Reviews and Comments

Got to know about this book through the prolific writer-critic Deepanjana Pal's newsletter (you should subscribe to it, its fantastic). To be precise, this line got me hooked into this book:


"Consent is a reminder that we all contain multitudes; that people change, and that context is critically important for understanding our experiences."

Have been digging to the rabbithole of personal-growth and being-whole-than -being-perfect. So this line piqued my interest.

Consent feels like a "pull request" memoir. In software development, a pull request is a way to correct, add, or rewrite parts of a program. It’s how developers fix bugs, add features, or update software. Ciment does something similar with this book—revising her earlier memoir Half a Life, reexamining her past and reshaping those memories and experiences.

In just a few decades, Ciment looks back at her life and reframes it. The result is breathtaking. Will there be another "pull request" for this memoir in the future? Maybe. But honestly, I don’t mind. This version is so vulnerable, so beautifully written, and so tender in its honesty. It checks all the boxes for the pleasure of reading. Truly, it's paisa vasool.

Money is a funny thing. The skills needed to make it, grow it, and spend it are entirely different, yet we're mostly taught to work hard/smart and hustle to earn it. Once you start making money, you learn about growing it through investments/savings. blah blah. But we're rarely taught how to spend it, other than receiving generic advice like "be frugal" and "don't spend beyond your means."

When it comes to spending, I often find myself deep in Internet rabbit holes, exploring how wealthy people manage and spend their money. Andrew Wilkinson is one such figure I've frequently encountered in the podcast circles of Shaan Puri, Tim Ferriss, Ramit Sethi, Sam Parr, and others. Curious about his story, I picked up this book, and it turned out to be a damn good read.

Andrew has rubbed shoulders with some of my favourites, like Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett, and Derek Sivers. The book is well-produced, with a smooth narrative, the right hooks, and a tone of authenticity and groundedness. I sense that the real truth lies between the lines, in what’s left unspoken. For example, the book doesn’t delve much into his divorce, the perspectives of his critics or any flaws. Narrative fallacy is an in-built feature of memoirs, so we must trust our taste and intuition to make sense of what's presented.

Knowing all these, I still found the book interesting and enjoyable. Your mileage may vary, but if you enjoy business-related stories and memoirs, try it.

I fell into the semaglutide/GLP1 rabbit hole after listening to the Acquired Podcast’s episode on Novo Nordisk. (Sidenote: The Acquired Podcast is a must-listen if you like business, history, and storytelling.) 

I picked up this book thinking I would get to know more about this class of drugs, its history, and its effects. But I was in for a surprise. This book is a very personal and vulnerable journey of Johann Hari’s experience with the new semaglutide drug - Ozempic, body image issues, eating disorders and healthy eating. 

What stunned me about this book was the description of the food industrial complex. I know it is important to eat plant-based or real food instead of food manufactured in a plant, but it really hit hard to see the kind of impact industrialised food manufacturing has on our eating habits and on our long-term health.

I found this book to be a super interesting read, and it included a lot of food (ha!) for thinking about nutrition, fitness, and eating. 

Fascinating and fantastic experience to listen to this audiobook.

This book is a collection of stories from the author's experience as a therapist. She calls them psychological heroes, but I like the term warriors. All of them come from different socio-economic strata but have gone through highly different upbringings—abusive parents, appalling residential schools, failed states/institutions, and negligent parents chasing their demons.

What stood out for me was the author's compassionate and kind gaze on the patients and their experiences. Also, her ability to interweave her views as a therapist while telling the stories was amazing. Many terms like transference, reframing, dissociative identity disorder, and separation anxiety were explained in the context of stories that make a newbie like me appreciate the craft of therapy a lot.

If you are interested in some sort of inner work—therapy or coaching or just curious about how parental overlords impact their kids in the most whacky and weird manner, you will find this book a satisfying read.

tl;dr: This is the best book I have read this year. You should read it, too. Period.

“Books should burn inside the reader and make them restless. It should kindle wonder and curiosity in them, not pass any judgment.” - this statement in a podcast with the author Benjamin Labatut got my attention about his new book MANIAC. It is a narrative nonfiction that dives into the life of John von Neumann and ends with Deepmind’s AlphaGo beating the best Go master in the world.

Through characters like Feynman, Wigner, John’s wife and daughter, and a host of interesting characters, we peek into his genius, idiosyncrasies, and quirks. I was unaware of his contributions to math, computer science, biology, and many other fundamental areas of science. I think the word polymath must have been invented to describe him.

Blurring fiction and nonfiction genres with detailed research and masterful writing, the author paints a great picture of that era and explains why John is such an exciting person to know.

What a fantastic experience this book is! I loved it. I highly recommend it.