"Two Caravans" by Marina Lewycka

"Two Caravans" is a story told from the prospective of a group of migrant workers who are seeking a better life in UK. The story starts in a strawberry field, where they are hired to be strawberry pickers. Picking strawberries by day and staying in two caravans by night -- one for the ladies, one for the guys, and hence the title "Two Caravans" -- the group is soon separated due to a rash of events that eventually cause them to journey across England in pursuit of their dreams.

Along the way, the group separates. Three return to their homeland, one succeeds in finding his sister, two get together, two go to another city for greener work pastures and the villainous one dies in a haze of gunfire when his business associates turn on him.

Then there is Dog. I capitalised "Dog" on purpose because throughout the book he is known only by that name. Dog has his own narrative as well, and it gets quite funny because his narratives are always written in caps, in "comic sans ms font" and awfully simple, a really amusing attempt to recreate his canine thoughts. Dog eventually dies from gun wounds (from the same gun fight) while attempting to save Irina.

Two Caravans is a deceptively easy book to read. I raced through it in 3 days while reading during bus trips. Notwithstanding, there are interesting themes to ponder as well, the migrant worker's plight and search for a better life being the most obvious one, I guess. Although the novel is written in a light manner, one cannot fail to see the suffering and indignities migrant workers have to go through, from being conned by agents, paid an absurdly low wage, hardly any rights to speak of, etc.

Since this is a novel told from the perspective of the various migrant workers, the theme of relationships is also a prevalent one. I caught myself grinning a couple of times at the characters' internal interpretation of what the other party is about, with a lot of guesswork, assumption, unfounded jealousy often clouding their judgment and leading to further misunderstandings. Irina's comparison of her budding romance to the characters in Tolstoy's War and Peace never failed to crack me up.

The story ends on a happy note, with Andriy and Irina together, ready to face the uncertain world. Another journey, of sorts.

"The Big Moo & Purple Cow" by Seth Godin

I borrowed this book from Tracy; the NUS intern who's attached to PSC branch. I vaguely remember reading about Seth Godin and have always wanted to try one of his books. Anyhow, this book is ostensibly about marketing and how marketers traditionally looked at the various Ps of doing a good job a la product, pricing, promotion, positioning, etc - I'm sure you get the idea.

The basis premise of Purple Cow is that it's not enough just to be good anymore. You need to be remarkable, i.e., become a purple cow, if you want to get anyone's attention in this day and age. Gone are the days when you can have a good product and just market it to the hilt to ensure market penetration. Nowadays, people are so bombarded by information that unless your product is remarkable, no one even bothers to look at what you have to offer. And remarkable doesn't mean that you aim for the mean. You've to be so unique that the trend-setters; the small minority that lives on the fringe and loves new and breath-taking ideas, likes what you have. They're the sneezers who'll spread the word around and get the rest infected by how great your product is. To stay ahead of the curve without getting complacent about your purple cow product, you need to be a purple cow organisation too.

I like this book for its easy to read and simple to understand, although it could be shorter. But then its a 2-in-1, with the Big Moo part being a collection of essays by 33 of the world's best business minds on how your organisation can be remarkable. On the whole, I give this book a 7 out of 10.

Then We Came to the End

Hanzo looked down the alley nervously and quickly slipped into the darkened room. He was already waiting, his legs propped lazily on the table, thumbing a seemingly cryptic tome.

"Sumimasen sensei," Hanzo bowed, "I have come..."

"...to borrow the book?" he replied, not once looking up from his reading.

"Y-Yes."

Without a word, he flipped out a light yellow paperback from under the table and tossed it to the visitor. Hanzo caught it clumsily and looked at the title - Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

"Take care of it," he said, "It's a good book."

Hanzo stuttered, "T-thank you s-sensei. You say this novel truly captures the way people work in offices?"

"Indeed it does. It is a tale of office life in an advertising firm, superbly written in a snappy first person plural. The insights are as spot on as a shuriken between the eyes," he said with amusement in his voice, "For those who work in an office, even halfway around the world in a basement with no windows, can surely identify with the intricacies and nonsensical dynamics of cubicle culture."

Hanzo stood there blankly, caught up in the thoughts of the office he worked at, the bitching, the gossips, the over & under-achievers, the meetings....for a moment, he couldn't recall the time when he said out loud that he could never sit still behind a desk in an office cubicle. Ah the irony.

"Thanks again sensei," Hanzo bowed and made his way out. Suddenly remembering, he turned and asked, "and you will give it...?"

"9 out of 10 katana bookmarks," replied the book ninja.

Bookworm Supergeeks new look!

I hope the other geeks don't mind, but I made a few changes to the site. New banner, different font and colours. Is it better than the last design we had? Trebuchet more/less readable than Georgia? I value feedback!

"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

I read this book many months ago, but its one of the few books I have read twice, so it deserves to be shared. The other that comes to mind is "Life of Pi". I got reminded of the book recently as Tracy, an intern from NUS, told me she was reading the same book and loving every page of it. Anyway, the book's protagonist is Henry DeTamble, who has a genetic disorder that causes him to involuntarily time-travel. Or to put it in more scientific terms, he has Chrono-Displacement.

When the 28-year old Henry meets his 20-year old wife-t0-be Clare Abshire for the first time in 1991, this is the also same time that he starts appearing during Clare's childhood. As you can imagine, this makes for quite interesting reading, not to mention having to ignore the normal space-time continuum that normal people like us are subject to. (Its sort of like "Back to the Future", but in a heterosexual romantic context.) This is why Clare can look him in the eyes and say that she's known him all her life. Henry is unable to control when he leaves, where he goes, or how long he will be gone. The places he goes to are rooted in his subconscious, and he often travels to places he has visited or will eventually visit. There is some degree of determinism involved, but often things that happened are triggered by events in the past. Henry cannot take anything with him when he time-travels. Having to find food, clothing and shelter means that he has no choice but to learn survival skills like lock-picking and fighting, among others while he waits to go back to where/when he came from.

This is a funny and at the same time poignant book. You can imagine the emotional toll Henry's condition exacts on him and his wife. For example, he keeps going back to when his mother died during a gruesome highway accident. And after marrying Clare, they tried without success to have a child for a long time. Each time she conceives, it ends in a miscarriage because of Henry's condition. But a past version of Henry travels to the future and makes love to her and she becomes pregnant and manages to carry the child to term. And before the child is born, Henry goes to the future and meets her when she is ten and learns about some terrible truths. All in all, I rate this book a 9 out of 10, as its beautifully written without being saccharinely sweet. You'll feel so much for the characters that you experience Henry and Clare's anguish of having to deal with such a condition, lament the impossibility of a normal life for the loving and lovable couple and curse the fates for being so unfair to them.

"The Undercover Economist" by Tim Harford

Ever since I read "Freakonomics" 2 years ago, I've been wanting to read "the Undercover Economist. Partly, it was an attempt to see if I can still remember anything from 3 years of reading the dismal science in university. But mostly, I wanted to see if it can provide insights into my work and life. Apparently, reading things outside of your usual genre and doing things outside of your normal routine jolt your mind in ways that create new neuron connections in your brain. Anyway, I finally bought this using Gary's kinokuniya discount card one Sunday. But I digress.

This book, while not as wacky as "Freakonomics", is still a hoot to read. It covers everything from why the expensive coffee you buy on the way to work doesn't make coffee farmers rich to how globalisation is not as evil as some people would have you think. From the first chapter, I was hooked because while Harford doesn't say anything new about economics, his analysis makes for compelling reading. For example, he starts with the story of the lone coffee bar in Waterloo Station in the UK. The fact that it can charge S$4.5 for a cup of cappuccino is because nobody else has a kiosk next door charging S$4. The reason why there is nobody next door is because the manager in charge of leasing retail space has concluded that rather than have many coffee bars in the station, he will have only one. This means that he can pretty much dictate the terms of the lease since being the lone bar allows the operator to charge a premium. But get this; what Harford has illustrated is that scarcity is power. Of course, anyone who has some modicum knowledge of economics knows that, but how many people actually look at their immediate environment and conclude that it's at work. By the way, coffee farmers are not rich because they have no scarcity power. Coffee can be grown practically everywhere, unlike oil which occurs only in certain parts of the world. This explains why when top coffee producers attempted to set up a cartel (like OPEC - ha!) to control two-thirds of the world production, it failed and shut down. Whenever the cartel succeeded in raising coffee prices, new countries jumped on the bandwagon and started producing coffee.

I especially like the chapter about globalisation entitled "Beers, Chips and Globalisation". Here, he reminds us of the familiar term "comparative advantage", which basically says that countries (like individuals) should do what they do best. When a devloped country comes under supposed attack from a developing one in that the latter can offer cheaper labour; what is actually happening is that certain industries feel the pressure. And this pressure is really telling the country that its better doing more of the other industries than those which are feeling pressured because it has comparative advantage in the aforesaid industries. There is no risk of developed countries losing everything to developing ones for imports need to be paid for by exports, i.e., the former will always be good at something that it can sell to the world to buy imports. And the evil that globalisation could bring upon the world is more myth than fact. For example, there was concern that companies in rich countries will set up shop in poorer ones and produce with scant regard for the environment. But this is not supported by empirical evidence. Take China for example, pollution level has actually gone down since the 1980s when it opened its doors to the world. Historically, countries have imposed more stringent laws to regulate pollution as they develop. But I think my elucidation is a tad wanting, so you're better off reading Harford for yourself. Obviously, my comparative advantage does NOT lie in explaining economics in easy-to-understand terms.

PS: I rate this book 7 out of 10 for an interesting read that gets you thinking that economics may actually matter in the real world ; )

"Equal Rites" by Terry Pratchett

Equal Rites is the 4th -- or 5th?? -- Pratchett book I read of the Discworld Series. It is a slimmer than usual volume, but with the characteristic satirical humour by Pratchett.

In brief, the story is about this dying wizard who has travelled far and wide to pass his magic to a child who is the 8th son of a father who is also the 8th son among his siblings. Complications ensue when, in typical male fashion of assuming whatever the wizard says is true, the father brings said future wizard to the dying wizard, gets the rites of passing the magic done, before discovering that the baby is actually a girl. As Esk (short for Eskarina) grows up, it becomes increasingly difficult to deny the gift she was given at birth. She journeys to the Unseen University and eventually becomes the first female wizard admitted into its hallowed halls.

I can't really put a finger as to why I didn't enjoy the book. Perhaps it was the state of mind I was in (speed reading in a subterranean clinic while waiting your turn before finishing the book sprawled on the couch, all the while feeling miserable has a way of doing that), or maybe the story line just wasn't as catchy as the previous TP Discworld books. Certainly there was humour; but the exploits of Esk just didn't have the same punch as TP's usual subversive retelling of events.

I read the back cover introduction expecting TP to explore the feminist theme in an innovative way, but the actual telling fell short: Esk eventually gains admission into the university by passing herself off as a servant and by some stroke of luck she saved a neophyte wizard from the bad guys. The Archchancellor of the University relents, and history is made.

Quite predictable, and therefore disappointing.

Geek rating: 2 out of 5