The strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Writer: R. L. Stevenson
Genre: Fiction/Classic

I have always admired the likes of Dickens, Dumas, etc. They had imagination that knew no limits. They were so ahead of times and their works seem to have resonance in all ages!

This is a book that every person with love for imagination should read. Its fiction at its best! The duality of human nature, long before people knew about split personalities and schizophrenia forms the crux of the book and the mysterious twists by the author lends it an amazing aura.

Note: The next lines could be a spoiler in case you would want to discover this classic yourself.

Utterson, a lawyer is worried about the will his friend, Henry Jekyll has given him. The will transfers all his property to a certain Mr. Hyde in case of death or disappearance of Jekyll. The lawyer smells mischief and is of the opinion that Hyde as forced Jekyll into making the will. He decides to meet Mr.Hyde after a hideous description given to him by his cousin. The confrontation with Mr. Edward Hyde confirms his suspicion and he agrees with the general public opinion that Mr. Hyde is indeed a rude and hideous man.

Soon Mr. Hyde is embroiled in a controversial murder of an MP and this causes the lawyer to speak to his friend. Jekyll promises him that Hyde would no longer be entertained by him. The promise is kept and soon the episode of the murder and Mr. Hyde, both fade into oblivion. Dr.Jekyll becomes the old cheerful man and Utterson is very happy about it. Just as things begin to stay normal Jekyll becomes a recluse and refuses to meet anyone outside. Utterson is worried but cannot really do anything about it. To make matters worse, a common friend of Jekyll and Utterson , Dr. Lanyon, dies suddenly and it is revealed that he was privy to some information regarding Dr. Jekyll.

Soon afterward, Jekyll’s butler, Mr Poole, visits Utterson in a state of desperation and explains that Jekyll has secluded himself in his laboratory for several weeks, and that now the voice that comes from the room sounds nothing like the doctor’s. After reaching the doctor's house and after much deliberation, they broke open his lab door only to find Mr. Hyde dead inside. They also find a letter for Mr Utterson.

The letter explains that Dr.Jekyll had found a way to change his personality and convert himself into Hyde who was a conscience free human and nothing like the mild-mannered Jekyll. At first the transformation delights the doctor but later it becomes an inseparable part of him as he seems to transform without even taking the medicine that he discovered. It is one of these transformations that their common friend Lanyon had witnessed and had hence died of utter shock and depression. Towards the end, when Jekyll was almost always transformed to Hyde without consent, were the days when Jekyll had chosen to become a recluse! In the end, he commits suicide because anyways after being permanently transformed to Hyde he would have been executed for the murder of the MP. Thus, ends the book.

Little wonder that more than a century later this books still mesmerizes its readers. Grab a copy, it's worth it!

Chanakya's Chant

Writer: Ashwin Sanghvi
Genre: Fiction


The book narrates two stories in parallel. One story is about the erudite Chanakya, whose wily political strategies make Chandrupgta Mayurya the emperor of a united Bharath. In parallel and in today times, is the story of Pandit Gangadhar Mishra, who with his political acumen makes Chandini Gupta as the prime minister of India.

I personally enjoyed the Chanakya era more. However I cannot help but be disappointed in the way the writer has used known quotes and phrases and attributed them to Chanakya. No, it isn't plagiarism as he duly mentions his sources but when you have to say something about the age old Chanakya it just doesn’t make sense for Chanakya to mouth someone else's phrases. After all he is the author of Arthashastra!

It's strictly the story of Chanakya and his protégée that made me finish the book because otherwise the book has no other USP.

Margaret Thatcher - The Iron lady

Genre: Biography
Writer: John Campbell

The second part of John Campbell's biography is definitely more interesting than the first part. And yeah, I found the protogonist's character more lively here than in the first part.
As expected, the Falkland's war made for an interesting read...probably my favourite part in the book.Her 11 year old reign as the Prime Minister makes a real good read and it is stacked with so many dates and numbers that it becomes almost impossible for me to remember all of them. 

The book, a huge volume is worth its weight, but for people who can handle biographies ;)


p.s. I can't help but remember an old article comparing Tony Blair to Thatcher....well after reading the book I think the article made sense







 

The Clicking of Cuthbert

Writer: P G Wodehouse
Genre: Fiction / Humour


A quick read before I start the Thatcher biography volume 2.

The book is a collection of ten short golf stories narrated by the oldest member. Each story is centered around golf, but don't let that deter you. You need not know the nuances of the game to understand the book.  All you need is some spare time to absorb the sweet stories.

A lovely book but I prefer his Jeeves stories more ;)

Margaret Thatcher - The grocer's daughter

Genre: Biography
Writer: John Campbell

The first woman prime minister of England has garnered a lot of attention all her life. This book which is the first part of her biography captures her life en route to becoming the prime minister.

Her childhood is described in an uninteresting fashion and her life at Oxford seems to be never ending. By the end of the book I had a feeling that she achieved everything just by chance, which obviously can't be the case. But in spite of such a narrative I found the character pretty intriguing more so because she seemed to be non-deterrent during her worst crisis. Her personal life is touched upon a little. But that has always been a topic of contention for long now.

It's a HUGE book and consists of mostly dates and statistics. The EQ is missing which makes it a very dull read. I mean I usually find biographies interesting but this one took efforts to finish. And to imagine I have to complete another volume. I wonder if her autobiography would have been more interesting. Anyone who has read that please do drop in a comment. For others I suggest to skip this one.

The Design of Everyday Things

Writer: Donald Norman
Genre: Cognitive Science

Why do most of the people (that includes me) walk into a cold room and increase the thermostat's temperature to the maximum with the expectation that the room would get heated quickly? We all have a mental model of the thermostat which makes us believe that doing so would heat the room faster than setting the temperature to a lesser but expected value. How many times have you fumbled with the faucets in washrooms wondering if to push them, turn them or just keep your hand under one? And what about those doors? Push them, pull them or slide them! Everyday scenarios, everyday frustrations, aren’t they?

Norman uses such simple and to-the-point use cases to explain the importance of design. The design of everyday things (DOET) previously called 'The Psychology of everyday things (POET)' is an interesting read especially because most of the explanations are so simple that you wonder why you didn’t think of it. My favourite is the gas burner one.....I have a 4 burner stove at home and it never occurred to me that the design could be simplified to match an easier mental model.

Lovely read and a review from Amazon best sums it - It could forever change how you experience and interact with your physical surroundings, open your eyes to the perversity of bad design and the desirability of good design, and raise your expectations about how things should be designed.

A personal copy is highly recommended.

A Sparrow Falls

Writer: Wilbur Smith

Genre: Fiction

The French war sees Sean Courtney in action again but this time he is a General. He befriends a young sniper named Mark Anders and immediately takes a liking to him.

After the war, Mark Anders comes home to find his grandfather dead and his property usurped by Dirk Courtney. He doubts if his grandfather actually dies while hunting as has been portrayed to him.

When he is attacked by unknown men he knows that there are people (read Dirk Courtney) who would like to stop him from seeking the truth. Mark, however decides to continue and soon becomes Sean Courtney's assistant. They together try to stop Dirk's plan of constructing a dam which will destroy the natural habitat of many living beings. 

Sean loses the election to Dirk and finds himself helpless against his own son. Mark finds a way to trap Dirk but when Dirk comes to know of the trap he kills Sean and Ruth before being killed himself by Mark. The romance between Mark and Sean's daughter, Storm is predictable and ends up being boring (well atleast for me!)

That finishes the first sequence in the Courtney novels. Personally the sequence didn’t live up to the expectations but can still be lapped by Smith fans. 

   

The Sound of Thunder

Writer: Wilbur Smith

Genre: Fiction

Sean Courtney has decided to return from wilderness into civilization, but his ideas go for a toss when Boers wage a war against the whites and Sean is caught right in the middle of the war. He however decides to pursue his path and go home to Ladyburg. On his way he meets a woman named Ruth and falls for her. However she leaves him and returns to her husband, but destiny are to bring them together.

After dropping of Dirk to the safety of his mother he joins the war as a soldier and this time his path crosses again with his brother- turned- foe, Garrick. Garry is no mood to relent and Sean's efforts of reconciliation falls on deaf ears. However, owing to his courage he soon becomes a popular soldier and a dear friend to Saul, Ruth's husband. Saul dies in action and soon the war ends. Sean marries Ruth and gets her home and starts his own business at Ladyburg. His war heroics have gained him enough fame and fortune and he soon turns his eyes towards politics. Michael, his first born , however raised by Garry, soon becomes enchanted with his Uncle Sean and decides to work for him. Just when he thinks he has everything a man would ask for, his son, Dirk decides to leave him because he has become too jealous for his father. 

The book ends once again on a sad note with Dirk leaving his father. However Sean has been accepted by Garrick and the brothers look forward to a better life.

It's a little difficult to explain my fascination with the Courtney books. However after this second book in the First Courtney sequence, I think of all his characters....Monsoon and Tom Courtney still are the best....Sean comes in at the second place only.  One more book to go to finish this first sequence ;)

When the Lion Feeds

Writer: Wilbur Smith
Genre: Fiction

Sean and Garrick Courtney are twin brothers but they couldn't be more different. Sean is the proverbial trouble maker while Garry always seems to follow Sean. On a childhood expedition Sean accidently shoots Garrick in the leg owing to which is leg is amputated. The memory of the event haunts Sean throughout the book. The kids grow up and are soon enlisted to join a war. Both of them survive the war but lose their brotherly love for each other all thanks to Garry's new wife Anna.

Sean embarks on a wild journey to wilderness and manages to strike rich with a gold mine in Johannesburg . Just when he thought he was powerful enough, he loses all his fortune to a stupid move in the exchange. Again he decides to leave the place and travel somewhere else taking with him his loyal friend Duff and his Zulu servants. He loses Duff to a disease and marries a Boer woman, Katrina who gives birth to Dirk.
The book ends in melancholy after Katrina commits suicide for reasons unknown to Sean. He again sets off to wilderness to handle the excruciating pain.

The Upside of Irrationality

Writer: Dan Ariely
Genre: Human Behaviour

I did not have anything else to read and this one was the only available book at home. I had not liked the genre but the synopsis told me it could be a good read. I started it with vengeance almost kept it down and then picked up again with vigour.

Dan Ariely explores the most common human traits like revenge, vindictiveness, anger, adaptation, empathy, etc. thru experiments and states before us why, at times, irrational behaviour can be helpful for humans. One of my favourite examples in the book is about Thomas Edison turning a blind eye to his associate, Tesla's discovery of AC (Alternate Current) just because he had discovered DC(Direct Current). The writer calls this syndrome as 'not-invented-here' bias which I think most of us suffer from. There are many such anecdotes that make the book a lively read.

Great books to catch up with even for first timers but you need to be a little patient in the beginning lest you keep it down like I almost did ;)