Week 2

The Emperor of all melodies

Now, this week was quite a challenge. The book that I have chosen is intense, and it does require more than a week to read. Despite that, I have managed to complete it. Robins challenge for week 2 is to read a book from 12th century literature. I decided while I had the time away from my MBA program in Pharmaceuticals, to tackle one of the bigger challenge books.

Siddhartha Mukherjee did a magnificent job explaining cancer in simple language that everyone can understand. It is a great explanation and insight of cancer. Mukherjee focuses on two important characters from history that put a tremendous amount of work into identifying treatments and cures for cancer. He also mentions a book called "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which I highly suggest reading. As Mukherjee explains, this book is an "exploratory journey of science, medicine, culture, history, literature, and politics into cancer's past and its future". It raises questions such as:

1. Is cancer's end conceivable in the future?
2. Is it possible to eradicate this disease from our body and societies forever?

 This book also focus on answering questions such as:

1. How old is cancer?
2. Is there an end?
3. What are the roots of our battle against this disease?
4. How did we get here?
5. Can this war even be won?

Cancer cells invade, survive, and metastasize. The question arises: How do we starve cancer and prolong human life?

This is for sure by far a highly recommended read, but take your time. A week for this book is not enough time to grasp everything. 

Week 1

 Week 1

A quick note that will follow all throughout the year.

• Each book that I read will have a direct link to Amazon/kindle. 
• I will do a brief summary each week.

The first reading book of the year that I completed on Sunday was:  
World War One: History in an Hour by Rupert Colley. 



I started my year with a recap of my early childhood, where books such as WWI & WWII required and meant to be remembered for a lifetime. Well, at least in most cases.

This book is only 100 pages and has a very easy flow to it. My understanding and interpretation of this book are very different now in comparison to childhood years. This tragic history with many hidden lessons and interpretations can be easily missed. Therefore, as a child, I simply read about it and learned it as history with a straight forward understanding and meaning.

Reading this book second time around, the hidden meanings and interpretations surfaced. Or maybe my interest in the history itself changed. In spite of all the devastation, battles and enemies, on Christmas Day, 1914, the British troops heard Germans singing Silent Night. That day, both countries acted as one big happy family, taking pictures together, singing and playing football together. A Christmas spirit bringing everyone together.  

Overall, this book looked at different strategies that each country established and tried to achieve. It highlights and honors people that were very courageous in their actions. It also talks about women rights and movement as well as recognition and role of women in society. This was a great read about power, leadership, symbols and politics.