Over the last few years happiness seems to be in vogue. There are dozens of books providing self-help advice on how to be happy. Everything from "letting go" to "seizing the moment" is prescribed. Most of these are quite shallow - filling out a few hundred pages by repeating the same single theme multiple times … Continue reading The Happiness Curve – Jonathan Rauch
I have not read much spy fiction so don't know where Le Carre ranks in the pantheon of spy literature, but from the evidence of this book and 'The Night Manager', he must rank pretty high. I read the 50th anniversary edition of 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' which came with an … Continue reading The Spy Who Came In From the Cold – John Le Carre
If there was a list of books that people want to read but never got around to doing it, I suspect this one would feature in a large number of them. I decided to take the plunge and finally got it off my list. And I am glad, I did. I have earlier tried and … Continue reading Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dosteyevsky
Even before we speak about the book - let's talk about the title of the book. There is a long list of book titles with two opposing or complimenting words: Crime & Punishment, Pride & Prejudice, the Beauty & the Beast and my personal favourite- the Ghost & the Darkness. Nate Silver's non-fiction effort will … Continue reading The Signal and The Noise – Nate Silver
This is the English translation of a very popular Finnish book with an unusual premise. A journalist, Vatanen gets fed up with his life - work, marriage, the works. So during one assignment he just escapes. And he escapes with a wild hare that his car has an accident with. This is the story of … Continue reading The Year of the Hare – Arto Paasilinna
The sub-title of this book is "An antidote to Chaos". This would actually make a much better title than the actual title. Twelve Principles for Life makes it sound like a run of the mill self-help book, which this is not. It is actually a fairly dense, philosophical discussion with liberal doses of biblical references … Continue reading Twelve Principles for Life – Jordan Peterson
I read this book upon the recommendation of a friend. My copy was styled the 25th anniversary edition and boldly proclaimed that it won the Booker prize in 1991. Clearly, this book made Ben Okri's international fame. He has since gone on to write several books but none has probably received the critical and public … Continue reading The Famished Road – Ben Okri
A middle aged farming couple lose their farm & home at the hands of an unscrupulous businessman - leaving them penniless and literally on the streets. This, they find out only day after the husband is diagnosed with a terminal illness. All in all, the life they have built over 32 years of marriage collapses … Continue reading The Salt Path – Raynor Winn
This is Lisa Halliday's first novel and the first thing that came to my mind when I started reading it is how well the language flows. The key characters are well developed and memorable - particularly the Nobel prize winning writer. It has been written beautifully and in a much more self-assured style than that … Continue reading Asymmetry – Lisa Halliday
This is probably going to be one of my shortest reviews. This book has been lying on my shelf for more than a year before I got myself to pick it up. Like many books of this kind, it picks up a single idea and presents it from multiple angles. This often leads to repetitive … Continue reading The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
The Books On Our Shelf 