Flash Boys - Michael Lewis

The book generated a lot of interest in the media circles about High Frequency Trading- a partial reason that made me read this one; and the other reason being that I am consuming books with a sign of Wall Street in it.Let us assume that the lion has just killed the deer and is about to relish the the first bite, before which the vulture swoops in to take the rest of the carcass. HFT are those vultures who are powered by high speed connections (we are talking about microseconds here) and better algorithms.

Flash Boys is well structured and begins with how the characters first notice their inability to trade the shares available in the market and not able to trade at the price that the ticker shows on their screens; how they dig deep and uncover the mask of HFT and then their efforts to build an extremely complex man-made ecosystem -Stock exchange, to defeat it. Throughout the book the author,a  critic of HFT, shows us ways on how HFT were beating the system without losing the interest of the reader with all the jargon involved in it.

The author makes a great effort to bring simple parallels that makes easier for the reader to understand without getting lost in the quagmire. An odd spoke in the wheel is the story of Sergey Aleynikov - a former GS programmer who was wrongly convicted, shows up in the end for no discernable reason.

Going by the news, it didn't have any major upheaval on Wall Street. HFT are exploiting the loopholes in the system, not committing any felony which makes me wonder why the author is such a vocal critic for them. All in all, a decent one time read. The author though fails to bring out the drama and urgency that is usually in the menu of any Wall St related writings.

The Fault In Our Stars - John Green

I had heard about this book for some time; and had seen it stacked up in the book store I frequently visit. The synopsis of the book entails the funny, thrilling and the tragic business of being in love and death  where the protagonist is a cancer inflicted teenager -seemed to me a run of mill book. Some wise guy, (I don’t know who, so for now let it be me) said – the book will always find you. I have read some amazing books of late, but more often than not I would know what the book will offer. I was pretty sure that “The Fault of Our Stars” will fall in that category – I was wrong.

The center-piece  of the story is the innocuous friendship turning into love story of two terminally ill teenagers – Hazel and Augustus , where they first meet in a support group through a common friend, Issac who has his eyes cut out because of cancer in the middle of the story. My sudden interjection of Issac’s condition may seem insensitive but that’s where the beauty of the narration lies, through the voice of Hazel Grace. The staccato mixture of dark humor and raw emotions makes the reader wanting for more. The narration of the book is so lucid and yet so sudden in some places; the reader will hardly feel the jolts as John Green takes the turns the story in gentle twists and turns.

Sample this:

Augustus and Hazel were travelling in plane to Amsterdam and just after the plane takes off,  Gus dug into his pocket and flipped open his pack of smokes

About 9sec later, a blond stewardess rushes over and said – “ Sir you cannot smoke on this plane. Or for that matter any other plane”

Hazel explains: “ The cigarette is a metaphor. He puts the killing thing in his mouth but doesn’t give it the power to kill him”

Flummoxed, the steward  says “ Well, that metaphor is prohibited on today’s fight”

You don’t know whether to laugh or sit there dumbstruck.  It is just one of the instance where the reader does not know which way to lean. But there are many more samples  of Hazel and Gus story, where the reader will laugh, and be dumbstruck at different places.  The book did not make me cry, but it definitely made me to think.

Augustus stepped towards him and looked down “ Feel better?” he asked

“No” Issac mumbled, his chest heaving

“That thing about pain is” Augustus said, and glanced back and me

“It demands to be felt”

The book demands to be felt.