marginalian's reviews
37 reviews

The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century by Louise Perry
Did not finish book. Stopped at 44%.

From objectification, we are in an era of subjectification of women in the media. Wherever we are coming from, it is really important to constantly ask where our choices are coming from, and what factors are shaping our lives. This book starts provocative in that regard but soon falls off. 

I think the author's grasp of evolutionary science is superficial. Also, correlation is not causation and little knowledge is dangerous.

I don't think this book is anyway pathbreaking.

India Is Broken: A People Betrayed, Independence to Today by Ashoka Mody

informative medium-paced

2.75

This book seems like a post hoc analysis of past events. Mody's analysis is top-down. He covers macroeconomic policies, political leaders and businesspeople through newspaper and other global reports over the decades. Thus the book doesn't have much new information to provide on the recent years than available from credible news sources. Yet, it provides valuable information about the first few decades of India's independence. The book might be interesting for rich investors or students of macroeconomics.  And unemployment as shown in the book is, indeed, a huge crisis.  

But the stories of ordinary Indians don't find any voice here. They are considered to be mere victims of bad politics and economics. Also, despite reading the entire book, I don't know what Mody as an economist wants India to be like. He criticizes almost everything that it is difficult to figure out where he stands as an economist. Mody, like Nehru in the book, have all the diagnoses correct without any solutions ahead! At times, there was no choice but to be tired of what I felt like the armchair cynicism of an academic who has never stepped into the grassroots. 

Aren't we at a juncture where we should be asking better questions? Why do we come back to the old narratives on the need of manufacturing more and more consumption goods (despite the environmental damages) to feed western fantasies, the spread of school-based literacy and education just for the sake of being better employees, and the need to move away from all types of farming in a world where we are already facing the consequences of a destructive and illogical western model of development? What we need is probably a new culture with radically different priorities suited to our planet. From that perspective, the concerns presented in this book seem a little bit overdebated and outdated. When the author touches on aspects like UBI, decentralisation and civic communities, he does so only in passing reference.

101 Things I Learned® in Psychology School by Tim Bono

informative relaxing fast-paced

Bites of information neatly put together. A fun, quick read.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

I am reading this book for the second time. I like the rhythm in Joan Didion's writing, her meticulous note taking which is reflected in her writing (possibly based on Dunne's warning that "the ability to make a note when something came to mind was the difference between being able to write and not being able to write"), her transparency, vulnerability and sincerity as a human being and a writer.

But I couldn't help myself from thinking about the unbelievable privileges she enjoys and the casual (but sincere) way in which she writes about them. On one side, the book made me realise that elites, despite their huge potential to take control over their lives, remain thoroughly helpless and shaken in front of death, grief, pain and loneliness like rest of us (at least until now). On the other side, despite the huge literary merit and self-awareness, I felt an urgent need to wean away from books like this to find similar stories of people from less-privileged backgrounds.

Bob Dylan Chronicles by Bob Dylan

challenging mysterious reflective

I didn't know much about Bob Dylan and nothing has changed after reading this book. I came across his songs about five years ago and stayed with them. Now, after reading this, I realised that I don't know much about song making either.

I like how Dylan openly speaks about his influences. There's nothing completely original in the world. His words made me realise that one's output is determined by what one takes in. Apetite grows by what one dines on. So, one must always dine best. Be it books or role models. People are only good as what they surround themselves with. Dylan followed his favourite artists to the core, studied them intensely and scraped his own work out of that. 

One thing that struck me about the book was his observations on attention. Sociologists were already warning about dwindling attention spans due to TV. Long songs were replaced by smaller ones and back in the 60s, Dylan, therefore, tried to cram long poems !!

Some quotes from the book: 

• "The books were something. They were really something"
• "Privacy is something you can sell, but you can't buy it back"
• "Art is unimportant next to life and you have no choice"
• "Even if you don't have all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have that you don't want"
• "With basically not much media to speak of, it was basically life as you saw it"

The Most Serious Fart by Mike Bender

The biggest lesson from the book: To not take ourselves too seriously. 

Introducing Mind and Brain: A Graphic Guide by Angus Gellatly

Filled with enriching information. A really good primer. 

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

adventurous emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A novel filled with astute observations of the internal and the external. It asks several important questions, contains some disturbing answers that still leads to more questions. I might return to this novel again. It's beautiful and sincere, provocative and funny.

The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind by Richard Restak

informative medium-paced

3.0

This book surely gave me some new ideas (memory laws, the impact of technology on memory, photography, the relationships between memory, creativity and intelligence etc.) to think about along with some fresh book suggestions, both fiction and non-fiction. But most of the concepts in the book were already familiar. I wished for more depth. I wonder whether this is a complete guide to memory. 

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

adventurous challenging funny informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

This book is a beautiful introduction to the majestic world of microbiome. The book reiterates the importance of seeing entities and phenomena in their complexity against the eye-grabbing headlines that surround us. What inspired me the most was the curiosity of the scientists: the spirit of discovery and exploration of the "people who cared to look".