Chris Orwa
Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.
A rushed history of the Habsburgs empire that lasted 1,000 years. Too many Habsburgs to remember all of them individually and their main achievements. The writer omits major events that shaped the history of Europe and the fate of the Habsburgs.
The incandescent madness of the Joker engulfs the home of Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon as he takes him captive, dragging him on a harrowing roller-coaster ride through an abandoned theme park. The Joker's twisted goal is to shatter Gordon's sanity, believing madness to be the ultimate escape hatch from a world weighed down by worry and relentless anxiety.
Always Batman to the rescue.
A great philosophical take on revolutions as sanctified mass murder. The author focusses on the difference between rebellion and murder; “rebellions kills men, revolutions kill men and ideas”. In it, Albert Camus is in favour of reformation (rebellion) rather than revolutions which usher in more authiritarianism than the deposed system.
A compelling story revealing China's early dominance as a naval power, predating European nations. Setting sail with over 100 vessels, a monumental voyage departed China to explore uncharted territories, resulting in the creation of the world's first precise map. European powers later utilized these maps to assert control over distant lands through colonization. Historical evidence suggests that the Chinese reached the Americas before Columbus and other European explorers. Without the invaluable maps crafted by the Chinese, the conquest of the Americas would likely have been delayed.
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.
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.
Erich Fromm's The Sane Societ delivers one of the most piercing critiques of modern mental health, arguing that the very fabric of contemporary life, especially under capitalism, is driving us mad. With surgical precision, Fromm dissects the psychological cost of a system that prioritises profit over purpose, leaving individuals alienated, anxious, and spiritually adrift.
Fromm's central thesis is blunt yet compelling: if you are employed in a capitalist society, you are more likely to suffer mental distress, not because you work, but because your work is devoid of meaning. You're not shaping your destiny; you're a cog in a machine controlled by bosses, corporations, governments, and societal expectations. The primitive man, Fromm suggests, may have had fewer comforts, but he had more agency—and with it, a more stable psyche.
In the end, The Sane Society is not just a psychological diagnosis but a philosophical wake-up call. It contends that capitalism, far from being the guarantor of freedom and well-being, might be the root cause of widespread mental illness. Fromm dares us to rethink sanity not as conformity to a sick society, but as a reclaiming of our autonomy, creativity, and shared humanity.
The book is a warning on ascribing success to a method yet it could be a result coincidence - even if the “success” runs for several years.
Randomness creates opportunities for coincidence (spurious correlation), and thus accidental millionaires. Can repetition vindicate the successful ones? The book argues no, without further information about the sample size from whence the successful person emanates, it is impossible to ascribe success to a method.
A successful person from a large initial sample size has a higher chance of being successful as a result of chance. Smaller initial sample size indicates method. A befitting summary of the book is found in the phrase “it is better to be lucky than competent”.
Whenever I read Gibran, I'm struck by his deep sense of life's duality. He constantly points us toward the “other side”—urging us to widen our lens, to see through someone else's eyes. Have we ever truly considered that madmen might have their thoughts, feelings, and points of view? Gibran does—and he brings it out with a sly touch of humour. Through his poems and parables, you're left questioning by the end: who's mad—the so-called madman, or the rest of us pretending to be sane?
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”
The manifesto arouses emotions on the inequality between workers and capitalists but falls short of providing great solutions. The overthrow of the Bourgeoisie and replacement with the proletariat isn't sufficient as has been the case in Russia and China. Socialism provides better solutions than Communism.
The best summary of a detective work as penned by the writer ‘The real business of a detective is the invention of a plot'. Indeed Detective Inspector Jonathan Whicher dreamed up a plot which turned out to be closest to the truth when everyone had alternative theories on the Murder of Francis Sauville Kent. When everyone thought otherwise, the inventive detective saw through all the puzzle set by the shoestring evidence to pin the murder to the cold sister Constance Sauville.
A rollercoster ride in the life of middle class Victorians English people obsessed with murder. One may be mistaken to think is the work of fiction from Charles Dicken's pen but this was an actual murder with a real detective - the first of their kind when the Scotland Yard was formed.
The level of mannerism in the book makes gives it a hearty touch, even for the monster Dracula who addresses his prisoner with civility. In the end, it is a game of wits between a Transylvanian nobleman turned monster and the gentry of London chaperoned by a highly intelligent Dutch medical doctor.
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.
A murder mystery of the highest caliber! This captivating tale takes a thrilling turn with an unexpected twist: the writer himself is the murderer, meticulously documenting the facts while cleverly concealing his involvement with the calm demeanor of a gentleman. In modern terms, he would be considered a sociopath, fit for a lunatic asylum.
Initially, I was convinced that the murderer was one of the household servants. After reading “The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher,” I learned that once an external intruder is ruled out, the killer is almost certainly someone within the house. It then becomes a matter of identifying who had both the means and the motive.
In the case of Ackroyd's murder, all the servants had the means and motive to kill him. However, it was Hercule Poirot's brilliant detective work that uncovered the true culprit—the person with the most compelling means and motive: Dr. Sheppard!
Who would have thought a man walking around asking questions would give us the definition of justice. Socrates' dialogues with the citizens of Athens as recorded by Plato are akin to peeling an onion, one question leads to another until the topic of discourse becomes clear. This ended up being referred to a Socratic Questioning and like all philosophers, he's not the custodian on knowledge rather the midwife to bring it forth.
In the Republic, Socrates undertakes to indulge different high standing members on the society on their understanding of justice and makes follow up inquiries to get to the atomic and universal definition of justice. Is the world a just place?..... He relates justice to all facets of life and considers it the foundation of building a proper republic (christened The Republic according to Plato).
Is it just for subjects to obey their rulers? ...........................................
A harrowing account on the persecution of Jews in the Near East and Western Europe. It is wonder how Judaism survived after attempts to kill off the religion by Christian & Muslim countries.
“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.
An overview of the clergy that created one of the most sort after version of the Bible (The King James Version). The book is not a narrative of exactly how the KJV Bible was created, nor an deep analysis on it's fair language, but rather a fly by account of why and when it was made.
A rather weird and twisted book on the meaning of happiness. The main character Patrice Mersault moves from a poor person to a rich person and is still puzzled by the meaning of happiness. It seems in the end he didn't get it. The novel puts forth more questions on what's happiness rather than providing answers. In the end, money didn't but Mersault's happiness, but it allowed him to explore what's happiness, for money buys freedom.
This is a story of the love of manuscripts, jihad in West Africa, French intervention and the resilience of one man to presence the history of Mali as recorded by the manuscripts of Timbuktu recorded more than 700 years ago.
