A Reading List for Difficult Times

This year has been unexpected in many ways. For many, it has been devastating to say the least, and for others, it meant more time with family and their own selves. It was a year which made us realize that having a roof over the head, food in the mouth, and loving people around is a blessing. To me personally, it was a year of realization that solitude is enticing only when it comes in limited quantities and humans, being the self-aware social animals they are, need the elements of society to survive happily. Looking back, I feel a lot of gratitude towards my family, my friends, my employer, and my colleagues for being forces of support that helped me balance myself on the thin string of uncertainty.

However, apart from the close ones, there are others also who, for many of us, made it easier to sail through the difficult times and are rarely recognized for their contribution – artists. It was a year where the importance of art forms and artists was higher than ever for the current generation. Music, films, television shows, books, games – all helped us fly into worlds away from the one surrounding us, even if for few moments. And for me, books were the prime contributors. I couldn’t put it better than James Baldwin – “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” I can add to his quote by mentioning that not just pain but delight is also an object of mutual connection.

Hence, here is my attempt at recommending four books which helped me get through this year, and with uncertainty looming over the next year as well, I hope they can help you get distracted in a good way.

1. Death’s End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past Book #3) by Cixin Liu [721 pages | Science fiction] This is by far the best book I have read in my life till date, and that sounds heavy. It’s the third and final book in the series by Chinese author Cixin Liu and breaks all the boundaries of creativity and imagination. It is not only sound in its scientific explanation but is also high on literary finesse. It toys with the big ideas of multiverse, bending of universal rules of physics, and birth and death of time and space while also exploring the philosophical aspects of development of society, hope and love, and what it is to call ourselves humans. I read it in one of my relatively low times of the year and it acted as an effective escape pod. A note of warning – it may end up making you realize the world around us is primitive and insignificant. You can buy it here (but first, please read the earlier two parts of this trilogy which are equally good – The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest)
2. Augustus by John Williams [336 Pages | Historical fiction] John Williams, the author of this book, in his lifetime, wrote four books, the first of which he denounced as it did not meet the levels of quality he had set for himself. His remaining three works were lost in oblivion till New York Review of Books republished them to rave reviews. ‘Augustus’ tells the story of Octavius Caesar, the first great emperor of the mighty Roman Empire, in an epistolary format; we get to know our lead character through a series of letters, decrees, journal entries, and even a poem, written by a host of characters surrounding him – from his closest of the family members and friends to the most wrathful foes and mute observers. While the story itself is intriguing (you don’t need to have any background of Roman history), the author’s control over language, intimacy of the narration, and elegance of the prose create an illusion that he had been shadowing Octavius throughout his life. It’s nearly impossible to imagine writing a historical fiction of the BC era with such an acute sense of confidence and awe, but here is one. You can buy it here.
3. Normal People by Sally Rooney [273 Pages | Romance] Once in a while, there comes a book that tells the story of normal people, in such a simple, conversational manner that, while displaying the enormous work that would have gone behind creating the narrative, it tugs your heart in a rare fashion. Sally Rooney’s Normal People is a coming-of-age story of two people from a small town in Ireland, who have been together since childhood, and who are meant to be together. It reads like a breeze taking you on a journey from high-school and dreamy Irish landscapes, to city college, parties, and night-outs. It is one of the best love-stories (though it is much more than just that) I have read. You can buy it here.
4. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou [339 Pages | Non-fiction, Start-up fraud] This book is a real page-turner and tells the compelling story of the rise and fall of Theranos – a Silicon Valley startup – and its fabled, genius, erratic, and morally questionable founder, Elizabeth Holmes. A derivative of THERApy and DiagNOSis, it promised to bring a detailed blood diagnosis in the hands of people. It had investors ranging from the most sought-after VCs and PEs to bigwigs such as James Mattis (former US Secretary of Defence) and Henry Kissinger (of course, him), and its founder was clearly marked as the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. At one point in time, it had a valuation of $10B+; there was one basic issue though – it did not have a working technology. There was no such product at all. Ever. Carreyrou writes the book like a seasoned author of a top-notch crime thriller and never shows the signs of this being his first book, leave alone a non-fiction. You can buy it here.

If this blog post finds even one reader who ends up reading one of the above books in the corners and crevices of the Internet, I will be thankful to her or him (or hopefully, them). Stay strong and stay distracted; all of us are in this together.

Happy new year.