Sometimes I just get lucky. September has been such a month when it comes to books that I read and learned from. “One never stops learning” is a common refrain, but could it be that so much can be packed into a month? (OK, there was an exception…)
For those readers who expected me to write about a different subject between two posts about books, sorry. The news has all been too depressing.
Here goes with my September list:
Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead, by Kenneth Rogoff. My rating 5/5 (Economics, Non-Fiction, 2025)
Mr. Rogoff’s credentials (former Chief Economist of the IMF, currently a Professor at Harvard University) are such that one cannot imagine anyone better qualified to write on such a subject. Unfortunately my own credentials as an amateur economist did not allow me to understand the innumerable gems of history, politics, finance and macro-economics contained in this book fully. However, any bits that I did manage to absorb have left me a lot wiser. A number of pop culture references keeps the non-technical readers interest going as well.
Friends who know me might remember that I’ve long been a non-believer in a non-USD world (oops, a double negative!) and that any attempts to have an alternate world currency was not going to succeed. A huge reason for this was the “fact” that the US is the only country in the world that has a truly independent Central Bank. Can you imagine holding your savings in RMB or INR? The YEN or the EUR maybe, but do you even understand what they are? The USD is a language everyone just understands.
One of the aphorisms my ex-boss Paul often spouted was “if you can’t be good, be lucky.” The USD survived the end of the Bretton Woods agreement (even though a period of high inflation and interest rates followed), but I now question whether luck alone can help it survive the current situation? It used to be that you could trust the gold that stood behind the dollar, and then the Federal Reserve. Otherwise it is just a green piece of paper.
The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge, and India's Quest for Independence, by Anita Anand. My rating 5/5 (History, Non-Fiction, 2019)
13th April, 1913. Ishwar Das Anand (Ms. Anand’s grandfather) left his friends behind in Jallianwala Bagh to finish his errand of buying broken sewing machines that he would repair and resell. But for that, the author of this amazing book might not have been born.
On that date, General Reginald Dyer’s (referred to in India as the ‘butcher of Amritsar’) men fired 1,650 rounds of ammunition and indiscriminately killed over 600 men, women and children who had peacefully gathered to celebrate the spring festival of Baisakhi. Sir Michael O’Dwyer was the Lt. Governor of Punjab at the time.
13th March 1940. Sardar Udham Singh who had vowed vengeance for that incident got close to O’Dwyer and put two bullets in his body. He was tried and hanged at Pentonville prison on 31st July 1940.
Ms. Anand traces the events between these two dates. She covers events both before and after as well as the history and background of the people in the narrative with exhaustive research. The book reads like a gripping thriller and includes many side stories and references that I had not been aware of. Thank you Srishti.
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. My rating 4/5 (Classics, Fiction, 1937)
This accidental read recounts the story of two men, their dreams and aspirations during the Great Depression of the 1930s and makes for tough reading. The book was simultaneously banned and made required reading in American schools. From the summary on Goodreads:
A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, by Dan Wang. My rating 5/5 (China, History, Non-Fiction, 2025)
The basic premise of Mr. Wang’s book is that China is an engineering state and USA is a lawyerly society. The basic difference in practice? Lawyers obstruct and Engineers construct. While China built mega projects and had engineers and scientists at the highest levels of government, USA packed its Senate and Congress with lawyers.
A couple of quotes from the book:
Xi Jinping studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua, China’s top science university. For his third term as the Communist Party’s general secretary starting in 2022, Xi filled the Politburo with executives from the country’s aerospace and weapons ministries.
Xi has repeatedly stated that he’s not interested in abandoning manufacturing for services. (Context: Typically, as a country develops, the share of services in its GDP increases, while manufacturing decreases. Xi has insisted that China will always be a developing country, and never a developed one.)
The book is full of insights — I found the chapters on One Child Policy and Zero Covid the most eye opening. With the objective in the name, it was not difficult for engineers to direct efforts to achieving it. At the cost of great human tragedy. Using an easy writing style, Mr. Wang also delves into the poor parts of China as well as why Shenzhen is the electronics giant of the world.
Mr. Wang asserts that Chinese and Americans are very similar — creative, entrepreneurial and driven by the motivation to acquire material wealth. But one is driven by constructors while the other by obstructors.
I never buy books by new authors on the day of their release, but am happy with this purchase. Thank you, Avi.
The Vegetarian, by Han Kang, Deborah Smith (Translator). My rating 3/5 (Fiction, 2007)
Yeong-hye has a dream, and she stops eating meat. This leads to a series of events, expected and unexpected, which spiral her mind and body out of control. Quoting from Goodreads:
Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.
While the book has won multiple awards and accolades, I found it hard to like it or find purpose in the story. Given how much I liked the previous books from South Korea that I had read, this was not what I had anticipated. Thank you anyway, Pankaj.
I would like you to indulge me for a short minute by participating in the poll below. Please.
This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.
Endnotes:
The USD Index has declined 9.68% this year so far (Sep 10). If this is a hard-to-understand number, against the (currency that may challenge its dominance) EUR the USD has declined about 11.6%. On the contrary, it has strengthened against the INR by about 3%. The USD is a weak currency with a “high” interest rate. That makes it like …. pick a country.
I was introduced to Ms. Anand via the podcast Empire which is great listening for history buffs. She is brilliant.
Fun fact: Amongst the many things I learnt from Assassin was that the Hindi word Vilayat - meaning foreign - adapts from the English word Blighty which was used by the white people in the Raj to refer to their homeland. In Bengali, the word Bilait refers exclusively to England.
Breakneck is Mr. Wang’s first book. During his time in China from 2017 to 2022 he wrote, inter alia, an annual letter about his experiences. When the Chinese government banned his website, he left the country.
Followers of US news will remember that amongst the first acts of the current President was to take control of the large law firms. As of September 2025, trackers indicate a total of 411 separate cases against the current administration's executive actions are being monitored.
I first traveled to China in 2004 as a tourist — in the succeeding dozen years I probably visited over 30 times on business — every visit has been a voyage of discovery and learning.
Not quite related perhaps, but I could not resist including this graphic from Bloomberg.
Always good to get your reading list. Yes Endnotes are often the most interesting titbits.