This is the first horror book I've read, so I started with zero expectations. The writing grew on me quickly: Our teenager hero Frank lives in a Scottish countryside on a small island with his Father. He is a ruthless, troubled kid, but with a weird air of playful innocence around him. I also loved the dark humor that goes along with the deceptions of violence and ‘eccentricities'. I am looking forward to read more such books!
My feelings about the series are mixed: I liked the way science concepts are introduced. The story in the first book starts from 1960s and with each time-jump, new technologies are introduced. The new science/technologies seem consistent, well-explained, believable, and build upon the previously introduced ones. The scenes in Gravity and Blue Space feel genuinely mystifying and extremely well-thought of. I also liked the fairy tales and guessing at deciphering the message.
Since this is a translation, I didn't expect natural or powerful prose. But even with this low expectation, the story feels like reading summary of the story. I also didn't like the main characters with the exception of Luo Ji and Da Shi. The main character of this book makes weird decisions that made her hard to root for. The overall tone of the narration seemed to glorify authoritarianism, sexism ( males are all for conviction and discoveries, females apply brakes on the progress by favoring love ), and herd mentality (population is neatly divided into groups whose members all think alike).
Loved the way the story unfolds until the end of the universe.
Much better than the first part in terms of the quality of translation. With multiple similar sounding names and people having multiple names (a cultural thing), it's bit hard to immerse in the story. There were also some (IMO) stupid and frenzied decisions by SJF that I didn't find plausible. Still, a very realistic sci-fi!
This is the geological story of North America told in the correct detail for me : didn't overexplain things that I knew while mostly explaining new things in detail that I could follow. The author has traveled to almost all of the places (there are lot!) mentioned in the book and it gives a charm to the otherwise expository read. The anecdotes about scientists and explorers are present but do not overwhelm the narrative. The text is often repetitive and verbose. I'd have liked more maps, photos, tables, and summaries. I took a long time to finish it going one chapter at a time. Overall, a great book for a layperson to appreciate the geology of North America. I wish there were books that explain the Indian geology similarly.
A fiction featuring coastal Gujarat written in the form of a memoir. I liked the dialogues and the setting of vast salty wasteland, but found the pov character a snob. The narration is a lot of tell and too little of show. The side characters are portrayed as innocent villagers who don't think for themselves.
Heist story with slick turns set in a magical world where our heroes don't do magic.
I loved the banter between our crew and dark humor spread throughout the book. I loved how the humor (by everyone, not just the heoros) hide the grimdark setting until you get reminded of it every so often by casual brutality. I also liked the religions, especially of the Crooked Warden, who will advocate for the thieves in the afterlife, stealthily tipping the scales while their souls are being weighed.
Thorough popular account of modern India's military history from an air vice marshal. I felt that the text is too names-heavy (expected considering the size of Indian military) and too focused on the point of view of commanders. The text is full of buzzwords (synergy seems to be his favorite) which is quite distracting.
It's satisfying to see how Indian military transitioned from relative incompetency of 1947-65 to proficiency by 1971. The narrative is surprisingly honest and not too biased coming from top military leadership. Hopefully we get to see more of such books aimed at laypeople.
Initially, I was hesitant to read a ‘law book', because of my high school civics class scars. However, this one is an unexpected delight. It details landmark Supreme Court cases involving constitutional issues from 1803 to 2000. Each case is presented with a comprehensive background, a succinct overview of the court's proceedings and arguments, the court's opinion, the new precedent it established and how it affected the future.
What makes this book fun for laypeople are the intriguing anecdotes about the individuals involved and the historical context of each case. For instance, in a case that resulted in Miranda warnings (“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?”), there is a tidbit about what happened to this Miranda: He was paroled in 1972, but in 1976 he was knifed and killed during a barroom fight in Phoenix. After arresting a suspect in the murder of Miranda, the policemen read the Court-mandated Miranda warning to him. He exercised his right to remain silent and was released from custody. No one was ever charged in the murder of Ernesto Miranda.
Highly recommend it! (Available for free at https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/resource/the-pursuit-of-justice/)
I stumbled upon this gem stacked in the middle of French joke collection in the college library (don't ask me what I was doing there). But I'm so glad that I did! This one is the best collection of Soviet Era Political jokes that I have ever laid my eyes on. The jokes are short stories or an exchange of dialogue, ending with an (mostly) unexpected punchline. They are called “anekdoty” (literally “anecdotes”) in Russian. Let me give you an example from the book:Two Russian workers were talking about how near they were to Socialism. One said, “The Party told me that Socialism is on the horizon. I don't know what that meant. So I looked it up in the dictionary and read that a horizon is an imaginary line which moves further away from you as you approach it.”As you might expect from such book, jokes are centered around socialism, secret police, the political figures and Russian stereotypes about the outside world. Sadly, though, many jokes can be lifted to present day Indian world by a simple change of nouns :