The Accidental Billionaires

Just finished reading the brilliant biography of the founding of Facebook "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich. The book cover says "Sex, money, betrayal and the founding of the Facebook". Sex and money are definitely not connected to the founding of the facebook though money is all pervasive connection because of the greed factor. Mark Zukerberg is portrayed as a near genius programmer but with little flair for business. Business ethics and gentlemen's agreement is the basis on which betrayal is suggested. But i guess any business has to be founded on the blood and guts of somebody and it is blood of one person and guts of another. I hope young entrepreneurs or wannabe entrepreneurs do not get ideas on how to found their business upon reading this book. But Indian readers might as well say - "aa ma soo che, aa tho bhadha normal che na bhai!!" Nice narrative style of Mezrich makes for compelling reading. Goodreads 5/5

The $100 Start Up

Just finished reading "$100 start up" by Chris Guillebeau - this guy is a successful serial micro entrepreneur and the book has lots of insights on building a business with very little investment, as low as $100 or even less. All it requires is ideas, a solid product, which people want and which gives value to people. So there should be a want and it should carry value. He takes the reader through the entire process of building a small business with examples from various such micropreneurs who have successfully built their businesses. Its an online world so all it takes is passion with a desire to build business. Some cases are accidental in the sense that people study for one thing, they have passion in another area and it is a cross between choosing a boring day job or pursuing your passion. Highly recommended for would be micro entrepreneurs. Goodreads 3/5

14 Hours - An Insider's Account of the Taj Attack

Just finished reading this book by Ankur Chawla - I had expected a gripping saga of the greatest attack on Indian soil since independence but not totally disappointed. He has tried his best to give a nice narrative account of his experience inside the Taj Mahal Hotel in Colaba, Mumbai and succeeded also to some extent. It is obviously his first attempt at writing a book and being a young hotelier I will give full credit to his composure during the worst travail of his life. There are some genuine attempts at humour and it works very well. Goodreads 3/5

Turbaned Tornado

This book "Turbaned Tornado" is a biography of the famous Indian marathoner who ran a marathon at 100 years, Fauja Singh. The writer Kushwant Singh is not the same famous Indian journalist and writer of the same name. It is a nice narrative of the early life of Fauja Singh, how he travelled to London after the death of his loving wife and started running marathons at the age of 89 when most of us would rather be more comfortable walking with a stick!! Fauja is an indomitable spirit and his farmers' genes help him in becoming a rare sportsman and brand ambassador more famous than sportspersons three or four generations younger than him. His timing of 5.20 hours at the age of 94 is the stuff made of legends. He was denied the Guiness world record for being the oldest marathoner, due to lack of his birth documents.  Fauja Singh is truly a great sportsman of India and reading his biography is very refreshing.  Goodreads 5/5

The Heart of the Dales

Heart of the Dales is my second one of the Dales series by Gervase Phinn. He continues with his stories about his life as a school inspector in the Yorkshire Dales. There are good characters and bad characters but never evil characters, and always it is the children who steal the thunder in his eyes. He liberally sprinkles Yorkshire accent to lend variety to his stories and it is the lesser fortunate children who become heroes. These are nice feel good stories, light hearted, with a dash of the typical British humour thrown in. Stories from small villages reminds one of RK Narayan and his Malgudi village stories. Goodreads 5/5 

The Way Through the Woods

Just finished reading "The Way Through the Woods" by Colin Dexter, my first one of him. It is an Inspector Morse mystery. It is a mystery about a sudden disappearance of a Swedish maiden in England but the case comes to life fully one year after her exit for whatever reasons. Dexter has a different style of writing compared to others such as Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle etc. in the sense that he keeps on dropping some hints here and there by weaving in and out of the story by juxtaposing with riddles etc. The plot keeps the reader in suspense and I like his interplay with relevant quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I would say that Dexter is a "dexterous" writer in that sense.  Goodreads 3/5

Absolute Power

Absolute Power is a 1997 thriller starring Clint Eastwood, Laura Linney, Gene Hackman among others based on the book by David Baldacci. Clint Eastwood is Luther Whitney a master thief, who goes into the mansion of billionaire Walter Sullivan in order to rob his jewels and cash. While there he witnesses a murder scene involving the President of the United States and Walter's young wife. Walter happens to be a close friend of the President and was in fact responsible for putting him in the White House. The President and Walter's wife are both inebriated and try to have sex but it goes wrong, a scuffle takes place between the two and in the process secret service agents break into the bedroom and fire shot which kills Walter's wife. Meanwhile Luther has witnessed all these and he escapes from there subtly while picking up the pen knife which was used in the scuffle. Luther has a daughter Kate (Laura Linney) who is a public prosecutor but who is also estranged from her father. Meanwhile detective Seth Frank (Ed Harris) starts investigation of the event. Kate agrees to meet her father at a café but while there he is shot at by two people, one of them being secret service agent and another a sharp shooter hired by Walter. Kate is then forced off her car into a cliff which seriously injures her. Luther saves her and is at the hospital when one of the secret service guy tries to kill her there, but Luther intercepts and puts him to rest. The case reaches its conclusion when Luther becomes the stand by driver of Walter and tells him the whole story. Nice gripping movie with good performances by Clint Eastwood and Laura Linney.