Richard Feynman by John Gribbin

Myths are born or they are made?

Reading this one looks like a myth making. This is full of anecdotes and statements from the friends and colleagues for Feynman. Plus it explains a lot of scientific ideas which it is not as good as Feynman would have loved it to be.

Feynman singlehandedly changed the whole understanding and perception of quantum physics/mechanics. He prepared the ground for the future researches in this field. But the most important part of his legacy is his teaching. He somewhere claimed that he couldn't prepare his students in the best way possible but his lectures are one of the most amazing source of learning physics. Maybe he couldn't nourish the curiosity in others as well as he did for himself for which he gave credit to his parents.

It was difficult to believe a lot of instances where he come up with solutions over a night which others were struggling for months or years, but this is not a unique thing that one generally hears about someone labelled as genius. When I was reading Mozart's biography as well, one of the key point which the writer mentioned from the reference of different sources was that he could do a lot of things in parallel to music making. He could dance, play pool, and while away but still making music in his head.

Does these abilities come naturally or we pick them up at the very young age? Feynman said he was not brilliant but just studied hard. This was easy to say if you are Feynman.

Love

Why They Killed Gandhi : Unmasking the ideology and the conspiracy by Ashok Kumar Pandey

This is rather a small book for such a big topic but this goes deep into a lot of documents and statements around Gandhi's assassination.

Its very difficult to bring all the perpetrators to light forget about justice but the books like this can make one think about how dark thoughts can lead you to devastating actions.

An accused was allowed to speak for hours justifying his crime, and the debate is still on whether it was right or wrong tells the sorry state of things.

A bullet can't kill an idea but it can definitely create a lot of space to put the wrong ones around the right one.

Peace

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

 Nope, not this one!

Mythology is the best place to take inspirations for any literary work because it gives you the freedom of interpreting the essence of myths from various point of views.

This one takes inspiration from Mahabharat and tries to tell the story from Draupadi's point of view. It doesn't matter how a reader connects with the original character, the retelling can't be the rephrasing of the whole plot. Which unfortunately is true in this case.

The whole books doesn't really offer a new perspective on Mahabharat but just tells the same story with Draupadi mostly adding the ambience (hills, palace, trees, garden etc). But this is a common pitfalls for the authors retelling the stories, when the original is so profound.

It might be slightly different in case of unknown ones from different countries or cultures but that is not the case here.

Maybe not worth reading if you know the original one.

Love

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

This one for Booker prize.

Alcohol is a real problem, and been responsible for the destruction of a lot of families. But it does show up in its worst form in a self destructive personality. First, it doesn't let you accept the issue, and second it will never let you accept some real help.

The plot is good, and does come with its own twists and turns but eventually this one is more of a story of a kid coming to age in as twisted way as possible. But the hardships in life make people a different person based on what they choose to be. The things they want to remember and forget from the past. And where/in whom they find solace.

Peace

A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves by Jason DeParle

Immersion journalism is a new word. The approach is not being just a bystander reporting hard facts but also being the part of the life of the subjects.

This was a really good account to read from a different journalistic approach. It tells the story of a Filipino family where a mother moves from a ghetto of Philippines to the US hospitals as a nurse. And how the whole family made the transition from a fragmented family (in different timezones) to a united family in US who ends up winning in their own sense of triumph.

Immigrants are the easiest target in a political game. They look different, and they are most vulnerable to any kind of attack be it physical or otherwise. More importantly, it is difficult for a lot of people to accept or even tolerate the people they don't understand because of the rhetoric they are served with, which alienates their own experience to a built-up image of immigrants. This is a long debate over the claim to nativity which stands on the very wrong grounds.

This is worth a read to get an idea of what an immigrants world and struggles look like.

Peace

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R F Kuang

The problem with a fictional account of reality is that sometimes it is difficult to know where the fiction ends, and reality begins. And it has less to do with a writer's ability but a reader's prejudices.

The author has politely suggested that this is a work of fiction, and beyond that everything else stays with the reader. And, yes, eventually it does start sounding like a conspiracy theory in the end with a lot of incorrect history lessons.

It is a mix of Dickens, Harry Potter, tragedies, lost love and self sacrificing zeal, and all of it falls as fast as it flies. It is above 500 pages, and part of it sounds like a page filler rather than supporting the plot.

I'd definitely be not picking up anything from Kuang to avoid mixing the fiction with actual facts. Specially about poppy war.

Love

Mozart: The Reign of Love by Jan Swafford

Mozart is not really a musician which we listen to very often but he is a kind of myth which goes beyond his work. Being unsure between listening and reading, proceed with the later :)

Hence this book which is really a big one. Something which needs to be tracked how much is still left.

The book digs down into different pieces (symphony, opera etc) explaining why it sounds like the way it does or how it developed. Which is obvious from the point that the writer himself is a musician, and has the academic/professional capacity to dissect a music piece like this. But unfortunately it doesn't resonate with an ordinary reader. In fact, after finishing it, I realised that I could have picked something else on this topic.

Doesn't make much sense to give a word on Mozart's greatness but he definitely was a prodigy trained by his father who make it a point that he keeps getting benefitted by Mozart's talents for the rest of his life. Apart from that, most of his life seem to be an ordinary one with worries about a job, house, disease, and love.

Reading such a piece also makes one think that if the greatness it universal or it limits into a certain circle? Does it come with an expiry date beyond which it is not understood/appreciated widely? Anyone can answer this question from one's point about the personalities in the field they are interested in, and that is where the question about the circle is answered. And yes, everything comes with an expiry date.

Love

Sayed Haider Raza: The Journey of an Iconic Artist by Yashodhara Dalmia

Not being much aware of the modern art I was expecting it to be a good one specially about such an established artist.

However, it didn't cover a lot of things which could bring him out as a person, and not focusing too much on his master pieces. It has a good commentary on some of Raza's contemporary artists which gives the glimpse of artists' struggle in those days in India or abroad.

Raza was a real gem who came out shining out of all the adversities just by pulling everything with his passion for art. He not only found his own style but also established himself as a pioneer in modern art and this is not because the auction value at Christies but the emotions his paintings evoked.

A man who painted for the love of it, and lived for it till his last breath.

Love

Against White Feminism by Rafia Zakaria

There will always be a gap between the saviour and the saved. And this gap is for real, and the only thing that can fill this gap is that the saved have to save themselves rather then depending on some outsider.

This is easier said than done because different people are into the saving business for the vested interests. It is nearly impossible to reach a conclusion, and agree to someone who has not been in the soup with you. People do come with their own expertise, perceptions, and pre conceived notions which are difficult to challenge and more difficult to change. And, yes, nobody wants to miss out.

There are a lot of holes in many theories proposed here but this does a good job to bring a lot of points in one place. It elaborates on the struggle of doubling the discrimination but rather then putting it into one basket, it is better to define as a different one. But the fight is for the resources as well. The idea that someone will suddenly start looking at things from your perspective is too much to ask.

You should never pay for Sangria pitcher which you never had, and it starts from there. Plus, no more crying, it doesn't solve anything specially when it comes from a bruised ego, and not helplessness.

Love

Say What? by Doreen Chila-Jones

This will leave you in splits :) 

Some of the most funny, controversial and stupid quotes are here. You might have heard/read a lot of them but nothing beats this compilation.

And, yes, stupidity comes in all shapes and sizes irrespective of whatever else they achieve or do in life :)

Love

God: A Human History by Reza Aslan

This a different perspective on evolution of God.

It is called a human history because it tries to track the God idea from the very initial development of human cognitive abilities to its current form of politicomorphism.

But in essence it doesn't challenge the God as a thought, and ends up promoting a different kind of faith where all faiths are welcome and free to practice independently.

A lot of times the religious practices are labelled as primitive or rooted in fear, and it never stands against the rationality, but the point is not to pit it against rationality. It is more of a haven for human life in the face of difficult situations, and unexplained phenomenon. It look forward to a greater power which can make the things different, and and give a reason to live/appreciate the life itself.

It is not one of his best but worth reading.

Peace

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

We all know the story but sometimes its good to hear it from different mouths.

This one is no different apart from it narrates from the side of the 3 female characters of the story.

As always, this is a myth and a work of imagination. A cluster of stories, and characters which entwine with no end.

The story is immortal but the book will be forgotten as it doesn't really stand out for anything.

Love

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

It is difficult to say that Olive is a central character here. The whole book is more like different stories but somehow connected. And Olive gets a mention or appearance (central character many times) in all the stories but the whole construct is so, that it doesn't really bring her into the limelight. And, it still brings her whole image, and personality out even when she is not present.

A story of a whole town, and the families with their own tragedies. The things that they deal with on daily basis. The hopes, desires, disappointments and horrors they have been witness to.

It was a light one to read.

Love

Six Impossible Things by John Gribbin

The difficulty level was quantum :) 

It is a real nice (and quick) read on some of the key principles of quantum mechanics which is supposed to be the most difficult field of study out there. But what makes is difficult is not the principles but the explanation of those ideas in a common language. A lot of these principle work out of the purview of a regular observation capacity which makes it more difficult to find a similar example to explain the phenomenon. When they say that the particle was spinning up or down and the wave was travelling partially in the future and in the past, it is incomprehensible for human faculties.

But just because it is not easy to understand doesn't mean it is not happening. The universe exists even if we don't have a direct observation into it as a whole or in parts. And, the best part is that this field is expanding rapidly with the higher sophistications of instruments that can help run the tests at the quantum level. So, we can expect that in the future we'll have better explanation in what we call as "worldly terms".

You don't need a doctorate to read but it will be a bit difficult to understand specially as a standalone book if you are not privy to some other fields of science and maths which support quantum mechanics.

And, yeah, don't be bothered by multiverse :) 

Peace

Atoms and Ashes by Serhii Plokhy

This one is about the nuclear accidents, and is a record of all the key events during those accidents. It covers the six major disasters in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. This is something which was something more relevant to read with the war going around a nuclear power plant, and thinking about one miscalculation which can lead to another disaster, which will be unfortunate given that both the sides had been witness to one of the worst of the six.

Doesn't make sense to go through a summary of all six here but the main reason which one can gather is that the designs were not perfect. They were/are the best of their times but sometimes even the best is not enough. Some of these designs flaws got aggravated by human error in handling the setup which eventually come to a shape of a disaster followed by evacuation, casualties, and long term after effects.

The science of Nuclear is quite old since we started understanding how we can harness the energy at an atomic and sub-atomic levels. But putting this into action was always a challenge. There were multiple designs which tried to operationalise the whole process but none of them is meltdown proof. In fact, the latest one at Fukushima was caused by a rare (not unforeseen) external cause, tsunami.

There is always a balancing act to find out what factors of safety we can play with. Choosing between a less efficient and more polluting fossil fuel energy against a more efficient and less polluting but with catastrophic long term consequences is not an easy.

But there is optimism in expecting a future technology which will be better controlled (not meltdown proof) which comes with discipline of operations, and prepared for the possible natural or other events.

Peace

By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Of course for the Nobel prize winner :)

Story told by a broken man (Saleh Omar) who moves from Zanjibar to Gatwick in the old age. With no purpose left in life apart from just live the life. But the arrival in a different country brought back the memories of a life time not only for Saleh but also the forgotten son of his namesake.

Both of them cleanse themselves from the burden of the life when they found a lost relation in each other.

We rarely get to know the consequences of our actions, specially the ones driven by stupidity but when it does it brings back the futility of all the things which were given undue importance. But those mistakes are the important part of our human side which is more prone to make mistakes based on the reasons which even we don't understand. But the salvation lies in accepting them and moving on to be a different person, hopefully better.

Peace

The Molecule of More by Daniel Z. Lieberman

Dopamine is an old story now. The science is still researching all its affects but there is already some good content available all over the net.

When I picked this one, I was not aware that this is around dopamine otherwise may have not. And after finishing it I didn't get to know anything new that is out there. Most of the things mentioned in this book can actually be summarised in a well written article.

The only plus point was to have the stories with some use cases of dopamine going up/down or how it interacts with other neurotransmitters in the brain. But that was more decorative, and not really a value add.

For a real read on dopamine, maybe a good article but not this one.

Peace

The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes

Ever heard about Oedipus complex? It is a psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud.

I heard about this complex long back but never gave it much thought. It was a bit absurd but that was what makes it complex. But like a lot of other theories, this one is also comes from Greek mythology where an abandoned boy eventually killed his king father and married her mother (without knowing).

This is a story and like all the mythological ones, this comes with cues, symbols and imagination. There is no real evidence that such a behaviour exists but a form of over possessiveness by kids towards parents which leads to more complications in the adult age is qualified as Oedipus complex. It rarely has any marriage or sexual consequences involved but a twisted emotions between the parents and children.

And, that is the part which gives the writers a lot of room to imagine and retell the old myths. This one is exactly the same. It tells the story of past and present together, one chapter after the other, which is, at times, a bit confusing to connect while reading. But the story eventually comes out well.

Most of the storyline is same which you can find in any traditional Greek mythology book, and it is the work of the writer to put flesh and meet on the bones (the basic structure of the story).

It is not the best fiction on Greek mythology but if you don't know much about the myth, it might interest you. And, it does leave you with puzzling about what was true because there was none.

Love

French Braid by Anne Tyler

It is a generational novel which starts in 19050s till 2020.

I picked it up from aisle just like that but after reading so many serious ones, this one was a breather.

It is a story of families, and the different personalities in it. It has all the characters that you can find around (even like Mercy who turned their lives altogether).

We never know how we love our families. How to like, dislike or pass them all our lives. But then it is true for almost everything. The not so clear impressions about the people around us make us wonder what did we miss. And, we do notice when there is something which we don't consider normal yet.

Real nice read.

Love

The Dead Are Arising by Les Payne

Is it better to read a well researched biography or an autobiography?

Whatever be the answer, both of them come with the writer's bias. Even if a well researched biography may tend to omit some details or it is less likely to gloss over the things.

So, I picked up a biography over an autobiography. And it confirmed when it tells you the incomplete or missing or inflated incidents in the narrative.

It is difficult to judge a person who comes from a different time but one thing which we can see is that Malcolm made the wrong choices. He was always a hustler with intelligence, wit and oratory. However, he just couldn't choose the right path. Even after the early life situations/mistakes, he ended up choosing a religion with a misplaced identity of a leader. He was devoted to this leader and its cause but blind to a lot of obvious points which he chose to ignore. Violence was never a solution which is why civil movement was far more successful as compared to any other armed conflict. It is a long way but a one worth following.

And even after that he still ended up thinking of choosing a religion to be the answer of a problem which was more civic in nature than religious. He ended up being the opposite of King with a different religion and violent approach but same goal. The idea of choosing a religion to solve the problem of 22 million people looks more of an emotional choice, and raises the doubt if these thoughts were well evolved before it were put into action.

An intelligent man with the right motives who could have changed the history of America as we know it couldn't outrun his past.

After reading this, reading the autobiography may not be required.

Peace

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Of course I'm reading it for the one word Meta. Just out of curiosity for the origin of the word Metaverse I picked this up.

This is a sci-fi and like most of books in the genre it is a mix of speculations, history, and mythology which is a bit deceptive mix. Deceptive because an inattentive reader will end up mixing all of them with reality, and getting the inaccurate view of the things.

For the book, it has fairly standard narrative with a lot of loose threads which generally leaves the fans of this genre curious for the next in the series.

From a non-sci-fi fan, I've read better unless curiosity for the one word gets you.

Love

Puneet

How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future by Vaclav Smil

This is not a guide to how world works. That is a really complicated topic.

This is more focused on how the industrialisation and science has evolved and contributed to the current state of mankind.

It talks largely covers four important drivers which are steel, food, ammonia, and fuel. But it focuses on a lot of myth busting. The ideas that take root in our understanding without knowing much about how we reached it. And that is the beauty of rationality. It has a lot of number crunching to drive a point why something is different (not better) than other.

It doesn't take side, and just put some arguments based on the numbers. We can always contest the data but that should not stop a discussion. This discussion is important to give us different perspective.

E.g. technical and chemical advances helped in delivering the food requirement of world's rapidly growing population or we can take the example of crude oil/coal as how it contributed a lot to how we live today (a lot of dependence on energy obtained from fossil fuel). But from the advances in both the fields, we saw equally negative effect on environment. Plus this was unevenly distributed which created a myopic view.

We can't turn the clock back and go back to how we were surviving in Palaeolithic age but there are still a lot of things that we can do not only at a global level but also at an individual level.

The world is not coming to an end but we don't have a magic pill either so rather then going for any extreme measure, it would require a more balanced approach and a dedication towards what we want to achieve. Announcing the goals to be achieved in the years which end in 0 or 5 without real action is just a gimmick.

Peace

The Gate by Natsume Soseki

Of course its a classic.

It takes good time to build up an emotion and when it delivers, it doesn't feel like it is some sort of high moment in the story. It goes more like a narrative of a day to day life of a clerk Sosuke and his wife Oyone. A life as ordinary on surface but scarred with its own demons.

Sosuke and Oyone looks like an ordinary couple (this was so made for each other) with their own past. A couple who carry the burden of their love and what it led to. And the story doesn't go into a lot of details, but just drop few hints here and there.

Is it possible that a single decision in life set the whole course for you, and you accept it with no resistance? Is it possible that you can stay passive (stoic) in the face of all the complexities that life brings? A different couple in a different time/place could have chosen otherwise but then it wouldn't have been the same story.

It is difficult to move on, and it could take a lifetime but is the resignation to the fate a solution?

Love

The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan

It was just a coincident that I read this one after reading Piketty's 'A Brief History of Equality'

This one is a collection of essays, and I got to know about Amia from her essay with the same name which I read earlier. That essay (part of this book) was not very clear in communicating any idea but I was curious to read some more from her.

Rest of the essays in the book fails equally to deliver any clear concept. It quotes a lot of other writers, and famous court cases but doesn't really provide any original thought. It sounded so ambivalent that it can be interpreted in any direction, which is not an ideal format when you are talking about such topics.

On top of it, the whole narrative is so narrow that it just doesn't go beyond a preconceived notion of injustice, society, traits and politics. It promptly negates the other views which are not inline with the books concepts.

Maybe not the best one to start with but the readers can come back to it after some more mature work on the topics covered in these essays to see for themselves.

Peace

A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty

Equality is a bit of abstract idea. And it is defined differently by different people based on their achievements and lifestyle. So, if a billionaire thinks that his wealth is well deserved due to what he created and the others are not there because they lack something (nobody knows what). Or, a man being the highest earning member of a family can treat others as a lesser being.

Piketty is an amazing writer and I didn't read the other two books just because of the sheer number of pages :) and I'm glad I found this one. And, yes, most of his arguments are based on the data.

The unequal ownership of wealth, real estate and what not vs the contribution to the taxes. Sharing with the larger society vs the philanthropy facade. Speaking of equal rights for all, irrespective of gender, class, colour, citizenship, but lacking the action. Being on the top of consumption chain (maximum contribution to Carbon emission, indirectly to global warming) but reluctant to the take responsibility for the plans. And, yes, the repatriation.

They are all forms of inequality. And even after seeing the march towards equality progressing, it still sounds like a utopia.

Can a world with inequality will function as it does now? Most likely yes. But the larger problem is that anything that brings us closer to the equality hurts the vested interests of the people who are responsible for this inequality. Its more of a personal barrier that needs to be overcome here by the larger wealth holders. Top 10% people holding 70% of the wealth (in US but other countries have the similar ratios) are the biggest levers to make it happen but vested interest is a big word and a bigger idea which needs different understanding/treatment.

Unfortunately, inequality is going to stay.

Peace

Pachinko by Lee Min-jin

This was on the list for quite some time now, and glad to finish this one.

Of course, its a tragic novel. Most of the characters are at low points in their lives or suffering from negativity.

And, there is God. Not as an influencer but more like the fall back for the characters.

Life is full of choices, and it is sad to see that some end up making the negative ones which lead to the downfall, more moral in nature. The over thought about non-existing things and not being thankful to what the characters had is the core of every single character in the whole story. Life is tough due to different factors be it being an immigrant, poor, war or the other moral dilemmas which narrow down the vision to look at the brighter side of the things.

It is a long one but it covers many generations, and does have many sub plots running in parallel. So, don't complain if the book looks thick.

Love

Every Good Boy Does Fine by Jeremy Denk

The title is the acronym for EGBDF in case the non-musicians don't know :) 

This an autobiography where Jeremy, a pianist (I didn't know he is so famous :) ) recalls his music learning journey, and literally starts from his childhood teachers.

He talks about his different teachers and yes, the family also shows up strongly in the first half. However, it focuses more on how the teachers in advanced learning affected his learning. With being well known and all, I believe it worked out really well for him.

He does talk about his struggles with love and competitions but those are the natural parts of an autobiography. Of course, he mentions his success more often. Being a prodigy he has the bragging rights deservedly.

It was difficult to imagine a lot of points around the music where a particular piece is mentioned and he talks about the intricacies because most likely a non-musician has not heard those pieces.

You may actually end up with a playlist if not the best autobiography.

Love

Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut Jr

If a reader doesn't know it then it is easy to end up believing it to be a true story which it is not.

This is the story of Howard, a budding writer who became a short time spy. While on the mission his cover was being the person responsible for propaganda. Apparently, he did so well that the people who didn't know his cover ended up hating him eventually.

Now, a 70 year old Howard which nothing much left to look forward to in life wants a trial. This small whim can lead to the gallows, and that's where he tells his story.

It is a bit of a dark account of a person on death row with humour and some moral questions. The idea of being right or wrong. The area which is beyond black and white. It can be in-between and could have been called grey but what if it was a different colour altogether?

The blank eyes of a person who doesn't know what to do. The only thing he can think of doing is what others tell him to do, and in that moment he will do anything.

Peace

A Molecule Away From Madness Tales of the Hijacked Brain by Sara Manning Peskin

A body is a complicated structure irrespective of which biological family it belongs to.

The whole DNA which writes down the future of a living being has do to the best balancing act that nobody sees until it goes off balance. In humans, it gets a lot complicated because a bigger brain comes into the picture. This solves and creates a lot of thought problems but it is also so prone be adversely affected by a change at the molecular level.

A molecule as small as a protein (and it is just not the one you consume after a training session) can cause havoc in life. It can make you go weak, forget, imagine and even cause fatalities.

Only Medical science has the potential to answer the questions posed by these life altering changes. Dementia and Alzheimer's are just more famous, and this books gives you a wider range of neurological complications that can be caused by the tiniest changes, or the one which are already ticking like a time bomb in you DNA.

This is an amazing read which gives a lot of complicated information in easier terms and does tell a lot about how the Neurology as a field has evolved over a period of time. It might be the youngest of all the -logy but it is going to make the maximum impact on our understanding a lot of things that have been unanswered for decades.

Recommend for anyone who is interested in the scientific advances of neurology and its history but don't start looking for the symptoms on your own.

Peace

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

Camus is a different kind of writer. He goes from philosophy to myth and back in a lyrical writing style. It is sometimes so fluent to read that only going through those complicated phrases amazes you with the beauty of it.

The title comes from the story for Sisyphus but he doesn't really appear until the end where the whole thought around the idea of staying alive in the face of absurdity of life comes to a full circle.

Camus starts with the idea of suicide (why people do it) and moves from one character to the other (Don Juan may not be the right choice) explaining what should be idea of life for any person. What keeps us going through the monotony of life and what happens when one sees the absurdity of this rhythmic living. Does this evoke a question of why life exists or what is the point in being alive while you are destined to roll your own stone daily like Sisyphus?

There is no simple answer to existential doubts but here we can read what Camus has to suggest. The problem with such questions is that they are all unique and there is no general answer which fits all, and that is the beauty of it.

This is a quick read until you start contemplating on these thoughts, which is a chore for lifetime.

Peace

The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order by Rush Doshi

I fall for the game in the title.

It is really long, repetitive and takes a lot of assumptions.

This is not a real analysis but withdraws conclusions in the light of different events, and the response against those events. It repeats a lot of terms like trifecta, blunting, coercion, power and strategy. And, it does have a lot of instances where it over analyses the things or maybe don't have the best assumptions.

Foreign policies are not a very exciting subject, and this is actually my first one on this subject. But I can say that it is not a long game, it is more of an eternal game. There are just different players in a given time frame. And, yes, different levers to pull but they always follow more or less same illusion of being the best.

Sad thing is that everyone thinks to be picking the right side without knowing what it means. It's not the best place to discuss what a nation state is supposed to do with it's foreign policies or growth strategies. It doesn't matter if you are going to sketch a bigger line to shorten the others or going to take care of your own line irrespective of the size. The important thing is what these states contribute to the betterment of its citizens and world without hurting the efforts of others. But again, it is a good thing to say but rarely followed.

Not worth a read until you are into these subjects.

Peace

The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black

Of course it has a catchy title.

But it is not really a scientific record. It is a mix of the information that we have from decades of research packed in a fun way with imagination. And it does a great job.

Dinosaurs have a special image that attracts a lot of people. The mystery around these giant creatures (not all of them are giants), which got a boost by Jurassic Park franchise, is a real crowd puller. You build a good story around that and you will have the audiences.

The narration mostly revolves around the events post the asteroid strike. And it puts the details in a very illustrative format. This was actually one of the times when I went through the elaborated post scripts.

In the last chapters the writer also shared what caused her fascination with dinosaurs, and she end up connecting some personal/philosophical/existential thoughts and it was really nice to read them.

With the new discoveries old facts will go outdated and our understanding of a lot of historic events will keep changing. Which means there is nothing set in stone, and you can stay flexible in your understanding. Carbon dating is just 70 odd years old and it is already answering a lot of million year old questions. You throw in the genome sequencing and all the upcoming technologies in it and it is going to open up new windows if not the doors.

If you are looking for a more rational account with a lot of facts and figures then this might not be the right choice but if you are looking for a lighter way to read about the events which caused dinosaurs going extinct, then this is a good place to start.

Love

Rembrandt's Whore by Sylvie Matton

This is such a sad piece to read but those were the days when the woman was considered a sub-human and can be labelled as whore for taking independent decisions.

This one was more revolutionary because Hendrickje was actually a servant girl who chose to live on her own terms. There is no doubt that Rembrandt himself was not considered the best artist of his own time and led a miserable life (of poverty and personal losses) but never he was awarded such a nickname.

The church treated her equally bad. Given that a larger part of narrative talks about god, and a strong faith in his judgement, this was lost to church officials who couldn't accept the fact that a christian woman is living with a man out of marriage. A man in a similar position could have caused nothing more than a few raised eyebrows.

Hendrickje longed for the recognition which she never got but that doesn't mean she didn't live a fulfilled life. This narrative is a mix of facts and imagination but she is immortal now in the paintings of her lover. A lover who couldn't provide for what she wanted apart from honesty which she accepted.

There are Hendrickje in our time also and I hope they wish for the right thing (not the social recognition) and live their life on their own terms because love is sufficient to make a life worth living, even if sounds like a cliche.

Love

First, They Erased Our Name: a Rohingya Speaks by Habiburahman, Sophie Ansel

Statelessness is a modern curse but it looks too small compared to prejudice.

The people who are hated for the otherness go through a lot of hardship and this one is an account of the same.

It is difficult to think of it as a story but more of a journal of a refugee. There are always perpetrators but the sad part is the people who lost their sympathy and their help comes with a price.

It was difficult to digest the stand of the peace politicians but we never know the full truth about a person or situation.

The other surprise was how this all stayed hidden and it took a mass exodus of half a million people to bring the word out that there is something wrong.

Unfortunately, this is not the last such instance. We will find a way to hate each other for one reason or the other. If not, someone will feed it to us.

Peace

People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn

This is such a conflicting account to read.

It has so many opposite thoughts that it doesn't move beyond the cover page.

The first problem is why people worry so much about holocaust and not the people who survived it. I agree there is a lot of literature available but that doesn't justify the point that the Jewish literature doesn't get enough spotlight. People love Anne Frank because it is a sane voice even if one believes that the tragic end pumps its emotional quotient.

Secondly, it is full of anger against the people who don't agree or think otherwise. It is again an irrational line of thoughts.

Thirdly, a different line of thought which tries to establish that rationality or open argument is a religion specific trait. Following any religion doesn't increase boost anybody's mental faculties.

Lastly, belittling the efforts of a lot of people by calling it a whim or not enough or behavioural issue sets a wrong precedence. All the myths should always be busted but not just the ones which look convenient. 

Holocaust was an unimaginable event of history, and it is not a wonder that a lot of post analysis drown all the other voices. There will always be the people who imagine and believe in different ideas/theories. The way out is to have an argument which is as generic as possible without favouring anyone. This sounds difficult to accept and even more challenging to propagate but this is where anyone can start.

Peace

The Viking Heart: How Scandinavians Conquered the World Arthur Herman

Let's start with correction in the title Scandinavians 'did not' conquered the world.

This the problem with writing popular history. You take some pointers from history, and try to make them popular. And, how do you make them popular? You cherry pick and sensationalise the events. And the second thing is the imagination, which you use in absence of a concrete evidence/narrative.

It might be quite a pressure to keep writing the bestsellers but after reading the 484 pages (cover to cover) I can say that this sounds more of a propaganda then an actual book which has anything to do with actual history. The book starts with the history of vikings (Scandinavians) which was dominantly blood and raids (can call it pirates), followed by the political unrest (kings, queens, princes like everywhere else), and lastly the new age people (inventors, generals, scientists and daredevils).

The writer has picked the people to paint a picture of a clan of people who come with a special heart (what is a viking heart??) and did unimaginable things. There is a brief mention of the very first acts of barbarism which has been glossed over with tough living conditions (slaves, decimated cities, brutally killed people and what not).

It will not be an exaggeration to say that any person who has not been exposed to the world history will end up thinking that the Scandinavians built the world we see today. This can give an artificial sense of pride for belonging to such an inheritance. Which in turn results into the superiority complex which has been proved catastrophic historically. And there is no point in arguing that the history can't repeat itself.

Lastly, it quotes a lot of great people who have been phenomenal in different fields but the larger point is that, were they able to do it because they come from a particular lineage. Unfortunately, the book ends up pressing this point too much. It ends up labelling all the great achievements to one thing, the lineage.

These amazing people did change the course of history and world can't thank them enough but this has nothing to do with their lineage. It is always the circumstances which brings the best or the worst out of a person. And it is an injustice to attribute their feats to a single lineage because once they reach the pinnacle of their lives they stopped belonging to anything apart from humanity. Any effort to prove otherwise is dubious and should be looked at cautiously.

This is too big a book (obviously given the scope) but should be seen in a larger context of history, and the popular part should be read carefully before it starts putting the wrong ideas.

Peace

Islamic Fascism Hamed Abdel-Samad

First thing, not all the things in this book can be agreed upon.

This is a good book when it comes to the references and the citations it has used but this doesn't provide a  solution, not even in directional terms. But the plus point is that some of the points made here can be the starting point.

Religion is a sensitive matter irrespective of which one we are talking about. It gets more complicated where this is less about religion but more about the power equations. The complications involved are very difficult to understand for a well trained mind (academically or otherwise) forget about the people who have surrendered their critical faculty and open to take orders from others. These orders are well crafted in terms of promising something which goes beyond this life. A bait for the people who are in a vulnerable situation in their lives.

Afterlife is an absurd thought to analyse rationally. It is beyond comprehension which makes it more abstract and lucrative for the people who are dependent only on trust/faith. But this is where the the shortcoming lies.

Education is the only way forward which can enable people to look at things from an independent point of view and debate about it. Till then, keep the hopes high.

Peace

Two Billion Caliphs: A Vision of a Muslim Future Haroon Moghul

It lost me at Starwars and Jedi for such an important topic.

It is such an incoherent text which is written backwards. The conclusion was made first and rest of the text was put together to make it look worth it. And, the title is just a rhetoric.

There are better books around this topic as this falls into is a page filler with no substantial line of thought to offer.

Peace

We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State by Kai Strittmatter, Ruth Martin

    

Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama

What exactly does an identity mean? Is this is a common trait found among different people or is this is an idea that brings the like minded people together?

Identity has always been an abstract thought which has generally been defined as a post event analysis. It is very frequently the case that after an incident the analysts go after a trait and end up zeroing on one characteristics which fits the bill. This is more of a generalisation of uniqueness.

Race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, political views, nationality, religion and a hundred other factors can be used to label people in a single cohort. But apart from the physical traits everything else is a choice. A choice that you are not born with but prefer against everything else. And the sad part of these identities are the push for the approval of it.

The moment you start contemplating on the influence of an identity it is seen as a sign of opposition to it. So, does it matter what other recognise as long as you are comfortable with your choices? No. But is it going to be easy to live your choices? Depends, but you don't make these choices on the basis of level of comfort.

It is a bit complex to put your thoughts around it here but this one was a good read.

Peace

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

This is not a full size book but a collection of two letters from the author. The first one is more personal which is addressed to his nephew and the second one is more of an essay or commentary on the current state and future.

This is small but with a big impact. I have not read any of his works earlier but I am sure this was a good start. It does talk about the past but this is more future facing. Love comes as a solution in emotional accounts but in this book which carries a lot of burden from past, it was really good to hear. The problem with emotional solution is that it takes time, and really long time to show any results but this is the only solution. You speed the things up and it will be a mess again.

Forgiveness is not a virtue all the time but sometimes it is something which helps you unload the bad in your life and make room for some good. It is not easy. It is far easier to fall for a passion specially the one which promises the quick solution. The solutions which resonate with your own temporary thoughts but don't stand the test of the time.

Worth a read irrespective of your interests.

Peace

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

Sometimes the books has that shock quotient, and this was really high on it. I did pick it up for the strange title but I was also wanted to read some recent writers from Japan.

This one covers some topics from a difficult life which are always there but never discussed openly. From breast augmentation to teen existential crisis to parental choices. And the best part was that it was all conversational rather than preaching.

This is rather long which I believe is due to been written in sequence at different points. But it does shows sad state of being poor irrespective of which country you are in. A country with $5T GDP and high PPP doesn't translate to a good life for everyone.

Every theme in the novel can be discussed in details independently but that is not the aim here. But even it was a real long one, it does leave you with new line of thoughts. You can argue against them but can't write them off.

Life sometimes come with difficult choices which doesn't make the life unlivable. The idea of life needs to be taken with resilience and positivity. Its difficult to always look at the bright side of the things but its always the light which carries you forward. Nobody led by darkness reached anywhere.

Peace

The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr

This was so long again, and not because of number of pages.

There are some books which you can rush because they feel like a natural rhythm but this one was something I slogged and not jogged through.

This was a story the author wanted to tell himself and I am glad that he found a publisher too. But this was not the best one to read. There are much real accounts of that era and all of them tell a story worth telling but not this.

It has a lot of dark episodes but they don't lead to a thought, it is just there. You can pick the one that echoes your thoughts but I couldn't find one. The one thing I really liked was that the thoughts of every character was out there and that might be a reason for so many pages which feel like a drag but it might be much more interesting for a different reader.

The second best thing is a long acknowledgement. It is great to see so many people being recognised by a writer who directly or indirectly influenced the book.

Peace

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

A blind girl, an orphan, a lost diamond and a war. This is what the book is all about.

It is a rather longer read and moves among different timelines which requires a bit of jog to the memory but good to read.

War is an end of a lot of things but the worst of them is end of innocence. The thoughts and feelings which it consumes. And this is what feeds it.

Wars will keep happening. It may change its form but that struggle is constant. We will always be choosing between our ideal and survival and none of them are wrong, they are just circumstantial.

Peace

The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed

Sometimes it is difficult to understand when someone calls somebody fortunate. The idea of possession of something or absence of calamities viewed by others can be called fortune while this "fortunate" person may have different thoughts altogether.

It is a story of a Somali seamen in Cardiff. A family man who finds himself on the wrong side of the law for a crime that he claims to be not guilty of.

The story is set in 1950s and it is easy to claim that things are different now if not better. But this for someone to say who is on the receiving end. The partial blindness of justice which overlooks a lot things can drag people down even today.

I started on this one without any thought, and slowly it turned into a crime thriller with some philosophy thrown in. It tried to be all the things at one time and kind of failed on all of them. The last 100 pages were real stretch and not because it was going in rounds but this could have said more substantial things without a lot of white noise.

It is too innocent a thought to believe that there are no more Mahmood's in our time but unfortunately the victims of prejudice, greed, hate or simple stupidity are all around us. They will never be loud enough to be heard by all but those dreamers, who fought against everything but failed to see the end because it was not the end which they dreamed of, will keep coming.

Love

The Promise by Damon Galgut

How a girl differs from her family when it comes to the perception of truth.

Apart from anything else this one is all about patience and justice. It took long for Amor to circle back to the truth she believed in but it wins after all.

It goes into a lot of details for the characters to come out and portray them in a way which makes them all the more human. The greed, dishonesty, reluctance or even procrastination are very well represented. But the patience for truth to find its way is the most dominant one.

There were even some passages where you can doubt if the promise was actually made or just imagined. Because at times it is very much possible that your sense of justice creates a moral argument in favour of something which doesn't even exist. And later you are not interested in the conception, but you want to see the end of it.

Worth a read.

Love

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

 This is a rather short book and I will say that the first half of it really got my nerves.

All of it was utter rubbish and senseless to me but I may not be the target reader in this case.

But the second half was real good. It actually captured the essence of the situation and put it so vividly that the reader feels like being a part of it.

Death is not easy and it is more difficult to talk about. You add a beautiful small creature to it and it will be unbearable to read because it is difficult to see the right or rational into it. The helplessness just takes the whole experience a notch above.

I have read about this syndrome earlier and people are definitely talking a lot about it but all the awareness is good. Specially, when it comes from a personal experience.

If you are picking this up I suggest just skip the Part 1 if you feel like lost in the first five pages.

Love

The Overstory by Richard Powers

This is a one big book.

A lot of trees because the whole story is about them. There are humans who hear the voice of the trees and pick up the cause of conserving it.

There is nothing like sustainable consumption. It is just there or not there. For a real long time (billions of years) the eco system was growing with the disruption until the humans start growing their consumption exponentially. There are so many technological and scientific advances that this was bound to happen. Nobody was thinking what burning coal would cause when the first steam engine moved. We are moving from one fuel to another but the consumption is going to stay.

The trees are getting extinct fast and deforesting is one of the biggest cause. Blaming the conglomerates for this disturbance is the fastest conclusion that we can jump on to but the one thing which gets neglected is that eventually all of these are individual consumption. There are cars, machines factories which are releasing these poisonous gases into the environment but they are serving for the individual human need.

It needs more of a revolution than rebellion to bring the balance back. It all came with the technological advances and the technology is going to find a solution for this. To make it happen it will require a habit of conscious consumption which is equally difficult but not impossible. And if it doesn't happen, nature will find its way which is going to be very disruptive for the whole ecosystem (trees or living beings).

Coming back to the book, this is big and a tad bit boring at times with a lot of details. But if you are not looking for a quick summary reading it whole is recommended.

Peace

Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster

A story is all you look for and here is a good one.

It has all the old charms of a lost kid, coming to age, drama and yes some action.

I will not say this is the best one I have I ever read but this will stay for a long time because it talks more about the dreams that a common person can have and all of them do come true in this story.

It has that magical charm when the things fall in place by chance and in favour of the protagonist. And this has a lot of witty lines which tickle your funny bones. I just loved the whole banter.

Love

Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The intention was good but there are some holes in the theory.

It ended up focusing on a lot of instances which an active reader have come across already from different news outlets. Repeating a lot of them and trying to put them in a perspective would have been better rather than just quoting them and concluding this is wrong. A lot of points were a bit myopic in nature given the potential of the small changes in a longer term.

We can't call it revolutionary even if it asking for a revolution. Change is a slow process and speeding it up can cause more complicated scenarios. The one thing which I agree to is that education is the most important part because once the critical thinking is set in motion by knowledge (and it doesn't just have to be scientific, even art/literature will do), it will bring logic and reasoning in the whole debate. There are many examples which show that the education has failed but in a broader perspective they are very small in quantum if they sound loudest.

Patience is the keyword and there is nothing like eternal peace.

Peace

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

This is a regular love story with some identities thrown in.

We all carry our crosses, and it is not fair to say that one is heavier than other. Which is what was the best part in this book. It doesn't try to be the voice which opposes the violence against black people. It rather takes this up in a subtle manner and shows how it actually affects their lives at a very micro level.

The fear, anger, and helplessness that comes out of being the target changes you a lot and there is nothing that can justify it. The worst part is that we are still talking about these things in 21st century which tells us how much change is still required.

The voice of the whole book is a lot dreamy and I didn't connect with all of it but it is worth a read.

Love is not strong in itself but it can bring the strongest out of you.

Peace

Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski

 It is a bunch of notes which might be considered to be dirty by some or it can be euphemistically called crude.

But it is neither dirty nor crude. And if you are uncomfortable with some details of sex and desires then it is not for you.

I have not read any of his poetry but this is on my list now.

Peace

Mysteries by Knut Hamsun

Madness comes in all forms and it is not just the action/behaviour but the thoughts, dreams or even feelings can be categorised as madness by a person who doesn't understand what causes it.

Nagel is an epitome of dreamer with the eyes that can see shrewdness which is not visible to others. But this knowledge doesn't alter his behaviour. He is equally generous to anyone. His idea of love which swings between self sacrifice and innocence.

The narrative is easy to follow and is written with a unique monologue style where a lot of times you don't see the statements from other characters. I can't say if it makes it unique but definitely gives a different outlook.

I believe it is called mysteries because it is full of them. But a lot them remain unanswered because it is not a thriller but a psychological portrayal of all the characters directly addressed or not (there are some characters who are mentioned but they never appear).

You can see a more aggressive version of Dostoevsky's Myshkin in Nagel but Nagel comes with a different wavelength where he puts himself in absurd positions and then defends it too.

I'll look forward to read Hunger one day.

Love

Judas by Amos Oz, Nicholas de Lange (Translator)

Emotions don't make you weak, it makes you more human.

This is an account of an emotional man struggling to find a way forward in Jerusalem. A man who wants to explore Judas as never before, and building his own world with the war and struggle in the background.

The characters look a bit complicated to understand specially the three who share a loss. But Shmuel is a lot different from the others with full of sympathy and emotions for the whole world. The one who aligns with revolutionary ideas as well as the romantic ones (if you consider them independent).

War is not a solution for anything but unfortunately anyone who is in the power may end up thinking otherwise. The loss of one person is loss of a whole world for a small family. We're beyond our survival instincts for a long time since we evolved to what we're today but somehow struggle/violence never leaves us. It is still something that someday we might evolve out of but till that time it is going to be around. We'll keep falling for the words like nation, patriots, culture, language and what not.

Love is another thing which finds its meaning in loss and not in the achievement. It's always the unfulfilled love that gives the hope to wait it out. And it is not just for the people.

Traitor is one the most common word which can be used relatively. Which means that depending on the speaker it changes its perception. It doesn't really identify a person but exposes the feelings/biases of a speaker. But this is one of the easiest to get confused with if the listener/reader doesn't have the access to the full account. So, if next time you hear Judas, listen carefully.

Peace

The Beginning and the End by Naguib Mahfouz

I am going real global in my reading because library is full of works from Noble prize winners.

I never read an Egyptian author before and was glad that I found this one. Not because it is from a Noble prize winner but because it tells you the stories of people from different countries and cultures.

But one this is for sure that the sad things are more or less same everywhere. This is a story of a middle class family who falls into chaos after the death of the head of the family.

It is full of emotions of growing up, love, loss, pride and absurdity of life. It has a tight narrative which leaves you on a high and dry note in the end.

We're what we choose willingly or otherwise (poverty, greed, love, pride) and no matter what, the world keeps going.

Peace

The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing

Never read anything about IRA and this was the first one but it was less focused on IRA but more on how people make revolutionary choices.

Alice, is a woman you can see around and it might be difficult to guess what they have on mind. And even if they align themselves to a cause they still remain a different personality. A person who takes care of maintaining the decorum, setup for normal living conditions, everyone's convenience, staying pleasant and of course look for warmth in friends and relationships.

Hence the title. These people don't fit the bill of being a terrorist but of a person who has independent thoughts but still having an internal struggle. The people who don't know how far they can go for the ideology they are committed to. One man's terrorist another man's freedom fighter.

Unfortunately, commitment to an ideology without any flexibility can potentially cause a lot of harm. It can make you short sighted or even blindsided for a lot of things which might have sound evil to a rational mind. Since, there is no fixed formula to gauge the affect of current actions on the future, people living in the moment can end up doing things which will look bad in the hindsight.

Love is priceless but you may not know what you will end up paying for it.

Love

The Stranger by Albert Camus, Matthew Ward (Translator)

Books like these make you wish you have known the language in which it was originally written. But if you actually start with this thought then it is going to be a lot of languages.

Camus had his own themes and designs when he wrote these masterpieces. Of course, it hits like an absurdity to a lot of people but it was not written for them and we are all entitled to our opinions.

This is fairly small with only 120 page but the one thing which I noticed was that the first part was quite dedicated to develop the characters and the second part goes into the signature thought process what Camus is known for.

The title sounds like that Meursault was the stranger but if you get into his shoes, everyone else will look like a stranger. A man who is different and indifferent. The worst part is that he is not even trying to fit in.

This is not a synopsis of a research proposal but it is very easy to drive a wide range of conclusions on this one and given the brevity of the text they all may get aligned with a few good enough points.

It is definitely worth reading, and should be subjected to individual analysis and thoughts.

Peace

Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee

This was picked in the same Noble spirit.

This could have been easily called the dead man. I didn't understand the meaning of the phrase "dead slow" till I read about Paul. A man with whose life seems to be changed after an accident and losing a leg. But it sounds more like a 60 year old man who is looking for a reason to live. Love and sex seem to be quite an appealing factors to him but a sense of shame after losing a limb overshadows every other desire.

Life is more complicated after a tragic accident and it is not easy to keep the spirits high specially with a leg less. Paul looked this less as a shrinkage of the world for him which was actually more of a mobility challenge. But then it would have sound like a motivational book.

And in this sorry state you start having those romantic notions. The melancholic life not only becomes amorous but even tries to find some knight like attitude to gloss over the much deeper thoughts and desires.

It was very much a younger sibling of "Disgrace" when it comes to the characters and their life choices. You can easily replace Paul with Lurie and everything will sound the same without a dog.

Maybe it was not the best shot.

Love

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

 A self destructive love is what it is.

The sense of disgrace in the characters come from different sources. This sense is so distant that it can only be in the heads. You look closer and it is just a self destructive commotion which has been put into action by some events in life.

You can't see the events which caused it but you just witness the out come of it in the light of eventualities (in front of committee and police). It is very much visible how Luries (father and daughter) act and decide in those moments.

It is not a pleasure to read specially when you're thinking that these characters should behave rationally but that is what makes them what they are.

Love

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

I was reading a lot of serious stuff that I made it a point to read something else just for the heck of reading something light.

I looked at this one and thought of one more movie which is going to be unwatched.

This is a monologue of a successful financial analyst in US. And the uncomfortable part of the narrative is that it moves as a knee jerk reaction. It is less surprising and more annoying to keep reading it this way. They call it metafictional and it sounds like an ornamental title.

It is more like a one sided love story, a lot critical of US foreign policy, psychological derangement, and construed plot of a geographical war. I could've said it has a good pacing but it was regularly interrupted by schoolgirls, chai, snacks, jalebi, kababs, family and the waiter at the hotel who don't add anything to the plot or ambience.

I guess the movie might have been different (which will stay unwatched) given the kind of medium it is but the book can be excused.

Peace

The Grandmothers by Doris Lessing

 The noble-ity continues.

Another master piece. This is a collection of four short novels and "The Grandmothers" is one of them.

All four of them reach out to you in a different way and leaves you with a different emotion.

Can't say anything about the plots and characters but it is worth a read.

Love

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman

Of course I wanted to read since there was a series on it.

I could have seen it with New York Times bestseller tag but I went with it anyway.

The books touches a sensitive topic but not sure if it does the justice. A lot of passages sound incoherent and out of place.  And rather than developing the characters it sounded more like blaming everyone else around. Looking at all the pictures from childhood to marriage to motherhood it is difficult to connect the narrative to them.

We carry our crosses and some of us come out shining to tell the tale. But this was not the tale.

Peace

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro

 This is going to be that Nobel laureate time.

This is a compilation of five stories around the music and nightfall. And I must say that these two fits into every story very well.

I was very keen on the music part of it and it was good to see that not all of them are musicians. Few of them were just music lovers but that doesn't falter the momentum of the narrative.

Second thing, it being about music I was looking for something around the cello. I don't know why but cello and piano sound more like music to me than guitar. Glad to find it in the last but the splendid story.

Music is something which is mostly conceptualise as an art form but that sounds like a narrow look from the listener. For a musician it might just be the way of life. Any kind of thought needs a reciprocation or at least a recognition. In case of music it is not required because music is something which can exist without any medium. It will sound abstract as long as the idea is limited only to the music that we listen to irrespective of the genre. Music is beyond existence which is impossible to convey by any material means.

I'll not go into each one of them but it was definitely a great read.

Love

New Selected Stories by Alice Munro

Alice Munro is a Nobel Prize winner for literature. I was not aware of it until I picked this book. And I was not really sure if the Nobel prize was given for the story writers. I don't know why but I thought it was given to the novelists and poets. While looking for more information I saw that it was given to Bob Dylan for poetry and songwriting. This was a breather to know that it is not limited to the larger formats like novels only.

Well I read this, and was amazed how beautiful these stories are. I read these stories and felt that every single one of them has the potential to be a novel but that doesn't diminish the affect of the story. It only enhances the art of narration in brevity.

The best part that all the characters in these stories sound so real. It is possible that you might not have heard of any such real person around you but reading about them creates that sense of familiarity which can be attributed to the brilliance of the author.

One thing which I encountered was a claim that a she is a feminist writer, and I saw one of her interviews where she says "I never think about being a feminist writer, but of course I wouldn’t know." I understand that this is as good as a writer can say about her/his style of choosing the story they want to tell. If they choose to pick a protagonist of a different gender than it would have been equally strong in the stories.

I definitely loved this one, and would be looking out for more or her works.

Love

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

 I saw this in a corner and kind of looked cute with an off-white cover and title printed in Golden colour.

There was not much information about the author or the content of the book, and in the first look it looked like a self motivation kind of a book given the words printed on back of the cover "Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it end."

I am a bit biased against self help books but this one looked good given the above line and I just picked it up. A 200+ pages don't take much time.

I read the first five pages and I realised what I picked. It was a memoir recording the death of a husband and a daughter on the death bed. It had the death written all over and there were thoughts of not continuing further. Not because it is a sensitive topic but it sounded a bit intrusive as a reader.

As a rule I don't search for author or the book online if I already don't know it and when I finished it the first thing I did was to search the author. A wife couldn't do much for her husband in his last moments and a mother who was helpless in front of her comatose daughter who was in and out of ICUs.

Death is a strange event in life. The departed don't have much of a say afterwards (given a chance they wouldn't have agreed to it) but the survivors have their lives turned upside down. This is a situation for which nothing can prepare you not even witnessing multiple deaths of loved ones. Every death is a road closed in the journey of life. A road that you never believed to be closed. You expected turns, obstacles and what not but never a closure.

It was specially strange when in the last one I was reading was about someone who just wanted to let go of life and in this one they can't let go of dead. And yes they are totally different letting go. In one you are a participant and in the other you're just the observer.

Peace

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

 Never say no to a recommended book specially if it is recommended by strangers.

This one was recommended by two different people and I just looked it up in the local library and found it. It was a bit strange to go to the library with a knowledge of what you're going to pick.

This was a light read for sure. It is a story of a bad day leading to an out-worldly experiences for Nora Seed.

It was going well until the author did the Christopher Nolan hat and jumped into explaining multiverse and quantum physics. And later morphed into a lot of quotations for good life.

Positivity is never a problem and specially in a story revolving around depression and personal loss it is even better until a fictional work starts sounding like a self help book. But you can never question the author because it was not written for you.

Choice is a small word with lifelong consequences. But nobody knows the future, and we all are good at making bad choices. And it is not about choosing the education, friends, jobs, partners which play a big part but even things like what we choose as a hobby, ideas we perceive and why not even the civic duties. But the more important aspect is how we react to any outcomes of all the action/inaction in our lives.

Decent read but if you don't then you'll not miss much.

Love

Medusa’s Ankles: Selected Stories by A.S. Byatt

 I couldn't finish this. I just couldn't go beyond 350 out of 430 pages. And this is the one in a real long time that I couldn't see till the end.

This is the second book from A S Byatt that I picked (first was Ragnarok) and the idea was that the short stories would be good from such an imaginary writer. I don't know how I reached that conclusion but that was the first thought.

However, it was too much of the abstract narrations. I really enjoy a writer painting a picture with the words but than I was not looking for a palette. There were too much of colors which kind of led to the edge.  Ornamentation is an integral part of any narration but what if there are just ornaments and nothing else.

I can't really say if I liked any of the stories and the introduction was full of praises, even claiming that there are multiple styles of writing which some of the great writers had shown in their genius works. It sounded like an oversell and yes it was. An average reader like me don't read for the style of the writers but because their work speak to you. A reader can't connect with everything but a good book is a sign that writer was saying something which resonates with you. Also, a writer is free to write whatever s/he wants to write but so are the choices of a reader.

I never cared about the style. I actually don't understand when they say lyrical prose, magical realism, complex structures and what not. The complexities doesn't make things beautiful but it is the simplicity which brings the true beauty in any work irrespective of the style or medium.

I'm not sure if I'll be picking up anything again from her work but this was a really difficult one.

Love

Languages of Truth: Essays 2003-2020 by Salman Rushdie

I've read three of his books and this is fourth and I'm writing it here not as a fan but someone who appreciates his style of writing. I never found them magical even if they call them magical realism. All I was looking for was a good story and it never disappoints you.

This one is a non-fiction which is a collection of essays, memoirs, and anecdotes. It is more of thoughts on stories rather than being a story. So, you can call it a story of stories if that helps.

Saying things in the easiest way possible is the sign of genius. A thing well said is half done. And this simplicity I have always enjoyed in his writing and when I was reading this one it was easy to understand without a lot of pomp. It never dulls the reading and keeps you engaged with the content rather than getting stuck in deciphering the content.

A world of stories is always fascinating and a good story is good irrespective of language or time it was told. A good one is going to be timeless and it is not just the moral ones that survive. They may have stood strong through the test of time but even the not so moral ones survived for long. These stories tell you the things which you may not hear otherwise. It is the attraction of the unknown that brings us to them. A lot of stories specially which are autobiographical in treatment may lead to some voyeuristic pleasures but in a whole they are just stories.

I hope we keep celebrating these stories not just for the entertainment but how they define us as a human being - the only storyteller among all the inhabitants of this planet.

Peace

Interpreter of Maladies and Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

I got a combo of two books and just picked it up. I was interested in Namesake more but a collection of stories doesn't hurt.

So, Namesake was on the list since the movie was out more than a decade ago. I watched it long back and wanted to read the book. So, here I got it.

But before Namesake I read the stories and one of which became the title of the story collection (interpreter of maladies).

Most of the stories have immigrants as the main characters, and I was not surprised to see that Namesake sounds more like the extension of these stories because it has a similar theme. You can practically say that the stories were the trailer for Namesake.

First thing, the movie has cut down a lot of details and built on some others but that has more to do with the medium (book vs movie).

Second thing, the book is definitely worth a read if you liked the movie.

Last thing, is more of a thought on immigrants. Do all the immigrants are bitten by that travel bug which brings you to these countries where you don't have anything in common but your curiosity got you there? Or this is just a better job/life prospects that bring you here? Is it an act of refuge to get away from anything that you are facing right now? The list can be longer because everyone has their own reason. And it is very common to see them struggle, be in denial, being miserable or even being successful which is all part of a game.

So if you're there, just hang on and don't forget why did you come in the first place.

Love

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

In a royal conflict it is always obscure to pinpoint a single reason which is responsible for the whole mayhem. It can be anything from jealousy, lust, or rivalry to power, domination or greed. I do hear the arguments as the justifications that this is a primitive human nature which we couldn't evolve from. The whole idea of being an authority/power in the name of divine or intellectual is a botched attempt to over simplify the things which does more harm than the actual events.

I read the 600+ pages in a real long time because a lot of time it was difficult to focus on the plot when you don't remember the dynamics between the different characters (coming form a family or a camp or neutral). This revolves around the England in 1520 and what role did Thomas Cromwell played in the politics of kings, queens, church and noble men.

I don't have the courage to give a brief of such a big book here but the reasons I mentioned above can pretty much summarises how most of the characters behave. Their actions are based on one of the above irrespective of their stature in the society. They are always chasing one or the other oblivion to the other things until they face the consequences. 

As of now I'm still digesting it and not sure if I like this or not but this is the first book in the trilogy which Hilary Mantel has written and I'm not going to read the rest of them.

Peace

Under the Wave at Waimea by Paul Theroux

This is a story of a surfer Joe Sharky whose best days are behind him. A surfer who didn't anything in his life apart from surfing. Surfing sounds exotic for the story but if you replace him with any other trade the story would have left you the same way.

The turning point of the story is definitely an accident and how it jolted his routine life to bring him to introspection.

There are some minor characters who are portrayed as eager to exchange lives with our surfer because he is presumed to have the best of lives. But that again comes back to the point that he might have been an singer, dancer, painter or what not and people would have said the things (in the novel too).

The downside was that in the 400 pages it was a bit repetitive a lot. But that can be the writer's style as well.

Maybe not the best one but I did get to know some words in Hawaiian which has a really deep meaning. And yes, Pakalolo :) 

Love

The Food of the Gods by H.G. Wells

 Not a fan of science fiction but why not sometimes.

So, I picked this up and any fan of sci-fi fantasies would swear by Wells. He brought up so many of the concepts which were not only ingenious but also philosophical in nature. It brings a different kind of reality to the forefront which leaves you comparing your current reality to it, and being successful in finding some of the definite matches.

This one revolves around a scientific invention which make the ordinary subjects of giant size. This chemical is called food of the gods because this puts the mere humans to an inhumanly growth.

It was all going fine until one day the humans start seeing these giants as their rival. A threat to their own existence. A crisis which can end the current form of humans as the giants roam the earth.

If you look closely the giants are just humans with a bigger body. They have the same thoughts, feelings, and hunger as any other human of a different size. But this difference goes deeper than just being the physical one. It brings out the fear of a society which only understands the language of power. A grammar of victor and the loser. And before it goes out of hand they want to do what power tells you to do - crush what you don't understand.

Different species on the planet respond to their survival calls. Which is one of the reason that we see the clash between the hunter and the hunted. But it is not always the strongest that survive. It is always the adaptable who see it to the end.

But that is more rational thought and in the real world people go with prejudice and group thinking. Which means that there is no thought.

I don't consider this last line as a spoiler but the book doesn't have a traditional ending which gives you a champion but it ends on a note that opens up the possibilities of choice, and that is a fine ending.

Peace

Chances Are... by Richard Russo

 Hell we love a story well told.

This sounds too dramatic sometimes with love, friendship, college days, vacations, a lot crazy and music all mixed up in one with a bit of suspense in between.

But it is all worth reading the book.

How far do we go for our love and friends. It may take a lifetime to know the value of it. Also, does the unsuccessful love stories make the lives better. Maybe just that one unfulfilled desire keeps you going. Not waiting for anything to happen but still waiting that if it ever comes to happening you are still around to witness it.

Worth a read if you're looking for a good story.

Love!