Some good books

The Volunteer: The Incredible True Story of an Israeli Spy on the Trail of International Terrorists by Michael Ross (Author), Jonathan Kay (Author)

Excellent memoir by a spy who worked for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Very well written. The author, Ross, is a Canadian by birth, who went to Israel by chance, liked the country so much so that he chose to convert to Judaism, became a Israeli citizen and then chose to serve in Israeli armed forces and then in famous Mossad. In this book, the author very tactfully writes about his life in Mossad. As a former secret officer, it is not possible to write about all his work due to its sensitive nature. That's where the authors excel. It's indeed an art to write interestingly when your hands are tied by code of ethics. A great book if you like to read about real life spies and their lives.

The Company She Keeps by Georgia Durante - Simply incredible story of one gutsy woman- the author- Georgia Durante. I could not really imagine one single person could go through so many testing times, trials and tribulations in one life time. Georgia not only went through many such tests but also emerged stronger and wiser from each experience. 'That does not kill you only makes you stronger' is no more true than in Georgia's case. Georgia grew up in Rochester. She went on to become one of the top models in 1970s. She was the famous 'Kodak Girl' for several years. She worked in other show biz related stuff. However, while she was going through her life, she also ran into many interesting people and situations created by them. Can you imagine a top model getting involved with mafia characters? On top of it, getting married to someone who was a pretty big guy in mafia those days? How about being the get away driver on some heists? Georgia had all those experiences and came pretty close to death many times. Then when she thought she was finally out of mafia related mess, a psycho gets into her life and becomes totally obsessed with her. This psycho nearly killed her in his obsession for her. Police could not help much against this maniac. So, Georgia had to go back to mob to get some help to get rid of this guy. Then FBI which was after mob was after Georgia. They wanted to cut some deals too. If you do not cooperate with FBI, they can set mob against you by spreading rumors that you are working against the mob. If you do cooperate with FBI, mob will come after you. What did Georgia do and how she came out of it? Then Georgia's daughter, who grew up in such dangerous conditions, became a drug addict. Georgia really did not need this. So, she put her in some de-addiction center in Montana. In the mean time, she was having enough problems from her third husband. While she thought, she finally met a good man, he died in a plane crash. Since Georgia had trusted all her money with her last man, she does not ready access to her own money. So, she is almost destitute once again! This goes on and on again. Ordinary people would have surely given up but not this gutsy woman. Finally, things start to change for better for Georgia. She now runs a very successful movie related business employing several people. Finally her life has been back on track. This is truly an inspiring book. At the end, like anybody who has gone through so much in one life time, Georgia also gets philosophical. She delivers some good points about life and God's choices etc. All in all a great read! If you watch bollywood films, have you watched 'Chandni Bar'? You may find some similarities. That movie ends in tragedy and in this one there is some good happening at the end.

Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin - Last year's financial disaster on the wall street is a great material for writers. As expected, many books have already come and many more are in the process. As expected, many writers wanted to be the first to come out with a book that chronicled those heady some 60 days in September and October of 2008 when everyone thought the world (at least the financial) has come to an end. It did seem so. With a major bank failing everyday, shotgun mergers between banks brokered by federal government, banks being nationalized. Everyone asked what's going on and nobody really knew other than what we read in news papers. No complete picture. This book, really a big one in size, systematically chronicles the disaster as seen by some of the very people who were part of it. All credit to the author who has beautifully dramatized the book. You really get a ringside seat and watch the meltdown blow by blow. Great book!

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The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Turner William, Jonn Christian

Recently finished reading this book. Earlier, I was reading some books on late president John F Kennedy(JFK). Did not know much about his younger brother Robert F Kennedy. Was intrigued to learn that Robert Kennedy (RFK) was the man who made JFK the president by completely owning the management of JFK's presidential campaign. JFK knew his brother was probably the only person he could rely on for anything. So, he made RFK the attorney general in JFK's government.

JFK did not live to complete his term. He was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. That's a different story. There are may conspiracy theories and what not. Just search on the net or try to search for books. There are way to many books on JFK's assassination. It is amazing that it close to 50 years since JFK's assassination, new information and books keep coming along. Anyway, RFK was devastated after his brother JFK's death. He went into shell for a while. He knew he could not continue as attorney general under Lyndon B Johnson who was vice president at the time of JFK's death and became the president afterwards. So, RFK put his life on slow gear for a while.

It always bothered RFK that he or nobody really knew who killed his brother JFK and for what. There were many theories. Cuban exiles might have done it because they were disgruntled at JFK for not supporting them enough to overthrow Castro. Mob might have killed JFK because mob helped him get elected and after becoming president he did not return favors. Soviets, Israelis and many more possibilities. RFK was always trying to find the real killers using his informal contacts and connections. Some powerful people who probably had something to do with JFK's assassination did not like RFK continuing to pursue his private investigation into finding out who assassinated JFK and for what.

RFK had presidential ambitions. But, not in 1968. Like everyone else, he thought Johnson would go for re-election. So, RFK thought he would run in 1972. But, out of the blue, to everyone's surprise, Johnson announced that he was not going to run. So, democratic ticket was wide open. Johnson had his favorite in Herbert Humprey. There was another candidate Eugene McCarthy. RFK was startled. He could not wait any longer. He had to run for the president of USA. So, he too announced his candidacy for democratic ticket. This disappointed others because he chose to do it very late after others had made plans thinking that he was not going to.

Deciding to run for democratic ticket in 1968 probably sealed RFK's fate. As said earlier, people knew that he was still investigating JFK's death on his own. He did not believe in the hogwash of Warren report  that parroted out what nobody believed about JFK's death. So, vested interests who were responsible for JFK's death were very concerned that if RFK became the president, he would go full speed and their fate might get in danger. So, it is said the powerful people started to plan a mission that would send RFK also to the place where they had sent his brother JFK for not playing well with those powerful forces.

RFK started doing well in democratic primaries. In a very short time, he got significant lead over his other democratic opponents. He had just won the all important California primary. After winning the California primary, he gave a speech to his cheering supporters at a hotel in Los Angeles. After the ceremony, he was getting out to go home. He was passing through hotel's kitchen to use the back door. Suddenly a man leapt from nowhere and pumped bullets into RFK. RFK was badly wounded. After a brief time at hospital, RFK was gone. Dead. Assassinated very much like his brother JFK was.

Well, authorities caught someone called Srihan Srihan. He was a palestinian american. They said he killed RFK because he was angry at RFK and America for supporting Israel against Palestinians. He was tried and sentenced to death. His sentence was later reduced to life. The man is still serving his time in some prison in California.

But, was RFK's killing that simple? This is the question the book tries to ask. It makes a case that Srihan was not the only person involved. Probably there were few more assassins. Because there were bullets fired at RFK from the front and back. Lone killer would not have been able to do so under normal circumstances. So, authors started investigating. They pursued conspiracy theories. Was Srihan programmed using hypnosis to act under the orders of his remote controller? This question gets very interesting when authors systematically explore the possibility using medical experts and some damning evidence found with Srihan. Srihan's note book and his mindless scribbling of hatred against RFK beg more questions if he was brain-washed. It is interesting that there was a novel and a movie based on the novel called 'Manchurian Candidate'. In the movie, same thing happens. A man with no motives is hypnotized  into killing the presidential candidates. Which came first? Novel or the conspiracy theory? By the way, Manchurian Candidate was re-made recently. Good movie to watch.

Lot of questions. Few answers. RFK's death did not generate as much curiosity as his brother JFK's death did. Soon after that americans got mired in Richard Nixon scandal. Nobody paid much attention to JFK and RFK assassinations.

Good book. It could have been a great political thriller if the writing style were more captivating. It reads more like a police report than a book. Gets boring at times. Thankfully, I read it on my Kindle. So, when I got bored I just asked Kindle to read it for me.

Cheers!

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The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga

This novel, after it won Brooker prize, had generated so much news that I had to read it. Time for that came recently. It's a nice novel. Light read. At least for me, it did not come across as something that is going to haunt for a long time. You know it is in the same league as one of those books you buy at the airport, read it on the plane and never think about it again.

Aravinda Adiga has been a familiar figure to me because he used to write for Money magazine. I have been a subscriber for Money magazine for long time. Always used to wonder who this guy is. Due to his last name, it was clear that he is from the same state in India as I am from - Karnataka. After he wrote this novel and won Brooker prize, many details started coming out about him. No wonder there was an India, Karnataka, Mangalore connection for this Adiga.

Novel is a pretty neat one. Story of a village boy who become a car driver of a rich boss, experiences life very differently than rest of his folks and then ultimately starts some business supporting larger outsourcing industry. That's it. This story has been told nicely. India has been described vividly especially for those who never visited or understood India and rapid changes in last few years. It seemed to me like that movie 'Slum Dog Millionaire'. Tell a simple story using raw image of India. Looks like rawness sells. May be.

Good read.

Cheers!

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Amazon Kindle

Amazon.com is not paying me anything to write this:)

Do you like to read? Then you may really like e-book reader from Amazon.com called Kindle.  I got this device couple of weeks back. Amount of reading I have gotten done in these two weeks is probably more than what I would  read in 2-3 months. Easily. It's a different matter about the usefulness of all that I read. But, still :) I have been reading so much on Kindle that reading has taken priority over blogging. I would probably need a few weeks to write, even briefly, about all the books I read and reading.

For me Kindle is really useful for several reasons. First, Text-To-Speech feature. Most the e-Books have this and Kindle makes use of it. When reading paper books, I get bored after a 30 minutes or so. Mind wanders. Needs a break. It is difficult to keep going. With Kindle, just ask it to read it for you. When your interest comes back, you can stop that and read it yourself. Text-To-Speech feature is well developed in Kindle. It does not sound like some Robot reading. Pretty neat.

Secondly, the regular 6" Kindle I have is excellent for speed reading. In speed reading, we are taught to scan as opposed to reading word by word. Scanning and reading in whole as opposed to reading word by word works best when your area of coverage is small. Kindle screen is best suited for it. With large fonts, there are like 10-15 short lines that fit into the screen. Very easy to scan and speed read. You can skip easily when there is not much substance.

OK, e-Books cost money. Although there are several thousand free e-Books available, if you want to read latest books, you will have to pay. Good thing is a lot of books on Amazon.com are $10 or less. This is like more than 50% saving over paper book price. On top of it, you will get the book instantly using free wireless connectivity that is part of the Kindle's price. Amazon.com itself has several old books, that are free. You can Google and you will find several sites with free e-books.

You can convert most of your standard word, PDF etc. documents to Kindle format using several free tools available. Mobipocket Creator is the tool that I use. OK, these converted documents may not be as slick as professionally crafted e-Books with features like jump to page, scanning for words etc. But, you can read them easily and comfortably. This is a great advantage if you have access to online libraries like Safari.Com. My employer provides full access to Safari.Com. My membership allows limited number of full downloads. So, I can download latest books, in full, as a PDF from Safari.com, convert the PDF and transfer it to Kindle. This way, I have avoided buying some books. Connection to computer is through USB and works without any problem.

All in all a great gadget especially if you like to read. There is absolutely nothing not to like about Kindle. If you like to read a lot, get one for yourself. Of course, if you want to study seriously, then nothing beats paper book. But, if you want to read broadly for knowledge and/or entertainment, then reading on Kindle will get you more reading done in less time.

Kindle is still quite pricey. Price has come down quite a bit over last one year. Also, make sure you search for refurbished Kindles. Amazon.com itself sells refurbished Kindles. You can get them for like 30% less than brand new Kindle.  Refurbished ones are as good as new ones as long as they are sold by Amazon.com itself.  Be careful if you are planning to buy a second-hand one from a third party.

Cheers and happy reading!

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Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents by Minal Hajratwala

A very refreshing and interesting book about Indian diaspora spread all across the globe. I have always been very interested to hear about someone's personal account of how their near and dear ones settled all across the globe. Every family in India these days has somebody or the other in popular countries like USA, Canada or UK. But, what has always interested me is about those Indian who have made some of the most obscure countries their home. That too for decades and in some case for centuries. I have seen Gujarati traders of East Africa who have been trading there for generations. Similarly I was intrigued by cricketers of Indian origin in other countries.

This is the book that describes about author's extended family's migration from India to Fiji, USA, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Africa. Author herself was born in the USA, spent time in New Zealand and then returned to the USA. Her parents grew up in Fiji.

If you read this book, you will understand how Indian diaspora got to where it is now. You will learn about indentured labor which was so essential for colonialism especially after the abolition of slavery. Although this reads more like one particular family's memoir, you will surely relate to it and understand a lot about the general phenomenon.

It is usually hard to keep readers interested when things become very particular to one's own family. Author does a fabulous job. She does not write pages after pages about her family alone. She just uses their names and incidents as a backdrop but tries very hard to bring out things of commonality and importance relevant to the heart of the matter - that's Indian diaspora all over the world.

This book reads more like a nice novel than somebody's family memoir. That's what got me finish this book. I must say I read it in record time as well. Fairly large book. But, the style and narration is very good. You become part of the book. Characters become very familiar. You will want to know more and more about them. Very well crafted.

Cheers!

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