Pratik

Not an easy read especially if you've never been to Bombay. Even for those who've lived there, Annawadi is that familiar place that you refused to know more about. Boo weaves a compelling story from real-life narratives of the people she met.

Written in her usual self-deprecating style of humor, I found the latter part of her life more interesting than her earlier pre-college days. I'm sure she can write an entire book on her parenting experience in her style of humor. I would read that. I hear that her audio version of this book is way better.

Nope, this isn't about Genesis. As quoted in the epilogue, the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt once remarked that there are three phases of scientific discovery. The first is denial. The second is denial of importance. The third is crediting the wrong person. Anyone vaguely familiar with history of scientific progress is only too familiar with the premise of the quote. Mesler and Cleaves focus on the oft-ignored origin of life discoveries and dig into the history starting from Egyptians and the Greeks to Szostak.

Many of my biochemistry friends are well aware of the names mentioned in this book but it was revelatory for me and helped me understand treacherous path of discovery. Having studied philosophical debates in history of scientific progress, I haven't had the opportunity to read about the tussles within the science community. We all know about Darwin, Watson & Crick, etc. but the details of the work of Carl Woese developed on Darwin's primodial soup was unknown to me. The battles between Voltaire and Needham couldn't have been more interesting.

I highly recommend this book to all science and history fans.

If there is one law that can be credited with my presence in the United States and subsequently meeting my wife, my marriage, and the birth of our son, it would be the 1965 Immigration Act. The Act abolished national quotas that heavily favored Europeans and kept Asians immigrants from moving to America. Gjelten weaves the story of several immigrants' and their children's arduous journey of legally immigrating to the U.S. with the political background of welcoming immigrants of a ‘different kind'. We're shown with examples through the years of history that bigotry is as American as apple pie but that hasn't prevented the equally strong pushback against such actions that inherently undermine the country's ideal.

The book is timely in the context of the immigration debates and the fearmongering amongst the conservatives toward immigrants who have nothing but hard work and entrepreneurship to offer. Perhaps the book would've been and will continue to be timely no matter the year it was published in. Gjelten convinces you that change is slow and hard but eventually will bend toward justice even though it may seem totally improbable at the time. John F. Kennedy's role in prioritizing the 1965 Act was pivotal but even more important was his brother, Edward Kennedy who was truly the ‘lion' in the debate leading up to the passage. Ultimately what worked for the Act was its unintended consequences because if they were known at the time, it would've never passed and kept America a predominantly white country and perhaps robbed of its competitive edge that now keeps it two steps ahead of the rest of the world.

Gjelten concludes with the backlash toward Muslims in wake of the 9/11 attacks and details the profound effect it had on people who had been living peacefully as citizens for many years. It shows that hatred can easily be preached and is often run counter to what you want to achieve.

Perhaps Gjelten could've included an Indian story as one of the anecdotes considering the high proportion of Indians moving to America compared to any other nationality. In delving into the Indian experience, he may have discovered that for Indians, the legal immigration continues to be a nightmare enough to make us cagey about our existence in this country. We're one bureaucratic mishap away from having our entire life torn apart. There is much work to be done in terms of legal immigration and unfortunately certain sections of the population that were earlier in support of welcoming immigrants are now the fearmongers. Forgive them for they know not what their country needs.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to whoever is interested in the nuances of immigration debate. Sometimes you've to know how the sausage is made.

A tad theoretical and technical but enlightening. Deeply rooted in research findings, the book gives a good overview of personality research including a primer on impact of genetics.

I don't know what to make of this book. Apparently it's supposed to be funny. It tries to be. Anyway, the last chapter has some good wisdom although in general, the book is a tad too...Christian-y for me.

A welcome addition to the India-themed books hitting the market. Sidin offers a different more-serious look into the common myths of ‘India facts' and yet sprinkles in enough of his typical humor to keep you going. A worthy read not only for anyone obsessed with forwarding those ‘India is always great' emails and Whatsapp messages but also for those who're tired of receiving those messages. But don't worry, it's not an India-bashing book either but be prepared for some truths. The last chapter offers plenty of lessons and we all will be better off if half of our countrymen heeded even half of those.

A perfect accompaniment for my recent obsession with decluttering. Contrary to what most believe, decluttering is less about owning less and more about owning what really matters to you. As Kondo states repeatedly, keep only the things that give you joy and discard the rest regardless of how important it once was to you or even how important you think it may be sometime (codeword for never) in the future. Although she repeats herself a lot in the first few chapters, I think the subject demands that she do because unlearning what most of us consider normal behavior can take a little bashing in.

After stressing on the importance of discarding, Kondo spends the majority of the rest of her book by offering practical tips that let you discard more and often. Although she is at loss for words at times to explain her ways making her resort to spiritual reasons, her intentions are clear. As most Japanese, she anthropomorphizes inanimate objects but there is a method to her quirky obsessive methods. She even tackles the holy grail of book ownership that most bibliophiles put beyond debate.

Overall, it is an enlightening read and probably you may even chose to read it again to be inspired once more. I've definitely learned a lot and even implemented several of her techniques in addition to taking her advice to heart. My house is much more lighter now but definitely more airy and a pleasant space to be in.

As brilliant as his famous xkcd comic strip. Rich in scientific detail as he takes on insanely absurd hypotheticals. You may need basic knowledge about physics, chemistry, and biology to fully appreciate it but hey, if you completed high school and enjoy delving into “what ifs”, this is the book for you. I hope to read many more volumes of his work. Keep those questions flowing, people!

If you couldn't digest Roach's Gulp! (get it?), you should probably stay away from Bonk. This book is even better than the travails of your alimentary canal as it aims at a much lower level i.e. your genitals. No other physiological occurrences have been more important yet have been studied so less often.

Citing heavily from Masters and Johnson (BTW definitely watch ‘Masters of Sex' on Showtime), Kinsey, et al., Roach brings her inimitable humor to the science of sex. Some chapters will have you clenching the pages a little too tightly especially for men as she describes the bravery of some men to go the extra mile for science so that we would learn. Or maybe they just didn't have any option coz they screwed up (I'm full of puns today). If you've checked out the early part of ‘Orange is the New Black', you'll be not be surprised to know that women are equally unaware of their nether regions. In their defense, it's much more complex. Just like their minds.

So if you aren't a prude and can get thru lines such as ‘...if you thought defecation-induced orgasm was gross, think of the other way around' and didn't throw up your dinner, then you should definitely read Bonk. Perhaps you can impress the lady with science if not with your charms.

I started reading Being Mortal nearly a year ago and somehow never got around to finishing it. It's admittedly a difficult read in the sense that it can be overwhelming at times. I finally finished it last night.

The premise focuses on the quality of life rather than the length of life and more specifically, the manner in which you choose to pass away. Medical science has advanced to such a degree that humans can be kept alive for a much longer time than you would imagine. But no one has stopped to ask the question of whether we should. Or as in Amitabh's immortal (no pun intended) words, yeh jeena bhi koi jeena hai. Gawande cites several examples from his professional and personal life that focuses on the individual's choice on care and ultimately, way to die. The Republicans' favorite chant ‘death panels' actually referred to the end of life counseling that doctors offered their patients. It's the ultimate decision you can take for your life.

You do not choose to be born in this world and as of today, most laws even prevent you from actively choosing to die but at least you can choose the way you die when and only when you're diagnosed to. The DNR is the most commonly known legal process in our pop culture and medical professionals are taught to honor it just as they're taught to honor the first do no harm principle. Others like hospice care are fraught with emotions that you may not be fighting back hard enough. But after a while, it's useless fighting nature.

Being Mortal will not only make you aware of your mortality but actually prepare you for it. I say that in the most humble and optimistic way. You aren't immortal. You're going to die. You're born in perhaps one or two ways but you can die in umpteen different and uncharacteristic ways. The worst I believe, waiting to die which can be a long and painful process not only for the person but also for their loved ones. Modern medicine can perhaps keep you alive for as long as it is possible today but it's entirely within your rights and choice to decide when enough is enough.

Informative and hilarious. Not meant for the easily grossed-out. Roach approaches topics that you wouldn't otherwise discuss in polite company (burps, farts, poop, etc.) although they're as natural as our existence, not to mention, pivotal.

PS. Don't miss her footnotes. Some of her best humor is hidden among those.

It's an entirely different India than the one I left behind more than 18 years ago. Starts with Mukesh Ambani's meteoric rise to now qualify as one of the Crazy Rich Southasians, and then talks about people that I've only heard a passing reference to. Nepotism, good ‘ol corruption, and at its basest the plundering of public resources, the nouveau rich Indians are just a brown version of the East India Company. But it's a good look behind the curtain just to get a glimpse of what you're not missing and all that patriotic saccharine BS we're fed through Bollywood movies and cricket are simply a charade to tamper down the resentment that most Indians palpably feel. But the instinct isn't to overthrow these oligarchs (or as Crabtree calls them Bollygarchs) but in fact to think about how to join them in the plunder. I don't see any inkling of the progressive revolution, much like what helped America recover (somewhat) that will stem this rot.

One of the most delightful books I've read in a while. Well, ‘read' (I started with the ebook and switched to the audiobook halfway through). Gretchen walks us through internet folklore right from its origins to current usage. The chapters on emojis and memes are particularly great since I've lived through (or still am?) their popularity phase. Language, as Gretchen emphasizes over and over again, is and always has been fluid and the internet is just another medium where it has flourished. Whether you are an avid user of memes and emojis or are completely baffled by them, this book will enlighten you in more ways than one.

PS. the audiobook is one of the better produced ones I've heard in recent times. I think the joy that Gretchen feels toward her topic radiates through her voice that she uses to great effect even with certain unpronounceable internet references.

I've never read James Patterson but I was mostly intrigued by this Clinton partnership. It's your regular potboiler pulp fiction novel where the world is about to end and the public doesn't know that. You can clearly see the parts where Bill Clinton contributed and there are plenty of similarities and callbacks to his presidency. He relishes the opportunity to bash the House Speaker while upholding the goodness of the President in standing alone against the nation's enemies. Perhaps it doesn't ring true in 2018 but keeps the readers' attention. The pace is decent and plot twists are believable. Overall, it is a better page turner than Dan Brown's more recent works.

A wonderful look into the history and use of modern materials that has shaped human civilization. Miodownik, a materials sciences & society professor starts by showing us a picture of him relaxing on the roof of his London home and then proceeds to dissect various materials in the picture by its origins, history, and its place in our world. Materials that we take for granted like paper, glass, steel, etc. have complex histories and its manufacture has been perfected over time and still continues to be.

Ever wonder why we do not taste the metal when you eat food with a stainless steel spoon? Of the ninety-four different types of atoms that naturally exist in our world, only eight make up 98.8 percent of the mass of earth leaving us with limited options to play with yet, as Miodownik shows us, we have managed to come up with nifty inventions. Whoever thought that by varying temperatures of fire we can drastically alter the nature of materials was a genius. The chapter on concrete was especially enlightening for me given my architecture background but it's impact on modern structures in the past hundred years cannot be understated.

It's a very short read at 228 pages and each chapter stands independent of the others. Highly recommend.

[REDACTED]

What can I say, it's the typical Dan Brown book; full of sentences crammed with tangentially related factoids just to justify countless hours that Brown must've spent unearthing them. Of course, it's no Dan Vinci code. The final reveal isn't even that “earth-shattering” after all that buildup. But it's compelling enough to keep reading and go through that familiar guilt for reading this instead of something else.

To read about something that took 13 billion years in a hurry almost seems like a travesty. I wouldn't say that now I have unlocked the secrets of the universe. Far from it. But Tyson goes the extra light year to make it somewhat understandable and I think I may have made a slight dent in my universe. I recall trying to read Hawking's A Brief History of Time and by the time I finished Chapter 1, I was gasping for breath. Contrastingly, ...in a Hurry is more patient with you but I freely admit going back couple of paragraphs to re-read what I thought I understood but hadn't.

There's plenty to learn in this short tome especially about the latest strides in discovery and how Einstein really was a genius and justifies all the hype around him. But at the same time, I feel as if physics is keenly awaiting its next Newton or Einstein to explain so much that still remains unexplained. As Durant once said, education is a gradual discovery of your ignorance is so apt when we look up to the skies and look beyond every year.

As far as the solar eclipse on Monday is concerned, did you know that it's such a unique phenomenon just because of this fact - “The Moon is about 400 times smaller than the Sun, but it also just happens to be about 400 times closer. The result is that from Earth, they appear to be the same size.” Mind blown.

‘Quiet' attempts to dispel the notion that you've to be an outgoing & gregarious person that's the life of a party to be successful in life. As Cain backs up with several examples that many successful people have been avowed introverts, she leads you down the path of providing research-backed conclusions that dissuades you from trying to be whom you're not. Being an introvert is not the same as being anti-social. For the former, social interactions for a prolonged time can be mentally and emotionally exhausting and just as an extrovert thrives on more interactions, an introvert has an upper limit on the time he/she can spend with people before retiring into their own homes for peace and quiet.

The ideas on productivity including teamwork, brainstorming, and open-office collaboration are simply myths that research has proven to not yield results unless the collaboration is done online (creating Wikipedia, etc.) The best work is often done on your own before sharing it with others. I've often done my best work on my own even to the extent of doing my design dissertation in my architecture undergrad years when my peers took help of several of our juniors.

Cain offers plenty of strategies to introverts who may want to ‘act' as extroverts in a world where gregariousness is considered a must-have asset. Introverted people in professions that need you to be extroverts often tend to over-prepare which even makes them more reliable and better at their work instead of an extrovert who may decide to ‘wing' it.

That said, Cain doesn't consider being introvert a necessary attribute for success in life but she emphasizes that it need not be a debilitating one.

The title sounds a little pompous but I was pleasantly surprised by the book. For one, it busts the myth of the passion hypothesis (“Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life”) I have always been skeptical of that hypothesis so was glad to see it being disproven using research and even anecdotes of people who are held up as examples of passion-driven career. The emphasis on patiently and often painstakingly developing your craftsman (craftsperson?) skills and then cashing in your career capital seems to be how most successful people land on their feet. It takes Gladwell's 10,000 hours to the next level and emphasizes deliberate practice as one of the key things in honing your craft. This applies to not only artists, musicians, athletes, but also programmers, managers, social scientists, etc. This fits right in the growth mindset pantheon as even the person with seemingly the most latent talent has to still practice his craft to stay relevant.

Add social capital to the mix and you'll realize quickly how a certain segment of the population are more likely to “drop everything and travel the world” only to come back to their parent's basement while they recover to look for something that pays the bills. Newport succinctly puts his 5 rules to the test and weaves a coherent path between them toward career success. The advice may not be the easiest to follow but at least it warns you where you may be going wrong.

It's a quick and short read and stays on the point. I recommend it just for the first couple of chapters.

Just some pulp fiction to read in bed that'll help you fall asleep quicker.

A perfect accompaniment for the newly-released ‘The Martian', this 2010 book by Mary Roach is both fun and insightful like her other books. Roach takes a look at behind-the-scenes (sometimes, literally) at the various machinations of space travel. She presents a lot of historical context and fun facts from the Gemini, Apollo, and the later Space Station missions.

Even wonder how astronauts poop in space? Well, wonder no more (spoiler alert! You need good aim). The more interesting parts are ironically the most boring parts of an astronaut's journey. The drudge work of research that went into finding out what happens when people don't bathe for 2 weeks in zero gravity or the kind of food they have to eat and even whether they do stir-crazy when propelled into space at mind-numbing speeds into the frontier that no man had ever been blasted into. Space travel is exciting but preparing for it may not necessarily be. The nerds on the ground and at mission control are just as committed as the guys that get to ride the rockets. Forget Columbus, these guys were the real pioneers.

Turns out I break most of the rules in the book. Explains a lot although no snacking is the one rule I follow.

A dark and at times creepy tale of small-town America. A sordid homecoming for the protagonist who isn't exactly on the up & up. No major mystery but with overly matured children and their antics is enough to worry you.