How the South Won the Civil War - Oligarchy, Democracy and the Continuing fight for the Soul of America - Book Review

In 2016 when Donald Trump won the Presidency, something that he himself did not expect to, there were a lot of upset people. I was in 2 minds about it. I was tired of the regular politicians with their polished lines who relied on pollsters to do just about everything and was ready for something different. So here comes this crude human being who is elected president. He is not a regular politician but a reality TV star. His election did not happen overnight, It was the work of the movement conservatives and the lies and alternate narratives to make people believe that these elite rich oligarchs cared more about them. It took a little over 60 years but is this really what is good for America?

The Obama years had seen the corporatization of America with none of the Wall Street actors who brought the world's economy to its knees having to pay the prize. Obama squandered 8 years of his Presidency without any bold plans or actions disillusioning a whole generation of young people. Americans were also subjected to conspiracy, right wing, evangelical fervour that cemented the rift that Barry Goldwater created in the 1950s. People were tired and willing to try something new I thought.

Now we are in 2020 and we know precisely what will happen when a populist whose only way to deal with problems is to lie about it and call people names. And we know how brave the so called leaders of our country are and how quickly they fell in line behind their dear leader.

Why do people time and again vote against their own self interest? Why is there is no incentive for politicians to do right by the people? Why do charismatic demogagues find it easy to persuade people to become fervent in their beliefs.

How the South Won the Civil War by Heather Cox Richardson was exactly the book I was looking for. It explains America's paradox starting from the 1600s all the way to 2018. I am so glad I read the book.

From the 1600s when the early settlers moved to the Americans in search of religious freedom and to prosper by the dint of hard work there has always been a paradox. From those early days till today there is disdain for people who are not rich even in the mythologized environment of rising by the boot straps with absoloutely nothing. Name calling foreigners, immigrants and poor is not a new phenomenon. That is how politiicans have kept the aspirations of the people in check and their own power secure.

In America where the idea that "all men are created equal" is so woven into the fabric of society but does it really live up to those expectations? Or was it another mantra by which the rich and powerful kept the people fighting among themselves so they can continue their exploitation and collection of riches?

If you are one of those people wondering how on earth does a country like America where the coroporations regularly exploit workers, people and the environment, billionaires are idolized while the people who fight for thier rights are looked on with disdain?

I worked with this guy who was in his 60s talk about how Reagan was his most favorite president but the policies that he was complaining about were those that were set in motion by Reagan himself. I was wondering to myself how can this be?

This kind of feeling is not new and this chaos is also not new. It is how events in the country has mostly been shaped by presenting an alternate set of facts to promote capitalism and exploitation. When the working class people hurt pit the majority white people against minorities of similar background. If you remove the color of the skin you can hardly distinguish the economic needs of one group from the other.

The book give historical perspective and basis for how movement conservatives have brought this country to the brink all to preserve the status quo. It is kind of relieving to understand that this is not new and the lofty promise of liberty, justics and freedom for all and the right to self determination does not come easily.

History is never easy to understand but this the right moment to read and understand what is at stake for the democracy and how to fulfil the promise of the "Great Experiment" that was set by the founders. Like what you are reading? Subscribe!

Misbehaving - Book Review

Reading The Undoing Project changed my perspective on psychology and got me interested in learning more; but as usual wanting to do something and actually doing something are two different things.

In 2017, I read that Mr.Richard Thaler a behavioral economist and a Distinguished Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science had won the Nobel prize for Economics and his contribution to behavioral sciences. He had worked closely with Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky our protagonists from 'The Undoing Project' in defining the field of Behavioral Economics. Behavioral Science had come a long way from when Mr. Thaler had been fighting to get acceptance from "real" economists who did not believe that human behavior had anything to do with economics.

More time passed, then one day channel surfing I hit on an episode of the "The Interview Show" on one of the PBS channels. The host Mark Bazer was interviewing Mr.Thaler and that is when I resolved to buy Misbehaving. Reading this book has piqued my curiosity to know more about this field. Behavioral Psychology has a lot to do with the lives of people and ignoring that leads to not very good outcomes.

Let's accept it, Economics is not a very interesting subject and I for one am not smart to peruse an economics book and come away with a greater knowledge of economics, that is where books like this one are a great thing. Written in an engaging and easy prose that even a non-economist would understand, interspersed with personal anecdotes makes reading that much more easier.

Littered with experiences of real people he explains what a SIF (Supposedly Irrelevant Factor)is but what an outsize importance it has in people making decisions. You will come across a few other interesting acronyms like this important JND (Just-Noticeable Difference).

Let's say you paid for a gym membership but you don't go to the gym often. Do you need worry about it? "Don't cry over spilled milk" in the layman's explanation for sunk costs. What about opportunity cost?

Interspersed with economics knowledge we also learn the career trajectory of Richard Thaler and his fight to gain acceptance from economists who believed human behavior does not alter established economic theories. The one other important thing about Mr.Thaler is that he was a trouble maker, fighting against orthodoxy and questioning the established norms in economics.

Once the field began gaining acceptance, they start using behavioral psychology to improve outcomes across government institutions, business etc.,

You only need to have a partial interest in behavior economics to start reading this book. I assure you it is a good read.

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Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann - A Review

The Lost City of Z by David Grann was one of those books that keeps you engrossed and on edge throughout and better yet was based on a real life true story. So when I heard about the new book that the same author had written about the Osage Indians I wanted to read it for 2 reasons. There were not many books that I have read about American Indians and how they were treated by the ruling European Whites who almost succeeded in wiping them out completely and exactly how much atrocities have been committed against them in the name of protecting them.

This book offered both. America which prides itself on being the beacon of democracy with an incorruptible judiciary was not always that way. Has it changed? Have to ask the countless innocent people who were sent to jail because of prosecutorial overreach.

This book reads better than any mystery novel but the events were culled meticulously from investigative records about the Osage murders. Murders that were committed for that ancient reason - greed and coveting for somebody's wealth. All made possible by the implicit and tacit support of the federal government. Because no one other than the white man is considered capable enough to take care of their own affairs. Each Indian with rights to oil in Osage County is appointed a caretaker and had to ask permission from them for spending any of the money. The murders and unexplained killings were the result. Why? the caretakers themselves wanted to control the money. But how can this be made possible? By getting rid of the wards obviously.

The corrupt local and state officials were all in the buy so the FBI team - the fledgling bureau that was being assembled by Edgar Hoover had to come in. But did they solve all of them?

Subtler subtext also explores the slow killing of a culture and the devastation that is being wrought on them by the settlers for whom the wealth is more important than an Indian life. I will not give the plot but if you want a good read and in the process learn something about the not so great past of this country you should be reading this book.

David Grann is a mastery story teller. His writing is evocative and clear minded. You will not be disappointed I promise.

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Hillbilly Elegy - Book Review

In the very liberal county that I live in the school board believes that dumping money at the achievement gap problem is the solution. They have been doing this for a couple of decades with the problem exacerbating rather than improving. One of the school board members protested and refused to run for reelection because she believed that without the support of the family from which the student comes from there is only so much a school and the teachers can do. The bleeding heart liberal view that some people need handouts to survive or the conservative view that people should simply lift themselves by their bootstraps are both negative and the solution to the problem lies perhaps somewhere in the middle.

The hand wringing that the half of the country went through after the elections and our collective disbelief at the victory of the foul mouthed reality TV star who is the perhaps the biggest moocher by the sheer amount of government handouts boggles our mind. Why? Most of us live in bubbles that only reinforce our own world view perhaps.

What does any of this have to do with this book?

J.D.Vance the author of this book was a sought after voice around the time of elections. He is from one the communities that seemed to overwhelmingly support Trump in the election - the Applachia hill country which has suffered enormously during the past couple of decades when the manufacturing moved overseas. Places which have overwhelmingly fallen into the opioid/heroin addiction.

The book is at once sad, moving and extremely uplifting all at he same time. How someone with great odds managed to succeed with the help and support of his grand parents when his mom got afflicted with the addiction that is common in those parts. For a young person surviving to deal with the day to day problems and come out on the other side and manage to get an ivy league education is nothing sort of miraculous.

A steady and supportive presence of an adult is required for success more than money. Who does not like a rags to riches success story? Almost all of us have a soft corner for people who overcome their adversities and come out on the other side successful don't we? Intact families and supportive adults will do more for the success of a youngster than money. Government policies most often ignore this important aspect when they come up with programs aimed to help.

The book is extremely well written in a matter of fact tone. We have all heard of the saying "Fact is stranger than fiction" When I finished this book I could understand a bit more why some people supported Trump so much. He projects this machismo image , does not worry too much about what comes out of his mouth and does not seem too to care too much about what elite people think of him. This is appealing to a group of people who are sick and tired of being condescended to and who most often settle scores with the fist and hitting and fighting is a part of life.

Obama might be the polar opposite of what Trump stands of but how many people really understand what he or Hillary Clinton had to say. Trump did not say anything new, he put it more in layman terms what Obama said 8 years ago. Obama put his fingers on the problem and pretty much forgot about it. Hillary seemed to not grasp it all. Sad!

If not for the political significance of the book, read the book for the gripping narrative and the true story. You won't be disappointed.

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The Undoing Project - Book Review

I am not big on Psychology only because I had not heard or knew much about it or its application before I came to the US. Once in the US I was astonished more than surprised at the number of people who have a psychology degree. It was as if the study of psychology permeated every aspect of life. I wondered why would someone wanting to do software development for instance want to learn psychology? Since everyone was studying it I thought this was the subject that people landed on when they had interest in nothing else.

I did not quite understand the need for so many folks to learn psychology and I did not get it. But only if I had paid a bit more attention to what psychology really was! The mind and human behavior does affect the way everything around us functions doesn't?

DD went off to college this year and I hoped that she would not spend any more time than required on psychology courses. In my mind learning psychology was not all that useful.

The only reason I even picked the book "The Undoing Project" was because of the review I saw in Wall Street Journal and wanting to know more about cognitive bias and how it affects thinking and its application in Big Data.

What a fantastic book it turned out to be. I read it faster than I read my favorite court room dramas or a John Grisham - my favorite author of whose books I have never missed one. My understanding of psychology and its application has changed quite a bit I now have lots more respect and appreciation for this branch of science.

Michael Lewis is a fantastic writer and has the gift of writing a fast paced book that is not fiction and making it a lot more interesting than fiction books can ever be. Interwoven with the lives of the Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman and his partner and collaborator Amos Tversky spins a fascinating tale of their research and along the way teaches a thing or two about psychology. This is the one of the first books by Michael Lewis that I have read though I have seen a movie based off of his book - Moneyball but never quite got around to reading any of his books.

I landed on the book by chance and now DD is making rumblings about registering for a few more Psychology courses after taking one in her first semester in college. Glad that I have a new respect for the science I am better prepared to accept her wanting to study the subject without simply shutting it down. Who said events in life happen at random?

For those of who are not interested in Big Data or Cognitive Bias but are interested in simply reading a very good book about 2 brilliant scientists go ahead and pick this book and I assure you, you will not be disappointed. You might even come away with a greater understanding of the human mind and its limitations and its approach to every day events.

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There is a cure for Arthritis - a book by Paavo Airola

I got a few requests to name the book that I had referred to in on of my previous posts which I had said inspired me to try out the carb free diet. I did not give the name of the book not because I did not I did not remember the name and the picture of the book was on DH's phone.

"There is a cure for Arthritis" by Paavo Ariola - the book suggested by the owner of the lodge we stayed at Costa Rica. It was DH who broached the subject with her, because her son who is the naturalist at the lodge mentioned about his mother's diet and the progress she was making. She had given the book to DH to read.

So while DH and the kids had gone off on horse back to explore the rain forest I stayed behind at the lodge and started to leaf through the book and it had me hooked. Remember the book was written in 1968 and some of the dietary malfeasance is with us even today.

While this book for arthritis sufferers there is a good bit of suggestions that can be useful for everyone. Eating well and eating fresh vegetables, fruits and eliminating harmful sugar is good advice for pretty much anyone.

I hope this book will help those who want a natural way to get rid of pain and it is an inspiration for those who just want to read it.


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Book Review - Tarquin Hall's mysteries with Vish Puri

I have written several times in these pages how I am fond of mystery novels and court room dramas. My love affair with mystery books started with Enid Blyton's Famous Five, Secret Seven and continued with Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason), Robert Ludlum (Bourne Identity), Harold Robbins, Leon Uris, Ayn Rand and several other authors. The long summer holidays during school and college provided ample time to read these fat volumes. No summer jobs or internships or foreign language immersion tours for us those days. Sorry about the busy life kids have these days. So with long hot summer days stretching in front the thicker the books the better it was. John Grisham came much later when I found them in Landmark - I worked for a short period in an office in the floor above Landmark the first air conditioned book show room in Madras. A portion of paycheck went to buy books here every month after the first month's pay check bought Time to Kill and Pelican Brief.

Having built my reading habit on a steady diet of American and British authors there was no need to look for Indian authors but they sure were making their presence felt. Around the time I completed my higher secondary (here in the US it is equivalent to graduating from high school) Indian born authors writing in English were slowly being talked about and their books getting well known. Authors like Vikram Seth, Upamanyu Chatterjee were starting to get popular and many of my friends were talking about them and reading them. All I can remember is English August which did not make me crave for more and neither did a Suitable Boy.

Reading English books where I could identity with the milieu should have made me wanting more but that did not happen. I am not really sure if it was the way the books were written or the theme or why I did not take to them. I much preferred reading books in Tamil if I wanted to read books by Indian authors. The literature of the authors in the local language was much more mature than those attempting to write in English. Tamilvanan was my favorite Tamil author because he wrote mystery novels. Several like Sivasankari, Anuradha Ramnan, Uma Chandran were all books that kept me engrossed and an unintentional side effect they helped me improve my grades in Tamil. Though Tamil was my mother tongue the sad truth is I was more proficient in English than Tamil. Reading all kinds of novels and magazines is how I got on the road to getting good grades in Tamil.

I laid off reading Indian authors till Arundathi Roy's "God of Small Things" came about. Sorry to say that did not impress me either. So my enthusiasm for finding English books by Indian authors took a severe hit. I wouldn't deny the sheer thrill of enjoying a book where the protagonist is a person you can identify with and the the foods they crave are the ones that you like to enjoy as well. But sadly books that were interesting were not the ones which had Indians as detectives or lawyers.

When I was younger reading fat books were easy, while food was served at regular times and I hardly remember having any other activities. Fast forward to now getting through any book is tough and sometimes a couple of weeks before I can flip a few pages. Too much to do, distraction and sometimes being plain tired. With that said, all that does not stop me from checking out books from the library, buying books or borrowing books.

A couple of months ago I heard on NPR a discussion about books by Tarquin Hall. What made me sit up was that the protagonist in the book was Vish Puri an Indian slightly over weight detective who likes to eat the fried snacks that were common and all too tasty, spicy and of course greasy. With an introduction which said cultural and culinary delights of India - you think I can resist after that?


Tarquin Hall is a British born author with an American mother and seems like he has lived all over the world. He is married to an Indian and now lives in India. He captures the essence of life in India pretty well especially the aunties and their informal networks that help with sleuthing.

I did a search in our local library for the book series with this detective. Lucky for for me I found the first 2 books in the Vish Puri series right away. I finished the first one eventually. Though the plot was not page turning or that much of a mystery it certainly kept me engrossed. What endeared me most were the foods the detective ate along the way to solving these mysteries. The aunties you encounter in the book are as authentic as they come.

I am on the second book and still as interested in all the detectivism Vish Puri takes you through and the foods that he eats along the way.

If you are looking for something that will help you pass the time without too much thought or work these books are just right for a tired soul at the end of a hard day at work.


Have any of you read any of the books and what do you think of them? Are they popular in India?

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had - a book review (8-12 years old)

DD2 reads a lot of books and for this age group it is not always easy to pick books that are good reads. Library is our best friend for this odyssey. Usually she finishes reading books, asks me to take her to the library and then finds herself another set of books. I rarely intervene. The last time we went to the library she picked a few from her favorite series and I did the other picking to introduce her to new genres and authors. She is in a new school this year and reading award winning books is part of the expectation.

Feeling obligated to do my part I wandered the aisles and picked a few I thought she would like by either glancing at the title or the author or genre. One among them I accidentally picked was 'The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had' by Kristin Levine. The book lay in the library bag and had to fight for reading time with the likes of Box Car Mysteries, A to Z Mysteries and the other books that she has been reading for a while and still feels a strong affinity towards. She is required to take a book to school every day for what is called 'Independent Reading'.

While a Box Car Mystery's pull is hard to resist. I had been there done that while not exactly with Box Car Mysteries but with other mystery books and finding it impossible to resist the pull. Like 'Forrest Gump' would say 'Books are also like a box of chocolates' you never know what you get until you decide to give it a try. Anyway she finally reluctantly decides to take along the 'Best Bad Luck I Ever Had' to read at school. The book kept her engrossed and unable to peel from even to do homework.

She recommended the book to her teacher and insisted that I read it. This is her first book recommendation to me and I was curious to find out what exactly interested her. The book is 'unputdownable' if you know what I mean!

Based on the story of her own family author Kristin Levine brings life in small town Alabama in the early part of the 20th century set in 1917 to be specific right before your eyes. The book is about friendship, life in the South, race tensions all at the same time but presented in a manner that even an 8 year old could understand but not be overwhelmed. The book is best for the 8-12 age group and to tell you the truth even adults are sure to enjoy it.

This country's racial history is not very pleasant and I for one am not fond of reading about them but I bet in every town in the South there were good and kind people who defied bigotry and racial customs and stereotypes of the times to do what is right and not look the other way.

Most of all children are born color blind. It is the world around them that colors their opinions and attitudes.

From the first page on I had to finish the book before I could move on. DD2 and I have talked about the book enough that DD is reading the book now.

Dear readers has any book interested you recently that you would like to share please do so. While I would like recommendations for the 8-12 age group any book recommendation will be accepted gladly.