Book Review: Understanding Show, Don't Tell by Janice Hardy

I am a writer. I have been repeatedly told that my writing should 'Show Don't Tell'. I have also listened to bits and pieces suggestions like 'Don't use adverbs', 'Don't use Passive Voice' etc. While these suggestions are useful, they did not provide a complete understanding of the context. I was like that blind man who was touching different parts of an elephant without clearly understanding what an elephant looks like. 

Till I read this book.

This book takes an abstract idea like 'Show Don't Tell' and breaks it to its most minute detail. Tell Words, different view points like First person, third person, distant, omniscient etc, use of adverbs... all of these are covered in a lot of detail.

The reader can visualize how the concept evolves as it progresses over this small book of about 115 pages. 

The best part is the examples. The author provides a large number of examples to illustrate her points. Every concept is illustrated with 'Tell' and 'Show' examples. 

One of the things I liked is her openness to self-criticism. While illustrating some points, she takes passages from her own novels and show us how they could have been improved upon. 

That took courage. 

After reading this book, I could see a couple of changes in my writing. One, I have become more aware of when I am telling. For example, I recently wrote 'I panicked'. It was an obvious 'Tell'. How will the reader know I panicked? How can I show that I panicked? 

I rephrased that with action sentences. 

'I breathed hard. My hands were shivering as I gripped the steering wheel of my car. I wiped a few beads of sweat from my forehead.' 

'Stop it, things are never as bad as they seem'

This book is up there with the other two great books on Writing. One is 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Crafft' by Stephen King and the other is 'Everybody Writes' by Ann Headley. 

This is one book that I will be referring again and again. That is for sure. 

My only regret is that I took a lot of time to finish it. I could have completed it in one sitting.
Well, next book.

Book Review: Start-up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer

It is good that I just read the Title 'Start-up Nation' and did not read the subtitle about 'Miracle'. Otherwise I would not have read the book.
This book covers Israel's incredible growth in different areas across the 70 odd years since its existence. Today Israel boasts of a large number of Patents, largest number of Nasdaq listed startups from a single country and a country with many universities in the global top rankings. The book can be roughly divided into the following parts. 

One, what is the character of Israel as a country that produces so many startups and innovation?
What are some of the characteristics of the people that encourages them to take risks?
What are the actions taken by government to facilitate this progress?
What is the future for the nation?
First, the characteristics of the country. This is a country of immigrants. Israel has a 'One Day Citizenship' process for any Jew from anywhere in the world and their immediate families. Most of the immigrants, like those from Soviet Union are highly educated and brings with them the entrepreneurial spirit. In addition, Israel is always fighting scarcity - of resources, of markets, of resources and that brings with it innovations, what we in India call 'Jugaad'. Also the country has zero corruption and hence is able to more efficiently utilize its scarce resources. The culture is quite informal and flat and people have no qualms of criticizing the works of others including their seniors without fear of repercussion.
Finally, the entire market of Israel is very far from home, so the focus is on exports and miniaturization.
The people of Israel share some common traits. Since Israel has Mandatory Conscription for both men and women, almost all the citizens have been through the grind. Most of them reach leadership positions as young as 23 years. As the army is an innovation machine, with a deep focus on using science to improve its efficiency, those who come out of conscription are on a 'get go' mode. They are risk takers and good at execution. Add to that the open culture and the Israeli trait of Chutzpah and you have an idea factory and an execution machine.
While Israel was a very tight bureaucracy in the early stages, where every resources was rationed and government controlled everything including the interest rates and resource allocation, things have changed dramatically from the late 90s. The country has become more liberal, government has come out of many areas and is encouraging privatization and has many policies to bring in the much needed capital to prime the entrepreneurship.
Today Israel has many world leading universities, leads the world by miles in new patents registration, almost all the leading companies in the world have presence in the country and the tech sector is booming.
The country is also focusing on Liberal Arts. There is a new focus on the movie industry.
I was fascinated by the close parallel between India and Israel. Both came into existence at almost the same time, both had to face multiple wars, both had leaders who laid the infrastructure foundation, both had 'lost decades' when there was zero progress, both had great finance ministers who introduced policies that made a decisive break from the past, introducing a new paradigm of economic liberalization.
And both the countries have been growing exponentially from the beginning of the new millennium.
This is a very inspiring book. It gives a direction for every leader to make their country great. It motivates the readers to focus on the future and displays the tremendous opportunities available out there.

Book Review: Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

 I have read Gladwell's other books including Outliers and Tipping Point. I like his narrative style and the rigorous research that goes into each of his books. So when someone suggested the book 'Talking to Strangers' by Malcolm Gladwell, I thought I would give it a shot.
If you expect this book to provide path-breaking new insights and life perspectives you would be disappointed. If you expect this book as a guide to talk to people, you would be disappointed too. 
The book starts with the obvious assumption - People are Complex and no generic approach will work while dealing with them. However it is impossible to try to understand the thousands of people with whom you deal with and hence you resort to making assumptions. 
The first assumption we make is that PEOPLE are TRUTHFUL. You start your interaction by assuming that the other party is honest and truthful in their interactions with you. Psychologists call it the 'Truth Default Theory'. A couple of minor transgressions, a lie here or a half - truth there will not break this belief. You will consider them as transgressions. It will take many number of lies told and promises broken for you to change your views about that 'specific' individual. 
Most of the people fall into this category. There are some, for whom, this theory is not default. They start their interactions with doubt and skepticism. We call them 'Cynics'. 
Cynics are very important, otherwise criminals will have a field day. 
Example is of Bernie Madoff. A lot of people had doubts that Madoff was resorting to illegal means to make his riches, but they gave him the benefit of doubt. In other words they resorted to Truth Default Theory. It took a couple of cynics to expose his ponzi schemes and bring him to justice. 
The second assumption we make is that 'PEOPLE are TRANSPARENT'. This assumption is popularized by the saying 'eyes are window to the souls'. We assume that if people behave in a certain ways they MUST be telling the truth. For example, classic symptoms of lie assumption is shifty eyes. Or nervousness. If someone exhibits these behaviours, we assume that they must be telling the truth. 
Author narrates the story of Amanda Knox to illustrate this phenomenon. This 20 year girl spend four years in Italian prison on fake charges because her behaviour were not considered transparent, they didn't meet the traditional definitions of expressing sadness, eventhough there was zero proof against her involvement in the crime. 
Transparency assumption working together with Truth Default Theory, enables many psychopaths and sociopaths to go undetected. 
How do you handle this? Author sites a study where given the same information to a Judge and AI, AI came out with much more accurate predictions that Judges did. The drawback for judges was their personal connection, their 'looking into the eyes of the criminal', to make the judgement. AI was unaffected by personal contact and hence made more objective and accurate decisions. 
The book site the chilling case of a Young man who was arrested for trying to kill his ex-girlfriend. He couldn't succeed since his gun got jammed and did not fire. The judge in case looked into his eyes and saw a 'Repentant young man' and set him on bail. Four months into his bail, the young man shot and killed his Ex.
AI would never have allowed him on bail. It would have noted that his intention was to kill his girlfriend and the only reason he failed was that the gun got jammed. He would be sure to try again.
Which he did.
The third challenge in dealing with people is what is called 'COUPLING'. Cases like suicides and crimes happen in a context. In the state of Kansas, it was observed that the crime rate in a very small part of the state was very high. It was observed that the rise in crimes was associated with the availability of Guns. Once the police started intensive patrolling in that area, specifically looking for guns in the cars and confiscating the guns, the crime rate dwindled quickly. 
Unfortunately the lesson that the police department in other states took was that intensive and intrusive patrolling will lead to reduced crimes. They incentivized the stop and search of personal vehicles. This was as far from the localized intensity of the Kansas experiment. They gave wide latitude to the police personnel in such cases. 
The result was widespread dissatisfaction with the police procedures. 
And Sandra Bland case. She was a 28 year old black woman who was stopped for a very minor case of not signalling before changing lanes. The officer in question, Brian Encinia, a white police officer, stopped her. He started the standard process of delaying searching the car for guns or any suspicious material. He was instructed that he should not trust anyone. In short, do not follow the 'Truth Default Theory'
Sandra Bland was getting more and more agitated and getting nervous. This in turn led the officer to doubt her even more. This violated the 'Transparency' assumption, because her behaviour did not MATCH the assumption of innocence. 
Finally, Sandra Bland was a native of Illinois and had come to Texas for a job interview at a university. She was outside her natural context. Also, she had prior traffic citings and unpaid fines of 8000 dollars, which was huge money. Perhaps that stressed her and made her behaviour erratic and aggressive. The officer did not know about any of these and he arrested her on three counts. 
For a signal violation!
After three days, Bland was found hanging from the ceiling in her cell.
Author says that every lesson that you learned from the past was violated in this case.
There are other fascinating insights in this book like how one forgets key information, or manufactures information when  subject to severe stress, for even a short period as 30 minutes of exposure. Even when you voluntarily accept the trauma, your post-traumatic behaviour may not be predictable or accurate. 
However, the quality of content, or real insights,  in this book is minimal. So I rate it 3 Stars.

Book Review: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

I purchased this book after I saw a recommendation on Twitter. As I started reading the book, I was mesmerized by the language - the intensity, the very simple but very powerful comparisons to make a point, the choice of words and the sense of humour that made me chuckle at many places. I started off by being heavily invested in the lead character - Demon - born in a trailer to a drug addict. His early life reminded me so much of how I used to spent my childhood in our Village, among, plants, flies, frogs and even snakes.

 
The book is large, all of 64 Chapters, and as I moved from chapter to chapter, the book became dark and depressing with occasional flashes of positivity. But the core theme was negativity and despair. I lost interest in the book, I couldn't take 64 chapters where things moved from bad to worse for Demon, whom I loved. 

You could say, just like many others in his life did, I too abandoned him. 

But something about the book pulled me back. As I started reading more, I realized that this is an incredibly positive and uplifting book. As Demon mentions, "I have tried in this telling, time and again, to pinpoint the moment where everything starts to fall apart. Everything, meaning me. But there’s also the opposite, where some little nut cracks open inside you and a tree starts to grow. Even harder to nail. Because that thing’s going to be growing a long time before you notice."

Incredible words. 

This is an intense book and is not for light reading. To get the best out of this book, one should read it in a couple dedicated hours, making copious notes. The book radiates wisdom and fresh perspective in every page. I lost the count of time I said 'Wow' or 'Oh...', or 'Awwww' as the perspectives hit me. For example, the author talks of 'Land Economy' and the 'Money Economy' and how the latter is always insulting the former using words like 'Hillbilly' and 'Redneck'. I remembered that even here in India, we make fun of people from some parts of the country. 

Maybe I don't have the right perspective. 

Having experienced both village life and city life, I could identify with the points that Damon was making. He talks of how city people do not share (reluctantly if at all) their 'Juice'. I took that word to mean focus. City life has speed and flow and focus, unlike the lassitude and easy going attitude that permeates the village life. 

Demon was born into despair, lived his life as an opioid addict, but fought the addiction and came out a success. 

I couldn't put down the book, I wanted to see Demon getting national acclaim for his book. 

But dammit, it ended too soon (all of 640 pages, that's all) but it ended on a high. 

For that I am very grateful.

Book Review: Some Kind of Blunderful by Livy Hart

Some Kind of Blunderful by Livy Hart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book tells the story of the love affair between Mia Fadden, a young school teacher and Alex Conroy, a corporate honcho working in the Avondale, Georgia office of Peachtree Tech, the same office where Richard Fadden, Mia's dad works as the head of Marketing.

This was one of the books that I purchased based on the comments on an Insta thread. As I read the book, I wrote my observations in my daily journal. The first comment that I wrote was that the language is pleasant and breezy. The second comment was that 'While the chapters of the book alternative between Mia's and Alex's narratives, their styles are not different at all, making it difficult to understand when they say 'I', whose perspective the author is using'.

The book is predictable from the get go. At the end of Chapter 1, Page 1, starting with their first date, you knew what was going to happen by the end of chapter 39. So there was no mystery. There were not many earth-shattering insights as well. Was there any plot tension which could create lumps in the reader's throat and make him want to jump in an rescue the damsel in distress? No, there was no such tension.

Like I said, I liked the simplicity and breeziness of the writing style.

The two protagonists hogged the entire book, leaving other perspectives inaudible. I would have loved to hear more from Josie, she seemed like fun. Or her wise boyfriend Ezra.

Considering limited perspectives in the book, the author has peppered with chapters describing their sex life. Some of it, while making nice reading, did not move the story forward in any way. 

Considering the genre, a YA Romantic Fiction, this book has done well. I loved the use of simple language and a good mix of narration and dialogues. Also, as a connoisseur of the art of writing, I loved that the paragraphs were of different lengths.

I could not identify the perspectives of some of the characters like Mia's dad Richard. He was working for a corporate and the company was changing its hiring and firing policies. Why was he resisting change? He has had fair share of changes in his life and had handled them quite well. In addition, he is accustomed to be take care of by his much younger daughters. So when it comes to a young boss who wants to introduce his ideas, why the long face?

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Naive Super By Erlend Loe

Naïve. Super by Erlend Loe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book over a couple of days. This coming of age book is simple and easy to read. The author is the protagonist and as a 25 year old, he is trying to understand the meaning and purpose of life. The author Erlend Loe is a Norvegian and this book was touted as Norway's 'Catcher in the Rye'.
 

Most of the book is self-observation, observation of the world around and developing a perspective towards life.
 

The author is highly influenced by the writings of scientist Paul Davies. He seems to have taken a liking to the concept of time. As per scientific principles, time is affected by gravitational pull. The more the gravity, the faster the time moves.
 

This has two implications. One, as you go higher, time moves slower and you age slower. The second aspect is even more profound, there is nothing called time. I mean if the time is different at the bottom of Empire State Building and on top of it, which time is right? Since you can't answer it properly, I mean every meter you move higher the time moves slower, it implies that there is nothing called time.
 

This is a great philosophical question. The author do not discusses this in detail, but it is obvious that this puzzle is something that he spends a lot of time thinking about.
 

Towards the end of the book author visits America and as is wont, that country provides him with some answers that he was looking for.
 

A good coming of age book. (even though the protagonist is 25).

There are two things that impressed me about this book. One is a list of items that the protagonist admires and appreciates. These are definitely the items that he is grateful for. The list is very exhaustive. Some of the items in the list are hammering, sitting on the loo, having someone rub his back, music, friendship, water etc.

 

I have read it a number of times that you must start and end your day by being grateful for your blessings. I never understood this. Till I read this book, that is. I am healthy in general. When I see very unhealthy and sick people around me, I guess I must be grateful for my health. Likewise, I live in my own home, I have a great family, my mother is healthy and stays near where I stay, I have some work to do and something to look forward to when I wake up in the morning, I have clean bowels every morning (I remember the time when I struggled over three years with extreme constipation), have food to eat and water to drink....

 

I mean there are a number of things I must be grateful about.

 

Another list that the protagonist makes impressed me. That is the list of things that he saw each day. He observes and sees a lot of things. Love and pain in the eyes of people, nasty behaviours, kindness, politeness, rudeness, even simple things like a man sitting on the side of the road drinking water from a bottle. When I look back at my day, I can't remember a single thing I saw. Which is equivalent to not seeing anything right. What the author is doing is what is known as mindfulness. Just observing without any judgement. 

 

That is Zen.

 

By the way, I loved the first paragraph. Great start to the book.

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Highlighted Quotes

• Something is going to have to happen.
• I thought time was time and gravity was gravity. Evidently that’s not the way it is
• It’s been a long time since I worked up a real sweat.
• I speculate about making a list of things that excite me today. I find pen and paper, but notice that I am hesitating.
• I should never have stopped running.
• For some reason I suspect that I know too much about things it’s stupid to know a whole lot about.
• An animal is an animal, he reckons. You can’t blame the dog for being ordinary.
• He is a human being living in disharmony with almost everything.
• If it’s already nothing, there’s no reason to say it in a more complicated way
• (The universe) has about a hundred billion stars the size of the sun. These numbers are so absurd that I strangely enough find myself in a good mood. It’s all so immense. I think Paul feels a bit like this as well. There is so little I can do to make a difference. It is liberating.
• I sit there thinking that I’m a really good guy and never mind space and time and all the rest of it.
• When the universe is ephemeral, one can easily feel that human existence is meaningless. Why should I do anything at all?On the other hand it is tempting to try and make the best of it. I’m here, anyway.
• many people are in a position similar to mine. That they know a helluva lot, but don’t quite know what to do with it.
• They’re strange things, girls. One can’t avoid them. They’re so pretty. And they’re everywhere. There’s something very strange about girls. First they’re not there and everything is a little difficult. But then they’re there, and things become nicer.
• Americans seem to live according to the simple theory that two is better than one, three is better than two, etc. For example, they believe two hundred dollars is better than one hundred. It’s a cute theory.
• (He is walking someone else's dog in the park, he says that people will mistake him for a dog owner) Seeing as I’m not a dog owner in New York, that also means everybody else could be something other than what they seem to be. That means it’s impossible to know anything at all. 
• Everybody is good at something.
  
• Presents are important. Little presents are often better than big ones.
  

The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns

The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just finished reading the book 'The Woman in White Kimono' written by Ana Johns. What a brilliant book!!! Undoubtedly the best book I have ever read (I have read many). The book is crafted with perfection, with each word like an iridescent Pearl connected by glowing golden thread to form an exquisite Pearl necklace of ethereal beauty.

Book Review: The Guest List By Lucy Foley

The Guest List by Lucy Foley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I bought this book because it was Number One in the Goodreads reader's choice. I guess the book was okay.
 

The book toggles between points of view and chronological sequence like a teenager surfing the web on his laptop with some fifteen tabs open. While I could understand the points of view, they are not actually points of view, but more like description of experiences narrated by different characters, the mixing of chronological future, past and present in dizzying frequency, left me dizzy.

Book Review: The Joys of Compounding: Author: Gautam Baid

I spent a lot of time reading this book (from January 8th when I started to February 17th when I
finished). There is a lot of curated work - mostly quotes from Munger and Buffett and a lot of advises and suggestions, unfortunately original ideas are few and far between. I wish Mr.Baid had focused more on detailing his experiences, him being an accomplished investor. The book sparkles in the few areas where he addresses his experiences in investing in Indian market.

Mr.Baid had a great opportunity - a confluence of knowledge, experience and communication skills, where he could have written a book on investing in India. The country has evolved significantly over the last twenty years, and Mr.Baid was in the market in almost 15 of them. The last twenty years has seen a mega crash and multiple mini bull markets. There is a lot of human interest stories out here many of which he will be privy to.

That would have been a heck of a book.

Mr.Baid read and referred a number of books and articles while researching this book. The bibliography is impressive. I have read some of the books that he refers in the book, most of them over the last two years. So the only areas that added value to me are his personal experiences. I found the section on 'being an empathetic investor' very useful.

There is no doubt that Mr.Baid writes well. I hope he writes the next book from his heart rather than from his head....

The Midnight Library: Author: Matt Haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book after seeing the recommendations on Goodreads. This book was selected as the best book on Fiction Category in 2020. The book starts off with negativity and despair. Nora Reed is a champion swimmer and a philosophy major. Due to various choices she made in life, at the age of 35 she finds herself in despair and depression. As her cat (named Voltaire, after the French Philosopher) dies, she goes into deep depression and takes sleeping pills to commit suicide.

In the interim stage between life and death, Nora finds herself in the midnight library. There she meets her librarian and mentor Mrs.Elm who tells her that this is her 'personal library'. Each book is a story of a different life that Nora could have lived in the 'multi-verse'. She is given an offer that she can experience her different lives. Every time she gets disenchanted with one life, she will come back to the library. As long as she is living her life the clock will remain at 00:00:00 hours. The moment she finds that she doesn't have any more life to live, the clock will start moving and she will die when the clock strikes 00:01:00.

Nora explores different lives In one, she is an Olympic Swimming Champion who became a world leading motivational speaker. In another she is a scientist doing Climate Change Research in the Arctics. While she is a musician in another, she is a philosophy professor in Cambridge or a Brewer in Latin America in others.

In some of her lives, her parents and her brother are alive.They are dead in others.

The book uses concepts from the quantum physics like quantum superposition and multiverse to tell Nora's story. These advanced concepts are explained in very simple language in this book. The book also uses advanced philosophy of Thoreau and Aristotle to describe Nora's life. Despite the liberal usage of these advanced ideas, the reader never feels overwhelmed or bored. 

As an Engineering Student who has studied physics during the graduation, I found the relationship between advanced physics and human experiences very fascinating. In quantum physics there is a concept of 'Quantum Superposition', explained lucidly in the idea of 'Shrodinger's Cat'. In simple terms, it states that tiny particles like atoms and it components remain in multiple states at the same time. They take a specific state when they are measured.

The story says that when a person is in a state of confusion, it is equivalent to an atom existing in multiple states. Every time the person makes a decision (activity is measured), he goes into a specific state. Human life consists of many possibilities. The story of life is written at every minute. Since the story is ever changing and evolving, the only thing you can do well is to use the current moment to the best of your ability and try to take decisions that could take you to your ultimate destination.

It is important to remember that each decision we take has an opportunity cost of choosing one life and leaving many potential lives on the sides.

In the penultimate chapter, Nora pens her learning from this experience. She realizes that the only thing she has in her control is the present moment. It is important to use it well.

I was also fascinated by how quantum physics closely allies with the Indian philosophy of Maya which states that there is no absolute truth. Everything is perspective. At the start of this book, Nora feels that there is no meaning to her life and she is depressed. After spending her time in the library, she comes back to the same life all happy, positive and charged up.

Life is the same, only change is her perspective.

Great book. Learned a lot about my life as well.

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Book Review: The Secret Life of Anna Blanc: Author: Jennifer Kincheloe

Through 46 chapters, this mastodon of a book flattered to deceive. In the beginning I was rooting for

Anna Blanc, the heroine, I still am, but this book left me disappointed. The sad part is that it has a lovable heroine in Anna Blanc, intelligent, passionate and mischievous. But for most part, her intellect is underplayed and where it is described, the author speeds up the description to get it over and go back to describing Anna's feelings and emotions, much like a kid rushing his homework so that he can go out and play.

The story idea is excellent and had a lot of potential. A young passionate and intelligent girl going after a murderer in the California of the 30's. But that is where the idea stops. The story line is handled in a casual manner.

The story is set in the US of the 20s when woman are fighting for their right to vote. Anna is a rich girl who lost her mother when she was a child. She has been brought up by her strict and loving father (nowhere in the book it is mentioned that her father is 'loving', I think I am attributing the 'loving' trait to sate my need for Gestalt). Anna has to behave like a rich woman and do the duties expected of

Book Review: The Inner Game of Tennis: Author: W. Timothy Gallwey

Have you ever wondered why, in the movie Matrix, Morpheus kept insisting that Neo was 'The One'? What did he mean by 'The One'?

Well, I did wonder for a long time. It remained a mystery till I read the the book 'The Inner Game of Tennis' written by Tim Gallwey. 

Mr.Gallwey analyses the human mind using the game of tennis as a proxy. A typical tennis player plays two different games on the court. One is the outer game - the physical game that he plays against the opponent. The other is the Inner Game - the game played between two different aspects of his mental self.

The competitors that play the inner game are Self 1 and Self 2. Self 1 is the judgemental, criticizing, part of the personality. Its focus is on finding faults  and pointing out the mistakes made by Self 2. Self 1 suffers from recency effect. It is only focused on the here and now and has forgotten the lessons learned over the life time. 

The real player, who plays the outer game is Self 2. Also called the 'body' or 'intuition', it carries all the lessons that has been learned over the life time and knows how to handle every situation. In a way Self 2 is the real boss. But like a tamed elephant, it has forgotten its power and meekly surrenders to the criticism by Self 1 and hides back in the shell.

Book Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Authors: Mary Ann Shaffer and Anne Barrows

The book Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is written as a series of letters between different characters. The book is set in England of the 2nd World War. Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands that Germans occupied from 1941 to 1945. The lead character is Juliet who is the main narrator. The supporting cast includes her friend Sophie, and Sydney, Sophie's brother. Juliet is drawn to the island and to the quaintly named 'Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society',

Juliet is a writer of note. Having lost both her parents when she was twelve, Juliet has grown up to be a self-dependent stubborn lady. Her only collections are her books. She even called off her marriage in the nick of time because her prospective husband wanted to keep all her books in the cellar downstairs. Her books has pride of place in her flat. Unfortunately, during one of the bombings by Luftwaffe, her flat was hit and her collection of books burnt to ashes. Ironically, had they been in the cellar, the books would have survived the bombings !

Book Review: The Stationery Shop of Tehran Author: Marjan Kamali

Marjan Kamali narrates an eternal love story of teenagers Roya and Bahman set in the backdrop of a chaotic Tehran of the 1950s. The country was young. It had hopes on a democratically elected Prime Minister with modern views to take it forward. The young 'old' country longed for a modern state rooted in the eternal values of peace and progress.

But there is political trouble in the air. While the Prime Ministerwas elected democratically, Iran was ruled by Kings. Known as 'Shahs of Iran' they expected the Prime Minister to kowtow to their wishes But the then Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh refused to do that and on the other hand wanted to curtail the power of the Shahs and make Iran a true democracy.

This was not a stable situation for the country. It was polarized across two factions, one loyal to the PM and the other loyal to the king.

The love between Roya and Bahman blossoms in the Stationery Shop owned by Mr.Ali Fakhri, an old man still young at heart. He facilitates love affairs between young people.

Book Review: Checklist Manifesto: Author: Atul Gawande

Why do we need checklists? 

There are two groups of tasks. One group of tasks is beyond our capability. We may want to swim across English Channel or win Olympic gold, but those are beyond our capability. 

There are many tasks within our capability. We are unable to do them either due to ignorance or due to ineptitude. 

The problem is that the knowledge available in the world has been exploding recently. It is not important for one person to learn everything. That is the reason why we have experts. 

The complex problems require many experts to work together. As a group they may have the knowledge or expertise. In many cases, however, they make mistakes. 

Why?

In his book 'Checklist Manifesto - How to get things right', author Atul Gawande says that most of the expert tasks are complex and involve multiple steps to be completed in sequence by different experts. If either of the steps are missed or if the sequence is broken, mistakes will occur. Checklists are a way to ensure that steps are followed in a sequential order and everyone is aware of the status.

Book Review: Everybody Writes: Author: Ann Handley

There are many reviews of this book. In fact there is even a REVIEW OF REVIEWS of this book which was written in 2014 !

Most people think that they can't write, but that is incorrect. If you have a blog, if you regularly tweet, if you use any form of social media to communicate, then you are a writer. And a publisher to boot. The advent of social media has made us a community of publishers. 

Even when you sent an email, you are putting your thoughts into the screen. That is writing.  

Everybody writes.

That is the premise of the book 'Everybody Writes - Your Go-To Guide To Creating Ridiculously Good Content' written by Ann Handley. It aims to help everyone become a better writer. Communication is the key in this new age. Writing is the mainstay of personal communication. 

In this work-horse of a book, Ms.Handley has put together a number of rules and tools to help anyone to write better. In addition to great ideas, each chapter also contain links to more articles and artefacts that benefit a writer. 

Even though this book is meant as a content writing handbook for marketing professionals, the rules mentioned in this book will benefit every writer.

Don't wait for inspiration to start writing. Writing is a habit like any other habit. Half the work is done by just showing up. Be seated in your chair at the appointed time with a pen in hand and paper in front of you. You will start writing. It is tough in the beginning but with a few successes, you will start enjoying it. 

Writing is also a craft. Just like any other craft good writing also involves a set of rules. There are standard rules - 'Show, don't tell', 'don't use adverbs' etc. In addition there are specific rules relating to the type of content that you write. 

Book Review: How to Get Lucky: Author: Max Gunther

This is the review of the book 'How to Get Lucky - 13 Techniques for Discovering and Taking Advantage of Life's Good Breaks' written by Max Gunther, the author of Zurich Axioms. The book is divided into two parts; Part 1 contains 2 chapters which lays the foundation and Part 2 that goes deeper into 13 techniques of luck. The book closes with a matter-of-fact summary chapter on  how to use the techniques. 

This book was originally published in 1986 and was republished in 2010. 

All of us need luck to succeed. Just being good enough is not enough. Good luck is the essential component of success, no matter how we define success. Luck is the supreme insult to human reason, you can't ignore it and you can't plan for it. So can we do something about it? 

Yes. Probably more than we think

Book Review: Triggers: Author: Joseph Sugarman

This is the review of the book 'Triggers - 30 Sales Tools You Can Use to Control the Mind of Your Prospect to Motivate, Influence and Persuade' written by Joseph Sugarman. This book contains 32 Chapters, Introduction, one chapter for each of the 30 tools and ends with an Epilogue. The book is small-ish, about 180 pages, meaning 5 pages per book. 

The preface to this book is written by 'Joe Girard', considered to be the 'best salesperson in the world' by Guinness Book of World Records. Interestingly I had come across Mr.Girard in the book Influence by Robert Cialdini (read my review here) where his example was used as to illustrate one of the tools of Influence - Liking. Apparently Mr.Girard sent thank you notes every month to each of his customers with the words 'I like you'.  Amazing how the world is small after all.

May not be. Almost all the examples in this book are different variations of how sales persons use the six tools of influence as discussed in the Cialdini book. Maybe there is a connection there that I don't know.

Book Review: Crushing It: Author: Gary Vaynerchuk

This is a review of the book Crushing It - How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business And How You Can Too by Gary Vaynerchuk. In the introduction to the book the

author says the world of opportunities is changing rapidly than we envisaged a few years earlier. The advent of social media has created personal branding opportunities that we could not have anticipated. We are able to have one on one conversations with our customers. We are able to react to people across the globe. Today people are able to build billion dollar businesses from the basement of their homes. Your personal brand can become your business. The aim of the book is to make the reader aware of the platforms available how how to work on each of them. This book also has tonnes of advice from those who have walked the talk.

This book is both for those with natural born talent and those who do not yet know their talent but want to explore the various options available.

The book is divided into two sections. Section 1 is called 'Get Pumped'. It comprises of 5 chapters. In the chapter 1 titled 'The Path is All Yours' the focus is on facts and data. The author convincingly argues about the shift in consumer focus from traditional media to social media. Due to these changes,  businesses are spending vast amounts of money on these channels. Due to the proliferation of platforms anyone with a passion can make a living out of these media. Anyone who is smart and strategic in using their content can capitalise on this shift. 

Seven Traits for Successful Personal Branding

The focus of this book is for anyone willing to put in the effort in their personal brand. Personal branding starts by identifying specific target audience.

Chapter 2 is titled 'What Still Matter'. There are a few personal traits that matter in the personal branding journey. These are intent, authenticity, passion,  patience, speed, work, and attention.

The first trait is intent. You have to decide why you want to do personal branding. The three characteristics that every successful entrepreneur shares are commitment to service, a desire to provide value, and a love for teaching. Money should not be the motive. You have to care for your customer.

Intent is reflected in your authenticity. Showcase your true self, your work, and passion. Respect the intellect of your audience.

Passion is what makes you enjoy what you do. Spend your time on your passion. The advantage is that passion will keep you going when things become tough.

Passion goes side by side with the next characteristic  patience. Success in the social media journey will take time. Keep your head down and keep working.

While you must be patient in the long term, speed is of essence in the short term. Once you figure out what needs to be done, do it quickly. You have to be always in the 'Do' mode. Do not overthink.

At the bottom of every other attribute lies work. There is no time for leisure in your personal branding journey. Work fourteen, fifteen, eighteen hour days come hell or high water. Every minute must be spent producing content, distributing content, engaging your community, or engaging in Business Development. Do things! Put in hard work. Enjoy it.

The final trait, attention has two aspects. One is attention to the environment. You have to be aware about which are the new social media (Smule?), where are customer's eyeballs going,  what are your customers talking about etc. People tend to underestimate new trends. There lies the opportunity. Keep experimenting with new platforms. Do not get comfortable with the existing ones.

While author does not mention it, in my opinion, other aspect of attention is focus - the ability to block out noise and focus on the task at hand.

Chapter 3, titled 'Eighth Essential' deals with content. Here the author presents a counter-intuitive view. As per him you should start now and let your evolution be your content. Let people see your struggles and the victories. Let people be a part of your journey. Another point is to tailor your content to different platforms. People are in different mindsets on different media. What works for Twitter won't work for YouTube for example. Keep updating your knowledge so that people cannot easily find the information that you provide. Your content must be amazing.

Document your learning process. Let that be your content. Use YouTube Live, Facebook Live and other media regularly to tell your story. Documenting will keep you on your toes. Do not manipulate. Let your evolution be your content. That will give you freshness and enthusiasm.

Putting your progress out there will force you to live up to it. Let world see you up close and dirty.

Approach each message you post from a professional viewpoint. Before every tweet, Facebook post, or YouTube video, ask the question, 'how will this help my business?' If there is no convincing answer don't do it.

Remember to keep moving. Things change for the better if you keep moving.

Chapter 4 titled 'What is Stopping You' discusses about 10 reasons reasons why people are not crushing it. For me the relevant reasons are 'I don't know where to start' and 'I don't have the right equipment'. As per the author, there are three fears that hold people back. They are fear of failure, fear of wasting time and fear of seeming vein. Fear of failure may be a fear of what people will say. Do not bother about other's opinions. Be clear eyed and strategic, be willing to work harder and longer than you ever have and you will surprise everyone. 

Fear of wasting time leads you to losing great opportunities. Exploring different platforms is not a waste of time if you want to build your personal brand. People are scared of visiting time even when they have nothing else to do.

Amazing feature of the book are the examples of who have crushed it. One of the achievers advises you to look at platform and answer the question 'what will make the  users to come back to your page'.

As you gather ideas and execute your strategies, set yourself up for success. Find your self-esteem and make some noise. Show that you care for quality and customer experience. Show that you care for people.

The most inspiring story in this book is that of Mimi Goodwin whose Instagram handle is @mimigstyle. She had suffered from childhood abuse, teenage motherhood, and domestic abuse and came out of it to build a huge personal brand.

The only thing you need to give yourself to crush it is permission. There is an inspiring story of Pat Flynn who set up the website smartpassiveincome.com. His Insta handle is @patflynn. He created an e-book collating ideas from his blog posts and sold it in his website. This is what I had done with my ERP book. Reading that example was very gratifying. If he can take an esoteric idea like LEAD exam and make it work my ERP idea is a cakewalk.

Go deep, go niche and provide real value in the form of information or entertainment.

Section 2, Create Your Pillar, starts with a mandatory task, create a Facebook business page. I have already done that. Check it out

How can one get discovered? There are two ways in which your opportunities will develop. One, by smart use of hashtags and two, by direct messaging - reaching out directly to people and offering them something in return for their attention. The second option is what the author recommends. Collaborate with people and get to work delivering something that they will be proud of. If established influencers see an upside in collaborating with you, they will get back. It is your job to give them reasons to get back to you. Business development this way is hard and hence many people won't do it. There lies your opportunity.

The next 8 chapters deal with eight different platforms - Musical.ly, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Podcasts and Voice–first.

The book ends with a concluding chapter summarizing the ideas discussed in the book.

This is an amazing book. Any great book of ideas should have one feature. After reading the book the reader should ask herself, "The ideas in this book are so sensible and easily executable. Why did I not think of this before?". This books meets that criteria to a T. Have this book in your library. Read it more than once. Follow Gary (@Garyvee on Twitter) and make use of his benevolence as he give you one amazing content after another. 

Thank you Gary. I hope I will be able to live up to your inspiring words.

Book Review: Write your book in a flash: Author: Dan Janal

The full name of the book is Write your book in a flash - The Paint-by-numbers system to write the book of your dreams - Fast!

Published by TCK Publishing. You can buy the book HERE

The short URL of this review is https://goo.gl/qmVNej

(Background to this review. Ms.Maria Inot of TCK Publishing got in touch with me to review this book after she read my blog review of the book Triggers. Thanks a lot to TCK Publishing for giving me this opportunity to review this wonderful book.)

Many of us have been told at one time or other that 'there is a book in you waiting to come out'. We will be happily rambling about the funny incident that happened 20 years ago, generally smiling to ourselves, and out of the left flank comes this question, 'Why don't you write a book?'

Why don't I, you think. I have been doing Consulting for about 18 years now, and possess a lot of knowledge that can add value to other professionals in my field, you presume. How do I go about  writing a book, you wonder, I have never written a book in my life and I don't even know where to begin, you think. You wish you could get some guidance on the process of writing a non-fiction book.

Do not worry, help is at hand. Mr.Daniel Janal has written an excellent book titled 'Write your book in a flash' which explains the process of writing a book in a structured manner. In about 135 pages, the book is the one stop shop for anyone wishing to write a non-fiction book. Mr.Janal is an award winning journalist who has authored over a dozen books to help businesses build their brands.