Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Divya S]

Goodreads is useful, I find. Plus suggestions from friends.

-Original Message-
From: "Mohit" 
Sent: ‎30-‎12-‎2014 18:01
To: "silklist@lists.hserus.net" 
Subject: Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 11:57 AM, Udhay Shankar N  wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Biju Chacko 
> wrote:
> > Now that I rarely visit book stores (all my reading is on a Kindle) I
> > seem to have some difficulty discovering new books and authors. What
> > do other silklisters do?
>
>
> Bookblogs.


​Yes, bookblogs - there are dozens of them out there, including some
specialist ones (check out http://www.crimefictionlover.com/)

And booklists...and wishlists of other people...and
goodreads/librarything...and book reviews in most
newspapers/magazines...and facebook, twitter, mailing lists, etc etc...

Regards,
Mohit
*(M) *+91 9989 420 582

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Mohit]

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 11:57 AM, Udhay Shankar N  wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Biju Chacko 
> wrote:
> > Now that I rarely visit book stores (all my reading is on a Kindle) I
> > seem to have some difficulty discovering new books and authors. What
> > do other silklisters do?
>
>
> Bookblogs.


​Yes, bookblogs - there are dozens of them out there, including some
specialist ones (check out http://www.crimefictionlover.com/)

And booklists...and wishlists of other people...and
goodreads/librarything...and book reviews in most
newspapers/magazines...and facebook, twitter, mailing lists, etc etc...

Regards,
Mohit
*(M) *+91 9989 420 582

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Thaths]

On Tue Dec 30 2014 at 5:27:30 PM Udhay Shankar N  wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Biju Chacko 
> wrote:
> > Now that I rarely visit book stores (all my reading is on a Kindle) I
> > seem to have some difficulty discovering new books and authors. What
> > do other silklisters do?
> Bookblogs.
>
>
Every time I hear recommendations, I add them to my Amazon wishlist. I pick
up physical books when I visit Stateside or India and buy Kindle ones  when
I am running low on reading matter.

S.

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Udhay Shankar N]

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Biju Chacko  wrote:
> Now that I rarely visit book stores (all my reading is on a Kindle) I
> seem to have some difficulty discovering new books and authors. What
> do other silklisters do?


Bookblogs.

-- 
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Biju Chacko]

The most memorable books I read in '14:

* The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch
* The Locke Lamora series by Scott Lynch
* Zealot by Reza Aslan
* Silkworm & The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
* The Skeptical Patriot by Sidin Vadakut

Now that I rarely visit book stores (all my reading is on a Kindle) I
seem to have some difficulty discovering new books and authors. What
do other silklisters do?

-- b


-- b

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 11:26 PM, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay
 wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 4:17 AM, Thaths  wrote:
>> Books that are easy to get a hold of in India (and more difficult elsewhere)
>> preferred (but not required). Fiction and non-fiction recommendations are
>> equally welcome.
>
> 
> and 
> 
>
>
> --
> sankarshan mukhopadhyay
> 
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay]

On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 4:17 AM, Thaths  wrote:
> Books that are easy to get a hold of in India (and more difficult elsewhere)
> preferred (but not required). Fiction and non-fiction recommendations are
> equally welcome.


and 



-- 
sankarshan mukhopadhyay

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Lahar Appaiah]

A reissue, but Romila Thapar's The Past As Present (helpfully subtitled
"Forging Contemporary Identities Through History) is worth a read. I don't
know enough about Indian history or mythology to judge this, but it has
some interesting commentary on how the historian approaches her subject,
and how this puts her in conflict with the religious hardliners.

http://www.amazon.in/The-Past-Present-Contemporary-Identities/dp/9383064013

Also, good mindless thriller fiction- anything by James Rollins. Think
Matthew Reilly, but better written, and tighter plots.

-Lahar

On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Thaths  wrote:

> On Thu Dec 04 2014 at 4:27:40 PM harry  wrote:
>
> > Would also recommend (though not connected to India) "The people in the
> > trees" - Hanya Yanagihara ...
> >
> >
> That does sound interesting.
>
> Where is everyone else on this thread this year? Sankarshan? Udhay? Rashmi?
> Lahar? Suresh? Divya? Sumant? Etc.
>
> Thaths
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Divya S]

Top posting due to phone.

I want to second 'We Were Liars' by E. Lockhart, which got left off my original 
list. It's shelved with YA fiction, and like many others in the same category, 
makes worthwhile adult reading. Actually achieves a good  twist ending, which 
is rare these days.

Cheers
Divya

-Original Message-
From: "Thaths" 
Sent: ‎27-‎12-‎2014 03:48
To: "silklist@lists.hserus.net" 
Subject: Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

And the MeFi 2014 book recommendations are out:

http://ask.metafilter.com/273482/What-books-from-2014-blew-your-socks-off

Thaths

On Thu Dec 04 2014 at 11:55:49 PM John Sundman  wrote:

>
> On Dec 4, 2014, at 6:59 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Thaths  wrote:
> >
> >> Where is everyone else on this thread this year? Sankarshan? Udhay?
> Rashmi?
> >> Lahar? Suresh? Divya? Sumant? Etc.
> >
>
> This year I discovered Flann O'Brien & read all of his novels -- the best
> & most famous of which is At Swim Two Birds. This is just sublime stuff.
>
> I've also waded into the waters of William T. Vollman, whose work is as
> abundant as nitrogen & denser than a neutron star. I've been reading
> Argall, a novel based on the Europeans in North America at Jamestown, and
> the story of John Smith & Pocahantas, since sometime in late August. I like
> it, but it's work.
>
> I read Tony Horwitz's Midnight Rising, a history of John Brown and the
> raid at Harper's Ferry that sparked the U.S. Civil war. It is a complex and
> profound story, very well told.
>
> I also read Tony Horwitz's mini-book "Boom", about his travel by pickup
> truck along the route of the proposed KXL pipeline. It too is a complex and
> profound story, well told. But much lighter, in many ways, than Midnight
> Rising.
>
> That's it for now. Maybe some other titles later.
>
> jrs
>
>
>
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Rajesh Mehar]

My own reading seems to be VERY different from all the others on this
thread, but I wanted to mention a few books that have affected me deeply
this year:

1) The First 20 Minutes by Gretchen Reynolds. This book brings together all
the latest research on fitness, working out, athletic performance, injury
prevention, and the effects of exercise on longevity and genetics. It's
written at just the right level of complexity, not to simplified as to lose
the nuance of each research paper, but simple enough for the layperson to
understand the findings of each. The book's title comes from the finding
that the greatest percentage gain in health benefit comes from one event:
getting off your butt and exercising. And after the first 20 minutes PER
DAY of exercise, the percentage benefit drops off sharply.

2) Seasons Of Trouble by Rohini Mohan. A book chronicling three lives of
people caught up in the end and aftermath of the civil war in Sri Lanka.
For someone who has, thankfully, never lived through conflict or war, I
found myself appreciating the futility of ANY response to such conditions.
People in the book chose combat, disengagement, and avoidance, yet end up
with their lives destroyed beyond recognition.

3) How to Worry Less About Money by Michael Armstrong (??). I'm recalling
the names and they might not be entirely accurate. This short, but
excellent, read articulates money concerns and thinking about money in a
coherent and we'll a categorized manner. I found that my own relationship
with money is bound up with emotional baggage from various other parts of
my life. And understanding those underlying factors has made me much more
at peace with my money and my relationship with it.

Other books which I won't describe in detail: A Thousand Faces Of The Night
by Gita Hariharan, Creative Strategy by William Duggan, and Cooked by
Michael Pollan.

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Thaths]

And the MeFi 2014 book recommendations are out:

http://ask.metafilter.com/273482/What-books-from-2014-blew-your-socks-off

Thaths

On Thu Dec 04 2014 at 11:55:49 PM John Sundman  wrote:

>
> On Dec 4, 2014, at 6:59 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Thaths  wrote:
> >
> >> Where is everyone else on this thread this year? Sankarshan? Udhay?
> Rashmi?
> >> Lahar? Suresh? Divya? Sumant? Etc.
> >
>
> This year I discovered Flann O'Brien & read all of his novels -- the best
> & most famous of which is At Swim Two Birds. This is just sublime stuff.
>
> I've also waded into the waters of William T. Vollman, whose work is as
> abundant as nitrogen & denser than a neutron star. I've been reading
> Argall, a novel based on the Europeans in North America at Jamestown, and
> the story of John Smith & Pocahantas, since sometime in late August. I like
> it, but it's work.
>
> I read Tony Horwitz's Midnight Rising, a history of John Brown and the
> raid at Harper's Ferry that sparked the U.S. Civil war. It is a complex and
> profound story, very well told.
>
> I also read Tony Horwitz's mini-book "Boom", about his travel by pickup
> truck along the route of the proposed KXL pipeline. It too is a complex and
> profound story, well told. But much lighter, in many ways, than Midnight
> Rising.
>
> That's it for now. Maybe some other titles later.
>
> jrs
>
>
>
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Divya Sampath]

De-lurking just for you, Thaths :) Most of these were consumed in e-book form, 
so there should be no difficulty in finding them - exceptions were the books by 
Diana Eck and TM Krishna, picked up at Landmark in Chennai.  My list for 2014, 
in no particular order: - “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” 
- Atul Gawande - “Gandhi Before India” - Ramachandra Guha- "The Peripheral" - 
William Gibson- "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" - Elizabeth 
Kolbert - "A Southern Music: The Karnatik Story" - TM Krishna- "Capital in the 
21st Century" - Thomas Piketty - "Banaras- City of Light" - Diana Eck- "Leaders 
Eat Last" - Simon Sinek 
- "Flash Boys"- Michael Lewis- ""Making the Modern World: Materials and 
Dematerialization" - Vaclav Smil
- "The Heroic Legend of Arslan- Vol 1 & 2" - Collected Manga - Yoshiki Tanaka 
(Author), Hiromu Arakawa (Mangaka)  CheersDivya
 
 On Thursday, December 4, 2014 4:33 PM, Thaths  wrote:
   
 

 On Thu Dec 04 2014 at 4:27:40 PM harry  wrote:

> Would also recommend (though not connected to India) "The people in the
> trees" - Hanya Yanagihara ...
>
>
That does sound interesting.

Where is everyone else on this thread this year? Sankarshan? Udhay? Rashmi?
Lahar? Suresh? Divya? Sumant? Etc.

Thaths


 

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[John Sundman]

On Dec 4, 2014, at 6:59 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Thaths  wrote:
> 
>> Where is everyone else on this thread this year? Sankarshan? Udhay? Rashmi?
>> Lahar? Suresh? Divya? Sumant? Etc.
> 

This year I discovered Flann O'Brien & read all of his novels -- the best & 
most famous of which is At Swim Two Birds. This is just sublime stuff.

I've also waded into the waters of William T. Vollman, whose work is as 
abundant as nitrogen & denser than a neutron star. I've been reading Argall, a 
novel based on the Europeans in North America at Jamestown, and the story of 
John Smith & Pocahantas, since sometime in late August. I like it, but it's 
work.

I read Tony Horwitz's Midnight Rising, a history of John Brown and the raid at 
Harper's Ferry that sparked the U.S. Civil war. It is a complex and profound 
story, very well told.

I also read Tony Horwitz's mini-book "Boom", about his travel by pickup truck 
along the route of the proposed KXL pipeline. It too is a complex and profound 
story, well told. But much lighter, in many ways, than Midnight Rising. 

That's it for now. Maybe some other titles later.

jrs

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Udhay Shankar N]

On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Thaths  wrote:

> Where is everyone else on this thread this year? Sankarshan? Udhay? Rashmi?
> Lahar? Suresh? Divya? Sumant? Etc.

The two most impressive books I read this year are _Cooked_ by Michael
Pollan and _Gulp_ by Mary Roach. Otherwise, it's been a slow-ish year
for books, both in terms of quality and quantity.

OTOH, I have great hopes of the following, in my TBR pile:

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
Debt: The First 5000 years, David Graeber
Surfaces and Essences, Douglas Hofstadter & Emmanuel Sander
Existence, David Brin
Water 4.0, David Sedlak
The Drunken Botanist, Amy Stewart

Udhay
-- 
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Thaths]

Speaking of cyber and crime, I did read a Wired novella sized e-book about
John McAfee that was pretty good. That guy is wacked  up on some crazy
drugs.

Thaths

On Thu, 4 Dec 2014 17:15 Suresh Ramasubramanian  wrote:

> > On 04-Dec-2014, at 16:33, Thaths  wrote:
> >
> > Where is everyone else on this thread this year? Sankarshan? Udhay?
> Rashmi?
> > Lahar? Suresh? Divya? Sumant? Etc.
>
> Mostly studiously avoiding the thread.  I just got done donating a ton of
> my books (mostly old pulp) to a colonel friend whose regiment is stationed
> in the middle of nowhere, the nearest bookshop is apparently a long jeep
> and then a plane ride away.
>
> I am trying to avoid filling all that reclaimed shelf space back up again.
>
> Anyway two books that I did buy are both cybercrime investigative
> journalism
>
> Countdown to zero day, on the stuxnet worm, by wired's Kim Zetter
>
> Even better, spam nation by Brian Krebs (ex wapo, now blogs fulltime at
> krebsonsecurity.com) on the russian pill spam / malware mafia.  This is
> right up there with an older book on the russian ddos mafia (much the same
> actors really) - fatal system error by Joseph Menn of the financial times.
>
>
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

> On 04-Dec-2014, at 16:33, Thaths  wrote:
> 
> Where is everyone else on this thread this year? Sankarshan? Udhay? Rashmi?
> Lahar? Suresh? Divya? Sumant? Etc.

Mostly studiously avoiding the thread.  I just got done donating a ton of my 
books (mostly old pulp) to a colonel friend whose regiment is stationed in the 
middle of nowhere, the nearest bookshop is apparently a long jeep and then a 
plane ride away.

I am trying to avoid filling all that reclaimed shelf space back up again.

Anyway two books that I did buy are both cybercrime investigative journalism 

Countdown to zero day, on the stuxnet worm, by wired's Kim Zetter

Even better, spam nation by Brian Krebs (ex wapo, now blogs fulltime at 
krebsonsecurity.com) on the russian pill spam / malware mafia.  This is right 
up there with an older book on the russian ddos mafia (much the same actors 
really) - fatal system error by Joseph Menn of the financial times.

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Thaths]

On Thu Dec 04 2014 at 4:27:40 PM harry  wrote:

> Would also recommend (though not connected to India) "The people in the
> trees" - Hanya Yanagihara ...
>
>
That does sound interesting.

Where is everyone else on this thread this year? Sankarshan? Udhay? Rashmi?
Lahar? Suresh? Divya? Sumant? Etc.

Thaths

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[harry]

Would also recommend (though not connected to India) "The people in the
trees" - Hanya Yanagihara ...

ashok

On 3 December 2014 at 00:12, harry  wrote:

> I can recommend this one, its not a work of fiction, neither is it a
> paperback, its actually a coffee-table sort of book (but far more readable)
> :
>
>
> http://www.amazon.in/Handmade-India-Geographic-Encyclopedia-Handicrafts/dp/0789210479/
>
> I had been looking for a book that documented all the handicrafts from
> different parts of india in one place (with pictures). There are other
> books too, but this one is far better than anything else out there.
>
> On 2 December 2014 at 04:17, Thaths  wrote:
>
>> For the sixth year[1] in a row, I am turning to silk listers for book
>> recommendation
>> this holiday season.
>>
>> What have you read over the last year that has left a mark on you? What
>> are
>> you eagerly looking forward to reading over the Christmas/NewYear's
>> holidays?
>>
>> Past silk list recommendations have included such gems as:
>>
>> * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus
>> * Samanth Subramaniam's Following Fish
>> * Sarnath Bannerjee's Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers
>> * Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth=Mithya.
>> * Nilanjana Roy's Wildings
>> * Aman Sethi's A Free Man
>>
>> Books that are easy to get a hold of in India (and more difficult
>> elsewhere)
>> preferred (but not required). Fiction and non-fiction recommendations are
>> equally welcome.
>>
>> The books that I enjoyed reading
>>  the most this
>> year:
>>
>> * The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher. Beautiful illustrations and
>> great details about how a city (in this case, New York City) works. How is
>> water brought to the city? What happens to the sewage? How were the
>> Subways
>> built? The book answers them all.
>>
>> * A Strange Kind of Paradise: India Through Foreign Eyes by Sam Miller. As
>> Sankarshan said in another thread, "More engaging than expected".
>>
>> * This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War by Samanth
>> Subramaniam. Not as great as Following Fish, but quite fascinating anyway.
>> A compassionate, beautifully written book about the War and it's aftermath
>> in Sri Lanka.
>>
>> * Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha. Simply one of the best
>> biographies of Gandhi that I have read. Instead of deifying a man (who
>> was worshipped in his own lifetime) like many biographies of Gandhi do,
>> this book tries to explore how a mediocre student from a poor backwater
>> ended up going to London to study barristry and thence to South Africa to
>> practice Law, hang out with Left-leaning Jews, Vegetarians, Coolies and
>> Quakers and hone his message of Abstinence and Non Violence.
>>
>> Thaths
>> [1] Someone jumped the gun by starting the thread on Silk list in mid-nov
>> last year, but I am going to count it anyway
>>
>
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[harry]

I can recommend this one, its not a work of fiction, neither is it a
paperback, its actually a coffee-table sort of book (but far more readable)
:

http://www.amazon.in/Handmade-India-Geographic-Encyclopedia-Handicrafts/dp/0789210479/

I had been looking for a book that documented all the handicrafts from
different parts of india in one place (with pictures). There are other
books too, but this one is far better than anything else out there.

On 2 December 2014 at 04:17, Thaths  wrote:

> For the sixth year[1] in a row, I am turning to silk listers for book
> recommendation
> this holiday season.
>
> What have you read over the last year that has left a mark on you? What are
> you eagerly looking forward to reading over the Christmas/NewYear's
> holidays?
>
> Past silk list recommendations have included such gems as:
>
> * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus
> * Samanth Subramaniam's Following Fish
> * Sarnath Bannerjee's Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers
> * Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth=Mithya.
> * Nilanjana Roy's Wildings
> * Aman Sethi's A Free Man
>
> Books that are easy to get a hold of in India (and more difficult
> elsewhere)
> preferred (but not required). Fiction and non-fiction recommendations are
> equally welcome.
>
> The books that I enjoyed reading
>  the most this
> year:
>
> * The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher. Beautiful illustrations and
> great details about how a city (in this case, New York City) works. How is
> water brought to the city? What happens to the sewage? How were the Subways
> built? The book answers them all.
>
> * A Strange Kind of Paradise: India Through Foreign Eyes by Sam Miller. As
> Sankarshan said in another thread, "More engaging than expected".
>
> * This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War by Samanth
> Subramaniam. Not as great as Following Fish, but quite fascinating anyway.
> A compassionate, beautifully written book about the War and it's aftermath
> in Sri Lanka.
>
> * Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha. Simply one of the best
> biographies of Gandhi that I have read. Instead of deifying a man (who
> was worshipped in his own lifetime) like many biographies of Gandhi do,
> this book tries to explore how a mediocre student from a poor backwater
> ended up going to London to study barristry and thence to South Africa to
> practice Law, hang out with Left-leaning Jews, Vegetarians, Coolies and
> Quakers and hone his message of Abstinence and Non Violence.
>
> Thaths
> [1] Someone jumped the gun by starting the thread on Silk list in mid-nov
> last year, but I am going to count it anyway
>

[silk] Recommended Reading from 2014

[Thaths]

For the sixth year[1] in a row, I am turning to silk listers for book
recommendation
this holiday season.

What have you read over the last year that has left a mark on you? What are
you eagerly looking forward to reading over the Christmas/NewYear's
holidays?

Past silk list recommendations have included such gems as:

* Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus
* Samanth Subramaniam's Following Fish
* Sarnath Bannerjee's Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers
* Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth=Mithya.
* Nilanjana Roy's Wildings
* Aman Sethi's A Free Man

Books that are easy to get a hold of in India (and more difficult elsewhere)
preferred (but not required). Fiction and non-fiction recommendations are
equally welcome.

The books that I enjoyed reading
 the most this
year:

* The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher. Beautiful illustrations and
great details about how a city (in this case, New York City) works. How is
water brought to the city? What happens to the sewage? How were the Subways
built? The book answers them all.

* A Strange Kind of Paradise: India Through Foreign Eyes by Sam Miller. As
Sankarshan said in another thread, "More engaging than expected".

* This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War by Samanth
Subramaniam. Not as great as Following Fish, but quite fascinating anyway.
A compassionate, beautifully written book about the War and it's aftermath
in Sri Lanka.

* Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha. Simply one of the best
biographies of Gandhi that I have read. Instead of deifying a man (who
was worshipped in his own lifetime) like many biographies of Gandhi do,
this book tries to explore how a mediocre student from a poor backwater
ended up going to London to study barristry and thence to South Africa to
practice Law, hang out with Left-leaning Jews, Vegetarians, Coolies and
Quakers and hone his message of Abstinence and Non Violence.

Thaths
[1] Someone jumped the gun by starting the thread on Silk list in mid-nov
last year, but I am going to count it anyway