[Sebring]

I got hold of a few books to read. Losing The Signal; about how Blackberry lost out to the smartphone from Apple. Flawed; the Nirav Modi scam story unraveled. Bhujia Barons; on Haldiram empire and Becoming, by Michelle Obama. I prefer business books of late as it makes for some breezy reading in-flight. Excited about this hoard

[Aaroah]

Originally Posted by Sebring

I got hold of a few books to read. Losing The Signal; about how Blackberry lost out to the smartphone from Apple.

How is The Bhujia Barons ? Planning to start with this book . Does it explain the equation amongst the brothers and the strategy for expansion to QSR and ready to eat food format elaborately ?

Thanks in Advance

[Sebring]

Well, I've not started on this batch of books yet. Tied down with few things. I'll review them very soon. But yeah, it does look interesting enough to own a copy.

Originally Posted by Aaroah

How is The Bhujia Barons ? Planning to start with this book. Does it explain the equation among the brothers and the strategy for expansion to QSR and ready to eat food format elaborately?Thanks in Advance

[casnov]

My reading list of 2020.
1. The Power of Habit: 3.5/5. A mixed bag of a read. Some chapters are really good and some are really disappointing. The best bits are those where the author explains on how habits are formed, how anyone can develop or change a habit and keep it whether its for an individual or an organization.
2. Deep Work: 4.5/5. Absolutely loved it!! Do you sometimes have one of those days, when we will be super busy the whole day but at the end of the day, reflect on the day gone and realise that we have done nothing productive? Well, we all have. This book tells how NOT to have such days. How deep work is possible even in today's workplaces.
3. Coders: 5/5. My favourite book of 2020 till now. I believe only those people will relate to this book, who have been there done that. There are pages and pages of situations which will make you feel, "well , I couldn't have put it better myself".
4. Tools and Weapons: In-progress, hence no rating but have finished around 50-60 pages, and seems ok. Great way of explaining of how in today's world, it is imperative for the Big Tech to engage with governments.

[Saanil]

I wanted to mention few books which I have read over the past few months.

a) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. This is classic self-help book which has been around for many years. I was surprised to know that most of friends had read this book during their school time. I think this book will have a greater impact when you are in your late 20’s or early 30’s. As is the case with such genre of books, it is all about implementation of techniques and not just reading. People who want to be more effective in their professional or personal life should definitely consider this book.

b) The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Few years back, I had read another book by the same author called ‘Outliers’. I was fascinated by some of the stories highlighted by Malcolm and I personally believe in some of the theories he has suggested for why some people become famous. Since I liked his writing style a lot, I decided to read another bestseller from Malcolm, The Tipping Point. In this book, the author proposes a framework for understanding why certain things/events become more popular. Please note that many people might not consider this book to be scientific enough and might not agree with the theories suggested by the writer. Malcolm’s writing style is easy, engrossing and forces people to evaluate situations in an analytical way.

c) The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This is the second book I was reading from Taleb with the first one being ‘Fooled by Randomness’. In case you are working in finance, you should definitely read all books from Taleb. The author’s writing style is clear, straight forward and logical. I found the Black Swan interesting primarily because of Taleb’s understanding of risk and its consequences in decision making. I will admit that there are some parts of the book which I did not understand completely but it did not stop me from learning different concepts. I was particular impressed by the author’s ideology about managing personal wealth.

Following are the books which I intend to read in the coming months:

1) Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund

2) Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

3) Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

[abhi7013]

Would strongly recommend 'biology of belief'. Backed by facts, written by an expert in the field and with a pinch of spiritualism, this book is a good blend of both science and belief and how one can effect the other. In a way, how you can shape your own 'destiny'.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Flawed; the Nirav Modi scam story unraveled. Bhujia Barons; on Haldiram empire

Originally Posted by Aaroah

How is The Bhujia Barons ?

I remember Bhujia Barons as a mediocre book. Instead, start with Nirav Modi. It is a top class, engaging, thriller of a read!

[ninjatalli]

The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler's Atomic Bomb : 3.5 / 5

Interesting storyline on how the Germans started on the same page as the British and Americans in trying to figure out the weaponization potential of uranium but while the Americans went ahead and put everything into the Manhattan project; the Germans treated this as a side project run by scientists. However the British realized that if the German scientists could prove the results in front of Hitler's generals, Hitler would have definitely poured all his resources into the atomic bomb instead of wonder-weapons like the V-series rockets and super tanks.

This book tells the extraordinary true story of arguably the most important and daring commando raid of World War II: how an amazing band of men on skis made sure Hitler and his team never got to realize the power of the atomic bomb and goes into detail how the Norwegian resistance trained and supported by the British pulled it off.

[whitewing]

Dome of the Rock - Carter Watson
Gives a quick history on Jerusalem over the ages. I found there were too many names.
This should be made a mandatory reading for people having opinions on the Palestinian/Israel issue.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - Jared Diamond
The author's hypothesis on why human societies turned out the way they did. A veritable slap to people who believe on racial superiority.
He puts out the argument that the environmental factors were key in shaping the world (and the dominance of certain races) rather than any specific superior train in a certain race.

For someone like me, who has not really gone beyond the Asimov's Chronology of the World this was an eye opener. Highly recommended, an important reading for a lay person on par with The Selfish Gene

[altoman]

Read some books from my father's library.

The Panama Papers 4.5/5
A book of few hundred pages made out of millions of documents leaked from just one firm (out of many) based in one of the tax havens. One can only imagine the size of parallel economy out there. Also some of big names of corporate world use tax policies of some countries to legally pay almost zero to very little tax much to the disadvantage of the country in which they actually operate / have operations.
Image source: Amazon


The Inspiring Journey of a Hero 3.5/5
An insight into the working style of lesser know names in business fraternity.


The Vijay Mallya Story 3/5
Published in 2014, a glimpse into the liquor baron's life. It touches various businesses of Vijay Mallya.



Currently reading Sahara: The Untold Story
This disclaimer by Sahara Group in the book creates interest to read it.

[Miyata]

Read this book recently - Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases

The book is on Maurice Hilleman, the father of modern vaccines.

Some excerpts from the book -

Pandemics of influenza are inevitable. During the past three hundred years, the world has suffered ten of them, about three per century. No century has ever avoided one. But despite their frequency and reproducibility, only one man has ever successfully predicted an influenza pandemic and done something about it. HIS NAME WAS MAURICE HILLEMAN.

MAURICE HILLEMAN PERFORMED EXPERIMENTS CRITICAL TO THE DEVELOPMENT of the measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B vaccines, saving millions of lives every year.

TOWARD THE END OF HIS LIFE MAURICE HILLEMAN FOUND HIMSELF in the middle of several controversies. The most enduring, mean-spirited, and sensational charge against him was that his vaccines, despite all of their success, caused autism.

Their children had been healthy, then received the MMR vaccine, then became autistic. Was this a coincidence? Or was the MMR vaccine really causing autism?

“He was interested in the result and the product, not in taking credit for [it],” recalled Tony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within NIH. “When he had a vaccine or a discovery, his attitude was more, ‘Isn’t this an interesting discovery,’ rather than, ‘I, Maurice Hilleman, did this.’

[procrj]

A couple of books that I read over the last month

Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
Written by Retd. Gen Stanley McCrystal(who was the commander of all american coalition forces in Afghanistan before he retired), along with a couple of consultants from a leadership management consulting firm. The book focuses on learning from the way the military intelligence org evolved over the decade of fighting in Afghanistan. It talks about the need for adaptability given the lack of control in the current ecosystem, the paradigm of resilience thinking and couple of other interesting idea streams.

My 2 cents: A good read for anyone who is interested in team dynamics and dealing with ambiguity. The books gives you a few areas where you can focus your efforts and plan.

Rating: 3.75/5


Subtle art of not giving a damn (expletive removed)
Written by Mark Manson, who is a pretty well known blogger. While the name of the book is cheesy, the content is pretty good. Written in a simple and easy to understand way with lots of examples, Mark makes you stop and think about the different situations in life and how you did react.

My 2 cents: An interesting read that did help me with engagement, persistence and resilience. Definitely did help me get better with saying NO in certain situations, both personal as well as work related.

Rating: 4/5

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Miyata

Read this book recently

Some excerpts from the book -

To make your post helpful to others, please also share a review of the book, a rating out of 5 stars and whether you recommend it. Thanks!

[altoman]

Sahara: The Untold Story (3/5)
This book is about the battles between Sahara and the regulators (RBI and SEBI). The bone of contention - acceptance of thousands of crores of deposits from millions of depositors. Sahara claiming it’s genuine money from genuine depositors and the regulators claiming otherwise.



The Resurgence of Satyam (3.5/5)
A good read about the bounce back of Satyam.



From The Brink of Bankruptcy: The DCM Story (3.5/5)
A good read about a family which I had not know about much in past.

[manim]

Discovered this book at a physical book-store months back, and bought the Kindle edition. A thick book at 692 pages. As its title says, it covers all areas of science.

Presently I am reading about chromosomes, genes and DNA. It has varied subjects like Quantum-Physics, Astronomy, Geology, etc. Also relevant to the current crisis.

The author also talks a lot of about the personal details too of various people who discovered various things over the centuries.