For those of you who have seen the Television series, The Originals, reading the book is a sacred duty. You can never have enough of the Mikaelson  siblings, and the book by the producer Julie Plec, who began this series as a spin-off from The Vampire Diaries, is a way of knowing your favourite characters better.

For those of you who don’t have any idea about it, a little summary of The Originals – The Rise: The Mikaelson  family is ruined and broken beyond repair. In New Orleans in 1722, the city is marred with anarchy and a mild war is raging between the enemies: the witches and the werewolves who are not ready to live together. The twist in the tale is brought by our favourite Klaus. His impending marriage to Vivianne is counted upon to be end the hostility. But it’s apparent that Klaus is volatile and short-tempered.

There had been much furor and excitement about this book.  It makes sense because a book AFTER the TV show is a welcome change, since usually it is the other way round. To top it off, we have an inexplicable alacrity to know as much as we can about the Originals family and siblings specifically.

Initially, the narrative was difficult to read and grasp, and it is a little difficult to relate to the series. But the book and the series are set in different time periods. The only thing that perhaps remains unchanged is their evil father. The book is too detailed for its own good. Although the story and its characters, with all their eccentricities do everything, even disappoint you; one cannot really pin-point as to what was extraneous. Eventually everything falls into place, and one only craves for more of it.

It ends well, and some really strong quotes, coupled with the vividness of the characters, make it worth reading. Because one’s loyalty to The Originals  is Always and forever!

Image credits: harlequin.com

The book “Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!” by Nicholas Carlson was published earlier this year. Carlson, a Business Insider writer has been covering stories on Google, Yahoo and Marissa Mayer since 2006. Divided into four parts, the book flits between Yahoo’s past, Marissa’s past and then about her tenure as the CEO of Yahoo.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have picked up a book about Yahoo. To me, it’s a brand that was once an important part of my internet activity (I was hooked to its games like Diner Dash and spent many hours in the now questionable threads on Yahoo Answers) back in middle school, but had slowly become irrelevant once its competitors started gaining traction. When Google opened Gmail to users worldwide, I logged out of my Yahoo mail account and never returned to the site.

So what made me pick up this book? Well, for starters, Mayer has a very interesting career story, what with the Stanford graduate being one of the first 25 employees at Google who went on to become one of the most crucial members on its team. It was only after she became the CEO of Yahoo in 2012, that I began to hear about Yahoo again, particularly about its acquisition of Tumblr, a blogging platform and its investment in Alibaba, a Chinese e commerce site which had the world’s largest IPO or Initial Public Offering ever, when it went public last year. However, her occasional cold behaviour and obsession with detail have led to enemies in her career too. I bought the book mostly to get to know more about her decisions and corporate moves.

For me, the book stands out not just because the chain of events in Yahoo and Mayer’s life is so interesting, but also because the way the book has been written. It is neither an autobiography, biography nor a commentary. It has been based on hundreds of interviews from various sources who have worked and known Mayer in the past. Internal documents of Yahoo have been used too, apparently. The amount of research the book reflects is remarkable!

The events are such that they might be a little difficult to process during the first read. Though it’s very gripping, you might feel overwhelmed by the information–I made notes to keep track of certain points. But for anyone who’s interested in corporate affairs, investments, the ups and downs of what was once considered a top company and the career of a powerful lady, this book is a great addition to your bookshelf!

As a commerce student, it is only fair for me to be inclined towards reading a book that tells a story of corporate India. There’s no gainsaying that reading a debut author is a risk, but the blurb of the book, with a description of the criminal activities, vicious manipulations and corruption, manages to intrigue a prospective reader. And so, it happened with me.

I am sure about the fact that it will keep you glued till the end. To say that it has mind-blowing twists and turns in the plots, seems an understatement. One murder after another, one attack after another, and the writer has craftily kept us guessing till the end who the culprit is.

The author’s experience in the corporate world comes in handy. When I started reading it, I had initially thought that the book will at best, be predictable. As luck would have it, it was everything but. The plot twists outdo themselves every time.
The characters are meticulously etched. One of the senior characters remarks, somewhere before the murders take place in the novel, “Where there is money, there is deceit. With lots of money, there is lots of deceit. Be careful of whom you trust”. Consider this a summary of the plot. From one character to another, as a reader, we have multiple reasons to look at them with suspicion, sympathy, pity, fear. But one thing is crystal-clear: you can love them or hate them, but you cannot ignore them. None of them.

The setting in time is contemporary, which makes it all the more resourceful for us. There are loopholes in IT security, there are unscrupulous practices in auditing, there are investigations which lead to little evidence, or so we think.

I was a little flummoxed in the way the culprit was finally revealed, it somehow lacked the dramatic flair that was otherwise remarkable throughout the novel. Without spoilers, all I can tell is that the culprit is a person you least expect, and someone not even instrumental to the plot. The end is, in no way, disappointing, but it just does not match the grandeur of the rest of the novel.

Here’s a shout out to the fans of Jeffery Archer, Robert Ludlum, John Grisham: you may add Fraudster to your to-read list – it is worth it.

Kritika Narula
[email protected]

The story, as the name and the cover clearly suggest, is a crime-thriller. Based in Mumbai, it takes the reader through the murky world of tech-savvy miscreants who use social networking sites and the Internet for blackmail and ‘sextortion’. Inspector Virkar is the apparent protagonist, and just like all protagonists, he is supposed to solve the riddles in the plot. In this case, it means finding the connection between a string of gruesome murders, and the activities of a bunch of college students-turned-cyber criminals.

Now, it might seem an exaggeration, but it is not: I read the novel, cherished it and really likened it to the mystery thrillers penned by Satyajit Ray. Inspector Virkar is almost like Feluda in his contemporary incarnation.

This novel, at one level also tells the reader how real the threats of privacy and security are, in this age of internet-addiction, thereby giving us goosebumps. I, for example was scared to use my laptop, webcam and so on for days after reading the novel.

The plot has all possible ingredients of a bestseller- a group of college students gone morally decrepit, a psychologist with multiple roles to play, a police system marred by complacency and a hacker, who retains “ethics” in his activities, and deploys his talent to help Virkar.

A hitherto solid, foolproof expert network shatters on the altar of one woman’s revenge and another man’s incessant pursuit of a way beyond the deadlock. With its arcane description of the repugnant crimes, an insight into the threats posed by the virtual world, and an underlying manifestation of a troubled, frail teenage psychology, this book is totally worth the time and money spent on it. The crisp, accurate narrative which has, to the delight of the reader, no verbosity, is a major puller. A lot of colloquial phrases have been used, and this may be liked by some readers, detested by others. And yes, a character to watch out for, Naina our enigmatic psychologist, sarcasm personified!

In the beginning, until the plot settles into a chase, it might appear as if it is an episode straight out of CID. I implore the reader to keep reading and not assume that it is monotonous, because it is worth it!

Kritika Narula

[email protected]

When my Dad gifted me book vouchers of a popular bookstore for my birthday last month, I was itching to buy some interesting non-fiction books. While browsing through the store, I noticed a white book titled ‘How Google Works’ under the section of newly released books and ended up buying it without a second thought. The book turned out to be exactly what I’d hoped it would be-insightful and engaging with many stories from Google’s journey and bits of humour and sarcasm in between.

Contrary to what one might initially assume, the book is not about the technology that Google uses to power its many products (search engine, Gmail, YouTube, Drive and so on), but how the organisation functions. Written by Google’s ex CEO and now Executive Chairman, Schmidt and former Senior Vice President Rosenberg, this book is divided into sections about hiring, creating a work culture, decision making and innovation.

As a Business Studies student, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the unique principles and factors that have shaped the way the company runs; factors that make it so successful and a company that thousands hope to join one day.

The one principle that stands out the most and is stressed on repeatedly is how important a company’s employees and work culture truly is. Google is known to have one of the best work cultures in the world (the book even mentions how one of the early engineers wanted to bring his pet ferret to the office and was told to go right ahead) and a very rigorous hiring process to ensure they hire what is referred to in the book, as a ‘Smart Creative’, each time. Google aspirants would find this chapter particularly useful as it roughly outlines the four categories used for evaluation of candidates; Leadership, Role related knowledge, General cognitive ability and ‘Googleyness’.

Another theme common to all sections in the book is the importance of data while making any decision, whether it’s about hiring, solving a problem, creating a strategy or starting a new product.

The chapter on Innovation was my favourite part of the book. It only makes sense for a company like Google to talk about such a factor, what with its ambitious projects of building self-driving cars and Project Loon, which hopes to provide wireless broadband service to the world through huge hot air balloon like devices.

All in all, whether you’re hoping to join Google one day or are just simply curious about the foresight and culture required to build a quality product and team, How Google Works should be next on your reading list for sure.

Image credits: hachettebookgroup.com