The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings #1) by JRR Tolkien – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.’

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy from JRR Tolkien. This is perhaps one of the most well-known books that I have read so far; being one of the most sold books in the world and also having highly successful film adaptations. I had loved the films as a teenager and wanted to get to reading the books someday. So, in this review, I would evaluate if it was worth reading the book.

The story happens in the world built by the earth, Middle-Earth, inhabited by various different species – being the hobbits, elves, men, dwarves, orcs, etc. The story begins with Bilbo Baggins celebrating his birthday in The Shire (the village of the hobbits) and leaves his possessions to his beloved nephew Frodo, including a ring with special powers. Frodo is visited by Gandalf the wizard, and is told of the evil powers of the ring; previously possessed by Sauron, the ruler of the land of Mordor. Frodo is joined in this mission by his gardener and close friend, Samwise, along with two other friends from the Shire, Merry and Pippin. The rest of the story is about their adventure and their path towards destroying this evil ring or as they say in the book, the one ring to rule them all.

This was a book that I wanted to like, a book that I had been meaning to read for a long time, it was a film that I enjoyed as a teenager, enjoyed the games that were from the universe, etc. However, the key word phrase here is that I wanted to like but I could not bring myself to like this book despite my best efforts. To start with, the narration was drab and often flat, providing no nuance to the characters and the manner in which they expressed themselves at various points. This was a standard young adult novel where each character had a clear identification of who was good or who was evil and there were hardly any layers to the personality of any of the characters.

There were aspects that could have made the book interesting, such as the distrust between the dwarves and the elves, and how they make do with that, but then, the ‘Fellowship’ is closely knit (something unusual for a group created on the spot by an elven lord, with only notable exception being the character of Boromoir who had shown some levels of dissent).

One could praise the writer for the detailed world that he has built and how this has inspired several other fantasy novel writers, whom I have personally enjoyed, but with that said, this book was a travelogue in a world that I was not interested in. There was nothing more to it than a bunch of people walking together, complaining about the weather, describing the surroundings, and moving from a point to another point. What was expressed in this particular book could have been expressed in a third of its size without losing the essential content of it.

While this book contains the features of a standard young adult novel, unfortunately, it is not a very easy read for a teenager either. Thus, I am unsure of whom it appeals to (no wonder this often features in the list of books people ‘pretend to have read’).

 To summarise this book, I would say that it is a boring travelogue featuring drab characters happening in a world that I am not interested in. On that note, I award the book a rating of three on ten.

Rating – 3/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

About Looking by John Berger – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘As a novelist, essayist, and cultural historian, John Berger is a writer of dazzling eloquence and arresting insight whose work amounts to a subtle, powerful critique of the canons of our civilization. In About Looking he explores our role as observers to reveal new layers of meaning in what we see. How do the animals we look at in zoos remind us of a relationship between man and beast all but lost in the twentieth century? What is it about looking at war photographs that doubles their already potent violence? How do the nudes of Rodin betray the threats to his authority and potency posed by clay and flesh? And how does solitude inform the art of Giacometti? In asking these and other questions, Berger alters the vision of anyone who reads his work.’

About Looking is a collection of essays by the Booker Prize winning novelist and art critic, John Berger. Most of these essays were published in the 60s and 70s which include the author’s take on interpretations of various art forms including photography, and the starting essay which was on the evolving relationship human beings have had and are still having with animals.

The author not only tries to make this a long technical summary of evaluating artists like Francis Bacon or Jean-François Millet but also brings in his political views into these essays such as the impacts of capitalism and how we tend to depoliticse events like war. This could please readers who are aligned with his politics and at the same time, alienate those who do not. I felt the first two essays were the most thought provoking and powerful, especially the way he explored how animals’ overtime have been marginalised and have now been reduced to mere relics such as in children’s toys, metaphors or in zoos. As aforementioned, the impact (or lack thereof) of the devastating photos of the Vietnam war was explored very well by the author in one of the essays.

However, the author frontloaded the best two essays and the rest were more difficult to understand, getting a tad too technical on artistic movements and various different styles. Initially, there were illustrations for the works of art that the author discussed but in the subsequent essays, I felt the author assumed the reader knew the works of art that he was describing – and beyond two or three essays, I did not have the patience to google every artist and work of art mentioned in the book.

The first few essays satisfy a general audience, and for a work of non-fiction, it is important to know who the intended audience is and unfortunately, the latter half is not for the general audience. I understand that the writer is British who lived a large part of his life in France, and thus, works of art from these two places are extensively discussed but considering his extensive knowledge on the subject, I would have liked to read an essay about artistic movements / artists in the other parts of the world.

To conclude, some of the essays, especially in the first half of the book were thought provoking and interesting. The latter half could be very interesting if you have deep knowledge in the subject that the author is discussing, but if not, you would be as lost as I was.

If the book had stopped with the two brilliant essays the author had started with, this book could have had a much higher rating, but considering the incomprehensible latter half, I would award the book a rating of four on ten.

Rating – 4/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘David Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in this day. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake – which sent more than a thousand of his discoveries, house in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. In an instant, his life’s work was shattered.

Many might have given up, given in to despair. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world.

When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool – a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. Perhaps he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. What she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet.

Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don’t Exist reads like a fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.’

Why Fish Don’t Exist; as mentioned above in one of the longest write-ups I have read for such a small book, is a book from the NPR reporter Lulu Miller on David Starr Jordan, a taxonomist who was also the first Chancellor of the Stanford University in California, US.

The book starts by simultaneously describing her own personal crisis and then introducing David Starr Jordan, a man born during the mid-19^th century in the state of New York, who was highly interesting in observing an understanding nature during his childhood. Considering the author’s personal crisis, she wanted to seek inspiration from the life of David Starr Jordan, whom despite his circumstances, had immense levels of confidence and on the face of any crisis, looked for a solution to make the solution better. However, the more she learned about him, the more she learned of a dark side to his personality and the consequences of his actions.

I was initially apprehensive about the book considering I had heard of David Jordan, who was the first Chancellor of Stanford University and also an early proponent of eugenics. However, these fears did not last long as the writer explored all sides to him and it did not lead to unnecessary levels of glorification and in fact, quite the opposite.

The book did seem directionless in the initial phases and left me confused if the objective was to talk about herself or if this was a biography of David Starr Jordan. Portraying him as someone beating the odds did not sit well with me considering he seemed very successful at quite a young age. But as it went, I enjoyed reading the book, especially the latter half, where we learn a lot of dark aspects which most are unaware of – like the forced sterilisation programmes that were carried out in the United States inspired by scientists like Jordan.

The author also brought about her disillusionment over David Jordan very well, considering his work often involved exploiting the locals in Japan or Polynesia without giving them credit for the ‘discovery’ of the fish, a murder allegation against him, etc.

The ending justified the title and was also powerful as the author figures her own way to deal with her personal crisis. And I need to mention here that I loved the illustrations by Kate Samworth at the beginning of every chapter.

On that note, I would say that the book was an enjoyable read – has a beautiful cover and good illustrations, to add to the reading experience. Would recommend it as a light read (which deals with a lot of heavy topics) and on that note, I would award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘In the early twentieth century, people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead, something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised, but average working hours have increased rather than decreased. And now, across the developed world, three-quarters of all jobs are in services, finance or admin: jobs that don't seem to contribute anything to society. In Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber explores how this phenomenon - one more associated with the Soviet Union, but which capitalism was supposed to eliminate - has happened. In doing so, he looks at how, rather than producing anything, work has become an end in itself; the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance capital; and, finally, how we can get out of it.

This book is for anyone whose heart has sunk at the sight of a whiteboard, who believes 'workshops' should only be for making things, or who just suspects that there might be a better way to run our world.’

Bullshit Jobs was a book written by the anthropologist David Graeber based on the testimonials he had received for an essay he had written regarding the phenomenon of bullshit jobs. The author estimates that around 40-50% of the jobs in the world are pointless and builds a case for his position.

The author structured the book in the following manner – the author’s hypothesis (occasionally backed by data or a famous real incidents), followed by a testimonial confirming his own hypothesis from one of his readers and then, draws a conclusion based on this testimonial. The author’s manner of expressing some of the terms, was rather indiscreet, which some might even consider pejorative to certain jobs – but I guess that was also the author’s intention, to draw attention to the phenomenon.

The positive thing about the book is that it made me think – about the phenomenon of bullshit jobs. A lot of work that is done could perhaps be pointless and we do not necessarily need a 40-hour working week. The author tries to use Keynes’ prediction as his justification where the latter had predicted that it in days to come, owing to technological improvements, we might need to work only 15 hours a week. In that sense, the author tries to draw attention to the fundamental flaw in the society where self-worth has been tied to work and the effort put in, even if that effort is not required (and the author describes this to be a form of sadomasochism). The necessity to work long hours when it might not be required is an important discussion to have.

With that said, relying entirely on testimonials to substantiate his theory is flimsy and in a lot of instances, the author seems to have profound hatred towards some of the professions which he seemed to have want to manifest in this book (like corporate lawyers – and for his information, I know of many corporate lawyers who are passionate and genuinely believe they are creating a difference, running contrary to the author’s hypothesis on them). In many cases, the people might hate the jobs that they are doing, may feel that it is redundant and is also possible that these jobs add no value to the society – but these facts are not enough to conclude that the job is redundant. In his own example, there was an example where a supervisor felt that their job was pointless as their team was perfectly capable of carrying out their functions without being supervised, but the moment the process fails, that is when a supervisor is required to monitor and correct the same (and till there is such a failure, it is possible that the supervisor does not do any actual work). Same is the case for those who fix bugs in a software and other defects in other professions whom the author pejoratively names ‘duct-tapers’.

In most cases, what the author took were extreme examples, and drew conclusions that were too strong for the underlying facts that the author used to build the case (most of them were based on a specific YouGov poll). While the premise was interesting, this could have remained an essay instead of being a full-fledged book, I was disappointed with the first half of the book, but the latter half salvaged it for me.

As I said earlier, this book is interesting to the extent that it could be the basis to have a lot of conversations that we ought to have, as to how work environment and society at large are to be structured in the future. I was uncomfortable with the kind of language used by the author, but that was perhaps expected from the very title of the book. This book could be read as a long essay and we may use it to build our own thoughts on the subject and ignore much of the author’s conclusions.

On that note, I would award the book a rating of six on ten.

Rating – 6/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

At Night All Blood is Black (Frère d’âme) by David Diop – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Alfa and Mademba are two of the many Senegalese soldiers fighting in the Great War. Together they climb dutifully out of their trenches to attack France's German enemies whenever the whistle blows, until Mademba is wounded, and dies in a shell hole with his belly torn open.

Without his more-than-brother, Alfa is alone and lost amidst the savagery of the conflict. He devotes himself to the war, to violence and death, but soon begins to frighten even his own comrades in arms. How far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend?

At Night All Blood is Black is a hypnotic, heartbreaking rendering of a mind hurtling towards madness.’

Note: I read the book in French – review in French – cliquez ici

At Night All Blood is Black is a historical novel written by David Diop. The story is set during the times of the First World War and revolves around Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese rifleman in the French army, who has had a deeply disturbing experience in the battlefield.

The story starts with the death of Mademba Diop under gruesome circumstances, the person whom Alfa calls as someone who is more than a brother to him (hence the French title – which translates to soul brother). While he was mortally injured, Mademba requested Alfa to end his suffering and kill him, which Alfa could not bring himself to do. Since this incident, Alfa became desperate for revenge against the ‘blue-eyed enemy’ and recreated the scene of Mademba’s death by cruelly executing the ‘blue-eyed’ enemy soldiers. His own camp and his captain were worried about Alfa’s actions and wanted to remove him from combat roles.

It was an excellent premise, and I loved the narration style of the author wherein, Alfa recalled the past several times to the reader, but this was done in connection with the events that were currently happening in his life and thus it could still be considered a linear narration. At the outset, he describes his trench and his camp, and also the expectations they had of the African soldiers: which was to behave like ‘savages’ to intimidate the enemy, for that is exactly their perception of them. He also brought out the disconnect between the French and the Africans in the trench, sometimes with a bit of black comedy, wherein a soldier screams saying that he had understood the reason why he needed to die, and that was for his family pension.

The reason for the extreme behaviour of Alfa would be diagnosed as a case of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) these days. He was considered as an outcast by both the French and the African soldiers, the latter who believed that Alfa was a djëmm (Wolof for devil) – I loved these references in Wolof, be it the beliefs, superstitions, or the folktales.

My favourite part was Alfa recalling the story of his family – in a small village in Senegal called Gandiol, where we learn the traditions and social norms of the village, the ongoing ‘politics’, and risks and also their relations with neighbouring ethnicities. It was during this part that the friendship between Mademba and Alfa is brought out in full, and also their contrasting personalities, wherein Mademba was the intellectual who could even speak French and Alfa was the typical brash strongman.

I would have liked if there was more to the book as I was enthralled by the part of the story in West Africa and would have loved to have had more of it. Alfa is a complex character, with whom we can sympathise but may not particularly like and it was this layered aspect of his that I enjoyed.

To conclude, I would say that is an excellent read and I award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie – Book Review

 

People are unpredictable and most often, those who do well in life are those who know how to deal with people. This is perhaps one of the earliest books written on the subject by the writer and lecturer, Dale Carnegie, on How to Win Friends and Influence People. The skills could be useful for anyone and especially given my personality traits (overly introverted), I thought this could be a useful book.

The book is split into four parts and in each of these parts, the author preaches various ‘principles’ to influence people or gain their trust. Some of these principles include ‘do not criticise’, ‘do not argue’, ‘give a hearty praise’, etc. and all of these are supported by anecdotes from his personal life, people around him or historical personalities (he often referred to letters by Abraham Lincoln or George Washington).

Much as this book is popular and seems to have helped many people, I did not personally find this useful. Some of the principles where the author encourages empathy and urges us to see things from the other person’s perspective before coming to criticise are commendable and could be incorporated by everyone. However, this book is not about gaining meaningful friendships but being an effective salesperson and that seems to be the primary target of the author. Most of his examples are of how someone won a deal or sold a product or received a larger share of an inheritance of the lasting sorts.

My worry about the advice given in this book is that following these techniques verbatim could have an adverse effect on one’s mental health. While they could help in gaining influence, this would be retained so long as you behave this in the manner specified throughout the relationship and the book does not have a word on standing up for yourself or fulfilling your needs. I reckon if a person spends their whole lives trying to please other people in the quest for influence, at some point you would reach your breaking point on your needs never being met.

I was uncomfortable with the author celebrating people such as Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee as distinguished persons of repute in his example (both who were prominent members of the Confederacy in the US Civil War, the side that fought to have the right to ‘own slaves’). I gather that the version I had was revised, with a lot of earlier racist connotations being edited or removed – the publisher should have done enough to remove these references.

To conclude, this book is not useful – if you have a product or service to sell, please read this book. If you wish to have friends in life, this book is not going to help in that, especially on the long run. On that note, I would award the book a rating of three on ten.

Rating – 3/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Nations are not trapped by their pasts, but events that happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago continue to exert huge influence on present-day politics. If we are to understand the politics that we now take for granted, we need to understand its origins.

Francis Fukuyama examines the paths that different societies have taken to reach their current forms of political order. This book starts with the very beginning of mankind and comes right up to the eve of the French and American revolutions, spanning such diverse disciplines as economics, anthropology and geography. The Origins of Political Order is a magisterial study on the emergence of mankind as a political animal, by one of the most eminent political thinkers writing today.’

When we look at political structures around the world, we would have several questions. Why do certain countries seem to be authoritarian for long periods of time in their history? Why are some regions politically unstable, whereas others have maintained liberal democracies for centuries? In this book, Professor Francis Fukuyama explains how political systems emerged in various parts of the world – from pre-historic times till the French Revolution.

The regions that the author discusses include China, India, Europe, the Middle East and to a limited extent, Latin America. The US is often touched upon, but the scope of the book ends at the French Revolution and thus, there is not much to cover about the US in this volume. The author explores how societies were initially organised tribally – which tended to be egalitarian and from there, multiple places have had different approaches to build institutions and the challenges that the community would face during this process. Political order has three components according to the author, being state building, rule of law and establishing accountability of the government.

The main points argued by the author is that the success or failure of a state is not often defined by resources that they have at their disposal or the battles won but the institutions that are built. To build on these – the author brings about several examples, the most profound being the ones centred around England – how they developed a strong state as compared to a weaker absolutist state in France and Spain. It was interesting that many of the references that the author had were books that I had read earlier, like Machiavelli’s Prince or Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.

I was initially sceptical about this book over the neutrality of the author’s perspective considering his political leanings, having served in the Reagan administration and being a founder of what I consider a very toxic ideology – neoconservatism. To be fair to him, the author has distanced himself from these ideals and the Republican Party during the 21^st Century. But I would say that this book is neutral and does not aim at putting forth a particular manner of administration or ideology as superior to the other.

If politics and history interest you, this book provides a good insight to both of them. There are people who often believe that several government institutions are redundant; this book can provide with examples as to why those are necessary for effective state building and also why having an all-powerful authority at the top is not viable and if achieved, has hardly been good for the state.

This book could deter hyper nationalists / jingoists when their respective nation is evaluated and that their past was not all that glorious but then, I do not expect them to pick up a book of this kind. I might have liked a more dedicated section on Japan and their largely isolationist policy till the 20^th Century; and how they built such a state.

On the whole, I would say that considering my personal interests on both politics and history, I found this book very insightful. If you have similar interests, you would like this book too. This author has done enough to get me interested in the second volume and I shall be reading it soon. On that note, I award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy 

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They're each looking for something - a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . .’

Girl, Woman, Other is a Booker Prize winning novel written by Bernadine Evaristo featuring twelve principal characters – all of them being Black British women. Each of these characters were connected to the other in some way or the other; inevitable the first two characters in a chapter being a mother-daughter relationship (or the other way round) and the third being a woman closely involved in the lives of one or both of them.

The book features people from different sections of the society – a well to do playwright and her rebellious daughter, an immigrant from Nigeria running a successful business and her daughter who gets admitted to Oxford and is losing her ‘Nigerian identity’, a teacher, a struggling teenage single mother, a self-identified ‘gender free’ character, etc. Through these characters, the author explores multiple themes, patriarchy, privilege, racism, one of intersectionality – wherein some of the characters would often be facing discrimination at three levels, that is, being a woman, being black and also being lesbian.

The book is written in an odd manner, I was initially wondering if there was a mistake in my version of the book or that there was a printing error throughout. The book is in a poetic structure wherein, there are hardly any complete sentences and there are paragraph breaks all the time. However, I got used to it within the first twenty pages and could then enjoy and start appreciating this style of writing.

I liked how each of these characters were connected – which added an inadvertent element of suspense as to at what point is this character going to be connected to an earlier character (or characters). However, the relationship between the characters is not as important as the individuals themselves, as each of them had their own complexities. My favourite section was the chapter involving Bummi (the Nigerian immigrant mentioned earlier) and her daughter Carole, who looked down on most of her classmates and then, the story is presented from the perspective of one such classmate. It gets interesting when each character seems justified while narrating the stories from their perspective.

I was circumspect about the manner in which she conveyed some of her messages, perhaps to engage better with a global audience (for I am sure that the author is more aware of West Africa than I am). This was when she repeatedly used the word Nigerian – like Bummi telling Carole that she must embrace her Nigerian identity and marry only a Nigerian man, which is a very culturally diverse place with ethnicities having of little connection to each other. From their profile, I could infer that Bummi was an Igbo and every time she said ‘Nigerian’, she perhaps meant Igbo or a related ethnic group (and likely not a Hausa or a Fula who are also ‘Nigerians’).

I enjoyed every chapter, but some could feel that there is heavy repetition involved my most of the characters often repeating the same themes of patriarchy or intersectionality. I also felt that there could have been a bit more diversity in the book – with a less privileged White British character. There was a promising conversation between Yazz, the teenage daughter of a playwright and her Cornish friend about a ‘privilege olympics’ and I might have perhaps liked a story dedicated to this friend. But I do appreciate that not all characters were based in London.

On the whole, this book was a great read – was an engaging style of writing for various reasons (be it language or even the structure), the multiple themes that were explored and the engaging characters. On that note, I would award this book an eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Our lives are driven by a fact that most of us can't name and don't understand. It defines who our friends and lovers are, which careers we choose, and whether we blush when we're embarrassed.

That fact is whether we're an introvert or an extrovert.

The most fundamental dimension of personality, at least a third of us are introverts, and yet shyness, sensitivity and seriousness are often seen as a negative. Some of the world's most talented people are introverts - without them we wouldn't have the Apple computer, the theory of relativity and Van Gogh's sunflowers. In Quiet, Susan Cain shows how society misunderstands and undervalues introverts while giving them the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths.’

What if everyone in the world had the same personality? I believe that would make the human race a lot less interesting, however, our societies do place higher importance on some personality types than others. And one of those misunderstood personalities are those who identify themselves as introverts, considering they are often associated with being sad, cold, depressed, ‘not living their life’, etc. It is possible that introverts might suffer from the above conditions but is not necessarily the norm.  Susan Cain tries to uncover introverts in this book – to put these people out in a world that can’t stop talking.

The book is split into four parts, the first explaining the ‘ideal extrovert’ the society tends to place an emphasis on, the second is the causes of personality types (biology, genetics, etc.), the third part is about how different cultures around the world view personality types (the author assumes that her reader is an American) and finally how to work with the introverted personality type that people have. The book is a mix of science – to what extent are they driven by genetics quoting from various studies and experiments; social norms – how much they influence personality types and also several anecdotes to explain various personal situations one might face (like a workplace situation) or social issues at large – such as the Civil Rights movement in the United States and the 2008 Financial Crisis.

I found the book insightful as well as useful. However, I am unsure as to how much of this is influenced by the fact that I could relate to the book considering I identify myself as one (and that is the assessment I receive from every personality test, including the famous Myers-Briggs test). The book also works on dispelling a lot of myths – that teams by default are more efficient and working alone is to be discouraged, that extroverted managers get the best results, etc. The author also acknowledges at the outset that no individual is a total extrovert, or a complete introvert and people often adapt according to surroundings and thus, has sections on how introverts could get the best out of their personality type given the value placed extraversion.

An issue I had with the book was that the author often indulged in what I would call ‘extrovert bashing’. She tried to not only prove that extraversion does not have any correlation with efficiency, performance, or competence (could have stopped there), but also tried to assert how introverts do most of the tasks better. This seemed to go against the initial premise of the book which emphasised the need on every personality type.

There were a lot of interesting points I noted, and the most interesting one I found was that babies who tend to be highly reactive grow up to be introverts and vice versa (my perception was quite the opposite). Something I would have been interested to know is how much environments and circumstances influence personality types, as I have read articles in reputed magazines such as The Economist which suggest that children from wealthy backgrounds tend to be extroverts as their position in the society gives them the confidence to be outspoken.

To conclude, I would say that this is a good book, and could be insightful especially when someone close such as a partner or a child is of an opposite personality type. On that note, I would rate this book seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Shalimar the Clown by Sir Salman Rushdie – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Los Angeles, 1991. Maximilian Ophuls is knifed to death on the doorstep of his illegitimate daughter India, slaughtered by his Kashmiri driver, a mysterious figure who calls himself Shalimar the Clown. The dead man is a World War II Resistance hero, a man of formidable intellectual ability and much erotic appeal, a former United States ambassador to India, and subsequently America’s counter-terrorism chief. The murder looks at first like a political assassination but turns out to be passionately personal.

This is the story of Max, his killer, and his daughter – and of a fourth character, the woman who links them all. The story of a deep love gone fatally wrong, destroyed by a shallow affair, it is an epic narrative that moves from California to France, England, and above all, Kashmir: a ruined paradise, not so much lost as smashed.’

Shalimar the Clown is a novel from Salman Rushdie released in late 2000s, featuring four principal characters and a plot based in three different continents. As in most Rushdie novels, there is a story, featuring a particular family, with politics of the places involved in the background.

Coming to the plot – a former American diplomat is killed in the US by his driver. The story then moves back in time to Kashmir, featuring a rural Hindu girl Boonyi who is in love with Abdullah Noman, a Kashmiri Muslim who performs tightrope acts in the village. Despite their religious differences, the village elders are in favour of their marriage, which would also make the statement that they were Kashmiris before their religious identities.

On the other side, there is an ambitious man from Strasbourg, France – Max Ophuls. His tact and seductive skills make him a valuable asset for the French resistance against the Nazi regime during the Second World War. Following the war, he moves to the US and is posted to India as their ambassador, which is where Max’s love affair with Kashmir begins.

The story has four main characters and each of them have a segment named after them. The four are Max, India (Max’s daughter), Boonyi and the title character, Shalimar the Clown. This story moves across timelines and similar to the other Rushdie novels – with multiple complex characters – with some based in the West with ties to South Asia. The author often plays along people having multiple identities and acting accordingly – for instance, Max – a Frenchman from a region which has often shifted between France and Germany, with a British wife, and later becoming a US diplomat.

The political shift and radicalisation that took place in Kashmir was brought out well by the author – where a culture that encouraged an interfaith marriage and participated in social events together regardless of religion; were taken to violence and eventual doom. The effect the conflict had on civilians was brought out well – be it atrocities from the Muslim extremists or Indian army.

An equally interesting character was the title character – Shalimar the Clown, who was content staying in the village who had fallen in love with Boonyi, who had bigger ambitions and did not want to be ‘stuck’ in the same place and was looking for an opportunity to leave. However, the segment with both Shalimar and Boonyi was a tad long – with too many characters being introduced and beyond a point, it became difficult to keep track of them, especially considering that they were important in the subsequent phases.

The author being an atheist himself, did not have second thoughts in bringing out absurdities in religion, where a bit of dark humour was involved when a group of Muslim women pacify an extremist mob by using the religious limitations that the men have.

Without spoilers, I would say that I was not satisfied with the ending of the book. It was not particularly bad, but considering the way that the story was going, it was not quite what I expected.

On a personal level – this story was highly relatable for me, considering I have lived most of my life in India and a substantial portion in France (my current residence), and all the principal characters are from these places, and I really enjoyed the description of the city of Strasbourg, loved it as much as my visit to the city. So, if you could relate with the underlying themes, you could enjoy it better, but regardless, it is a great read.

To conclude – this could be classified as a cliched story involving love, ambition, jealousy and revenge but what makes it special is the narration, and the subtle themes going on in the background. If you have enjoyed other works of Rushdie, this would be an enjoyable read too – I would not place it quite at the level of Midnight’s Children or The Satanic Verses, but a notch below and on that note, I would award this book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Culture Map by Erin Meyer – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of the crowd. It's no surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos breaks out.

In The Culture Map, INSEAD professor Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain in which people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together. She provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business, and combines a smart analytical framework with practical, actionable advice.’

The Culture Map is a book explaining the cultural differences between various places and why it is important to understand them in order to make multicultural teams work. The book is from the American professor based in France, Erin Meyer, and she describes eight scales required to understand cultural differences and navigate through them.

The eight she describes are communicating, evaluating, persuading, leading, deciding, trusting, disagreeing, scheduling. And for each of these, the writer has a binary scale (example: for leading – egalitarian vs hierarchical) and the book is split into eight chapters for each of them. Most of them are supported by her own experiences in the corporate world and occasional references to books or studies.

The only takeaway I had from the book is that we need to be conscious that people behave in a certain way for cultural reasons or some other reason and not necessarily to offend the person the other person. This is a benefit of doubt that I believe people ought to be given regardless of cultural differences (even your next-door neighbour from childhood). It was interesting to note that cultural perceptions are relative – where in her book – she states how Germany is strict about timings, France relatively less and India is flexible and thus, a German feels that the French are too flexible with timings and Indians feel they are too rigid. Having been raised in India myself, I would say that for me, coming late for no reason is not good behaviour anywhere, including India.

There was an occasion where she mentioned that some of her observations are ‘dramatic oversimplifications’. I would go further and say that it was not some, but most of her book – building on stereotypes and biases. While it is true that some stereotypes could be true, acting on them as the author suggests could lead put oneself on a very slippery slope.

The book seemed low on research – no references on studies or the data or sample size she had used to build her eight scales axes for the various parameters. The book was entirely based on her personal experiences, while individual experiences provide valuable lessons, the conclusions she has drawn from these personal anecdotes are too strong. This is pertinent considering this was not a book recounting her experiences in the corporate world across geographies, but a book providing instructions on how to prepare presentations or engage in corporate negotiations to its readers.

Owing to her personal experiences, she appears to have knowledge on US and western Europe (particularly France, UK, Germany and the Netherlands). However, her knowledge of Asia seemed superficial and often contradictory, where on the one side, she refers to a supposed Confucian culture sphere which courts a very large territory from Vietnam, China, Korea till Japan and on the other side, talking about how different Chinese and Japanese cultures are.

Culture is a factor that is not solely influenced by nationality, it could play a large part but there is also the question of environment, rural or urban upbringing, etc. There could be various distinct cultures within the same sovereign state – where the author herself often refers to herself as a Minnesota mother, not an American mother or even the subnational Midwestern mother.

I would have been perhaps interested if she touched upon what enforces the culture among large groups of people – is it the family traditions? The school system? She does partially try to answer this by saying her son has a ‘French culture’ because of attending a French school but does not elaborate on that. While she comfortably puts people in boxes as per their passports, she does avoid placing multicultural states in Europe in any of the axes or even discuss them – like Belgium or Switzerland. For that matter, when France, Germany, Netherlands and the UK can be seen as being so distinct, it is rather naïve to paint large multi-ethnic countries like India or China with one brush.

While it could be important to navigate the cultural differences, this book does not provide solutions. I have met the equivalent of nearly every person in her anecdotes during my period in the corporate world and they were not necessarily from the countries that the author described and sometimes, from the ‘opposite culture’ (according to this book).

This book is largely targeted at Americans and plays on American stereotypes and biases, it could provide some insights to people who have hardly had interactions with people from other parts of the world. To those who have had, this book is inaccurate and does not help. On that note, I award the book a rating of four on ten.

Rating – 4/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people.

How to manage money, invest it, and make business decisions are typically considered to involve a lot of mathematical calculations, where data and formulae tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world, people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together.

In The Psychology of Money, the author shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important matters.’

The Psychology of Money is a collection of twenty essays from Morgan Housel – fund manager and former columnist to the Wall Street Journal. The author focuses on how staying wealthy is behavioural than the ability to earn.

To build his case, the book starts with the story of Ronald Read – who had a very different profile compared to other multi-millionaire philanthropists; that he was a janitor and gas station in a small town in Vermont, US. This was the result of frugal living and investing most of the savings in blue chip stocks resulting in compounded gains over the years. Most of us wish to be millionaires but the reasons why we wish to be millionaires in most cases is not for financial independence but rather, a desire to spend a million dollars, which is very different from being a millionaire.

Considering this paradox where to be wealthy, you should not be spending it; the author builds the case for saving money over the many essays. Most of it was behavioural advice which is simple to follow in personal life.

This book was well presented and was simple to read. As promised by the author, each of these essays were short; the 20^th essay being his own journey of accumulating wealth. Some of the observations were important, being an economics graduate myself – one of the fundamental assumptions we have is that financial decisions are rational; though from the perspective of personal economics, it is difficult to be fully rational (need to be only reasonably rational). To elaborate on that, when debt is available cheap and the market returns are higher than the cost of debt – an absolutely rational decision would mean to buy the car or house with debt; however, what is not valued is that people like being debt free and that leads to the decision of buying a major asset at once if the means are available.

The book had the following takeaways – that it is important to save, staying wealthy is largely behavioural and that it is easy to embrace some of these behaviours. A statement from the book, that is very true is:

‘The hardest financial skill is getting the goalpost to stop moving.’

This book could be read by all – but if you are looking for ways to make quick money, this book is not for you. That is perhaps the drawback of the book – that it focuses more on savings and compounding of savings and many who live paycheque to paycheque often do not have a choice when it comes to savings.

There were also times I felt that the book could have been better researched; in the notes, the author had stated their source to be ‘Quora’; which is a question-and-answer website where anyone could write an answer; hardly a reliable source. While the author’s point greed was well made, so was the example of Rajat Gupta, former CEO of McKinsey convicted for insider trading; there seems to be a temptation to portray any person with an Indian origin as having had a ‘rags to riches’ story. While Gupta did achieve enormous riches in the US, he certainly was not from the slums of Calcutta as the book described but from a privileged Indian family.

To conclude, this is an easy to read, well researched book and could be read especially by those who still have a long way to go before retirement, as they are the ones who have the maximum potential to tap into the strategies presented by the author. On that note, I would award the book a rating of six on ten.

Rating – 6/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘In this extraordinary book, Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder. Here are people who can no longer recognize everyday objects or those they love; who are stricken with violent tics or shout involuntary obscenities; who have been dismissed as autistic or retarded, yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents. If inconceivably strange, these brilliant tales illuminate what it means to be human.’

This is a book with description on 24 different clinical cases of Dr. Oliver Sacks during his career. Sacks was a neurologist from the UK who practised in the US. It needs to be mentioned that the book was published in 1985 and thus, some of the terms used are not appropriate today (eg. retarded).

The book is split into four parts – losses, excesses, transports and the world of the simple. Each of these sections had clinical cases related to the main theme – the title story The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat was under the section of ‘losses’, which was about a music professor who was suffering from visual agnosia. Transports included stories (for lack of a better word) where the patients felt transported to another location based on their past memories. In most of these clinical tales, the author also added a postscript – of similar cases the author learnt of in the future or how their patient dealt with their difficulty.

To put it bluntly, this book was neither interesting nor informative. In any non-fiction, it is reasonable to demand who is the intended audience – the public at large or those involved in the field of neuroscience? However, I felt this book pleases neither; to someone like myself with no background in the subject – this book was very technical with several technical terms thrown at me as though it was a given that an average reader would understand them. On the other hand, for someone actually in the field might feel that they do not learn anything new from this book. Moreover, I thought I was in for a scientific reading and I was disturbed by the author’s use of the word soul as though it was a medical concept; I can understand the intent – that the author wants to bring out the human in his patients and is thus randomly throwing this word around like any philosopher does, but that just makes this book lose direction.

I did mention initially that the book was published in 1985 – but at the same time, there is a foreword from the author published in 2001. Considering that, the least that he could have done was to revise some of the words that he had used so casually in this book (like ‘retard’).

My only takeaway from this book was there are several rare neurological conditions which could lead to difficulties / advantages (in some cases) – this was something that I already knew, and this book added no further information to that.

The author was perhaps a great doctor, but writing is certainly not one of his skills and this could have been a better book if there had been a co-author. On that note, I would award this book a rating of two.

Rating – 2/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Atomic Habits by James Clear – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘World-renowned habits expert James Clear has discovered a simpler system for transforming your life. He knows that lasting change comes from the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions – doing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes early, or holding a single short phone call. He calls them atomic habits.

In this ground-breaking book, Clear reveals how these tiny changes will help you get 1 percent better every day. He uncovers a handful of simple life hacks (the forgotten art of Habit Stacking, the unexpected power of the Two Minute Rule, or the trick to entering the Goldilocks Zone) and delves into cutting-edge psychology and neuroscience to explain why they matter. Along the way, he tells inspiring stories of Olympic gold medalists, leading CEOs and distinguished scientists who have used the science of small habits to stay productive, motivated and happy.

These small changes will have a revolutionary effect on your career, your relationships and your life.’

Atomic Habits is a self-help book that helps its readers build effective habits. I read the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg a few years back which was along similar lines. James Clear, the author of this book has drawn inspiration from The Power of Habit; the issue was that much as I read the book from Charles Duhigg, the implementation was not easy. I was suggested by some of my friends that this book helps us implement the changes that leads to building habits.

The author starts by introducing himself and about a terrible accident that had occurred while playing baseball; and went on to build habits that helped him excel in the same sport post recovery. The title is then explained – that the focus ought to be on the systems and processes that drive our habits – and what we need to do is several atomic changes to our way of working, which would eventually lead to better habits.

To go about this, the author proposes four laws – make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying. The author has a dedicated section to each of these ‘laws’ and proposes methods to implement them. He also brings about the important point that the ‘atomic habits’ process applies even for undesirable habits, the reason why we are unable to change several things about our way of doing things which we are unable to change.

I could relate to almost everything that the author had written in the book and I believe most of you would be able to do it as well. I made the same mistake of focusing on the goal (example: like keeping my place organised and clean) instead of focusing on the process that is involved. We tend to load all the activities required for achieving a goal at once, which inevitably makes it a difficult task; thereby making it less attractive. And if I do such an activity once in a while, I am going to end up with an unorganised room in no time since I did not focus on the process.

I liked the way the author presented the book – where he wanted the reader to have the takeaways and at the end of each chapter, there was a summary and also links to his website where we could download resources to implement the methods he had laid out.

For a quick verdict, as on the date of writing this review, it has been a month since I have read his book and a lot of his suggestions seem to have worked. The long-term impact remains to be seen; and I would need to take into account the author’s caveat – that negative habits have the same rules as positive habits and we could plunge into negative habits the same way we create a positive routine.

To conclude on the book, I was very satisfied with reading the book and the suggestions that the author presented – they are simple, easy to read and possible to follow. I wish I had read this book earlier. On that note, I would award the book a rating of nine on ten.

Rating – 9/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Book Collectors of Daraya (Les passeurs de livre de Daraya) by Delphine Minoui – Book Review

 

Afin de lire mon avis en français, cliquez ici

Publisher’s write-up :

‘In 2012 the rebel suburb of Daraya in Damascus was brutally besieged by Syrian government forces. Four years of suffering ensued, punctuated by shelling, barrel bombs and chemical gas attacks. People’s homes were destroyed and their food supplies cut off; disease was rife.

Yet in this man-made hell, forty young Syrian revolutionaries embarked on an extraordinary project, rescuing all the books they could find in the bombed-out ruins of their home town. They used them to create a secret library, in a safe place, deep underground. It became their school, their university, their refuge. It was a place to learn, to exchange ideas, to dream and to hope.

Based on lengthy interviews with these young men, conducted over Skype by the award-winning French journalist Delphine Minoui, The Book Collectors of Daraya is a powerful testament to freedom, tolerance and the power of literature.’

Note: I read the book in French

The Book Collectors of Daraya is a book on the underground library in a Damascus suburb named Daraya, managed by four young men. It is written by the journalist Delphine Minoui, who has worked for more than a decade covering the Middle East. In this book, she has not only written about the library but also about the city, the four people whom she interviewed for this book and also the situation in Syria, since the start of the civil war in 2011 (this book was published in 2017).

This started when the author read a Facebook post from the page ‘Humans of Syria, which talked about a man named Ahmad, one of the persons in charge of an underground library. Daraya is a rebel-controlled Damascus suburb and under the rubbles of the houses destroyed by the bombings of the Assad regime were books of all kinds, classics, philosophy, self-help, etc. Even though Ahmad was initially sceptical about the idea as he considered books to be a means of propaganda of the regime, he saw this as an act of rebellion and made the library a symbol of resistance (also need to consider that they found some books that were banned by the regime).

Even though the writer is a journalist who reports on events, this is a book on the people, mainly her four key contacts, being Ahmad, her principal interlocutor; Shadi – the young photographer who was like a ‘journalist’ but at the same time, also a witness to the atrocities; Omar – a combatant for the Free Syrian Army and the intellectual of the group and Hussam – who was maintaining a long-distance relationship.  I liked that these people had their strong principles that they were not ‘thieves’ but mere guardians of the books and had noted the original owners of each of these books and promised to have it returned once the war was over. I did not know much about the city of Daraya before I read the book but based on what I understood from what was written, this was probably a suburb of the bourgeoisie considering how cosmopolitan Ahmed’s interests were – who enjoys films of Amélie Poulain and the works of Paulo Coelho. In the modern world, the elites have a cushion during most crises and manage to avoid the worst of it, but war is an exception, where everyone is reduced to a situation where having the basic needs covered is a luxury.

I liked that she did pose some difficult questions which were necessary, like when she asked Omar if he considered himself a jihadist. It was also interesting that even after all the bombing by the Assad regime, Daraya was under civilian control and not the military (neither the Free Syrian Army, nor the Al Nusra Front or ISIS) and that was the reason why a majority of the young in the town could avoid being radicalised.

To read books of this kind is not easy, especially where it inadvertently ends up having an element of suspense as I was very worried thinking about whether these four young men survived as at the end of this book. The only difference between a thriller novel and this is that this on real people and not a character in a book.

I was recalling what I used to think during the start of the Arab Spring, when Mubarak’s regime collapsed, followed by the lynching, and deposing of Gaddafi, my immediate thought was that ‘the next is probably going to be the Assad family in Syria’. Three years later, I was embarrassed by my naivete, considering the situation in Syria which ended up being a gory civil war made worse by a dirty geopolitical game played by the different powers within and outside the region. Maybe for me, all this was merely an intellectual exercise and does not directly affect me in any way but the sad part is that a lot of these young people in Syria had the same hope, that it was their turn next to dethrone the dictator and obtain their freedom; and it is unfortunate that we are very far away from that at present.

I felt that sometimes, the bias that the author had towards the Free Syrian Army was apparent, and she presented a black and white picture where FSA was composed of fighters who fought for justice and that cruelty was the only aspect of the Assad regime. I am neither justifying Assad nor am I tarnishing FSA but the situation for sure is a lot more complicated than that. I am sure that the author is more competent than I am on this subject, but this book is very short (160 pages) and she could have written a longer book giving more details.

She tried to touch upon a lot of subjects, we had a lot of interesting information in bits and pieces. For example, I was wondering where the women of Daraya were during all this chaos and out of nowhere, a letter written by the women to François Hollande (the then president of France) appears. And then, nothing, again. Perhaps we could dismiss it easily as a cultural constraint when it comes to the involvement of women, but I am sure that at a time of crisis, these constraints are not going to work and we would be able to see the best out of every person (or the worst, depending on which side one is on).

Since she is a journalist, she has the style of writing typical of that of a journalist; while I find no fault with that, I often felt that I was reading the news again on the civil war. I was more interested in knowing about the people impacted than the history surrounding it (which is available in many other sources). I also understand that not all the readers are fully informed on the situation and thus, it is important to give the context, but under such circumstances, as aforementioned, it is better to have written a longer book.

Pour conclure, c’est un livre intéressant, facile à lire même si c’est triste. C’est un peu déséquilibre, j’estime deux tiers vers l’histoire et le reste sur les quatre hommes et la bibliothèque. Je donne le livre une note de sept sur dix.

To conclude, I would say that this is an interesting book, easy to read even though it is a recollection of sad events. It is a bit lopsided; I reckon two thirds towards the recent history of Daraya and Syria and large and the remaining on the four men and the library that they managed. I award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy