Madina Arabic Reader Book 1 by Dr V Abdur Rahim

Please find the notes here https://shine-notes.blogspot.com/2019/12/madina-arabic-reader-book-1-by-dr-v.html?m=1
This is a good book to learn Arabic.

The Linux Command Line by William Shotts

That was a journey through Linux command line with a good dose of bash programming. Thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Rough notes here

The white tiger by Aravind Adiga

Story of a man from servant class. It’s the story a man from “darkness” - a remote village from north India. It’s the story of a man who is eternally bonded to their rich master. And the way he sees the world - his village, small town, big city, it’s shopping mall. And the way he unshackled the chain of servitude.

Dilris Ertugrul

Dilris Ertugrul is a five season turkish tv serial which is based on life of Ertugrul who was a turkish leader lived in 13th century. He was the leader or Bey of Kayi tribe in Turkey and he strived for a state based on Islamic principles and justice system. Some of the main characters are Suleyman Shah - father and former leader, Haymana - mother, Gundoldu, Sugertekin and Dundar - brothers, Halime Sultan - wife, Turgut, Bamsi and Dogan - blood brothers, Aliyar bey, Aslahan, Ilbilige - next wife.

The Home Front: Life in America During World War II

Another audible original!

It’s an 8 hours audiobook which examined a period from post Great Depression to early 1950s. Pearl Harbor, latest radio technology, women at work, segregation, war industry, racial tensions, post war readjustment, undiagnosed PTSD and more! Thoroughly enjoyed!

It's Not What It Looks Like by Molly Burke

Audible’s August 2019 audiobook selection. Author talked about her experiences in coping up with her physical challenge with the blindness. How she overcame and turned it around. It seems she is a popular youtuber. When she hit the rock bottom in her life, what helped her to recover from that. A good to hear book from the author herself.

In the Footsteps of the Prophet Lessons from the Life of Muhammad By: Tariq Ramadan

A very good read and a nice literary work. The book covers prophet’s life from his birth to death. Over the course of book, the author introduced various Islamic concepts in its historical context. The major theme is mercy and love from the God, along with great emphasis on education and empowerment of prophet and his people.

Contents: Introduction; Encounter with the Sacred; Birth and Education; Personality and Spiritual Quest; Revelation, Knowledge; The Message and Adversity; Resistance, Humility and Exile; Trials, Elevation, and Hopes; Hijrah; Medina, Life and War; Teachings and Defeat; Tricks and Treason; A Dream, Peace; Coming Home; At Home, Over There; Debtless; In History, for Eternity 

Audiobook: The Dead Drink First By: Dale Maharidge

My first attempt. Came pretty good 😊
From Amazon

Product description

Like many veterans of his era, Sgt. Steve Maharidge never talked about “the good war.” On the surface, the Maharidges were a normal working-class family in the suburbs of Cleveland. But behind closed doors, even the most mundane moments could trigger Steve's violent, traumatic episodes, which left his son Dale searching for clues to his past. And yet, there was only one: a black-and-white photograph of Steve with another soldier that hung permanently on the wall in the basement. 

In The Dead Drink First, Dale Maharidge, now a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, recounts his 18-year quest to learn everything he could about the man in the photo with the hopes of discovering a side of his late father he never knew. The result was something Dale never expected: Not only would he learn the man's name - Herman Walter Mulligan - but he would help locate his remains and ultimately bring him home 74 years after he was killed in action. 

In this deeply personal audio documentary, Dale retraces his journey through never-before-heard conversations with WWII veterans, their children, and the team of strangers that assembled to find Mulligan and bury him on American soil. In an epic search for a lost Marine, Dale finds forgiveness, lifelong friendships, and uncovers the rich, uniquely American truth about how and why we repatriate our fallen soldiers.  

Conquistadors by Michael Wood

This is my first book on great American civilizations, even though it mostly examined the downfall of those. This book covers last years of Aztec and Inca empire. Author traces the path of Cortes, Pizarro, Orellano and Cabeza de Vaca. Cortes’ journey was from West Indies (or Cuba ?) to Mexican shores and finally to the inwards of Aztec empire, ending by overthrowing the Aztec king, Montezuma. Francisco Pizarro had a truly testing journey to find gold along the western shores of South America to Chile. Finally overthrowing Andean king, Atahuallpa, killing him after an unfair trial. Journey of Orellano was the story of discovery of Amazon. Cabeza de Vaca was not a soldier per se, but survived a shipwreck and landed in an island in modern Texas. There he had first contact with an Indian community and they took care of him. Finally he had a great journey, 1528-1536, from Texas to Pacific to join other Spanish conquistadors. This book gives glimpse of the aftereffect of greed and looting of conquistadors, also examined the topic, human rights and freedom, in the period of conquistadors.

From Book Cover:

“Following in the footsteps of the greatest Spanish adventurers, Michael Wood retraces the path of the conquistadors from Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, and from the deserts of North Mexico to the heights of Machu Picchu. As he travels the same routes as Hernán Cortés, and Francisco and Gonzalo Pizarro, Wood describes the dramatic events that accompanied the epic sixteenth-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires. He also follows parts of Orellana's extraordinary voyage of discovery down the Amazon and of Cabeza de Vaca's arduous journey across America to the Pacific. Few stories in history match these conquests for sheer drama, endurance, and distances covered, and Wood's gripping narrative brings them fully to life.

Wood reconstructs both sides of the conquest, drawing from sources such as Bernal Diaz's eyewitness account, Cortés's own letters, and the Aztec texts recorded not long after the fall of Mexico. Wood's evocative story of his own journey makes a compelling connection with the sixteenth-century world as he relates the present-day customs, rituals, and oral traditions of the people he meets. He offers powerful descriptions of the rivers, mountains, and ruins he encounters on his trip, comparing what he has seen and experienced with the historical record. A wealth of stunning photographs support the text, drawing the reader closer to the land and its people.

As well as being one of the pivotal events in history, the Spanish conquest of the Americas was one of the most cruel and devastating. Wood grapples with the moral legacy of the European invasion and with the implications of an episode in history that swept away civilizations, religions, and ways of life. The stories in Conquistadors are not only of conquest, heroism, and greed, but of changes in the way we see the world, history and civilization, justice and human rights.“

India A short history by Andrew Robinson

A very refreshing overview of Indian history based on factual sources. 

The book covers Indus Valley civilization, Vedas, Aryans and the origins of hinduism, Buddha, Alexander and Asoka, Hindu dynasties, the coming of Islam, the Mughal empire, European incursions and east India companies, the ‘Jewel in the crown’, end of empire, the world’s largest democracy and postscript.

The author examines various historical events and its contemporary relevance. The Indus Valley civilization and Vedic history with the current political movement. Was sepoy mutiny an India wide movement? Bollywood is trash. Legacy of Mughals and Britain in later India.

Very best we can say that human life is real, not Maya or an illusion, or one of the ultimate reality among many. And one can base their life on that one fact. Human life is expressed differently across different regions and times. A broad reading is the natural choice in the further quest. Let’s see where it takes.

Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume 1 by Douglas E Comer

A classic book that describes TCP/IP stack. Some of the chapters I covered this time are
9. Internet Protocol: Error and Control Messages (ICMP)
12. User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
13. Reliable Stream Transport Service (TCP)
20. Private Network Interconnection (NAT, VPN)
21. Client-Server Model of Interaction
22. The Socket Interface
23. Bootstrap and Autoconfiguration (BOOTP, DHCP)
24. The Domain Name System (DNS)
Various TCP/UDP app such as TELNET, Rlogin, FTP, TFTP, NFS, SMTP, POP, IMAP, MIME, HTTP, RTP and SNMP. Also it covers IPSEC and IPv6. Mostly covered topics related to layer-4 and above.
The reason why TCP/IP is so popular and successful is because of the selection of applications available on top it.