Review: Зулейха открывает глаза

Зулейха открывает глаза by Guzel Yakhina
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Главная героиня романа - татарская женщина из деревни в 1930-х годах. Татарская деревня не идеализируется - в романе показаны все стороны консервативного склада жизни. Но жизнь деревни - и Зулейхи - переворачивается с раскулачиванием и ссылкой в Сибирь.

Очень реалистично описано строительство нового поселения в сибирской тайге с нуля, со всеми препятствиями и трудностями начала новой жизни в Сибири.

Сильная и увлекательная книга. Описывает тяжелые реалии советской жизни в 1930-1940-х годах, в то же время сохраняя надежду и определенный оптимизм.

Review: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the story of the young visionary American woman Elizabeth Holmes and her start up which in its height in the 2010s received incredible positive reception - and valuation. It had many prerequisites for success: an innovative idea, a driven and passionate founder, many smart employees having very good education, clever sales and marketing. It just did not have a functioning product. Worse yet, it operated in the healthcare area, putting people's health and even lives in danger.

The book exemplifies the worst of the hype of Silicon Valley / the start up world in general. Lack of maturity and responsibility, focus on raising capital as opposed to making good for your customers, fake-it-until-you-make-it approach to running business... This is not to say that the entrepreneurs in technology start ups should be discouraged from risk-taking. But this quote from the book is a good warning:

"Elizabeth had wanted all those sweeping claims to be true, but just because you badly wanted something to be real didn't make it so."

This story is the result of brilliant investigative journalism by John Carreyrou. It is well grounded and well written. A worth read!