Too Big to Fail

• Author: Andrew Ross Sorkin
• Amazon Link

I like to intersperse fiction and non-fiction in my reading lists. A continuous stream of fiction novels is akin to an overdose of candy while too much non-fiction can be dull and depressing. So every now and then I break away from the novels to some interesting non-fiction books. The financial crisis of the last decade (it is 2011 already :-) certainly gave us a lot to worry about and I was eager to read about an up close and personal narration of the events on Wall Street. After a bit of digging around on amazon, I decided that this book had everything going for it - the author was a New York Times Reporter with direct experience of the events, it had lots of positive reviews on amazon and was highly recommended by the leading financial newspapers, magazines, etc.

If you read no further, let me assure you that this book lives up to its reputation is a must read for anyone that is interested in the banking crisis that threatened to take down the world economy. The book starts with the activities around the fire-sale of Bear Sterns to JP Morgan, but the majority of the book is focused on Lehman, it's internal power struggles, and the mis-steps that kept it tottering on the brink of disaster before it finally collapsed. The main characters are the CEOs of the major banks in the US but the supporting cast of the C-level executives and outside consultants can very quickly overwhelm and confuse the reader. I found myself referring back to the list of who's who way too often. This book should really be sold with a cheat-sheet of the major characters codified in a handy bookmark. Apart from the character recognition the book is very well written and is a breeze to read.

The best part of the book is the case study you can make of the top CEOs and their leadership styles. There's plenty to learn from the ways the different CEOs led their company during those tumultuous times. Do you only believe the information that you are fed from within the organization or listen to some of the nay-sayers from outside ? Do you make a change to your trusted lieutenant who has lost the confidence of his peers ? Those heady days were rife with deals that had to be made over a weekend, and it is very instructive to look at the ones that succeeded and the ones that failed. Was there anything different that could have been done to change the outcome of those negotiations? I am sure a lot of people will continue to ponder on that, but there is no changing history. There's plenty more in the book and it is told in a very engaging style that even though there are 500+ pages in the book, they go by very quickly. Overall, this book does a an excellent job of detailing the events surrounding the financial meltdown and is a very pleasant read to boot.

The Finkler Question

• Author: Howard Jacobson
• Amazon Link

This book was awarded the Mann Booker Prize for 2010. I have read many past winners of this award and until now have never been disappointed. As they say, there is always a first time and this certainly was it for me.

The premise of the book was definitely something that piqued my interest. It was about Jewish identity in the 21st century and what makes them different. The main character is Julian Treslove a single, never-married, but with a couple of kids to call his own, 49 year-old non-Jew living in London. He is obsessed with his Jewish friends and wants more than ever to be all things Jewish. This is the basic premise of the book and while it is amusing the first couple of times that it is presented, it gets really tiring and not-at-all-funny after a while. There are many attempts at humor that fall flat and what makes them all the more annoying is the fact that the author repeats these attempts over and over again. The whole thing of the ASHamed Jews is an example of this. I recommend staying as far away from this book as possible. The only useful thing I could glean from this book was the meaning of some interesting Yiddish words.

The Stranger

• Author: Albert Camus
• Amazon Link

This was one of those "filler" books; something to fill the amazon cart with, so that you qualify for free shipping. Only later did I learn that this was Camus first novel and one that put him on the international map, when it was first published in 1946. This is also the first Camus that I have read, and on reading this I can see why Camus is so revered in the annals of literature.

The main character, Meursault is a middle-aged, middle-class man who has nothing to look forward to in life. It is written in the first person and Camus goes out of his way to make the whole setting look very ordinary. The brilliance of Camus is how he can describe the ordinary life of Meursault with such clarity and eloquence that make the book a joy to read. You can't help but develop a keen interest in Meursault and what thoughtless action he is going to do next. Most of the characters in the book are of a "loser" nature and the interesting thing is to see how they intersect with Meursault. The book is barely a 120 pages or so and you can't get a better value for such a little investment of your time.

The Help

• Author: Kathryn Stockett
• Amazon link

This book is about the plight of black maids working for aristocratic white women in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. I had noticed how sticky this book was in the NY Times Bestseller list and had read the many positive reviews on Amazon, but decided to wait for the paperback, so I wouldn't have to lug a huge book around. However, the book is so popular that the paperback didn't make it to amazon for a long while and I finally got tired of waiting and caved in to buy the hardcover.

The book is narrated by three of the main characters: Skeeter the idealistic white woman, Aibileen and Minny the two principal black maids with widely different characteristics. Aibileen is the mature, quiet, capable, composed maid who loves looking after kids and will never do anything to upset those around her. Minny on the other hand is a very good cook but is loose lipped and known to speak her mind and is consequently getting in trouble with her employers. The author switches from one to the other with each chapter and I welcomed the change in the perspective depending on who the narrator was. Initially you may find yourself struggling with the maids language, but soon you will get in the flow of things and actually enjoy the words and expressions of the black maids during the time of segregation.

The book really brings out the struggle of African Americans and highlights their plight in the segregation era. It is a bit simplistic at times, but otherwise is a good read. Don't expect any major surprises or deep revelations, but I can assure you that you will be entertained.

A Reliable Wife

• Author : Robert Goolrick
• Amazon Link

The moment I saw this title on the NY Times Bestseller list, I was intrigued by it and had to read it. I put it off for a few days, unsure of whether it would be inappropriate or mis-interpreted, but finally gathered up the courage to order it from Amazon. True to my suspicion, it drew a lot of attention when friends and neighbors spotted it on my coffee table. In case you have any doubts, let me reassure you that the book is a bona-fide work of fiction and is quite entertaining.

The author capitalizes on the shock value and mystery of the title and the first few pages are purposely written in such a way that they conceal more than they reveal. The prose is elegant and the characters are developed to be strong, forceful and passionate. The story is set in rural Wisconsin of 1907, where Ralph Truitt is a rich businessman who has advertised for a "reliable wife". Catherine Land responds to the advertisement and is all set to begin her life with Ralph. The book opens with Ralph waiting at the station to meet his prospective bride and right from the start it is full of surprises and forceful action. This is a page-turner for sure and has its share of sex, mystery and unusual romance and is a quick read. If you are looking for entertainment, you will not be disappointed. However, don't expect anything profound in this novel.

The Black Swan

• Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Amazon Link

I normally start a review with the reason for selecting this book. In this case it was rather simple: I had lent the book "Born to Run" to one of the engineers in my group. Seeing that I liked to read books, he gave me this book to read as he had greatly enjoyed it himself.

At the outset, I was prepared for the book to be a not-so-easy-read and hence had saved it for a long airline flight, where it would get my undivided attention. The opportunity presented itself fairly soon and in August I made a trip to India and Israel and this was the perfect book to take along for the ride.

The premise of the book is about the high impact of improbable events. There are numerous examples cited in the book, ranging from the market crash of '89 to 9/11 as well as some added material on the financial meltdown in 2008. Taleb is very critical of the "quants" in the financial sector and the models that they base their analysis on. He draws similarity with the turkey who is living peacefully for 1000 days with its confidence mounting with every passing day, until day 1001 when it gets slaughtered. His point here is that past experience can be a poor basis to build a model for predicting the future. Improbable events can and do occur and most importantly have devastating consequences.

The above observation may be significant, but certainly not the stuff you can fill 400 pages with. Taleb rambles on with what seems like no main purpose and the book comes across as the pseudo-intellectual musings of an idle mind. He spends a good deal of time and effort in bashing Gaussian distribution and the bell-curve and expresses his fascination with Mandelbrot and fractals. I don't know if he is aware of the solid mathematical foundation on measure theory that underpins the probablity and statistics that we use today. Clearly assuming that random phenomena are occuring according to Gaussian (or any other for that matter) distribution is prone to disaster. However, suggesting that power-laws apply is also a best-fit extrapolation that is unlikely to apply when you are looking to predict improbably events.

All in all, I would not recommend this book unless you want to appear "intellectual" at your next social event.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

• Stieg Larsson
• Amazon Link

The Millenium series has skyrocketed in popularity and once I read the second one (The girl who liked playing with fire) there was no escape but to read this third one and complete the series. Also, the second book stops abruptly so much so that they include a chapter of the third book just so that you are not left completely hanging.

This book has less action and is more centered around building the case for and against Lisbeth Salander and the Swedish authorities' role in her life. There is a big courtroom drama in the end as well. Overall the book is a quick read, but the trend is definitely downhill. I loved the first book. The second was tolerable and the third was something that I was eager to get done with. If you can only read one book this year, then certainly read the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. If you plenty of time on your hands, then read 2 & 3 together.

Let the Great World Spin

• Author: Colum McCann
• Amazon Link

I don't exactly recall how I selected this book; it was from Amazon and could very well have been a filler to make sure that my order was more than $25 and qualified for free shipping. While researching it, I noticed that the book has received a lot of critical acclaim and is likely to be very popular book club pick. It is also the National Book Award winner and that puts it right in my cross-hairs.

The author has an interesting syle where he presents short stories that seemingly have nothing to do with each other, until a connection emerges somewhere later and things start falling in place. Each story is not only different but is also told with a completely different style. I enjoyed the varaiations in the book and some of the profound observations especially from the prostitutes in New York. I don't want to write too much about the book as I will be giving away some of the storyline that is best left undiscovered until you read the book. I highly recommend this book.

The First 90 Days

• Author: Michael Watkins
• Amazon link

I was given this book by my boss at Cisco, Shailesh Shukla, when I took on a new role as head of engineering for MARSBU. If you are curious about the acronym, yes, it is the Business Unit from MARS. I opened the book and randomly landed on page 115 which had a section titled "Educate your Boss"; that definitely made this a must read.

The book is definitely a quick read and I had to pace myself so that I don't read it all in a couple of sittings and quickly forget all that I had read. There are some narratives in each chapter thath outline some simple example scenarios, but the author fails to develop any of them beyond a couple of paragraphs. The main theme of the book is compelling. Whenever a manager takes on a new role, he/she will take several days to reach the break-even point, which is defined as the point where the executive creates more value than he/she consumes. Regardless of which level you are at, your first few days in a new role set the stage for your success and if you can properly plan your transition you can make the right first impressions and greatly improve your chances of success. Around 25% of the managers in a Fortune 500 company take on a new role every year. If this book accelerates the transition of even a small fraction of these, then it has achieved its purpose.

There are a few things in the book, that while obvious, are a useful reminder for all of us. The author carefully underscores the importance of first understanding the situation that you are in, i.e. are you in a startup situation, or is it a mature organization in need of a turnaround, re-alignment or sustaining operation. Your strategies are different depending on the situation. There are several other nuggets that the book imparts and I will not give it all away here. The book does tend to get repetitive and does not have too much meat behind the nuggets of wisdom. Nevertheless, it is a useful reminder to all of us when we take up a new role. I recommend this book to anyone who is recently promoted or changing jobs and is most relevant before or as soon as you take on your new role.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

• Author: Lars Neillson
• Amazon Link

This is the second in the Millenium Trilogy by the late Swedish author Lars Neillson. I was simply blown away by the first one (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and have to admit was a little disappointed with this one. Don't get me wrong; in terms of turns and twists and rapid fire action, this one has it all. However, what I liked in the first novel was the way Lars developed the characters. There was Mikael Blomkvist, the journalist who was uncompromising in his search for the truth; Lisbeth Salander who was fascinating as a brilliant hacker and researcher, but a misfit in society; the Vanger family who were rich, aristocratic and interesting, each in their own way. For this one, the main characters, Blomkvist and Salander have already been developed, so there is only repetition of their idiosyncrasies. Even the supporting cast like Dragan Armansky, Nils Buhrman, Erika Berger, etc. are from the first book. So I am amazed at how Lars fills the pages, all 700 of them without skipping a beat. He also peppers the book with a twist every 30 pages or so, to keep the reader hooked. I pretty much devoured the book during the flight from Raleigh to San Francisco and it definitely took out the drudgery of sitting cramped in an aircraft for several hours. I recommend this book to all mystery fans, especially if you have a long flight ahead of you.

Girl in Translation

• Author: Jean Kwok
• Amazon Link

I was browsing through Amazon and stumbled on this novel. It was published recently (April 29, 2010) and already had garnered a whole bunch of accolades from the press. While there were few ratings, I was impressed that in such a short time it had racked up almost 50 reviews on Amazon, with an average of 4 1/2 stars. If that wasn't enough, the story was one that was right up my alley; a young Chinese girl and her mother land up in New York, eke out a living by working in a sweatshop in Chinatown and live in a decrepit building in Brooklyn. The book promised authenticity as well, since the author came to the US from Hong Kong and had a similar childhood in New York. You can read more about the author, Jean Kwok here.

The book is very well written and it is effortless to read. I read it in just a couple of sittings and was moved by the story of Kimberly Chang. She is an adorable little girl is telling a story that no little girl should have to go through. The book made me have a lot more respect for Chinese immigrants who are all around us in the Bay area. Who knows how many of them had challenging upbringings and endured similar hardships. After reading this book, I can't help but feel that we Indians had it easy out here. Most of us came here for our graduate studies, were teaching assistants or found jobs that paid a decent wage that we could get by on. None (or if some were, they certainly are not telling) of us were exploited in a sweatshop and lived in inhuman conditions.

There were some aspects of the author's style that I couldn't quite comprehend. For instance, she would suddenly italicize certain words and spell them phonetically in a sort of mis-pronounced way. My guess is she is trying to remind the reader that the little Kimberly did not understand many of the things that were said to her, especially the words that are italicized. However, those are few and far between and not really consistent, i.e. it is unclear why those particular words were chosen.

The book is a joy to read and is quite moving. I was intrigued to find out how much of the book was really based on Jean's own experience and you can read her blog (after you read the book). The book is really doing well and made it to the NY Times Bestseller list this month. I recommend this book to anyone who is eager to learn more about Chinese immigrants in the US, their struggles, culture and society. It is a great first novel from Jean and I am sure there will be many more to come.

Little Bee

• Chris Cleave
• Amazon Link

I stumbled on this gem, while I was trying to fill my cart in Amazon to get to the $25 minimum that would get my books shipped for free. This one was highly recommended by all the top Newspaper critics and nominated for a bunch of awards. The race to make a movie had begun as well and for me that instills a sense of urgency as I am loathe to read a book after I have seen the movie. The whole premise of the book is to tease the reader with a little information that something ominous has transpired in the little protagonist's past and the author is going to release this key information at his own pace.

Now for the real treat; the book is "un-put-downable". I normally take weeks to finish a book and am embarrassed to admit that often-times the weeks spill over to months. But once I started this book there was no stopping. I had to force myself to pause after a couple of hundred pages to go to bed, only to wake up and pick it up again until there were no pages left to read. The little girl who is aptly named "Little Bee" has a story that is dripping with horrors and atrocities that you are compelled to turn the pages to learn about. The story is alternately narrated by the two main women characters in the book and it is one smooth passage. The horrors of the past are revealed in measured doses and the reader is hooked from page one. This one is a guaranteed crowd pleaser and it is easy to see how it is recommended by all the major critics and has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for several weeks now. Read this book and you will not be disappointed.

Tinkers

• Paul Harding
• Amazon Link

This was one of the easiest book selections that I have made. It was that time of year (April) when the Pulitzer Prize winners are announced and Paul Harding's Tinker had taken the top spot for 2010. It was written by a guy who was exactly my age and was a drummer in an alternative band called "Cold Water Flat" for 7 years. Furthermore it was less than 200 pages and I could probably read it in the time it would take to watch a Bollywood movie. And most important, the mother of all reasons for making this a painless selection - it was recommended by my wife, Sangeeta.

The style of the book is very interesting and after reading it I can see why it was rejected by many mainstream publishers. For the first 70 odd pages, I couldn't quite fathom where the author was taking me. After that the fog lifted and I could better appreciate the story; maybe I just got used to his style of writing. The sentences are long and convoluted and often-times, I found myself re-reading the sentences to figure out who the real subject of the sentence was. Maybe the author was charged a penny for each full-stop that he put down! Despite all this, Harding's command of the written word is evident in every page whether he is telling a story of the Crosby's or precisely describing the inner gears in a clock, or a bird's perspective on how to build a nest. There are also fake quotations from a made up book called "The Reasonable Horologist" that delve even further into the mysteries and workings of past and present clocks.

The book opens with George Crosby on his deathbed, precisely 8 days prior to his death; the 8 days is the magical number that the clock takes to wind down as well. The story alternates between George and his father Howard, and through the telling of their story, Harding makes us appreciate the world of clocks, nature, epileptic seizures, building of nests, etc. While this book is certainly not for everyone, I can say that it is one that I will possibly read again to better appreciate some of the nuances that I most certainly missed in my first reading.

Olive Kitteridge

• Author: Elizabeth Strout
• 270 pages
• Amazon Link

For the longest time, I thought Olive Kitteridge was the author's name. This book is a collection of short stories - 13 of them - with a larger than life character, Olive Kitteridge, who weaves in and out of the stories. Only towards the end, I realized that the book was really a look at Olive through the perspective of the many different folks in the small Maine town that she lived in. The book is written in a style where each of these different characters take center stage during their 15 pages of fame and you get to view their story and how it relates to Olive and her husband Henry.

Elizabeth Strout weaves her stories effortlessly and every single one of them is a pleasure to read. She is able to describe the rather mundane everyday events in the small town of Crosby, Maine with a clarity that makes you feel like you were there, experiencing the Maine countryside. The characters seem very familiar and there were many parts in the book where I stopped and wondered whether this is a page from my life in the not too distant future. This book won the Pulitzer prize in 2009, and after reading it, I can see why.

Cutting for Stone

• Author: Abraham Verghese
• Amazon link

I have to confess that I selected this book because it was written by an Indian author who was successful in his own right as a Doctor and Professor at the Stanford School of Medicine. On top of that it was a National Bestseller endorsed by a multitude of literary luminaries and had a large number of positive reviews on Amazon. I decided to take the plunge into what seemed likely to be a rather long engagement as the book had more than 650 pages.

A few pages into the book and I was amazed at how pleasant it was to read Abraham's lucid and descriptive prose. He has crafted an epic that leaves the shores of India, settles in Ethiopia and then ends up in the United States. The medical procedures and surgeries are so vividly described that I need to caution folks who get squeamish at the sight of blood to stay away from this novel. The characters are well developed and quite endearing. Life in Addis Ababa is so well described that I can still see Missing Hospital and its motley crew in front of me. The book makes you want to be a surgeon or doctor in a Third World country. Abraham's excellent story telling ability ensures that the 600+ pages go by very quickly and I enjoyed every page of this book.

Born to Run

• Author: Christopher McDougall
• Amazon link

I had heard a lot about this book from some of my fellow long distance runners and couldn't wait to get started after receiving my copy from Amazon. What made it even more timely was the fact that I was nursing a foot injury for the last several months and the thought that long distance running was bad for me did enter my head on several occasions. A few pages into the book and I was totally convinced that humans were not just born to run; but were actually meant to run long distances on their two bare feet.

Christopher goes out of his way to prove that running is good for you. He finds a hidden tribe in Mexico whose culture is centered around long distance running and throws in a mysterious character to boot. The book is well written and does keep your pulse racing as you turn the pages. If you read this book you will definitely end up dusting your sneakers and hitting the trail. When I reached the part about running barefoot, I had to go out and buy some Vibram Five Fingers and run with next to nothing on my feet. Overall, its a great book that will be enjoyed by all and is a must read if you are into long distance running.

Fatal System Error

• Author: Joseph Menn
• Amazon link

This is one of the few books that I have read that has only a handful of reviews on Amazon. I got this through a colleague at work and it was just published a couple of months ago so that may be one of the reasons for the limited reviews. It is on a topic that is near and dear to anyone who has anything to do with the Internet and is subtitled "The hunt for the new crime lords who are bringing down the internet".

The previews and the initial chapters look very promising as the book attempts to chronicle the sordid tales behind online gambling sites. However the author is unable to tell a good story or simply does not have the information he needs to build on any of these events. He jumps from story to story and it is very difficult to follow the thread, if indeed there is one. He does make a few points in the book about the real criminals that are behind some of the gambling operations as well as the complicity of some of the Eastern Block governments with this new breed of cybercriminals. But the disconnected narrative is very hard to follow and I was thankful that the book was only 250 pages in size and had double spaced font. I would not recommend this book unless you are eager to learn about some of the specific events that are described in the book.

Orange & Cinnamon French Toast

3 large eggs

1 cup 2% milk

2 teaspoons sugar

pinch of salt

grated rind of 2 oranges

2 tablespoons of Triple-Sec

1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder

8 slices of honey wheat bread

Oil or Butter for frying

Mix all of the above ingredients in a medium sized bowl and whisk well.

Put a tablespoon of oil or butter in a large non-stick frying pan

and heat on a medium flame. Dip the bread in the egg mixture on

both sides and place on hot pan. Fry on both sides until the bread

is dark golden brown. Serve with Maple Syrup and fruits like

berries or sliced banana.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

• Authors: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• Amazon Link

This book made numerous bestseller lists including the New York Times, and was named one of the ten best books of 2009 by Time and USA Today. So my selection task was relatively easy for this one. The other thing that intrigued me was that this was entirely written in the form of letters exchanged by the protagonist who was a budding author and the residents of Guernsey island. I expected it to be a difficult read, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it flowed very smoothly and was a breeze.

The story was laid out plain and simple in chronological form. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this, especially after reading the Time Traveller's Wife which as the name suggests, involved a random walk through time! The story here was rather simplistic and very predictable. The book highlighted some of the atrocities of World War II and the German occupation of the island of Guernsey. This is really the "Chick Flick" equivalent for books and there isn't anything deep in here. There is some of that understated British humor which I find adorable. To its credit the book is a breeze to read, and the characters are all simple and lovable. It makes you yearn for a life of simplicity and to be part of a club or society sharing life's uncomplicated pleasures.

The Time Traveller's Wife

• by Audrey Niffenegger
• Amazon link

I bought this book out of desperation. I was at the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica and I was sure that the book that I had (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) would not last the entire flight. Given that the choice was limited and reading a Spanish book was out of the question, I settled for this "National Bestseller".

I am not a big fan of Time Travel as I find it hard to rationalize how one can travel back in time and not alter the course of history. So it was with mild trepidation that I set about reading this book. The fact that I was stuck in an airplane with no other valid choice definitely helped as well. Surprisingly the first challenge wasn't coming to grips with time travel, but rather the fact that there seemed to be no method to the madness of travelling through time. The hero Henry would move back and forth pretty randomly and it was really disorienting to the reader. As you moved from one section to the next, Henry would suddenly be much younger or older or sometimes both. I would say that it took me almost half the book to come to terms with this time travel and I feel the author intentionally wrote the book this way to heighten the mystery and suspense in the reader's mind.

Once I got past the challenge of time travel and was comfortable with it, I began to appreciate the characters and the challenges they faced. The book really made you think about the ramifications of time travel and the effect that it could have on the people around you. The author also made a feeble attempt at dealing with the temptation of the time traveler to benefit from his ability to know how things like the stock market or winning lottery numbers turn out to be.

Ultimately, this book is telling a simple love story that is complicated by a hero who has trouble in staying in the present time. The Chicago Tribune summed it up well in its review where it said the book is a "Soaring celebration of the victory of love over time".

My Aloo Gobi

Ingredients
1 lb. potatoes
1 whole cauliflower ( 1 lb )
1 lemon (or equivalent lemon juice)
2 teaspoons Garam Masala
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon chilly powder
1 teaspoon ginger/garlic paste
2 green chillies
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 bunch of coriander leaves
1 tablespoon salt

Wash the potatoes and microwave them for 4 minutes in a plastic bag and leave them to cool. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the corriander seeds for about a minute or until they pop. Add the finely sliced green chillies and fry for another minute. Now add the cauliflower florets and fry for about 7 minutes. Make sure you stir the cauliflower florets every minute so you don't burn them.

Peel the potatoes and dice them into 1 inch cubes. Add them to the pan along with all the spices, ginger/garlic paste and salt. Fry for about 5 more minutes or until vegetables are cooked.  The cauliflower should be crunchy, so take care not to overcook.  Add the lemon juice in the end and stir. Finally top with the chopped up coriander leaves and serve hot.

My Bookshelf

My resolution for this decade is to post a blog about the books I read. The first step is in selecting the book. While this may seem like a simple thing to most folks, to me it is the most arduous step. Given that time is quite precious and a single book takes tens of hours to complete, I spend a considerable amount of time in choosing the books I read.

My selection process starts with scouring Award winners like the Booker or Pulitzer prize winners and nominations. Once I run out of those, I look at the New York Times bestsellers, Amazon bestsellers and other popular lists. When I find a potential candidate, I move to the second step which is getting to know a little about the book and reading a whole bunch of reviews on Amazon to see what other folks are saying about the book. Anything less than 4 stars and 100 reviews is unlikely to make the cut. Sometimes I wonder if I spend more time reading the reviews than the actual book itself. To make matters worse, I mostly order the books from Amazon.com and to make the free shipping, I have to order two or three books. This doubles or triples the time it takes to place the order. After multiple hours, fatigue sets in and I finally pull the trigger for better or for worse.

In the past, I have circumvented the above process by simply asking my wife for recommendations. Her methods are opaque to me, but I have to admit that she has had a fairly good track record of book recommendations. On a few occasions, some of my friends lend me books that they recommend. These have been few and far between but have certainly helped diversify my selection of books and have for the most part been quite enjoyable to read.

So without further ado, let me launch into a reflection of the books that I have read. I intentionally use the word reflections as the term review somehow suggests that I am passing a judgement on the books. I am more interested in sharing my thoughts on the books that I read than on being critical. To me, the biggest advantage a book holds over a movie is that you can read it at your own pace and pause in-between pages and reflect on what you have read. You get to put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist and live his or her life for a bit. A movie on the other hand, seems more like you are watching from the outside.

I will start with my most recent book and will attempt at recollecting some of the older ones that I read and still recall. The goal is that over the course of time, I would have collected a fair amount of reviews including some comments from friends and neighbors who have read the same titles. Maybe there will come a time when I will re-read some of the books and will be able to compare and contrast my thoughts through the passage of time.