The Devotion of Suspect X

Author:        Keigo Higashino
Translators: Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander
Published:   2011
Publisher:    Little, Brown
Paperback: 374  pages
 

This book is a translation of the Japanese best selling  detective thriller "Yogisha X No Kenshin" which has sold over 2 million copies and also been made into a film.

The author Keigo Higashino has been a recipient of  Edogawa Rampo Award, a literary prize given to crime fiction writers in Japan.
Before this book  I had never read a literary work  from Japan.

Since detective fiction especially murder mystery is one of my favorite genres, I immediately signed up when BlogAdda offered this critically acclaimed best selling book to me for review.

The plot of the book runs as follows. Yasuko in the heat of the moment kills her ex-husband Togashi , when he turns up at her apartment and harasses her and her daughter. Ishigami, their  next door neighbor is in love with Yasuko, though he has not revealed his feelings towards her. He steps in to help her out. He disposes of the dead body. The body is discovered and identified by the police.  Soon they come to know that the body belongs to Togashi, the ex-husband of Yasuko. Detective Kusanagi of Tokyo police starts questioning Yasuko. But Ishigami who is a mathematics genius has already made full use of his ingenuity to protect Yasuko. He has  planted misleading clues, anticipated all the questions the police is likely to ask and coached Yasuko on how exactly to answer them.
Detective Kusanagi is baffled and stuck,. The case is not progressing at all. He seeks his friend Professor Yukawa's assistance. Yukawa  who has helped Kusanagi to solve several cases earlier joins the investigation. He also happens to be Ishigami's college friend and is equally brilliant.

I don't want to be spoil sport by revealing the entire story. Suffice to say that what follows is a very intriguing and exciting battle of wits between Ishigami and Yukawa where both try to guess one another's move and outsmart each other. Finally Yukawa solves the puzzle.

The story has a very surprising twist in the end, which I could never guess in spite of being a veteran reader of detective novels.  I did feel cheated a little bit. The hallmark of a great detective fiction is to lay out all the clues in front of the readers without concealing any facts and give them a fair chance to solve the mystery before they finish the book. This is where the book falls short. A vital information is disclosed to the readers only in the end. Thus the author had an unfair advantage over the readers.

Some readers may find this book a wee bit intellectually heavier than other detective fictions since there are several philosophical discussions between the two geniuses - Ishigami and Yukawa. But I rather liked them.. 

This book is an excellent fast paced page-turner. Translator has also done his job well, I felt I was reading an original book not a translated version.
This is just one of the novels in a series featuring Professor Yukawa. I look forward to read other novels in this series too when they are translated and published in English. This book has served as an appetizer for them.

Mystery lovers don't miss this book !

[By the way this is the fourth book review under BlogAdda's Book Review Program.

The other three books reviewed by me under this scheme are -  I Have a Dream, 7 Secrets of Vishnu, and Balasaraswati - Her Art and Life. 
Hats Off to BlogAdda for launching and sustaining this program for book lovers.

Sign up for the Book Review Program for Indian Bloggaers. and get free books! Participate now!]

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

Author:         John Wood
Published:   2008
Publisher:    Collins
Paperback: 284 pages

In late 1990s the author John Wood ,then a Marketing Director in Microsoft, was on a three weeks  trekking vacation in Nepal.
He came across a school in a remote village. The school had 450  students . But all it had in the name of a library  was a miserable collection of  20 odd books which included -a Danielle Steel romance, an Umberto Ecco novel in Italian, a Lonely Planet guide to Mongolia, a copy of "Finnegans Wake" ! Certainly not what you would expect to see in a school library.  It was obvious that the collection had been put together using books discarded by the previous trekkers. These books were both physically (the books were kept in a locked cupboard !) and intellectually out of school children's reach.
The headmaster of the school had a strong desire to inculcate the habit of reading among the students but was seriously hampered by lack of resources to build a good school library. He told the author "Perhaps, sir, you will someday comeback with books."
This sentence changed John Wood's life forever. It deeply moved him. He contacted nearly 100 friends and made a strong appeal to them to donate books for the school. This campaign was a huge success and thus the foundations of a massive social entrepreneurship undertaking  now known as "Room to Read" were laid.

Room to Read's mission is to provide opportunity for under-privileged children to gain the gift of education. Its strategy includes:

• Partnering with villages to build schools
• Establishing libraries and filling them with donated English books and local-language books published by it.
• Providing computer and language labs to improve employment skills, and
• Providing scholarships for under-privileged young girls who cannot afford fees that are required of all students, even those attending public schools.

To ensure the likelihood for success and long -term sustainability, Room to Read enlists community involvement and co-investment. Instead of  just doling out funds in a condescending manner , Room to Read believes in making the beneficiary earn it by working in partnership with Room to Read. Thus it preserves the dignity of the beneficiary and also teaches them to take care of themselves in future. 

Till date (May 2012)  Room to Read  has helped build over 1500 schools and 13,000 libraries and benefited about 6 million children of Third World countries like Nepal, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and Tanzania.

This book tells  how it all happened. It has three parts.

Part 1 - Discovering Nepal; Leaving Microsoft: In this part Wood talks about how he discovered a pathetic school library during his vacation and helped in enriching it with children's books with the help of his father and friends. He also tells  how  after debating a lot he walked away from  Microsoft and also suffered a break-off  from his girl friend who did not share his passion for the ambitious child education mission he wanted to undertake.

Part II -  Starting Over: This part deals with the early days of Room to Read after Wood left Microsoft and how he built the organization making full use of lessons and skills he learned in Microsoft (especially from Steve Ballmer).

Part III - Hitting Our Stride: How 'Room to Read' expanded its operations through numerous fund raising campaigns is the main theme of this part.

All the chapters in this book narrate several touching stories  of how the author received help from various sources and how hard some under-privileged people work for a better education. Some of the chapters in this book  have a side-box to highlight  a  success story or a lesson learned or some tips on entrepreneurship.
The book has also several heartwarming  photographs of smiling children whose life have been positively impacted by Room to Read programs.

This book is an  inspiring and fascinating saga of Room to Read with doses of humor sprinkled in it. It is also a sort of post-Microsoft autobiography of the author. The author comes out as an ambitious, passionate and sincere person dedicated to the cause. It is a very noble cause indeed and everybody who is involved in this organization has to be admired at.

A must read for  entrepreneurs, educationists , social workers and anyone who cares for children !

Links:

• Room to Read - Official Website
• Book Website 
• Excerpt from the book : Chapter 1
• Life lessons from John Wood's biography

Key takeaways from this book:

•  "You are old enough to know that the only person  you have to satisfy in life is yourself. Do what you think is the right thing to do and get used to answering only to yourself" - Advice given by author's father when the author  was a school kid.
• "Look , there are two ways to remove a Band-Aid: slowly and painfully, or quickly and painfully. Your choice." - A friend's advice to the author when he was debating whether to leave Microsoft.
• Most people in the nonprofit world hate to ask others for money. They need to get past this barrier, quickly or their organization will suffer.
•  5 Core principles which Wood  reviews  before meeting with prospective donors:
1. Play up the fact that the donors, who would have been helped in their own life by education, now have the opportunity to give that same gift back to hundreds of children in the developing world.
2. Show the donors a direct connection between what they give and what gets done as a result.
3. Keep the overhead for running  Room to Read low, so donors will know that 90 percent on the dollars goes to the projects, not to administrative and fund-raising expenses.
4. Passion sells. There is not enough of it in the world, so when people meet a passionate individual, that person really stands out.
5. People are looking for more meaning in their lives. Funding education provides a great feeling that you have helped to change the world for better.

• Hope and Optimism, Not Doom and Gloom - Some charities find it effective to show photos of a child covered in flies, or a malnourished family lying in  dust. These images negate the inherent dignity of each human being. Guilt should not be used as a marketing tool. This is also in the financial interest of the charity because potential donors want hope and optimism in their lives. They want to see solutions. If we accost them with images of a poor person, they are likely to be sad, but may not take action. If you instead present a photo of a kid from the inner city in his graduation cap and gown, a little girl smiling as a result of a successful cleft palate operation, or farmers in Honduras using their new well, then people are more likely to share in that optimism by donating to the cause.
• Think Big from Day One - There is a saying at Microsoft - "Go big or go home" - and this lies at the heart of John Wood's advice to anyone who wants to create change. The problems facing the world today are immense. This is not a time for incremental thinking. If a cause is worth devoting your time to, you owe it to yourself - and those you will serve - to think in a big way. Thinking big can be self-fulfilling prophecy, because bold goals will attract bold people.
• Every entrepreneur needs a strong second-in-command.
• The positive and proactive forces in this universe will always defeat the dark and nihilistic ones. We simply must create spaces in which concerned citizens are offered a way to take action.
• Lessons learned from Microsoft  that helped the author :
• Intense Focus on Results - Rather than talking about what we are going to do, talk about what we have done.
• You cannot attack a person, but you can attack an idea.
•  Be data-driven. Passionately study every facet of your operations to such a degree that related facts and figures are seared into your brian.
• Be loyal to those who work for you

• True change requires mass participation, because one person writing a large check is never enough. Rely more on small contributions from large number of people rather than a few big donations from a small number of  donors.
• True entrepreneurs are not afraid to declare to the world that they are going to fill a market gap or offer a new product or service, even if they are not yet entirely sure how they are going to do so. They simply take the leap. 
• The hope that comes through education, the belief that in schooling lies the key to a brighter tomorrow - those are ubiquitous throughout so much of the developing world.
• "Do not wish anything to be what you are, and try to be that perfectly" - A quote from St. Francis de Sales, which a friend of the author wrote on his birthday card.
• Social Entrepreneurship - Social entrepreneurship is the melding of the best practices of the business world with the social focus of the charitable sector. Social entrepreneurs embrace ideas like reporting on their results, measuring the return on their investments, keeping their overhead expenses low, and constantly improving their programs.

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The Bid Manager's Handbook

    Author:        David Nickson ; 

    Published:   2003;

    Publisher:   Gower Publishing Limited.

    Hardcover:  208 pages;

    Buy From Amazon

This book provides the know-how to increase the probability of winning a bid.

The primary goal of this book is to enable the reader to make best use of the time available and work effectively to produce a high-quality bid with the smallest amount of hassle. 

The book is well written and deals effectively with all the three magic ingredients of a successful Bid initiative - People, Practices and Content.

A must read for anyone who has to write, manage or contribute to a bid for a new or repeat business ! 

To read an extended summary of this book please visit my business blog.

The Grand Design

Author:         Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow
Published:   2010
Publisher:    Bantam Press
Hardcover: 208  pages
 

This  book is a sort of sequel to Stephen Hawking's classic best seller A Brief History of Time. This time the renowned physicist Hawking teams up with another famous physicist and author Leonard Mlodinow. The book attempts to unanswered questions in "A Brief History of Time".
Questions like - Why is there a universe--why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why are the laws of nature are what they are? Did the universe need a designer and creator?

The authors explain how as per quantum theory there are multiple instances of universe existing simultaneously. Also these universes have not just one but every possible history. 
They question the conventional concept of an objective reality and propose a "model-dependent" theory of reality. 

The book describes how the laws of  the universe we live in are extraordinarily finely tuned to create an environment conducive  to our existence, and shows why quantum theory predicts the multiverse--the idea that ours is just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing, each with different laws of nature. 

The authors then conclude that  M-Theory which explains  the laws governing the multiverse, is the only viable candidate for a complete "theory of everything." 

I have read many books which attempt to demystify the esoteric areas of modern physics and cosmology. But I must admit that I am yet to get a complete hang of the subject. Either I am incapable of digesting the stuff or the inherent nature of the subject itself is not amenable to easy explanation. Whatever the case may be, my experience with  this book was no different. 

Initial few pages were quite easy to grasp but things starts getting confusing as I approached the half-way-mark. However it is perhaps better than many of the other books I have read in this genre. Small doses of humor sprinkled and lavish illustrations in myriad colors provide much needed relief to the readers.


Overall a good book to read . I rate it 3.5 in the scale of 5.
Some readers with higher IQ than me may enjoy it much more than I did !

 
Links:

• Stephen Hawking's website
• The Grand Design - Wikipedia entry about the book
• Introduction to M-Theory
  

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Hymns of the Gurus

Author:         Guru Nanak Dev and other Sikh Gurus
Translator:   Khushwant Singh
Published:   2003
Publisher:    Penguin Books, India
Hardcover: 250  pages
 

This book presents a selection of hymns of the Sikh Gurus  from the holy scripture Guru Granth Sahib and couple of other sacred books.
The introductory chapter provides brief life-sketches of the Sikh Gurus, explains the fundamental tenets of Sikhism and gives an overview of the contents of the sacred text Guru Granth Sahib.
Hymns of Guru Nanak Dev  accounts for almost two-thirds of this book. They include Japji the most important prayer of the Sikhs and Bara Maha which is believed to be the last of Guru Nanak Dev's composition. The other six  Gurus whose hymns have been included in this selection are Guru Angad Dev, Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh.
All the verses in this selection bring forth the essence of Sikh philosophy viz; unity, simplicity, equality and surrender to God.
These verses are translations of the original verses in Punjabi, Old Hindi, Persian. What is surprising is that the translator Khushwant Singh is a self-confessed agnostic. Yet he is able to successfully get into the psyche of a pious devotee and pen down beautiful and moving translations close to the original verses.
This book is a very good introduction to Sikh religious literature . A must read for pious, spiritually inclined readers.

A Sample Verse from the book:
(Original verse by Guru Nanak: Jog na khintha, jog na dandey, jog na bhasam chadhaeeai )

Religion lieth not in the patched coat the Yogi wears
Not in the staff he bears
Nor in the ashes on his body.
Religion lieth not in rings in the ears,
Not in a shaven head,
Nor in the blowing of conch shells.
If thou must the path of true religion see,
Among the world’s impurities, be of impurities free.

Not by talk can you achieve union
He who sees all mankind as equals
Can be deemed to be a yogi.

Religion lieth not in visiting tombs
Nor in visiting places where they burn the dead
Not in sitting entranced in contemplation
Nor in wandering in the countryside or foreign lands
Nor in bathing at places of pilgrimage.
If thou must the path of true religion see,
Among the world’s impurities, be of impurities free.

When a man meets the true guru
His doubts are dispelled
And his mind ceases its wanderings;
Drops of nectar pour down on him like rain.
His ears catch strains of sahaj's celestial music
And his mind is lit up with knowledge divine.
If thou must the path of true religion see,
Among the world’s impurities, be of impurities free.

Sayeth Nanak, if though must be a real yogi,
Be in the world but be dead to its tinsel values.
When the lute strikes notes without being touched
Know then that thou hast conquered fear.
If thou must the path of true religion see,
Among the world’s impurities, be of impurities free.

Links:

• Sikh Gurus
• Guru Nanak Dev
• Guru Granth Sahib
  

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The Wikipedia Revolution

Author:         Andrew Lih
Published:   2009
Publisher:    Aurum Press Ltd.
Paperback: 272  pages
 

I will be extremely surprised if I come across a netizen who has not heard about Wikipedia. Over the last decade rarely there has been a day when I had surfed the net but not read a Wikipedia article.

To inform the uninitiated (and I hope there are none), Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia which is written and maintained by volunteers across the globe. It is accessible to any internet user without any access restrictions. Anyone can create, modify or delete its articles according to their whims and fancies. Sounds scary ! How can one trust the information provided by such a chaotic and anarchical encyclopedia ?  Yet over the years Wikipedia has become the world's first source of information on any topic on the earth.

How did this miracle happen ? This book reveals all this.

It begins with the story of how Wikipedia had its origins in Nupedia an online yet conventionally managed encyclopedia. It then goes on to describe how Ward Cunningham's invention of Wiki technology rejuvenated the stagnant Nupedia and transformed it into Wikipedia as we know today. However the  technology behind the scene is just one aspect of Wikipedia.The book is also a story about  the community of unpaid and mostly unidentified volunteers who tirelessly worked and continue to work to make Wikipedia a successful venture.

Author Andrew Lih, himself such a volunteer provides an excellent insider's view of how this global community works. He deals with topics like what motivates these volunteers; what are their values; how they collaborate; how a self-organizing and self-governing structure gets set up in the community; how they ensure the quality and neutrality of the articles which gets published; how they deal with issues like articles getting vandalized, difference of opinion between the editors, censorship. There is also a chapter which describes the crises and controversies Wikipedia has been subjected to.
Wikipedia is truly international. Articles in English comprise only about 20 % of over 20 million articles in 284 languages. This book also tells us the story of  Spanish, Japanese, German, Chinese, Serbian, Kazakh and African Wikipedias and discusses the technological and cultural challenges encountered during their evolution.
The book has a Foreword by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia who conveys that "...Wikipedia is not about technology, it's about people. It's about leaving things open-ended, it's about trusting people, it's about encouraging people to do good."
The the last section Afterword is literally written collaboratively in a true Wikipedian spirit by the members of the community. It is intended to provide an honest contemplation of what is the road ahead for Wikipedia.

An interesting and fascinating story of world's greatest encyclopedia !
Recommended for all internet users.


Links:

• Official Website of the Book
• Author's Website
• Wikipedia article on Wikipedia
• History of Wikipedia

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Gray Wolves and White Doves

Author:         John D. Balian
Published:   2011
Publisher:    BookSurge Publishing
Paperback: 440  pages
 

To bomb or not to bomb ? This is the moral dilemma which Jonah  faces. Jonah is a 16-year old Armenian boy, branded as a terrorist by the Turkish police, recruited by Armenian Liberation Army (ALA) to plant a bomb in a Turkish Airlines flight. .

As he is grappling with his dilemma at the Orly Airport, Paris  he suddenly sees someone known to him in his childhood days calling out to him and moving towards him hurriedly.

After this thriller like beginning, the novel "Gray Wolves and White Doves" transforms itself into an poignant , inspiring and heartwarming Oliver Twist/ The Kite Runner-like story of a young boy's struggle against all odds and adversities. 

The book now takes the readers back by 11 years to the time when Jonah (then called Hannah) is a five-year old kid growing up in a remote village in Anatolia, Turkey.

Hannah's family and other kinsmen are survivors of the Armenian Genocide inflicted upon the Armenians by Ottoman Empire during World War -I. Even in 1960s they  still live under the threat of Turkish authorities .

After Hannah's mother's death under tragic circumstances he is sent to an Armenian seminary in Jerusalem for his education which would hopefully lead to a better quality of life. However things are not all that rosy in the seminary. Hannah (now called Jonah) gets frequently taunted and discriminated against by the inmates as he hails from a Turkish village. He has to struggle hard to establish his credentials as an Armenian while hoping for a bright future in America, the land of opportunity.

Once again due to circumstances Jonah has to leave the seminary and wander like a destitute across Europe being pursued by Turkish police. He lands up joining ALA to avenge the atrocities committed during Armenian Genocide.

The story now switches back to the thriller mode and tells us how the dilemma which Jonah faced in the beginning of this book is resolved.  You have to read the book to find this out. I don't want to spoil your reading experience.

"Gray Wolves and White Doves" is a semi-autobiographical novel by , Dr. John D. Balian an Armenian immigrant who grew up in locations and situations similar to that of Jonah. He has made it big in USA as a senior executive in a  multinational corporation.  This is his debut novel and has received rave reviews  in Amazon.com . 102 out of 104 readers have given it a 5-star rating. Some reviewers have compared this book with Dickens' novels and I do agree with them.

The story has an universal appeal which will strike a chord with anyone who reads it.

The character of Hannah/Jonah is very well brought out and readers will surely empathize with his struggles.

Narration is  vivid and I could almost visualize all the events described in the story. However a short contextual note by the author in the beginning of the book explaining the geopolitical and sociological situation prevailing in the Middle East region in 1960s and 70s would have enabled the readers to appreciate this book even better.

The writing style is simple and easy to understand . This by itself is a rare achievement because very few people  having a  strong scientific background like Dr. Balian who is a highly qualified physician , can write in a style that masses can relate to.

Certainly a very good read for readers of all ages and all walks of life !

Links

•  Book's Prologue 
• Armenian Genocide - Wikipedia Entry  -  Aftermath of Armenian Genocide forms the backdrop of this novel.
• Orly Airport Attack - Wikipedia Entry - This incident happened in 1983. The novel gives a fictionalized account of this incident.
• Author's Website
• Book Promotion in India - This book was launched by Dr. Balian in Chennai and Bangalore last month (Feb 2012). Thanks to a common friend I could attend the Bangalore event. It was a wonderful and memorable experience to have met Dr. Balian and listen to him talk about his book. Also received an autographed copy of the book during this event. Here are some links related to  Dr. Balian's Book Promotion Tour:
• A Ringside View of War
• Of Predators and Prey
• Never Give-in; Never Give-up; Everything is Possible

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