My goodness this Years of Rice and Salt sounds AMAZING! Immediately adding to TBR.
I read a lot this year, because I still find reading is my main entertainment--TV, podcasts, movies all fall by the wayside. I am also, at the end of this year, in five books clubs hahahahaha I might need to quite them cold turkey? But they force me to read things I wouldn't otherwise, sometimes reread too. I don't manage to read much non-fiction because my work is heavily non-fiction and big ideas and I think my brain is tired; no dystopias or big thinking in entertainment please. I read two books from the Tuga Trilogy <https://app.thestorygraph.com/series/1332406>, which are just delightful romps with a big of conservation nerd, a lot of Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy vibe, a dash of romance, and a lot of humans being humans, plus a bit of a kumbaya what-if-we-all-just-got-along society. One non-fiction book I managed to read was This is not a Book about Benedict Cumberbatch <https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/6c2f0ddd-7c3e-4fb4-8b7c-d3d3807df02b>, which I picked up for the name but ended up being a revelatory memoir that really engages with the modern woman's experience, and got me to see all kinds of small things about the way we see women and their desires and wants in the world. Someone in one of my digital rights groups recommended The Mountain under the Sea <https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/ae637112-1291-493a-bc06-c1d313ae7d83> which is near future science fiction about sentient cephalopods, truly thought provoking about what it means to be human. A couple of chick-lit novels I really loved were the new Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life <https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/dba55989-00a4-4727-af2d-3745ca8c5d0d>, and Is She Really Going out With Him <https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/b8407192-8e01-44e7-a812-5c982b5c06b6> by Sophie Cousens. The Echo-Wife <https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/8ee39d1f-87e8-4c32-b639-2f669bd4d303> was another near future sci-fi one that really pokes at the question of what it means to be human, what it means to be a woman, and how we are valued. Absolutely loved The Mars House <https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/c77c54aa-c423-4113-8aa0-ed4473b4d22c> (again, how we recognize and value humanity and worth, hmmm a theme perhaps in year 2 of a genocide?) and The Wedding People <https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/dd60d941-21b9-421c-b475-2ee4106cbc7f> (more about human relationships this one is). I reread the Vorkosigan Saga and Murderbot this year, which, if you haven't read, I cannot recommend enough! Cordially, Ameya Nagarajan (she/her) <http://www.linkedin.com/in/ameyann> On Wed, 17 Dec 2025 at 06:32, Shenoy N via Silklist < [email protected]> wrote: > Thanks for that excellent list! > > Thanks and regards > > Narendra Shenoy > > > On Wed, Dec 17, 2025, 5:19 AM Thaths via Silklist < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> For many years we have had a tradition here in Silklist of sharing book >> recommendations around this time of the year. This is the 2025 edition. >> >> What are some good books you read in 2025 that you recommend? >> >> I quit my podcast habit (cold turkey) at the end of last year. So I find >> myself with more time to read and to listen to audio books.Here are the top >> memorable books I read this year (in no particular order): >> >> Japanese crime fiction. That's right, I am recommending an entire genre. >> This year I discovered this entire genre, the master of which is Keigo >> Higashino. I recommend anything by him. Maybe start with [Detective Kaga >> series >> <https://www.goodreads.com/series/253297-detective-kaga-english-translation>], >> followed by the [Detective Galileo >> <https://www.goodreads.com/series/99164-detective-galileo>] series. >> >> >> The Years of Rice and Salt (Kim Stanley Robinson). An alternate History >> of the last 600+ years if the Black Death had wiped out 99% of Europe's >> population (as opposed to the 50% it did). The history is told by a handful >> of "beings" that transmigrate through different milieus through the >> millenia. Fascinating breadth and depth. The Chinese equivalent of San >> Francisco develops (with it's own Japan Town) across the Golden gate in >> Marin in this imagined past. >> >> >> Mother Mary Comes to Me (Arundathi Roy): Equal parts memoir, biography, >> score settling, and elegy >> >> >> Bhang Journeys: Stories, Histories, Trips and Travels (Akshaya Bahibala). >> A former addict writes comprehensively, though a bit piecemeal, about the >> weird legal/illegal limbo of Bhang (and Ganja) in India, and approaches it >> from several different angles (that of an addict, that of a "certified to >> use" addict, that of bureaucrats who administer the sale in the >> Government-system, that of enforcers in the Excise department trying to >> control illegal farming, ....) >> >> >> Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI (Karen Hao). >> Excellent book. For those looking askance at the author's post-modernist >> post-colonial look at the field it is good to remember that Hao used to >> write for such communist rags as the MIT Technology Review and the Wall >> Street Journal. A good look into the moral vacuum that lies in the heart of >> the race to the bottom in Generative AI generally, and Open AI specifically. >> >> >> Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth (Audrey Truschke). A slim volume that >> presents the Historian's understanding of the life of Aurangzeb, not what >> you would find posted by Nationalists in India or Pakistan. Trushke focuses >> on what we can say with confidence, and what we can only guess from the >> sources. >> >> >> Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture (Gaiutra Bahadur). I thought I >> knew about the experience of Girmityas before. This book - from the >> perspective of women (and a woman - the author's great-grandmother) >> "coolies" - opened my eyes to many new things. >> >> >> The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Shehan Karunatilaka). Fun read (despite >> the dark subject). But a little too long. >> >> >> Sky Daddy (Kate Folk). Hilarious, dark, heart-warming. I am surprised I >> am stringing those words together to describe this work, but they are all >> appropriate. The local details of life in and around San Francisco brought >> this alive for me. >> >> >> To Lose a War: The Fall and Rise of the Taliban (Jon Lee Anderson). A >> collection of essays that the author wrote for The New Yorker magazine on >> Afghanistan over the years: from the anti-Soviet fight in the 80's to the >> American departure (and the aftermath of the resurgence of Taliban) in the >> 2020s. Reading these pieces with the benefit of hindsight the tragedy of >> Afghanistan becomes clearer. The failure of the American project was there >> from the seeds. >> >> >> The Message (Ta-Nehisi Coates). Powerful. Searing. Bookended nicely in >> the beginning with Coates' trip to Senegal - a "return" to a supposed place >> of origin and by comparing in the end what such "return" has wrought in >> Israel-Palestine. >> >> >> Parable of the Talents (Octavia Butler). Prescient (up to including the >> phrase "Make America Great Again"), scary. A candle of hope in these stormy >> times. I am glad to say it left me hopeful (but immensely sad) at the end. >> >> >> Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order (Yuan >> Yang). Tracing the lives of 4 extraordinary women in contemporary China as >> they deal with the vagaries of the government and the patriarchy. >> >> Thaths >> -- >> Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? >> Carl: Nuthin'. >> Homer: D'oh! >> Carl: Unless you're crooked. >> Homer: Woo-hoo! >> -- >> Silklist mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist >> > -- > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist >
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