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What Are You Reading Now?

Riley's Girl

By Riley's Girl
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Brainfade Newbie

Brainfade

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Not surprised.
Anything you can tell me if you've read it? I just got the book as a gift. Here's the author's biography: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/car1bio-1
Benjamin Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan. His mother Sonya had dropped out of school in the third grade, and married when she was only 13. When Benjamin Carson was only eight, his parents divorced, and Mrs. Carson was left to raise Benjamin and his older brother Curtis on her own. She worked at two, sometimes three, jobs at a time to provide for her boys. Benjamin and his brother fell farther and farther behind in school. In fifth grade, Carson was at the bottom of his class. His classmates called him "dummy" and he developed a violent, uncontrollable temper. Benjamin Carson Biography Photo When Mrs. Carson saw Benjamin's failing grades, she determined to turn her sons' lives around. She sharply limited the boys' television watching and refused to let them outside to play until they had finished their homework each day. She required them to read two library books a week and to give her written reports on their reading even though, with her own poor education, she could barely read what they had written. Within a few weeks, Carson astonished his classmates by identifying rock samples his teacher had brought to class. He recognized them from one of the books he had read. "It was at that moment that I realized I wasn't stupid," he recalled later. Carson continued to amaze his classmates with his newfound knowledge and within a year he was at the top of his class. The hunger for knowledge had taken hold of him, and he began to read voraciously on all subjects. He determined to become a physician, and he learned to control the violent temper that still threatened his future. After graduating with honors from his high school, he attended Yale University, where he earned a degree in Psychology. Benjamin Carson Biography Photo From Yale, he went to the Medical School of the University of Michigan, where his interest shifted from psychiatry to neurosurgery. His excellent hand-eye coordination and three-dimensional reasoning skills made him a superior surgeon. After medical school he became a neurosurgery resident at the world-famous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. At age 32, he became the hospital's Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery. In 1987, Carson made medical history with an operation to separate a pair of Siamese twins. The Binder twins were born joined at the back of the head. Operations to separate twins joined in this way had always failed, resulting in the death of one or both of the infants. Carson agreed to undertake the operation. A 70-member surgical team, led by Dr. Carson, worked for 22 hours. At the end, the twins were successfully separated and can now survive independently. Carson's other surgical innovations have included the first intra-uterine procedure to relieve pressure on the brain of a hydrocephalic fetal twin, and a hemispherectomy, in which an infant suffering from uncontrollable seizures has half of its brain removed. This stops the seizures, and the remaining half of the brain actually compensates for the missing hemisphere. Benjamin Carson Biography Photo In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Carson is in constant demand as a public speaker, and devotes much of his time to meeting with groups of young people. In 2008, the White House announced that Benjamin Carson would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Clarke Mentor

Clarke

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Anything you can tell me if you've read it? I just got the book as a gift.
The author's got an enviable profile, but his views are extreme right (flat tax, evolution denier, homophobic etc). I'd expect tea party rhetoric from that sort of guy.
Brainfade Newbie

Brainfade

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The author's got an enviable profile' date=' but his views are extreme right (flat tax, evolution denier, homophobic etc). I'd expect tea party rhetoric from that sort of guy.[/quote'] So, you don't read about and appreciate his life's work? I am fascinated by how successful people get to the top - be it Bill Gates or Ben Carson or Norman Borlaug or E. Sreedharan. I am especially fascinated by those who rise from nothing to great accomplishment. Ben Carson fits that profile. If I had to read books by people with whom I agree on *every* issue, then I'll have to write a book and read it myself. He preaches self-reliance, hard work and compassion, and rejects the "I-am-a-victim" culture. He advocates for more rigorous/challenging education standards. And he has proven that someone with his background (poor A-A male in the 60s) *can* rise to the top if they put their mind to it. Based on your responses on the "Dalit" thread, I reckon you would agree with those views, too (unless of course you're trolling on that thread!). If he doesn't believe in evolution or has antiquated views on homosexuals (like Obama did until it became incovenient), that is to his detriment, but does not take away from his life's work. And, I do happen to agree with him on abortion, taxes and PPACA. So, there!
Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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Will start reading Chanakyas Chant by Ashwini Sanghvi tomorrow ... Any ideas if its a good read??
there are 2 parallel stories running in the book - one about Chanakya and the other about a modern day political "chanakya" who makes his own party and raises a girl to become the PM. I found the Chankya story to be good but the one about the modern day Chankya was just way OTT and too far from the political reality IMO.
Clarke Mentor

Clarke

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So' date=' [b']you don't read about and appreciate his life's work? I am fascinated by how successful people get to the top - be it Bill Gates or Ben Carson or Norman Borlaug or E. Sreedharan. I am especially fascinated by those who rise from nothing to great accomplishment. Ben Carson fits that profile. If I had to read books by people with whom I agree on *every* issue, then I'll have to write a book and read it myself.
His life's work ? Going by the title, the book isn't as much about him as his view on how the country should think & function. The book title isn't Carson/Borlaug like Jobs, it suggests on the cover "What makes this nation great". Sounds preachy by the cover, although they say never judge ... :/ Its not just one or two things but a whole bunch of them as far as I'm concerned. He's far far right on the compass.
If he doesn't believe in evolution or has antiquated views on homosexuals (like Obama did until it became incovenient), that is to his detriment, but does not take away from his life's work.
He's one of the best medical brains in the world, which makes those views even more surprising. Obama is just a politician in comparison (and far less respectable if you ask me).
And, I do happen to agree with him on abortion, taxes and PPACA. So, there!
Which is why I'm not surprised :P nvm though, we shouldn't be dragging politics in the bookworm thread.
Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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Anyone interested in America's role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war should read "THE BLOOD TELEGRAM - Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide". Fantastic book that lays out in great detail how Nixon and Kissinger hated India and helped Pak in the war.

Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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"the making of the president - 1960". Its called the best book ever written on an American Presidential Campaign and after reading a few chapters I can see why - the writing style of Theodore White is certainly unique and kind of pleasing for the reader.

Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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Just finished Gandhi and Churchill : the rivalry that destroyed an empire and forged our age. The author tried his level best to make Gandhi look like an absolute failure in anything and everything he did and make him look responsible for everything wrong that happened in India from the time Gandhi came back from South Africa till his death.

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