Book Review

It is an utter delight from beginning to end. A smorgasbord of historical people and places, facts, festivals and parties, pilgrimages and ancient texts. It is also full of touching examples of everyday life - as Ravi Valluri explores with a kindly eye, the nooks and crannies of India and its people.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt is a quintessential coming of age story viewed through the grimy, unyielding, and sometimes downright heartbreaking lens of poverty. It follows Frank McCourt as he comically explains the dire circumstances of his conception, birth, and life.

'The 8 Stories for Businesses and Professionals' by Michael Burns teaches business people how to present their company, their products. and themselves in a way that is memorable and applicable to a variety of audiences.

A Silent Takeover was intense and suspenseful, and was a thriller to its very core. This book flows so smoothly, at a nice brisk pace. It’s one that you could easily read in a day or two if you were so inclined. There is an intriguing plot, lots of twists, some wonderful characters, plenty of clues, suspects, and a good dose of thrill.

Finding Your Seat at the Table by Teboho Mofokeng is a tremendously valuable book for anyone who is looking not for a job, but a career that offers control, autonomy, and gives you a sense of fulfillment. The subtitle of this book reveals the main theme of the book: “Creating the Ideal Career”. This book will give you the step by step plan to achieve it.

The Martian by Andy Weir is a hard science fiction novel about one man being stranded on Mars and trying not to die. It features such riveting activities as growing potatoes using your own faeces as part of the soil and repair work on multiple pieces of equipment. Mark Watney was part of a six-person crew that constituted the third manned expedition to Mars. The mission was to remain on the Red Planet for thirty-one days, but six days into their stay, a huge dust storm blew up with ferocious winds that forced the crew to abandon the mission.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was a really clever gradual unfolding of friendship and the suffering undergone by the captive population of Guernsey during the occupation of the Third Reich during the early 1940's.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn reads as a fascinating piece of historical fiction torn between the events of World War I and post-World War II France. Despite a few criticisms, it's quite a page-turning gem that illuminates the unfortunate German-occupied France time periods with real and historical characters brought to life in a believable fashion. If anyone has read Kristin Hannah's 'The Nightingale,' they will enjoy this book, and vice versa.

Educated by Tara Westover is an anguished story about growing up in the mountains of Idaho in a fundamentalist Mormon/survivalist family led by a father convinced that the socialist government in every respect was evil. As a family they prepared for “The Days of Abomination” and saw the opposition as The Illuminati.