A little late to this thread Books that I read in 2023 but not necessarily published this year or the last couple of years 1. What can a body do - Sara Hendren - A book on design and the human body. It talks about how the human body navigates the built world and the surrounding history, science and deisgn considerations around it. It is also a book about disability. It is one of those books that makes you see things hidden in plain sight.
2. Abroad in Japan - A hilarious memoir and a travelogue by Chris Broad - a youtuber who runs Abroad in Japan (pardon the pun). A unique insight into Japan - quicky, fascinating and with nice self deprecating British humour. 3. Hidden Kingdoms by Nirupa Roy - A beautifully illustrated botanical art book with plants from the Western Ghats. Somewhat hard to find. Nirupa Roy also did the beautiful artwork for the Bangalore Literature Fest this year. Art from this book is also mace into a film called Spirit of the Forest. 4. Genius makers by Cade Metz - A book looking at the people who brought deep learning (and generative AI) into focus in the past decades. This one is non-technical and focusses more on the human stories and the interactions that typically are not seen / heard. A well written narrative that offers a peak behind the curtain of people building this tech. 5. Avarice by Sumit Bardhan - A steampunk sci-fi story originally written in Bengali translated into English. Quite enjoyed the narrative and the plot. 6. 2 books - The Arrival / The Creature - Both by Shaun Tan. Shaun Tan is an Australian artist who writes / draws graphic novels - The first one a allegorial wordless novel on the immigrant experience and the second one is a recent one on the thoughts and stories on some of his famous illustrations / paintings and the stories behind them. 7. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams - The book is a good exposition into sleep - one of the body's deep mysteries. The book goes into detail about the different forms of sleep, how they are connected to memory and well-being. The second half of the book goes into different physiological functions of sleep and how it ties into some of our bodily functions Also another resounding vote +100 to the Murderbot series. Looking forward to the latest in that series. Quite enjoyable. --Vinayak On Sun, Nov 19, 2023 at 10:45 PM Thaths via Silklist <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hoi! > > It is that time of the year to revive the almost-annual Silklist tradition of > sharing our book recommendations. I would love to hear your recommendations. > > The books I loved reading in 2023 are: > > 1. Mofussil Junction by Ian Jack; What a delight to read. Jack paints the > sights, sounds and smells of India with prose. I especially enjoyed his > pieces (paeans?) on the Indian Railways, particularly the rapidly > disappearing (as he was writing these pieces) steam locomotive stock. > > 2. Smoke and Ashes: A Writer's Journey through Opium's Hidden Histories by > Amithav Ghosh: Colonization and Capitalism told through Papaver somniferum. > The beginning chapters are excellent. The last chapters become a little > repetitive. > > 3. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov: A fantasy novel about the > devil and his henchmen visiting Moscow during the Stalinist years. > > 4. Hit Parade of Tears by Izumi Suzuki: Great second wave Japanese sci-fi. > I'm so glad I got to read this. > > 5. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler: Scarily prescient book written > in the early 90's and set in the mid-2020s. I cannot believe how much Butler > got right about today. > > 6. The Travel Writing Tribe: Journeys in Search of a Genre By Tim Hannigan: > Hannigan originally wanted to write travel books like the ones he grew up > reading since he was a teenager, but the gradual erosion of the genre, and > the critical questions being asked about the veracity of famous travel > writers meant that Hannigan had to re-do his plans. He ended up writing this > book - a travel book exploring not so much a region or a country, but the > whole field of travel writing and the critical discipline of travel writing > studies. If, like me, your bookshelf is filled with travel books, you would > love this book. Every year I read a book or two which I love so much that I > would even consider buying a few copies to give to friends. This is one of > those. > > 7. Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History By Lea Ypi: An excellent > book that manages to balance criticism of totalitarian communism of Hodja > against the painful fictions of neoliberalism. The painful transition that > Albanians experienced was only theoretical to me before. Now it is embedded > in my mind through the lives of this Ypi family. > > 8. The Trees By Percival Everett: Blaxploitation set in Trumpian times. > > 9. Victory City By Salman Rushdie: A return to old form for Rushdie. Unlike > some of his work of more recent vintage, this one was an easy (and very > entertaining) read. It is no Midnight's Children or Satanic Verses, but it is > on-par with Shame and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. The book is purported > academic tract about a newly discovered work of a South Indian woman (Pampa > Kampana) who lived for 250 years during, and whose life was inextricably > intertwined with that of, the Vijaynagar (literally, Victory City) empire. > > 10. Ōoku: The Inner Chambers By Fumi Yoshinaga: An interesting manga series. > Imagines a Tokugawa-era Japan where two thirds of men are dead from a > mysterious illness and gender roles are flipped. The Shogunate passes down > through Women and Men are kept as objects of desire and value. > > Thaths > -- > Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? > Carl: Nuthin'. > Homer: D'oh! > Carl: Unless you're crooked. > Homer: Woo-hoo! > -- > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist -- Silklist mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist
