August has been a month of travelling for the family, I was in New York for a couple of days. With flight cancellation and delay, I ended up spending more time in the airport than in the office. Later in the month, my family took a trip to Los Angeles and it was very enjoyable to stroll in Little Tokyo, Universal Studio and UCLA.
A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played
By Marshall Jon Fisher
Whether you are a tennis fan, I highly recommend this book.
‘A Terrible Splendor’ serves as a history literature as much as a book on the greatest tennis match played in 1937 Davis Cup, on the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon. It was not only a match between world no. 1 Don Budge and no. 2 von Cramm. It was a match of America against Germany, democracy against fascism, on the brink of the World War II. The humble hard-working Don Budge played for the pride of America while the aristocratic Gottfried von Cramm played for his life that a loss could descend him behind barbed wire back home. And there was another tennis all-time great Bill Tilden in that era, an American surprisingly support the German team instead of the American team.
‘A Terrible Splendor’ feels like a prequel of “Strokes of Genius” on the Wimbledon 2008 final between Nadal and Federer as the greatest match ever played. Just that it is hard to compare two great matches, it is hard to compare two books both on the “Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played”.
‘A Terrible Splendor’ has more depth as the 1937 match had the historical significance that went way beyond sports; and the characters had the social struggle of the aristocracy, the working class, the gay community, and the economic crisis in that era of Berlin.
The book absorbs the social and historical happenings in the athletic spectacle as the tennis matches played to its full five setters, and keeps us in suspense until the very end. It is ultimately a tribute to the strength of the human spirit.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
By Marina Lewycka
It is about tractors, and it is not. The novel is about a first generation from Ukraine to England, and the family dynamics through their journey from Ukraine to England. When the recently widowed father announced his plan to remarry a Ukraine gold digger fifty years his junior, his two daughters need to set aside a lifetime of bitter rivalry to save him. It turns out to be no easy feat as this Ukraine beauty leaves behind her husband and son in Ukraine, and will stop at nothing to pursue the luxurious western lifestyle that she dreams of. As the new marriage unfold, it unveils the never-talked-about family taboos, and the two sisters start to reconcile their differences.
I read not only about a novel, but how life has been in Ukraine for the last few decades.
Political Tribes – Group Instinct and the fate of nations
By Amy Chua
An insightful analysis how blindness of American foreign policy to tribal dynamics has caused us many mis-steps in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela. Alone among the powers, America is what the author will call a super-group, a group open to individuals from all different backgrounds while not needing its members to shed or suppress their subgroup identities. As the 2016 presidential election result shows, there is a chasm between the tribal identities, the left and the right, and inequality between the country’s haves and have-nots. Could America be immune from the same tribal politics that have torn other regions apart? Are we doing enough to approach each other to heal the deep rifts that divide the country?
An eminently readable book on the topic of tribalism and its influence not only on the international fronts, but everywhere of the world.
oliviatamccue 
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