The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - Robin Sharma

Non-Fiction

Read if you Like Self Help

I'm not a big fan of self help books. Some of course can be helpful, but overall, I find them a waste of time. This book came to me as a gift from some colleagues for my birthday. The gesture was very touching as I didn't know them that well and it was kind of them to think of me.

Robin Sharma goes about telling a story about how a sucessful lawyer learns how to slow down and enjoy his life. He uses the format of story telling with someone else as the main character to impart ideas. Not a new idea, but ok if done right. I personally didn't care for the tone of the book. I felt led on to ideas that could have just been simply laid out. The advice was also just vague enough to make me wonder why there needed to be a book about this. That's about all I have to say about this book. If you like self help books this is one that's high on everyone's reading list so maybe it'll be right for you. I didn't care for it.

~Becky~

Caste Matters - Suraj Yengde

NonFiction

Meh

Caste isn't something that I can ever access aside from second hand knowlege. However, I still think it's important to educate ones self about, and this book seemed to fit the bill to build my knowlege further. Both the term and concept of "Dalit" was explored.

As I've mentioned previously, when an author is close to a subject and has an emotional tie to it, writing objectively becomes incredibly difficult. This book was a prime example of this theory. A self identified Dalit, the author definitely has strong feelings, and understandably so. The subject of reservation and special privilege/lack of it is a time worn argument in India. Some scream that "low caste" people have too many support systems, others agitate beause they have too few.

I was shocked (although I'm not sure quite why) to find out that becoming very sucessful in life is looked own upon, even though it may elevate someone to a more comfortable lifestyle. I have seen this in different societies where less fortunate people resent those who have somehow removed themselves from a difficult situation. This was also surprising for me because coming from the US, the prejudice was more economically based, rather socially. Even if you come from the poorest background, once you have money no one cares. Caste is very much more complicated than that. 

I could not figure out how and where Brahminism fit in with castism, aside from propigating the discrimination, but perhaps that's simply my ignorance. It was an interesting read, but overall I felt quite biased. Disappointing but not surprising. This book is worth a read because the only qualified people to talk about something like castism are those who have experienced it, especially not on the dominant side of the spectrum. 

Read It.

~Becky~

The Valley of Masks - Tarun Tejpal

Fiction

Read it!

I enjoyed The Story of My Assassins very much, so when I found another novel by Tarun Tejpal, I thought I should give it a try. I was not disappointed. One of the beautiful things that Tejpal is able to do is spin fantasies. He does it so beautifully that you don't even consider the improbability of what he's saying after a while. It's fantastic.

The Valley of Masks is about a breakaway religious cult who value equality above all. They all look the same, they all have a function. The further you get into this novel, the more social commentaries you see. Religious fervousness, community identiy, us versus them, personal identity, what society holds as ideals, Tarjun Tejpal marches out one by one in a subtle but unignorable way. 

I personally would call this not a horror novel....but something similar. By the end of the book, what was meant to be noble and good has morphed into something  absolutely horrific, that if the narrator is correct, will result in his death rather than a separation from.  The first person narration/memories only enhance the horror because you know that the narrator knows what's coming. What makes it even more disturbing to me is that I know people who hold the same ideals, albeit not to that degree, about relationships and the ideal of identity/ability equating to value. 

I won't narrate the whole story line because that would rob you of the beauty of unwinding the story that Tejpal has so artfully spun, line by line. Definitely worth the read.

~Becky~

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

Fiction

-Meh-

I kept coming across this book on Pinterest as recommended, so when I found it in the bookstore (used and cheap!) I was rather excited. 

The novel introduces us to Eleanor Oliphant (surprise surprise) and quickly establishes that she's a quirky, weird, middle aged lady.  It's quite tropey. We follow her through her life as she faces disappointments, her past, and forming positive relationships.

This book definitely doesn't shy away from mental health issues. Eleanor has been abused and neglected and has walls a mile thick. She drinks too much, doesn't have a social life to speak of, and misses social cues. She makes an unlikely friend, Raymond, with an equally different co-worker. We're never quite sure if they have a mild romantic interest in each other or if they're just so thrilled to have found a support and a friend that it gets confusing. 

What I liked most about the novel is that Eleanor is relateable for me. While my circumstances may not be exactly the same as hers, I can understand her reactions to many things, and her hesitation to see the value in herself or trusting other people. I also know how much it can help to have a "Raymond", either as a romantic partner or just as an amazing friend. 

Unfortunately, the book was overall disappointing for me. There were so many issues for Eleanor I felt like the author went through and played Psychology Dilbert bingo and didn't fully address any of them. There was so much more that could have been done with this story. I'm not critisicing because neat endings are rare, but this ending just kind of happened. There was no resolution to anything, besides a very anticlimactic "I won't talk to my mom anymore because she's an abusive asshole" moment. The rest we wonder if Eleanor will sort out or not, especially the suicide episode she went through. The reader is left feeling that as long as Eleanor continues to put one foot in front of the other and continue trying, she'll be fine. This is charming, and often times the case in real life, but I needed a little more hope than that for a charachter I was rooting for and related to. 

Not a bad book, but keep your expectations reasonable.

~Becky~

Punjab - Amandeep Sandhu

Non-Fiction

Verdict: Read It

I have a rather long-standing fascination with Punjab - many aspects of it. So when I saw this rather large nonfiction book in Book Worm, it very much piqued my interest. I did think twice, becaue as I said, it's not a quick read, but that never bothered me. 

Punjab is written an an almost autobiographical style, with the author obviously a Punjabi or a foreign returned Punjabi - I can't remember at the moment, mixed in with a bit of historical and current events mixed in for education purposes.  One of the things that made this interesting is that there's currently (although it's been going on for quite some time) an issue in Delhi about Farmers. I don't know much about it, so I'm going to refrain from commenting here. Since this book covered agriculture in Punjab, it was easy to tie it to some of the current events happening, which I always appreciate.

You can obviously tell that the author has strong emotional ties to his homeland. He approaches the subjects he raises in a passionate and personal manner. He also is quite comprehensive in his coverage. 

While I did appreciate the comprehensiveness of the book, I found it scattered in many places and needing a bit of organization and flow. The author hopscotches from one topic to another. It's obvious that they're connected, but the lack of a flowing narrative bothered me quite a bit.  I also think that certain subjects that are very near and dear to an author are difficult to write bout well. As a writer, I have found myself struggling to remove emotion and passion and write in an informative or logical way. I hesistate to critisize the author for this, but I think there was room for improvement.

For me, Punjab is a very complicated piece of the Indian puzzle and learning more about it helps me learn about India as a whole. If you have an interest as well, I would suggest that this is not the best place to start. It is, however, a good book to read for someone who already has some context on Punjab and build their understanding. It's definitely not a charicature of Punjab like portrayed in the movies. While that's always fun to observe, it's not real and learning about the real Punjab is much more rich. 

Read it!

~Becky~

The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford

Non Fiction

Read It

This book was recommended to me by my ex husband, who also happens to be my boss, and the founder of the company we both worked for - a tech start up in Bangalore. I was a little unsure if I should read it as he told me that it was an IT book and I'm almost completely non technical. I'm also not a big self help/management lessons book kind of person. If they're good, sure, I'll give it a shot, but not something I look out for. 

The book opens to a company in chaos with many bad habits and indisciplines. The author takes us through his learnings over the course of time as he is shoved into a high pressure position and project with very little support and very high stakes. 

As I work to transition a 100 person company to a 200 person company, there are always lessons to be learned. While I won't spell them all out, this book provided many important lessons that I will definitely remember and am trying to implement before it leads to bigger problems. 

Business lessons are always fascinating to me - I think more so than personal lessons - because businesses are very complex organizations and there are endless factors to whether they suceed or fail. Coming into the opportunity that I did later in life, I'm very invested the the business continuing to thrive and grow, so that I can continue to thrive and grow with it. 

I'd recommend this book to anyone in the IT industry with even the least bit of interest in managment or growing a business. Overall a good read to contemplate and digest in bits as you consider how to implement some of these things in your own business. It's not a quick read, and whether the "lesson teacher" was real or not, he was obnoxious and patrionizing. People should not be shamed due to not knowing something as long as they are willing to learn. 

~Becky~

So All is Peace - Vandhana Singh-Lal

Fiction

Read it!

This would be the first book I have read from Vandana Singh-Lal. Contrary to popular form, I didn't pick this up on recommendation or because of the cover, although I do like the cover. I went to Writer's Cafe (Kalyan Nagar, Bangalore) with my kids just to explore. They also sell books, so I thought I will support small business. Their books, though used, are definitely not cheap. But all for a good cause, right?

Anyhow, the novel opens with twins going to Paris with their father. There are the usual twin tropes, though very mild at this stage in the book. As we move into the next chapter, we find the twins in isolation in their house, having literally almost starved themselves to death. They are discovered by a little boy who has inadvertently set some trash on fire with Diwali fireworks and goes to the door to warn them. What follows is a mix of police, press, and backstory into how our protagonistas reached this point, though only one of them is the narrator.

The book is a very beautifully spun narrative. I did not find myself bored, though the plot lagged at places. There was just enough forshadowing used that it wasn't ridiculous nor absent and the reader discovers (I felt) just what the author intended at exactly the moment she intended. This is not an easy task and it's done very well. The authoress touches on many social issues and comparisons in society. The twins have lost their family and while dramatically different from each other, are very closely connected and only have each other for most of the novel. The author also goes into how sensationalist the media can be and how people change once something goes public. In this case, it's the apartment society's attitude towards the twins. It's disgusting sentiment, but anyone reading the book who is Indian or has any idea about India can relate. I won't give away the twist at the end of the book, but it's brilliant. I definitely did not see it coming. 

The book does overdo the twin angle in the end. I also was left at the end of the book wondering what exactly the whole point of the starvation was. The author does briefly explain it, but I wasn't satisfied. Perhaps that was the point, there was no point to the starvation - it was just a thought exercise that went way out of control. As I mentioned, some of the book is a little slow, but if you slow down yourself to contemplate the issue the author is commenting on, it makes sense to think through a little slower. I would have also liked to have seen a little more character development of both the twins. The reporter is obsessed with at least one of them, but I can't figure out why. A big ado is made about how they are alike and different, but aside from vague references to who is smarter and who is born first, not much is done here. Again, perhaps intentional. 

Overall, an excellent read and one that kept me engaged.

Read it!

~Becky~