This is long overdue (I’m writing this in APRIL 2020), but I wanted to quickly recap the books I read in 2019 (not including my January books, because I foolishly made a post for them already). In the future, I’ll try to make a blog post for every book I finish, even if I have very little to say. Reading more encourages me to write more, and this is the perfect opportunity for me to do so.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10
A poignant chronicle of his experiences in a Nazi Concentration Camp. It was interesting to read about his take on the power of human will and hope. I think it’s a book everyone should read once — it’s very short and it talks about a period of history everyone should know about.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
Rating: ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 2/10
This book was awful – I gave it two stars because the title is the idea of the entire book, which is a wholly inaccurate and watered down version of how to succeed in life. Sometimes I can see the merit. Two stars.
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee
Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10
An interesting take on China and why China is well-positioned to be the leader of the new world order with the rise of AI. China’s centralized government makes it very easy to aggregate data (unlike the US and Europe, where data is fragmented across many companies and government bureaus), which means that AI/ML algorithms will learn much faster and China will advance much quicker. One rebuttal I had was that China cannot become a world leader with just a surfeit of data – they need to have the intelligence to innovate
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
A classic, one of those old books that you can tell would have been SUPER gripping had you read it in the 1800s when it was written (or even the 1900s!). But nowadays, in the age of 10 second attention spans, some parts were very slow, and other parts I couldn’t put the book down. The entire book was well-written though.
Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10
1st to Die by James Patterson
This is is like watching a new Netflix action movie with random actors/actresses. It’s not remarkable, but it will quench your thirst for a book. You’ll walk away with a tinge of guilt that you could have been doing something more productive or reading something just a little better.
Rating: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ 5/10
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
A classic, not much to review here. I think everyone should read this as an introduction to personal finance (and therefore everyone should read it period).
Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
A book that explained cancer and oncology in breathtakingly beautiful manner. Unfortunately, Mukherjee and Kevin Kwan must have taken the same English class, because they spend way too much time with descriptions that don’t add to the book. I actually started to skip introductions to new doctors because I really don’t need to know little quirks about them before I read about their contributions to humanity. I’m going to forget the quirks anyway.
Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
This was a beautiful novel following Mariam, an Afghan girl who grows up during the war. It’s a story of love, coming of age, and a social commentary on the gender structures in Afghan countries at the same time. I don’t remember too much of the details because I’m writing this review in April 2020, but I do remember how moved I was by this book, and why I gave it 10 stars.
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ 10/10
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
This was recommended to me by Michelle Wang, and my thoughts on this book are quite similar to my thoughts on 1st to Die by James Patterson. I will say that this was much more psychological than Patterson’s book. When you follow Camille and discover what secrets her family and her hometown hide, it feels sort of like passing a car wreck on the highway – you know you’re not going to get anything out of it, but you can’t look away. So for that reason I’ll give it a 7/10.
Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆7/10
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
I actually really liked this book, but I’m only giving it 7/10 because it seemed quite biased and Harari’s conclusions at the end seem gratuitous and goody-two-shoes-y.
Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
This book was recommended to me by Amanda Tang. I was in need of a quick read, and a quick read this was. I think I finished it in two sittings because it was so enthralling. I think the author also did a good job with the tone because I honestly felt in a haze after finishing the book too. I’m only giving it 6 stars though because it really feels like one of those one and done books.
Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 6/10
How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg
A book I think everyone should read, not just aspiring mathematicians or statisticians. It starts out with the anecdote about Abraham Wald and the bullet holes in returning planes, which I tell to everyone now (fun fact: Wald was at the Statistical Research Group at Columbia!). But it also gives a lot of intuition on why certain things in math are the way they are, and I think that’s really really helpful for anyone navigating the world of data and statistics nowadays.
Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Song of Achilles is so beautifully written and it takes something we all know and love (Ancient Greek history) and puts a modern twist on it with a hint of magical realism. It also follows the relationship between Achilles and his gay lover Patroclus as the storyline of the Iliad plays out. There was a perfect amount of love, war, and art bundled in this perfect novel.
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ 10/10
Recursion by Blake Crouch
The book version of Edge of Tomorrow sorta, where someone just keeps on going back in time to prevent some weird stuff happening. The technology is cool, and it was well-written, but I honestly just think I don’t like sci-fi that much.
Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10
Educated by Tara Westover
This was a motivating, uplifting story about the human spirit, hard work, and a little help from your older brother who brings you textbooks. It was crazy to me how someone could live how Tara did, and yet as I read the book, I found myself thinking “if I had been in her situation, I would have made it to Cambridge too because I would’ve had this amazing story about my life to tell.” Which I guess is just me being salty because if I had actually been in her situation, I don’t even know if I would have been able to see the light and work as hard as she did. I like to think I would have, but it’s never as easy as it sounds.
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10
Circe by Madeline Miller
I’m going to give this one a 9.5/10 because it was again beautifully written and Madeline Miller worked her magic again with Circe. However, there were bits that were a bit slow, mostly because a big chunk of the book is set on Circe’s island. I also read The Odyssey in 9th grade, so it was interesting to see the two storylines overlap!
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ 9.5/10
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