Book Review

The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
by Jesse James Garrett

This was one of the texts for my Information Architecture class. I really liked it both as a textbook and in general as a resource on web design. It's straightforwardness and pure usefulness are its biggest assets. Garrett is clear, direct, and concise throughout the the book, and the diagrams were truly helpful in illustrating and explaining concepts. His framework and approach is logical and practical - it would be relevant and useful for just about any type of website or other such projects.

Book Review

Two States: The Story of My Marriage
by Chetan Bhagat

This Indian novel is about Krish and Ananya, a couple who meet while getting their MBAs at the Indian Institute of Management, fall in love, and try to get married. According to Indian tradition and custom, the families must also like the intended and agree to the marriage, and, unfortunately for Krish and Ananya, this proves to be an uphill battle. They are from two very different regions of India: Punjabi and Tamil Nadu, respectively (the two states of the title). These two states have very different cultures and customs, causing a nigh insurmountable clash between the two families. Luckily, Krish and Ananya do get a happy ending - eventually.
There is a lot of humor and caricature in this novel, particularly in the way it contrasts Punjabi and Tamilian ways. I suspect there were some subtleties and aspects to the comedy that escaped me, but I got enough to be amused. And I did learn a lot about various marriage customs and cultural attitudes. I do wish I had a better sense of how much of the narrator's casual male chauvinism was just him or reflective of general social attitudes.
This novel had the feel of a Bollywood movie in its romance and comedy. The characters were not necessarily deep or complex, but they were sufficiently engaging to keep me reading. And the story was charming. Overall, I was happily entertained.