Bad Girl

Author: Mario Vargas Llosa

Since I was visiting Peru during the Christmas break of 2024, I was eager to read something set in Peru. Mario Vargas Llosa is a highly decorated Peruvian author and this came up as a suggestion. While it starts out in Peru, the protagonist, Ricardo moves to Paris and seems to like it there. So most of the action is set in Europe. 

The story is a common trope the most famous being Gustave Falubert’s Madame Bovary. Guy falls head over heels in love with a girl, who doesn’t give a hoot about him. The girl disappears and re-appears multiple times in the book. They see each other for very short durations, but enjoy everyone of them so much that it makes up for the lost time. This pattern gets repetitive and you are just waiting to see how Mario is going to portray it the next time. 

The predictability notwithstanding, Mario’s description of people and their interaction with each other is simply wonderful. His reflections on the hippie movement and the rock music scene in the seventies in England is welcome additiona. The book is effortless to read and very enjoyable.

The Neighborhood

Author: Mario Vargas Llosa

This is a whodunit thriller set in 1990s Lima during the regime of Alberto Fujimori. The story revolves around two wealthy men and their wives. I don’t want to reveal any of the storyline as it will ruin your enjoyment of the book. 

Suffice it to say that the book is filled with erotic tension, murder mystery, political intrigue and social commentary. Mario Vargas skillfully interplays the opulent lives of the twoelite couples with the struggles of Peru’s poorer socio-economic masses. 

I love Mario Vargas' writing style and found myself eagerly turning the pages to discover what happens next. The book was panned for its “third-rate erotica” and critics said that the murder mystery lacks much depth and sophistication. I found it quite engaging and a good way to pass the time while I was flying into Lima Peru.

Patriot: A Memoir

Author: Alexei Navalny

A couple of years ago I watched the HBO Max documentary on Alexei Navalny. It features the details behind the poisoning of Navalny and his recovery in Berlin. I expected this to be a dark movie filled with hatred for his oppressors, but was pleasantly surprised to see what an upbeat and funny guy Navalny was. Imagine the impact he could have had on the world. I hope he didn’t give up his life in vain, and we do see the fruits of his struggle finally being realized in a democratic Russia. 

This book is divided into two distinct parts. The first is a narrative account of Navalny’s life moving between small garrison towns in the vicinity of Moscow. He identifies as being half Russian and half Ukrainian and until he was 8 years old he regularly visited with his grandmother in Ukraine. However the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 put an end to his Ukrainian visits. He describes the Soviets attempts at downplaying the severity of the nuclear fallout. 

His childhood was also marked by the economic realities of the late Soviet Era. He fondly recalls queuing up for milk and yearning for American Chewing gum. But then with the glasnost period under Gorbachev he found out that “being poor was much more bearable when everybody else was, but it was intolerable once you could see your neighbor was far richer.” 

Reading some of his early experiences, reminded me of my time in growing up in India. While it was nowhere as oppressive as the Soviet Union, we too had very few luxuries and would look forward to the trinkets that we sometimes received from western visitors. 

I didn’t quite finish the second section which is his prison memoir. The few pages that I read were quite difficult to get through. Overall, Navalny is an amazing hero!

The Vegetarian

Author: Han Kang

Translated by: Deborah Smith

When I found out that the 2024 Nobel prize was awarded to Han Kang, I was surprised to learn that she was the first Asian woman to win the prize. I quickly looked up her books and found that “The Vegetarian” was 49th in the New York Times’s 100 best books of the 21st century. 

The novel is set in modern day South Korea and starts out by describing the mundane life of Mr. Cheong and his young wife Yeong-Hye in Seoul.  Yong-hye is the central character and we learn about her from different family members. The book is organized in 3 sections:

• The first section is narrated by Yeong-hye’s husband, Mr. Cheong and he describes their early years of marriage and some of the awkwardness of their relationship. One day she suddenly turns vegetarian and her husband has no idea what is going on. When she goes to visit her family, who are traditional Korean, her parents find it hard to fathom how their daughter is now refusing to eat the meat dishes that she adored as a child. There’s some drama here that I won’t describe so as not to spoil the story.
• The second section is told from her brother-in-law’s perspective. He is the artist type and is initially sympathetic to Yeong-hye’s condition. The story gets more interesting here.
• The third and final section is narrated by her sister, In-hye who is initially supportive and eventually becomes her care-taker.

You will find yourself glued to the book and eager to learn about what happens next. But be warned that some of the scenes are not easy to stomach. However, it is an amazing piece of literature that will make you stop and think about the underlying tensions between people from different walks of life. 

Nexus

Author: Yuval Noah Harari

“Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari is one of my all-time favorites. Since then, I have eagerly read almost every book that he has published, hoping to relive the joy I encountered with Sapiens.

In typical style, Yuval opens with the provocative, “Why are we so good at accumulating more information and power, but far less successful at acquiring wisdom?” To answer this he traces the evolution of information networks from ancient times to the present day. The book “explores key dilemmas that people in all eras faced when trying to construct information networks, and it examines how different answers to these dilemmas shaped contrasting human societies.”

Harari’s signature style is to blend historical analysis with philosophical musing. He points out that “populism posits that there is no objective truth at all and that everyone has their own truth, which they wield to vanquish rivals”. Or more directly “truth is something that brings our attention to certain aspects of reality while inevitably ignoring other aspects.”

He seems to be very fond of the term “intersubjective reality” and uses it repeatedly throughout the book. The best way to define it is a complex belonging story that binds a large number of people together. He uses it to explore the many different kinds of people and the activities that go into building a complex information network. 

Until I read it here, I must confess that I hadn't appreciated the important role that bureaucracy plays in collecting data that is the foundation on which many innovations stand on.  “Without the diligence that bureaucrats put into painstakingly gathering and classifying the relevant data we wouldn’t have most of our  breakthroughs.”  

Yuval argues how no matter how rational we think we are, we are ultimately in the service of some myth maker. He attributes this declaration to John Maynard Keynes and points out how even nuclear physicists obey the commands of Shiite Ayatullahs or communist apparatchiks. He uses this argument to make the case that computers could be just as dangerous as the best of us.

He makes an interesting argument on what people should train for to acquire a job in the 2050s. He gives the example of doctors versus nurses or dishwashing versus playing chess and makes the case for how motor skills are a lot harder for AI to replace than intellectual capabilities. 

In summary, Yuval has written another engaging and thought provoking book. While there are flashes of brilliance, many of the points seem forced. Unless you are big fan, I recommend skipping this one.

Croatia: A Nation Forged in War

Author: Marcus Tanner

In less than two weeks we are heading to Croatia on vacation and I realized that I knew very little about this country and its people. I looked online for a book on Croatia’s history and this one came up as highly recommended. 

The early days of the people living in this land are not well documented. Dalmatia was part of the Roman Empire and Emperor Diocletian was born in the town of Salona (modern day suburb of Split). The Croats  at that time were a South Slavik group that inhabited most of Eastern Europe. Around 7th and 8th century AD there was a significant migration of people living in White Croatia (modern day Poland, Ukraine, Czechia and Slovakia) to settle in the region around the West Adriatic Coast. 

Over the next couple of centuries they organized themselves into an independent state and Tomislav became the first king in 925.  But Croatia was always too small to defend itself agains the Venetians who were just across the Adriatic Sea, so they entered into a union with Hungary to provide them with protection. This lasted for eight centuries, but then the Ottoman’s came charging in from the Middle East and conquered most of Croatia (what is now Bosnia, Serbia and Albania). 

The 20th century was a tumultuous period for Croatia. Following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the end of World War I, Croatia joined the newly formed kingdom of Serbs, Albanians, Slovenes and Macedonians that eventually got named as Yugoslavia. During World War 2 (1941) the Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia and established the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) which was a fascist puppet state governed by the Ustaše regime. This government was notorious for its brutal policies against Serbs, Jews, and Muslims during the Holocaust. 

Throughout the war, resistance movements emerged, led by Josip Broz Tito and his Communist partisans. By 1945, after a protracted struggle, the partisans succeeded in defeating the Ustaše regime and reestablished Croatia as part of a socialist federation under Tito's leadership. After WW II, Croatia became one of six republics — along with Serbia, Slovenia, Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro —  in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Tito's regime promoted a unique brand of socialism that allowed for some degree of autonomy and freedom compared to other Eastern Bloc countries. This period saw significant industrialization and urbanization. Following Tito's death in 1980, nationalist sentiments began to rise across Yugoslavia, leading to increasing ethnic tensions and calls for independence among various republics

As nationalist movements gained momentum in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Croatia declared independence on June 25, 1991. Franjo Tudjman founded the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989 and played a pivotal role in the Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995). Under Tudjman's leadership, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991, following a referendum that showed overwhelming support for secession. This declaration was met with immediate resistance from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serbian paramilitary forces. August of 1995 was a turning point in the War as the Croatian Army launched a co-ordinated offensive to retake the Krajina region which had been controlled by Serb forces since 1991. The Dayton agreement in December 1995 further solidified its boarders and ended the Bosnian War. 

In summary, this is a very detailed book and is densely packed with information about all the historical figures and their contributions to Croatia. In its quest to get all the facts and figures about the history it loses the narrative aspect. I could not get a good understanding of what parts of the history are significant in the Croatia that we see today.

Sarasvati's Children

Author: Alan Machado

The author ambitiously starts by describing the Indus Valley civilization of 3500 BC around the riverbeds of the Indus and Saraswati rivers. There is evidence to suggest that the Saraswati river banks housed a very large population of Harappans who were forced to migrate when the river dried up. Most of this migration happened around 2000 BC or later with some groups moving south to the Gujarat regio, while others made their way to the Gangetic plains. Over the course of time, new communities developed and several tribes coalesced into larger kingdoms ruled by their kings.  

Somewhere around 1500 BC, there was a major war called the Dasarajna War that was fought between King Sudas, the leader of the Bharatas and a confederation of 10 kings. Sudas decidedly defeated the alliance and an account of this is captured as a pivotal conflict in the Rigved. This battle is a precursor to the Mahabharatha and a lot of the story here is part of Hindu mythology so it is hard to discern fact from fiction. What is clear is that the Sarasvats were part of the losing coalition and were led South by the axe bearing Parasurama. He led his folks to the shores of Goa and the northern Konkan coast. They worked alongside the indigenous people but retained their Vedic traditions and established temples for their deities. Over the next few centuries, particularly during periods of political upheaval, they moved to parts of Maharashtra and further south to regions like Mangalore and Calicut. 

While Konkani and Marathi are closely related their grammars are quite different.  A linguistic analysis of Konkani suggests that it has significant links with Gujarati and Bengali.  The author posits that both Konkani and Marathi sprang from the same Prakrit language called Sarasvati Balabasha.  Today, there are two major dialects of Konkani. The northern or Bardes dialect is spoken by present day Goan Hindus and the Christians from North Goa and Kanara region while the Southern or Salcete dialect is spoken by the South Goa Christians and the Kanara Hindus. 

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish a colony in India in the early 16th century. It started with Vasco da Gama’s discovery of a sea route to India by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. The reason this was so critical is that the traditional route through the Red Sea was completely controlled by Muslim Rulers of India in close partnership with their Arabian counterparts. Within Europe Venetian traders monopolized the trade from Arabs in Alexandria, demanding high premiums on the prices from the rest of Europe. Religion was another key factor as Portugal with the backing of the Pope had a strong desire to spread Christianity far and wide. 

Vasco Da Gama sailed from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, with a fleet of four sailing ships and a crew of 170 men. After rounding the cape of Good Hope they hugged the African coast line and sailed from Mombasa to Calicut with the help of a Gujarati pilot named Kanji Mulam.

(Source https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama)

Vasco da Gama presented himself to the Zamorin of Calicut as a representative of King Manuel I. The Zamorin was not impressed with the simple presents that Vasco da Gama brought and he demanded presents in gold.  Given the poor reception from the Zamorin, Vasco da Gama sailed to the neighboring state of Cannanore and met with the Kolathiri Rajah who was on the lookout for potential allies to help him keep the Zamorin in check. Vasco da Gama was very pleased to enter an informal agreement with the Rajah to trade spices and other exotic goods.  

This little expedition from Portugal had a huge impact on the future course and trajectory of the Indian sub-continent. First, it disrupted the existing trade patterns on the West Coast of India that were predominantly Muslim-dominated until that point. Every trade has two sides. On the European side it was the spices that were the main attraction. On the Indian side it was fine Arabian horses. Horses were a huge advantage in battle, and states were constantly under attack if they were not busy trying to conquer the neighboring kingdom. The key trade route was from the West Coast to the Arabian countries and that was dominated by the Muslim rulers. Vasco da Gama found a route around the cape of Good Hope that circumvented this trade route. With their superior fleet of ships the Portuguese quickly became the dominant masters of the Arabian Sea.   From here they established control over the key ports and trade routes in the India Ocean.

Around this time (~1560) the Portuguese were being recognized for their missionary work in India and Pope Paul IV conferred the title Defender of the Orient on the Portuguese King. This turbocharged their missionary zeal and thousands of Indians were converted to Christianity with both carrot and stick — probably more of the latter.  The typical methods were, state jobs were only for Christians. Any kind of idol worship was banned. If anyone was found practicing another religion all their property was confiscated and given to the church and so on.  At some point entire towns and villages just converted to Christianity. 

The Portuguese conversion machine came to an end with the death of Don Henrique on the 31st of January, 1580 and the Portuguese throne passed on to the Dynasty of the Spanish Hapsburgs, uniting the Crowns of Spain and Portugal for the next 60 years. The missionary activity now fell to the Jesuits (Royal Society of Jesus) who built missions and schools to further the Christian cause. They learnt the native language (konkani) in their effort to spread their message amongst the native population. However, they quickly realized that the deeply entrenched religious and cultural beliefs were not going to be easily cast aside even if people were convinced about Christian philosophy. They observed that the priests and brahmins held a higher position in Hindu society and people tended to follow them even if they converted. 

The 17th and 18th centuries also brought with it the dreaded Inquisition. According to the author, Alan Machado,  Francis Xavier beseeched King Juan III to introduce the Holy Inquisition to India because many converts were relapsing into their heathen practices and not being “good Christians”. In 1560 he got his wish and Archbishop Gaspar Leao Pereira was appointed as the Grand Inquisitor by the King and confirmed by the Pope. Every two or three years there was the spectacle of the “auto da fe” (Act of Faith) where the condemned were publicly paraded to the place of execution. 

You can find a great Summary of Portuguese colonization of India here. This observation from Viceroy Castro sums up the Portuguese conquest quite well: “The Portuguese entered India with the sword in one hand and the Crucifix in the other; finding much gold, they laid aside the Crucifix to fill their pockets”.

The number of Christians in Kanara region in the mid seventeenth century, as reported by various historians and letters  is all over the place. My conclusion on reading the book is that the predominant Christian populations were located in and around Goa. Between the 16th and 18th centuries there was a lot of migration of konkani speaking people from Goa to Kanara. The 16th century migrations were mainly the Konkani speaking Hindus from the southern parts of Goa, most likely as a result of the force of the Portuguese conversion machine. These spoke a slightly different dialect of Konkani than their northern Goa brethren. The Kanara Christians language matches that of the konkani dialect of  Northern Goa and Salcette. It is likely that these people migrated South as a result of the Maratha invasions on Shivaji and Sambhaji in the late 17th century.  Right from the days of the Adil Shah invasion in 1570, every time an Indian ruler attacked the Portuguese, the Christians by dint of their association had to flee and ended up in parts of present day Karnataka and beyond. 

At this time, the region around present day Mangalore was probably inhabited by Tulu speaking people. Mangalore is called “Kodial” in the local Konkani language and it likely derives from the Tulu Language term “Kodiala” which means “deep end” and probably refers to the geographical features of the terrain formed by the confluence of the Netravati and Gurupura rivers. 

Sambhaji attacked Goa in 1683 at Bardes and all the Christians from there and the neighboring areas fled to Bondel, Milagres, Hospet, Managlore and **Pezar**. It is conceivable that my forefathers who were from Pezar are part of this resettlement. The Goan viceroy wrote a letter to the Portuguese king on Aug 13th 1747, stating that 5000 christians fled to Kanara in 1738. It is the author’s belief that most of the prominent Mangalorean Christian families are offsprings of these migrants. In addition to the continuous growth in population, the sporadic migrations swelled the Christian population to its peak of around 60,000 at the time of Hyder Ali’s reign in 1763.

Hyder Ali had assembled a fierce army was busy expanding his kingdom in the South. The Kanara region was ruled over by the Nayakas and in 1763 Hyder Ali attacked Bidanoor their capital and captured the ruler, Rani Virammaji and her son. From here he marched south and took over many of the ports including Mangalore which was considered one of the greatest sea-ports on the West Coast of India. Hyder Ali was a seasoned ruler and tried to maintain cordial relations with the Portuguese in Goa. In 1768 the English moved down from Mumbai and captured a couple of Hyder Ali’s ships. Hyder Ali’s governor Sheikh Ali requested the Portuguese to intervene, but they insisted on maintaining neutrality that probably didn’t go down well in the Nawab’s camp. This kind of back and forth went on for some time and there are many stories that attest to Hyder Ali being a practical ruler and allowing people of all different faiths to co-exist peacefully. However, Hyder Ali died in 1782 and his hot-blooded son Tipu Sultan took over. The English tried to take advantage of this loss and General Mathews and his army attacked Bednoor. Sheikh Ayaz who was in charge, abandoned the military post and surrendered without a fight. Tipu responded with the might of 12,000 men including many French forces and retook Bidanoor in 1783. From there they went south and laid seige to Mangalore for a harrowing 8 months. After suffering a severe famine with many sepoys going blind due to an inadequate diet of plain boiled rice, the English Commanding officer Colonel Campbell finally surrendered. 

This brings us to the fateful day of Ash Wednesday of 1784 where Tipu Sultan’s men rounded up every single one of the Christians in and around Mangalore and marched them to Srirangapatnam, his capital city. This was a 200+ mile arduous trek which involved climbing the treacherous Western Ghats and may have taken as much as a month to complete. There were around 60,000 who started the journey and an estimated 10,000 died along the way. Of the remaining, around 20,000 died in captivity and another 20,000 were forcibly converted to Islam. In 1799, the British defeated Tipu Sultan and the remaining Mangalorean Christians (about 10,000 were left) were released from captivity and started their life afresh in Mangalore.  Most of the Mangalorean Christians of today are descendents of these survivors.  It is also the reason why the history of most Mangalore Christians only starts from around 1800+.

The trials and tribulations of 15 years in captivity were more dreadful than most of us can imagine. In 1792 Cornwallis drove a campaign that forced Tipu to sign a peace treaty that exacted a huge price. However, he still retained the Mangalore Christians as his prisoners in Srirangapatna. They were released only in May of 1799 when the fort at Srirangapatna was stormed by the Bombay armies on the North and Madras armies on the South and Tipu was killed in battle. The Mangalore Christians were freed and a small fraction ( 1/4 ?)  of the original number of prisoners were still alive and able to return. 

On their return, they had to start from scratch and rebuild their lives, homes, fields and churches. Most of the Mangaloreans that we know are offsprings of these prisoners.

Consent: A Memoir

Author: Jill Ciment

In this memoir, Jill Ciment reflects on her ardent love affair with her art teacher, which began when she was just sixteen and he was significantly older and married with a child. This happened in California in the 1970s, at a time that had considerably different societal norms regarding relationships and consent. She observes that in a memoir,  “the reader often learns more about the period in which the book was written than the period that is being written about”, and Jill has the rare privilege of writing her memoir twice.

She published her first memoir in 1996 and her focus was her struggles growing up in a single-parent household. At the age of 16 she developed an infatuation with her art teacher, Arnold Mesches, who is 30 years older than her and married. In her original book, this is portrayed as a romantic affair with both parties as willing participants.  Now, as she revisits the past, she feels that Arnold should have borne the burden of being the adult in the room. She acknowledges that those were different times, with different social norms and is careful not to pass judgement on her husband. 

Despite her attempts to be balanced in her description, it seems to me that there is a tinge of regret in all the things she missed as a result of having a much older partner to share her life with. She juxtaposes his professional awards as an artist to her winning prizes for her elementary school drawings. She is consistently trying to get the reader to see the huge age gap between them. While the age difference obviously remains the same, the contrast in their activities  when she is a little child is stark. 

At some point she gives him an ultimatum to divorce his wife and marry her, and he complies. He pretty much leaves everything behind, and in her words “If you leave your wife for another woman, you might horse-trade for the better car, but if you leave your wife for a teenager, you take only your toothbrush.”

She makes it a point to let us know that Arnold’s daughter is just a few months younger than her and her father and Arnold are just a couple of months apart. Arnold gets along famously with her mother. 

In summary, the memoir serves as a retrospective look at how memories can shift over time. Ciment revisits her earlier writings about her relationship, comparing them with her current reflections. This process highlights the fluidity of memory and how personal narratives can evolve as one gains new perspectives. She writes beautifully and the book is short and a joy to read.

Never Saw Me Coming

Author: Tanya Smith

This is an unbelievable story of how Tanya Smith defrauded the US Banking System out of millions of dollars. But the story is much more than just a clever bank heist. It starts out with Tanya growing up as a young black girl in a suburb of Minneapolis. Her father was a successful businessman and she was bored with what society had to offer her in terms of education or role models. 

Her first social manipulation was to get an audience with Michael Jackson. She tried to get his phone number and even made a trip to his residence in California without the knowledge of her parents. From there she quickly graduated to deceiving employees of utility companies into altering account information to void utility bills of friends and relatives. She would call the utility company and impersonate a co-worker who was locked out of the system. She would them ask the co-worker to perform the transaction to clear overdue bills and such.

The skills she developed while manipulating utility companies laid the groundwork for her later, more sophisticated frauds against banks, where she would execute wire transfers and siphon off millions. She posed as a colleague and asked bank employees to disclose sensitive information that she could use to execute fraudulent wire transfers. She would wire the money to random individuals who would cash them and share the proceeds with her. She employed a network of “runners” who she maintained a wall of separation from so that even if they were caught, it wouldn’t lead the FBI to her. 

She was in and out of jail a couple of times, and I highly recommend reading her book to learn the details. I couldn’t put the book down and since then have been telling everyone who will listen to read the book!

An Honest Woman

Author: Charlotte Shane

Charlotte Shane is at the very high end of the Sex Work business. In this memoir she offers an intimate look at love, sex work and the complexities of human relationships. She delves into her relationships with clients, friends, and her husband, examining how these connections are influenced by her work as a sex worker. 

As the perpetual “other woman”, she has a unique perspective on conventional narratives on fidelity and desire. She reflects that she “thought about marriage, sort of abstractly, as a concept, because [she] was a satellite of so many others – indirectly, but sometimes directly, too.”

A central part of the narrative is her relationship with Roger, a married client 26 years her senior. He is a regular customer for nearly a decade and they form a complex emotional bond that transcends the typical client-escort dynamic. Her prose is engaging and introspective, combining personal anecdotes with broader reflections on cultural norms. This book will challenge your notions about sex workers and make you reconsider your perceptions of intimacy and fidelity.

The Struggle for Taiwain

Author: Sulmaan Wasif Khan

I work with a lot of engineers from Taiwan and have always been curious about what the fuss about Taiwan and Mainland China is all about. This book seemed like it would be a good place to get some answers. The first thing that caught my attention was the name of the author. Sulmaan Wasif Khan was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan. He is a Professor of History at Tufts University and to the best of my knowledge did not grow up or live in Taiwan. However, from reading the book, it is clear that he has an extensive and deep knowledge of both the history and culture that has shaped present day Taiwan. In this book, he explores the intricate relationship between the United States, China, and Taiwan, highlighting how historical events have shaped this dynamic. It discusses America’s fluctuating commitment to Taiwan's defense, China’s resentment over Taiwan's separation, and Taiwan's evolution into a thriving democracy.

Khan traces Taiwan's history from its time as a Japanese colony to its post-World War II status under the Kuomintang (KMT) after their retreat from mainland China in 1949. This period set the stage for Taiwan's contentious political status. The book details how the U.S. initially supported Taiwan as a bulwark against communism, backing the authoritarian regime of Chiang Kai-shek. However, shifts in U.S. foreign policy, particularly during the Nixon administration, complicated Taiwan's international standing.

In 1987, Chiang lifted martial law, which had been in place since 1949. This pivotal decision allowed for greater political freedoms and set the stage for opposition parties like the Deomcratic Progressive Party (DPP) to emerge.  The DPP mobilized public support for democratic reforms and played a critical role in advocating for elections and civil rights. 

Chiang Kai Shek was succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, who did in 1988. Following that, Lee Teng-hui became Taiwan’s first native-born president. Under Lee's leadership, Taiwan held its first direct presidential election in 1996, marking a significant milestone in its democratic journey.

Since then, Taiwan has become increasingly democratic and consistently held free and fair elections, allowing for peaceful transition of power. Taiwan has faced increasing pressure from China, which seeks to undermine its democratic processes through intimidation and influence operations. Despite these challenges, Taiwan's commitment to democracy has remained steadfast, as evidenced by public backlash against perceived threats from Beijing.

Night Watch

Author: Jayne Anne Phillips

A lot of novels are inspired by some events and places in history. This one is based on the workings of a genteel lunatic asylum in rural West Virginia that was state of the art in the late nineteenth century. The [Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum](https://trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com/) is located in Weston, West Virginia and is famous for being the largest hand-cut stone masonry structure in North America. It was designed to hold 250 patients, but the occupancy grew to ten times that amount in the hundred plus years that it was in operation. Today it is a National Historical Landmark. 

It was designed to be a therapeutic environment and followed the Kirkbride plan advocated by the famous Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride. Ms Jayne Anne Phillips is clearly a huge fan of Dr. Thomas Kirkbride and every chapter has a quotation from his seminal work “The Art of Asylum-Keeping”.

She uses the Civil War as a backdrop for her story and the novel starts out describing the difficult life of poor folks in rural West Virginia where most of the men-folk have disappeared to fight in the civil war. The women and children have to look after the property, raise many little children and put food on the table. They are exposed to all kinds of dangers including roving bandits who loot, rape and terrorize the local population.  From the horrors encountered in their daily lives, it is not hard to see how the lunatic asylum might be a better place.  And indeed, from Ms Jayne’s descriptions the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was a wonderful place that took care of upscale citizens.

The story has a few main characters starting with twelve-year-old ConaLee and her mother Eliza, who are dropped off at the asylum to seek refuge there. The novel then starts unraveling their back story by jumping all over the place. There’s Dearbhla who is the old woman that is like a mother to all the main characters in the book. She grinds up roots and herbs that can cure a variety of ills and also has some magical powers that can sense and influence the people around her. There’s a sharp-shooter who you are sure will have some role to play later in the book. Eevry book needs a villain and this one doesn’t even have a name. He is just called “Papa”. There’s a Dr. Story, the principal asylum doctor who’s name is based on the famous Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride who the author has clearly studied very extensively.

Overall, I am very surprised at how this book won the Pulitzer Prize.  The story line is very weak and most of the characters are poorly developed. Apart from learning how an asylum was run in the late nineteenth century, I got very little out of this book.

Why We Die

Author: Venki Ramakrishnan

Venki Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for his work on the structure and function of ribosomes. Ribosomes are a key component of our cells whose primary function is to synthesize proteins based on the genetic code carried in our DNA. Since this is an essential part of living, Venki knows a thing or two — or more accurately thousands of things — about what can go wrong in all the mechanisms that are crucial to sustaining our life. 

He writes very eloquently and quotes Hemingway from the “Sun also Rises” to say that we age “Gradually, then suddenly”. Over the course of our life we have a slow decline due to aging, followed by rapid changes that precede death. The book is filled with interesting little observations like this one about our risk of dying. At 25 years of age,  our risk of dying in the following year is about 0.1%. But then it rises to 1% at age 60 and is 16% by the time we reach the century mark. Co-incidentally I am close to 60 years old and my Mom just turned 100 this year!

Another interesting observation is that while the average age of mammals varies widely, they typically have roughly the same number of hearbeats over their lifetime. The number is about 1.5 billion. Humans had the same number until about a 100 years ago, but in the last century we have almost doubled our life expectancy and are now closer to 3 billion.

Venky has the ability to explain even complex discoveries in relatively simple terms and I learned a lot from reading this book. Here are a few key concepts that I am writing down mainly so I can remember them for later

Telomere shortening:

The DNA replication process is not able to accurately replicate the ends of the chromosomes. To prevent critical genes from being lost in the process, the ends of chromosomes have some genetic “padding” that is referred to as telomeres. These telomeres get gradually shortened as a result of successive DNA replication. It turns out there is an enzyme called Telomerase that can extend these telomeres and prevent them from getting shortened. However, these are limited to germ cells, stem cells and a few others. While it may seem tempting to use Telomerase in our general cell pool to reverse aging, we need to exercise caution as cancer cells often reactivate telomerase to enable continuous division. In fact some of the cancer treatments are to inhibit the telomerase activity in cancer cells to limit their ability to multiply.

Yamanaka factors:

While embryonic stem cells can grow into all the different organs in the body, mature cells become specialized and unable to take on other forms. In 2006, Professor Shinya Yamanaka discovered that mature cells can behave (replicate) like stems cells in the presence of four key protein transcription factors that are now referred to as Yamanaka factors. This groundbreaking discovery allows us to conduct all sorts of research with regular cells that we can now manipulate and even use to clone entirely new living beings.  From an aging perspective, we might be able to use Yamanaka factors to regenerate organs and reset the clock in their aging process. 

TOR (Target of Rapamycin):

Rapamycin was initially discovered by Suren Sehgal during an expedition to Easter Island in the 1960s. Early testing indicated that it was a good immunosuppressant and it had potential uses to improve the success of kidney transplants. mTOR or the mechanistic target of rapamycin is a crucial protein kinase involved in regulating cell growth, cell division and cell survival by integrating signals from nutrients, growth factors and cellular energy status. It’s name is derived from the fact that the drug rapamycin inhibits mTOR activity and thereby has significant implications for extending the lifespan of living beings. Dr. Peter Attia is a big fan of rapamycin and has written a lot about it in his book Outlive. However it’s full effects are not well understood and even he does not recommend taking it indiscriminately as a longevity drug. 

Metformin:

Metformin is a drug that is commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes. Metformin activates AMP-activate protein kinase (AMPK), an enzyme that plays a crucial role in maintaining cellular health. It also reduces oxidative stress which is another cause of cellular damage and aging. Metformin also has anti-inflammatory properties that can help mitigate one of the key contributors to age-related diseases. 

Caloric Restriction:

Similar to metformin, CR can lower inflammation and enhance mitochondrial health, contributing to better cellular health. Additionally, studies have shown that CR can influence DNA methylation patterns which are associated with biological aging. Dr. Steve Horvath developed an epigenetic biomarker of aging which is called Horvath’s clock that measures the pace of biological aging and predicts health outcomes for an individual. 

In summary, I learnt a lot but am not likely to do much with it.

Escape From Shadow Physics

Author: Adam Forrest Kay

Through my younger son’s interest in Physics, I have enjoyed a second look into the wonderful world of Physics. Every now and then I get him to explain some new concepts of Quantum Mechanics to me. When I saw the review of this book in the Wall Street Journal I jumped at the opportunity to learn something new and maybe have something to explain to him for a change. 

One of the challenges I have with Quantum Physics is visualizing the duality of light’s particle and wave nature. It turns out that back in 2005, a couple of French scientists discovered that adding a tiny droplet of silicone oil to a vibrating bath of the same oil resulted in the droplet bouncing around amidst the wave that was in the oil bath. While this was quite a cute visualization of the particle and wave duality, it turns out that a lot of the quantum analytics equations had an analogue in this bouncing oil droplet world. The author, Adam Forrest Kay is fascinated with this finding and believes that this might be a path to end the “Dark Ages of Quantum Theory”.

Much of the book is a rant on how Neils Bohr held enormous sway on the Physicist group-think. According to Bohr and all the leading physics of the last several decades, the wave and particle nature of light are both valid, but only one or the other can be validated in any particular experiment.  Mr. Kay really wants us to believe that there is some unknown underlying mechanism that gives rise to this dual way of interpreting light. He says that even Einstein had the same belief when he responded to Bohr with his now famous “God does not play dice” quote. 

With the recent discoveries in hydrodynamic quantum analogs (vibrating oil bath experiments), Mr. Kay is very hopeful that it will create a path to lead us out of the Dark Ages of Quantum Theory. However, this book meanders along and doesn’t make a compelling case that there is light at the end of the proverbial quantum tunnel.

James

Author: Percival Everett

First, I must confess that I have not read the Mark Twain classic,  “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.  Percival Everett has chosen to retell this story from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved person in the original novel. In doing so, he gets an opportunity to bring out the violence and injustice of slavery that were probably missing from the original.

There are some aspects of the plot that are from the original. Jim who is referred to as James in the book, runs away and escapes to Jackson island to avoid being sold and separated from his family. He is joined by Huckleberry Finn who has faked his own death to escape from his abusive father. Together they journey down the Mississippi River and run into all kinds of trouble as they meet robbers, con artists, singing minstrels, etc.

Since I haven’t read the original, I can’t attest to how much of the story is unique to this novel. Everett’s James is a complex, intellectual figure in contrast to the simplistic portrayal of Jim in Twain’s original. One interesting twist from Everett is that James speaks eloquent “Standard English” when interacting with other enslaved people, but switches to simplistic African-American vernacular English when interacting with White people. James also delves deep into philosophical territory while engaging in imagined conversations with thinkers like Rousseau and Locke. 

"James" is not a mere retelling or critique of Twain's work, but stands as a powerful novel in its own right. It offers a searing examination of racial identity, the construct of whiteness, and the enduring legacy of slavery. Everett's ability to blend humor with profound insights into the human condition makes for a compelling and often uncomfortable read. My favorite quote from the book is 

“If you are not making mistakes you’re not learning.“

Kairos

Author: Jenny Erpenbeck

Kairos won the International Booker Prize in 2024. The premise seemed interesting to me. It chronicled the complex relationship between a young student and a much older successful writer. The protagonists are based in East Berlin and most of the action takes place in the late 1980s just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It intertwines the personal story of the lovers with the broader political and social upheaval  of the time and provides a rare glimpse into what was probably on the minds of East Germans during that time.

The story begins on July 11, 1986 when Katharina the young student runs into Hans, an accomplished writer who works for the East German State radio organization. Hans quickly develops an intense affair with Katharina and things take on all kinds of weird and creepy turns. Maybe it’s due to my lack of awareness of East German culture, but I found it really hard  to identify with anything that was happening in the book. 

There are several insightful observations like this “Why a love that has to be kept secret can make a person so much happier than one that can be talked about…” that summarize the ethos of the book. 

On a lighter note, Hans and Katherina drink a lot of Rotkäppchen. I was curious to learn more about it and wikipedia declares that it’s a German sparkling wine that is named after the German fairy tale herione, Red Riding Hood. Apparently Rotkäppchen is a classic choice for celebrations or spontaneous meetings with friends!

Overall, I found the book to be an interesting peek into the lives and minds of East Germans just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The actual storyline fell flat for me.

Lessons in Chemistry

Author: Bonnie Garmus

I saw recommendations for this book dropping in many unexpected places and felt compelled to put it on my reading list. The storyline is pretty simple. Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant chemist that is struggling to be taken seriously in the male dominated scientific establishment of the 1960s. Live throws all kind of curve balls at her, but she holds on to her beliefs and just marches forward. The book takes us through what life would be like for a woman living in the US in the sixties, and even just a few decades later it seems quite shocking to comprehend and internalize. 

Some memorable quotes from the book are:

• You can’t fix it because the world doesn’t work that way. Life isn’t fair.
• when one is raised on a steady diet of sorrow, it’s hard to imagine that others might have had an even larger serving.

Overall, this is a quick and required read for anyone who wants to appreciate the huge distance that women have covered since the 1960s.

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

Author: Ilyon Woo

If there is one book that you read this year, let it be this one. I have read many books and seen a few movies on the antebellum South, but this one is sweeping and very well laid out. At it’s spine the book tells the story of the enslaved couple Ellen and William Craft that made a historical escape from their owners in Macon Georgia. 

Woo transports you back in time starting in Macon Georgia 1848 and works her way up the eastern seaboard to Philadelphia and then Boston. She meticulously combs through historical literature to find contemporaneous events that she peppers into the narrative so you get a sense of what was happening around Ellen and William Craft during that period. Rather than make up what they said to each other, she finds quotes from their books, so she can reproduce their dialog as faithfully as humanly possible. 

While the story of their escape is ingenious and pulse pounding, Woo has a much bigger story to tell. She describes the broader abolitionist movement and some of the key characters like

• William Wells Brown who also had escaped from slavery at the young age of 19. He was giving lectures and raising money to free slaves and quickly brought in Ellen and William along with him.
• WIlliam Lloyd Garrison was a prominent abolitionist at the time who had founded the anti-slavery newspaper called “The Liberator”.
• Theodore Parker was a Unitarian minister who remarried William and Ellen in a Christian ceremony before they departed for England in 1850, due to the dangers of the “Fugitive Slave Act”
• Lady Byron and Harriet Martinueau who supported the Crafts during their time in England in the 1850s. It is at Lady Byron’s Ockham School in Surrey that the crafts finally stopped touring and took the time to further their education.

Soon after arriving in Boston in late 1848, William and Ellen Craft were encouraged by prominent abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and William Wells Brown to recount their daring escape from slavery in public lectures to abolitionist circles all across New England. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, they were at high risk of being captured and sent back to their owners in the South. Finally in December of 1950, they fled to England which turned out to be another challenge.

All of this story is so beautifully told that the book is a joy to read. You get a great perspective on what was definitely the top issue that rocked the nation in the mid nineteenth century.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Author: James McBride

This book came highly recommended by my wife. When I asked her what it was about, she responded with “Just read it. You will like it”.  If there’s one thing I have learned after being married for 30+ years is that she knows exactly what I like and do not like. Needless to say she was right as always.

James McBride describes life in the rundown Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, PA where Jewish immigrants and Black families coexist in uneasy but independent harmony. At the center is the love story between Moshe and Chona, the owners of an unprofitable Heaven and Earth grocery store that mostly serves the neighboring black community. Moshe Ludlow is a Romanian Jewish immigrant who has found success in running the All-American Dance Hall. Chona is an American-born Jew who’s father built the only synagogue in Pottstown. She suffers from some disability and hence not a suitable candidate for marriage. However, Moshe is attracted to her and asks for her hand in marriage. The rest of the book vividly describes their life thereafter and some of the interplay between all the motley residents of Pottstown. 

The book has some memorable lines that made me stop and think.  In describing the interaction between an Eastern European Jewish immigrant and his black neighbor who built the synagogue McBride writes,  “What a man does to live often has nothing to do with how he lives”.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

Nickel Boys

Author: Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead is one of only four writers to have won the Pulitzer prize twice. His first win was in 2017 for “The Underground Railroad” and the second one in 2020 for “The Nickel Boys”.  The book vividly describes the gruesome and barbaric conditions in a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. While it is a work of fiction, it is based on the recent discoveries of the horrors that transpired at the “Dozier School for Boys” in Florida. The shocking realization for me was that this school was operating all the way until 2011 when it was finally closed!

Nickel Boys tells the story of young Elwood Curtis who is a promising black teenager, unlucky to find himself on the wrong side of the law. Without any due process, he is shunted to the Nickel Boys reform school where his life gets turned upside down. I won’t go into the gruesome details here, but Whitehead spares no words in describing the abuse and dehumanization perpetrated against Black youths at the Nickel reform school. Whitehead's spare, elegant prose renders the abuse with gut-wrenching clarity - from the capricious beatings in the notorious "White House" to the haunting depictions of boys disappearing into punishing confinement never to be seen again. 

All through the book I found myself cheering for Elwood, clinging to the hope that he will find a way out. Colson Whitehead has some tricks up his sleeve that I won’t describe her so as not to spoil the final chapters in the book. 

Pick up this book and you will not put it down until you finish it.

Private Equity: A Memoir

Author: Carrie Sun

Hedge Funds have always had this air of mystery about them. I picked up this book as it promised to give a first hand view into what goes on at the very top of a hedge fund. Carrie Sun, the author, is the daughter of Chinese Immigrants who have made a lot of sacrifices so Carrie can have the best education and be well set up for life. She graduated  from MIT with dual degrees in Mathematics and Finance and at just 25 years of age she got to work as an analyst at Fidelity Investments where she was making over $300K a year. However she was burnt out by the intense work culture and was disillusioned with her job, so she quit and of all things decided to become the personal assistant and right-hand to the hedge fund’s billionaire founder, “Boone Prescott”

We only have Carrie’s word for it, but by all accounts she was very good at her job. She had an inside view to everything happening in and around her, but the book is scant for details (probably for good reason as I can’t imagine why her employer would consent to her sharing any company or personal secrets).  There’s details of the opulent trappings of the upper echelons of power and privilege.  The only things that stick with me are company events and some food and sundries. 

What is clear from the start is that Carrie is expected to work 24/7 and she has no work/life balance of any sort. She ends up taking on more tasks than she can possibly complete by herself. The drama is around how the assistants don’t want to help each other and to cut a long story short, Carrie gets eventually burnt out here as well.  

The book is very well written and is a breeze to read. However there’s not much to sink your teeth into.

How Big Things Get Done

Author: Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner

The first thing I did before reading this book was to try and figure out how to pronounce Bent Flyvbjerg’s last name. After that I read his biography and was floored at what “Big” means for him. In a nutshell, he is the guy to call if you have a big project that is beyond anything that humankind has done before. 

It turns out that he is also a professor and has done extensive research on big projects and their metrics. It comes as no surprise to learn that 92% of large scale projects are late and over budget. This book summarizes his years of experience and what you can do to watch out for problematic situations and better still, avoid getting into them.

He writes that “Most projects start with an answer, for example, renovate your house. Instead, you want to start with the question. ‘Why are you doing this project?’”. It is very important to realize that “Projects are not goals in themselves. Projects are how goals are achieved”.

One of the key points that Flyvbjerg makes is that you don’t want your project to be a unicorn. He realizes that this is not something easy to do as most super-large projects tend to be unique by definition. His very strong recommendation is to break it down into modular pieces. Even if it is unique, try to make it a repetitive bunch of smaller pieces so you pick up experience as you go along. His most compelling example is the empire state building that finished under budget and ahead of schedule. It was constructed in less than 15 months for $24.7 million, which was 57% of the original budget. Their secret was that they treated every floor as a unit and repeated that construction 102 times!

Another key factor in the construction of the Empire State Building is that they assembled the raw materials for construction directly at the site itself. By doing this they eliminated the complexities that arise out of staging all the materials and transporting them between different sites. 

Flyvbjerg makes an often overlooked point that delivery is not always doomed to fail and be late. For most projects, well before the delivery you have the forecast, and “If those forecasts were fundamentally unrealistic, a team expected to meet them would fail, no matter what they did.”

In creating forecasts, he eschews working up an estimate from fundamentals. For complex projects it is hard to estimate everything as there are lots of parts and many unknowns that will be hard to get right. He much prefers “reference forecasting”, where you compare with another similar project and adjust it up or down. For example, if you are doing a kitchen remodel, get an estimate from a friend who has done the same thing and mark it up 20% if you feel you will buy more expensive appliances, or other raw materials than your friend. He quotes Daniel Kahnemann who wrote in thinking fast and slow that reference forecasting is “the single most important piece of advice regarding how to increase accuracy in forecasting”

I learned one interesting piece of trivia. Apparently the word deadline comes from the American Civil War, and it refers to the boundary (line) that prison camps drew, which, if any prisoner crossed they were shot dead. Set a deadline for when you want to start reading this book.

Demon Copperhead

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

I am told that this book is a retelling of “David Copperfield”, the Charles Dickens classic. The hero is Damon “Demon” Fields, a young boy born and raised into a live of poverty and hardship in the Appalachian region. 

Right from the first few pages, it is clear that Barbara Kingsolver is no stranger to life in Appalachia. She writes with an authenticity that is only obtained from first hand experience and observation. I read in her biography that was raised in a rural town in Kentucky and had first hand experience of being bullied for her peculiar interests in high school. 

Right from his birth, Demon is cursed. He is born to a teenage mother addicted to drugs and has never seen his father. His mother’s current boyfriend is both physically and emotionally abusive to Demon, and he naturally hates him from the get go. 

The book dives smack into the devastating effects of the opioid crisis in the Appalachian community. The horrors that Demon has to withstand growing up are heartbreaking to read about. I hope that there are no real kids who have had to go through this level of hardship.

Demon is very resilient and he has a spark that keeps him going through all the ups and downs — actually mostly downs — in the book. He is the narrator of the book and Barbara has done a wonderful job of telling the story from Demon’s point of view. The book is 560 pages long, but it is so gripping that I finished most of it during a single, rather long, plane ride.