Paths of Glory

This is one of the most amazing book I have ever read. So amazing that if it is true, which it can possibly be and probably is, it would remove one man’s name from history and replace it with another man’s name, who really truly deserves it. This is based on the true life story of George Mallory, a adventurer and mountaineer par excellence who in hope of paying homage to the Chomolungma, Goddess Mother of Earth (Mt. Everest) lead a climbing expedition twice on the treacherous slopes of the Himalaya. The book succeeds mainly because it contains real characters and appears very well researched on the life of the hero, who in fact died on the slopes of his Chomolunmga on that fateful day/night of June 1924. The novel starts with the prologue in 1999 when his body was actually found, 75 years later! To this day it is not known whether he actually reached the summit or not, 30 years before Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing. This is the exact question, which this novel attempts to answer. It cleverly weaves intricate plot details with actual history and chronicles the life of Mallory; his childhood, then his college days, his love for mountaineering, his whirlwind romance with Ruth Mallory, his days as a professor, his wartime heroics on the front during World War I and of course, his two Mt. Everest expeditions. The novel has a huge emotional connect and urges you to think about what must have gone on in the character’s minds. I would urge you to be part of the amazing journey of a man, who may possibly have been the first man to reach Mt. Everest’s summit, thirty years before it was actually conquered. This one will leave you asking for more.

Straight from the Gut

I am normally not the non-fiction reader type and I often prefer a good Robin Cook thriller over a self-help or autobiographical book. But this autobiography from one of the greatest CEO’s of all time is such a tremendous yet simple presentation of life that it’s hard to put down. It has pulled me in with its welcoming style of writing. Jack Welch, former CEO of GE could have turned this into a fest of management mantras and self help haven but he chose to present his life as it was and as it is. This book is simply - from the heart, from the gut. It documents the path of success of a man who wanted to put a soul into the giant body that is GE (or General Electric).

More than anything this piece of life (book) gives me hope and that is something hard to come by in this cut throat world of dog eats dog, deadlines and appraisals. There is hope that you can do whatever you want to if you have belief in it. Jack Welch once said that introverts who are in the senior management positions are often the brains of the organization and that gives me hope. He kept at his work and his life, always hoping for the best and when things were down he stuck to his principles and came out shining. I didn’t agree with some of the things that Jack Welch did as CEO but in life there’s always a tradeoff between hard decisions and making everyone happy. I understood that if you are to be at a high position in an organization then the sacrifices from your side are limitless. There are even more pearls of wisdom to be found here but for those not really engrossed by the business world this book may seem lengthy. But in the end this book is about life, hope, sacrifice, hard work and management, peppered with a bit of luck. Read this. You’ll know that everything is possible if it’s straight from the gut.