My Favorite Books: 2020
42 — the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. It is also the number of books I read this year. Coincidence? I think not.
Quarantine sucks, but at least I had more reading time! This year I explored more non-fiction and tech-related books than I have in the past. My main categories were tech, personal growth, non-fiction, literature, and sci-fi (of course). To see all of the books I read, find me on Goodreads!
8 Memorable Books
1. War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
A classic that I can’t believe I had never read. I COULD NOT put this down. I know it’s long, but wow it is so good. I love Russian literature so it wasn’t really surprising to me that this is my favorite for the year. Within the novel, you learn about what life was like for aristocratic Russian families in the Napoleonic era. I cried. I really did.
2. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan
I like reading about history, but the problem is most of the time I find the writing styles boring. However, this book kept my attention. This was the best overview of world history-ish book I read this year. How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World talks about a few inventions and how vast their impacts were. A Little History of the World was also a great overview of popular history topics. These two books were great, but I think that The Silk Roads won for me because it does a great job of explaining how the world evolved based on consumerism. In the end, it explains the U.S.’s involvement in the Middle East exceptionally well.
3. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
This book was just really fun to read. The imagery is great, and sometimes it is so ridiculous it’s funny. This is another famous Russian novel written about Soviet life in the 1930s. I seem to be a sucker for Russian Lit.
4. Ubik by Philip K. Dick
I love a book with a good, twisted ending. From Philip K. Dick, I also read do androids dream of electric sheep? and The Man in High Castle, but this was easily my favorite of his.
5. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness was one of the best book recommendations I received from a friend this year. A story about two people from different planets that learn to respect each other despite their differences aged well and seems appropriate today. Because a difference between the two main characters is that one is from a world where humans are gender-fluid, there is a unique take on the idea of gender that I appreciated. This is just a great science fiction book in my opinion with strong imagery and a great story. (see: a review of the book I liked)
6. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
This book is wild and funny like most of Vonnegut’s novels, but I found this one particularly cohesive compared to the rest. I laughed at the idea of a “karass” or that you have a web of people that you are connected to in your life because it really feels like it is like that some times. I interpreted parts of the book about lethal weapons to underline that people don’t understand how much power they have, how easily things can be destroyed, and the consequences of destruction.
5. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
John Nash is a famous mathematician who developed schizophrenia at the height of his professional career. Nobody is perfect, but John Nash was an intensely complex person. He had a fascinating professional and personal life, making for a good book.
6. Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
I can’t believe this is a true story! This is not a make-you-feel-good book, but it is a page-turner. Radium factories used women to paint radium onto clock dials even after they knew of the adverse effects of the radioactive substance. In Corporate America, it is all about the money, sadly even when it comes to lives. I loved this story about the brave women who stood up against the Radium companies and fought for their lives.
6. The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter — And How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay
This book put a lot into perspective for me. Since I’m in my 20s, this book was very relevant and impacted how I think about my 20s moving forward. The author offers some advice about navigating your 20s so that you set yourself up for success in later parts of life.
7. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
I won’t lie, my knowledge of the Vietnam war is limited. I learned a lot just from the context of the book. It is a beautiful story and the writing style is elegant.
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
It’s kind of embarrassing that I hadn’t read this until now, so it was about time. I am obsessed with the ending of the book. Great science fiction ending. I’m tempted to read the next one. I chose this book over H.G. Well’s A Time Machine because I thought the ending was more profound.
Honorable Mentions
Pageturners
I finished the rest of the Red Rising Saga this year. Iron Gold was my favorite compared to Dark Age by Pierce Brown. The Red Rising Series is one of the only new sci-fi series I’ve really enjoyed. The Stranger by Albert Camus was also an amazing book that made me develop a highly existential attitude for at least 24 hours. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway broke my heart like all of his books have. I was glued to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt for a couple of days and even read it until 3 A.M. (I regretted this at work the next morning).
Other perspectives
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston educated me about black history in America. I enjoyed both of these books and would like to read more like them.
Life help
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Douglas Stone, Sheila Heen were two books that are helpful for learning how to better communicate with others, professionally or personally. I ended up giving a talk at my work on Thanks for the Feedback because I thought they made good points. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon Lechter is a classic but good read about finances. All of these books could be 1/3 of the size and make the same points in my opinion. Self-help books are always a little too fluffy.
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, Ernest H. Shepard helped me get through quarantine. A simple, yet powerful book introducing the basics of Taoism.
Technical
Recommendations Engines by Michael Schrage is a high-level overview of how recommendation engines work. The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math from One to Infinity by Steven H. Strogatz is great for people who haven’t taken a math class in a while or want to get into it. I found both of these books to be a little more high level than what I was hoping for, but I appreciate the generalizations.
Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality by Edward Frenkel is about the life and professional career of Edward Frenkel, who was a young Jewish boy in Soviet Russia. Along with his struggles in early life, the book also dives into his work. It goes back and forth between his life and mathematical concepts.
Since I work in tech, I liked reading No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer, and thinking about different cultures in the workplace. There are some great but radical (compared to most workplaces) ideas presented by Netflix. The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time by David A. Vise is also a good read if you are curious about how the whole Google thing started.
To see a list of all the books I read this year, check out my Goodreads.
