Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938) - Starring Hercule Poirot - written by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is known as one of the most prolific writers of detective novels, and certainly the top selling author. She write during the early years of the 20th century and wrote for several decades, creating 2 of the most famous detectives (the more famous egoist Hercule Poirot and the village elderly spinster Miss Marple). These 2 detectives, in their individual stories delved into human nature unerringly, pointing out the evil being done by people, and finally pinpointed the people behind the murders (in most of these cases, these were murders although there might be several other crimes mixed in with them).
Agatha Christie had somewhat of a colorful life herself, atleast in parts. Her first marriage fell apart when her husband fell in love with another lady and told Agatha that he wanted a divorce; this in turn caused the mysterious lost days of her life when she disappeared for 10 days until she was finally found in a hotel room, under the assumed name of her husband's lover. Her second marriage was far more successful, involving some travel as well, lasting through her life.
Hercule Poirot is probably the more well known of the 2 detectives (she created some minor other characters as well, but they did not become so famous as these two). For comical effect, she also would add sequences when he would get affronted if somebody did not recognize him, or in the later novels, where the person thought that he would be so old that he would have died by now.




Hercule's Poirot Christmas was later published in the US under the name of 'Murder for Christmas', and a much later edition was sold as 'A holiday for murder'. Without getting into spoilers, the book is an interesting one where the enter detecting work is done in a house, with the murder having taken place in a closed room with the impossibility of anybody getting into the room.
Simeon Lee is very old, and very rich, and also very autocratic. He surprises his family by hosting a grand family get-together at Christmas where he even invites his long separated son, Harry, whom the others in the family really don't like - but hey, if the old man wants it done, then it will be done and he does not brook any opposition. He also invites his grand-daughter, she of Spanish descent, who has lost her parents and who knows that her grandfather is a very rich man. And yet another guest, Stephen Farr, the son of Simeon's former partner in the mines. And then the family hears him talking to his lawyer on the phone about how he wants to update his will.
And on Chrismas Eve at night, after dinner, there is an almighty commotion from the old man's room, with the upturning of furniture as well as a horrible scream. The door is locked from the inside, and when they break open the door, they find the room to be in a mess, as well as the murdered body of Simeon with large amounts of spilled blood. The police Superintendent was also there, having come earlier in the evening to meet Simeon and he takes charge of the house and the proceedings, him having apparently been called by Simeon because of some diamonds missing from the locker.
Any further details will take away from the mystery, just one line, not everybody is whom they claim to be, and Poirot has to unmask people as well as prevent further murders. A detective novel worth reading.

Death on the Nile (1937) - Starring Hercule Poirot - written by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is known as probably the most famous detective novelist, atleast in terms of the overall number of books she has sold. Her books are outsold only by the Bible and by the works of William Shakespeare, which is saying a lot. Although it is also true that she has written a large number of detective novels spanning a time of multiple decades. Some are truly exceptional, with just a few that may be considered below her standard.
She is most famous for creating 2 famous detectives - the egg headed Hercule Poirot, who is also seen as egoistical and very much in awe of his own abilities, and the quiet elderly spinster Miss Marple who seems to have an incredible grasp of human nature and the evil that resides in many people (and an stubborn ability not to take anyone's words at face value).
Agatha Christie also had a real life mystery in her own life, at the time when her first husband wanted a divorce from her for marrying his mistress. She disappeared for a period of 10 days despite an extensive hunt, with outrage from a public that by now was an avid reader of her books. She was found in a hotel under the name of her husband's mistress and seemingly suffering from amnesia. After she was found, the public opinion turned negative, with the belief that either she was looking to frame her husband, or this was sort of publicity stunt.
However, she had a lot of writing left in her and went onto write some of her most famous works, including the novel 'And then there were none' as well as 'Murder on the Orient Express'.


Death on the Nile was a novel featuring the detective Hercule Poirot, in one her typical trademark fashions. I will try and not reveal too much of the story so that if you have not read it, there is some suspense involved. There are some twists and turns, else why would you like the book once you have finished reading it; what I can promise is that most of you would not have anticipated the twist in the novel. A couple of the characters in the book, besides Hercule Poirot have made their appearance in other books.
The people depicted in the book depict mostly typical upper class British citizens, as well as some Americans. As was there in that time, the locals (the Egyptians in this case) really don't have any power or authority, and are overseen by the visiting Englishmen. However, do keep in mind that this was a book written from that time period, and the power and authority equations from that time have been depicted in the book.
The book is a story all about a vengeful women and how she tries to get her revenge. Jacqueline de Bellefort was poor but had a delightful and loving fiancee Simon Doyle, for whom she was trying to get a job. She has a very rich friend Linnet Doyle, who agrees to help her by giving a job to Simon. Fast forward some time, and there is a massive betrayal by both, since Simon breaks his engagement and gets married to Linnet.
What does a vengeful women do ? Well, try and make their life hell. So when they try and escape from her on a steamer river cruise in Egypt, they find that their plans were of no use since Jacqueline was also on the ship and proceeded to mock and taunt her, giving them no respite. Linnet asks for help from Poirot, but he declines, although he does try and caution Jacqueline about the path she is taking. There is an usual an odd assorted set of characters on the steamer, some of whom have their own small stories in the book.
Linnet suffers an attempt on her life during a shore excursion, and then on the steamer, she finally meets her end, being found in the morning, having been shot to death. Poirot now takes up the matter, trying to figure out what really happened and who killed her. The novel does make an interesting reading.

Nuclear accident: Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

Nuclear weapons are immensely powerful, with the potential damage from an explosion being of much higher levels than all previous such weapons. The explosions of a nuclear weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan that caused the end of the second world war showed the immense power of nuclear weapons, and those were on the smaller scale. Modern nuclear weapons, especially the hydrogen bombs, are of a scale that is much more powerful than the ones that were used in Japan. And the number of these weapons (stored in missile systems) are in the thousands, spread all over the country. Most people staying near to these missile silos are totally unaware of how close they live to such destructive power; although these warheads are supposed to be designed that they will not explode unless a specific series of processes are carried out, and hence the risk of detonating accidentally is ruled out.
This book showcases that while even a powerful explosion next to the warhead did not explode it, there is always some amount of uncertainty when dealing with such a weapon. Even the fact that the missile has a large amount of very dangerous fuel adds to the complication in dealing with such matters.




The Titan missiles were a significant part of the US strategic missile fleet and were mated to a 9 megaton warhead, the most powerful warhead in the US stockpile of nuclear weapons. These were sited in silos across many parts of the country and were loaded with a fuel that was more stable than previous (although stability is always a relative measure - these propellants were far more dangerous and unstable than the petrol or gasoline we use in our normal vehicles). One of these silos was near Damascus in rural Arkansas, close to Little Rock. A missile is essentially a metal pipe that contains a lot of high explosive power propellant with a much more explosive warhead on top.
Imagine a regular maintenance of the missile, and a socket drops from the personnel who are doing the maintenance. They watch in horror while the socket plummets down into the silo, finally hitting the body of the missile and cause the fuel to start gushing out from the hole. From then on, it becomes like a real life high speed film, with disaster starting everyone in the area, conflicting scenes of responsibility, local authorities knowing that some disaster is unfolding but not having control of the area (that control was with the military), and finally sending in volunteers to control the situation, followed immediately by such a huge explosion that the warhead was thrown some distance away (and recovered).
The incident has been covered in books and in documentaries, and when you see the documentary, the theory that a warhead is totally safer even under these circumstances seems like theory, not something that you really want to see being under test.

Israel and the Bomb - By Avner Cohen (1999) - The fascinating story about the Israeli bomb

Israel is a very small country in the Middle East, a country that was formed soon after the Holocaust saw millions of Jews in Europe to be murdered in hideous ways, using the official state machinery of Nazi Germany. It caused a huge upheaval in the politics of the Middle East, with large migrations of Jews from all over Europe to the Middle East with a demand for a country of their own, where they would not be subjected to extermination. However, safety of the new nation was not easy, with it being invaded by its neighbors as soon as it was formed, and struggled to defeat them. There was nothing easier for a neighboring dictator (or democratically elected leader) to become popular than to promise the defeat of Israel and force the population to the ocean (and with the size of Israel and its width), this was no empty threat. 

As a result, the safety for the Israeli nation was in having a military that was far superior to the combined might of its neighbors (or in terms of tactics, such as destroying the standing Egyptian Air Force in a quick attack in a war); and a weapon that promised a much superior capability was the atomic weapon (and Israel has not flinched from attacking those who also sought to develop nuclear weapons, such as its attacks on nuclear reactors in Syria and earlier, in Iraq). However, for developing a nuclear weapon, you need a strategy, you need technology and you need nuclear material. This book seeks to explain all of those, including the development of the Israeli nuclear effort and its attempts to hoodwink the French and US Governments over a period of time. 

For Israel, the nuclear weapon remains an enigma; the Government has never admitted having one; anybody in Israel who seeks to expose any details finds the full might of the Israeli state descending on him; and because of its internal politics, the US Government and political class have not had any discussion on this topic for decades now. Neighboring countries also do not try to talk about it, since that would admit to their people that they cannot seek to defeat the Israelis and that their own leaders are impotent in developing a counter nuclear weapon. However, the Israeli nuclear weapon has come close to being used twice, in the 1967 and the 1973 (the position in the 1973 war more dire, and Golda Meir, the Israeli PM, had apparently felt that the war position was very adverse and had considered the option of using 13 nuclear weapons unless Israel became safe again).

The book provides a history of the 2 decades that led to the development of nuclear weapons in Israel, the period of the 1950's and 60's. It was David Ben-Gurion, the warrior leader of Israel, who authorized and started the process of this development; collaborating with France and the United States for getting the technology and the material, but without them really believing that Israel was upto this (or in the case of the US, by the end, tacitly admitting the program - to the extent that it was supposed to be stolen material from a US nuclear reactor that was used for many of the weapons developed by Israel). 

Some of this was at a time when the US administration (especially under President Kennedy) was against nuclear proliferation besides those who had already had the weapons and hence was trying to figure out what Israel was doing. But other administrations in the United States struggled with how hard to push, till the Nixon administration finally gave it up, with the understanding that Israel would not test the bomb, and the US would not ask about the bomb.

The book is worthy reading, and is not a boring thesis, but more like a novel, making for interesting reading for a wider audience.

The Price of Politics - Would the US fall over the fiscal cliff ?

In the current atmosphere of the 2016 presidential elections, the tension between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is extremely high, there is almost no sign of any civility between these 2 opposing parties. Politics is a total gridlock, the public impression of Congress is at an all time low and people want some kind of change.
The hostilities between the 2 parties is something that has been there for many years (nay, decades). However, there has been cooperation between the parties, there has been compromise. Previous Presidents have worked with Congress controlled by the opposition parties and managed to get new laws and bills passed. However, the 2010 rise of the Tea Party movement and the election of a set of new representatives in both the House of Representatives and in the Senate is pushing a move towards fiscally responsible principles. Overall, the Republican Party has been seen to be more fiscally conservative, with the concept of keeping 'giveaways' in check, and there has been a large section of the population who believe that if they can keep their finances in check, why can't the federal Government, a Government which they believe has gone out of control.




And who is to be blamed for fiscal irresponsibility ? Why, the current President, Barack Obama under whose policies the overall debt of the US has ballooned, where there is no control of the finances of the Government and the Government itself seeks to expand rather than trying to keep control of itself. On the other side, the Democrats and the President believe that the 2008-2009 financial disaster was something that could put the US into a deep recession which would be very painful, and there was a need to try to rise out of this morass, if this required suspending some of the measures of trying to put a hard check on rising finances. So there was Government support for major financial entities whose collapse could hurt sentiment and the economy, and all of this money had to increase the debt.
By the time of the entry of the Tea Party representatives, there was a push to not let this wasteful increase of finances keep on going on, somebody needs to push to prevent any further increase of the debt. As a result, by mid 2011, there was a hard line that was being reached. The US had reached a limit about how much the debt of the US could be, and Congress needed to increase the debt ceiling. And this was just one of the battles that were being fought between the 2 opposing parties. There was almost no compromise between the opposing parties, since there was a clash of ideologies. What hung in the balance was the fiscal condition of the US, and indeed the world, since if the debt ceiling was not raised, there was the danger of a worldwide loss of confidence in the US economy and the Government. The other main battle was about the healthcare law called Obamacare, and it was tagged in almost every bill that was making its way through Congress. The dispute showcased a high amount of rigidity at the highest political level, and reading this makes for horrific reading - how can the people elected to work for the betterment of the US and its citizenry be so unwilling to work with each other to resolve crisis ? Get an insight into the people involved in all these discussions through this book.

History - A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East (Published in 2009)

The current state of the Middle East seems like a total mess. From the time of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, it would seem that everything is going topsy-turvy. However, the region has been in a state of turmoil for decades (maybe even a century) - can one forget the turmoil between the Jews and the Arabs during the 1930's and 1940's, which increased with the end of the Second World War and the push towards getting a Jewish homeland. On the other side, the Ottoman Empire was ending, and leading to a push by the various communities for power through the area. Ibn Saud was battling to conquer the land of Arabia and setup Saudi Arabia. There were powers to be everywhere; and the ever present Shia-Sunni conflict would rear up its ugly head.
However, if you were to look at the current political structure of the Middle East, there is the emphasis on one particular event which seems to be the grand-daddy of all the chaos that is currently there, the precursor to the various nations that have been setup (so, for example, if you look at Syria, it is an amalgamation of many different tribes and communities and the scope for chaos, ruthlessly put down all these years, has risen so fast that the future of the country seems totally at risk with other similar examples) - this was an arrangement between the colonial powers of a century ago, France and Great Britain. This was the Sykes - Picot agreement (named after the good gentlemen who negotiated the agreement from both sides), and the agreement delineated the spheres of control for both countries once the Ottoman Empire was defeated at the end of the First World War (link to Wiki site for the agreement).



This book provides a good reference for the events of that time. There was a huge amount of politics in that area ongoing, and during the course of the First World War, Britain and France had decided that in the event of winning the war, the Ottoman Empire would be distributed among the victorious parties in terms of mandates and regions of influence. At the same time, there was a Turkish upheaval that was against the Ottoman Empire and who wanted their own set of power and authority at the end of the war, there was the demand for a homeland for the Zionists, there were other influential figures whose support was needed by Britain and France, and yet they also felt like a kind of parental authority for the region, that they had the best interests for everybody in the region. If you go through the book and see the flow of history, you would start to see some of the background for the problems that have occurred now, especially the way that the nation states have been setup in that region. Even the 2 colonial powers who had made the agreement, were constantly jealous of the authority of the other, and especially when territory was won in the war, there was a lot of reluctance to honor previous agreements. A great deal of the background between the animosity between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine, and even the fight between the Jewish underground militias and the British authority in Palestine (modern day Israel) could be traced to a slow boil that started in the first and second decade of the 20th century.

WW2 - True Story of Wing Commander Tommy Yeo-Thomas - Published in 1997

There are actually 2 books written on the heroics of this awesome man. During the Second World War, Nazi Germany was on the warpath. By 1940, it had already run over the Low countries of Holland and Belgium, and also taken control of France, making it an occupied land. Bereft of supporters, Britain was alone in the fight against the Nazis. Russia was still in a no-war pact with Germany, the US was determined to stay out of this European war, and it seemed that Germany was preparing to attack Britain so as to ensure that the whole of Europe was under the grip of the Nazis.
At that time, it was pretty clear to Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, controlling a Government under siege, that there needed to be some sort of offensive against the Germans. Obviously, after the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) was walloped and had to be rescued from Dunkirk (having left all their heavy weaponry behind), there was no way that Britain could attack directly (in fact, there was little chance of even getting a beach head on continental Europe). But there were resistance movements starting to happen in the occupied countries, with the traditional enmity between France and Germans leading to the start of a vigorous resistance movement (however, the Gestapo was powerful and very determined to crush any means of resistance) - the call by Charles De Gaulle was a powerful one to oppose the Nazis.

Winston Churchill had also given the command to setup an organization that would work behind the scenes to keep the Nazis busy with sabotage, resistance and damage. The objective of the setting up of the Special Operations Executive was to 'set Europe ablaze'. The objective of the Wing Commander was to obstruct Nazi operations in France, and he soon realized that the French resistance was just not receiving enough support and sought a meeting with Churchill where he explained the need for more support for the resistance (they were the ones who could really play a role against the Nazis in occupied France). He made multiple trips to France but was captured finally by the Gestapo after being betrayed, and in turn, was tortured so that he could betray others. He refused and was tortured again and again, and still tried to escape multiple times, wherever he was kept in confinement and was finally able to make his freedom just before the end of the war in Europe. He was given multiple medals for bravery and valor; and the role he and fellow SOE agents played in Europe had a key role in finally ending the war and defeat for the Nazis.