Category: Book Reviews

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

Nothing To Envy By Barbara Demick – A Look Inside North Korea Through 1 City, 6 Main Characters

This is indeed an outstanding work of journalism, the second of the two books I bought at the airport.  The book title “Nothing To Envy” is taken from one of the frequently used propaganda messages in North Korea.  Due to the restricted media access, much of what life is like inside North Korea is sealed off from the rest of the world.  Except perhaps Pyongyang that is staged to impress the international media.  Prior to reading this book, I only had a limited understanding of North Korea: a communist country that is poor, with her leader rather spends the resources on nuclear weapon than food and a country that is labeled as evil by the Bush administration.  But there is much more than that.

To tell the story of North Korea, the author has chosen one city – Chongjin – that is far away from Pyongyang, relatively inaccessible by the media, and was used to be a place for the exiled officials.  Chongjin is the third largest city in North Korea close to the Chinese and Russia borders and has important role to play during the Korea War.  To tell the story of the North Koreans, the author has chosen six North Koreans who came from the same city, Chongjin, and now defected.    To prepare for this book, the author has interviewed over a hundred North Koreans who have defected to either China or South Korea, made nine trips to North Korea between 2001 to 2008, and has reviewed some of the rare to obtain video footages and still photographs.  At the beginning of each chapter, a black and white photography is shown.  The one that has the most impact to me is the satellite image of Korea peninsula at night.  While the majority of South Korea is lit up at night, the entire North Korea is engulfed in darkness with a tiny dot of light at Pyongyang.  The entire country with a population of 23 million is out of electricity (out of food for that matter).  You may wish to stop for a moment and ponder upon what it means.

From the narration point of view, the author has done an excellent job in keeping the story fresh and accessible to the readers.  It is still a dry topic – the history of Korea War, the economic and social outlook from 1960s to today, the regime under Kim Il-sung, the famine of the 1990s, and the life as a North Korean today.  What the author manages to do is that through the main characters whom she interviewed and kept in touch over the years and through the stories told by the family and friends of these characters – a compelling story is weaved in telling what real lives in North Korea are like.  As an icing on the cake, there is even an element of romance in “Nothing To Envy”.  I could not help but to scream (in my head of course): There she has it, a wining story.  What it also means is that Barbara Demick has built a trusting rapport at a personal level to not only pry open what lives are like in North Korea, but also get them talking about the happiest and most painful moments of their lives.  No wonder the characters come alive with so much intimate details.

The characters chosen in the book are of a diversed background.  Some are of a relatively upper class while some are of the lower class.  Some have relatives in Japan, China, or South Korea.  In terms of people’s jobs, there is a miner, a school teacher, a young scientist, a factory worker, a doctor, and etc.  Each story thread has a moving story on why most initially vowed loyal to the Fatherland (as part of the indoctrination process that is probably hard to imagine for the outsiders), how they have to adapt and endure when the situation in North Korea has deteriorated a great deal, and how eventually they made it out of North Korea as defectors.

So what do I get out of “Nothing To Envy”?  At the macro level, I learn that against all odds, North Korea has survived the breaching of the Berlin Wall, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the market reforms in China, the death of Kim Il-sung, the famine of the 1990s, and the two terms of George W. Bush’s presidency.  At the micro level, I have a better understanding on the indoctrination process powered by the North Korean media propaganda reinforced by neighbor watch and police force, the tragic reality of famine when people have to hunt for grass and weed and tree barks to eat as the last resort (many babies died because they were unable to digest these food) and the desperate things they did for food.  There is also good insight during and after the death of god-like dictator Kim Il-sung, on how the social landscape has shifted and how the illegal free market was born out of necessity when totalitarianism collapsed.  It is a painful revelation when some of the North Koreans have come face to face with the reality that the world outside has – in contrary to what they were made to believe – progressed while North Korea simply stuck at the 1960s.  How some of the North Koreans managed to flee the country as traders or even brides only to be caught and sent to the labor camps back in North Korea and then once out of the camps, they tried fleeing again.  One of the most relevant insights – to me – is how the North Koreans who are defected to South Koreans eventually settled down and tried to come to term with a reality, having to face free choices rather than the government to dedicate all that they do and receive.  Because that could well be a reality in the future should North Korea collapse one day.  To end this brief book summary, I would like to quote the author:

While the persistence of North Korea is a curiosity for the rest of the world, it is a tragedy for North Koreans, even those who have managed to escape.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Our Tragic Universe By Scarlett Thomas – 425 Pages Of Storyless Story

If I could have one opportunity to meet with the author Scarlett Thomas, I would like to ask her why with all these wonderful ingredients and potentials in “Our Tragic Universe”, she has chosen to disintegrate them into what appears to me as a storyless story (by her definition and by my observation).  One that makes me feel tragic to even finish reading the book.  If I could meet with Douglas Coupland who wrote that wonderful piece of praise at the back of the book, I would like to ask him specifically how “Our Tragic Universe” manages to surprise him in a terrific way, why he finds it addictive and thinks that the author is a genius.  If I could meet with the one who wrote the synopses of the book, I would like to ask why he or she thinks that “Our Tragic Universe” is a book about how relationships are created and destroyed, and how a story might just save our lives.  I have devoured the book slowly, from page one to page 425, and I have found none of the above.

Let’s start from the beginning again.  These days, I have tried to stick to my initial decision and finish a book that I have started reading.  Especially one whose author is not new to me.  You may wonder: Wilfrid, you are compelled to finish reading a book because you have spent a fortune on it, yes?  The reality is that I seldom buy books these days.  I have borrowed “Our Tragic Universe” from the National Library.  But still, I had this hope that “Our Tragic Universe” would live it up to my expectation.  This book is curiously divided into two parts.  In part one, the main character Meg – a book reviewer, a ghost writer, an aspired writer, a lady in her late thirties, a character that at one point I thought Scarlett is Meg – has a rather mundane life that is getting slightly worse.  In part two, Meg has a relatively more hopeful life that is getting slightly better.  If I may deduce what saves her life (as promised by the synopses), it is money.  Or rather the time freed up by not needing to think about making ends meet can be used to do something more interesting.  If I may second guess on what the synopses writer means by “Our Tragic Universe” is a book about how relationships are created and destroyed, it merely means that if you stuck or think you stuck in a relationship that is going nowhere, break up and start anew.  However, I doubt that is what Scarlett Thomas has intended this book to be (and I surely hope not).

“Our Tragic Universe”, to me, is an experimental work of writing.  A storyless story as defined in page 388 and 389 (and hinted at the very beginning of the story) is as follows.

[The storyless story] is the subtle rejection of story within its own structure …  It has no moral center.  It is not something from which a reader should strive to learn something, but rather a puzzle or a paradox with no ‘answer’ or ‘solution’, except for false ones.  The readers are not encouraged to ‘get into’ the storyless story but to stay outside.

To illustrate what a storyless story is like, here is an example (page 389).  By and large, I see the similarity of that and to the entire book.

A story about a hermit making jam could be as interesting as a story about a hero overcoming a dragon, except that it would be likely that the writer would make the hermit overcome the jam in the same way the hero overcomes the dragon.  The storyless story shows the hermit making the jam while the hero overcomes the dragon, and then the hermit giving remedies and aid – and jam – to both the hero and the dragon before going to bed with a book.

And so I have subconsciously played along with this storyless story concept while throughout the bulk of the book, I was hoping that “Our Tragic Universe” would be as innovative and engaging as “The End Of Mr. Y“.  “Our Tragic Universe” has all the great ingredients.  A book that Meg needed to review called “The Science of Living Forever” has a great potential to be the metafiction (a story within a story), such as the story by Lumas in “The End Of Mr. Y”.  “The Science of Living Forever” even has a sequel called “Second World” that would have fitted beautifully with this book in two parts.  There is a mysterious wild beast living in town.  There is even a ship in a bottle that mysteriously appeared at the shore when Meg was ‘conversing’ with the Universe.  The magical healing power, the placebo versus nocebo (the opposite of placebo), the conversation with the dead on an astral plane – tragically, none of these have been converted into something intriguing, something that lives up to the basic expectation established between a reader and a writer, something that is remotely close to “The End Of Mr. Y”.  This book may wish to break away from the standard structure of (1)  having a central issue or the ‘ordinary world’ of the problem, (2) the problem itself, (3) the way to set out and resolve the issue, (4) a previously unseen element in the central conflict that could make the problem seems insurmountable, (5) a climax or turning point, and (6) the resolution – as implied using Tarot reading on page 322.  In fact, “Our Tragic Universe” has done it so well that it does not have any of the above.  The fallacy of a storyless story, to me, is in the absence of a climax or a convincing turning point, it is not a very inspiring story.  Having said that, with an open mind and if reading an experiment piece is what you are after, “Our Tragic Universe” is certainly unique.  It is still an easy read with lively conversations filled with truncated ideas and well known stories.  Be prepared that this book has nothing to with tragedy, certainly nothing to do with the Universe.  And neglect the bad and misleading marketing tagline “Could a Story Save Your Life?”.

I do not think I would subscribe to the notions of fictionless fiction, historyless history, romanceless romance, unproven proof, and uncertain certainty (page 390).  I think these are some pointless phases the author has dreamed up with (that anyone could create a dozen more).  I do not think that being a realist writer means that he or she has to produce fictionless fiction (page 390).  To me, the goal of a realist artist is to produce artworks with the goals of truth and accuracy in mind.  That, in the context of writing, is a job belongs to the journalists.  A fiction is not a real story, as repeatedly mentioned in a wonderful book called “How To Read Novels Like A Professor”.  A fiction is simply a work of fiction.  If Scarlett Thomas’s aim in this book is to engage an active dialog with her readers, I think she has achieved just that.

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

3,096 Days by Natascha Kampusch – A Moving Story Of Human Survival

It is hard not to be moved by this incredible story of survival.  I weeped reading it.  Natascha Kampusch was abducted at the age of 10, in Austria on 2nd March 1998.  In 2006, she managed to escape and shortly after, her kidnapper has committed suicide.  It is a tragic story with a relatively happy ending.

On my way to Hong Kong, at the airport, I picked up two books.  “3,096 Days” is one of the two.  Plane ride, to me, is the best time to read.  Besides the occasional meal breaks, there are absolutely no other distractions.  And it never fails to amaze me how fast I read on the plane.  I almost finished reading this 240 pages long book while we flew from Singapore to Hong Kong (about 4 hours).  Note: I am generally a slow reader.

Natascha Kampusch together with two collaborators Heike Gronemeier and Corinna Milborn have done a great job to articulate the story in a highly readable manner.  The opening chapter is dedicated to the childhood story of Natascha.  The broken family, the time separately spent with her father and mother, her relationship with her grandmother – these texts aim to provide the readers a glimpse of who Natascha was prior to the kidnap.  As the story develops, much is emphasized on the psychological impact, which makes the book a whole lot more encouraging to read.  As one would expect, throughout the 8 years of abduction, Natascha would have gone through the toll of physical and psychological abuse, depression, and possibly sexual abuse.  However, from the storytelling perspective, she has set the boundary of keeping the sexual abuse private and she has kept the writeup on depression and suicidal attempts to the minimum.  Instead, she focuses on how she made the best out of the situation, how she adapted in order to survive, the ongoing forgiveness she has for her kidnapper, and the complex relationship between him and her.  Natascha might have been imprisoned by her kidnapper.  But her kidnapper too was being ‘imprisoned’ by the situation for he could not let her go and return to a normal life after the kidnap has happened.  A deadlock situation that did not seem to lead to a happy ending for the both of them.

After reading “3,096 Days”, I feel that the author Natascha Kampusch – besides sharing with us her incredible survival journey – has a personal agenda against the media that backslashed and the cover-ups within the police force.  In any case, I belong to the camp that probably not empathize but sympathize with her.  As an even sweeter ending beyond the book, in spring 2010 at the age of 22, Natascha has graduated from university.  Bear in mind that she has received no formal education between the age of 10 to 18, that is one remarkable achievement.  How she did it?  The answer may lie in her book.

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

How To Read Novels Like A Professor – Thomas C. Foster – Be Inspired As A Reader Or A Writer

This book is a heavy read for me, despite the amiable effort by the author to make it as readable as it can be.  The tone is friendly, the style is classroom instructional, and there are humours in the book too.  But unless you are trained in literature and are well read, you are going to go through the book in snail speed trying to digest the contents.  I may consider owning this book because reading once is not enough.  For all the effort, what do you get out of this book?  Cliché as it sounds, you may get to read novels like a professor.  As for me, I am still far from that goal.  Probably need to work a lot harder to get there.

“How To Read Novels Like A Professor” is structured in 22 chapters that are creatively named (such as Met-him-pike-hoses or Source Codes and Recycle Bins and my favorite When Very Bad People Happen To Good Novels).  Each chapter deals with one aspect of reading novels.  Some I am familiar with (or I have a conceptual preexisting idea).  Some I have unheard of.  Like the 18th episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses that begins and ends with the word “yes”.  That one sentence can go on and go forever.  What a demonstration of the meaning of drowning in the stream of consciousness.

The book starts with what readers can derive from the first page of a novel.  Namely style, tone, mood, diction, point of view, narrative presence and attitude, time frame, time management, place, motif, theme, irony, rhythm, pace, expectations, character, and instructions on how to read a novel.  Something familiar to – I presume – literature students (but not I of course).  Did you know that as far as narration goes, there are only seven possibilities and each has a different set of effects and functions?  The author then moves away from the basic and into subtle but important observations on how a novel is constructed, what to look out for.  For example, characters are made out of words that may not fully describe the characters.  It is the readers who ‘supply our own storehouse of information about how people or objects look in real world’ (that reminds me of the movie “Inception“).  It is impossible to write a novel describing all the details involved in, say, half a billion people achieving their freedom from colonial rule.  But a writer can help to form the picture by looking through the eyes of a main character.  The readers would supply the rest.  Any idea which book I am referring to (see footnote)?

Throughout the book, the author stresses the point that a novel is a work of fiction, the story is not real.  But yet, some novels are able to captivate readers’ attention and imagination.  Thomas Foster then examines a large repository of novels putting some of them side by side to illustrate his points.  I wish I have read even a fraction of what he has quoted.  Fortunately, Foster has done an excellent job in narrating some parts of the stories so as to make some of us who are not as well read feel inclusive to the discussion.

I agree with the author that it is the readers who keep a novel alive.  And books lead to books, ideas to ideas.  Although this book is titled as such, I am convinced that it is equally essential for those who are aspired to be a novelist.  At the end of the book, there is a list of books for further reading.  This list could be of value to those who are into this topic.  Believe it or not, I do own one of the recommended books: Six Memos for the Next Millennium (1988) by Italo Calvino.  Now, that is a heavy read and I have yet to finish reading it, despite the numerous attempts.

PS. The book I was referring to is called Midnight’s Children written by Salman Rushdie.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

The Internet Is A Playground By David Thorne – An Insanely Fun And Bizarre Read

I suppose if one is to publish a book based on what he or she writes in his or her website, the book would look something like “The Internet Is A Playground”.  I have no idea if the materials are factual.  What it does indicate is that the author David Thorne lives in Australia and there are quite a fair bit of reference to that country.  Hence, some of you may be able to relate to the book better than I do.  Nevertheless, majority of the materials are hilarious (those that I got it).  One evening, inside a Japanese restaurant while waiting for our food to arrive, I showed Cynthia some chapters from the book.  She read, I read again with her, and we had a good laugh.  Half of the book contains email correspondence between the author and his neighbor, colleagues, his son’s teacher, and etc.  Looking at face value of these emails, I would say the author is pretty annoying, may even perceive as a bully in the Internet space.  I for sure would not know how to correspond if he writes to me.  Having said that, if you read between the lines, the author writes with good wit and humor.  Usually there is a point he wishes to make, but not directly.  It is fun to read it as a third party.  Hence the book title.

Interestingly, some readers point out that the entire book can be read from his website.  I have not got the time to trace the chapters and verify.  The website appears to have a better layout, contain links to external sites (that Tower Defense online game is insanely fun), and have extra materials (or was I reading too fast?).  So, why would one want to buy the book?  I suppose if you are going on a trip where Internet access is not convenient or if you are having a vocation and the last place on Earth you wish to visit is the Internet, it is good to grab a copy and have a good laugh.  Be prepared for some original hilarious stuffs that blow your mind away.

External Link: The Author’s 27b/6 Website

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

The Cloud Revolution By Charles Babcock – If You Need To Know What Cloud Computing Is As Of Today, This Is It

If you happen to fall under the category of someone who has heard of the term “cloud computing”, may have some ideas of what it is, but cannot quite pinpoint what it does and how we can benefit from it, “The Cloud Revolution” written by editor-at-large of InformationWeek Charles Babcock will get you acquainted with the topic in no time.  While the book is still technical in nature, those who have worked in and with the technology industry should have no problem following the materials from start to end.  The ideal audience would be those in the professions of application and system architect, data center specialist, business analyst, and all the way to CIO, CTO, and COO.  What “The Cloud Revolution” provides is a snapshot of where cloud computing is today and presents the snapshot in an easy-to-understand manner.  This includes both its potential and challenge.

In a nutshell, cloud computing enables on-demand network access to a shared pool of resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released.  It simplifies and drives down the cost of operations while enabling the business users to tap onto the computing power in a way never dreamed before.  Today, most businesses over provision what they normally need in terms of computing resources due to operational spikes.  But yet, when there is an unforeseeable demand spike, some businesses fail to delivery (have you ever tried to buy movie tickets online during the holidays?).  The idea is that instead of buying more and more servers to cater for the spikes and leave the servers way under utilized in normal day operation, outsource the spike (or even the entire operation) to the cloud.  How much would that cost?  For example, Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) charges $0.085 per instance per hour.

The cloud economy is hard to ignore.  Take web hosting as an example.  Most bloggers do not host their websites in a server at home (having said that, I know some do).  For those who have opted for a paid service, we often have to be mindful on how much disk space and monthly bandwidth we utilize.  Right after my holiday to Spain, I have published articles that came with photos on a weekly basis.  During the 12 weeks publication period, I had experienced spikes that busted my monthly bandwidth quota and had the site shutdown momentarily several times.  There are web hosting companies out there that have grown into a significant size and offer unlimited disk storage and monthly data transfer.  That is way more that what I would dream of (though I have my reasons to stay with my existing hosting company).  And that is an illustration on how such an economy of scale can benefit the consumers.  Imagine what this could mean for the corporates.

As highlighted in the book, there are challenges that corporate users faced with cloud implementation.  Not having a control on where the corporate data resides can be an issue.  It could be a security risk too.  There have been talks about ‘private cloud’ or even a ‘hybrid cloud’ in achieving the economic of scale that lowers the cost using existing data center setup as a benchmark.  If corporates can host their in-house applications through virtualization, outsource the spikes to a public cloud, or even consider conducting the system test, user acceptance test, stress test, and etc. that often do not contain real life data outside the private cloud, they may be able to reap the benefits of cloud computing.

Another barrier of taking cloud computing to the next level – as mentioned in the book – is that some of the major standards are still very much proprietary.  And it seems to me that the open standard is still at its maturing stage.  I think one of the reasons why this book is so named is because if the corporates wish to skip through the proprietary stage, the corporates need to get together and voice out what they want: No vendor lock-in.  That is a revolution in a sense, besides the fact that to make cloud computing works, there are changes in almost all levels.

The book has quoted some noteworthy implementations.  On the private sector, there is SalesForce.com’s cloud platform – Force.com.  On the public sector, in USA, there is NASA’s Nebula Cloud Computing Platform.  The author has also quoted a number of major players in cloud computing.  If you wish to pick up one book to know what cloud computing is as of today, “The Cloud Revolution” would be it.

External Link: To browse the book in Amazon.com, click here.

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

Neon Angel, A Memoir Of A Runaway By Cherie Currie – Heart Wrenching and Heart Warming At The Same Time

I seldom read memoirs.  But I was curious about the life story told from Cherie Currie’s perspective after watching “The Runaway” played by Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart.  “Neon Angel” has enough dramas that can pass as a great fiction.  The rise to stardom, the crash, substance abuse, brutal rapes, exploitation by the management, constant struggle amongst the dysfunctional family and band, and through it all, Cherie Currie constantly reinvents herself from a singer to actor to drug counselor to physical trainer to author to painter to one of the prominent chain-saw carvers in the world.  While it is hard to position Currie as a role model –  rather as a projected symbol of angst, rebel, and perhaps victim of the seventies, her survival spirit is astonishing.

Originally published in 1989, Currie reworks the materials with Tony O’Neill.  That explains why in this new edition, the events that happened more than thirty years ago are told in such a vivid manner, in such level of details and emotion.  And I suppose with age, the rework exhibits a better sense of mature reflection on the key decision points and milestones.  Some are deep regrets.  Some are triumphant.  For those who are interested in how the music industry worked in the seventies, “Neon Angel” has much to offer.  The road trips, the music creation and recording journey, the tours, and the fans.  A big chunk of the literature is dedicated to substance abuse – of hers and of those around her.  The honesty within thrills me: On how drug and alcohol has destroy hers and her family’s lives again and again.  No, I don’t despise her.  I sympathize her.

And in the mist of the chaos and illusions, there are glimpses of heart warming moments.  One ending chapter moved me to tears.  If you happen to like the movie “The Runaway”, this book “Neon Angel” will fill in the gaps on the stories that cannot be told in a movie setting.  The movie contains snapshots of events pasted together that may or may not follow the actual timeline.  I am short of saying that “Neon Angel” is an entertaining read (in fact it is).  Because the book is more than an entertainment.  It would mean different things to different people.  For those who are into the music industry or the sociological fabric of that era, the book is certainly an insightful read.  For the victims of substance abuse, broken families, and rape, there may be a common voice within.  Some parts of “Neon Angel” reminds me of a book I have read a long time ago – “Prozac Nation” by Elizabeth Wurtzel.  Yes, it is both a heart wrenching and heart warming read.

*     *     *     *     *

In 2013, I have reread this book.  And the updated book summary can be found in here.

At Amazon.com: Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

Happiness At Work By Dr. Srikumar Rao – Parables And Advice That Could Be Life Changing

By now, I have joined the workforce for a decade and a half and I consider myself – after years of learning and finding my way – pretty happy at work.  I manage to maintain a good level of work life balance, I have built good rapport with my colleagues, and I take pride in my daily work that contributes at an organisational level.  OK, there are ups and downs.  But overall, I am contented.  So what can “Happiness at Work” possibly teach me?  It turns out that there are more than I have anticipated.  And throughout my working life thus far, I have met friends who are more prone to feeling angry, envious, afraid, exhausted, disgusted, drained, anxious, betrayed, confused, cheated, frustrated, guilty, humiliated, impatient, inadequate, vulnerable, manipulated, embarrassed, neglected, heartbroken, trapped, fatigue, victimized, resentful, or worn out – borrowing the descriptions from the book.  I sincerely wish that they could take some time, read this book, and make a positive change to their lives.

Reading “Happiness at Work” is a journey.  The author has divided the book into bite-size chapters filled with parables and advice.  The materials are largely derived from his experience of conducting workshops to corporate executives on this very topic.  Some of the parables and ideas, I observe, are based on Indian tradition or Buddhism so they could be familiar to some, intriguingly foreign to others.  Depending on your background and level of experience (or shall I say how unhappy you are at work in reality?), be prepared to be confronted and you may find yourself denying or not wanting to accept what the author says.  I too, at times.  But if you read this book with an open mind and go through the exercises as instructed by the author, you may be surprised at how you would view the world and yourself differently.  Some parables, you may recognize, are similar to other self help books or real life stories.  Such as the idea of beginning with an end in mind from the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey (which may also be based on materials from elsewhere).  Or the powerful theme of “This, too, shall pass” that I use daily, in fact, prior to reading this book.  There are still much to learn such as always being positive may not be the most ideal way of dealing with the external factors, investing on the process instead of the outcomes, understanding that there is no right or wrong and the different mental models that work or do not work for you, examining what happiness is and how some are able to attain that, and more.

One powerful lesson I have learned, perhaps, is that there is no dream job or passionate work.  Passion is what inside of us and our ideal job will find us once we start kindling that enthusiasm.  One colleague at work joked with me when he saw me carrying this book.  He said, “Are you not happy at work?  Why do you need to read this book?”.  I humbly think that even if you think you are happy at work, there are still much to learn, to your surprise.  “Happiness at Work” has a high re-read value as you would need practice and constant reminder to get the ideas to work.  And it can be a nice gift for your friends too.

External Sites: Purchase this book from Amazon.com, Dr. Rao’s official site.

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami – That Sense of Loneliness, That Unattainable Love

I have come to the realisation that perhaps there is no such thing as which is my favorite Haruki Murakami novel (my 6th so far).  Even though my familiarity to his style has led me to half-expecting what “Sputnik Sweetheart” would become, there is still this element of freshness that kept me from putting the book down.  And I finished reading it in one day, wanting more.  The opening paragraph would be the best way to introduce the story.

In the spring of her twenty-second year, Sumire fell in love for the first time in her life.  An intense love, a veritable tornado sweeping across the plains – flattening everything in its path, tossing things up in the air, ripping them to shreds, crushing them to bits … In short, a love of truly monumental proportions.  The person she fell in love with happened to be 17 years older than Sumire.  And was married.  And, I should add, was a woman.  This is where it all began, and where it all ended.  Almost.

The theme of “Sputnik Sweetheart”, from what I observe, is loneliness, riding onto the framework of unattainable love.  That strong sense of loneliness!  The narrator – a man – falls in love with a lesbian who falls in love with a married woman.  True to Murakami’s style, this book is full of metaphors (“did you see anyone shot by a gun without bleeding?“), dualism that leads to surrealism, and characters that come alive in their very own unique style.

What stands out in “Sputnik Sweetheart” is the way the story is narrated and told.  Timeline is shifted to and fro to suit the narration.  Focus is shifted from one character to another and back to the narrator without the readers noticing the change, encouraging us to want to learn more about the characters’ way of thinking and their way of life.  And then, something strange happens to these characters.  The author spends the second part of the book pasting bits and pieces of information together – some from interview, some from his observation, and some from the journals left behind.  Distinguishing what is real from what is not is often not easy, as it is with all of Marakami’s works.  Even as I devoured the very last paragraph of the book, these thoughts lingered: Could this be real?  What happened next?  And in my dreamy state, inside an English cottage at Fraser’s Hill, the follow paragraph from the book has made the most impact to me.

Lying there, I close my eyes for a while, then open them.  I silently breathe in, then out.  A thought begins to form in my mind, but in the end I think of nothing.  Not that there was much difference between the two, thinking and not thinking.  I find I can no longer distinguish between one thing and another, between things that existed and things that did not.  I look out of the window.  Until the sky turns white, clouds float by, birds chirp, and a new day lumbers up, gathering together the sleepy minds of the people who inhabit this planet.

The rate this is going, Haruki Murakami could well be one of my most read author, after Milan Kundera and Italo Calvino.

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

Numbers Rule Your World By Kaiser Fung – With Depth, And Figures To Support

It is hard not to make the comparison between “Numbers Rule Your World” and “Freakonomics”.  Even the book has made a reference once.  Ten real life case studies are used, paired up in five chapters, to illustrate how different aspects of statistics affect our lives.  Blogger statistician Kaiser Fung has made the topic surprisingly accessible, narrated in an engaging manner.  Each chapter, the author picks two contrasting statistically related topics, juxtaposes them by taking turn to have the story told, and arrives at a conclusion.  The narration is honest, impartially inquired from different angles.  One of the author’s objectives – besides convincing us that like it or not, numbers play a major role in our world today – I believe, is to expand our mind and horizon when interpreting certain situations as numbers are presented.  And to appreciate what goes on behind the scene in your everyday life.

To impart the various aspects of statistical thinking upon his readers, the author uses the case studies of highway engineers versus Disney ‘Imagineers’, epidemiologists versus credit modelers, insurers versus test developer (education), anti-doping agencies (sport) versus polygraph (lie detector), and the chances of jet crashes versus jackpots.  Each case study – unlike Freakonomics – is backed up sufficiently by figures and facts.  At times, I have to slow down my reading and think through the numbers, which I do greatly appreciate.

In practical term, how would reading “Numbers Rule Your World” help your work and life?  For one, when you take in the news around you, you may wish to see things in a different perspective.  Should you take in the reported figures on the papers as they are?  Why are things or processes made that way?  Some see an imminent risk, others do not.  Should you follow the crowd?  At the end of the book, the author has made a bold statement that if you know how to use numbers in making everyday decisions, you rule the world.  While I am unsure if most of us has the ability and even access to a reliable data-set in using numbers in making decisions, this book does change the way how I see this world operates when it comes down to numbers.

External Links: Purchase This Book from Amazon.com, the Author Kaiser Fung’s Website.