MAN WITH A MISSION - REVIEW OF ASHLEE VANCE'S "ELON MUSK"

Meet Elon Musk. The man behind SpaceX, Tesla Motors and SolarCity. SpaceX is a company that makes rockets and sends them into space. Tesla is a company that makes electric cars. And SolarCity makes solar cells.

I was flabbergasted by Elon Musk's audacity as portrayed in Ashlee Vance's Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping Our Future (2015). Musk is a man on a mission. He wants to save humanity from self-destruction and extinction. He wants to reverse global warming. He wants to establish human colonies in Mars.

A HISTORY OF THE DIGITAL AGE - REVIEW OF WALTER ISAACSON'S "THE INNOVATORS"

Walter Isaacson has the rare knack of turning out instant classics. His Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007) was a superlative study of one of the world's renowned scientists while his Steve Jobs (2011) was a memorable portrayal of one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. In The Innovators:How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Isaacson moves from studying single personalities to a team of pioneers who were instrumental in ushering in the information age.

CENTRAL BANKING THROUGH THE AGES - REVIEW OF NEIL IRWIN'S "THE ALCHEMISTS"

Neil Irwin's The Alchemists: Inside the Secret World of Central Bankers (2013) is a history of central banking mainly in the West. There are many positives to this book: Irwin has done a lot of painstaking research to get his facts right and yet the book does not read like an academic tome. Indeed it is a very engrossing and fast-paced narrative and Irwin has the ability to capture the reader's attention (despite his obvious sympathies towards central bankers).

TAMING THE DATA TSUNAMI - REVIEW OF MAYER-SCHONBERGER AND CUKIER'S "BIG DATA"

The past couple of decades have witnessed a "data deluge" in various fields - from astronomy to genetics to healthcare. Taming this deluge and finding useful patterns is the objective of the new field of big data analytics. Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier's Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think (2013) focuses on various aspects of big data: its current status, its future growth, its implications to society, its risks and so on.

A REASON TO HOPE - REVIEW OF CHARLES DUHIGG'S "THE POWER OF HABIT"

I can't stand Malcolm Gladwell's books. I have tried reading The Tipping Point (2000), Outliers (2008) and Blink (2005) but couldn't finish the books. No doubt they talk about important topics (the "tipping point" analogy crops up in a number of places) but somehow they don't gel with me. Probably because they refer a lot to sociology literature and I am not familiar with that area.

POULTICE FOR THE SOUL - REVIEW OF STEPHEN R COVEY'S "EVERYDAY GREATNESS"

For some time I debated with myself whether to post a review of this book. I wanted to be known as a purposeful blogger featuring reviews of books on economics, finance, technology, history and wondered how a self-help book would fit in. But then I thought: isn't it good to open the windows and smell the flowers in the garden for a change and share with friends and colleagues?

IS IT A CHINESE FUTURE? - REVIEW OF ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN'S "ECLIPSE"

As you are probably aware, Arvind Subramanian is the current Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. He is author of Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance (2011) which foreshadows the rise of China to superpower status in this century.