Desiderata- Max Ehrman

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

http://mwkworks.com/desiderata.html

Notable Reads- 2017

2017 was a wonderful year of reading. Mostly because, Priya and Dhruv were in India for much of the winter and spring. The fantastic Hennepin County Library system helped too.  I wish I had something like this back when I was growing up. I had no less than 2-3 books on hand to read at all times

It also helped that I mostly stayed out of Fantasy. I tried reading more nonfiction and short stories than I typically do. Out of the 73, 25 were written by women which was another conscious choice. 7 books based on India/ written by Indian authors are also a high. As I did last year, I thought it would be a good idea to do a quick round-up of the good and bad reads from last year in no particular order

1.       Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown (YA, Sci Fi) - Okay, I know I am cheating by including the entire trilogy in a single entry. But, the books were fantastic. This was the Young Adult genre all grown up and on steroids. Recommended

2.       Justice by Michael J. Sandell (Non-fiction)- Adapted from a Harvard course that is also available on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY ), Justice tries to explore the big questions – from Justice to Morality. Highly Recommended.

3.       Arrival (or the Story of your life and others) by Ted Chiang(Sci fi, Short stories) This is by far the best science fiction that I read this year. Every single short story is a masterpiece. Liking what you see, Division by zero and Tower of Babylon are especially poignant . Highly Recommended.

4.       Bhima- Lone Warrior M.T. Vasudevan Nair(Literary)- Mahabharata like you have never seen before. This is told from Bhima’s point of view and looks at the characters from a fresh, if harsh perspective. Yudhishtra and Draupadi especially come off pretty badly in this one- Recommended

5.        The Vegetarian by Han Kang(Literary)- While the writing showed glimpses of beauty, I am not sure I got this one. I found the  whole thing a tedious mess.

6.       India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha(Non Fiction)- If you are an Indian and were to read just one book in your life, ethrow out your Harry Potter and read this. A brilliant examination of Indian history starting from 30^th January 1948 till 2010. His book brought home to me what a miracle India as it is today is. It also helped clear a lot of misconceptions that I had about important topics like the Constitution, Uniform civil code Kashmir, the linguistic states, the North Eastern states and Democracy as it is practiced in India. I have found new respect for the wonderful country that we were all born in, stalwarts like Ambedkar, Nehru, Sheikh Abdullah and Patel after reading this one. It has also opened my eyes on the seeds that were sown in the first years after independence that have grown to plague India today. Highly recommended

7.       Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead(Literary)- This deserves all the attention and accolades that it has received. Recommended

8.       All the Birds in the sky by Charlie Jane Anders (Sci fi) The worst book that I read in the last few years. I hate read this for a few days but I wish I had the time back. 

9.       Kashmir in Conflict by Victoria Schofield (Non Fiction)- If you want to understand the Kashmir issue, this is it. I saw a slight pro Pakistan slant. I also found some of the numbers mixed up and the spelling of places like Gujarat and Ayodhya weird. But, it was interesting to get a perspective from all the different sides in the Kashmiri conflict. Highly recommended.   

10.   Strangers in their own Land-Arlie Russel Hochschild(Non Fiction)- After the US elections of 2016, I wanted to understand the forces that could propel a person like Trump to power. This book tries to scale the ‘empathy wall’ between the coastal liberals and Conservative middle America from the Liberal side. The author spent some time in Louisiana, one of the poorest states in America to understand why the majority were voting Republican against their own interests. The people the author encounters and their perspectives are deeply fascinating. The book tries to understand why Conservatives hold the beliefs they do and why they vote the way they do and largely succeeds. Highly Recommended

 Here is a complete list of books read in 2017

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2017/1824879?utm_source=twitter