But one thing we can be sure of is that most of the people who had it in their possession were not really poor. They owned enormous amount of wealth. So when there are incidents of its theft or fight for its ownership it was not because of the value of it but the status attached to it. They didn't want it because this was valuable but this give them the satisfaction of owning something which other people can never aspire for. It fulfils the ego of ownership, and nothing else.

Worth a read if you're into history otherwise the larger part of Kohinoor's journey can be filled into a well written article.

When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald

After so much heavy lifting recently I just wanted to tone down the things so I picked this one up.

I didn't read the reviews but was interested in the name "Viking". Of course I was not expecting Norse mythology but this did meet my expectations.

The story is a 21 year old girl Zelda (Zee) who was born on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Spectrum (this is a new word I learned).

Since, she has this cognitive issues she is supposed to be having problems in growing up, and living independently without any support.

The whole plot revolves around how a believer of Viking heroes ended up rising to heroism in her own sense.

It's a feel good read, and if you're feeling low or think that life is not treating you well, this will give you some reason to cheer up!

Love!

The Evolution of Desire by David M Buss

So this is one book which came as a suggestion when I was reading "Sex at Dawn".

This is one of those things (why I don't call it a book???) which are supposedly came out of a lot of research which I disagree.

But here it is and what I feel after finishing this book is that this is written backwards. You might have heard of reverse engineering. This one is written with in the same way.

The conclusions are reached first, and than the arguments were cherry picked to prove them right.

The most common things (there is not much beyond that) are these:

V-shaped torso (this is a super personal choice)
Mating markets (like a fish market)
My lab (sounds like go to some shady place, mix three chemicals in a test tube and I made my results. I didn't really get them)
200 college going students said (I'm not a statistician but really your whole argument is based on what the supercharged young people think about sex)

My points are V-shaped torso has more to do with our evolution to walk on 2 legs. There is no mating market, this is how you demean the whole desire of a person which is really beyond getting laid, and make babies. You can't really compare it with our dietary habits for sure.

The last thing that I would like to say is that this book was not worth the read but if you want to understand what the whole narrative mean than you can read just the last chapter, and save efforts of reading rest of it.

And yes, this is super repetitive.