Review: Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark

4 stars for Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark.

This book is a joy to read.

It is easy to read about the success of people, the founders of so-and-so companies, but it is not often that we get to learn about the difficulties faced or the sheer amount of hard work put in or even the many failed attempts undergone before these people come to be where they are today.

In the book, the author tells the remarkable story of how Alibaba Group Holding Limited - a company registered in the Cayman Islands but based in China, controlled by a partnership which does not actually own the business assets in China, and subsequently listed in the United States New York Stock Exchange - come to be and its goals for the future.

Another reason this book provides enjoyment reading is that the author has a good grasp of the Chinese language. By using the Hanyu Pinyin, a Mandarin phonetic transcription system, together with corresponding English explanations, he succeeds in relating the story content in his own way while retaining the Chinese flavour of what the book is like.

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, a former English teacher turned businessman, philosopher, philanthropist, environmentalist, has big vision for the company. It does seem as if Alibaba wants a share in everything, from business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce to business-to-consumer (B2C) to health care to environment to sports and entertainment to even the newspaper industry which some consider to be a sunset industry.

Can Alibaba survive long enough in today's cutthroat industry to span three centuries from its incorporation in 1999 to see its vision come to fruition? Only time will tell.

Review: The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project by Robert S. Boynton

2 stars for The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project by Robert S. Boynton.

I feel bad giving this book a 2-star rating given that it is deeply reported and thoroughly researched and that the author has invested countless hours of hard work fact-checking to get this book published.

The thing is, this book reads very much like a boring history lesson, albeit perhaps a necessary one for better understanding as it alternates between the abductees' stories and history of Japan and North Korea.

Regardless of unexciting historical events, this book does address political and social issues such as:

- Why did North Korea go to the trouble of snatching ordinary Japanese people from beaches and small towns?

- Why did Kim Il-sung invite Japan’s Koreans to move to North Korea? With all the challenges it faced in the wake of the Korean War, why would North Korea want such an enormous infusion of people?

- Anyone who is born and raised in the North knows that identity within the society determines fate. It does not matter how smart one is or how hard one works. If identity or public image or presentation is not correct, one will never marry well, will never get the right job and will never succeed.

Review: Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden

4 stars for Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden.

Kaechon political prison camp, also known as Camp 14, was established in 1959. At time of this post, Camp 14 is a sixty-year-old Skinner box, an ongoing experiment in repression and mind control in which guards breed prisoners whom they control, isolate and pit against one another from birth.

Born (1982) and raised in a political prison, Shin In Geun is reputed to be the only known prisoner to have successfully escaped from a "total-control zone" grade internment camp in North Korea, one of the world's most brutal totalitarian regimes.

Escape from Camp 14 is Shin's account of the misery of life in the North Korean gulag and his subsequent escape. He is not only a witness to but also an example of North Korea’s cruelty to its own people. His body is a roadmap of the hardships of growing up in a labour camp, a walking proof of those tortures he has been subjected to.

I am very much affected by what I read in this book. It is a depressing story. But what makes it even more disturbing and scary is that these hardships and cruelty are not dealt by enemies but by the country's leaders to its very own people.

Camp 14 and all the other labour camps are clearly visible in satellite photographs. Yet, North Korea government denies the existence of these camps. Read this book to find out more and decide for yourself what the truth is. But be forewarned, not all that is presented in the book is real. In 2015, some years after the first edition of publication, Shin discloses that his life in the North Korean gulag differ from what he has been telling government leaders, human rights activists, and journalists. I will recommend to read the new foreword first to prepare for Shin's admission of fabrication.

Review: A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa

5 stars for A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa.

I have heard of stories told about famine and starvation in North Korea. But it is only after reading this book that I realise how dire the situation was and in all likelihood still is. It is indeed an eye-opener, sadly, a very educational but disturbing true story about the conditions in North Korea that is bound to affect the psyche of any who reads it. You name it. The book has it.

Cruelty
Despair
Desperation
Exhaustion
Fear
Frustration
Hardship
Hopelessness
Oppression
Misery
Starvation

Masaji Ishikawa was born in Kawasaki, Japan in 1947 to a Korean father and Japanese mother. In 1960, at the age of thirteen, Masaji moved with his parents and three sisters to North Korea, where they were promised a new life in a paradise on earth. Instead, they were consigned to a living hell. In 1996, after thirty-six years of struggling to stay alive, Masaji made a desperate bid to escape from that impoverished hellhole that was North Korea. He currently resides in Japan.

This is his story.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. There is so much more in North Korea than nuclear weapons. It makes me appreciate my life and all that I have, right down to the very basic necessities that most of us take for granted. Perhaps because it is my first time reading on North Korea, one of the world's most brutal totalitarian regimes, Ishikawa's story leaves a deep impact and impression. Each time I am reminded of Ishikawa's life, the incredible hardship and starvation, I feel so blessed to be where I am and what I am today.

Review: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

2 stars for Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.

This book follows Elon Musk's life from his childhood up to the time he spent at Zip2 and PayPal, and then onto SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.

Musk's deep-seated interest in rockets, space exploration, electric cars and solar power technology is astounding. You have got to hand it to him, his optimistic vision and relentless drive to execute.

Well, I am not a car enthusiast nor am I into space travel or Mars or solar energy. I am sorry but not sorry to say it is difficult for me to understand the pursuit of Musk's dreams. But still, I do enjoy reading the first one third of the book before it goes into technical details of rocket making, electric cars, solar panels, funding matters and the ugliness of power wrestling.

This is not a book that I will recommend to just about anyone. Technically speaking, this book is well written and you can tell that the author has done a great background job on all things Elon Musk related. However, unless you are already a fan or staunch follower of Elon Musk, the likelihood of losing interest along the way and skipping chunks of this book is rather high. Read it or not at all.

Review: Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh

5 stars for Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh.

Henry Marsh is leading English neurosurgeon. He retires from full-time practice in 2015. Do No Harm is a brutally honest account of his life's work, his 40-year career as a brain surgeon.

As with any human, neurosurgeon Marsh makes his share of mistakes in his life. The stories in this book are about his attempts, and occasional failures, to find a balance between the necessary detachment and compassion that a surgical career requires, a balance between hope and realism.

Having read this memoir, I understand better the difficulties that doctors face. But I also view doctors in a different light now.

Review: Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh

4 stars for Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh.

I come to know of this book by chance. The title somehow grabs my attention and I know I must read the book.

This book is about medicine and neurosurgery, more than that, it is about life as a neurosurgeon.

Here, author Marsh reveals much of his inner thoughts and feelings:

• Why he is always a little anxious when waiting to operate and when operating, and why he has to affect a complete calm and confidence, something which he does not inwardly feel

• Why it is important for surgeons to radiate self confidence

• Why surgeons feel easily threatened by their own colleagues

• Why surgeons often disparage their colleagues and even give evidence against one another as expert witnesses.

• Why surgeons carry cemeteries within themselves

• Why medical decisions - whether to treat, how much to investigate - are often not clear-cut.

• Why health care costs are getting more and more expensive, running out of control.

• Why patients or their families have wholly unrealistic expectations of what medicine can achieve, and take it very ill if things go badly.

• Why doctors have to supress their natural empathy, to not learn but unlearn empathy.

• Why it is so remarkably difficult as a doctor to find the correct balance between compassion and detachment

• Why an awake craniotomy is recommended to remove tumour in the brain rather than with the patient asleep under a general anaesthetic, and how it is done

Food for thought.. what is the role of the doctor?

The role of the doctor is not just to save life at any cost, but also to reduce suffering.

If surgeons operate on everybody, without any regard to the probable outcome, they will create terrible suffering for some of the patients and even more so for their families.

Review: Palmistry, Orion Plain and Simple by Sasha Fenton

4 stars for Palmistry, Orion Plain and Simple by Sasha Fenton.

This book covers the basics of hand reading. It shows us how easy it is to read hands for fun and to weigh someone up without their knowledge.

Now that I have finished reading this palmistry book, it may be interesting to practice on my friends to see how accurate I can get to their characters, goals, objectives or even long term destiny. I may even be able to impress them with my hands reading knowledge.