My 2022 bookshelf

I am a bookworm :) and this year I was able to take it few notches above my usual annual targets. My bookshelf for this year below

1. The Anarchy - William Dalrymple 5/5 - A history book, written like a fiction by the legendary William Dalrymple. I started in 2021 Dec first week and was able to finish only by Jan 2022. The story of how Britishers created and leveraged anarchy among the erstwhile rulers of India to rule us for almost 200 years. Thank you Ashish Patel and Indranil Basu for recommending.
2. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir 6/5 - Must read sci-fi by the author who wrote 'The Martian'. Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Geology all are used heavily with some dry humour. Kept me awake till late most days, till I finished.
3. Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel 4.5/5 - Great book on 'managing money' and 'wealth' than spending it and showing it off with so-called assets. Super myth-buster, and should be recommended to young kids too.
4. 400 days - Chetan Bhagat 2/5 - Can be avoided, some random mystery fiction
5. Wings of fire - APJ Abdul Kalam 5/5 - This book is an outcome of watching Rocket Boys on Sony Liv. Thin book but explosive, pun absolutely intended. There are numerous take-aways and that feeling of pride. It has great lessons on leadership, I might have used highlighter heavily on the book to re-refer. My favorite quote "If you want to leave your footprints on the sands of time do not drag your feet"
6. Losing the signal - Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff 4/5 - Story of the background, rise and eventual fall of Blackberry. Lesson on pitfalls to be avoided by a fast growing organization and keeping it lean or disruptive or fast mover. Book recommended by Alok Kejriwal who I follow on LinkedIn
7. Nobody likes an outsider - Fawaz Jaleel 1/5 - Avoid
8. The art of saying no - Damon Zahariades 3/5 - Gyan book, but has some good nuggets on standing up for what you believe in, and how to say NO to the higher-ups.
9. Start with why - Simon Sinek 5/5 - Excellent book for leaders to use WHY as a tool: The ability to inspire those around you and to achieve remarkable things starts with WHY. Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. Those who start with WHY never manipulate, they inspire.
10. Win the digital age with data - Suman Guha 4.5/5 - Great book by my friend from previous organization. Lot of practical wisdom and knowledge sharing on driving digital transformation leverage data and analytics.
11. Once there were wolves - Charlotte McConaghy 3/5 - My fascination with wolves brought me to this fiction book. It is about a Scottish village that tries to re-introduce wolves to hunt herbivores who have ravaged the grass from the forest leading to ecological imbalance. Would recommend Salil Dalvi to read this, with the challenges seen in Panna, this has an eerie resonance.
12. Master your emotions : A practical guide - Thibaut Meurisse 2/5 - Gyan book, avoid
13. Working backwards - Bill Carr and Colin Bryar 5/5 - Written by Amazon insiders on the working model of the organization and why it keeps on re-inventing. Must read book on setting up an org culture or imbibing topics for usage from 14 point leadership principles to narratives over ppt to bar raiser process of hiring.
14. Gut - Giulia Enders 5/5 - Mesmerizing book, more on the "working model" of all things in gut. Must read.
15. Red Notice - Bill Browder 3/5 - Russia-Ukraine war led me to this audible book on how the author set up a capitalistic investment fund company in Moscow only to be prosecuted relentlessly by Russian govt.
16. Trailblazer - Marc Benioff 3.5/5 - My wife works for a Salesforce Vlocity startup, gifted her book by the SF CEO. Good read.
17. The seventh test - Vikas Swarup 3/5 - Fiction
18. Hotel Palestine Baghdad - Satish Jacob 2.5/5 - Just to know how perspectives have changed or not, between US attack on Iraq and Russia's attack on Ukraine
19. Leaders eat last - Simon Sinek 3.5/5 - good book on real leadership. A company’s biggest strength doesn’t lie in its products/services. It always lies in its people—in their ability to cooperate closely and rally behind the organization, especially during a crisis. However, loyalty and commitment must be earned. Today, work has become a contractual, transactional relationship in many organizations. Intense competition and layoffs are the norm.?How a leader use psychological safety, and lead with example.
20. That house that BJ built - Anuja Chauhan 3/5 - Fiction, sequel to "That Pricey Thakur girls" by the same author. Old Delhi charm.
21. Business adventures - John Brooks 4/5 - This book gives insight on how to run a company, invest in the stock market, change jobs, and many other things by sharing some of the most interesting experiences that big companies and their leaders have had over the last century. Example - The three-day stock market crash and recovery of 1962 showed the world how irrational and unpredictable it is. If you want to know how not to launch a product, look to the example of the Ford Edsel. Having trade secrets doesn’t make it impossible for you to get a new job thanks to Donald Wohlgemuth.
22. The 1st assassin - Mainak Dhar 2/5 - action fiction, avoid
23. The almanac of Naval Ravikant - Eric Jorgenson 6/5 - Possibly my best book this year. And one that I will re-read soon. It is a thin book but took a lot of time to finish as it induced too much reflection and deep thinking. It also forced me to make notes in a notebook. Naval is an Indian-American and CEO of AngelList, early stage VC, with Uber, Twitter, ClearView AI, Yammer among his 70 invested companies most of them are unicorns.
24. Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande 4/5 - I am guilty of being a bit too methodical with the good-old notebook and To-Dos/checklist. This book is an ode to this habit :), but takes it to multiple industry including healthcare, manufacturing. Atul is an Indian-American surgeon.
25. I too had a dream - Varghese Kurien 3/5 - Story of white revolution from a small town Anand in Gujarat. The challenges that Dr Kurien faced were unprecedented, the resilience and enterprising ability that he showcased are inspiring.
26. The silent patient - Alex Michaelides 6/5 - Amazing thriller, absolute must read. A woman shoots her husband and then goes quiet. And a psychologist undertakes this as a challenge to make he speak and know the actual truth. Climax is mind-blowing. I was joining the dots for a few hours after the end.
27. Do epic shit - Ankur Warikoo 3.5/5 - good gyan book especially when your chips are down.
28. Thinking straight - Darius Foroux 3.5/5 - Tips on how you can tune your brain to think straight out of a clutter that clogs, almost always.
29. Six easy pieces - Richard Feynman 5/5 - Re-visited physics concepts by the GOAT Dr Richard Feynman, have got the next one 'Six not so easy pieces' as well.

Currently reading the following, hope to finish before the year ends.

1. How not to be wrong - The power of mathematical thinking - Jordan Ellenberg: Currently reading, book shared by SACHIN PATIL . After Physics, this one is on Maths for decision making :)
2. The little book of Lyke - Mein Wiking - Recently started, gifted by Vidhi Ahuja , on how to be happy :)
3. The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Had started sometime back, will finish during vacation. Most of the time we gloat about our success and blame others/situations about failures, but it is always 'randomness'.