On 11 December 2015 at 08:35, Thaths <tha...@gmail.com> wrote: > For the seventh year 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 > > The books that I enjoyed reading > <https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/646599?shelf=read> the most this > year: > > * Between the Wold and Me <http://www.amazon.com/dp/0812993543/> by > Ta-Nehisi Coates. Searing. > > * The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto > <http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679738347/> by Pico Iyer. A book published many > years ago that I finally got to reading after a wonderful week in Kyoto > during Sakura season. > > * Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea > <http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385523912/> by Barbara Demnick. Books about > North Korea tend to paint a portrait of the other. Amidst the usual line up > horror stories it is difficult to understand or imagine what the lives of > ordinary people is like in that county (I am looking at you, *Orphan > Master's Son*, as an egregious example). This book does a beautiful job of > showing the lives of ordinary people and how they get by. > > * The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer > <http://www.amazon.com/dp/1439170916/> by Siddhartha Mukherjee. An > excellent exploration of the history of cancer treatments and mankind's > experience with the malady. > > * The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism > <http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195073495/> by A.L. Basham. A short work that > provides an excellent introduction to how Classical Hinduism evolved. > > * Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity <http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312612370/> > by > Sam Miller. Miller explores the past and the present of Delhi as he walks > round and round the city in a somewhat spiral route. > > * A Short walk in the Hindu Kush <http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BKQ1FA2/> by > Eric Newby. Another classic that I did not get to reading till 2015. > > > Thaths >
Strongly second Ta Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me. Others I enjoyed or found illuminating in 2015: Discontent and Its Civilizations - Mohsin Hamid Being Mortal - Atul Gawande The Colonel Who Would Not Repent - Salil Tripathi Ahmedabad - Amrita Shah Ingrid Srinath @ingridsrinath