Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Books I loved this year ...

Fiction:

The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north/

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/the-wind-up-bird-chronicle/

On The Beach (Nevil Shute)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/on-the-beach/

Sci-fi:

I, Robot (Isaac Asimov)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/i-robot/

Against The Fall of Night (Arthur C. Clarke)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/against-the-fall-of-night/

Graphic novels:

Seconds (Bryan Lee O'Malley)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/seconds/

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (Roz Chast)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/cant-we-talk-about-something-more-pleasant/

The Party After You Left (Roz Chast)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/the-party-after-you-left/

Humour:

Dave Barry Talks Back (Dave Barry)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/dave-barry-talks-back/

Classics:

The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/06/28/the-count-of-monte-cristo/

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Arthur Conan Doyle)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/the-hound-of-the-baskervilles/

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Radhika, Y.]

Children of Air India by Reneé Saklikar (poetry)
The Jaguar's Children and The Tiger by John Vaillant
The Illegal by Lawrence Hill
Don't Tell me you are afraid by Guiseppe Catozzella (english version soon
in 2016)
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
That Lonely Section of Hell by Lori Shehner (Cop's real life account of the
botched investigation of murdered aboriginal women in Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside)

[silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Thaths]

For the seventh year in a row, I am turning to silk listers for book
recommendation
this holiday season.

What have you read over the last year that has left a mark on you? What are
you eagerly looking forward to reading over the Christmas/NewYear's
holidays?

Past silk list recommendations have included such gems as:

* Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus
* Samanth Subramaniam's Following Fish
* Sarnath Bannerjee's Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers
* Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth=Mithya.
* Nilanjana Roy's Wildings
* Aman Sethi's A Free Man

The books that I enjoyed reading
 the most this
year:

* Between the Wold and Me  by
Ta-Nehisi Coates. Searing.

* The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto
 by Pico Iyer. A book published many
years ago that I finally got to reading after a wonderful week in Kyoto
during Sakura season.

* Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
 by Barbara Demnick. Books about
North Korea tend to paint a portrait of the other. Amidst the usual line up
horror stories it is difficult to understand or imagine what the lives of
ordinary people is like in that county (I am looking at you, *Orphan
Master's Son*, as an egregious example). This book does a beautiful job of
showing the lives of ordinary people and how they get by.

* The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
 by Siddhartha Mukherjee. An
excellent exploration of the history of cancer treatments and mankind's
experience with the malady.

* The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism
 by A.L. Basham. A short work that
provides an excellent introduction to how Classical Hinduism evolved.

* Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity  by
Sam Miller. Miller explores the past and the present of Delhi as he walks
round and round the city in a somewhat spiral route.

* A Short walk in the Hindu Kush  by
Eric Newby. Another classic that I did not get to reading till 2015.


Thaths

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Rajesh Mehar]

I've enjoyed reading:

Deep Green Resistance by Authors: Aric McBay, Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith

and

Seasons of Trouble by Rohini Mohan (winner of the Shakti Bhat first book
prize)

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015, 08:43 Radhika, Y.  wrote:

> Children of Air India by Reneé Saklikar (poetry)
> The Jaguar's Children and The Tiger by John Vaillant
> The Illegal by Lawrence Hill
> Don't Tell me you are afraid by Guiseppe Catozzella (english version soon
> in 2016)
> The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
> That Lonely Section of Hell by Lori Shehner (Cop's real life account of the
> botched investigation of murdered aboriginal women in Vancouver's Downtown
> Eastside)
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Thaths  wrote:
[...]
> * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus

I've just started on this one, it is just amazing!

> * The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
>  by Siddhartha Mukherjee. An
> excellent exploration of the history of cancer treatments and mankind's
> experience with the malady.

I read this tome this year. Not impressed due to some reasons:
* 200+ pages spent on just cutting out breast tissue (breast cancer).
No one in the world needs to know this much details :-)
* Descriptions of doctors and their new procedures is way too flowery.
It's the literary equivalent of a person prostrating to the feet of a
doctor :-D
* Too focused on the hospitals in Boston and the celebrities and their
endorsements for cancer and such.
* This book is too long. It could be easily sliced in half while
retaining all the content and energy.

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Amit Varma]

Superforecasting by Phlip Tetlock:

http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B00Y78X7HY?keywords=superforecasting=1449804795_=sr_1_1=digital-text=1-1

The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley:

http://www.amazon.in/Evolution-Everything-How-Ideas-Emerge-ebook/dp/B00S5LDWII/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text=UTF8=1449804848=1-1=ridley

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari:

http://www.amazon.in/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari-ebook/dp/B00K7ED54M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books=UTF8=1449805178=1-1=sapiens

Government's End by Jonathan Rauch:

http://www.amazon.in/Governments-End-Washington-Stopped-Working/dp/1458716554/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps=UTF8=1449804993=1-1-catcorr=government%27s+end+jonathan+rauch

Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev:

http://www.amazon.in/Nothing-True-Everything-Possible-Surreal/dp/1610396006/ref=sr_1_1?s=books=UTF8=1449805133=1-1=peter+pomerantsev

And this is an absolute masterpiece, my desert island book:

Collected Poems by Mark Strand:

http://www.amazon.in/Collected-Poems-Mark-Strand/dp/0385352514/ref=sr_1_1?s=books=UTF8=1449805308=1-1=mark+strand








-- 
Amit Varma
http://www.indiauncut.com
http://www.twitter.com/amitvarma

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Thaths]

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 2:42 PM Amit Varma  wrote:

> Superforecasting by Phlip Tetlock:
>
>
> http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B00Y78X7HY?keywords=superforecasting=1449804795_=sr_1_1=digital-text=1-1


Tetlock did a SALT talk about this recently
 that I
listened to. It was quite interesting.


> Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari:
>
>
> http://www.amazon.in/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari-ebook/dp/B00K7ED54M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books=UTF8=1449805178=1-1=sapiens


Really? I was really looking forward to this book, but was disappointed.
Didn't finish the damn thing. I was expecting a lot more science and
evolution and less political screed.

Thaths

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Abhineeta Raghunath]

This isn't a book, exactly. But it's a web series that's taking shape while
touching upon history, mythology, warfare, feminism, and fantasy. It's
called the #KProject, and is available in little doses here:

http://urbangirldom.com/wp/category/k-project/

But if it interests you very much, read bottom-up :)

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 8:35 AM, Thaths  wrote:

> For the seventh year in a row, I am turning to silk listers for book
> recommendation
> this holiday season.
>
> What have you read over the last year that has left a mark on you? What are
> you eagerly looking forward to reading over the Christmas/NewYear's
> holidays?
>
> Past silk list recommendations have included such gems as:
>
> * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus
> * Samanth Subramaniam's Following Fish
> * Sarnath Bannerjee's Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers
> * Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth=Mithya.
> * Nilanjana Roy's Wildings
> * Aman Sethi's A Free Man
>
> The books that I enjoyed reading
>  the most this
> year:
>
> * Between the Wold and Me  by
> Ta-Nehisi Coates. Searing.
>
> * The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto
>  by Pico Iyer. A book published many
> years ago that I finally got to reading after a wonderful week in Kyoto
> during Sakura season.
>
> * Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
>  by Barbara Demnick. Books about
> North Korea tend to paint a portrait of the other. Amidst the usual line up
> horror stories it is difficult to understand or imagine what the lives of
> ordinary people is like in that county (I am looking at you, *Orphan
> Master's Son*, as an egregious example). This book does a beautiful job of
> showing the lives of ordinary people and how they get by.
>
> * The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
>  by Siddhartha Mukherjee. An
> excellent exploration of the history of cancer treatments and mankind's
> experience with the malady.
>
> * The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism
>  by A.L. Basham. A short work that
> provides an excellent introduction to how Classical Hinduism evolved.
>
> * Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity 
> by
> Sam Miller. Miller explores the past and the present of Delhi as he walks
> round and round the city in a somewhat spiral route.
>
> * A Short walk in the Hindu Kush  by
> Eric Newby. Another classic that I did not get to reading till 2015.
>
>
> Thaths
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay]

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 8:35 AM, Thaths  wrote:
> What have you read over the last year that has left a mark on you? What are
> you eagerly looking forward to reading over the Christmas/NewYear's
> holidays?







-- 
sankarshan mukhopadhyay

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Thaths]

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 2:13 PM Radhika, Y.  wrote:

> That Lonely Section of Hell by Lori Shehner (Cop's real life account of the
> botched investigation of murdered aboriginal women in Vancouver's Downtown
> Eastside)
>

Are these same murders that Justin Trudeau ordered an investigation about?

Thaths

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Thaths]

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 2:43 PM Ashwin Nanjappa  wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Thaths  wrote:
> [...]
> > * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus
>
> I've just started on this one, it is just amazing!
>

Indeed. BTW, Albina wrote a fiction book after this. Don't even try it.
Simply awful.



>
> > * The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
> >  by Siddhartha Mukherjee. An
> > excellent exploration of the history of cancer treatments and mankind's
> > experience with the malady.
>
> I read this tome this year. Not impressed due to some reasons:
> * 200+ pages spent on just cutting out breast tissue (breast cancer).
>

To be honest, I didn't really read it either. Listened to the audiobook (at
1.25x speed). Much more doable that way.

Thaths

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ingrid]

On 11 December 2015 at 08:35, Thaths  wrote:

> For the seventh year in a row, I am turning to silk listers for book
> recommendation
> this holiday season.
>
> What have you read over the last year that has left a mark on you? What are
> you eagerly looking forward to reading over the Christmas/NewYear's
> holidays?
>
> Past silk list recommendations have included such gems as:
>
> * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus
> * Samanth Subramaniam's Following Fish
> * Sarnath Bannerjee's Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers
> * Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth=Mithya.
> * Nilanjana Roy's Wildings
> * Aman Sethi's A Free Man
>
> The books that I enjoyed reading
>  the most this
> year:
>
> * Between the Wold and Me  by
> Ta-Nehisi Coates. Searing.
>
> * The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto
>  by Pico Iyer. A book published many
> years ago that I finally got to reading after a wonderful week in Kyoto
> during Sakura season.
>
> * Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
>  by Barbara Demnick. Books about
> North Korea tend to paint a portrait of the other. Amidst the usual line up
> horror stories it is difficult to understand or imagine what the lives of
> ordinary people is like in that county (I am looking at you, *Orphan
> Master's Son*, as an egregious example). This book does a beautiful job of
> showing the lives of ordinary people and how they get by.
>
> * The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
>  by Siddhartha Mukherjee. An
> excellent exploration of the history of cancer treatments and mankind's
> experience with the malady.
>
> * The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism
>  by A.L. Basham. A short work that
> provides an excellent introduction to how Classical Hinduism evolved.
>
> * Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity 
> by
> Sam Miller. Miller explores the past and the present of Delhi as he walks
> round and round the city in a somewhat spiral route.
>
> * A Short walk in the Hindu Kush  by
> Eric Newby. Another classic that I did not get to reading till 2015.
>
>
> Thaths
>

Strongly second Ta Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me. Others I
enjoyed or found illuminating in 2015:

Discontent and Its Civilizations - Mohsin Hamid
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
The Colonel Who Would Not Repent - Salil Tripathi
Ahmedabad - Amrita Shah


 Ingrid Srinath
@ingridsrinath