Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe,
Simon Singh
I was initially excited to see a new (to me) book by Singh,
following Fermat's Enigma and
The Code Book. Then I felt a bit
let down -- this is a book more for people not interested in
mathematics, which is completely glossed over. However, in the end, I
ended up liking this book a lot, just because Singh somehow manages to
describe -- without recourse to math -- the evolution of the Big Bang
Model. Ofcourse, I learnt a lot of new stuff, and finally understood the
significance of all those pictures of the CMB that APOD puts up
regularly. In comparison, Brian Greene's The Elegant
Universe is a bit more advanced, with more maths
and lots of string theory thrown in.
Mohandas: The True Story of a Man, His
People, and an Empire,
Rajmohan Gandhi
A must read! This is well-written, well-researched and
well-presented. This book throws a different perspective on the freedom
struggle, issues leading up to partition, as well as on Gandhi, the person.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy:
The Fellowship of the Ring,
The Two Towers and
The Return of the King,
J. R. R. Tolkien
Re-reading the entire series for a lark. Now I want to see the
movies all over again as well! I actually liked these books this time
around, the first time I read 'em I was thoroughly bored, though I did
recognize the fecundity of the author's imagination. Maybe the
movies helped :-)
East, West: Stories,
Salman Rushdie
I'm ready to give up on Rushdie -- fantastic writing but I don't
think his brain is a nice place to be. Wierd doesn't begin to describe
it...
The Interpreter of Maladies,
Jhumpa Lahiri
I'm beginning to realize just how difficult it is to craft a good
short story. Its not like the author has a few hundreds of pages to set
up the mood, flesh out characters or create a scene -- it all has to be
done in a few paragraphs. And Jhumpa Lahiri does it amazingly well.
The Gameworld Trilogy,
Samit Basu:
The Simoqin Prophecies,
The Manticore's Secret, and
The Unwaba Revelations
Pretty nice, though Pratchett's influence is obvious. There's also
the little digressions that seem unnecessary, but overall a nice read.
The ending was a bit of a letdown, but the rest was fun. A lot of fun.
A Thousand Splendid Suns,
Khaled Hosseini
I am never reading any books by this guy again. After The
Kite Runner, he didn't have much more to add to the Taliban,
so goes into how cruel people can be at an individual level. Too
depressing, probably because all this is too true.
Malgudi Days,
R. K. Narayanan
Re-reading an old favorite. Its amazing how a short story about essentially mundane happenings can be so full of substance. And the writing is superlative -- it is as simple as Rushdie is complex, but I dare say the former is much, much more difficult than the latter.
Moby Dick or, The Whale,
Herman Melville
Brilliant writing interspersed with passage that put me to sleep.
Either that or I need to grow up....
The Undercover Economist,
Tim Harford
I think I liked this more than Freakonomics. A lot of this content was new, and explained very well.
Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted,
Ian Ayres
I'm a bit ambivalent about this book. On the one hand, there is a
great lack of any mathematics, which is what I was expecting. Trying to
explain statistical concepts using plain english doesn't seem very smart
(and isn't very effective). On the other hand, this book brought out
ideas and developments that I hadn't thought of or realized before, such
as the impact on healthcare. One thing that I don't agree with is the
conceit that models developed now obsolete future work, be it in plots
for movies or predicting supreme court decisions.