'The White Tiger' by Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga (3)

This Man Booker Prize winning novel is described as a dark comedy, though when I look back, I don’t remember laughing at any point. The narrator is definitely precocious and part of the anti-hero craze of late - he is a self-professed murderer turned entrepreneur who tells the whole story to the Premier of China in a letter. Wait, that sounds funny! While I may not have laughed at the time, Mr. Adiga does tell a believable tale of modern India from the point of view of a village boy who goes to the big city and becomes a driver for a rich family. He carefully illustrates the dichotomy of India from a servant’s perspective. This book has the usual fantastical features of an Eastern tale, but they are understandable as part of this boy’s daily life and experiences. He also deals with the real corruption that is faced by rich and poor, but in very different ways. This book is getting a ‘3’ because even after finishing, I can’t decide if I really liked it. I found it interesting and can appreciate it – but I didn’t really enjoy reading it.

'Allegiant' by Veronica Roth

Allegiant, Veronica Roth (3)

I started this book, the third in the Divergent series, with some trepidation. Fans had not been kind to this last installment. Some felt Ms. Roth had betrayed her fans – so I was ready for the worst. Oddly, that seemed to help. My expectations were so low that it was relatively easy to surpass them. I do feel that it is the weakest of the three, with little progress in the story for an overall climax, and holes in the plot (in the explanation of the main characters reality and the external truth, there remained unexplained many details regarding the overall world and its interaction with the new characters). The story continues to follow Tris and Four as they lead a small group outside of the city. This is the first time either has seen the ‘real world’. The rest of the book focuses on their introduction to the external society and how they will interact with the remaining faction-less leaders back in the city. The series remains dark, with significant battles and deaths. In the end, my imagination thought up worst endings than Ms. Roth chose to use. I found the ending satisfying, though giving the hype around the series, I was hoping for something more inventive.

'Hatching Twitter' by Nick Bilton

Hatching Twitter, Nick Bilton (4)

If you enjoyed ‘The Social Network’, you’ll love this book. It describes the process and people who founded Twitter. As with Facebook, ‘who’ actually founded ‘what’ is more than a tad controversial. I thought Mr. Bilton did a good job being objective – doling out blame and credit equally. As with most start-ups, the main players’ roles and contributions were very dynamic. He focuses on the four who he credits for founding the company and who then proceeded to play musical chairs with the leadership roles, each time leaving someone out in the cold, chair-less.  It is quite shocking to find out how poorly the company was prepared for the fever it produced, quite literally crashing on a daily basis under the weight of new users. The most interesting discovery for me was that the entire concept of Twitter was basically developed by a small group of people who wanted to feel less lonely, to ‘connect to the world through their computer’. Ironic, for what is considered to be a cog in today’s social media, it began as a group of introverts looking for a way to communicate without actually being social (i.e. talking directly with people). Sadly this book seems to be saying that the success of Twitter is not due to excellence in business or technology, but the luck of a concept that appealed to the loneliness and angst of teenagers and certain celebrities (oddly similar in their lack of confidence). This book is particularly timely given the recent Twitter IPO. I confess, immediately after finishing it, I jumped onto my computer to see who is currently on the Board and Management team. Not surprising, there were already some changes. This book is a cautionary tale of the crazy speed of these businesses, even post-bubble.

'Sisterland' by Curtis Sittenfeld

Sisterland, Curtis Sittenfeld (2)

While I enjoyed the beginning of this book, I was very disappointed at the climax. I felt the author had made the main character do something not credible based on her actions thus far. It was a relatively bad thing and normally I would assume that my affection for the character was driving my feelings of betrayal, but in this case I didn’t particularly like the character. The story is about identical twin sisters who live in St. Louis. They share an ability of ESP or ‘sense’, as they call it. One sister, the free spirit, embraces this and eventually makes it her vocation. The other, the practical voice of the novel, dislikes being different and worked over the years to diminish her capability. I enjoyed the concept of the sisters taking different paths and seeing how their lives were affected by their decisions. The family dynamics described in this book are painful, but rang true. The main plot of the story revolves around a prediction of an earthquake by the bohemian sister and how it affects both women and their families. I think the author tried to save the surprise by not giving hints to the protagonist’s climatic actions, but by not allowing for that possibility, the decision/action was not credible to me as the reader.

'Prodigy' by Marie Lu

Prodigy, Marie Lu (3.5)

‘Prodigy’ is the follow-up book to ‘Legend’ (reviewed June 13, 2013), the YA story that introduced two strong characters, Day and June. In this chapter of their story they join the Patriots and work together to take revenge on the Republic who took both their families from them. I liked this book as much as the first, though it had some of the same problems. The moony romance of the two main characters had the completely predictable third parties thrown in to highlight their insecurities. Luckily, what we learn about the rest of the world is more interesting and complicated. We find out how the Republic came to be and what drove the trials, the tests taken by youth to determine who is fit for military duty. Somewhat predictably nothing is as they assumed outside of the Republic, but I think the story was stronger for the good and bad that they find. The book has an ending, but sets up nicely for the just released third book.

'Skinner' by Charlie Huston

Skinner, Charlie Huston (3)

This book was described as a mix between John Le Carre and Neal Stephenson. That’s heady company – though I can see the intent of the comment. The story has the spy angst of Le Carre, with the cyber knowledge and tools of Stephenson. My biggest problem with the book is that it contains relatively complicated passages. Normally something I enjoy, but in this case the complications at the beginning kept me from engaging completely. It was as if Huston wanted to show his cleverness by several flows of buzzword diarrhea. Then, once I got into the story and the pace picked up, I found myself re-reading and stumbling over paragraphs in my haste to finish a chapter. I liked the idea of a spy who has to protect his ‘asset’, in this case a robotics specialist who can also see patterns in the big picture, against all threats. Of course the spy is very broken (his nickname ‘Skinner’ is due to being a real science experiment of his autistic parents by being kept in a BJ Skinner-like box till he was 12 years old), which allows him to do all the bad stuff spies are supposed to do. Once I got into the story and tried to exhibit the patience to read through the complicated bits, I enjoyed the ride.