Thursday, January 10, 2008
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen --- Paul Torday 4/5
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
India's unending journey --- Mark Tully 4.1/5

I need to tell you all one thing before I write anything about this book. I never expected the book to be what it actually turned out to be. I thought it was another of Thomas Friedman and Ramchandra Guha type books. It was expected to be a story of the growth of
The book tries to blend in two things. The author, Mark Tully, seems to be confused as to what shall be the main driver about this book. Should it be
The author brings in all his experiences, right from his boarding in
The Tyrant --- Valerio Massimo Manfredi 4/5

This book had a very unique feel to it. It might be that I might not have come across something like this but still it does not take anything away. It is a story of a Sicilian warrior-cum-leader which has a lot of biographical methodology. It is as if the author wanted to let people understand the protagonist and the simplest method he chose was also the most ancient way of knowledge dispersal, i.e. story-telling.
The lead character is Dionysius, the soldier who has the blood of a family of generals. He depicts the traits of a person who has a great disregard for democracy, more because of the unavoidable delays in decision making that it brings and diplomacy that it encourages. The life of Dionysius, right from the young foot soldier in the sicilian army, humiliated by
The author, Manfredi, has all the right qualifications to come out with a book of this caliber.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Office Politics --- Guy Browning 5/5

The centurion principles --- Col. (retd) Jeff O leary 3/5
This is a leadership book. It is just like one of those books. It lists down the different traits that would lead on to make a good leader. The leader which is idolized in this book is referred to as the Centurion, the ultimate honour for any soldier as far as his leadership qualities are concerned. Even though it is one of the run-off-the mill books on leadership, the approach is quite fresh and interesting. The author who happens to be a retired colonel of US Airforce, is able to bring a very simple and effective approach to developing a good leader within. The traits identified have been demonstrated by examples ranging from Hannibal and Alexander to Lee and Patton and even Lincoln. The examples cited in some fashion tend to depict the timeless respect, honour and dignity that good leaders are able to command.
It is definitely not a must read but it does have an interesting tone to the already bland topic of Leadership Development.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim ---- Mahmood Mamdani 4.25/5

This book tries to establish the evolutionary relationship between three distinct entities, namely:
The book begins with the topic of “Fundamentalism” and origin of the word. It is interesting to know that the root of the word in its current meaning can be traced back to the Presbyterian movement of
The book is divided into mainly 3 parts: Cold war until the
The book at times does drag down as the author meticulously tries to cite the references and instances to point towards the deviant role played by
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Embracing the Infidel ---- Behzad Yaghmaian

I sometimes pick book at random and have no clue what made me read it. This particular book is one of such picks. It had an interesting title. The subscript to the title says “Stories of Muslim Migrants to the journey West”. This was enough an stimulant to make me read through this book.
The Iranian-born author, Behzad Yaghmaian, is an economist who is currently in political asylum in