Books I loved reading - Part 2

Just another list of books I loved reading and will probably end the year with. No classifications again. Before I share my second list, this is the first part of the article -

Alright, back to Part 2 of books I loved reading and some that I am still reading.

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

A heartwarming historical novel about World War II and the effect of the German occupation of the Guernsey island. Written entirely in letters between an author, Juliet, based in London and Dawsey, a pig farmer who loves books and starts a book club, it tells the story of immense courage and love even in the face of death.

Psst: You can start by watching the movie on Netflix.

2. Sophie's World - by Jostein Gaarder

For all lovers of philosophy. Someone writes letters to Sophie about the meaning of it all. It is a history of Western and Eastern facets of philosophy down the ages, in layman's terms.

3. Educated - by Tara Westover

A stunning story of inspiration - Tara Westover escaped her invisible, abusive life from an Idaho farm and went on to get educated and get a PhD from Cambridge. She didn't even have a birth certificate or any medical records - why? Read this fascinating memoir to know more.

4. Ultralearning: Accelerate Your Career, Master Hard Skills and Outsmart the Competition - by Scott Young

How can you learn a new language fluently in 3 months? How can you ace MIT's exam without ever having studied a day at MIT? Scott Young shares the strategies of ultra learning - an intense way to be consumed by learning hard skills on the go and accelerating your career.

5. Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships - by Eric Berne

I'm fascinated by psychology and this is a classic book on how we behave in different situations and different relationships and why we do so. A must-read to know yourself better and how to have better relationships.

6. Such a Fun Age - by Kiley Reid

One of the best reads of the year and frankly, my choice for the Booker 2020 ( it didn't win though ). A young black woman gets wrongly accused of kidnapping while babysitting a white child. The child's mother, a feminist blogger, takes matters into her own hands and tries to get justice for this event. What follows is an epic story. A must-read.

7. Girl in White Cotton (Burnt Sugar) - by Avni Doshi

One of the longlists on the Booker this year, this novel is a poignant, bittersweet tale of a mother-daughter duo in Pune. Her mother left her to follow a religious guru and now in her old age, as an Alzheimer's patient, she has come back. Will the daughter forgive and love her? Or will the battle of identities continue? I loved Avni's acidic sentences - beautiful images and haunting metaphors.

8. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness - by Eric Jorgenson

Have shared a detailed review in the following article -

9. The Psychology of Money - by Morgan Housel

Why are we good or bad with money? Why do we spend more than we earn? How is wealth created? This book was an eye-opener on how we think emotionally and psychologically about money and all its trappings. A great book to start understanding how to have a healthy relationship with our money and use it well.

10. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women: Volume 1 - by Elena Favilli

It tells the story of the most amazing women around the world and down the centuries - in the form of beautiful, crowdsourced art. From explorers, scientists, performers, artists, writers, adventurers, musicians, politicians - it is a must-read for every woman and young girl - a history of women role models.

11. More Than a Woman - by Caitlin Moran

A sequel to her earlier work - 'How To Be A Woman'. Caitlin Moran is now in her late forties and she writes with her candid humour about the realities of being a middle-aged woman. I loved how bravely she narrated the story of having to deal with her teenage daughter's anorexia. She puts forward the real picture of being someone who has to provide for the family, care for parents, earn a living with creativity and still maintain her sanity and sense of humour.

12. The Discomfort of Evening - by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

The actual Booker prize winner for 2020. A gripping tale of a family that comes to terms with the death of their teenage son in a freak accident. Heartbreaking, this one. It is narrated in the first person by the youngest girl child of the farming family living in a desolate part of icy Norway. It is all about loss of innocence and the turmoil of growing up in a strictly religious family.

If you've been meaning to pick up reading and want to know how to read more books, this article might help.

I loved and reviewed some more books in a video earlier this year. Here goes -

Happy Reading! :)