Raising the Bar: Diversifying Big Law by Anthony C. Thompson (Editor, Introduction), Debo P. Adegbile, Lisa Davis, Damaris Hernández, Ted Wells

Diversity and inclusion is the theme these days at many institutions, public and private sector work places and corporations. In Raising the Bar: Diversifying Big Law the author Anthony C. Thompson discusses how this theme can be included in workings of Big Law firms. Unlike many professions, Law remains a somewhat conservative profession where we haven't achieved much diversity in terms of colored folks in partnership position though that is changing we are lagging significantly behind. This book dubbed as a Playbook for law firms on how to diversity their workforce by mentoring, feedback, compensating is an interesting and insightful read. For colored folks as the be it Latino, African american,  Asian or women, the prevailing way to success is  work twice, thrice or even four times as hard to achieve half as privileged person and the authors suggests that it is not going to change at this moment or even not in your lifetime but looking at the history we know one thing that we have come far, the pace albeit is slow. 

Overall, this book is a good read and I recommend it to anyone who would like to incorporate diversity at their work place. Although the book is meant for law firms, the ideas are fundamental and adaptable to any work place be it a major corporation or small firm with just 100 employees. 

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher for free in return for my unbiased opinion.

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham

Amazing history of one of the most terrible nuclear disaster as told by Adam Higgibotham. I bought a book called The Legacy of Chernobyl but wasn't able to finish it due to some life circumstances. But with this new book available at my local library, I felt I had to put an end to my gaps in understanding of Chernobyl disaster. This book takes you through not only what happened at the reactor that went haywire but also provides the historical context  sort of a lens to see this disaster through. How USSR's hunger for economic development via increase in production of electricity lead to making some irresponsible decision by the higher ups and how USSR's top government decided to hide the accident rather than come clean and let the world know so that it can prepare for the nuclear fall out. It it was common in USSR only few people got punished while others who were derelict in their duty of letting the operators know of the potential risks involved were let loose. The book is more of a story than a documentary as most books on Chernobyl are. The story if unfortunately interesting and is a page turner all the way. Salute and respect to those who risked their lives to contain the fire and nuclear leak by working too close to immensely high radiation levels at the site of the nuclear reactor. It is as much a  story of them as it is of USSR's misadventure. The world should learn from the past mistakes. Companion book to this book is The Legacy of Chernobyl by Zhores Medvedev.

Hot Shot by Fern Michaels

Disclaimer: This book was given to me for free by the publisher in return for my unbiased opinion.

This happens to be the first pocket book kind of a novel I read. The plot of the story revolves around figuring out the mystery behind certain someone with power gets shot but survives. Bunch of friends of the shot guy and his wife's take it upon themselves to investigate the series of events that lead to the shooting. I find the end hilarious. I won't disclose the ending but I was like seriously!!!!!

I would have liked the story to have some police work mentioned but I guess that's fiction for you. Overall, I think if you are used to reading books without much thinking then you may like it. I personally didn't enjoy it much but then I am not the target reader for such books either.

The Dark Heart: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator by Joakim Palmkvist, Agnes Broomé (Translator)

Wow...what a murder mystery but a real one that can be made into a movie. Set in a small farming town in Sweden this is a true story of a multimillionaire father and his sudden disappearance and a persistent search undertaken by police and volunteer organisation that eventually yields results after 2 years. Although the prime suspects are easy to figure out it took a sincere dedication by a volunteer to finally nail the suspects down by taking on risk on herself. This family saga mired in greed, hatred, delusion, blind love and devotion is certainly a thrilling true story.