The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician by Andre Weil

Great men write great books. Andre Weil was a great man, and he wrote many great books. The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician is one such book which I had the pleasure of reading recently. And I was very much moved by this book, which is a memoir of his early life from the time of his birth till the end of the World War II. Weil's standing as a mathematician extraordinaire is without question and I can hardly add anything of value about his work, being myself just a beginner. But his life itself was also extraordinary to say the least.

The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: A book review

When I first heard about this book, it seemed like any other biography of a woman apparently unheard of. A chance look at the blurb caught my attention and I suddenly remembered where I had come by that name. Henrietta Lacks was the woman behind the famous “HeLa” cells.

what if? (Mini book Review)

This blog has been dormant for a while, mostly because the members were busy with many things, but let me break the ice once again. In the intervening two months, I have read a couple of non-fiction books, mostly based on science, and today I want to speak about one particular book that I enjoyed reading a lot. The book is called 'what if?' with the tag line 'Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions' by Randall Munroe, the creator of the highly successful webcomic xkcd.

American Scientists List of 100 or so books that shaped a century of science

Sometime in the past, the good people at American Scientist decided to publish a list of scientific books that shaped 20th century science. My aim is to read all of them. Yes, I hear you! Its a tall task, but probably by the end of my life I would read a good amount of them. So to put into perspective I decided to list the books that I have already read, either partly or in full from that list. To see the original list, click here. Here goes my sub list from that list.

Books that I read in 2014

The last year (2014) was not a very good one for me, book-wise. I didn't read a lot of books, and the fiction titles that I read last year disappointed me a bit. The year was a very busy one for me academically and it was a bit successful in that front. Also, if you do not do an activity for a long time, it really gets difficult to take up that activity again. For me, reading books had taken a backseat after I joined university in 2009, and so 2014 was also not an exception. But I did manage to read some really good books in the last year too. Since August 2014 I have started to keep track of the books that I have read here. One of my new year resolution is to read at least 10 books each of fiction and non-fiction titles in this year. Here I give a brief account.

Book Review: Adultery by Paulo Coelho

At the very mention of Paulo Coelho, I envision a book that is of full of wisdom and emotional insight. This new book wishes to do exactly that, but does not quite reach up to the standards set by The Alchemist or Veronika Decides to Die. The book fundamentally talks of how monotony leads to apathy in relationships.