Book recommendations (Dec 2021)

Fiction:

1. Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky. 19th century Russia. Big book. Big themes. Religion, morality, free will.

2. The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy. India, caste system, forbidden love.

3. War and Peace – Tolstoy. Russia, early 19th century.

4. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro. England, pre WW2. Favourite contemporary author.

5. Do Not Say We Have Nothing – Madeleine Thien. China, communism.

6. A Farewell to Arms – Hemingway. Italy, WW2.

7. The Famished Road – Ben Okri. Nigeria, colonization.

8. The Tartar Steppe - Dino Buzatti. Italy, pre WW2. One big metaphor for life.

9. No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy. Western.

10. The Narrow Road to The Deep North - Richard Flanagan. Australian POWs, WW2.

Non-fiction:

1. Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance - Robert M Pirsig. Philosophy.

2. Hackers & Painters - Paul Graham. Tech, philosophy, business.

3. The Lessons of History - Will & Ariel Durant. Comprehensive history lesson.

4. How To Make Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie. Wish I read this when I was younger.

5. Zero to One – Peter Thiel. Business meets philosophy.

6. Guns, Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond. Explains the rise of civilization. Similar themes to Sapiens (Harari).

7. The Ascent of Money – Niall Ferguson. Understand the world better.

8. Endurance (Shackleton’s incredible voyage) - Alfred Lansing. A testimony to the human spirit.

9. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer. Everest 1995/1996. Also wrote Into The Wild.

10. The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Soviet concentration camps.