Here are books that made an impact on me in 2020: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (Phillip Gourevitch) - A book that came out some years ago, but I finally got to read it recently. I had previously read books about the war in Eastern Congo and the scramble for resources. This book tees up the things that happened in Rwanda that dominoed into the conflict in Eastern Congo.
The Tiger and the Ruby: A Journey to the Other Side of British India (Kief Hillsbery) - Till about 3/4th of the way into the book, I thought it was a simple book that mixed history and travelogue. I found some bits of it interesting, and had bits where I disagreed with the focus of the author. But the final 1/4th of the book was superbly put together. Its ending read almost like a mystery novel that tried up the loose ends in the final few chapters. The final parts of the book wrap the stories beautifully and illustrate the author's craft. UNIX: A History and a Memoir (Brian W. Kernighan) - No explanation needed A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Bill Bryson) - A comforting re-read when the world went into COVID lockdown The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction (Ursula Le Guin) - A slim volume (you can find PDFs online). Perfection. Le Guin challenges the male-focused "heroes journey" narratives and ponders what a different narrative could bring to literature. Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs (Camilla Townsend) - I think this book was recommended by someone in the annual Silklist book recommendation thread last year. How did the encounter between conquistadors and the Aztecs look from the Aztec side? Mining some of the earliest written Aztec primary narratives Townsend does a great job of the tragedy of what happened. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (Alexandra Fuller) - Evocative vignettes of a Gothic family horror of growing up White in Africa. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (Jenny Odell) - Perfect meditation for our times. Reflecting on an alternate way of living more fully and engaging with this world. Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies (Hilary Mantel) - You don't need me to tell you how lovely these books are. Thaths On Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 7:59 AM Venkatesh H R <[email protected]> wrote: > Ah yes Samanth! Very much so. (Didn't realise 'twas you behind > 'WordPsmith'!) > Interestingly, a few weeks ago my 8-year-old picked it up where JBS Sr was > doing experiments on himself and was very much intrigued that people do > that sort of thing and we went down a little rabbit hole. > > On Wed, Nov 25, 2020 at 8:04 PM WordPsmith <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Thanks Udhay! > > > > Kunda, I hope you’re enjoying the book! 🤞 > > > > > On Nov 25, 2020, at 14:25, Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > On Wed, Nov 25, 2020 at 3:45 PM Venkatesh H R <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > > - Re-read Frank Herbert's Dune. First read it as a 16-year-old and was > > >> apprehensive about the second read. So many of our heroes turn out to > > have > > >> written sexist, racist stuff or were otherwise total ass***** in their > > real > > >> lives. But Dune continued to amaze with its vision, its mixing of > > various > > >> cultures in the world, the strong secondary and tertiary characters > and > > >> pro-environmental message. Now wondering if I should run through the > > entire > > >> series ahead of the movie. > > >> > > > > > > Speaking for myself, I loved Dune (although I last read it at least 2 > > > decades ago) but found the other books in the series underwhelming. > > > > > > > > > > > >> That's about it. Reading A Dominant Character by Samanth Subramanian > > > > > > > > > Samanth is on silk, so I will take this opportunity to congratulate him > > for > > > making it to the NYT notable books of 2020 list [1]. > > > > > > Udhay > > > > > > [1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/books/notable-books.html > > > > > > -- > *Get your 'vaccine' from 'fake news', lies, half-truths, manipulated > truths, propaganda and general B.S. at my media buddhi newsletter > <https://mediabuddhi.substack.com/>.* > > H R Venkatesh > Director, Training and Research, BOOM <https://www.boomlive.in/> > John S. Knight Journalism Fellow 2019 > <https://jsk.stanford.edu/fellows/class-of-2019/h-r-venkatesh/>, Stanford > University > Twitter: @hrvenkatesh > -- Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? Carl: Nuthin'. Homer: D'oh! Carl: Unless you're crooked. Homer: Woo-hoo!
