Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo, 2015

Rating: 5/5

It had been a while since I had read a fantasy novel and the Covid-induced lockdown seemed a perfect time to do so. And The Six of Crows, the first of a duology, did not disappoint!

This book is set in the same world as Bardugo's earlier-written Grisha trilogy. The key characters are all new though.  Bardugo has crafted this world exquisitely with different regions, varied characteristics of their residents, interesting dynamics among them and magical elements. I have not read the trilogy but that does not take away from the enjoyment of this book.

This book is essentially about an heist. Six rogue characters (the leader Kaz, a spy called Inej, sharpshooter Jesper, a Grisha called Nina, prisoner Matthias and runaway privileged Wylan) set out from Ketterdam to Fjerda to rescue a scientist who can make a very powerful, magical drug. The motivations for each of them are different. Each chapter is narrated through the eyes of one of the characters (one of five with Wylan being excluded for some reason and the first and last chapters from the perspective of minor characters), making it an interesting read.

The Six of Crows has all the elements of a good fantasy novel - a gripping plot, an interesting set of characters, magical elements, romance (including a gay one), betrayal and some doses of humour. The Grishaverse, as it is referred to, is now replete with online fandom and backstories. Netflix has signed up the Grisha trilogy as well as the Crow duology. So, while this world is no match for that of Harry Potter, it may be worth spending some time in it!

Pros: Superbly detailed, gripping plot, easy read

Cons: Not for the reader who finds fantasy novels childish

The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides, 2019

Rating: 4/5

The Silent Patient belongs to the genre of mystery/thrillers that's constructed cleverly, is a page-turner, has a big reveal at the end, and which can be kept aside and forgotten once it is read. And for that genre, the book delivers!

The book is centred around two key characters. The first is Alicia Berenson, who appears to have shot her husband, Gabriel, five times in the face and who refuses to speak after the incident (and hence the title of the book). The second is Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist, who is extremely keen to work with Alicia, strangely even at the cost of his career.

The book peels off layer after layer of the mystery at a rapid pace with Theo as the narrator, exploring Theo's motivations and the mystery of Gabriel's death through their backstories (Alicia's diary in her case). One interesting aspect of the book is the usage of Alcestis as a trope - a Greek heroine who sacrificed her life to bring back her husband from death and also the title given by Alicia to a self-potrait painted after her husband's murder.

Standard elements of this genre have been liberally used. For example, there are the usual red herrings on the way. And I felt just a little bit cheated by the aid used for the plot twist at the end. But nevertheless, the end is quite satisfying and most of the motivations of the various characters are explained by the time we finish the book. This is Michaelides' debut novel and is quite impressive for that.

Pros: Page-turner, clever plot, a fairly satisfying end

Cons: A read-and-forget type of book

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell, 2013

Rating: 4/5

One way to approach David and Goliath is to treat it as a collection of essays or interesting stories rather than as a book - a reader could pick up any one of the nine chapters of the book (divided equally into three sections) or even the introduction and read it on a standalone basis. It did not work as a single cohesive book for me, however.

It starts with an interesting take on the story of David and Goliath, set  over three thousand years ago in the Valley of Elah in modern-day Israel. Unlike the traditional interpretation of the underdog beating the giant in that famous battle, Gladwell argues that David's success was due to the strategy that he adopted - he was a projectile warrior pitted against infantryman Goliath and in most such battles, the former would usually prevail. And that interesting version of the tale sets the tone for the book!

The book is packaged into three sections - the first two discuss how disadvantages can be advantages and vice versa, and how some difficulties can actually be desirable. Each anecdote has a "David" of sorts. And they usually succeed because they change the rules of the game and adopt atypical tactics or they are forced to do so due to some inherent challenges that they have. Apparently, underdog strategies increases the possibility of the weaker side winning from 29% to 64%! But underdog strategies are hard to adopt. The third section is about the limits of using power and I'm still not clear how that fit into the overall theme.

Some of the anecdotes are extremely interesting and cover a range of topics such as a junior school basketball team, the choice of colleges, the London bombings during World War II and even Ikea. Others are less fascinating though or seem out of context. Like some of his other books, Gladwell does not really have much substance on the topic of his book itself and he ends up force-fitting examples to justify the title. But I found many of the stories interesting and informative. Like I said at the beginning, I approached this as a collection of essays and that merited a 4/5 rating for this book.

Pros: Interesting anecdotes, diverse topics

Cons: Parts forcibly fitted into a whole

Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond, 1997

Rating: 4/5

At the outset, let me warn you that this book is a laborious read - I had to alternate it with another "lighter" book while reading it. But, at the end, there is an incredible sense of achievement in the ability to understand human evolution better!

Jared Diamond is an enviable polymath - he has significant knowledge on multiple fields including anthropology, biology, ecology, and geography and puts together this knowledge in Guns, Germs and Steel for us to understand how humans evolved the way they did. He seeks to answer a question put to him by a politician acquaintance in New Guinea, basically, why human development occured at different rates on different continents. Or in other words, why didn't native Americans reach Europe and colonise it rather than the other way around. Diamond repeatedly makes the point that race had nothing to do with this. He attempts to answer this basic question over 500 pages, by discussing the history of human evolution, the progress of food production, the translation of that into guns, germs and steel (the building blocks that enabled some humans to develop faster than others) and then finally gives examples of such different rates of development across different parts of the world.

As to be expected with a book of this size exploring just a single question, parts of the book are dry to read and some parts are repetitive. The lack of the fifth star in the rating is simply on account of this. But the book succeeded in making me think of issues that I would never have and gives an entirely different perspective of commonly-held beliefs about human evolution. And during this journey, I picked up some fascinating pieces of information. For example, that the first cultivated plants in the Americas (bottle gourd) was not as food but as containers. Or that of the modern world's 6,000 languages, 1,000 belong to just New Guinea! All of this makes the book a satisfying read eventually.

Pros: Extremely informative, challenges commonly-held views about human evolution, interesting trivia

Cons: Laborious read, repetitive at parts

Shoe Dog, Phil Knight, 2016

Rating: 5/5

Memoirs of successful entrepreneurs can be tricky for a reader. They could become boastful, making the memoir a tedious read, the entrepreneurs'  achievements notwithstanding. They could be airbrushed - for example, serendipity can be positioned as great strategy. They could be whitewashed - any business would have operated in grey areas at some point of time and a good memoir should faithfully record and explain it. Or they could simply be boring - a successful entrepreneur need not be a fascinating storyteller! Fortunately, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, avoids many of these pitfalls.

Knight, unlike some entrepreneurs, had a reasonably comfortable life even from his early days. He belonged to a stable middle-class family and went to reputed colleges. An important turning point in his life was a paper that he produced for a business class at Stanford, Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do To German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras? He revisited this idea later in his life and the rest is, of course, history. Knight recounts this without exaggeration, taking credit where due and exhibiting modesty when he should.

A positive surprise for me was that this book was a page-turner - JR Moehringer (who collaborated with Andre Agassi too) helped with the book. That was an added bonus!

Nike has not been without its fair share of controversies, notably the one surrounding its use of "sweatshops" across the globe. Knight does discuss that, but just over a page and a half. And half of that is spent in giving a positive spin to the outcome. For a controversy that raged over several years, its treatment in the memoir was a bit disappointing.

This is not a "self-help" type of book with lessons for a budding entrepreneur. But ultimately, a good memoir should be inspiring and I think this book will be exactly that for any young reader. The story of Nike, from the initial unconventional idea of importing and reselling Japanese shoes to the early Blue Ribbon days to the eventual establishment of one of the world's best known brands and logos should all motivate any person to dream. That, to my mind, is the greatest success of this book.

Pros: Page-turning, insightful, inspirational

Cons: Could have addressed controversies in more detail

Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng, 2017

Rating: 3/5

There are three things that I seek from a good piece of fiction: (1) Great plot, (2) Good writing, and (3) Post-read mulling. In Little Fires Everywhere, I thought the plot was okay, the writing mediocre, and I can't wait to finish this review and move on to the next book!

The premise of the book is interesting and it starts with promise, highlighting the title of the book and making us want to understand its meaning. The book could have been an interesting study of class differences and racial tensions through its diverse array of characters. There is the seemingly perfect Richardson family -- husband Bill, supercilious but thwarted Elena, clueless Trip, superficial Lexie who then has a life-altering experience, strait-jacketed Moody and the rebellious Izzy (my favourite and I suspect that of most readers). We have the mother-daughter duo of Mia and Pearl with a secretive past who are completely unlike anyone the Richardsons know and who manage to upend their lives. Even some of the relatively minor characters such as Bebe Chow have promise. However, critical parts of the plot (Mia's dark secret, for example) are so improbable, that they make some of the characters look artificial and make it difficult to remain vested with them. The class-related and racial issues are also treated quite superficially.

The writing was disappointing for me as well. As I read, I usually highlight sentences whose construct I find particularly interesting or which I can quote at a later date. I ended up highlighting nothing in this book! Popular highlights on the Kindle include sentences such as: It was like training yourself to live on the smell of an apple alone, when what you really wanted was to devour it, to sink your teeth into it and consume it, seeds, core, and all.

The writing, and the plot to some extent, seem contrived at places. Nothing underlines this as much as the description of the artwork created by Mia for different members of the Richardson family towards the end of the book. That was the last straw for me!

Pros: An easy read, interesting premise

Cons: Trite writing, improbable plot developments

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turnton, 2018

Rating: 5/5

In hindsight, I was really lucky that I walked into this book blind, with no significant knowledge of the plot. And about 70 pages later, with the first major plot twist, my enjoyment of this book was greatly enhanced. I would strongly recommend everyone to do the same if possible.

At its heart, this book is a mind-bending murder mystery. But it is also about the myriad interesting characters populating this book. And eventually, it is about redemption. So that's what makes this book doubly delicious ‒ as the mystery unfolds page by page, we are treated to some fascinating characters through the course of the book, many of who are neither black nor white, as we are initially led to believe.

Like all books or movies of this genre, there are inherent flaws to the "circular logic" used. I cannot explain this further without revealing some spoilers, but this book overcomes most of the flaws. I re-read the book, noting down questions that needed answers as the book progressed, and it was immensely satisfying to see that practically all the questions had been answered by the end. That make this one of the cleverest books that I have read. And finally, I'm a sucker for interesting trivia. The fact that this book was published in the US as The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle to prevent a conflict with another title was, by itself, worth half a rating point!

His next book, The Devil and the Dark Water, is expected later this year. I can't wait for it to be published!

Pros: Gripping from start to finish, an extremely clever plot

Cons: An extremely convoluted plot too (which may not work for everyone)

PS: I'm reactivating this blog after over 10 years, and am also moving to a simpler 1-5 rating system. 3 would mean that the book is just about readable, 1 or 2 would mean that the book deserves to be binned, while 4 or 5 would imply different degrees of a very good book.