The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine
by Nathan Thrall
Why is Israel not serious about peace with Palestine? Israel made peace with Egypt and Jordan. It once offered a peace plan to Syria. But it keeps ignoring the demands from Palestine.
According to Thrall, it’s because Palestinians never posed a real threat to Israel and “were too weak to protect their concessions from further erosion.” To bridge this imbalance in power, Israel has to be brought under international pressure. The only country that could do so, as the past shows, is the U.S. But when the U.S. is taking sides with Israel, as Trump’s Jerusalem move suggests, Palestinians are left to themselves.
Read Stanly Johny’s review of the book here
How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer
by Adrian Newey
Newey writes about his work over three decades in motorsport. He had a short stint in F1 with Fittipaldi Automotive, and designed multiple IndyCar winning machines before becoming a celebrated F1 designer for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.
He helps the reader understand the process behind the design of an F1 car — from the drawing board to unexpected headaches once the car hits the track and the solutions he devised. For geeks, Newey’s hand-drawn sketches are an added treat.
Read S. Dipak Raghav’s review here
River of Life, River of Death: The Ganges and India’s Future
by Victor Mallet
The view that the Ganga is ‘polluted’ or is dying due to human abuse and needs concrete, scientific management is a thoroughly modern view and younger than the republic of India. Victor Mallet’s River of Life, River of Death: The Ganges and India’s Future is an account of the journalist’s travels along several stretches of the river.
Read Jacob Koshy’s review of the book here
The New Wealth of Nations
by Surjit S. Bhalla
Development is too complex a matter to be explained by a single variable. Surjit Bhalla suggests education as the way out. Each chapter of the book argues that the magic wand is education to increase income, create wealth, reduce inequality, empower women, create middle class or democratise the elite.
Read Kandaswami Subramaniam’s review here
