Book Review: When Breathe Becomes Air

One of those books that re-establish your triviality againt the mammoth forces of nature. 

A super-successful neurosurgeon goes about his business removing tumors and cancers from the bodies of his patients, some times coldly and, at other times, with a lot of emotion, only to find out one day that he himself is afflicted with the disease. 

This highly poignant book takes the reader through the journey of how a common man "faces different stages of his illness with grace - not with bravado or a misguided faith that he would beat cancer - but with authenticity that allows him to grieve the loss of the future he had planned."

It becomes particularly emotional once the author's daughter is born. 

Don't miss the epilogue. 

4.25 on 5 for me.

Book Review: Free Will by Sam Harris

Free Will by Sam Harris is a bold, provocative book that holds up a concept that you wouldn't want to be seen supporting in open. 

It works towards establishing that Free Will is an illusion - that all of us act the way we do because of everything that has happened to us or around us, thereby attributing everything to LUCK. So, if you are not a psychopath killer, take no credit for it - you are plain lucky. 

While you can't argue against what Sam intends proving, supporting this book would not be the most politically correct thing. That would, after all, mean you are extenuating all crimes ever committed. 

Free Will equates moral crimes like kidnapping to sneezing, both attributable to things that are beyond our control. The author tries to prove the same scientifically as well stating that our supposed actions can be recorded in EEG 300 milliseconds before we actually commit them. 

The essence of the book is captured beautifully in this statement: "You can do what you decide but you can't decide what you will decide." So much for the FREE WILL. Powerful but not entirely entertaining, I would give it 3.5 out of 5.

Book Review: NIGHT by Elie Wiesel

My review:

Night can be one of the most poignant books you get to read in your life. Extremely touching, the book narrates the plight of people that were shoved into Nazi Concentration Camps during WW-II. 

The author, 15 years-old at that time, too was sent to one of these camps with his family. It wasn't long before he was separated from his mother and sisters. The book talks about human struggle to survive in conditions where the human depravity knew no boundaries. 

The narrative discusses everyday encounters with death and how these encounters converted men into beasts, making them insensitive to death of people around them; their single-minded focus being on gathering food and clothing for their own survival. 

Other than highlighting the atrocities that the prisoners were subjected to, the book also narrates a touching story of the relationship between the author and his father with daily battles of the former to keep the latter alive - till it comes to a point where the son is faced with a dilemma if these efforts are worth anything at all. 

A good read that will make you sensitive towards suppression and tell you the importance of life you are leading. I will give it 4 out of 5.