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Book: Mein Kampf

Author: Adolf Hitler


Summary: The book is Hitler's autobiographical work with emphasis on his philosophy regarding the state and politics. The book opens up how one of the most barbarian dictators in the history of mankind thought and justified his actions. It is known to everyone that Hitler molded the way history books as we see them today and committed one of the gravest crimes on the mankind, but what this book reveals is the underlying fuel that propelled this man. Its his beliefs and perspective towards the German nation that made him choose the specific political path. Hitler writes how the basic fundamentals of politics and society took shape in his mind starting from his very childhood and through his youth. His distaste towards parliamentary democracy is openly shown and he proves how such a system has brought upon the degradation of the political body of the nation and is incapable of doing any good. He states that the basic issue with parliamentary democracy is accountability since it cannot be ascertained to a single person.. Hitler is a steadfast nationalist and in this book of his, he charts the way forward for the great German State. In the competition to gain more land and resources he clearly states that a nation needs to go out and acquire external land. He also professes that man should not come in the way of natural selection of the strongest and maintains that artificial means to stop population growth lowers the strength of the nation since in a natural selection process only the strongest would have survived in the competition. He also debates how only Aryan race is capable of fueling the progress of mankind and that the Jews have been working endlessly in order to dominate the human race and in doing so they use corrupt means of manipulating the societal structure in various nations. He clearly states that if Germany wants to reach its destiny, Jews need to be eradicated from the nation. In the latter part of the book, he shows how he joins the German Labour Party and spearheads the youth movement to awaken the German nation. The party becomes increasingly popular under dynamic leadership of Hitler and his flare for public speaking come to fore in this struggle to gain political stature.

Social/Historical context: The book is a window into the life in Germany at the time of World War I and posts that. It gives a perspective from the other side. The book is a piece of document that shows how a dictator can think and pushes you to believe that it is not entirely wrong what Hitler thought. The social structure in Germany and the segments of the society are clearly shown through the eyes of Hitler. The book also presents political structure of Germany at that time and the lacunae that existed in the system along with the strategies of propaganda employed by the French during WWI. The manipulation of public sentiments by Hitler helps reveal the emotions of the mass and how the social conditions in Germany helped him take advantage. Writing Style: The book is written in a very straight forward manner without any

diplomacy. As expected from someone like Hitler, the writing style is compelling and thought provoking. It almost convinces the reader towards Hitler's way of thinking. The writing is easy to understand and very direct. My Thoughts: When I started reading this book, I didn't know what the contents are exactly, I knew just that Hitler had written it and expected it to reveal the inner world of the Dictator. The book was up to the expectation and has provided great insight. The only part that may trouble some of the readers is that the book demands a certain historical knowledge in order to fully appreciate the contents.

Book: The Path


Author: Donald Walters
Rating: 3/5
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Summary: James Donald Walters was an American student in search of spiritual knowledge and wisdom. From his childhood, Walters seemed to be spiritually inclined. He sums it up very interestingly- While scientists (and other people) asked How?, he was always inclined to ask Why?. As he moved with his family to various countries he seemed to be a misfit. In college he found a few like-minded people and developed his interest in literature, but he was still restless and eager to find a spiritual goal. College left him unsatisfied with the choices he was given. He came across Paramhansa Yogananda's 'Autobiography of a Yogi' and immediately left his regular life in search of Yogananda who was in California. The book then talks about the various lessons the student learns from his Guru. Walters describes in much detail the work undertaken by Paramhansa Yogananda, the Self Realization Foundation and in lesser detail his own spiritual growth. Miracles, prophesies and words of wisdom form the bulk of the books content. It concludes with a description of various works undertaken by Walters, later called Swami Kriyananda, after the demise of his Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda and a few pages on his spiritual understanding.

Social/Historical context: The book is a good introduction to the Self-Realization Foundation and the works of Paramhansa Yogananda. It is not a book on practices in yoga, just a description of the author's days spent with his Master and his own work. The author also describes how regular people around him in the 40s had their eyes only on the same dream a job with good money and promotions, a house, a car, a wife and many kids, and found it impossible to understand an individual who thought differently. Writing Style: The language is very simple, precise and honest. It is meant to be thought-

provoking and inspiring; it does have occasional grammatical errors, but the meaning is very clear and obvious. It has some 75 relevant pictures of the author, the SRF, Yogananda and his line of Gurus. The books middle, lacking a definitive chronology, is filled with numerous anecdotes, incidents, dialogues, and certainly a large number of monologues by Yogananda himself. My Thoughts: The book is a good companion to 'Autobiography of a Yogi'. The author speaks much of his Guru and other disciples in the middle of the book. His personal spiritual growth is mentioned only sparsely. The miracles and prophesies seem unbelievable, but lack of knowledge prevents me from commenting on the same. The author is hardly impressive, but the book does generate an interest in Paramhansa Yogananda and his own autobiography. The authors spiritual undertaking, in times where misfits w ere kept at a distance by everyone, involved a lot of courage, patience and understanding, something the author has been very humble about. Sometimes the authors story gives a feeling that destiny worked out everything for him; but that I believe is a lack of insight on the part of the reader

The Real Great Escape by Guy Walters review


The story of mass murder during the second world war was travestied by the film

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Email Nigel Jones guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 May 2012 14.40 BST Comments (12)

Telling it like it wasn't The Great Escape with Richard Attenborough and Steve Mc Queen. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/United Artists

It takes courage to demolish a cherished icon, and when that icon is thefilm The Great Escape, saviour of many a strained family Christmas, the iconoclast needs steel nerves worthy of the escapers themselves. But that is what Guy Walters achieves in his new study of the second world war's most famous mass breakout, which, far from being a rehash of an oft-told tale, is a clear-eyed inquiry into a myth that does not stand up to examination.
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What Walters claims is missing from the film, with its jaunty theme tune and boy-scout characters, is that this was essentially a story of mass murder. His focus is not so much on the heroic ingenuity of the PoWs tunnelling themselves out of their camp, but on their ultimate destination. Fifty of the 76 escapees were summarily shot by the Gestapo on Hitler's orders, and only three (none British) made a successful "home run" to Blighty. Was the sacrifice really worth it, Walters asks. His answer is a resounding "No". The central figure in Walters's story is the escape's inspiring leader, Sqdn Ldr Roger Bushell (played as "Roger Bartlett" in the film by Richard Attenborough). Bushell was a driven character: charismatic, determined, stubborn, perhaps a little crazy. The son of a mining magnate in South Africa, idolised by his mother, he had an English public school and Cambridge education. He drove fast cars, dated "popsies" and excelled at skiing. Characteristically, he tended to ski over obstacles in his path rather

than around them. A skiing accident gashed his face, which lent his appearance a sinister aspect. Though neglecting his studies for sport, Bushell was no fool; he was proficient in several languages and, despite an indifferent degree, was called to the bar and got several murderers off capital charges. He learned to fly as a hobby, and when war came, found himself commanding a Spitfire squadron. After downing two enemy planes, he was himself shot down over France and captured. Bushell made two initial escapes on the second occasion, accompanied by a Czech fellow flier, he reached occupied Prague and spent several months hidden by a Czech family. However, in the manhunt that followed the 1942 assassination of SS overlord Reinhard Heydrich, Bushell's hiding place was betrayed. The Czechs who had sheltered him were shot, and Bushell himself was roughly handled by the Gestapo. After this experience, he could have had no illusions about the ruthlessness of the Nazis, and his suffering seems to have sharpened his already intense hatred of his tormentors and his desire to escape them. Arriving at Stalag Luft III, the huge new camp built for allied flying officers in a gloomy Polish forest, Bushell instantly initiated his plan for a mass breakout, starting three simultaneous tunnels nicknamed Tom, Dick and Harry, on the premise that if one failed and another was discovered, then the third would surely succeed. It says much for Bushell's drive and leadership skills that the vast organisation required to dig the tunnels, dispose of the conspicuous yellow sand displaced by the digging, and to manufacture an enormous array of clothes, passes and other documentation for 200 escapees remained secret. Walters's description of the build-up to the breakout makes nail-biting reading. Bushell knew he was risking death, and realised that the vast majority of the fellow escapees most of whom spoke no German and still wore uniforms unconvincingly disguised as civilian clothes stood no chance of getting away across thick snow. Bushell justified his grand plan, however, by arguing that hunting such a vast number of escapees would divert German resources from the war. Walters shows, though, that the escape did nothing whatever to hinder the German war effort. Along with indicting Bushell's irresponsibility, Walters reveals the extent to which the camp was effectively controlled by its inmates. It was nominally run by senior Luftwaffe officers who had sympathy for their charges and feared the encroaching power of the Gestapo. On a lower level of

command, the poor quality of the lesser German guards made them susceptible to bribery and blackmail. By this stage in the war (1943/4) Germany was running short of resources, and the prisoners, kept supplied by generous Red Cross parcels, had more food, drink, tobacco and other creature comforts than their guards. Many of the aids used in the escape passes, uniforms, stamps were genuine rather than forgeries, smuggled into the camp by suborned guards. On those impervious to bribery, pressure could be exerted by blackmail, which was ruthlessly applied by the "Kriegies" (inmates) if they discovered some transgression committed by their guards, or a weak point in their defences such as an infatuation for a Kriegie. Walters underlines repeatedly that the Germans at the camp, from the commandant Von Lindeiner down, were explicit in warning the Kriegies of dire consequences if they were caught on the wrong side of the wire and fell into Gestapo hands. Bushell disregarded these warnings, and for this, Walters finds him culpable for his own murder and those of his comrades. The great escape, he sadly concludes, was a great folly.

Book: Moon Tiger


Author: Penelope Lively
Rating: 2.5/5
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Summary: Through the seemingly delirious soliloquies of a cancerous patient, the author Penelope Lively reveals the love, life and adventures of the protagonist, Claudia. Claudia Hamilton is a headstrong, opinionated maverick of the twentieth century. She reveals her willful nature as a child and goes on to become a war journalist during World War II. Later, she earns wealth and repute as a historian. Now, on her death bed Claudia imagines that she is about to write a history of the world but exposes to us the story of her life instead. We witness her romances, her relationship with her daughter and adopted son, her incestuous love for her brother, her adventures in the war torn desert plains of Egypt and a lot more...

Social/Historical context: Much of the novel is set in the back drop of World War II. As Claudia is a war journalist, we encounter some gory war details through her account of the war station in Egypt. The narrative also construes numerous other historical references. However, the book is predominantly the personal memoir of a maverick and to me, not much can be gleaned from it in terms of social/historical significance. Writing Style: The narrative is pithy and conversational. For the most part it is a monologue by the protagonist- a kind of dreamy self talk. But this is broken briefly in many places by a third person narrative structure. The book opens in the end. We see the protagonist in her death bed and receive the entire story in flashback. Since the protagonist is the narrator, the events given to us are mostly colored in her perspective. But not always. Occasionally we see glimpses of Lisa's (Claudia's daughter) thoughts for her mother; Laszlo's(Claudia's adopted son) understanding of Claudia surfaces; the doctor makes some comments on Claudia's delirious condition etc. These brief interludes help the reader understand the protagonist better by placing contradictory/complimentary opinions of Claudia in close juxtaposition to her own self- image. Overall, the story is easy going and because of the element of various unconventional romances, the novel is a gripping read. My Thoughts: This is a romantic novel. For people who like emotional pieces, this is a good read. But the various historical references are a little tiring because a world history reference book is needed in order to understand them all. However, this is an understandable, even necessary, evil in the book since the protagonist is a historian and intends to write a history of the world. It is only natural that her musings will contain historical allusions. While I quite enjoyed the book, I am afraid it is not a life changing piece of literature. As a character, I was not able to empathize with Claudia- to me, she came across as a brash individual. Her feelings for her daughter and sister-in-law verge on the unkind. But again these are very personal feelings. This is just my response to her nature.

Book: Mohandas
Author: Rajmohan Gandhi
Rating: 4/5
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Summary: Mohandas is a biographical description of Mohandas Gandhi, famously known as Mahatma Gandhi. It watches Mohandas grow from a timid child in Gujarat to a man who studies law in England and goes against all odds while adhering to his principles of non-violence, selfdependence, simplicity and equality to bring about revolutions, first in South Africa and then in India. It starts with the boy Mohandas family and social ties, his experiences as a 13 year old husband, his difficulty in accepting religious norms and his ambition to study in England after his fathers demise. As a young man studying law in England, he zealously develops simplicity in life, a zeal he would retain for the rest of his life. A job search takes him to South Africa where he starts Satyagraha and wins Rights for Indians there. Coming back to India as a well known reformer, he popularizes his principles and wins the hearts of millions uniting them despite religious and political differences. He helped an entire nation achieve Swaraj, but couldnt prevent The Partition. Till his assassination in 1948, he tried to bring peace between India and Pakistan.

Social/Historical context: The development and meaning of Gandhis principles are in focus. This simple man tore through all kinds of differences, helped alleviate poverty and outcastes, found a way, the charkha, to make millions self-dependent. Simplicity and nonviolence can go a long way even today with the Neta Raj replacing the Empire. Gandhis lessons in sanitation and hygiene can be useful guidance to many villages and his belief in the equality of all religions is a lesson we frequently forget. Gandhi won over various politicians and leaders with his principles and dedication to the Indian cause and this serves as an inspiring lesson to many who have similar ideals. Writing Style:The research behind the book is vast as it uses other biographies, commentaries and press reports. Detail is a positive aspect of this book and very frequently historical personalities have been quoted in the book. The chronology is brilliant and chapters though lengthy either describe stag es of Gandhis personal growth or focus on important historical events like Dandi March, Non-cooperation movement, Independence etc. Gandhi's images in the book have a certain emotional touch to them. My Thoughts:The book is a brilliant lesson in understanding Gandhi and how he influenced India's freedom struggle. It is disappointing that the principles which freed a nation are not practiced any more. Gandhi is the perfect role model for an honest and simple life. Religious and cultural differences have always been our weakness, but one man dared to overlook all such differences; the result is before our eyes. Of course such principles should be gradually realized through thoughts and action; blind acceptance will just make us weak. Gandhi found solutions to most social problems and these solutions hold even in todays industrialized world. Only self-discovery can help us truly appreciate the man who confronted an Empire, his own divided people, his adversaries and most of all, his own self.

Book: Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: 5/5
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Summary: Hamlet is a revenge story that is perhaps like any other- a son's quest for avenging his father's murder. But it has been said that nothing is new under the sun. All stories are old and familiar, and it is the telling that raises it to the level of a masterpiece. Love, lust and hatred, those indispensable elements of every story, are discovered anew in this timeless classic. The drama pulls the reader into an intimate engagement and Hamlet's tragedy becomes the tragedy of every individual. No nation is a stranger to political intrigues and love affairs. Scandals in the court are scintillating without being surprising. With the words "something is rotten in the state of Denmark", Shakespeare underlines the universality of 'rotten'-ness. The king of Denmark is killed by his brother, who lusts after the crown and the queen. Hamlet, the prince, comes to know about this and vows revenge. Social/Historical context:Hamlet was probably written between 1599 and 1601. The story is based on popular legend, but in spite of being completely embedded in the 16th century, it is a tale that has a universal reach- across boundaries of time and space. Shakespeare tries to communicate a message- and thoughts of staging a performance with ease take a backseat, which is why this play is regarded as the ultimate challenge for any actor. Hamlet has even entered the English language and is a part of public memory- people quote from the play unknowingly. Shakespeare takes the old tale of a hero who sacrifices himself in the cause of justice and turns it on its head. Hamlet is hardly the popular herohe is confused and indecisive, he is unable to act and he procrastinates. He achieves something only when some external calamity forces him to react. He is preoccupied with thoughts of death and suicide. His intellect and erudition are very unusual for a royal personage. He is no weakling- but his fencing skills are hardly of any use while his anger is misdirected. Hamlet is not a revenge story at heart, it is a quest for identity and selfknowledge. Writing Style: It is unnecessary to say that the verse is superb- the fact that it stays with the reader for a long time is ample testimony. Shakespeare uses rhetoric to convey many kinds of meaning with just one line, which makes every line very intense and open to a variety of interpretations. Ample use of puns and metaphors put forward ideas about identity, female sexuality, etc. It is interesting to note how Shakespeare treats love. The oedipal overtones of Hamlet's love for his mother have been discussed for centuries. Queen Gertrude's ill-timed love affair has been dissected in the light of midlife crisis, menopause, etc. But there are other kinds of love that have received comparatively lesser attention. The

extremely low-key treatment of the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia is startling when one considers the tragedy of Ophelia, which is as magnificent as the love story of Desdemona or Juliet. Filial love forms the basis of the play, and ideas about parental supervision and imposition run as an undercurrent. My Thoughts: Hamlet changed the way I look at life. I cannot explain why I fell in love with the most flawed character in English literature. Perhaps because it is not easy to recognize flaws for what they are and accept them.

'The Chemistry of Tears': the mournful mechanics of a broken heart


In Peter Carey's new novel "The Chemistry of Tears," a grieving conservator at a London museum mourning her dead lover brings back to life a mysterious automaton, a bird with moving parts, and learns the story of the 19th-century man who created it.
By by Tyrone Beason Special to The Seattle Times

Jeff Paslay The Seattle Times

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The author of "The Chemistry of Tears" will read at 7 p.m. Thursday at Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Co.; free (206-624-6600 or elliottbaybook.com).

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'The Chemistry of Tears' by Peter Carey Knopf, 230 pp., $26 Time may not be enough to heal all wounds in Peter Carey's heartbreaking novel about what happens when "the other woman" must mourn the loss of her forbidden lover, "The Chemistry of Tears." At the center of this profoundly detailed study of love and grief is the "oddly elegant" Catherine Gehrig, a 40-something conservator at London's Swinburne Museum (a fictional museum a bit like Seattle's Museum of History & Industry) who specializes in horology, the science of timekeeping. She works in a world of "clocks and watches, automata and other wind-up engines" among "scholars, priests, repairers, sand-paperers, scientists, plumbers, mechanics train-spotters really." The first female horologist in the Swinburne's history, her sense of being set apart is only heightened by the fact that for 13 years, she's been having an affair with the museum's head curator of metals, Matthew Tindall, "one of those physically graceful disheveled beauties my country does produce so very well." Matthew is 10 years Catherine's elder. He's also married with kids, so their romance has blossomed in the darkness of total secrecy. But now Matthew has died, and since no one seems to know how close he and Catherine were, she only finds out about it at work one day. Like a stopped clock, her heart becomes stuck in the past, with memories of Matthew flooding her daydreams. But there is hope for consolation. She discovers that one person may be aware of the connection between her and Matthew, Head Curator for Horology Eric Croft, "the master of all that ticked and tocked," a specialist in fanciful

Oriental music boxes with movable buildings and beasts on them that the British exported to China in the 18th century. Eric was a close friend of Matthew's for years. To help distract her, the sly Eric gives Catherine a special project to work on: A box of mysterious mechanical pieces that look to be parts from a 19th-century automaton, in this case a bird with moving parts. She must bring the bird back to life, while her own is at a standstill. Catherine toils over the automaton with the help of her brainy but flighty assistant Amanda. While working on the project, Catherine discovers and reads from the diary of a wealthy, Victorian-era Englishman named Henry Brandling, who had the beguiling creation made for his sick son believing it might restore the son's vitality. The novel tick-tocks from his story to Catherine's in alternating tales of woe and hope. There are lines in this novel that are so full of the lowdown blues I wonder whether the words first appeared in the author's mind in song form. There is soul music in Catherine's expressions of longing. One rainy night as Catherine grieves, Matthew's two sons pay a surprise visit to her home. She "opened the door to discover, not Eric, but ghosts and mirrors of my lovely man, his two sons, darkeyed in the rain." "I slice away my heart. Delete. Delete. Delete," she tells us at another point as she removes emails between the two of them on Matthew's office account. Like that mechanical bird, Catherine's love for Matthew is magical in its esotericism, beautiful in its intricacy and inspiring in its ability to weather strain and time. Brandling's story of his travels in Germany and commissioning the automaton from a mysterious German clockmaker are less compelling, but it adds texture to the plight of the novel's central character. With Catherine's story, Carey has built us a captivating replica of the most timeless piece of machinery of all a broken heart.

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