Book Reviews

“What is happing to this world order? Why do some people participate and spread acts of terror and many just support them in their nefarious syndicates?” “Why can’t all humans be same which will remove all differences and reasons for crimes and wars?” All of us try to find answers for these questions whenever we look around and see acts of wrong doing and sufferings of other people. Most of us try to find answers to these questions in the political or religious realms but these are just excuses and misinformation spread by few leaders with their own motives. This book from Dinesh N. Verma is an endeavour to look for answers for these outside these commonly held believes. In this book he brings forward a very different perspective and view point by comparing human nature to animal traits and explains why these differences exist in real world. It is very common to use animals as metaphors to describe some attributes of humans, but in this book author beautifully describes how creator us...

There was a time when only name people used to think about when referring to children animation movies, Walt Disney. It was almost impossible to think of someone else making animation movies for children. Then came TOY STORY and it felt world has changed. Animation movies were no longer about Mickey Mouse and Barbie fascinating kids they became a serious business and were competing with other main stream movies attracting both kids and adults. Animation was not just about Tom and Jerry fighting with each other it was much more complex now taking cues from real humans and showing them on screen using more characters like Woody and Buzz Light Year. This was followed by other hugely successful movies like Cars, The Incredible, Finding NEMO and more. All these movies changed 2 perceptions around animation movies first that animation movies can be entertaining for both kids and adults at same time and another animation movies does not always mean Walt Disney. These movies establishe...

One of the most heard and talked about terms in IT world now is Big data. I had heard this many times but had no idea about what it is and how can it change the IT landscape. When I saw this book I was very excited and thought it will solve the puzzle. After reading the book I am happy to say that it was a good decision to buy this. However being a technologist i expected a bit more on technical front. Thomas very precisely explains what big data is and its relevance. With so much of data being generated around us, big data seems to be the answer for generating insights from the data. Book has number of case studies providing examples on how organization are using big data and related technologies to find trends and make decision based on it. In chapter 4 Thomas explains what type of skill set are required for organization to move into big data. Though i don't fit any of those moulds however it does gives an idea of what should one be looking for when building a big data team. ...

The Phoenix Project a novel about IT, DevOps and Helping Business Win” this is what it says on the front cover. Believe me this is what this book delivers at the end. I bought this book because I was getting overwhelmed by hearing DevOps and agile in every meeting and discussion I have been to in last few months. After working in organization which has been strictly cruising in waterfall model, this sudden change towards agile and DevOps felt like a daunting task. One of my colleagues recommended me to read this book, to make the transition smoother and most important to understand why this change is required. While purchasing the book I thought it will be a book similar to PMBOK or coding manual for some language with full of terminologies and techniques to work in IT. I was suspicious about the usage of word Novel on the cover, how can book on IT and Devops be a story it has to be technical reference manual. But to my surprise it has been written so beautifully and in such simp...

BOUNCE is a great book which successfully delves into one of the great questions that everybody has around how to become a legendary sport star. It breaks the myth around what is perceived to be the reason behind being success in sports i.e. God Gift. In very simple words Matthew has explained how " purposeful practice" can bring success to anybody who desires. The number of narratives he has provided in this book reinforces the fact that it is only sheer dedication and purposeful practice that has converted normal human beings into legendary sports personalities.This point is reinforced in different ways in the book starting in part I and also in part III where purposeful practice can allow additional bandwidth available to brain to focus on additional information available to individual. In chapter Mysterious Sparks Life-Changing Mind Sets, he beautifully describes how purposeful practice coupled with a positive mindset can turn a failure to an opportunity to learn a...