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Shogun is a popular book based on Japan, written by James Clavell in the 70s. It is a fictional account of the experiences of a British sailor who is marooned in the Japan of the 1600s, the era of shoguns and samurais. The book is based on real events but of course is hugely fictionalised. The setting of the book is like that of an epic and it is a mesmerising account of how the country may have been like when it was closed to the world. It is an awesome read, grand in its setting and ambitious in its scope. Once picked, it is tough to let go of it till you finish it. For me, ever since I visited Japan, I have been quite fascinated by the country. Ive read a few books to understand the culture more - the sound of waves, a tale for the time being, Shibumi, Ikigai and even Pachinko. But I think the book I was looking for was Shogun. It gave a comprehensive view of what the Japanese society was like, and why it may have evolved into what it is now. I am sure the book has its flaws, but it...

There are a lot of non-fiction books which pick up a psychological or social topic and delve deeper into it. But a lot of such books end up repeating the same idea, from multiple angles, all through the book. And that is one aspect in which I found Rebel Ideas quite different. The author did have an idea to start with, but he moves much beyond the original idea along the book, which made it a lot more interesting to read (and easier to finish) than a lot of the other books I have read in this genre. And thats why I would recommend reading Rebel Ideas. Its written well and you definitely won't get bored 😊. The overall theme of the book is a case for diversity. In life, in organisations, in thought and so on. And the author gives reasons why diversity matters, why it is important, and also shares examples to show why it works better than not having diversity. I am sharing below a few thoughts in the book which struck with me... The biggest reason why it makes sense to have m...

Upheaval is a non-fiction book, which uses a 12 factor framework for understanding how nations react to and cope with crisis. It includes factors like acceptance, national identity, historical experience, national core values, getting support from others and so on. The framework is quite similar to how humans react to crisis, but with modifications given how nations may be different from humans. And the author uses this framework to analyse some huge historical as well as future crises faced by or being faced by some major countries in the world. To be honest, I am not a a fan of the framework, as I found it was being force fit to each of the situations. And it got a bit repetitive too, when every situation was being discussed within the same structure. But I loved reading about how all these different countries dealt with these crisis, based on their own unique experiences, Reading about these events also enhanced my knowledge of global history, but from a different perspect...

The first time I had come across something real from the India-China War of 1962 was around 1997 when I spent a considerable amount of time in Arunachal Pradesh. I heard stories from people around, how terrible the war had been for India, how bravely the soldiers had fought for India but lost their lives and so on. Even till the 90s, there were times people would find bunkers with skeletons of soldiers with guns still in their hands. And I also knew we had lost the war badly and it had been an utter defeat. I had also heard anecdotally that India had kept poking unilaterally at China with small border skirmishes and China had attacked India just to teach her a lesson. And so after the war, they had retreated unilaterally, giving back all the land they had taken during the war. But I never believed it. India has always been a peace-loving nation, we could have done nothing wrong?! Of course it was China which was the aggressor and bully. And so I thought (or preferred to think!). Bu...

I read Home Deus almost a year ago but never got to writing the review till now. To be honest, it was still a fun read with quite interesting titbits but I did not find it up to the first of the series. Anyways here are a few interesting parts of the book I felt like highlighting Terrorists can be compared to a fly in a china shop. They rarely are able to cause damage by themselves but the reaction to their actions can. Like the war in Afghanistan started based on what Osama did If people become immortal and could only die of natural causes, they will stop taking risks, like even driving and trekking! If humans got pleasant sensations from anything for long, they would not survive. So naturally we derive satisfaction and its all momentary and goes away. The green lawn has evolved as a symbol of luxury from medieval dukes in France and England. It costs time and money with no real benefit. And now its taken over the world 😊 Sensations, emotions and desires are all just algorith...

Again a very interesting and light read where the authors highlights that success is not just based on talent and skill. A lot of other factors including luck, the time you were born, your parents, environment and many more external factors contribute as much if not more to a person's success. The examples he gives are quite convincing too. I would almost say its a must read book for anyone interested in reading about people and life... Some highlights and examples from the book are shared below: A lot of external events affect success. One example is the date or month you are born. A lot of games have a cutoff date when young children are chosen to be trained. And children born right after that date, are at an advantage as they are a year older than the rest when the next cutoff date comes. So they are more often selected and trained more and make it big. While other children who were born later in the year don't get in and generally do less better on an average The ten...

A very interesting and easy book to read, with a new take on how underdogs and the disadvantaged can turn their disadvantages into an advantage and win over huge Goliaths! A must read for anyone interested in psychology and life! Below are a few interesting observations highlighted in the book: Its not always the giant who wins. Sometimes their advantage can become their disadvantage too. And sometimes being unconventional can help you win! The story of David and Goliath is the perfect example where Goliath's size becomes the reason for his downfall. And another example of this would be playing full court in basketball as done by a few not so talented teams. By taking the unconventional route, you can surprise your opponent and even win with limited talent. Of course doing this is risky and tougher than taking the conventional and easier route. But this may be the only way underdogs can win Being rich parents is good and advantageous up to a point but parenting becomes toug...

This book has a very interesting take on some of the key countries of the world, why they do what they do and links their history and actions as dependent on their geography. Most of the observations were very interesting, am sharing a few below: Russia : Moscow is located in a vast flatland and was always at risk of attack from either the Central Asian powers in the south or from Western Europe in the west. Therefore it has always conquered land all around Moscow to keep a buffer zone, and that has been a driver of its foreign policy for a long long time. Till today two geographical limitations do matter to Russia and drive its actions – it still needs a port which does not freeze in winter. And it needs to protect itself from the great western plains of Europe and hence needs an ally in the Baltic States and Poland at all times. China:  The hinterland of China again is located in an open plain and therefore it has conquered other regions like inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Ti...

Blackbox thinking is a book on another aspect of psychology - of learning from mistakes. Surprisingly enough, there are some parts of society where this is encouraged, and some where its not. And this difference in attitude can change the whole course of a person's life. Or a profession... Some interesting observations and learnings from the book: Learning constantly from failures, to improve your performance and systems is consistently and rigorously followed in the airline industry. This is done using the recordings from the blackbox installed in flights which is then used to add new guidelines given out to pilots and other airline staff. The opposite happens in the medical care profession though. Mistakes are not even acknowledged as their occurrence is assumed to be a weakness. And since no one even accepts the mistakes, there is no opportunity to correct it going forward, and so thousands continue to die as learnings are never taken. The mind naturally deals with mista...

Continuing with my aim of reading and learning more about psychology, the most recent book I read on this topic was Predictably Irrational. It is a book on behavioural economics and talks about some of the irrational behaviours of the human mind which can actually be predicted correctly. Its a very light and interesting read, a definite recommend. The book is split into 13 chapters, each focussing on a particular irrational human behaviour which can be explained. And this is based on simple experiments carried out by the author which support his hypothesis. I am listing below the summary of some of the observations shared in the book: People make a lot of decisions in their lives based on relativity, for example when shopping and deciding how much to pay for something. We cannot value things standalone but only in relation to others. And that may lead to some not-so-rational behaviours. One of the (good) side-effects of this is that people can use this to their advantage - they ...

After years of trying to figure out why exactly the book 'Lajja' was banned, and unable to find a copy to read, I finally laid my hands on the book recently. Given the title of the book and the fact that it was banned, I had very conveniently assumed that the book was on women and their plight in Bangladesh. But on reading it, I realised it was on a totally different topic - the constant and ongoing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh due to the slow and steady transition of a secular nation to a fundamentalist one. And all of it was news to me. To be honest, the book is nothing extraordinary in its quality and way of writing. It shifts from a fictional story about a Hindu family which has to face constant struggles during riots that broke out in Bangladesh after the Babri Masjid incident, to a documentary which lists all the atrocities and unfairness faced by Hindus over the years. The book is not too well written and can be easily critiqued. But inspite of its failings,...

The book 'Sapiens' is a must read for people curious about the human race's history and development. The author traces Homo Sapiens' history from when they were monkeys and isolates some of the major reasons (in his opinion) which affected how they developed and how today's world as we know it came about. The book is written in a very light manner, is easy to read and very gripping. Even if you may not agree with what is said, you will be interested to know more about what the author says and why. Below are some of the highlights of the book which I found worth mentioning: When humans started appearing on earth, there were 6 different types of human species in different parts of the world, of which only us (the Homo Sapiens) have survived. While Sapiens from East Africa still have strains in them of the Neanderthal and Denisovans species, the ones in Europe and Asia have none of it - they had completely wiped out the other human species. So even in ancient hist...

1491 is a non-fiction book on the history of the Americas before Columbus arrived there. The focus is not as much on providing a comprehensive history as on debunking a lot of myths propagated about the Americas by the colonists. These myths have been proved wrong by latest archaeological findings but not accepted as much as they should have been. There is a clear bias visible in the book against the so called white intellectuals. And while reading it, you also realise how much archaeologists are still finding about the Americas. Its still not as well known as we all assume and it may be that whatever was known till now may be absolutely wrong! There are three major myths that the author disproves, citing latest findings over the years and across the continent. The review below is not a comprehensive review, just a couple of interesting tidbits I found interesting. P.s. I use Indians below instead of Red Indians in keeping with the terminology in the book Myth : there were very...

Let me start with what's top of my mind about this book, it's not easy to read. Its quite a philosophical and "big words" book, that makes reading it strenuous and needs your full attention. So it's definitely not your typical read-to-relax book. Its a book which takes a look at a very difficult question and tries to share all the philosophies available on the topic to help you decide for yourself what you believe in. And gives you loads of examples on the way to understand the drawbacks of these existing philosophies. The basic question the author is trying to answer is - What is justice? What is the right thing to do? As simple as this sounds, its one of the toughest questions to answer in an airtight manner. Lets start with a very simple example - you are the driver on a train and you see three workers working on the tracks. You have the option to divert to another track where there is only one worker working. You will end up killing the workers and can...

This is the first book on psychology that I have read and I must say it is some heavy reading - it took my almost 5 months to finish it!! Its an amazingly well written book, quite simple in its language but just because the content is so much and so deep, it takes a longer time to mull over it and finish it! Its written by Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel prize winner, and his works cover both economics as well as psychology. The overall foundation of the book is that the human mind is not always rational. There are biases which affect how it works and hence its important to be aware of its failings. The book is split into 5 sections covering a lot of these tendencies, each section then split into small chapters of 10 pages. Each chapter in turn covers a small part of how our brain functions, detailing it with multiple examples and experiments from daily life which ring true and bring the theory to life for an amateur reader. The book is very very interesting, especially all the examples...