Review: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: As the book blurb says - presenting our present through Yuval's perspective

He no doubt blew us all away with Homo Sapiens and Homo Deus, but maybe third time isn't always the charm. His writing style, his thought process is still wonderful backed with research but somehow it feels like he is crossing over to the self help genre with this.

The book is a great crash course on what defines our current world - why a handful of casualties in terrorism create more fear than thousands lost to military warfare or even road accidents, will Artificial Intelligence take our jobs and a lot more things we all are anxious about. He shares reasons to why we probably think in a certain way on these topics and suggests a few recommendations - the biggest one being aware of mindfulness.

Religion probably gets itself the most focus in this book and repeatedly makes appearances every few pages cutting across all the lessons we hear from Yuval.

The topic on immigration was new for me and he asks some great pointed questions there on is immigration countries should provide as a offering or should be demanded off and hence should there be a criteria. Obviously multiple schools of thought there that could make for a book in itself.

I think this book gets the conversation started and unfortunately for me, it stops there.

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Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A young girl in the Victorian era entering a fantasy land wilder than her imagination

I took a moment to write that hooter! Alice in Wonderland is so ingrained in popular culture that she needs no introduction nor the suspense ending that the book has. The irony with classics is most of us read them in our childhood often missing the finer nuances of why these are masterpieces. Going through it again, I realised the amount of wit Lewis Carroll had doused this book in and could appreciate it a lot more. That said, there was more nostalgia involved than any contemporary appreciation as the book has aged and maybe still makes for wonderful children's reading pushing the boundaries of imagination and to think Lewis made this all up on a boat trip for a friend's daughter.

The Cheshire cat, the mad hatter and alll the wonderful characters are well dramatised in this audiobook rendition making it a lot more interesting to hear the same.

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Review: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: A spy goes for that one last mission before retirement or does he...

There is a reason why this falls under classic section and makes Ian Fleming writings the "maasss movie" genre whilst this feels really close to the reality - it's dirty all over, there are no heroes in this business. No one is running around with fancy gadgets and vehicles but slowly and steadily and wittily playing the long game. There is an ageing factor to the book as it is based in the Cold War and all that tension isn't the most relatable in 2021 but as a gritty no -nonsense agent or agent agent or agent agent agent - Alec Leamus is the protagonist in this as he takes on his nemesis Mundt of the East German Intelligence for the one last time. A mission gone bad, sent back to London with a boring job till he is called into Germany to possibly defect for all his experiences. On the outer layer, this is a simple spy tale but the greyness of decisions and relationships makes it a lot more complicated and interesting. Tempted to watch the 1960s movie version of this to check if there are any nuances on the screen between this and the Bond franchise and if the wittiness carries over.



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Review: The Neon God: A Novel

The Neon God: A Novel by Ben D'Alessio
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: Got this book from the author and Booktasters in exchange for a honest review

Time Travel or juxtaposing modern characters landing in the past and vice versa has been a common trope in the creative world of books and movies. In this case you have the Greek God Dionysus lands up in modern day New Orleans. He bumps into local girl Zibby and these are our two major protagonists. To be honest, I did learn quite a bit about Dionysus and Greek mythology in this book but his plot line gets repetitive and monotonous with wine and sex and the baggage he carries. IN that manner Zibby's arc makes for a lot more interesting reading as a law school student going about her life whilst owning her own bookstore.

This can be a travelogue for New Orleans tourism as a very colorful, living and breathing depiction of the city is painted all through and you want to reach out to the soul of New Orleans through this book.

Smart, witty writing with a lot of pop cult references probably too American for me but made for an interest read all around. Probably some sharper editing in the middle would have made this a faster paced thrill ride to the dark side.

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Review: Bombay Balchao

Bombay Balchao by Jane Borges
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A community of stories from a Goan wadi in the corner of Mumbai as colorful as its occupants

The book gets a lot of things right. An assortment of stories and relationships you'd expect in a closely placed community if not close knit. It mirrors with the colonies, chawls of yesteryear which formed the entire definition of city life for its occupants - rarely did you step away from that 5km radius in your lifetime. The feelings of love, envy, bitterness, pain over years are mixed dressing like that of the balchao pickle across each of the short stories around this corner of Mumbai , Goans had made home christening it Cavel. Through the stories, there are nuggets of history and tussles of the Catholics in Mumbai, the great dock fires in the 1940s, the water struggles and so much more that make it relatable to everyone yet unique to the inhabitants of Cavel. It took me a while to realize the recurring characters across each of the stories and how they made appearances in each other's tales as side actors in some and heroes in the next and you felt you could imagine the on goings of the Bosco mansion as people age. The mixed timelines made it confusing and it did take a while to settle into the rhythm of life here and the eccentricity of all its inhabitants.

As for the individual stories, some made for interesting reading like the "twain shall never meet" love track between Ellena Gomes and Michael Coutinho, the water pipeline story when the Braganzas moved in, the sketch Mario made of his dad, his cruciverbalist days while some went down a cliched path like the exorcism of Michael, Benji's death.

The book is like a walk through the corridor of a Mumbai chawl - you overhear enough to get a glimpse of the occupants' life styles but not their life stories.

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