Read this if you wanna feel like you are trapped on a rollercoaster with no seatbelt.
Empire of Storms has plot twists GALORE, and if you weren't already attached to the characters before this book, you absolutely will be after it. This book somehow made me feel like I could smell the characters' bullshit from a mile away while still managing to surprise me with reveals that FELT out of left field but actually weren't. The constant POV switching gave me a little whiplash at times but was absolutely worth it for the sheer amount of plot that was being uncovered.
Read this if you enjoy being the detective while also joining characters in their full emotional crashouts.
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Currently Losing My Mind About: Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck
Will Lose My Mind About Eventually: ???
Already Lost My Mind On: Mexican Gothic by Silvia-Moreno Garcia
Hi! I'm Claire!
This is where I put the thoughts that I don't stop thinking about after I finish a chapter. I started annotating recently and noticed that one line easily turns into a whole spiral - which this blog will mostly be.
what to expect:
favorite annotations - ones that make me laugh, jump with surprise, or even roll my eyes
mid-reading thoughts and patterns - basically me thinking out loud what i think might or might not happen based on what i'm picking up in the story telling. Am I as observant as I wished I was???
end-of-book reflections - i'll make them short. i promise
I read a mix of genres but am currently obsessed with romantasy like everyone else. There will be a lot of emotions, questionable decisions, and characters i will defend (and roast) a little too hard.
if you've ever had to stop and think after reading a crazy chapter, you'll probably get it.
Game theory may have the answer to why opinion polls are rubbish!
I recently had the pleasure of reading 'Indianomix' by Vivek Dehejia and Rupa Subramanya who attempt to explain modern India using game theory. For the uninitiated, game theory in the words of Roger B. Myreson is "the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers."
For example,the movies industry in the 80s frequently featured a scene with the chicken game where two drivers drive towards each other at full speed waiting for the other to chicken out. In the movies, the hero always triumphed because of his nerve of steel. Now suppose, the villain were to throw out his steering wheel signalling that he has no choice to keep on driving, our hero's nerves of steel would count for nothing as he can now either crash or chicken out.
The book tries to answer multiple questions whose answers have eluded us- Why did Nehru fail to understand the Chinese threat before the 1962 war? Why nobody came to assist Keenan when he was mercilessly stabbed in Mumbai? Why Atal Behari Vajpayee lost the 2004 elections despite all the polls predicting a landslide victory?
I especially found the section about the last question very applicable as India goes to vote again in the 2014 elections. All the opinion polls are predicting that Modi will be the next PM and the congress has dismissed the Modi wave citing that opinion polls have always been favorable to the BJP. One of the interesting reasons behind this is that India follows the Westminster system for elections where the winner takes all, i.e. the margin of shares in a lost cause for a constituency counts for nothing. This means that even if 50% of India's population votes for Modi and allies, it may not be enough for him to win the elections.
Then there are "sampling errors" which means that the sample size is not selected randomly. For example, exit polls will have a sampling bias where people with more time are likely to respond. Also, "response bias" is also at play in the sense that the polled candidates are likely to respond untruthfully due to various reasons.
To summarise, "elections in which hundreds of millions of people vote, basically wind up being determined by a coin toss. The human condition is irreducibly random. Just ask Atal Bihari Vajapayee."
Joy's first book is about the junior version of the IPL targeted at 10+ ages. It is called 'The First XI' but you walk away with four principal characters. These four characters seem to have walked straight out of recent mainstream sports films.
Book Reactions: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
"Close your eyes. We'll see the snake; see the serpent appear. His head is ten feet long and five feet wide. He has one red eye and one green eye. He's seven miles long. Deadly. I see all the history of the world on his scales, all people, all actions. We're all just little pictures on his scales. God, he's big, he's moving, devouring consciousness, digesting power. Monster of energy. It's a monster. We're going to kiss the snake on the tongue. Kiss the serpent. But if it senses fear, it'll eat us instantly. But if we kiss it without fear, it'll take us through the garden, through the gate, to the other side. Ride the snake... until the end of time"
I was traveling from Chennai to Delhi last summer when the plane encountered some major turbulence. The remainder of the journey was a blur with collective oohs and aahs emanating from the passengers as the plane meandering on towards its destination.
I meanwhile experienced a high like none other as my two beers down self was glued to the best passage of this book. It was an experience comparable to Morrison's frequent trips to the desert which opened my eyes to another world.
Such is the beauty of Ruth Ozeki's fourth book that it draws you in to the worlds of Nao and Ruth and then scramble around trying to put pieces of their life together. Nao's story is told from a french cafe in modern day Tokyo and looks at Japanese culture from an American point of view with themes from Buddhism interjected by her feminist turned monk grandmother.
On the downside, there is a lot of Japanese lingo which required me to refer to the glossary on an extremely frequent basis. I thought Ruth's storyline is dull in comparison to the main story.
In all, this is a terrific book and serves as a very good initiation into contemporary Japanese culture.
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