My Year in Books
According to the list that I have been keeping, I read 86 books in total last year (with three still uncompleted). I have decided to choose my ten best of the year (in no particular order). There were definitely tough decisions to be made as I did read many delightful books, and fewer poor ones.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksander Solzehnitsyn
Solzehnitsyn's account of a day in one of the Russian Gulags or concentration camps is scarily captivating. In reading it, one gets a feel for humanity in all its base essence - a ceaseless struggle for warmth and food and bare survival. Yet within this harshness the author still shows our ability to transcend that which is truly inspiring.
Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse by Jared Diamond
I am technically cheating here as these are two seperate books, but I would like to think of them as two seperate sides of the same coin. Guns, Germs and Steel examines the development of different societies and postulates reasons for the difference in wealth and technology and development that have come about in our modern age. Collapse examines why it is the case that some societies collapse and die out while some others do not. Jared Diamond is a most remarkable scholar with a breadth of knowledge that is just simply awe inspiring and his arguments are certainly compelling. Read these two books, you will definitely learn a great deal.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
As I said before, to call Tim O'Brien a war story writer is like classifying Dickens as a Victorian Social critic - the added qualifications are superfluous. He is just a great writer, period. This books of interlinked short stories is captivating and written with a subtlety and lyricism that belies the harshness of its subject matter. This started a love affair with the author that extended to much of his other writings.
The Peacemakers by Margaret MacMillan
A brilliantly researched book about the Paris Peace Conference that wonderfuly illustrates the personalities that made the key decisions as well as the circumstances in which they carried out the enormously difficult task of post war settlement. Wonderfully illuminating, and eminently readable history.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
To say a novel is beautifully written is to lapse into cliche nowadays, but one has a tendency to do so in describing this novel, 20 years in the writing and winner of the pulitzer prize. Every word seems so perfectly nuanced and well placed, it is a treasure trove of delight from beginning till end.
Hitler: Hubris by Ian Kershaw
Assidously researched (as the multitudunous footnotes would attest) this was hailed as the biography to end all biographies of Hitler. Ian Kershaw has established himself as the foremost expert on Hitler and Nazi Germany and it certainly shows in this monumental work. The most powerful aspect of the work is Kershaw's determination to put Hitler into the context of German society in the period and to try and answer the question of how a highly advanced and cultured society could fall into the spell of Nazism. A powerful work that should be read by anyone even remotely interested in power and its abuses.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The most famous anti-war novel ever written and rightly so. Remarque's novel about the disillusionment end the ending of the innocence of youth is a powerful evocation of the senselessness of war. It contains some very powerful descriptions, and though it can be a bit heavy handed at times, it is a very moving, and very important work that serves as a testament to the suffering present in war.
Freakonomics by Dubner and Levitt
A rare thing indeed, a popular, fascinating book on ecomomics that doesn't contain equations and isn't polemical in any way. Levitt really does make his subject come alive with examinations of wht drug dealers live with their mothers, how sumo wrestlers and teachers are similar and many other wonderfully strange and interesting questions that can be answered with the basic tools of economics: preferences, incentives, scarcity and choice. Pure brilliant fun.
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
This one of the most lyrical and amazing books I have ever read. There are passages that leaves you gasping and that you can just read again and again. A wonderful book of the discovery of adolescence. A must read, pure and simple.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
This is classic Ishiguro - the classic 1920s English style of writing that just reads oh so easily. The plot slowly unfolds as the narrator describes her time at a seemingly innocous bording school that is keeping something from their students. It leads to an ending that is so perfectly natural, yet heartbreaking all the same. A wonderful book that was very unlucky not to win the Booker.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksander Solzehnitsyn
Solzehnitsyn's account of a day in one of the Russian Gulags or concentration camps is scarily captivating. In reading it, one gets a feel for humanity in all its base essence - a ceaseless struggle for warmth and food and bare survival. Yet within this harshness the author still shows our ability to transcend that which is truly inspiring.
Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse by Jared Diamond
I am technically cheating here as these are two seperate books, but I would like to think of them as two seperate sides of the same coin. Guns, Germs and Steel examines the development of different societies and postulates reasons for the difference in wealth and technology and development that have come about in our modern age. Collapse examines why it is the case that some societies collapse and die out while some others do not. Jared Diamond is a most remarkable scholar with a breadth of knowledge that is just simply awe inspiring and his arguments are certainly compelling. Read these two books, you will definitely learn a great deal.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
As I said before, to call Tim O'Brien a war story writer is like classifying Dickens as a Victorian Social critic - the added qualifications are superfluous. He is just a great writer, period. This books of interlinked short stories is captivating and written with a subtlety and lyricism that belies the harshness of its subject matter. This started a love affair with the author that extended to much of his other writings.
The Peacemakers by Margaret MacMillan
A brilliantly researched book about the Paris Peace Conference that wonderfuly illustrates the personalities that made the key decisions as well as the circumstances in which they carried out the enormously difficult task of post war settlement. Wonderfully illuminating, and eminently readable history.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
To say a novel is beautifully written is to lapse into cliche nowadays, but one has a tendency to do so in describing this novel, 20 years in the writing and winner of the pulitzer prize. Every word seems so perfectly nuanced and well placed, it is a treasure trove of delight from beginning till end.
Hitler: Hubris by Ian Kershaw
Assidously researched (as the multitudunous footnotes would attest) this was hailed as the biography to end all biographies of Hitler. Ian Kershaw has established himself as the foremost expert on Hitler and Nazi Germany and it certainly shows in this monumental work. The most powerful aspect of the work is Kershaw's determination to put Hitler into the context of German society in the period and to try and answer the question of how a highly advanced and cultured society could fall into the spell of Nazism. A powerful work that should be read by anyone even remotely interested in power and its abuses.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The most famous anti-war novel ever written and rightly so. Remarque's novel about the disillusionment end the ending of the innocence of youth is a powerful evocation of the senselessness of war. It contains some very powerful descriptions, and though it can be a bit heavy handed at times, it is a very moving, and very important work that serves as a testament to the suffering present in war.
Freakonomics by Dubner and Levitt
A rare thing indeed, a popular, fascinating book on ecomomics that doesn't contain equations and isn't polemical in any way. Levitt really does make his subject come alive with examinations of wht drug dealers live with their mothers, how sumo wrestlers and teachers are similar and many other wonderfully strange and interesting questions that can be answered with the basic tools of economics: preferences, incentives, scarcity and choice. Pure brilliant fun.
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
This one of the most lyrical and amazing books I have ever read. There are passages that leaves you gasping and that you can just read again and again. A wonderful book of the discovery of adolescence. A must read, pure and simple.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
This is classic Ishiguro - the classic 1920s English style of writing that just reads oh so easily. The plot slowly unfolds as the narrator describes her time at a seemingly innocous bording school that is keeping something from their students. It leads to an ending that is so perfectly natural, yet heartbreaking all the same. A wonderful book that was very unlucky not to win the Booker.
posted by Caleb Liu | 7:11 PM
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