Books from 2019

Here are my book-readings from 2019 along with recommendations. I have benefited from such posts of others, and hope this continues the tradition. The book names click through to Amazon's US kindle versions.

History

1.      Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln – Doris Kearns Goodwin

A fine account of about 75 years of American Political, Social and Cultural history during the 1800s , this 900+ page journey into the lives of four politicians, including Lincoln, left me yearning for more. The sheer brilliance of Lincoln is a pleasure to read about, and one feels a certain sorrow at having not been born in that to experience it all. “That Lincoln, after winning the presidency, made the unprecedented decision to incorporate his eminent rivals into his political family, the cabinet, was evidence of a profound self-confidence and a first indication of what would prove to others a most unexpected greatness.” One can see glimpses this perhaps, in former US President Obama appointing Senator Hillary Clinton in his cabinet.

2.      The Lessons of History - Will & Ariel Durant

In a short span of 125 odd pages, this profoundly powerful book makes one pause and think after every other sentence. It’s a slow, pleasurable read.

“Most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice”

”Only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom”

”Sometimes we feel that the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which stressed mythology and art rather than science and power may have been wiser than we, who repeatedly enlarge our instrumentalities without improving our purpose”

3.      Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari

There are many sub-500 page books on the theme of a “short history of humankind”, but this one hits the mark reasonably well. The first one-third of this book is splendid, in the way it structures definitions...then it sort of meanders in the middle 100-odd pages...but then comes back nicely in the last one-third.

It knits a tight story-line:

• from the Cognitive Revolution of 70000 bce “when history declared its independence from biology…and historical narratives replace biological theories as our primary means of explaining the development of Homo sapeins”…
• to start of Agricultural Revolution around 12000 bce leading to domestication of some flora and fauna at the expense of mass-decimation most other flora and fauna by humans..."with each passing generation, the sheep became fatter, more submissive and less curious”
• to start of writing in Sumeria around 3000 bce allowing humans to organise at larger scale, leading to formation of societies
• to 1 bce when larger societies anchored around religion….

It’s a fascinating theory of human biological, political, social, philosophical and economic evolution over several thousand years.

4.      City of Gold: Dubai and the dream of capitalism - Jim Krane

A fascinating history of Dubai, as I seek to satiate my curiosity about why some nations develop quickly (UAE, Singapore, et al) and most don’t.

”Not one of the Sheikhs who governed Dubai since 1833 was overthrown or murdered”

"Dubai in 1950s was little different from how it was in 1850s”

"Electricity arrived in 1960s”

“Up until the 1960s, few people lived beyond the age of forty-five”

Economically, what happened in Dubai during 1960 - 2000 is simply extraordinary.

Health & Philosophy

5.      Why we Sleep – Matthew Walker

This book has been an eye opener. Sleep, it says, is perhaps the most important body-maintenance activity one does on a daily basis

"Considering how biologically damaging the state of wakefulness can be, that is the true evolutionary puzzle, not sleep"

Less sleep means poor memory, poor bodily functions, poor longevity…but how much poor? “Ten days of 6 hours sleep a night was all it took to become as impaired in performance as going without sleep for twenty-four house straight”

This book takes us deep into the chemical architecture of sleep, and its probable influences on our body functions, health and longevity. I highly recommend this one.

6.      The Bhagvadgita - Sage Veda Vyasa

Most Indians own a version of this, but very few read it. My Hindi/English translation of the original Sanskrit text does have a significant signal and context loss though.

"A transcedentalist...should be free from desires and feelings of possessiveness"

This thought also echoes in Sapiens' (#3 above) take on Buddhism: "In meditation, you witness the ceaseless arising and passing of your feelings, and realise how pointless it is to pursue them."

7.      Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E Frankl

To judge this book would be a sacrilege. Let me only say that I have gifted this to a few people this year. Viktor Frankl crafts a logical, philosophical and actionable argument towards a purpose of life even in the face of near-certain, painful and imminent death in a Nazi concentration camp.

India

8.      Advice & Dissent – Y V Reddy

Dr Y.V. Reddy served as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2003 to 2008. His intelligence, knowledge, wit, language and wisdom provides a unique insight into the workings of the RBI.

“A governor…has to pretend that the Reserve Bank is independent without offending the government”

"In addition to inefficiencies inherent in markets, public institutions and conditions that markets needed to function effectively were weak or even non-existent in our country. We had a deeply entrenched privileged class that was resistant to a market-enabling ecosystem"

"It is interesting that over the years since Independence, prime ministers have generally chosen as finance ministers either technocrats or politicians with negligible political following"

"Government policies had an impact on investment climate more than interest rates"

"My single objective is to protect the Indian economy from the Government of India. In some sense, that is the reason for the existence of the RBI. The government created the Reserve Bank of India to moderate its temptation to take a short-term view on matters relating to money and finance"

"When Timothy Geithner of the Federal Reserve visited India, I gifted him Complications by Atul Gawande, and told him that it was the best book I had read on monetary policy, though it was a narration of a surgeon’s experiences"

9.      Who Moved my Interest Rate – Duvvuri Subbarao

D Subbarao was the RBI governor after YV Reddy (2008-13) during the global financial crisis. Prior to that, he was finance secretary to the Government (2007-08). A trend that continues with Shaktikanta Das moving from being finance secretary to now the present-day RBI governor...a very insightful book on workings of the RBI and the Finance Ministry during this time, and the basis of policy-making and trade-offs.

10.  Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy – Shivshankar Menon

Shivshankar Menon served as national security adviser to the Prime Minister from 2010–14 and as India’s foreign secretary from 2006–09

"From India’s point of view, it is China’s silence or ambivalence about the rise of India that poses a puzzle and a challenge"

"Avoiding war and attaining one’s goals is the highest form of strategy by any tradition or book, whether the strategist is Kautilya (Chanakya), Sun Tzu, or Machiavelli"

"Indians must learn to use the rise of China to achieve our goals"

"Temporarily silencing the cross-border terrorists is the best we can hope for. Besides, in the hierarchy of India’s national goals, silencing these terrorists is of much lower priority than the transformation of India"

"China managed to combine high growth and high corruption partly because its government machine was impressively efficient. By contrast, India’s was intrusive in some areas and incompetent in others"

The self-reflection is insightful & extra-ordinary.

11.  The Billionaire Raj – James Crabtree

An excellent history of capitalism in post-independence India from an excellent FT journalist. A recommended read.

Politics

12.  Adults in the Room – Yanis Varoufakis

An insightful account of the Greek debt crisis, from the then finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, that goes into the inner workings of EU, Euro and the political and economic leadership in EU, most of whom continue to hold office to this day.

“This was the beauty of the Greek Bailout, at least for France and Germany: it dumped most of the burden of bailing out the French and German Banks onto the taxpayers from nations even poorer than Greece, such as Portugal and Slovakia.”

It is not a must-read book, but a great read to expand familiarity with the EU political and monetary decision-making.

Finance & Investing

13.  Alchemy of Finance – George Soros

14.  Soros on Soros - George Soros

Alchemy of Finance was not an easy book to read. And one read was not enough to truly understand it. But after the third read, I needed more of Soros, and hence picked up Soros on Soros. I think Alchemy is an important book. Sort of reminded me of the character Neo in the movie Matrix. Soros claims to have become so emotionally, physically, and fully, connected with the markets, that he had become ‘one’ with the markets, and could feel the market’s pain in his physical self, a claim that his son has publicly mocked him for. I think many folks simplistically understand Reflexivity as a real-time feedback loop from the output to the input, thereby changing the output, and it goes ad-infinitum. It seems to me that it’s actually so much more than that, and so much more powerful than that.

15.  Clash of Empires - Charles Gave & Louis-Vincent Gave

16.  Stagnation or Bust? - Charles Gave

17.  Too Different For Comfort - Louis-Vincent Gave

18.  A Roadmap For Troubling Times - Louis-Vincent Gave & others

19.  The End Is Not Nigh - Louis-Vincent Gave, Charles Gave & others

20.  Our Brave New World - Anatole Kaletsky, Charles Gave, Louis-Vincent Gave

21.  What Investors Should Know About the US Current Account Deficit - Charles Gave, Louis-Vincent Gave

As must be obvious from the list above, I find LVG & CG’s writings both interesting and fascinating (Spock, btw had an interesting take on the difference between these two words). I would readily recommend each of the above, and anything else by these two that you can access.

22.  The Howard Marks Memos: 1990 - 2019

23.  The Warren Buffett Letters to Shareholders: 1957 – 2018

24.  Tren Griffin’s “A Dozen Things I Learned From…”

The above 3 total up to a voluminous 4000+ A4 sized pages, and it would be so much better if there was more.

25.  Margin of Safety - Seth Klarman

A value-investing classic. Referred to in popular press mostly for its price, but it is the content that is so much more fascinating.

"Ideally this will be considered, not a book about investing, but a book about thinking about investing."

"Throughout history, the value of an ounce of gold has been roughly equivalent to the cost of a fine men's suit."

"Indexing strategies are designed to avoid significant underperformance at the cost of assured mediocrity."

Technology

26.  AI Superpowers – Kai-Fu Lee

A supremely insightful analysis of the state of play in AI today, for a layperson. I highly highly recommend it.

"That global shift is the product of two transitions: from the age of discovery to the age of implementation, and from the age of expertise to the age of data."

"China’s startup culture is the yin to Silicon Valley’s yang: instead of being mission-driven, Chinese companies are first and foremost market-driven."

"While Socrates encouraged his students to seek truth by questioning everything, ancient Chinese philosophers counseled people to follow the rituals of sages from the ancient past. Rigorous copying of perfection was seen as the route to true mastery."

"Guo Hong is a startup founder trapped in the body of a government official."

Others

27.  Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink & 1

Leadership lessons from two US navy seals

"When it comes to performance standards, It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate."

28.  When Wolves Bite – Scott Wapner

Story of clash between Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn over Herbalife

"And what the hell, he is not risking his money, he is risking his investors’ money."

29.  Fooling some people all the time – David Einhorn

If one is interested in what David Einhorn has to say in a book format.

"Market extremes occur when it becomes too expensive in the short-term to hold for the long-term."

30.  I am Spock – Leonard Nimoy

A pleasure trip Autobiography for fans of Mr. Spock from the 1960s TV series – Star Trek.

31.  Red Notice – Bill Browder

An interesting tale of claimed-persecution from someone who in early 2000s was the largest foreign investor in Russia.

32.  Bad Blood – John Carreyrou

From Madoff to Theranos, from the Trojan Horse to Charles Ponzi - History has shown that humans remain subject to novel forms of deceiving and deception. Theranos' story as told in Bad Blood is one such account. Perhaps, after reading this, one needs to question the basis and reliability of human intuition as a tool to judge situations. Overall, I do not, and I don't think I ever will speed-read a book, but perhaps this one needs just that.

"The way Theranos is operating is like trying to build a bus while you’re driving the bus. Someone is going to get killed"

33.  The Target – Shantanu Guha Ray

Story of Jignesh Shah, an Indian Entrepreneur...avoidable.

34.  Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World – Tom Wright

Story of Malaysian sovereign fund named 1MDB & Jho Low, the person associated with it. Its on line of "Bad Blood" (#32 above). But I found this Fascinating. Talk about biases...

35.  Descent into Chaos - Ahmed Rashid

36.  The Wrong Enemy – Carlotta Gall

On Middle-East geopolitics, centered around the war since 2001

37.  Kashmir, The Vajpayee Years – A S Dulat

A S Dulat was the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India's spy agency, under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He later joined Vajpayee's Prime Minister's Office (PMO). This book provides a unique insight, even though filtered, into the Indian Government's emerging view on the Kashmir situation, over the last several decades.

38.  Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House – Michael Wolff 

39.  Fear: Trump in the White House – Bob Woodard 

Good for a quick read. The contents, even if half true, are quite incredible.

40.  Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil – Tom Mueller

If you are interested in Olive Oil - history, determinants of quality, why is quality important, why olive oil has been held to possess medicinal properties for over 2000 years of documented history, then this book is quite fascinating.