Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, 2021

Rating: 5/5

It is incredibly challenging for an author to successfully blend an intellectually stimulating narrative with detailed discussions on the theories of physics, while also making the book witty, relatable, and a page-turner. However, Andy Weir accomplishes this feat admirably in Project Hail Mary. The story revolves around Ryland Grace, a brilliant scientist and an unlikely hero, who wakes up aboard a spaceship with no recollection of how or why he ended up there or even who he is. As he gradually uncovers the purpose of his mission, the destiny of humanity becomes intricately intertwined with his discoveries and decisions.

The book starts off languidly and humorously, despite the circumstances that Grace finds himself in. Each of the first few chapters ends with an important revelation that helps him piece things together. After that, the narrative swiftly gains momentum, keeping readers engaged with a relentless series of challenges and discoveries, and interspersing these with the protagonist's poignant reflections. Throughout the book, Weir presents a myriad of scientific discussions and explanations that not only drive the plot forward but also explore the worlds of astrophysics, biology, and space exploration. This does create uneven pacing in the middle of the book, but by and large, Weir has succeeded in making complex scientific ideas accessible to readers of all backgrounds.

Above all, it's a testament to Weir's ability to intricately weave together scientific intrigue with the emotional depth of the characters, culminating in a satisfying and poignant conclusion.

Pros: Intellectually stimulating, witty, high emotional content

Cons: Uneven pacing in the middle

Rogues, Patrick Radden Keefe, 2022

Rating: 4/5

“The Empire of Pain” was a key reason for me to pick this book up — Keefe’s extensive research and narrative style made that book an extremely interesting read for me. And, after reading “Rogues”, I was pleased to find out that the quality of research that he’s undertaken for the 12 true stories in this book and his story-telling abilities, even though these were written over 12 years for “The New Yorker”, remain undiminished. “Rogues”, as the title’s byline suggests, is a collection of true stories of grifters, killers, rebels, and crooks.

However, one usual shortcoming of attempts to collate previously written stories or essays into a book (to take advantage of an author’s recent success, as a cynic may argue) is the mixed-bag nature of the quality of the content. Unfortunately, this is true of “Rogues” as well. While some stories stand out for featuring issues that few have heard about, others are on mundane topics and the published and author seem to have chosen them largely to get to an overall round dozen number. The essays on fake collector wines, on Mark Burnett’s role in resurrecting Donald Trump’s image and in his eventual rise to Presidency through “The Apprentice” TV show, the motivations of a defence lawyer in taking up cases featuring the worst criminals and the story of chef Anthony Bourdain and his Emmy-winning travel show were all fascinating reads. On the other hand, the essays on a crime family, mass shooting by a neurobiologist, the hunt for a cartel boss and data theft and whistle blowing were ordinary without any significant new insights.

Overall, I would still rate this book a 4/5 for Keefe’s research and writing style. This book is also an easy read and can be paired with another more serious book.

Pros: Well-researched, interesting narration

Cons: Mixed bag in terms of how interesting the stories are

The Power Law, Sebastian Mallaby, 2022

Rating: 5/5

At the outset, Mallaby lays out two objectives for his book: (1) to explain the venture capital mindset, and (2) to evaluate its social impact (such as in creating meaningful products or ensuring diversity or better corporate governance). He succeeds in his first objective extremely well, covering the history of investments from its early days in companies such as Fairchild (that changed the history of the chip industry) to recent fiascos such as Theranos and WeWork, exploring investors’ changing mindset and approach through that journey. His treatment of the second objective is relatively superficial though, whether in his discussions on the creation of meaningful products or on the diversity in venture funds and their investment criteria or on corporate governance. However, we also get a bonus third objective from the book — the narration of several interesting “war stories” in companies ranging from Atari, Genentech and Intel, to Apple, Google and Facebook to more recent ones such as Uber.

The power law occurs when the winners advance at an accelerating and exponential rate, rather than a linear one. The 80:20 rule such as the one where 20% of the population own 80% of the wealth is one example of this. The book covers the various phases of venture investments in detail, starting with those by rich entrepreneurs to early innovations such as pooled capital (from limited partners) and activism capital (where investors played a key role in choosing managers and strategies), the era of creation of networks and “coopetition” (co-operation and competition at the same time), the no-holds-barred growth-investing style perpetuated by Softbank’s Masayoshi Son in the late 1990s, structured angel investments by the likes of Y Combinator, a tilt in the balance towards founders brought about by companies such as Google and Facebook and finally, the return to activist investing in companies such as WeWork and Uber. The book covers the history in multiple geographies, mainly in the US and in China, and to a small extent, in India as well. It also covers the history of several of the more significant firms such as Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. 

The role and importance of venture capital is a hotly debated topic. While it cannot be denied that it has played and continues to play an important role in our progress, do venture capitalists create innovation or do they merely show up for it? Could they have done more to avoid some of technology’s adverse social impact or to encourage technologies such as greentech? Mallaby largely speaks out in favour of the venture capitalists but this part of the book is not as fleshed out as the rest of it. He argues that the future can only be discovered and not predicted, and this is the only form of capital that can enable this discovery by willing to take a large amount of risk (it was hence initially referred to as adventure capital). Mallaby argues that venture capitalists succeeded more due to skills than luck and companies such as Cisco and Google became what they are due to extensive coaching. He exonerates the investors from governance nightmares in companies such as Theranos, WeWork and Uber by arguing that more than three-quarters of late-stage venture funding in the United States between 2014 and 2016 came from non-traditional investors such as mutual funds, hedge funds, and sovereign wealth funds.  He does acknowledge the diversity issue however given the fact that a large proportion of the partners in these firms and the founders of their investee companies tend to be white men. 

Overall, the book is well-researched, laid out well and importantly, is easy and interesting to read. While I do have reasonable prior knowledge of the industry, I think a lay person would enjoy this equally. So, a 5-star book for me!

Pros: Extremely well-researched history, several interesting anecdotes, an interesting read

Cons: Superficial treatment of the social aspects

The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukherjee, 2016

Rating: 5/5

The context for the “intimate” part of the title is the incidence of bipolarity and schizophrenia in the male members of Mukherjee’s family — two of his uncles and a cousin were diagnosed with the disease - which would be a constant threat hovering over the family. And this sets the tone for Mukherjee’s fascinating and detailed exploration into the subject of genes. 

He divides the book into six parts, starting from 1865 until the present day, covering the history of genetics ranging from Mendel’s first experiments with peas to genome mapping. He combines significant academic rigour with writing flair while covering the 160-year journey that shaped human understanding of genetics. While parts of the book make heavy reading, Mukherjee keeps most of it interesting and sometimes even manages to convert potentially academic and mundane topics into racy narratives. The section on the race to discover the DNA structure by multiple scientists is one example. Or the race to map the human genome between a private company, Celera and the Human Genome Project. The Book of Man chapter, somewhere in the middle of the book, is particularly interesting with several factoids about human genes. 

The most fascinating parts of the book, as to be expected, cover the debate around eugenics, contrasting the benefits of manipulating genetics to avoid serious disabilities in humans, with the potential violation of individual rights and the marginalisation of certain sections that it could ultimately engender. There have been several instances in recent human history that foretell the significant negative implications of eugenics, such as the eugenics movement of the early 20th century, Nazi Germany’s policies and prenatal genetic testing, we need to tread along this path with extreme caution. While Mukherjee does not provide any concrete solutions, the book does make one pause and think.

Ultimately, The Gene turns out to be a great combination of history, science, personal narratives and some guide rails for the future of genetics!

Pros: Rigorous research and a fascinating look at the history of the gene

Cons: Heavy reading in parts

Chip War, Chris Miller, 2022

Rating: 5/5

“Chip War” is a detailed documentation of the history of silicon ships covering the early days of the industry and the early years of companies such as Texas Instruments and Intel, the attempts of countries such as Russia to emulate the American success, Japan’s (mainly Sony’s) rise, US’ eventual dominance, the emergence of Taiwan as an offshore centre and ending with the current geopolitical implications entering around China and Taiwan. The breadth of the book is tremendous, and Miller manages to cover it in about 350 crisp pages without skimping on the important details.

The only complaint I had was that a major portion of the book is largely like a historical narrative on the subject, not surprising given Miller’s background as a historian. For someone like me who’s been a stock market analyst in the technology sector, most of the information was not new. But even then, there were these little nuggets of information, the small insights into events and people that took the industry forward and some interesting anecdotes that compensated for this. Also, the last part of the book which covers the future implications of this race between the US and China to get the upper hand in this area, exacerbated by China’s intent to eschew economic integration, constitutes a well-written opinion piece. 

Overall, “Chip War” is a fascinating read for all, easily understood by readers new to the topic and with enough nuggets to satisfy even those familiar with the topic. Jerry Sanders, co-founder of AMD, had famously said that semiconductors were the crude oil of the 1980s. Since then, their importance has only grown and one could argue that the outcome of this chip war has the potential to influence the future of individual countries and even humankind, making it an incredibly relevant topic and the book an interesting read.

Pros: The breadth of coverage of the topic, interesting factoids and anecdotes, insightful discussion into the current and potential geopolitical implications

Cons: May drag a bit in places for readers familiar with the subject

Ghachar Ghochar, Vivek Shanbhag, 2015

Rating: 5/5

This book was originally written in Kannada but has not lost any of its essence in translation and so kudos to Srinath Perur who translated it to English. It’s a psychological drama centred around a household comprising the unnamed narrator, his parents, uncle, separated sister and his wife. The story deals with the sudden shift of the family from poverty to wealth and the magnification of the already existing dysfunction that the wealth brings about — “it’s not we who control money, it’s the money that controls us. When there’s only a little, it behaves meekly; when it grows, it becomes brash and has its way with us” as the narrator points out at some point in the story.

Ghachar Ghochar is a nonsensical phrase made up by a couple of the story’s protagonists to suggest the hopeless entanglement of a loose string. It captures the crux of the story as feelings of love, anger, greed, power, and fear get mired with each other leading to the slow downward spiral in many of the characters’ morals. There is enough of each character to feel sorry about and yet enough to despise them. Despite being a very short book and despite being set in very simple surroundings, there’s an underlying current of foreboding and darkness throughout the book. This is captured beautifully in a chapter on the family’s battle against an invasion of ants, making them “a family that took satisfaction in the destruction of ants”.

The key thing that struck me about the book was the simplicity yet profundity of Shanbhag’s writing in Ghachar Ghochar. While the book can be read easily in less than 2 hours, there is enough to relish while reading the book and enough to contemplate after completing the book. As that narrator expressed, “words after all are nothing by themselves. They burst into meaning only in the minds they’ve entered.” 

Pros: Simply yet wonderfully written, short

Cons: Nothing really