Books Geeks

PLOT: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 2/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-founded a Million Dollar Company has an interesting title and definitely lives up to the expectations of the reader. It is the true story of Varun Agarwal, a Bangalore-based entrepreneur, and how he came to start the company Alma mater. Since the book is based on the true life events of Varun and his journey to fame and success, it is almost a good inspirational read, inciting in the reader an urge to fight the flawed social perceptions about becoming a successful visionary. Varun Agarwal, the lead character is a guy who has a vision, a vision in which he intends to create a sound and successful business with a nascent idea, in which he stumbles upon one day. His idea is to tie up with schools and colleges and sell their merchandise through an online retail platform, wherein students and alumni can place orders and buy their school merchandise...

SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 To become a great non-fiction author you need a mind-boggling subject, you have to do exhaustive research and you need such jargons in your book that people seldom understand. Read Rashmi Bansal’s books and you’ll realise that all that is just a myth. Who imagined that one can become an instant bestseller by publishing a few pages of “Interviews of IIM Entrepreneurs”, well, that is what “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” was. Poor Little Rich Slum is no different. It is a detailed account of big & small, successful & budding entrepreneurs of Dharavi. We have all heard about Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, as claimed by some. We all have our bias, our notion about Dharavi. Some of us might even take pity on it. But this book is sure to change all of it. Poor Little Rich Slum is about the people of Dharavi, their success stories, their dreams, their ambitions and their passions. It talks ...

SUBJECT: 3/5 RESEARCH: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 2/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 The Weekend that changed Wall Street is a book about the events that unfolded in the second week of September 2008 and that changed the whole modern day Financial System. It answers questions like “How the crisis unravelled?” & “How all of it started?”. Written by Maria Bartiromo, CNBC’s top anchor, famously dubbed as the “Money-Honey” and the first person ever to report live from the floor of New York Stock Exchange, this lady is sure known to turn heads and not just because of her impeccable looks but also because of her close association with one of the biggest names on the Wall Street. Well, in this book, it is this association of hers with the head honchos of Wall Street that she utilises to put together a detailed story of what exactly happened at the Wall Street in that ill-fated week of September 2008. The Weekend that changed Wall Street talks about all the bi...

SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 Abraham Lincoln is one of America’s greatest heroes due to both, his incredible impact on the nation and his unique appeal. Lincoln’s is a remarkable story. A story of rising from humble beginnings to achieve the highest office in the land and then a sudden & tragic death at a time when his country needed him the most to complete the greatest task facing the nation. Lincoln’s most significant action as the President was Emancipation Proclamation which paved the way for the Thirteenth Amendment and the Abolishment of slavery. Lincoln’s distinctively human and humane personality and historical role as saviour of the Union creates a legacy that endures the test of time. The masterpiece Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood is the most comprehensive and detailed biography of Lincoln. The book is written in a formal style which I found as a deterrent to becoming an interesting read....

SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.75/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 The whole world talks about China; from my B-School professors lecturing on importance of China; to our Director and HODs trying to bring in teachers to make us learn Mandarin; to ex-colleagues in asset management industry selling China focused mutual funds to HNIs; to my present day steel plant colleagues procuring spare parts and machinery from China; I have everybody around me talking about China. From being just a kid learning about the big bad guy in the north (my great grandfather who also happen to be a freedom fighter in India’s struggle for Independence wrote a book on the events leading to and the fallout after the 1962 war with China), to the professional realizing the value of China in every-day life of any citizen of the world, I have always tried to learn more and more about our dear neighbour in the North. ‘The China Price’ by ‘Alexandra Harney’ was an  attempt to ...

SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 3/5 WRITING STLE: 2.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 “We live in an opportune moment today. We have, available to us, the technological tools of the 21st century to address 19th century issues. In a fast changing world, will mankind be ruled by smart phones soon or will mankind use technology in life-changing innovations to make our societies far more equitable? Can technology be used to address the most crying needs in our societies today?” Parthajeet Sarma’s “Smart Phones Dumb People?” is a look at how the 21 st  century technologies can be used to solve problems that essentially belong to the 19 th  century .  Mr. Sarma discusses if having smart phones has made us better or has turned us stupid. The title itself sounds very interesting and I was definitely intrigued when I received the book. What I was expecting was a look at smart phones, their pros and cons, and how they can be used to solve today’s problems. ...

SUBJECT: 3.5/5 RESEARCH: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 Sahibs who loved India takes you back in time, it takes you through the period when India was ruled by the British; British who hated us, who tormented us, who disgraced us in our own country. But then, Sahibs who loved India is not about those loathing babus and sarkars, on the contrary it is about those who loved India, admired Indians and respected our culture. It is a collection of essays written by those “sahibs” and “memsahibs” who loved every aspect of our country. Khushwant Singh brings this book as homage to those few angels in the sea of darkness who reminisce about their adventures, encounters and experience in India and tell us about what they cherished the most about India. From the last viceroy of India-turned-first governor general of free India Lord Mountbatten to Peggy Holroyde, the wife of then BBC representative in India to lesser known Maurice and Taya Zinkin. These...

This review first appeared on Sports Keeda. SUBJECT: 4/5 APPEAL: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 What comes to your mind first, the moment you hear the name ‘Yuvraj Singh’? ‘6 6s’ or ‘Man of the Series in the 2011 world cup’ or ‘an arrogant cricketer’ or ‘a flirt’ or ‘a bar brawler’? If I give an introduction of Yuvraj Singh in this review, it would be an insult to the Man because he needs no introduction; some of you hate him, most of you love him but you definitely know all there is to know about him. Or so you think. Being a big fan of Yuvi, I too was under the same impression until I read his book ‘The Test of my Life’. The book is about the biggest challenge Yuvraj Singh has faced in his life. No, not Australia. It’s cancer. Germ cell cancer – seminoma, to be more specific. When I first received the book from Random House, I thought that this would be a boring read. Reading 200 pages about a man’s fight with cancer is surely ...

SUBJECT: 3.5/5 RESEARCH: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 INFORMATIONAL QUOTIENT: 4/5 We think we know the answer pretty well. Foreign aids & grants can break the poverty spell. But how much they work, only the results tell. Poor Economics brings out the truth of this poverty hell.” It won the 2011 “Financial Times/Goldman Sachs” Best Business Book of the Year Award and it comes recommended from none other than the Nobel winning Economist Amartya Sen. So there must be something great in this book; thinking this I selected  Poor Economics  from among the list of books that I wanted to read and review. Being an amateur economics enthusiast myself, I thought it would be a good break from all those love stories, chick-lits and history books that I’ve been reading for quite some time now.  Poor Economics  as the jacket of the book declares is all about rethinking poverty and the ways to end it. Being at the centre stage for many develop...

PLOT: 4/5 CHARACTERS: 4.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 5/5 “A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water log stick will do just fine. A dog doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he’ll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?” – John Grogon Marley: A Dog Like No Other  is an adaptation of New York Times bestseller “Marley & Me” and was written as a book meant for young readers. The story of Marley became so famous that it had to its credits the movie “Marley & Me” which stars Hollywood biggies such as Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. The book is a non-fiction and is based on the real incidents of the life of “Marley” – the author, John Grogan’s dog. John and Jenny fall in love and get married. Life seems good after mar...

SUBJECT: 3 /5 RESEARCH: 2/5 WRITING STYLE: 2.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 “Sales is a daily fight, a daily hell, This any salesman in the world would tell But then how should we sell? How to do make sure the sale is done well? Worry not, for this book will show you Exactly how to ring the success bell..!!”   A Salesman’s Lessons  is a book authored by C.R Jena, the Business Head of Mahindra Satyam in South Africa. In this book, he  writes about his experiences as a salesman  and what others can learn from it. The author makes use of various theories from mathematics, physics, biology and physiology and also many incidents from history, ideas from literary works, and some random experiments by known scientists. His conclusions are not deduced from extensive surveys or research but from his own understanding because of his experience in the field of Sales. And that, I believe, is a good way to put down someone’s exp...

WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 SUBJECT: 5/5 HITSORICAL VALUE: 5/5 “When the world was torn by grief and war. When the Jews were killed in German halls. A group of eight went into secret hiding. To save themselves from atrocities and chiding. A girl of 13 lived it, wrote it all. To tell the world – A forlorn story of her early and unfortunate fall” “….announcements of their deaths appears in the papers frequently. These outrages are described as “fatal accidents”. Nice people, the Germans! To think that I was once one of them too! No, Hitler took away our nationality long ago. In fact, Germans and Jews are the greatest enemies in the world” – Anne Frank, Friday 9 th  October, 1942 “Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now?” – Anne Frank, Tuesday, 11 th  April, 1944 I am sure many of us would have heard of her and her diary which became fam...

SUBJECT: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 HISTORICAL VALUE: 3.5/5 The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag   is the true account of one of Jim Corbett’s many adventures with man-eating animals. This particular one is about a Leopard who lived in Rudraprayag, a small town in the state of Uttarakhand in India. It is situated on the confluence of rivers Alaknanda and Mandakini before they go south to join the river Bhagirathi and form the famous river Ganga (or Ganges). It is located at a distance of 86km from the famous Hindu holy town of Kedarnath and is therefore frequented by Hindu travellers from all over world. The Man-Eater of this town spread its man-hunting activities over an area of 500 sq. miles and continued them for 8 years (1918-1926) before it was finally killed by Jim Corbett. Between these eight years, the man-eater had claimed 125 lives officially, but according to many the unofficial estimates, it might be much h...

SUBJECT: 5/5 RESEARCH: 5/5 WRITING STYLE: 5/5 RELEVANCE: 5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 5/5 The nation cried on August 21 st 1945, when the news of Netaji SC Bose’s death reached India. Many believed in the news but a few knew there was something amiss. They would never accept this incident to be true and would make it the purpose of their life to uncover the truth. There were three official commissions setup by the Government of India and many unofficial ones to find out the truth behind this mystery. India’s Biggest Cover-Up is one such attempt by an independent researcher, Anuj Dhar, to bring out the true facts behind Netaji’s disappearance, the reasons and the consequences. Being a firm believer in the alternate theory that Netaji had not died on 18 th  August 1945, I must have read this book with a certain amount of bias and my judgement may be clouded. So, I appeal that you have an open mind and read this book till the last page to get the ...