Chris Orwa
A Greek tragedy on the Kenyan highlands as played by European aristocrats. This is the story of Idina Sackville and her insatiable appetite for men. She ended up marrying 5 times with countless lovers in between. Deep in Kipipiri, she entertained guests and hosted orgies. In the end, it is the man she didn't love that stayed with her until her death.
Gibran takes it a notch higher on his lamentations on the dichotomy that exists between the rich and the poor by espousing the ills of civilizations and wealth. He carries the story of inequality in life by using love as the pivot to display the disparities between the halves and have nots - you are more likely to find love in the lower wrung of life than its upper parts.
An extraordinary book about an extraordinary person who took it up to himself to study the forms of clouds. The book is about about the solo adventure of Luke Howard to understand why clouds change form and what drives their formation. The result is a stellar classification of clouds that inspired the setup of the modern meteorology.
A small group of devout Puritan Christians exiled in Leiden, Netherlands from England by King Charles' persecution of non-conformist set sail in search of a new land to worship freely in the Americas. With little knowledge on seafaring, the group hired The Mayflower ship to sail across the Atlantic ocean for the new world.
Disease, starvation, and war befell the Pilgrims as they settled in ‘New England', but they ended up setting the first successful English settlement in America and this sprung The United States of America.
In the book “The Prophet”, the scene is set on the port town of Orphalese where Kahlil Gibran's protagonist Almustafa the chosen is about to depart for his hometown and gets mobbed by followers to give his last wise words to them.
In this book, it captures the arrival of Almustafa in his hometown and hot reception to his people whom he has been separated for 12 years. He continues administering his wise words upon his people and fellow mariners upon his garden where his mother and father are laid to rest.
The mode of conversation continues in the question answer format similar to The Prophet with expanded line of questions. In the end, his followers find Almustafa to be cryptic in his answers and abadon him for that sea that is boundless and formless. Almustafa resigns to his aloness and solitude consumes him.
If you are into predictions, then David Bossie will convince you that 9/11 was a perfectly predictable events. He states that the first bombing on the World Trade Center in 1993, the Embassy bombing in Kenya & Tanzania in 1998 plus other terror activities were enough signals that Osama Bin Laden was planning a major terror activity to harm the US.
In his conclusion, 9/11 was a preventable event and it's success can be blamed on former president Clinton on his lax stand on terror plus humanistic and political ideologies that weakened the intelligence gathering capabilities of the CIA & the FBI.
The book though lacks depths to explore all the issues mentioned as failures that led to 9/11.
Another poem book from Gibran. I like the poem - Your most radiant garment is of the other person's weaving; your most savory meal is that which you eat at the other person's table; your most comfortable bed is in the other person's house. Now tell me, how can you separate yourself from the other person?
The first book I have given a 5-star rating - taken from journal accounts of soldiers and civilians who experienced the siege, the narration captures the Dickensian aspect of life that resulted in the siege and the gallantry & ingenuity of the British soldiers. The book drives home the old adage that “you can only keep what you can defend”
One man account of his interaction with the murders of the American high society. It is amazing how the author Dominick Dunne doesn't seem to have bitten by the Haute Société culture despite dining and writing about them. Most of the book covers the trial of Orenthal James (OJ) Simpson. However, the saddest part of the story is in the opening chapter where Dominick Dunne writes about the murder of his daughter Dominique Dunne.
You will also be fascinated by the second story titled ‘The Woman Who Knew Too Little', detailing the life and murder of Vicki Morgan, a socialite who was killed by Marvin Pancoast in order to rid the world of her dumbness. Equally, “Nightmare on Elm Drive” grips the nerves on how to brother killed both of their parents in order to inherit a fortune. But, nothing gets more gruesome than the savage murder of Pati Margello.
The savagery of Waffen's most notorious division Das Reich is revisited in the book. Tales of hanged men burned women and mutilated children fill the book as the 2nd SS Panzer Dvision moved from southern France to reinforce the Wehrmacht units overwhelmed by the Allied landing in Normandy.
This is also the story of the resistance in France and the role play by the maquis in delaying the advance of the 2nd SS Panzer Division to Normandy. The story of British and American troops dropped in France to train the resistants in order to mount a challenge to the Germans.
The book lacks depth in the stories of the characters but aims to tackle the question of whether the resistance movements played a crucial role in delaying the 2nd SS Panzer Division through sabotage of railways lines and bridges. In the end, it seems they played a role but not significant enough to be considered a worthy contributor to the liberation of France.
Every lie starts a partial truth, Elizabeth Holmes was a master at weaving lies and truth to end up as a billionaire. A lone journalist working on tip brought down her empire valued at $9 billion. It is amazing how she was able to fool investors, CEOs, generals, professors and statemen for 10 years. She joins the rank of Charles Ponzi, Bernie Madoff.
Makes a great read during a pandemic to understand the lab testing business.
Currencies wars were fought in this book. Four major economies (France, UK, US and Germany) in the world lock horns after world war one in race to rebuild their economies. At the center is the currencies backed by gold - each countries races to build up gold reserves in order to keep the economy afloat and fight of currencies of other countries. The end of this shaky period is the creation of the International Monetary Fund
“I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart for the joys of the multitude. And I would not have the tears that saddens makes to flow from my every part turn into laughter. I would that my life remain a tear and a smile”.The aforementioned clause in the book summarizes Khalil Gibran's perspective of life, it is always a balance between two sides. He continues by saying, “A tear to purify my heart and give me understanding of life's secrets and hidden things. A smile to draw me nigh to the sons of my kind and to be a symbol of my glorification of the gods”. The book is about the duality of life and the more forgotten aspects of life that keeps the balance. Additional tales of life and its injustice makes it a poem worth of a story.