Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C Clark

I picked up this book on a Sc-Fi recommendation and with the success of 2001 Space Odyssey, it seemed like a good bet. The author touches on the topic of First contact with the human race, which isn't a new concept but the writing style is where this one takes the cake.



 I expected this to be a predictable first contact story with some twists and turns but its not. Theres a great amount of detail around a cylindrical object thats approaching the solar system thats soon determined to be artificial. Then the author takes you on a ride through the investigation in great detail and true laws of physics in place that make you rethink your own world and assumptions.

I loved reading this book and it does tend to get slow at times due to the exorbitant amount of details but still a fun read.

Unleashing the Innovators - Jim Stengel

I picked up this book because I saw some parallels with my professional life and I thought it might help and it does. The author dives into the topic of high large corporations can get in their own way by adding red tape and still be able to move at the pace of a small startup.


Its no secret that large corporations have policies and bureaucracies to protect themselves and perform better but something gets lost in terms of innovation due to the time it takes to react. Conversely a 5 people startup company can pivot into a new market, process, product in a fraction of the time that a large corporation can.  This book dives into the concept of marrying the two. This isn't a new concept and a lot of corporations leverage innovation by forming innovation hubs and acquiring startups but mostly this book focuses on partnerships.

A lot of recommendations and pitfalls regarding forming good partnerships was helpful to me to understand, and its written in plain English with plenty of real world examples from tech companies that you might recognize, not to mention that also keeps it very interesting. I'd recommend this to anyone in the corporate world working in partnerships to get guidance on ideas and pitfalls, no matter the size of your org.

Go Like Hell - A.J.Baime

This is one of those pieces of non fiction that feels like a story, and it really is. The author has taken just the right amount of quotes and details from real events to stick together this story of the war between Ford and Ferrari.

The war between these auto giants stems from the wake of WW2 and roots that are planted well before WW1. True stories of how two completely different corporate cultures from two sides of the Atlantic, throw everything at their disposal into one race for the sake of glory.

This book also helps highlight how auto races equate into real dollars for manufacturers. The individual stories of the development of each Ford and Ferrari like they are real people also adds a lot of character. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the roots of auto racing and the larger-than-life moguls (Henry Ford II & Enzo Ferrari) that lit a spark to a flame that burned for generations.

Powerful - Patty McCord

This book is written by an ex COO of Netflix. That by itself was interesting enough to hear about the internal workings of one of the cornerstone Tech companies of my generation.

Once we get into the meat of it, Patty is a great story teller and gets her message across very clearly. No wonder she does so many speaking events. She also draws a lot of parallels to her experience at Netflix with real stories and that's also very interesting.

At the end of the day this is a management book with a focus on HR and I'd recommend this to anyone in a management position because you'll surely walk away with some real world ideas to explore in a really really quick read.

Atlas shrugged - Ayn Rand

This Book is told by many to be the best work of fiction in our generation and it starts off great. Ayn Rand is of Russian descent and writes about the benefits of capitalism in this highly sensationalized piece of fiction with amazing wordplay, metaphors and writing style. 

There's just enough suspense in the beginning to hold my interest but after that, it just gets into a spiral of long rants that are drilling in the same point again and again, with seemed like really bad transitions.

This book is unnecessarily long and could have been written in less than half the length, no joke, there's a speech that's 50 pages long. At the end this book seems more of a propaganda piece wrapped around with an over-the-top story that seems to put out the idea of a populist Apocalypse where capitalists are heroes.

Life of Tao - Wesley Chu

A new kind of extra terrestrial story, a Sci-Fi with humor and a twist. Not the normal alien visitor story. Even had the right amount of story development mixed in but not too much depth, which makes this a quick release read.

Seems like they've definitely left it open for the sequel as well. So I'm going to hold on to my recommendations on this one until I've gotten through the sequel but so far the story is entertaining.

Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

I've had several people tell me about this book and when I'm glad I finally picked it up.  This book makes you want to rethink life. It makes you rethink concepts, rethink perspectives and rethink context.

Like the occasional cosmic relevance you need to gain perspective, this book doesn't fail to deliver.  Centered around the story of a Shepard boy and yet able to relate with almost anyone in any walk of life. Highly recommend this philosophical read that isn't intimidating, only humiliating.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

The final book is exactly what you'd expect from the Rowling series and a classic ending that youd expect but the journey is great. This book is darkest of the series and has the most enticing plot of the series that keeps you engaged all the way to the end.

Highly recommend this to anyone especially if you've read the rest of the series, since this one ties a neat bow to the story of Harry Potter.

The circle - Dave Eggers

I like to think that this book is a commentary, even a satire, but I fear that will be giving it too much attention.

Due to the involved nature of the subject, social media and the extrapolated affects it may have on our society, this book touches on topics that could be considered by anyone today as a possible future. But the sensationalism so far stretched, that this piece of fiction isn't entertaining. The characters are developed but they're exactly what you'd expect and the the storyline goes places you wouldn't expect, I suspect to keep it interesting, and its completely disconnected.

I would not recommend this book to anyone really even though Tom Hanks was cast in the movie, and that's saying a lot.

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Ready Player one is one of the most interesting and fun SciFi novels I have read since Angels and Demons. This book is set in a fictional world where a larger version of the Matrix is an acceptable alternate reality for its citizens.

This book will keep you interested right from the beginning until the big bang ending, and you'll keep cheering for the underdog protagonasist to defeat the bad-guys in the fictional world and come out victorious as the greatest 'Game-player' in both the real and virtual worlds.


This is a great read for sci fi fans and people who enjoy treasure hunts, video games and 80's themes. Somehow the author has been able to successfully combine all those elements to make an awesome read. I wouldn't be surprised if this is made into a movie for the masses.

Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

This is a great work by Oscar Wilde, his artistic, angular yet witty writing will keep you interested just by itself. The story of Dorian gray and his painting is also very captivating, although it tends to drag on a little bit towards the middle, it picks up very well towards the end.

This book is funny, easy to read and very witty. Oscar Wilde, does an amazing job of keeping the readers chuckling throughout his greatest novel.

Echo Park - Michael Connelly

Like many Michael Connelly books this one is based on a murder mystery in LA. A popcorn suspense novel with a semi-interesting and semi-predictable plot. The protagonist Harry Bosh doesn't do anything special in this book.

This book is the literary equivalent to the third matrix movie. Nothing great but just interesting enough to keep you occupied for a little while, especially since it's a pretty fast read.

Lost & Found - Jacqueline Sheehan

The black lab on the cover is what caught my attention. The story of a widow and this orphaned dog who find companionship with each other in the autumn of their lives. Mildly depressing as you'd expect but pretty realistic with the level of emotions involved.

The dissappointment with this book was the lack of focus on the dog and his stories. This is book is more inclined towards female readers, which is clearly apparent in some chapters where every alternate paragraph is an explanation of the "feelings" in the paragraph preceding it. Hence there's a lot of "feelings" about the dog and how he makes them feel but no crazy dog stories.

I will probably never read this again but would recommend this to women or somebody going through a hard time and might want a glimpse on how to cope.

Getting Stoned with Savages - Maarten Troost

The sequel to 'Sex Lives of Cannibals' is another hilarious look at the authors life in a 3rd world country riddled with problems like hunger, poverty, military coop's and even bloody earthquakes! Yikes. This time around the author is pulled to the island of Fiji is more developed than the previous book but the sarcasm and stories doesn't fail to deliver.

If you loved the first book, you'll like this one. I wouldn't call it as good as the first one in terms of laugh out louds but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein

This was a funny and heart full read thats narrated by the Dog. Yep, this book puts a voice to the family pet and a lot of dog lovers won't have trouble agreeing with his ideas. Set on a pretty heartfelt storyline this book puts the pet at all the important points in the course of his owners life, including several hilarious ones, who's a budding race car driving.

If you like dogs and/ or remotely interested in the world of auto-racing, I'd recommend this book to you. Also it's a pretty quick read as the chapters are pretty short and flow well.

Crescent Dawn - Clive Custler

I added this book to my queue because I used to like spy novles but they all start reading the same after a while. This one was no different, few deaths, lots of explosions, at least 3-4 countries and an emotionally cripped protagonist.

This is a brainless fast read, thats good for certain times when you just want to see the good guy blow things up and win!

Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

A coming of age story involving a 15 year old boy that runs away from home in post war Japan. This is a very serious read that will delve deep into the mind of teenage boys, their thoughts and actions. In other words, you may hear things that you might have thought of but never really said out loud because it might be scary.


This is not a fast read by any means as the author is very analytical and likes to psychologically describe everything and a multiple tangents. Don't think I would read this again but I've heard good things about his other novels.

The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

Its good to read a Dan Brown novel once in a while. This 3rd installment of Dan Browns' Robert Langdon series is exactly what you'd expect if you've read Angles&Demons and Da Vinci Code. Overall impressions to story and writing style are very similar to the initial 2 books.

Although longer in pages, there's a lot more fluff built into this book and it might even be simpler and faster to read because he doesn't have more then 2-3 parallel stories running side by side. An annoying part was the almost unnecessary suspense built into tiny inconsequential things to give it a 'Dan Brown' feel.

I'd recommend this book to anybody who liked Angles & DaVinci code but personally I would rank the books as: Angels&Demons > Da Vinci Code > Lost Symbol

Star Trek Academy: Collsion Course - William Shatner

This book is William Shatners spin on the teenage years of Kirk and Spock. It is also a kind of "origins" story of how Kirk & Spock met and why/ how they got into Star Trek academy. The personal interactions between Kirk and Spock in this adventure are exactly what you'd expect, a lot of sarcasm built around a well set cohesive story. There is also a background story running about Kirks pre-teeenage years.

With large text print this is a pretty fast read and the story was interesting enough to keep me engaged throughout the book with a bang of an ending. Filled mostly action and lots of things to keep Star Trek geeks engaged.

Bob Dylan Chronicles - Bob Dylan

I picked up this book because the premise sounded interested. An upcoming struggling folk artist in the 80's greenwich village trying to make it big. Its a 1st person narration by Bob Dylan himself to the point where a lot of the chapters just seem like brain farts. He doesn't seem to have any structure at the book level or chapter level. There's a vague chronology of all the events happening in his life but it's really hard to follow and includes A LOT of references to obscure artists that probably only folk music historians would know.

I found myself losing interest in this book about half way through, because frankly I picked up this book to get some interesting stories about his upcoming struggles but it was more of a walk through his Bob Dylans mind.

Next - Michael Crighton

I started this book with the same excitement I've started several other Crichton novels and it starts off like a bond movie would. In the middle of some kind of spy action. But then then about a quarter of the book through and several simultaneous stories later I realized I was starting to lose track of what was important.

The novel delves into several subjects related to transgenics, biotechnology and genetic engineering with Darwinian overtones, wrapped around with an overarching theme that was hard to grasp until almost half way through the book.

Similiar to 'State of Fear', this felt more of a propaganda book. Michael Crichton is truly dead, literally and figuratively.

i, Robot - Isaac Asimov

I saw the movie before I read this book and first impressions, this book is not even remotely related to the movie. Which isn't good or bad, just completely different. The book is a set of short stories, loosely based on the Three laws of Robotics. The arc of the stories is the evolution of the positronic brain and its relationship with humans, from initial deployment to the robots running the world.

The book delves deeply into concepts such as Robot Psychology, breaking down of the 3 laws and 2-way logical discussions based the current problem presented in the story. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's interests are peaked by simple analytical problems and their arguments. This might not be the book to sit down and relax to if you plan to read every alternate paragraph with a 7&7 in one hand.

A fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

This is a fact-based multi-generational history of 4 random strangers and how they connected in Mumbai. The book describes the lives of the lower and lower-middle classes in India in the late 20th century. I read this book around the same time I saw Slumdog Millionaire so the description of beggar livelihood and the cruelty involved was especially prominent.

Overall a very long novel, probably due to the detailed description of all the main characters backgrounds, but it comes together very well at the end. A depressing novel, but only to the extent of reality. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has a little patience and wants to learn a little bit more about the "real" india.

Never have your dog stuffed - Alan Alda

Alan Alda's biography has exactly what you would expect in a biography. His real name, information about his family, a few major incidents, his life as a struggling actor sprinkled with a few tragedies here and there. A few things I found interesting were that he grew up around strippers & burlesque houses, his dad was a semi-popular actor and his mother literally belonged in a mental asylum. And ofcourse his dealings with these things and how they helped shape him into an actor.

I picked up this book to get an extended dosage of Hawkeye but he is nothing like the womanizing alcoholic he portrays in MASH. Although his hilarious writing style, which reminds me of the dark sarcasm of Marten Troost, keeps the book interesting.

The latter half of the book includes the back-stage stories of MASH and thats when things get really interesting. I found myself saying out loud "Oh Oh I've seen that episode" when he talks about how (or why) those episodes played out the way they did. Apparently the cast n crew were a pretty tight knit group.

I'd recommend this book to anybody looking for a quick read (only about 250), with a fast pace and enough humor to keep you smiling throughout the book.

Death Masks - Jim Butcher

The 5th book of the Dresden files is exactly what you'd expect. The unexpected. There's always unexpected twists in the plot with a little bit more exposure into Harry's past, non stop magic action mixed with the super sarcastic and calm-under-fire nature of Harry Dresden.

After 5 books, I'm still enjoying Harry's character, who I can describe as the House.M.D of the magic world who always finds himself in 24-like plot. All the books have a plot that last about 48 hrs in which Harry's is hunted by multiple parties and he slips out with some beasty magic action everytime he's pushed into a corner. And Death Masks definitely delivers. The plot is my favorite one so far, which includes a duel with a vampire and the return of a great character from Book 3.

Probably my favorite book of the Dresden files so far, but I wouldn't recommend reading this one without going through the rest of the series. The character build-up through the series makes this book that much more enoyable.

Summer Knight - Jim Butcher

Book 4 of the Dresden files. Summer Knight has all the sarcasm and action I've come to expect from the first three books. The theme in this one is Faeries and Harry Dresden finds himself in the middle of TWO potential wars. This book finally delves a little into Harry's background and the white council. The action scenes weren't as interesting as the first 3 but Harry's ingenuity in getting out of tough situations or dumb luck keeps this book interesting.

If I was putting the Dresden files on a graph, compared to the first 3 books I'd put book 4 at a plateau. It starts off great but then doesn't really get much better. It just keeps building upto something and feels a bit anti-climactic towards the end.

Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden

This book is about the hunt for Pablo Escobar, so it's pretty interesting right off the cover. The first half of the book sets up the political and social climate in Columbia to which Pablo was born and how he rose to becoming the most hunted man alive. The second half of the book is about the hunt. The author is an investigative reporter so the book includes a lot of facts from interviews and quotes. But the book still reads like a novel.

In addition to a LOT of political detail and the history of every player involved, there is also some cool information like secret CIA spy aircrafts which seem like normal 2 prop airplanes but have sliding panels and antenna's that pop out once in the air. They used to keep those up in the air around Medellin trying to catch Pablo, he was one evasive SOB. 16 month hunt and hundreds of millions of dollars

The author does tend to go off into tangents about the background of each new player that is introduced but if you have the patience for that it only makes the book and drama involved that much better. The book is very clear about the overarching theme that Pablo's demise was his love for his homeland, Medellin and a couple of pivotal mistakes he made along the way.

Grave Peril - Jim Butcher

The 3rd book in the Dresden files continues the Harry Dresden saga and this story knows no bounds. All hell has broken lose in Chicago with ghosts and ghouls with Harry and this time a trusty sidekick to clean up the mess. This book introduces a whole bunch of new concepts. The NeverNever alternative world that was touched upon in the 1st book is explained further, among other things.

Harry does a lot of cool magic in this, stuff that makes Harry Potter look like a candy ass. And he does it at the brink of death and exhaustion with his never ending sarcastic humor that makes you smile the whole time. The story also develops to a point where you know is almost setting up for something even bigger to take place in the next book. I can't wait for the next one.

Fool Moon - Jim Butcher

The 2nd book of the Dresden files picks up about 6 months where the last one left off. Harry Dresden is still a starving wizard in Chicago and this time there's a new problem in his city, Werewolves. Although in a series of a books, this book is a stand-alone story where, as usual, Harry Dresden is wanted by everybody and liked by none. The author explains the different types of werewolves and a plot that has atleast 2-3 pivotal turns that keep you guessing till almost the end.

Great writing by Jim Butcher in this quick read sci-fi novel. Harry Dresden is a great character that I can't enough of. Always exhausted and coming up with the right magic at the last minute. I will definitely be reading the rest of Dresden Files series.

Freakonomics - Steven Levitt

Steven Levitt is described as a rogue economist. He's not a traditional economist but he does believe in the basic principles of economics, such as incentives, although he has a completely different way of looking at things.

The book is split up into stand-alone chapters that can be read individually and are very interesting. The author proves, using probability theory and simple logic, that Chicago public teachers cheat, that sumo wrestling is rigged and that drug dealing isn't as lucrative as people think it is. After reading some of the chapters, you feel like you could have come up with these results yourself if you had just looked at the data in a different light.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone. It is all factual and includes very interesting analysis for some of the issues that the country is facing in recent years. The writing itself is relatively loose with a touch of humor that makes this book an easy read. There simply aren't enough chapters in this book.