very impressed so far, the mix of grand scope and detailed family plotlines is really well done, even if some of the Indian mythology has been going a little over my head

recent reads:

Boomerang (M. Lewis): was surprised how 100% pro-capitalism this tome was, for someone who's been pretty scathing in his criticism of Wall Street previously (not that these things are exclusive). He basically flies into these countries affected by the financial crisis, and metes out a very cliched assessment of where they messed up. Anyone who's read even a minimal amount of reporting on these countries will learn absolutely nothing. Even Mitt Romney's campaign would come up with a more varied analysis. Well OK, probably not but IMO Lewis is veering dangerously close to Thomas Friedman territory in his need to explain everything away in as little space as possible with this one

A Hologram For The King (D. Eggers): a breezy plane/beach read, this felt more like a (long) New Yorker story than an actual novel. Nothing bad about it but it's tough to recommend it to anyone except Eggers superfans

A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovitch (A. Solzhenitsin): both epic and mundane, this short book is about exactly what the title says. Even without the historical nature of it, this was a powerful read

and tons more, I've been able to stick to my reading resolution (target: 50 books by the end of the year) so it's been fun trying on a ton of different authors/subjects