Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry ?

Book Name : Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry ?

Author : Elizabeth McCracken

What is it about : This book covers nine short stories, all featuring normal everyday scenarios but peopled by not-at-all-normal characters from Tattoo Artist running out of skin space; Armless Circus Entertainer reminiscing old times; a Mysterious visiting Auntie whom nobody quite remembers; an unlikely Genius who masqueraded herself as a tramp or is it the other way round ?; Abandoned children raised by "walk in" parents; and a couple of eccentric family feuds. The location sets are very much American suburbia with small town extraordinary peoples living out even more extraordinary lives.

Some thoughts after having read the book : The short stories are full of lively conversation and plausible set pieces; written and packed with colorful imagination but yet firmly rooted on solid grounds. My personal favourite is "Secretary Of State" where a close knit family, the Barron's, will play their fun game during each weekend gathering : Government-Take-Over and each family member will be assigned a top job, like Attorney General, President and the niece, being narrator-first-person, was assigned Ambassador to Spain. The Author managed to always stay one step ahead of the readers and produced un-expected and entertaining twists and turns which kept the stories interesting and the readers on their toes. The Author's world is never mundane and the plots are always on the boil.

Would I recommend this book to you : Having read the first few stories in this book and familiarised with the Author's style and wit, I started reading with joy and anticipation, often accompanied with an appreciative quiet smile. Highly recommended.

Foe

Book Name : Foe

Author : Reid Iain

What is it about : In this story set in the near future, when a Lottery System will randomly pick out individuals to migrate to a distant planet and those who have been picked, will have no say whatsoever over this forced removal from Earth. Our man, Junior thus had to leave behind his wife, Henrietta, his barn and his chores of feeding chickens and ploughing the land; except in his case, this removal from Earth will only be for a few years, as he is only joining in the pilot program. Moreover, a Cyborg who looks identical to Junior and has intimate knowledge of all details and manners great and small about Junior, will be staying at the farm to accompany Henrietta whilst he is away. Junior still has a few years to go before his departure but he is feeling that his relationship with Henrietta is deteriorating and matters have been complicated even more as Terence, the Agent in charge of his removal case, starts living at the farm and observing Junior's every action, mood swing and little eccentricities. Junior began questioning his values, his very own identity and the whole debacle of his imminent departure. And so the fun begins ...

Some thoughts after having read the book : Overall a good plot, if somewhat drawn out and implausible. It was hard going to go through 200 pages with just the few characters (Junior, Henrietta, Terence, a few beetles and a couple of chickens), the farm and a few melo-dramatic set pieces to entertain. Even the supposedly stunning ending felt a bit forced and felt very much an anti-climax. Perhaps making this novel into a film with sights, colors and sounds will fill in the many voids.

Would I recommend this book to you : My enthusiasm in picking out this book, is very much based on my viewing of the adapted film by this author - I'm Thinking Of Ending Things. As in that film, this book, Foe, offers similar quiet menace, expectancy and mystique. Yes, I recommend this book to while away a few days by the pool.

Sapiens

Book Name : Sapiens

Author : Harari Y.N.

What is it about : The history of our species from low-life, run-of-the-mill incognitive organisms with a burgeoning imagination to tax-paying, smartphone-carrying individuals, living in nation states drawn up with self-imagined (Common Delusion would be the term used in the author's volcabulary) boundaries and capable of sending space probes to faraway planets. The book covered the series of revolutions, reformations and -isms which brought us here - cognitive, agriculture, religious, industrial, scientific, information, capitalism, colonialism, socialism, communism, liberalism, to name a few. Towards the end of the book, the author drilled down to the very important and relevant question - have these human achievements and failures in our history, influenced the happiness and sufferings of our species. It is high time that we gain some understanding in this aspect of the history of Sapiens. The book ended with thought-provoking predictions and scenarios of the human species at last playing the role of Intelligent Designers (self-gods) - curing illnesses and maladies affecting us and perhaps anti-aging gene therapy might provide us with the ultimate elixir of eternal life and even turning ourselves into the new Frankenstein's.

Some thoughts after having read the book : The author's mastery of the subject-in-hand proved irresistable reading and he had full command of his briefs. And what a story ! Great credit should go to the author for being the Generalist (with a capital G) as he weaved through tidily and logically thousands of years of human artefacts, behaviour patterns and historical imprints. He then corroborated these findings with the latest anthropology theories with a large dose of deeply provoking and insightful interpretation and philosophical constructs ! The book also sent alarm bells ringing with our experiments with cyborgs, human consciousness and genetics engineering, ending the book with the searching question : Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible self-gods who don't know what they want ?

Would I recommend this book to you : And there you have it, a highest of all highest level summary of the history of our species. Highly enjoyable and informative.