Neanderthals, cyborgs, dissatisfied and irresponsbile gods - Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

After 464 pages, the book ends with "Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don't know what they want?"

A review in the UK Guardian more eloquently describes the book.

I would not have picked this up by myself. It was a gift and I was reassured that this was not a text book and the language is not obtuse.

Harari is a professor of World History. He argues that there were six species of mankind a hundred thousand or so years ago, and gradually one specie dominated.  He manages to take bits and pieces of archaeology, anthropology, biology, history and weave together in a very readable way, a story which could be credible.

The book was easy to read, because it is divided into chapters and sub-chapters. Heck, there are even some pictures too.

As the Guardian reviewer noted, there are some problems in the history, but what the hell, history is like that. Harari talks about the origins of capitalism - and empire. It wasn't really about countries with armies taking over the colonies, but apparently corporations who hired armies and coopted the Governments who then took over.. like the East India Company.

The book is interesting in chunks. Not to sit down and read in one go. I am amazed that I got through it, and enjoyed reading through it whenever I had a chance.