Monday, May 29, 2017

'In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey to the Heart of the Saudi Kingdom' by Qanta Ahmed

In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey to the Heart of the Saudi Kingdom, Qanta Ahmed (2.5)

While this book had many interesting elements, I did not find it to be well written or edited. The tone of the book changed so much, that one suspects there were multiple editors. It is the autobiography of a Muslim woman who grows up and is trained as a doctor in the west. As her visa to live in the US expires, she leaves New York City to work at a hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Her viewpoint is interesting as, while not devout, she is familiar with the basics of her religion though continues to be surprised by how the tenets of Islam are enacted in everyday life in Saudi Arabia. Much of what she must wear, can or cannot do without a familial male, and rules of behavior, are dictated by laws theoretically derived from her religion. As with all religions, the key is in the interpretation, and I found it odd that she did not question the Saudi interpretation at the time more rigorously. She spent much more time on the looks and clothes of those typically hidden. Maybe it is normal to be obsessed with looks when you are in a situation where most are covered, but it was rather off-putting to read. I did find her passages on her Hajj and her experiences as the attacks of 9/11 were occurring very moving and interesting.

'My Brillant Friend' by Elena Ferrante

My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante (3.0)

I have given this book the dubious award of ‘Worst Book Cover Ever’. The picture of a married couple skipping along seemingly post ceremony with flower girls seems to have nothing to do with the story. I was interested in reading this book after I heard about the scandal with the author, Ms. Ferrante, which is a pseudonym. Recently an investigative reporter in Italy searched through public records and announced who he believed the true author, living a private life in obscurity, was. Her fans were outraged by the unveiling of this country treasure (her 4 books are some of the most beloved in modern Italian literature) and their revolts were heard worldwide. The book follows two girls growing up in a poor Naples neighborhood as they go from childhood to become young adults. The characters are interesting, though they are plentiful and the names are hard to follow. I liked the writing in general – though like some South American writers- the emotions come across as over-wrought to me. One of my biggest complaints is that the book starts with a passage from current day describing a mystery before going back to when the girls were young. It seems very possible that the current day mystery will not be revealed until the end of the fourth book. I didn’t enjoy the characters enough to follow them on that journey.

Sunday, May 7, 2017

'The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds', by Michael Lewis

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed our Minds, Michael Lewis (3.5)

Mr. Lewis has a knack for writing approachable non-fiction. He is most famous for ‘The Blind Side’, ‘The Big Short’ and ‘Moneyball’. In this book, he tells the biography of two scholars who brought together psychology and math to discover cognitive biases and understand how we value risk and make decisions. Few know their names, but their accomplishments include winning the Nobel Prize in Economics. The first third of the book consists of Lewis’ interest in numbers, and the early biographies of the two Israeli psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. At this point, Lewis jumps into their various research topics and published theories. Personally, I found the first 30% of the book to be a bit distracting, as I was itching to hear about their work. Once he got into the details, I was not disappointed. Most readers will find the results startling and often disturbing, particularly when attributing the decision processes described to many people in power today. While it’s not hard to believe the average person will think that if a flipped coin has been ‘heads’ for 9 times, the 10th time will likely be ‘tails’, it is startling to see statisticians make the same mistake! Kahneman and Tversky’s experiments and results are interesting and thought provoking