We read and we critique

Celeste Ng’s latest novel touches on motherhood and racism and is set in Shaker Heights in Ohio, where she grew up. It is a gripping suspense filled tale where the house owner is trying to piece together the background and past of a mysterious tenant who moves into the neighbourhood with her daughter. The suspense is made possible as the story is set in the 90s where internet wasn’t ubiquitous. The author has done a lot of research on photography and the unique photography style that one of the central characters in the story uses adds more layers of mystery. I read this page turner at a furious pace to unravel the mystery. I recommend reading it if you would like a well written lighter novel which is a rarity.

In this book, Condoleezza Rice talks about her childhood, education and work life as a girl and as a young woman. For a woman who has accomplished so much in her life and who went on to become the first ever black woman to become US Secretary of State, she comes across as humble, hardworking and down to earth. She follows a simple narrative style. My one gripe is that her intelligence, above-average talent and skills don’t come through in her stories. On the positive side, after reading her memoir, some of my negativity towards a political career and politicians has reduced. I haven’t followed her career closely and I am now curious to read and get to know more about her and her achievements and get an outsider's perspective on her career and her political life to see if this corroborates her image I have formed in my mind.

This book came as a recommendation from a colleague. It is a children’s story of a group of rabbits and touches upon cruelty of man towards animals, procreation and looks at the world from animals’ point of view. I read the book summary and reviews online before starting the book and it had rave reviews extolling it as more than a children’s story where a lot of the stories and events in the book are metaphorical. For me, it did not live up to all the hype and it was like any other decently written book and nowhere close to a masterpiece or a classic. An author writes a book to give a certain message and this book is no different. Granted, the idea to present an animal view of the world is different and stands out as a unique and interesting theme but nothing else about it appealed to me. I have this habit of finishing a book once I begin and also, I am aiming at reading 36 books this year. So, I toiled and pursued. After 17.5 hours of sometimes grueling listening,...

Reading this book was like déjà vu. I had just finished reading Believe in Yourself. When I chose Think and Grow Rich as my next book, I didn’t realize they both are so similar. Both the authors have the same theory and recommendations to achieve one’s goals, so much so that I double-checked if both the books are written by the same author. This book is more prescriptive and lays down steps and instructions to get rich – The author primarily focuses on getting rich, but it can be generalized to achieving one’s goals. The author also switches between principles, deeper analysis & explanations of some of the steps & concepts and instructions. So, in a single reading of the book, it is difficult to connect all the dots and get the complete picture. When reading about the principles/steps, I again felt a sense of déjà vu as the principles/steps are extensions of each other. There is an interesting chapter on sex transmutation where the author claims all achieve...

I have read a sizable number of books in the genre of self-empowerment and positive thinking over the last couple of years and I have come to realize that each author has a perspective on how to achieve the same based on what has worked for him or her. Joseph Murphy specialized in Religious Science and has an interesting take on how conscious thoughts and strong belief influence achievement of one’s life goals. The author’s message is crisp and the biggest plus point of this book is that it is short and concise. His premise is that conscious and continuous thoughts of a goal will trigger the subconscious to come up with ways and means to achieving the goal and humans are wired this way for survival.   The stories, he quotes, of achievers and why and how they were able to achieve their dreams and reach lofty heights help in driving home the author’s point. One story among them was however counter to this premise – a lady consciously and continuously imagines tha...

Having been a Perry Mason fan in my teens and having read only a few Agatha Christie books, I picked this up to see if I could develop a deeper interest in Agatha Christie books. While deciding on which book to pick for reading, what clinched it was the intriguing plot where the date and time of murder is announced in the local newspaper. I thought that it will be very interesting to get a closer look at how an ingenious murderer operates. The Miss Marple detective story builds very well, the characters are introduced as they read the newspaper announcement, the plot continues to thicken and when three murders are committed, it is pretty much established that the murderer means serious business and the first death was not an accident but in fact a deliberately planned murder. As expected of an Agatha Christie mystery, there are a lot of suspects and the murderer revealed in the end is the least suspicious among the lot.   In such whodunit books, I am now tuned to look at ...