Vitamania: Our Obsessive Quest For Nutritional Perfection

Author: Catherine Price

More than 50% of Americans take some kind of Vitamin supplement. However very little is known about the beneficial effects of the same. There are some very clear diseases like scurvy, beri beri, pellagra, etc. that are caused by Vitamin deficiencies, but most of these are uncommon in the US today. Time and again the author drops into her oft-repeated story of how, by default, most people assume that Vitamins are beneficial and blindly take them with an almost religious belief. 

I learnt a few things from this book. First, that vitamins are barely a 100 years old. Their initial discovery seemed elusive as the early scientists were convinced that diseases like scurvy, beri beri, etc. were caused by germs. Now that they are easily available in developed countries we have a different problem. Vitamins and the general class of supplements have mushroomed into a large unregulated industry making all kinds of false claims and suggestions. The author goes into quite a bit of detail to describe the failed attempts of the FDA to tame the food supplement industry. 

I was disappointed that despite all the research that the author conducted she didn’t try to distill it and provide the reader with a birds-eye view of the current understanding on the benefits and dangers of each of the major vitamins/supplements in the market. Maybe there is really no definitive picture and that is why she was not able to draw one! Overall, it felt like each of the chapters were independently constructed and then patched together without a storyline to weave through it.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe

Author: Romain Puertolas

This is one of those small magical books that transport you to a completely different world. This one has an Indian Fakir — combination of guru and magician — ikea store, gypsy taxi driver and a french woman looking for love. With this rather unlikely combination of characters Romain weaves a farcical tale that will have you in splits of laughter. The many different takes on Ajatashatru’s name itself is hilarious. I wish I knew enough French to read this novel in the language it was written in. Judging by how well the humor is conveyed, I can confidently say that Sam Taylor has done a great job in the translation. Read it and you will not be disappointed.

Girl on the train

Author: Paula Hawkins

This is a plain and simple block-buster. You don’t have to take my word for it, just see what people are buying week after week. As of today (April 17th) “The Girl on the train” is running 13 weeks as number 1 on the NY Times best seller list. Now that I have read it, I can see why. 

 There are just a handful of characters in the book and Paula Hawkins starts slow with a peek into the sad life of Rachel who takes the train back and forth each day. Rachel wistfully looks out the window and focuses her attention on the inhabitants of one particular house along the way. Paul tells the story from different perspectives and time periods just like the book “Gone Girl”. This one however sucks you in, twists you around and spits you out with your head spinning. I loved it.

Big Little Lies

Author: Liane Moriarty

It is not often that I get to read about life on the country that is its own continent — Australia. Liane tells a tale of three women and the school events that form the center of their lives. Even though this is set half a world away, I can relate this to the elementary school parent behavior in the US. I found the parallels very though provoking and was absorbed in the characters that Liane develops so well. 

The three women in the novel are polar opposites of each other. One is beautiful and married to a rich business-man. The second one is an in-your-face mom who is happy married for the second time but struggling raising kids from both marriages. The third is an introverted single-mom who doesn’t want to cause any ripples in the world, but has problems with self-esteem.  The story revolves around some key events in their children’s classroom and is literally a first-grade whodunnit.  As the story unfolds you realize that there is more going on in the parent’s lives than you would have ever imagined and Liane tells a great story.  Immerse yourself in it and you will not be disappointed.