Dual Book Review

The past couple of months, I've been reading two great books, discussing two completely contrasting topics. The first, The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath by Ben S. Bernanke and I said in the review, also available at Goodreads (link below):

Ben S Bernanke’s The Courage To Act invites us, the reader, to examine the financial meltdown back in 2008 from another perspective. At the time, Bernanke was in the midst of this, as Federal Reserve chairman, ultimately attempting to calm this meltdown down caused by reckless lending from banks investing in toxic sub-prime mortgages. Bernanke in this book, goes out of his way, to get all the information such as minutes of meetings from the Fed, to paint an accurate picture of the struggles facing the Fed at the time. The memoir highlights mainly of Bernanke’s work within the Fed and very little about his personal life. Giving people, who potentially want to study financial meltdowns, the ultimate and essential guide to the insides of such a huge crisis. The book, also talks about the political tensions with Washington and even to the extremes, office politics. Describing in some meetings, some executives not agreeing with Bernanke’s decisions about the easing of monetary policies. In the book, Bernanke describes his ultimate wish, to make the Federal Reserve more transparent in which he achieved. Often talking about speeches he was giving to institutions and press, giving directions for which the Feds were taking to calm the markets down.

I, highly recommend this book to anyone who has a particular interest in business, finance or politics. The book has made me learn a lot, of what goes on behind our backs and what essential work was going on to tackle such a gigantic crisis.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1432380736?book_show_action=false

The second book is not so much a book, but a crucial dialogue about Islam called Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue by Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz. Also available on Goodreads, I said in the review:

Islam and the future of tolerance is an open dialogue and collaboration between Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz, who both discuss the problems of a subsection of extremists in the name of Islam and provide some eloquent solutions. 128 pages long, both Sam and Maajid suggest excellent points to provide to the debate. Often you’ll find in the discussion, both Sam and Maajid will agree on what the other one is saying, providing a much needed progressive dialogue that usually frequently ends up with both sides not agreeing on middle grounds. As anyone familiar with the recent situations, the topic is particularly taboo or more modestly, controversial. But this book is certainly needed to instigate a much needed discussion between the public, to ensure no misinformation could potentially misguide some people’s decisions and thoughts. Finally, this book has made me more open minded to the discussion at hand and hopefully lots more people who are reading the dialogue.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1451976175?book_show_action=false