10 page-turners for summer

livemint.com:

Matthew Reilly’s latest spy thriller will titillate the minds of history nerds and science enthusiasts Imagine growing up in Berlin, through the two world wars, with Albert Einstein as your neighbour and mentor? Hanna Fischer, the daredevil protagonist of Matthew Reilly’s new best-seller Mr Einstein’s Secretary, has this bittersweet legacy thrust upon her. Born to a German father and an American mother, Hanna is gifted with an insatiable appetite for science.

With the rise of the SS and Hitler’s ascendancy, Hanna’s parents are brutally murdered, in separate incidents, while her twin sister Norma is left at an asylum for the mentally challenged. While Einstein helps Hanna flee to America from Berlin under siege from the Nazis, the young girl has to make a life for herself in the foreign land.

She trains as a secretary, works in corporate America, and eventually becomes Einstein’s secretary for a while. Later, Hanna spends the war working as a secretary to Albert Speer and Martin Boorman, two of Hitler’s most important henchmen, but actually being a double agent for America.

Although Reilly takes liberties with historical facts and liberally splashes colour to liven up his story, there is never a dull moment. The best part: this breathless spy thriller will make you want to go back to the original sources for a deeper understanding of what exactly happened. (Hachette, Rs.799) Cal Newport’s latest book is a much-needed antidote to hustle culture and toxic productivity Acclaimed author and computer science professor, best known for his theory of “deep work", Cal Newport has never been your assembly line self-help writer, even though his material tends to veer into that zone.