
On this page I have a list of notable books I have read since 2009. Notable as in books that I read in a particular year and liked, for a variety of reasons. I have posted a longer blog post reviewing each book in this list.
The years covered in this list below are 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.
2013 Books
Also see this post.
- The Joy of x, by Steven Strogatz
- The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, by Michel Danino (also on Centre Right India)
- Land of the Seven Rivers, by Sanjeev Sanyal (also on Centre Right India)
- India's Bismarck, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, by Balraj Krishna (also on Centre Right India)
- The White Man's Burden, by Winthrop Jordan (also on Centre Right India)
- Mahabharata, Vol. 7, Translated by Bibek Debroy
- Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana, by Devdutt Pattanaik (also on Centre Right India)
- Doctor Sleep, by Stephen King
- Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan, by M.J. Akbar (also on Centre Right India)
- Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
- The City of Dvaraka, by S.R. Rao (also on Centre Right India)
- Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
- Blindness, by Jose Saramago
2012 Books
(also see this and this post for more information)
- India's Culture and India's Future, by Michael Danino
- Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World, by Michael Lewis
- Unabridged Mahabharata, Translated by Bibek Debroy (Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol.5 (1, 2)
- The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power, by Tariq Ali
- The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves, by Dan Ariely
- Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, by Mara Hvistendahl
- The Parliamentary System, by Arun Shourie
- The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, by Christopher Hitchens
- After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam, by Lesley Hazleton
- Bali and the Ocean of Milk, by Nilanjan P Choudhury
- Londonistan, By Melanie Phillips
- Valmiki's Ramayana", Translated by Arshia Sattar
- Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, by Paul Offit
- Time Stops at Shamli, by Ruskin Bond
- Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture", by Peggy Orenstein
- Good Ol Charlie Brown, How I Hate Him!, by Charles M Schulz
- The Net Delusion, by Evgeny Morozov
- How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough
- Durbar, by Tavleen Singh
- Adi Parva - Churning of the Ocean, by Amruta Patil
(also see this page for a fuller explanation for each book on the list)
- Indian Culture and India's Future, by Michel Danino (my review)
- The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, by Jon Ronson (my review)
- The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly (my review)
- Cheap, by Ellen Ruppel Shell (my review)
- Brain Rules for Baby, John Medina (my review)
- The Shallows
, Nicholas Carr
(my review)
- Moonwalking with Einstein
, Joshua Foer
(my review)
- In Defense of Food
, Michael Pollan
(my review)
- The Emperor of all Maladies
, Siddhartha Mukherjee
(my review)
- Churchill's Secret War
, Madhusree Mukherjee
(my review)
- The Master Switch
, Tim Wu
(my review)
- Designing With the Mind in Mind
, Jeff Johnson (my review)
- Start-Up Nation
, Dan Senor
and Saul Singer
(my review)
2010 Books
This is a list of the best books I read in 2010. Not necessarily books that were published in 2010.
I read many that were not on my original list of intended books. Nor did I end up reading all the books that I had put down in my Intray, so to say. Several books were recommendations from our local library-wallah, Pratap. Some were from the Amazon Vine program, including three on this list. Most of the ones I did read were non-fiction. And most of the books I read had been published prior to 2010. It takes me a fair bit of time to get to the latest books it seems. That is not a complaint. That is not a regret. Books, unlike food or fashion, do not go bad with time. You do realize, that I am not referring to the paper the books are printed on but to the words and ideas and narratives that make up the book.
So, here is the list of the best books I read in 2010 - "best"is subjective here, you see.
Bailout Nation, with New Post-Crisis Update: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy
This book is a wonderful combination of angry indignation, detailed research, and well organized content that spares no one in its critique of the financial crisis of 2008. Of the possibly hundreds of books that have come out so far and will come out on the global financial crisis, this is perhaps one of the 5 best books on the topic. Another one is "The End of Wall Street

The Art of Choosing
The author does an excellent job of painting a vivid panorama of the diverse choices we face in life, from marriage to picking jams in a market. Some of the topics can elicit strong responses from people on either side of the debate, so it's a huge credit to the author that she presents both sides of the dilemma of choosing without taking partisan sides, while at the same time giving us an appreciation of the complex issues involved. Think Atul Gawande

The author follow up on his best-seller, Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

The End of Wall Street
Of all the books I read on the financial crisis, and there are at least two more that I would like to read - Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy

Co-opetition


At Home
Writing about the evolution of the home can be a dreadfully boring task, for the author and reader alike. Not when the task is put in the hands of Bill Bryson

Jaya
The Mahabharata is the greatest tale ever told. There are enough subtleties in it to keep anyone interested in in the epic for a lifetime, and if you are a Hindu, or more than a lifetime. Everything is connected to almost everything else. Every action has a consequence, in often unexpected ways - a truer or more profound illustration of "karma" has never been written. The author, Devdutt Pattanaik

Flipkart.com links to the books listed above:
- Bailout Nation from Flipkart.com
- The Art Of Choosing from Flipkart.com
- The Upside Of Irrationality from Flipkart.com
- The End Of Wall Street from Flipkart.com
- Co-opetition from Flipkart.com
- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo from Flipkart.com
- At Home: A Short History Of Private Life from Flipkart.com
- Myth = Mithya: A Handbook Of Hindu Mythology from Flipkart.com
- Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling Of The Mahabharata from Flipkart.com
2009 Books
These are the best books I read in 2009.
1. Visual Display of Quantitative Information
(my blog post)
2. The Hot Zone
This is a frisson inducing tale of devastation - past and possible - that some of the deadliest, and yet simplest, viruses can wreak. Written like a sophisticated bio-sci-fi horror-thriller, except it is based on true events. Terrifying and fast-paced beginning, and then settles into a more measured and slower pace.
While the author states that the "book describes events between 1967 and 1993", the two main events of interest described, take place in Kenya in 1980 and in the weeks following Thanksgiving Weekend in the US in 1989.
(my blog post)
Highly recommended, very well researched, and equally well written and presented. This book uses recently unveiled papers and documents, stitched together by the author, a former ADC to Lord Mountbatten, to put forth the point that there was much more going on behind the scenes during India's Independence struggle, and the partition of the country that happened than has generally been known or believed.
(my blog post)
4. Nurture Shock
Excellent book that covers a wide range of topics, all on children and parenting. Read with an open mind, and be aware of the illuminating power of as well as the limitations of research.
This is a book that's very broad in its coverage. It attempts to cover, in one chapter each, an aspect of child development, citing plenty of research done in recent times to support arguments and theories put forward. Each chapter covers a topic - confidence, sleep, lying, racial attitudes, intelligence, sibling conflict, teen rebellion, self-control, aggression, gratitude, and the acquisition of language. Existing theories are explained, and new emerging research is cited and used to explain each topic. The wide variety of topics covered also means that parents will have plenty of material to go over, irrespective of how old their children are, and while teenagers are not likely to pick this book up, it would help them also a lot.
Kindle link
Immensely relevant and revelatory findings, extensive notes and references, rapid-fire style of writing, and replete with anecdotes, references to medical research, topped off with gobs of humour.
(Kindle link
6. A Case of Exploding Mangoes
Wickedly funny, acerbic wit, well narrated plot, reasonably fast pacing. The mention of a mysterious character named OBL will appeal to many in the west, while the foibles of those in power will be more than familiar to people in the sub-continent.
(Kindle link
7. Upanishads
2.3.3 Know the Self as lord of the chariot,
The body as the chariot itself,
The discriminating intellect as charioteer,
And the mind as reins.
2.3.4 The senses, say the wise, are the horses;
Selfish desires are the roads they travel.
When the Self is confused with the body,
Mind, and senses, they point out, he seems
To enjoy pleasure and suffer sorrow.
(Kindle link, my blog posts))
The book and the author's contention is that the East India Company had a lot in common with the corporates of today, especially with the likes of Enron and Worldcom, and that a lack of appropriate corporate governance and weak oversight on the part of the government contributed to excesses therein. Specifically, "the drive for monopoly control, the speculative temptations of executives and investors, and the absence of automatic remedy for corporate abuse."
(my blog post)
Marketers market at children. Advertisers use and target children. Makers of toys, cartoon shows, and more know that children are a lucrative market. And that if you cannot get to the parents, get to their wallets via children. It may appear to be wrong, and it may militate against our sense of right and wrong, but it happens, all the time. This book attempts to document, expose, and reveal how, when, and possibly why this happens.
(my blog post)
Links to books available at Flipkart.com
- The Visual Display Of Quantitative Informations from Flipkart.com
- The Hot Zone from Flipkart.com
- Shadow Of The Great Game The Untold Story Of India' from Flipkart.com
- NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children from Flipkart.com
- Stumbling On Happiness from Flipkart.com
- A Case Of Exploding Mangoes from Flipkart.com
- The Upanishads from Flipkart.com
- The Corparation That Changed The World from Flipkart.com
- Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents And Harms Young Minds from Flipkart.com
© 2011, Abhinav Agarwal. All rights reserved.