Wish I read a nice round number of books but alas, it was not to be. Planned on reading 12–15 this year so that glad I could hit 17.
17. Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas By Adam Kay
“I realize I hadn’t really thought of them as people before — with lives and interests and a sense of humour — and feel bad for assuming I was the only one with a personality (such as it is). Especially as that’s precisely what frustrates me about the other players in this game- the patients and the politicians, forgetting that we’re human”
Summary: This was probably the easiest read of the year for me. It’s a really small book filled with tales from an ex-NHS doctor about working in the hospital around festive periods. Each chapter represents a different year when we worked Christmas and each chapter sort of reads like a diary which an entry for different days during that period. It is mostly very funny and highlights how funny (read silly) patients can be. Not all of it was funny though: elderly people that get abandoned in the hospital, elderly people that would rather stay in the hospital than go home, politicians using the NHS for photo opportunities, miscarriages, death etc. It also touches on the effects working at this time has on those in the NHS and the price they pay socially. I gained a new found appreciation of the work that they do after reading it, would recommend.
Fun Fact: Bought this because I wanted to give it away at the book swap but I took it back from the swap hahaha
16. Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism by Bhu Srinivasan
“But American capitalism was not ideologically rigid. It was never the laissez-faire laboratory of purist, principled imaginations. The strength of the system came through its pragmatism and flexibility, juggling competing and contradictory ideas, just as Carnegie did personally, and eventually finding political solutions to seemingly intractable issues, especially after the scars of the Civil War”
Summary: This book does what it says on the tin. It’s a history on American capitalism from the funding of the voyages to the continent till the present mobile-age. It talks about the major influences on Capitalism through out those years whether it be government policy, international affairs, new minerals and raw materials and physical and social inventions. In each chapter it describes the effects and knock-on effects. It chronicles titans like Vanderbilt, Carnegie and Rockfeller as well as presidents and inventors like Morse and Edison. Most importantly the author shows that American capitalism has never been laissez-faire like some purists will have it but has always required some sort of government intervention and is flexible to democracy and the will of the people (customers and workers). It’s a long book but very very informative and covers a very wide surface areas of topics. It feels like one of those books I’ll be going back to
Fun fact: Saw someone on twitter reading it, super proud of myself for finishing this. Was scary to pick up
15. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
“We have, in other words, CIA officers who cannot make sense of their spies, judges who cannot make sense of their defendants, and prime ministers who cannot make sense of their adversaries. We have people struggling with their first impressions of a stranger. We have people struggling when they have months to understand a stranger. We have people struggling when they meet with someone only once, and people struggling when they return to the stranger again and again. They struggle with assessing a stranger’s honesty. They struggle with a stranger’s intent. It’s a mess.”
Summary: The book essentially explains why we human are bad at understanding strangers and how we’re not always honest about how bad we we are. The 3 main reasons are we tend to assume most people are honest, we try to read into how people are feeling from their outward demeanour and we fail to understand the context/coupling of strangers’ behaviour. He uses interesting examples from Cuban spies infiltrating American Intelligencet to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme to Brock Turner to interrogation of terrorist, and arrest of Sandra Bland to name a few. They all have a stranger element to make his point. The one criticism of the book was that it’s suggested solution: constraint and humility when dealing with strangers seem like a bit of a cop out to me and was barely even touched on. Also he does touch some very controversial topics like suicide, the role of alcohol in sexual assault so, which while personally I think his stances are reasonable, others may find those chapters in particular triggering
Fun fact: Gotta be my record for fastest read of the year. Took 6 days but probably only read it on 3 independent days. Also my first book by Gladwell. Guess having heard a lot about some of he previous stuff, I was expecting more. Still a fun read though
14. An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
“But it is true that fear is a great phenomenon in the life of a man. As a child, a man’s life is ruled by constant fear. And once a person becomes an adult, fear becomes a permanent part of him. Everything he does is ruled by it. It is folly to ask how may one be free from fear? Well, isn’t it fear itself — perhaps the fear of having one’s mind dominated by fear — that causes a person to ask such a question? Man must live by it… Fear is a subaltern god, the silent controller of the universe of mankind. It might be the most powerful of all human emotions”
Summary: The story follows Chinonso, a young man, who is rescued from his grief through love but the family of the girl he falls for disapproves of the relationship because of his status. In order to win them over, he sacrifices everything he has only to lose it all. This journey is narrated by his “chi” so it is filled with references to Igbo cosmology which were quite interesting to read out though I must admit some of the references were lost on me. Same goes for some of the ancient proverbs as well.The chi’s narration of Chinonso’s rollercoaster of a life adds flavour to an already colorful story. It is a well told story and the author finds brilliant ways to describe the roller coaster of emotions experienced by the host: grief, shame, love, anxiety, fear, vengerfulness, anger, betrayal and desperation. The story shows how humans are forged by the experiences they go through and how susceptible we are to circumstances beyond our control.
Fun Fact: Only bought this because it was long listed for the Man Booker prize haha
13. McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime by Misha Glenny
“The pursuit of dirty money is a complicated business. Capital springs from human labour to give life to the global economic environment. It emerges from the source before broadening into a fast-flowing river rushing down from the peaks and distributing itself unevenly across the fertile lowlands through channels both organic and man-made… As it cuts unpredictable paths, some drains off unnoticed, perhaps wending through a toxin-infected swamp before seeping back into the main network. Here and there, one may encounter apparently pristine pools that are in fact contaminated with colourless, odourless chemicals… Only the most expert biochemist can tell the good capital from the filthy lucre as it mixes and mingles. Capital itself is neither dirty nor clean — it is human activity and human values that determine the colour of money”
Summary: This book maps out the global structure of the criminal underworld. It takes you through different geographical locations and explains the circumstances that led to the rise of organised crime there, gives examples of major players and the areas they are involved in. The author even manages to interview some of the people involved both in committing the crimes and trying to stop them. It describes the global nature of organised crime and the links between different groups and global events. It starts from the fall of communism and the effect on organised crime in the Balkans, Ukraine and Russia then crime in India, how Israel and UAE became safe havens for cartels in the middle east. It discusses 419 in Nigeria, cyber crime in Brazil and how apartheid affected crime in South Africa. In North America, it looks at alternate approaches of Canada and USA, with its war on drugs and effects on Colombia on the other end. Talks about the rise and decline of the Yakuza and China’s quest for domination and ripple effects on crime around the globe. Above all it discusses how criminal organisations thrive through globalisation, poor regulatory oversight, and the invisible hand of the free market.
Fun Fact: Not sure how I even heard about this book but it was so good, I’ll probably pick up the TV show.
12. You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian
“He loved her so much that if making her happy meant giving her up, he might have done it — but what good would it do to set her free when the person she was in love with didn’t exist, except in her own mind”
Summary: This is a collection of short stories mostly centred around women experiencing the world around them through interpersonal relationships. In Bad Boy, a couple ropes their friend into some messed up stuff. Look At Your Game, Girl shows just how harrowing harassment can be for young girls. Sardines, narrates the relationship between a woman, her ex-husband’s new girl, her daughter and their friendship groups. Nightrunner is about a teacher in a foreign country terrorised by his students and local inhabitants. The Mirror, The Bucket, and The Old Thigh Bone is a cautionary tale about taking self-love too far. Cat Person and The Good Guy are probably the longest and the ones tha propelled the author to fame. They both tell stories of modern dating experiences. Death Wish falls in that category too. Scarred is more or less a fantasy story, spell book and all. Biter tackles both controlling urges and abuse of power. The Boy In The Pool was meh for me and Matchbox was about mental health and trust in a couple’s relationship. Would say like 8 of the stories are really good! Only like 2 were meh for me.
Fun Fact: Cat Person and The Good Guy, were such fun stories to discuss so wanted to check out the authors other work
11. Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC by Reed Tucker
“One thing that hasn’t changed is the conflict between the two biggest names in superheroes. The employee poaching, the competing events, and the marketing gamesmanship still feature prominently. With these characters becoming global icons worth billions, if anything, the stakes are higher now than ever before”
Summary: This book chronicles every part of the rivalry from DC being the top dog in the comic world in the early days and how Marvel eventually overtook DC commercially and DC’s attempts to fight back. It talks about the marketing gamesmanship and employee poaching between the two companies, how the rivalry changed through the booms and busts of the comic industry and how it moved to other arenas like TV, Movies and the corporate arena. It talks a lot about comic characters and history so if you’re a comic nerd or were ever vaguely interested in comics then you would probably enjoy this, though the amount of quotes made it feel you might be better off reading from directly from the sources. Also the author does put a disclaimer at the start about being more biased towards Marvel and you can tell. It seemed like he kept forcing the Marvel (young upstart) vs DC (old establishment) narrative.
Fun fact: Saw this book on a stranger’s reading list that popped up on my TL