The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

A collection of tales of magic, and it does have the charm of fables.

Some stories look a bit dark but they have their own light also. Which means that some climaxes will look bad if you don't look beyond the climax. Not all the stories come with a moral, and that's how they should be. The stories are not for morals or even entertainment. The best ones are the ones that leave you not with the narrative/plot but with the thought of what could have happened after the telling was over.

Loved them all.

Love

Beyond the Story BTS

This one is for the fans of BTS.

This doesn't provide much information on the band members but tries to weave a story based on their  interviews and draws a map of their creative journey. What was released when, how they worked on it, and stayed persistent. This made them what they are.

You can beg to differ with the point that they are the most famous boy bend/artists of all times if you're not a BTS fan or never heard any of their song. But this is more than creativity when you've not experienced the art but you know the artists from their marketing and publicity.

We're no wiser about BTS after this book, and don't read if you never heard/appreciated any of their songs.

Love

Crack-Up Capitalism by Quinn Slobodian

Is capitalism synonymous to greed?

The hunger for getting rich keeps looking for new pastures to keep feeding itself. Out of the devices it propose with the own vested interests is the idea of a free market which is expected to present itself for exploitation with nothing in return. Avoiding taxes, and not paying the right wages is part of the plan, and the greed attracts greed. There will be people out there who will respond to it out of desperation sometimes termed as mutual benefit to give the free run to anyone who wants to have an open field with no restriction, and willing to pay anyone who can be an accomplice.

This led to a lot of countries creating SEZs (Special Economic Zones) which are directly or indirectly catered with providing resources, no legal binding, tax havens/exemption or even no tax. These offers are called the lure for the business while this is the other way round.

Exploitation of natural resources, and people without any liability is the name of the game. The action doesn't matter as long as it serves the end goal for such strategies, and everything else is a collateral damage.

Peace

Fatherland by Burkhard Bilger

How difficult it is to talk about personal history when the history is difficult to talk about?

The author traces the footprints of his family during the WW2 and its role in Nazi Germany. This leads to a long trail of letters, documents, and people who have anything to say about those times.

We can't always be sure of how people behaved the way they did and that world still had people who fell into the grey zone where they can't be labelled as good or bad. They were just people who were motivated by different factors like love, hunger, poverty, power, greed, jealousy, survival, or even good heartedness. The people who put the humanity first or even second or third on a list when there were not many options were the best ones who brought the light at the end of the tunnel.

Evil is strong, and it feeds on madness but that is short in supply. It does end, and when it does we see the hope surviving.

Love