Inside the Boardroom - How Behavior Trumps Rationality: R Gopalakrishnan and Tulsi Jayakumar

Non-Fiction

Verdict: Read it!

I recently saw R Gopalakrishnan as a speaker at an HR conference in Bangalore where I work. He was an engaging speaker and the book was given out as swag. 

In this book, the authors dig into behavior and how it affects boards, decisions made by those boards, and the impact of certain behaviors on decisions. For someone who doesn't have insight into any boardroom, this was a fascinating peek into how that works. As an HR and Business professional, psychology is an interest of mine. This book was a perfect storm for me.

The authors did strike a rather paternal uncle lecture tone, which is understandable. He's an older gentleman. The book was also a little dry and I felt it could have been expanded out into even more areas than it covered. 

Even with those suggestions, it's still worth the read to educate yourself a bit on boards and mindsets. 

Read it!

~Becky~

50 Greatest Love Stories

Fiction short Stories

Verdict: Read it for the feels

As I've mentioned previously, I'm not that big on romance books. I decided to give this a try - perhaps I was feeling senti about my husband that day. 

I don't know about Greatest Love Stories, but the book delivered as promised. It's a series of love stories. As I don't go into individual stories when I review, I will say that the composition was so-so. Maybe a different order or flow would have worked better for me, but this was a little so so in my book. 

Read it for the feels and enjoy the love.

~Becky~

The Education of Yuri: Jerry Pinto

Fiction

Verdict: Read it!

I had read Em and Giant Hoom by Jerry Pinto, so when I saw this at the Bookshop I knew I must read it. 

The Education of Yuri is a coming of age book. One of the things that Jerry Pinto is brilliant at is making his characters real and oh-so-relatable, often times in ways that we wish we did not have to. The novel follows Yuri through his adolescence - an experience fraught with insecurity, learning, growing, and general angst that most of us have had. 

Watching Yuri wander through friendships, romance, sexual awakening, and eventual separation and adulthood is borderline painful. Because it's so relatable. That being said, Yuri is a likeable guy, even when he feels like an alien or a failure - I was cheering for him. Just give it time, this sucks for everyone. I think that was the point Jerry Pinto was getting at but he did it well. It's not a long or hard read, but I find Pinto to be a talented writer worth your time.

Read it!

~Becky~

The Newly Weds: Mansi Choksi

 Non Fiction

Verdict: Meh

I think I picked this novel up at the bookstore. I'm not a hardcore romance novel reader, but I like some occasionally. Not that this was a romance novel. I haven't read anything by Mansi Choksi before, so this was my introduction.

The author follows three couples in India through non-traditional marriage paths. That means non-traditional, non-heterosexual, and across religions. It's a tricky subject in India and one that people still have strong and sometimes unfortunate mindsets about. The outcomes aren't always good.

That being said, I believe people should love and marry whomever they wish. I don't believe families have the right to interfere, nor take revenge on couples when they marry outside of the traditional manner. 

The couples that Choksi highlights aren't all that out of the ordinary for today's world. There's nothing bizarre about them, which makes the circumstances more sad. The author seems to take pride in asking certain questions and forcing the reader to think. I'm all for asking questions and making the reader think, but trumpeting about it is a little offputting for me. I'm sure that Choksi doesn't have the answers for those three couples or society on how to reach a suitable compromise for everyone. The book ends without any solid resolution, which is to be expected, but left me wondering what the point was. This isnt' a new subject here. Everyone knows that these circumstances are still difficult inspite of progress, your questions are not new ones. 

It's a decent time pass and you want the couples to succeed and be happy together, but there's nothing here that hasn't been done before. 

~Becky~

The Greatest Indian Stories Ever Told: Arunava Sinha

Fiction Short Stories

Verdict: Meh

I'm not sure if this book is related to the Series of greatest this and that stories ever told, but it had a definite familiar ring to it. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the stories in the state-related books. It might just be me, but they seemed rather generic. 

If you're new to Indian short stories, this isn't a horrible place to start, but there is definitely room for improvement after that. 

Read it....or don't.

~Becky~

Moth Smoke: Mohsin Hamid

Fiction

Verdict: Read it

This too was a recommended read. I had previously read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, so I was eager to read another of his works.  

The story follow the main character - Darashikoh Shezad after he has lost his job. His slow spiral into poverty, being dirty, and pretty much giving up hope of anything positive. He ends up seducing a friend's wife and getting deep into heroin. It's a pretty nasty spiral.

But there are some interesting things to observe. Being poor in Lahore and having jet setting friends leads to some interesting situations. And Darashikoh keeps finding himself in interesting situations but absolutely messing them up. I also thoroughly enjoyed Mohsin Hamid's portrayal of Darashikoh. I didn't hate him, I just got a severe case of the "ick" watching him spiral. It's easy to make someone love, hate, or be indifferent to a character. Giving someone the ick over a character is an art, and Hamid nailed it.

I believe the author was trying to illuminate how easy it is for a decently successful person to spiral out of control with a few bad choices and circumstances. He got the point across but the real winner of this story is the character development and portrayal. Brilliant and worth the read.

Read it!

~Becky~

Tomb of Sand: Geetanjali Shree

Fiction

Verdict: Read it

This is one of those large books. The ones that take forever to read. At least it took me quite a while relatively. I was about a third of the way through before my interest was well and truely hooked too.I believe this was a bookstore find and the first I have read by Geetanjali Shree.

Long, but worth it. It's a 2022 Booker Prize winner, which usually means worth reading. This is another flavor of the partition literature that ranges from amazing to awful in India. I enjoyed the novel. It's also a bit of a soft-peddaled manifesto. The mother is done listening to other people and is going to do what she would like. Not in a hurtful way, but in an "I Need to do this" way. It examines intergenerational assumptions and turns some of them upside down.

I enjoyed the protagonist a lot. I enjoyed cheering for me and while she wasn't perfect, she was human, relateable, and I wanted her to achieve what she set out to do. That's a pretty brilliant win for an author. I feel that selling the main character is half the battle of getting someone to read your book. Take it on vacation, take the time to read some daily, but do read this - well worth it.

Read it!

~Becky~