Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Author: John Carreyrou

I thought I knew most of the interesting details of the Theranos disaster. So when I picked this book up, I quickly paged through it to see if it was really worth reading. Boy, was I in for a surprise. Not only is there a lot of dramatic detail, but John Carreyrou has narrated it so beautifully that it is a joy to read. From the first to the last page it held my complete attention and read like a thriller even though I knew exactly how it ended. 

John’s meticulous research is evident throughout the book, and he tries to keep a balanced view wherever possible. Every chapter in the book is relevant to the story and he avoids the temptation to fill pages by invoking some side stories that might be interesting. He could afford this luxury, as he has an action packed tale to tell.  Once you start reading this book, you will find it hard to put down.

Immigrant, Montana

Author: Amitava Kumar

I am shocked to see the long list of praise from all the editorial reviews on the Amazon page for this book. People called it "cerebral" and "sensual". To me it was just a series of affairs. 

From the author's point of view its the story of an american immigrant from india who is a grad student and a teaching assistent. However, unlike most of the Indians who come to the US for higher studies, the protagonist has come to America to have sex with white women.  

There's some interesting lines like students in India are forced to memorize Wordsworth's poems "about daffodils without having a clue of what those flowers looked like".  Another line I liked was a comment describing a Starbucks at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. "People come here with their bladders full and their gas tanks empty".

I found the authors use of footnotes rather strange. It seems like something he wrote in the main body, but later decided to demote as a footnote. I could not figure out if it was important to read the footnote or whether it was an unnecessary digression in the narrative. 

Overall, the book fell flat for me.

The Beautiful Cure: The Revolution in Immunology and What It Means for Your Health

Author: Daniel M. Davis

Our immune system is getting a lot of attention these days. This book takes us down the path of history, tracing the development of immunology in humans. It reads like a mystery novel with a bunch of characters, some working together and others competitvely to solve the puzzle of how our immune system works. 

He shares with us the story of James Allison, whose groundbreaking work led to the discovery of T cells, a crucial component of the immune system. Then he describes the resiliency of the naked mole rat, which exhibits remarkable immunity to cancer. 

Davis incudes the stories of many individuals whose lives have been transformed by immunotherapy. These anecdotes serve as windows into the human side of immunology, offering readers a glimpse into the passion, perseverance, and curiosity that drive scientific discovery.

Finally, he makes us aware of the delicate balance that the immune system must maintain to make sure that it does not turn against the body. Any over-reach here results in the auto-immune diseases. many of which we have a first hand experience of.

Overall, Davis blends scientific insights with compelling stories that both educate and captivate the reader.

A State of Freedom: A Novel

Author: Neel Mukherjee

Neel Mukherjee made me squirm and hold my head in my hands while reading several parts of this novel. To call it gut-wrenching feels inadequate. I would take it a step further and say he scoops out all of your insides and lays it bare in front of you to confront.

Now having got that out of the way, this is a great exposé of the vast class differences that are in plain sight in everyday India.  Our lack of curiosity or maybe the fact that there is so little free intercourse between the classes, has resulted in keeping these stories in the dark.  We see many of the protagonists in our daily lives as maids, cooks, road-side entertainers or construction workers and Neel paints their hand-to-mouth existence in full technicolor. Neel delves into their past to describe how they got to this particular station in their lives. The poverty they were born into and then their displacement; sometimes out of necessity and other times by choice.

While this is a novel, I can attest through my personal experience in India that the descriptions are frighteningly realistic and that is why it hurts so much to read this book. Neel has the skill that makes for a great author. He observes small things and describes them vividly, making the reader picture the stark reality and daily struggle of the poor in India.

The beauty of the book is the way he has laid out the narrative as 5 separate vignettes whose interconnection becomes evident in the end. This framework allows him to tell the story from a different point of view in each case and immerse you in the action. Each of the stories can be read independently and if you have to pick one, I recommend story #2.  Be warned that the subsequent stories are not for the faint of heart.

Author: Esi Edugyan

“When you free, [if] someone ask you a question, you ain’t got to answer”. I paused when I read this and went over it a few times in my head. It’s something that we take for granted these days and the only time it shows up now is when someone  invokes their right by way of the Fifth Amendment of the US constitution.

Esi Edugyan spins quite a tale that starts in a sugar plantation in Barbados in the 1830’s and meanders all across the globe. I won’t say where she takes you as that will give away some of the drama that the author builds up through the four sections of the book. The first section has all the harrowing details of slavery that was very hard for me to read. Once you get past that,  you should fasten your seatbelt as you are in for a wild ride. The book is very well written and I found myself rooting for Washington Black all the way to the end.