Books I read between April and November 2021

 Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I updated on the books I am reading or have read over the past few months.

So here goes the list. For my ranking of the books you can find me on Goodreads.

1. And then there were none

Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Murder Mystery

A thrilling murder mystery. Classic case of "who done it". The story follows ten strangers from different walks of life who get invited to a house for a retreat on an island by a mysterious host. The guests find the ominous poem of "Ten Little Soldier Boys" who die horrific deaths and one by one each of the guests start dying in a fashion similar to that of the poem. The readers actually do not get any Hercule Poirot or Mrs Marple, but are left to their own whims to guess who is the orchestrator of the killings, until the very epilogue of the book. The positive points for me in this story were that the story did not follow a conventional mystery plotline and all the characters were equally suspicious because of their dark pasts. I had actually initially guessed the killer correctly but then the story had thrown me off the scent and I ended up thinking I was wrong in my assumptions only to be proven correct in the epilogue from a confession with a message in a bottle. The negative aspects of the story had more to do with the casual racist comments which are sprinkled through the book and also finding out later that the book was originally known as Ten Little Niggers, which was a bit horrifying to know. Recently my idea of my favourite book authors being very open minded with worldly views has been shattered more than once. But again no one is perfect I guess. Not even our favourite story tellers we look up to.

2. Foundation series (Foundation #1)

Author: Isaac Asimov

Genre: Science Fiction

This was my first ever proper science fiction that I have ever read, also not to mention my first ever venture into a new Scifi author: Isaac Asimov. If you are a big Star Wars fan, or even a pre-Season 8 Game of Thrones fan then this series might be the absolute treat for you. I could actually imagine the brains of millions of story tellers, authors and award winning directors being inspired by this book to create the amazing creations we know in pop culture today- be it Star Wars, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, Westworld- I could find originating concepts in this book. I also liked reading the author's foreword in the first book where he talks about how he comes to writing this Foundation series as small stories coming out as installments in magazines. While reading this foreword,  I also felt a huge respect for him since Isaac Asimov was a biochemist and being a biochemist myself with a passion to dabble in literature, I felt like I could relate to him in many aspects.  The story follows the premonitions of a  psychohistorian (which is basically a person who can do a population and behavioural statistical analysis of a population residing across the whole Galaxy), who deduced the fall of the autonomous Galactic Empire which might lead to tyranny and barbarism in its aftermath. To prevent this from happening, a band of people from different professions team up and become calculated politicians making manipulations and negotiations with the planets across the Galaxy. The story depicts beautifully how a world created by a scientist and through science and technology ultimately lead to the "Foundation" (see what I did there?) of a civilisation bigger than the Empire itself.  The positive points of this series is that each chapter feels like a separate episode of its own being set hundreds of years apart from each other. That means the characters introduced in a previous chapter are all dead and there are new characters handling a new crisis and and resolving it within that same chapter using careful manipulation tactics and their power in understanding STEM. The world building deserves a chef's kiss. My favourite chapter is where we deal with a band of people who have obtained a full knowledge of science and nuclear power and are known as "priests" who end up controlling the uneducated masses by preaching and conveying their religion that they understand the Spirits or Gods of the Galaxy. It was fascinating to me how science could be used to hoodwink the masses into believing it is something supernatural or equivalent to a religion.The downside of the series is that the series is actually a trilogy and actually too long to end in one continuous read. I understand that I feel this way because the story was originally set as installments, not to be read in one sitting at all and hence I know that I can at least come back to the other two books at some point later on and still be able to enjoy them like a separate season of a widely popular series.

3. Languages of Truth: Essays 2003-2020

Author: Salman Rushdie

Genre: Non fiction/ Essays

Another new author that I always wanted to read the works of. This book should definitely be read by people who aspire to be writers at some point in their lives. Starting from works of fiction, non-fiction, plays, autobiographies, the techniques of good story telling, Rushdie talks about it all. A good masterclass for aspiring authors. He also writes essays about the ever changing world around him and the lack of freedom of expression for authors and also his experiences as an author and his world views on politics, religion and multimedia entertainment.  His beginning essays on writing the perfect work of fiction fascinated me the most. Also his immense knowledge on world literature and stories which inspired him to become an author. The history of the Alibaba and the 40 thieves, origin of fantasy stories like Alice in Wonderland were beautiful and amazing to read about. Since this book is updated to 2020, we also find his experiences with celebrities he knew like the late Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher or his experience with Covid19. The downs for me in this book was the constant deviations or distractions Salman Rushdie created in his essays, always digressing from the main topic to something completely different. Although this made me feel that the book progressed in a more "conversational tone", sometimes it became difficult for me to grasp at the point he was trying to make. The other thing that put me off about this book was the extreme opinions he had about some topics- like it always felt like it was a 0 or a 100 for him in those matters, not open for a middle ground.

4. We Should All Be Feminists

Author: Chimamanda Adichie

Genre: Nonfiction/Essay

This book was so relatable on so many aspects. A book that was mainly an expanded form of TED talk by the author, I felt like I have lived through some of the aspects that she had lived through. When her friend called her a feminist with the vocal undertones of being equivalent to a terrorist or the casual sexism that exists in the society, or sometimes when people do it subconsciously because it is so deeply rooted in them, her experiences resonated with me. I also learned so much about Nigerian culture and found some similarities with our own culture from this piece of work. All in all, it is a must read for anyone who wants to understand feminism better and not view it as something like being a "man-hater".

5. A Room of One's Own

Author: Virginia Woolf

Genre: Nonfiction/Essay

This essay is based on a number of lectures by Woolf at Cambridge University. This book mainly deals with the history of female story-tellers and authors and the struggles they have faced in the patriarchal society to become successful storywriters of their generation. From Austen to the Bronte Sisters, she covers it all. The best part of this book is where the author imagines up a life about Shakespeare's sister and if she was as talented as his brother and also wanted to become a playwright. Reading this book is a ride through the history of British eras and their authors and how female writers fit into the society at that point. A Room of One's Own is a fitting title to this book as the author mentions figuratively and metaphorically of the requirements needed by a female writer to grow as a story teller and have the necessary environment to write a good story.

6. This is How you Lose the Time War

Author: Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Genre: Science Fiction/Romance/LGBT

A series of prose-like love letters between two characters of opposing factions travelling through time. Both of them are described with the pronouns "she", but one of them is mostly organic matter or fungus and the other a robot/cyborg.  Both of them are rivals but they become impressed with how each of them lose and win against each other in separate missions through time and eventually fall in love with each other. Reading this book felt like I was back in a Literature class, 6 years since high school. It has been written by two authors who have written from the POV of the two different characters. The plus points for me in this book were that the writing felt like poetry or like lyrics to a beautiful song. Also never in my life did I ever imagine this odd combination of Shakespeare-like prose and romantic writing combined with a sci-fi background. The only downside for me is that the love story became so consuming that less time  (or rather pages) was invested in the world building and the exact nature of the time travel and the ultimate motives of the two warring factions. 

7. Norwegian Wood

Author: Haruki Murakami

Genre:Fiction/Culture

I have always wanted to read Murakami since my high school years and now I have finally come to it. But I have mixed feelings about this book. Let's just start off with that. This book talks about the life of a young adult Toru Watanabe who moves to Tokyo for university and deals with life in the aftermath of the death of his best friend. The story is set in the 60s and written in retrospect of the character who is currently thinking about his life in the early 20s. I was hooked and enjoyed the beginning of the book. The descriptions of different seasons, Japanese cuisine, life of people in Tokyo, dorm-room life, popular literature and music of the 60s, Beatles song references-I loved it all. The moment where I stopped liking the book is when it became too real. The depression and constant waves of trauma the protagonist encounters was too real to reality and that made me sad to an extent where I could not enjoy the book as an escape but felt like I was reading someone's day to day life which was equally mundane like mine. So in short as much as I appreciate the amazing writing  and real portrayal of life and realistic dialogues of how 20 year olds talk, it does degrade your mental health a bit if you are already not in a very healthy place mentally. Apart from the mental health aspect, the other thing is  women in this book (although have a lot of character-depth) are sometimes just viewed as sex objects and it becomes repititive to a point where you know that whenever the protagonist meets a new female character, they will eventually have sex (wishful thinking of the author I guess.). I look forward to reading some other work from Murakami that will not be as depressing as this one.