Elite Readers: August 2013

Monday, 19 August 2013

My Journey : Transforming Dreams into Actions - A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Authored By: A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

This book is filled with stories of “innumerable challenges and learning” in Kalam's years as the scientific adviser when India conducted its second nuclear test, his retirement and dedication to teaching thereafter and his years as President. Mr. Kalam has compiled life’s learnings, anecdotes and profiles of key moments and people who inspired him profoundly in the book.He recounts “staring into the pit of despair” when he failed to make it as an IAF pilot and how he pulled himself up and rose to become the man who headed India’s missile programme and occupy highest office in the country.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K.Rowling

Author: J.K.Rowling

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter's billionaire biographer, was gracious enough to release an annotated, albeit abridged, version of the collection for Muggle public consumption in 2008, a year after the publication of the last installment in her series of books about the life and times of Harry Potter. The public edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard authorized by Rowling is notable for having two of the most important figures from the Second Wizarding War (1995-1998) involved in its development. Hermione Granger, a distinguished Muggle-born alumna of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and a confidante of Harry Potter's, translated the tales from their original runes, while Professor Albus Dumbledore, a former Hogwarts headmaster and Harry Potter's eccentric mentor, provided a delightful and insightful commentary on each of the tales included in this slim collection, with clarificatory, intertextual, and metacritical footnotes appended by Rowling.

Resurrection - Leo Tolstoy

Author: Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Tolstoy summons us to the barricades for love. As I hear him, he asks, ‘Is it not time for a revolution of the heart? Is it not time to recognize that mutual love and not economics or politics is the fundamental law of human life?’. Prince Nekhlyudov undergoes a spiritual crisis. While serving as a juror during the trial of a prostitute accused of murder, he realizes that the accused is Maslova, the peasant girl that he once seduced and abandoned after impregnating.

Man and Superman - George Bernard Shaw

Authored By: George Bernard Shaw

This work, published in 1903, contains three parts: a “Epistle Dedicatory”; the play itself; and “The Revolutionist’s Handbook”. The first is a letter to the author’s friend, Arthur Bingham Walkley, who had originally suggested that GBS write a play on the subject of Don Juan; in this letter GBS not only explains why he has turned the legend on its head but presents his conviction that woman is the true pursuer in the race toward matrimony. Woven into this presentation are threads of GBS’s opinions on any number of issues and topics, expressed in his typical entertaining and articulate style and filled with Shavian bons mots.

Author: George Bernard Shaw

Arms and the Man is a comedy written by George Bernard Shaw, and was first produced in 1894 and published in 1898, and has become one of the most popular plays of George Bernard Shaw. Like his other works, Arms and the Man questions conventional values and uses war and love as his satirical targets. This edition of Arms and the Man is in the form of a paperback book.

The Man of Destiny - George Bernard Shaw

Author: George Bernard Shaw

This is Shaw's short play about Napoleon. He manages to bring his usual themes of class and money into it, but to tell you the truth, I read it a year and a half ago and barely remember it. I remember that I liked it OK at the time, but the plot, the other characters, all have faded. Thus I conclude, not one of Shaw's more memorable works.

Author: Bernard Shaw

From 1921, Shaw is definitely reeling from the war in this imaginary retelling of a past and future Genesis. The surreality of the play however keeps me from wondering how serious - or comic - the play is supposed to be. Another last thought: I kept reflecting on how contemporary audiences, even Christian ones, would probably not be biblically literate enough to understand such an anti-Christian play.

SBI PO Exam - Probationary Officer Success Master - Arihant

Author: Arihant Experts

The book is good. Covers all chapters in details and with adequate exercises. I can say if anyone can thoroughly complete the whole book he will surely get a good rank in SBI and IBPS exams. It contains all the basic information's regarding not only the syllabus of SBI but also it is helpful for all competitive exams whether it may be state or central govt. contains previous years question papers with complete solutions and moreover self - evaluation tests are more feasible.

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Author: Charles Dickens

A lot of Dickens' stories are now to some extent like folk or fairy tales; they have become embedded in our collective consciousness and even if one has never read the source material one could outline the plots and name the principle characters.

Authored By: Charles Dickens

While taking books you want to reread and write reviews for and putting them in the bathroom to be read over a month or so is a good idea, before you embark on this in the future, take a good look at the book. Is it monstrously long? Then it may not be ideal bathroom reading. Not only is it heavy, that means I took around 6 months to read this, which on first read, took me maybe two weeks. Maybe.

Authored By: Charles Darwin

This book has had a profound effect not just on science, but the culture at large. What I wouldn't read this book for is the science, or in an effort to either defend or refute the argument for evolution. The core of Darwin's argument certainly is still what was taught in my Catholic high school biology class (taught by a nun). In a nutshell, the theory is that given there are wide-ranging subtle Variations among organisms, the Malthusian Struggle for Existence causes by means of Natural Selection of the inheritable traits that are the best Adaptations to the environment the Origin of Species or as Darwin calls it, the "theory of descent with modification."

Authored By: Charles Dickens

Fleeing the workhouse, Oliver finds himself taken under the wing of the Artful Dodger and caught up with a group of pickpockets in London. As he tries to free himself from their clutches he becomes immersed in the seedy underbelly of the Capital, amongst criminals, prostitutes and the homeless. Dickens scathing attack on the cruelness of Victorian Society features some of his most memorable and enduring characters, including innocent Oliver himself, the Artful Dodger, Fagin, Bill Sikes and Nancy.

Authored By: Charles Dickens

Set before and during the French Revolution in the cities of Paris and London, A TALE OF TWO CITIES tells the story of Dr Manette′s release from imprisonment in the Bastille and his reunion with daughter, Lucie. A French aristocrat Darnay and English lawyer Carton compete in their love for Lucie and the ensuing tale plays out against the menacing backdrop of the French Revolution and the shadow of the guillotine.

Othello - William Shakespeare

Authored By: William Shakespeare

Dramatic and powerful in its scope, Othello explores the perils of suspicion and jealousy and the ensuing breakdown of relationships and disaster that can arise from such emotions. Othello, a revered soldier, secretly marries Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian senator, but is led to believe that she has been unfaithful to him by his ensign, Iago, leading to tragic events.‘Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.’