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

Witch Hunt by Ian Rankin – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Witch is a terrorist – on of the best – but this job is going to test even her to the very limit. This time her cold calculation may desert her just when she needs it most.

One her tail are three very different detectives – one woman, two men. Two at the beginning of their careers; one staking a lifetime’s experience on tracking Witch down, following a hunch to the end.

Dominic Elder’s hunch takes him from England to Europe and back, but the clues that solve the biggest crimes, dig out the deepest secrets, are often the smallest ones – ones that only the junior sleuths, fresh out of spy school, pick up. But will he listen?’

Witch Hunt is a spy thriller novel written by Ian Rankin under the name Jack Harvey, a name he used in the 90s for writing thriller novels. This book came out in the 90s and thus, the limitations then must be kept in mind, especially when one of the characters is supposed to be tech savvy.

The story starts with a woman crossing the English Channel in a boat, destroying the boat but deliberately leaving traces behind. Back in the UK, this interests Dominic Elder – a retired MI5 operative, who has a history with the modus operandi of this kind of a crime, a terrorist whom he has codenamed the witch. Elder comes out of retirement and sends the young Michael Barclay off to France to trace the Witch while focusing on what is the terrorist’s intent in the UK. Amidst all this, is also the tussle between different agencies – the MI5, the MI6, local police, the French secret service (DST), etc.

The premise of the plot was interesting and being a crime novel writer, the author maintained the mystery around the Witch character, perhaps a tad too long for a thriller novel. The initial few pages are gripping which kept me curious enough to gather more details about the Witch. However, too many characters were introduced in the initial pages – it took a while for the main character Elder to appear, and then there was Barclay – who reported to his boss Joyce Parry, and on the other side, there were detectives Greenleaf and Doyle, along with several characters introduced on both sides of the English Channel during Elder and Barclay’s travels in England and France, respectively. I could focus only on four characters when it came to their character development and could not devote attention to the principal antagonist, the Witch, either.

Red herrings are great for a police procedural whodunnit novels, but not so for a thriller. Considering the way this novel ended, a lot of events were unnecessary or were mere distractions. This meant that the book need not have been as long as what it turned out to be. I normally enjoy Rankin’s writing, but I realise that it happens when I enjoy the plot along with it, in this book I felt that he was unnecessarily verbose.

This was a book where I felt a good start was ruined by the way it carried on – normally I like plots that revolve around the world and in fact, I enjoyed one of the earlier Jack Harvey thriller novels, namely Blood Hunt, to the extent that I thought perhaps, Jack Harvey is a better writer than Ian Rankin and that thriller novels are his calling. I might try the last remaining Jack Harvey novel in due course but for now, I would prefer going back to his Inspector Rebus novels.

On that note, I would award this book a rating of four on ten.

Rating – 4/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!’

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the first book in the seven book Harry Potter series. Released in the late 90s, this book took the world by storm in the decade that followed – with an active fan base, roaring merchandise sales and a multimillion-dollar movie franchise. Despite all this, this is the first time I am reading this book by myself – this book was read to me when I was a child and thus, I always knew the story from the book, but it has taken several years before I picked it up myself.

Coming to the plot – there is a boy living with his spoiled cousin, uncle, and aunt. It started out as a typical fairy-tale of the oppressed orphan who had a greater calling and was to be guided to it by a guardian angel. And that he was, by Hagrid – the gamekeeper of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – came to pick Harry up and take him to ‘his world’ the world of magic. His parents were killed by a power hungry dark lord during the wizarding war but surprisingly, had himself incapacitated while trying to kill Harry; thus making him the Boy who lived, extremely famous among wizards for this feat, a fame which to this moment he is unaware of.

The book features Harry’s adventures in his first year of school, where he has two friends, Ron the funny one and Hermione, the smart one – thus forming the triangle of a standard young adult novel. There are various challenges Harry needs to face, adapting to the new world, learning the skills (whilst being a frequent target considering his fame) and of course, terrible things begin to happen at Hogwarts which the curious eleven year olds try to solve.

I would confess that when I was young, I have fantasised a lot of situations from the Harry Potter universe – wishing that my school were like Hogwarts and the amazing world that the wizards lived in. In that sense, the author had done an excellent job in capturing the imagination of the readers and that perhaps explains the fame that this had. We are introduced a fine range of characters with diverse characteristics, Albus Dumbledore – the protective headmaster of the school, the professors McGonagall and Snape; while the former was the disciplinarian, the latter maintained an air of mystery around him throughout the plot. There was Hagrid, who was the caring figure and provided Harry with the sense of family that he never had, and Malfoy – his rival who always seemed envious of Harry and his friends.

It was an engaging plot and certainly a page turner, as the curiosity surrounding the events in the school and also the reader’s quest to learn more about this new world kept me going (or what would have kept me going had I been introduced to it for the first time). While I praised the wide range of characters that were introduced, I also felt that they lacked the layers that normally produce characters whom we love. They were either good or evil and there was nobody in between. For instance, taking the example of Dursleys (Harry’s uncle and aunt) – they did not shy away from the responsibility they felt towards Harry, did not leave him to a foster home / orphanage and did raise him for eleven years. When such options were available to them, their behaviour towards him made no sense unless you buy into the logic that they are ‘evil people’. Same could be said for the other characters who played a negative role such as Draco Malfoy.

Again, I understand that this is a young adult novel and thus, the protagonist who is normally a schoolkid saves the day; however, one must understand that people like Headmaster Dumbledore are presented as infallible and the abilities of the other staff in the school are spoken of very highly. However, despite all this – it falls to the three curious first year students to ‘fix’ everything, which only has one conclusion, the management of the school was not as great as it was projected to be.

Over time, I have been a lot disillusioned with the kind of world that seems to have been portrayed in this universe, but I would address that separately in another article.

To conclude, I would say that it was a fine start to the series – and I would reiterate that it is a standard young adult novel (it is not ageless as the fans claim) and if you like such novels, this is certainly a great series to read and I would say with absolutely certainty that it is better to read the book than to watch the film.

I would rate this book six on ten.

Rating – 6/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Intimations by Zadie Smith – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Crafted with the sharp intelligence, wit and style that have won Zadie Smith millions of fans and suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these unprecedented times, Intimations is a vital work of art, a gesture of connection and an act of love - an essential book in extraordinary times.’

Intimations is a set of six essays (with one of them having a lot of sub-essays within the essay) from the writer Zadie Smith written during the covid-19 pandemic of 2020. Considering we have lived through this pandemic, with each of us having our own experiences, it was interesting to read what a popular writer had to express during these times.

The book contains essays on diverse topics and are her opinions on various topics, including American exceptionalism, suffering, the strange society where demanding a basic need such as healthcare is deemed ‘radical’, self-hatred, and how the biggest virus threating us is contempt. I liked the essay titled ‘Something to do’ where the author writes about the problem we face during the pandemic – that we are under a compulsion to be engaged in something all the time. And during the pandemic, most of us have had a lot of time (even those who were employed cut down on travel time) and this was an issue that most of us faced and I could completely relate to it. However, what I found interesting was the author making a comparison with artists – that it is a problem that artists have had by nature of their profession and thus, she was familiar with it from before, but this is faced by everyone else at present – it gives us the opportunity to think about it and understand that we do not need something to do all the time.

My favourite essay here was – contempt as a virus – where she explains the contempt we have for certain groups – such as poor or minorities is the most dangerous virus we have at present. It is true that even in the most liberal environments, the locality is deemed unliveable if the percentage of undesirable minorities goes beyond a certain acceptable percentage and thus, are largely homogeneous societies. And this contempt spreads easily – from generation to generation and among peers within a generation – that most parents want their children to be among other children of similar background and not be stricken by the virus of poverty. This is something that everyone is affected by to varying degrees – including you and I.

There were a few essays where I was not sure what she was trying to express, one being Provocation in the Park, where she was disturbed by one of the signs held by a student – she was confused what he was trying to say but then, from what I understood, she never made any effort to talk to him and instead, just chose to write an essay about the placard. The final essay – Intimations too, I did not understand the intent, at first, I understood it to be her version of acknowledgements where she was thanking multiple people in her life, but the list soon becomes very generic and contains several people, including Muhammad Ali.

This is a book relevant given the times we are living in and it is a short read. The proceeds of the book go to a charity in New York and if you are compelled by that cause if not by the book, you are welcome to try it out. On that note, I award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics, explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for intelligent interventions toward a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary book, one that will help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.’

Good Economics for Hard Times is a book on topics of public policy the MIT economists and Nobel Laureates – Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. The book is split into nine chapters, dealing with the most contentious topics of the day such as immigration, economic growth, healthcare, tax cuts, environmental policy, education, and the impact of behavioural aspects in all of these.

Much as the title of the book suggests that it is a book relating to personal economics/ microeconomics, it is entirely directed towards public policy. The authors analyse various popularly held myths – such as immigration lowering wages, tax cuts leading to higher economic growth, misuse of funds by welfare recipients, etc. Following the election of madman Donald Trump in the 2016 US Presidential Election – the sole talking point for the next four years was the need to address the concerns of the blue-collar workers in the former industrial towns in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. This was analysed well in this book – about how there is very little that could be done about reviving a declining industry (like coal) but there was an interesting proposition about the government’s need to subsidise the wages of the employees who would be unable to immediately find another means of employment.

The book was very unlike a traditional economics book – wherein the ones proposing the theory is very sure of the list of chain reactions that is going to befall if a policy is implemented; for example, if rent controls are implemented, the rents will naturally rise to the market price and thus, the difference between the prescribed amount and market rate would lead to under table payments and undeclared income – leading to loss of federal revenue. The reality is, we are not sure if that would be the case and that is what is repeated several times in this book – that we do not know for sure what the effects of certain public policy would be, they might succeed sometimes and fail during other times. The authors start by saying that as of today, economists are one of the least trusted professionals after politicians and goes on to explain that economists are not like physicists but more like plumbers which involves a bit of intuition as well as experience. And as members of the public, we often try to draw our conclusions based on anecdotes rather than real data and the reasoning goes along the lines of, ‘I know my neighbour who spends all their welfare money on alcohol and cigarettes – therefore this policy is a failure’ whereas in reality, such persons are a small percentage of the total.

It could be frustrating for many to read ‘we do not know’ so many times for almost every issue but I found that refreshing because as someone who studied economics, I have never met a professor who was not certain of the consequences of a given policy. The goals of the writers seem clear here – it is only to inform the readers what their politicians and ‘experts’ is not based on fact but merely pursuing self-interests (eg – tax cuts).

The political positions of the authors are well known, and the bias is going to be present in the way they present the facts which I do not mind. But there were times I felt they were trying to justify a result which did not match with their hypothesis, which defeats the very purpose of the analysis. For instance – there was an analysis on whether privatisation of schools help and while the conclusion was that there was no evidence of efficient management / higher academic attainment in private schools, there was an exception noted in Libera – where the authors ended up explaining a result which they did not wish to observe.

I would also say that the title of the book is misleading – as the authors do not propose many solutions and thus, there is not much ‘good economics’ involved, merely identification of what is ‘bad economics’. I do not have an alternative to suggest and it is not my place to suggest one either.

This book was far less technical than the previous book of theirs that I read, which was Poor Economics, and I would have liked it better if this book had gone further into the details of each of these schemes and how it affected real people instead of presenting broad statistics. This does challenge a lot of perceptions that we popularly hold and in that sense, I would suggest that this could be read by everyone.

On that note, I would conclude by awarding this book a seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy