Reading
Pillars of the Earth - by Ken Folett
Actually re-reading it after 12 years ...I last read it in 1995 in a 6 day blitz (constrained by a BCL due date).
This book is so remarkably different than anything Follett has ever written (distant from his world of spy novels and thrillers) that I find it exciting to read even the second time around. The main reason I am reading it though is because I want to read its sequel ....
p.s. 'BCL' btw stands for British Council Library ...I loved those trips to the BCL at CP and I miss almost everything about Delhi now :-(
luved a book called 'Water for Elephant' - quite well written ...it
Thinking
Yet again ....where this world is headed to - rising prices a.k.a inflation, rising turmoil in almost every part of the world ....wondering how much the world has changed in just over a year ...
Excited
About the movie 'Dark Knight' releasing tonight/tomorrow- the first Batman became an instant classic in my list ...so its only obvious that I have been waiting since then for this sequel .....
Music
The National, ARR, Elbow and Radiohead occasionally
-A
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Book Review - Imperial Life in the Emerald City
After a long hiatus .....
Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Very rarely have I read a book where reality and fact has been presented in such an amazing way that it becomes a page turner. Where the misgivings or should I say mis-doings of a country (just one more in the case of this one) have been so very clearly and beautifully documented and presented. This folks is nowhere though close to the full picture but yet makes the point - very clearly makes the grand point
The book is about Post-war Iraq (the recent war ....) - the fall of Saddam ...the before and after state of affairs, the establishment of a Democratic Iraq, the Americans who made millions of dollars - some in real but most in false contracts,about educational institutions, about iraqi military people who became insurgents, about industries which were so devastated that probably they will never recover and about so many other things that are wrong ....just fundamentally wrong that it makes your head reel.
Not that CNN and other some other journos /reporters have not reported about this earlier but this book makes for such an interesting read through a series of interviews,people and incidents that you almost live through a lot of it.
Makes you wonder whether the Iraq in the Saddam era - wasn't it better off. Wasn't it better when a majority of people could roam around freely, wasn't it better when there was enough generation of electricity to ensure that there were not frequent power outages, wasn't it better when students could go to their universities and wasn't it better when Iraq was a self sufficient country with at least the magic substance called "Oil' to play around with.
I dont know whether I am right or whether Rajiv is right - but all I know is that after Vietnam and Afghanistan (and probably Cuba ....and many other nations), this is yet another place where this country ..this so called 'Big Police of the world ....has gone wrong.
Iraq as a democracy and the war that the US claims to have won out there is a joke ... and this book probably brings it out better than anything I have read or seen previously
-A
Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Very rarely have I read a book where reality and fact has been presented in such an amazing way that it becomes a page turner. Where the misgivings or should I say mis-doings of a country (just one more in the case of this one) have been so very clearly and beautifully documented and presented. This folks is nowhere though close to the full picture but yet makes the point - very clearly makes the grand point
The book is about Post-war Iraq (the recent war ....) - the fall of Saddam ...the before and after state of affairs, the establishment of a Democratic Iraq, the Americans who made millions of dollars - some in real but most in false contracts,about educational institutions, about iraqi military people who became insurgents, about industries which were so devastated that probably they will never recover and about so many other things that are wrong ....just fundamentally wrong that it makes your head reel.
Not that CNN and other some other journos /reporters have not reported about this earlier but this book makes for such an interesting read through a series of interviews,people and incidents that you almost live through a lot of it.
Makes you wonder whether the Iraq in the Saddam era - wasn't it better off. Wasn't it better when a majority of people could roam around freely, wasn't it better when there was enough generation of electricity to ensure that there were not frequent power outages, wasn't it better when students could go to their universities and wasn't it better when Iraq was a self sufficient country with at least the magic substance called "Oil' to play around with.
I dont know whether I am right or whether Rajiv is right - but all I know is that after Vietnam and Afghanistan (and probably Cuba ....and many other nations), this is yet another place where this country ..this so called 'Big Police of the world ....has gone wrong.
Iraq as a democracy and the war that the US claims to have won out there is a joke ... and this book probably brings it out better than anything I have read or seen previously
-A
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