Review: Timeline

Timeline by Michael Crichton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is about time travel. Crichton is one of my favourite writers as he researches the subject of his work thoroughly before writing it. Here this is just pure fiction about time travel undertaken by a group of historians contracted by a greedy and rich entrepreneur to bring back a professor stuck up in the 1300s medieval France and England. The first 200 pages was slow and boring and I almost gave it up. Then the action started once they travelled back in time to the 1300s and it became a page turner.

I would rate this as 3 star due to the slow start and a flimsy plot although the action is macabre and thrilling.

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Review: Liar's Poker

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the author's narrative of his experience working at Salomon Brothers, at one time the biggest investment bank on Wall Street and probably the world. The book is a sarcastic look into the world of high finance with wit and humor laced in the narrative. Investment banks are generally known as the hotbed of high net worth employees who sell products (equities, debt, bonds and mortgages here) to gullible, often clueless, investors at huge profits to satisfy their ever-increasing appetite for humongous profits. Corporate greed is the underlying message of the book and the cast of characters are the unscrupulous traders dotting the landscape.

The author is actually an art history student who somehow stumbles onto to the investment banking job, mainly just because every smart ivy League graduate seemed to be joining one. Somewhere down the years he is somewhat disillusioned by the profession and quits. The book is definitely insightful and educative. Some terms like CMOs, junk bonds etc are so lucidly explained that even a layman will be able to understand. Reading this book 30 years after it was first published. So many changes have taken place and so many firms have ceased to exist since. The book is funny at places but monotony of the narrative gets to you after a point of time.

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