harish p i
One of the best travelogues that I have read in recent times. It also serves as an eye opener- about the plight of truck drivers, who are always portrayed as the shady, ruffian, antisocials by media and popular movies. Highly recommended..!!!
The concept sounded interesting. But the treatment was pretty basic and the content was unfunny most of the times.
The Full article is posted here
Ever since the Russia invaded into Ukrainian territory, I have read many articles, blog posts, opinion pieces and YouTube videos analysing the motives behind it. Most of them are obviously biased, more interested in assigning blame on any one party among the three that are involved and not particularly bothered about objectivity. I scanned several books written on the subject, to find at least a partially objective one that can help me understand the conflict.
I found such a book when I came up on Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce To Uncivil War by Paul D'anieri, a political scientist who is an expert on Ukraine and Russia. The uncivil war referred in the title is not the present conflict. It is the one in 2014 in which Russia annexed Crimea after a protest in Ukraine that ousted its government, which Russia backed. In that sense, the book is incomplete by a very small degree for my purpose, but it can be still crucial in comprehending the current episode.
Oryx and Crake is an enjoyable apocalyptic science fiction, that succeeds in making the reader imagine a future where bio-engineering makes the life of humans and animals a means for profit generation and the horrible results of that.
Read the full story here:
http://diaryofaragingbull.blogspot.com/2017/01/oryx-and-crake-dystopian-novel-about.html
I took more than a year to complete this wonderful collection of stories and it was worth the time. Along the way it helped to discover some great writers like Tanizaki and Mishima, and made me read some elegant Japanese books including Some Prefer Nettles, Sanshiro and Memory Police. Overall a year that was well spent..!!!
A quick and interesting read about how rampant modernization tramples the aesthetics of the society.
Territory of Light is the story of a single mother and the challenges she faces in the society with her kid daughter. It is a very warm and intimate novel.
All Systems Red is a short, fast-paced page-turner that, at the same time, touches very briefly on several interesting aspects of corporate culture, human greed, teamwork, and assimilation. It points out several pertinent topics with an amazing economy of words, which turns out to be more effective than long essays or philosophical dissertations. I enjoyed the short novel for its interesting portrayal of the AI protagonist, subtle humour, incessant thrills, and its potential to make the reader ponder the positive and negative effects of a technology that can alter the experience of being human.
Open-eyed Meditations is a book written by Shubha Vilas that aspires to interpret some of the wisdom emanated through our epics and find out how it can be beneficial to modern living. I had read some parts of his series Ramayana- The game of life, which concentrated on retelling Ramayana in a way that would be helpful to practically use it in our everyday life. This book also has a similar approach, but instead of a structured retelling, it consists of simple essays that deals with individual issues that we face daily and remedial measures that can be adopted from classics. This is more like a self help reference guide, that can be consulted easily by using the content section which, I find more practical and effective.
The book consists of sixty four short essays about topics as varied as professional choices, mental health and marital relations. Each chapter has a clear example from either Ramayana or Mahabharatha from which we can learn how they tackled similar issues and how we too can take a similar approach in our life. Each chapter has a crisp summary in its end which is really helpful for future reading and referencing.
The Alchemist was good because the motivational message gelled with the plot being told, but in case of The Spy, the plot suffers due to the author's fetish for disbursing street wisdom in between every sentence.
Read the full story:
http://diaryofaragingbull.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-spy-by-paulo-coelho-crossing-wisdom.html
Storm In A Teacup is a book written by a physicist that explains how knowledge of physical laws enhance your understanding about the world that we live in. This understanding can be an enriching experience.
After reading this book, I feel this is the way to learn new things. Acquired knowledge, even if it is about subatomic particles, is only useful when we are able to relate it to the small and large phenomena that happens around us. This way of learning can help us in finding ways to improve our lives too.
As it is written in 2016, many of recent developments are not mentioned. Hope the author makes an updated revised edition.
A collection of short stories that dispels the notion of Japanese women as doll like, duty bound existences in an overtly patriarchal society. Kono's women have their own personality, their own vices and bear their own crosses. The stories are masterfully wound around familial settings and culminates in upsetting the reader's perception of how the end is supposed to be.
Michel Kichka is a left leaning Israeli cartoonist. I happened to read two of his autobiographical works that are published as graphic novels- Second Generation and Falafel With Hot Sauce. Second generation is a book about his relationship with his father who is a Holocaust survivor.
I have written my detailed view in my blog post here
Two rare tigers are siphoned off a zoo. The onus of recovering them is shouldered by Virgil Flowers. If the animals were stolen by Chinese medicine makers, as he suspects, he has very less time to do his job, because they may be murdered any moment due to logistical reasons.
This is far better than Storm Front, the last Virgil Flowers novel by Sandford that I read. The story is good, the humor is just ok and there is enough built up of tension and suspense to satisfy me. I loved the antagonist. He starts off as a petty criminal, ends up really horrible and the trajectory is well etched. What I hated was that the protagonist was pathetic. He is so dim-witted that most of the clues are prompted to him by side kicks. Even on combat he is pretty much an embarrassment. If it's intentionally done that way (like the infinitely better and wittier Dortmunder novels), it is a bad move and doesn't generate any laughs.
Hot Milk is a novel written by Deborah Levy and was short listed for Man Booker prize 2016. On the surface it appears as a sweet, short and simple tale about the love-hate relationship shared by a mother and her daughter. But I feel the simplicity of the plot is a clever facade, below which can be identified a complex study of human identity and self esteem.
Read the full story here :
http://diaryofaragingbull.blogspot.com/2017/01/hot-milk-by-deborah-levy-deceptively.html
When Breath Becomes Air is a phenomenal read because it is a pure exercise in writing. It is not written for money or fame or not with the intention of an entry in best seller list. It is written with the most basic intention why books are written- to communicate an idea, to tell the world what one has in mind. And this book tells something that is very important in a beautiful manner.
http://diaryofaragingbull.blogspot.com/2017/01/when-breath-becomes-air-dealing-with.html
All That Man Is is written by David Szalay and was short listed for Man Booker prize 2016. Though it is listed as a novel, it is actually a collection of nine stories with many recurring elements and themes. Basically it is a portrayal of manhood through specimens of nine European men of different ages and at diverse stages of life.
Read the full story here :
http://diaryofaragingbull.blogspot.com/2017/02/all-that-man-is-by-david-szalay-warm.html
Algorithms To Live By: The Computer Science Of Human Decisions is a book written by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, that tries to compare human decision making with algorithms developed by engineers for the efficient running of computer systems. The books points out several daily life cases where algorithmic logic can be employed for decision making. Algorithms are basically a series of steps that solve a problem, which is what we do in our life too, sometimes consciously, like when we assemble a furniture using instructions or many times unconsciously, like when we plan a shopping trip across multiple shops.
Read a full review here
The novel maintains its intriguing style for its whole length and manages to keep the reader invested. It is successful in making us feel inside that the truth is not what that meets the eye and there is something more than what's revealed. It exploits the unreliable narrator technique. Instead of being just an account of a gruesome action, events that lead to it and the aftermath, it stands as a powerful character study of a young man who is in the midst of tremendous pressure due to his conflicts with the society and family.
Read the full story here: http://diaryofaragingbull.blogspot.com/2017/01/his-bloody-project.html
I loved this book for its very objective take on many subjective matters. It's mind-boggling to think that history, of all things can be a subjective topic. It's even scary when you put it in plain words. In this book author tries hard not to take a side and succeeds in it without making the reader alienated or confused. I don't agree with certain points in this book, but it thankfully leaves enough space for the reader to think over independently and come to his own conclusions.
The book has a structure that's hurried and never lingers on any point for a long time. It's good because it has enough content to fill volumes if elaborated. It skims the surface of the topics it covers and leaves an invite to the interested reader to research in depth about the topics that interest him.
The Sympathizer is an intense and profound novel that is primarily about Vietnam war, but deals with contemporary issues like migration, alienation and futility of blind idealism. It is a worrying portrayal of how the society tends to keep apart the individual who are broad minded in outlook.
Read the full story:
http://diaryofaragingbull.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-sympathizer-complex-duality.html