What Caught My Fancy

In this post, I would like to share a few things that caught my fancy in the week gone by:

• For World War II buffs, and I am a great one let me admit, here’s something which sounds very interesting. A story of Jews in the Second World War, not as you would imagine in Europe but in Shanghai of all the places. A thriller by Daniel Kalla called “The Far Side Of The Sky” is reviewed here in the Huffington Post by Julie A. Carlson. I was impressed by Kalla’s ability to manage to be a writer despite his demanding schedule as the department head of two teaching hospitals in Vancouver. Second, I learnt how fascinating it can be to choose a little known topic, like the Jews of Shanghai and write a book on this!
• James Patterson needs no introduction. He earned $84 million last year according to Forbes magazine to make him the world highest earning author.I was interested to read how he is busy spending big bucks to develop a readership for the future! This article in Bloomberg News by Patrick Cole makes some new points on how an author who already has a huge readership world-wide is doing his bit to develop the habit of reading: amongst new readers, especially kids.