Act like a Lady, Think like a Man

Author: Steve Harvey
Pages: 232
Genre: Non-Fiction
My Rating: 2/5

Steve Harvey is a well known comedian who also is a host of the popular show in the West - 'Steve Harvey Morning Show'. This book authored by him lets women into the mindset of a man and sheds light on various concepts and questions. Well, to cut it short, it is just like another 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' kinda book. The book is completely tailored to the Western culture and I simply couldn't relate to it nor enjoy it. Some segments were quite hilarious, funny and direct but overall the book was a bore and I had to skip a few pages in between to reach the end... I would surely not recommend reading this book!

Freakonomics

Author: Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 210
Rating: 5/5

Synopsis: Freakonomics is a collection of economic articles by Levitt & co-author Dubner wherein they unravel the mysteries behind the events and issues we encounter in our everyday life, based on their 'unconventional' economic theories. The authors state that there is no unifying theme in the book, though the aim is to explore the 'hidden side of things'

I've been wanting to read this book for ages now and am glad I did it finally. It's one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year. One word that comes to my mind when I think of this book is - Unconventional. The book is not based on the typical economic theories and numbers. It gives a completely different view of the world. Some of the conclusions drawn by Levitt are just unbelievable and close to earth-shattering!

Levitt has a great knack of staying away from convention. He unravels the assumptions & myths layer by layer to present the 'real causes' behind the trends. The book is pretty much like a set of case studies where Levitt takes a few significant historical events (a mundane set of open-ended questions) and analyzes the trends to finally arrive at that one particular moment which actually caused the event.

The book encourages us to think laterally, out of the box, to keep our eyes open and minds alert and break out of the conventional ways of thinking and see through the trends with a fresh eye. In short, it makes economics seem like fun!

Highly recommeded ....A must read!!

But then again I could be wrong

Author: Jim Rising
Genre: Humour/Comedy
Pages: 228
Publisher: Tribute Books
My Rating: 3.0/5

I received this book last month as a review copy from Tribute Books (http://www.tribute-books.com/ ). Thanks to Nicole for sending across this copy to me!

Jim Rising, the author, is the program director of 102.3 The Mountain WDMT and hosts a weekly show called "Rising at Ten". This book is a collection of some of these shows from the past few years.

As the title suggests, this book is nothing but full of rants. It's not really stand-up comedy, so don't expect to have a hearty laugh. But it's quite funny and a good source of entertainment. It's a collection of Jim's personal experiences and mundane activities and other random life situations which are presented in a humorous way..The nice part of the book is that Jim talks about those small things in life which we usually think about...He has a very unique take on life and it makes you wonder if he is reading into your thoughts!

Each of the rants is just about 2 pages long and that makes it an easy read. Some of them are extremely hilarious while a few others have some inspiring & thoughtful messages. However, I did find a few of them quite boring and bland which I just skipped through. Jim's style is quite different, so it takes a bit of getting used to, in order to understand his sense of humor. 10-20 snippets down the line, I got a hang of it and enjoyed reading it...

I feel that an audio version of this book would be a better choice, something that you can listen to while driving or doing some mindless tasks ...for those times when you don't want to stretch your mind a lot...

Eat Pray Love

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Pages: 350
Genre: Memoir/Non-fiction
Rating: 5/5 (Highly Recommended!)

Have you ever found your "perfect" book? It's an amazing feeling to read the perfect book at the perfect time in your life! This one was mine :-)

It's been ages since I read a book for which I could easily give a 5 star rating without much contemplation! Undoubtedly, this is one of the best books I have read this year. I had read rave reviews about this on a few blogs and had immediately added it to my wishlist. I bought it a couple of days back and since the time I picked it up, I was just unable to put it down till I finished reading the last page. I am glad I bought it because this is one of those books I would love to treasure in my library and read it over and over again! It's truly an amazing book and I highly recommend it, especially if you are looking out for some inspiration in life!

"Eat Pray Love" - the title sounded so intriguing and different and so did the cover page, the design of which I just adored. When you read the book, you'll know the reason behind the title and realize how apt it is.

The book is a memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, which details the author's journey from US (her home country) to Italy, India and Indonesia after she goes through a painful divorce followed by an immediate rebound relationship which also fails. It's definitely not just a travelogue detailing her experiences in various cultures. What makes it different from other travelouges is the intensity with which you get engaged into her life and her emotional journey. The journey is more of her quest to find her true self, a new path to peace and enlightenment leaving her ready to love all over again.

The book is extremely heart warming, captivating, inspiring, heart-breaking and hilarious!! I could feel myself empathize with Elizabeth at many situations and see myself in her shoes at other times. Most of the times I would say - 'Hey! I've been through this, it's happened to me!' and that's what I loved the most in the book. I could relate to it completely!

It's the type of book which contains so many anecdotes that I felt like taking a pencil and underlining those tiny pieces of wisdom so that I would always remember them. Here are some of them. I am sure that just by reading these lines you'll feel like picking up the book right away!

*****************

“Some time after I’d left my husband, I was at a party and a guy I barely knew said to me, ‘You know you seem like a completely different person, now that you’re with this new boyfriend. You used to look like your husband, but now you look like David [her new boyfriend]. You even dress like him and talk like him. You know how some people look like their dogs? I think maybe you always look like your men.’”

*****************

“[My guru] says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it…”

*****************

“The former Catholic nun who oughtta know about guilt, after all wouldn’t hear of it. ‘Guilt’s just your ego’s way of tricking you into thinking that you’re making moral progress.’

*****************

"You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be."

*****************

"You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you're gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control. Drop everything else but that. Because if you cant learn to master your thinking, you're in deep trouble forever"

*****************

Princess

Book Info:
Author: Jean Sasson
Pages: 302
Genre: Non-Fiction (based on a true story)
Rating: 4.5/5



I've always had this curiosity to learn more about the culture and life in Middle East and also about Islam as a religion. This book which is based on a true story was a perfect way to gain a deep insight into both these aspects.

Princess is a true story which reveals the hidden life of 'Sultana', the Saudi Princess, as told by her to Jean Sasson the author. Sasson travelled to Saudi Arabia in 1978 to work in the King Faisal Hospital & Research Center in Riyadh and then married and lived in Saudi till 1991. It was during this time that she met Sultana and got to know her life story which was then published as a book - the first of the middle eastern women genre and quickly became a new york times bestseller!

Some of the names in the book have been changed to protect the identity of the people who might otherwise suffer from the truth being told... Princess tells the story of Sultana who is born in a unbelievably priviliged royal family in the incredibly oil rich country of Saudi Arabia. I had heard of the wealth and richness of Saudi but it was shocking to get to know the vivid details of the amount of wealth that is ACTUALLY available in that country!!!!!



The writing style is very simple and easy to read. You wont even find time or interest to focus on these things coz the atrocities described in the book just shock the hell out of you! Till I read this, I thought Afghanistan was the worst place to be for a woman but Middle East seems to be a step ahead in this aspect!! I guess I feel scared to step into Saudi even as a tourist now. Each time I read a book like this I feel so lucky to have been born in a place like India, seriously!



This book is actually a trilogy with 'Princess' being the first in the series, followed by 2 sequels which gives us a deeper insight into Sultana's life and her daughters too. I am waiting to pick up the next one...

Book Review: Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Author: Rashmi Bansal
Genre: Non-fiction

Pages: 325

My Rating: 4.5/5

"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish", as most of us know is a famous quote by Steve Jobs in his speech for the graduating class at Stanford. The words are aptly acquired as a title for this book, authored by Rashmi Bansal who is an IIMA (Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad) alumni and also the co-founder of the popular youth magazine - JAM (www.jammag.com)

I liked the fact that the book is kept really simple, including the cover pages, print and the writing. It is a collection of 25 stories of successful entrepreneurs, all IIM-A alumni. Some of these ventures are well known to us such as - naukri.com(infoedge), educomp, makemytrip etc which we might have used quite a lot but unware of the people behind it..This book can give a kick start for people who are keen on being entrepreneurs. It's a good source of inspiration because the stories are not just hunky-dory but details the path of struggle, multiple failures and losses that people have been through before successfully establishing themselves. One common message in all these stories is "Persistence is the key to success", so never give up!

Each one of these 25 stories are extremely inspiring. But I tried reading the book in one sitting and I found it to be a bit boring. The writing style gets to be quite monotonous. I would have preferred if the author had used varities in writing each of these stories rather than keep it in a standard format. Nevertheless, I wont complain coz its non-fiction and the content is worth more :) I also felt that expanding the stories to entrepreneurs beyond IIMA would have been good. We all know that there are many such success stories from top B-schools but I would have loved to know about people from a non-MBA background who have made it big in life. That would have catered to a wider audience I guess.

Overall I loved this book. I could see myself thinking about starting a venture and coming up with some business ideas, after reading this book.. That was the impact :) So I highly recommend this book. Even if you are not keen on entrepreneurship, it is still a good read.

Black Friday - The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts

Author: Hussain.S. Zaidi
Pages: 290
Publisher: Penguin Books
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5
Challenges: Orbis Terrarum Challenge; Country - Pakistan (Author's Origin)
(Adding this to the OT challenge, though I read it a month earlier)


The whole world had witnessed the most brutal serial bomb blasts that shook Bombay (now Mumbai) on 12th March 1993. There have been probably many more such unfortunate events in the city and the rest of the country but this one is supposed to be one such incident, which even today, after more than a decade, can shake the readers as much as it shook the entire nation then.

This book was a revelation to me! I was just around 11yrs old when the blasts happened, quite unaffected, living hundreds of Kms away from Bombay and I hardly remembered any details. I’ve always wanted to know more and delve deeper to understand the cause and effects of this incident. So I was very happy to find this book which details the true story.

The book starts and ends with the scene on the day of the blasts, near the affected sites, with a detailed account of the state of innocent victims – like the Chaat or Samosa vendor near BSE, or someone who was just walking out to grab lunch or get a photocopy and was unfortunate enough to succumb to the blast. The details are extremely painful; it pricks your heart and churns your stomach just by reading. This is one such book which has actually made my head spin and almost throw up! I can’t imagine, even in the wildest of my dreams, what the people witnessing this would have gone through. Makes you question, what rights do people have to take away other human lives and cause so much pain and destruction?!

There is a detailed description of the planning that went behind these blasts and the people involved – the underworld, bollywood, politicians, custom officials and the police force. The author was a crime reporter and all the facts presented in the book are through trusted sources, police files & investigation reports. The event that triggered the blasts was the communal riots between the Hindus and Muslims that followed the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. Lots of Muslims were massacred and they struck back with vengeance causing further damage to innocent lives. I felt shivers down my spine when I learnt that more than 2000kgs of RDX was smuggled into the city without any hassles! The masterminds behind this meticulous planning were people who were beyond the reach of Indian Government. They used unsuspecting people like puppets to perform this ruthless act and managed to get away even after committing such a hideous crime. So is there a bigger problem out there and are we living in denial because we don’t see a solution to it?

The book leaves you in a very emotional and pensive state, raising a lot of questions. Whatever happened after the blasts, we need to ask ourselves if we are well equipped and adequately prepared to prevent another such disaster? The harsh reality is, NO!

AIDS Sutra

Author: Multiple Authors (Anthology)
Pages: 345
My Rating: 4.0/5
AIDS Sutra presents a side of India which is rarely seen before. This is one book which needs to be read by a wider audience. It will definitely open your eyes to the harsh realities faced by people in the underdeveloped & underpriviliged societies.

AIDS Sutra is an anthology put together by the 'Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation', which is a collection of 'untold stories from India' by 16 renowned authors. These stories deal with a wide range of subjects, all with a common theme of the major problem facing the developing world (HIV/AIDS), starting from those innocent children who acquire this deadly disease by birth, to sex workers, homosexuals and transgendered people.

India is home to 2-3million HIV cases. Ignorance and prejudice have been the 2 most contributing factors for the rapid spread of this deadly disease; it is still stigmatized and people live in denial. This is where books such as 'AIDS sutra' play an important role. These stories not only humanise the tragedy of the HIV/AIDS victims, but also admire their courage and respect the victims without getting sentimental or showing pity. Authors such as Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Kiran Desai, Shobha De, Nalini Jones, Siddhartha Deb, William Dalrymple have uncovered the realities behind this epidemic writing candid yet refreshing stories about their real-life encounters with the AIDS victims in India. Amartya Sen's introduction in the beginning, about the injustice committed through prejudice is extremely thoughtful and downright awesome!

The very first thing that you realize reading this book is the fact that ignorance about AIDS is still widespread in India. Though India does put up an image of a developing country and a growing technology giant, when it comes to matters of sexuality, it still in dark and has a long long way to go! It is this kind of an attitude which is actually impacting the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS to a large extent. Sooner the people realize this, the faster will be the progress.

If you are planning to pick up this book at any point, let me warn you - the facts stated in the book through these stories are extremely disheartening and depressing. This book, as a fiction would be very heart-breaking; so you can imagine how sickening and horrifying it could be as a non-fiction (based on true stories). It took me nearly 1.5 months to finish this. Every story would have such a deep impact on my emotional state that it would just get impossible for me to continue reading. I have given up reading this a couple of times during the course; but finally decided that I need to read it to get the real picture of the state of this disease in different parts of India - which otherwise you would never get to see...

If you have read this book, I would love to know if you share my views and if you really did manage to read it completely or did you give it up midway, unable to deal with the depression?

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch (oct 23'1960 - July'25 2008) , a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When he was asked to give his 'last lecture' at CMU, he didn't have to imagine it as his last; he was already counting his last few days. This book was inspired by that last lecture he gave on Sep 18-2007 titled - " Really achieving your childhood dreams". Some of you might have already watched the video of the lecture.... if not, here is the link to the video on youtube. It's amazing and really worth a watch!!

This book combines the inspiration, humour and intelligence that made his last lecture so memorable and phenomenal. I read a review of this book on a friend's blog and immediately bought a copy, 'coz from the review I read I knew I would treasure this book for a long time to come!

The book is a light read but offers you so much wisdom and food for thought. I finished it in just a few hours (it was too interesting to keep it down!) but I can see myself remembering a lot of things that he has said, for the rest of my life. Such is the impact. It's not some sort of a self-help book which gives you N-steps to success or happiness. Randy Pausch, by just describing his attitue towards life, his childhood dreams and his stories of success and failure, shows you a path to leading your life the right way. He says, this lecture/book was not intented only to those 400 people in the auditorium but for his kids. This, he calls as a head fake - which is nothing but 'indirect learning'. According to him,
There are 2 kinds of head fakes. The first is literal. On a football field, a player will move his head one way so you will think he's going in that direction. Then he goes the opposite way. It's like a magician using misdirection. The second kind of head fake is the really important one - the one that teaches people things they dont realize they're learning until well into the process. If you are a head fake specialist, your hidden objective is to get them to learn something you want them to learn.

Randy Pausch with his 3 kids. Photo courtesy: his website

The book really makes you think about what you want the most out of life - your job, your family, your marriage etc.. How would you spend your life if you knew you had only 6 more months to live? How would you leave your memories back to the ones who love you? What dreams would you fulfill? What would you give more priority to - your work, spouse, kids, friends, family? Such are the questions that you will inevitably start asking yourself as you read the book...
The book, which has immense amount of wisdom in it, also has a baggage full of emotions. I could see myself in tears at certain points. It was not out of sympathy but I was so moved by his love for his family, his wife and kids and his extremely optimistic outlook towards life. It's just amazing to see how strongly, and with a smile on his face, he faced his terminal illness. If you watch his video, you wont believe that you are actually listening to a guy who is suffering from cancer at its final stages.

Am sure by now you would have realized how much I loved this book!!! I highly recommend it and I really feel every one of u who reads this book will take away something with u which u will remember for the rest of your life...

Some useful links if you are interested to know more:

His blog - http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html

http://www.thelastlecture.com/

http://www.cmu.edu/uls/journeys/randy-pausch/index.html

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

If you have already read this book, let me know what you thought of it and I'll add a link to your review..

Non-Fiction

A few months back I had come across this Non Fiction Five (NFF) reading challenge (May-Sept)and was really keen on doing it. But I got so occupied with reading my already stacked fiction books and other stuff that I just couldn't get to this on time. But as my enthusiasm for non-fiction is back, I am up for this all over again. I already have the books lined up by my bed-side too! Here's the list - Keep watching this space for the reviews :)

1. The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

2. Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

3. Blink - Malcolm Gladwell

4. Built to Last - Jim Collins

5. Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis