Books I read in Nov and Dec 2024
Knots, Modern Romance, Star Maker, and more
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, V E Schwab. Not recommended. Interesting premise but did not explore the potential ideas any where near as much as possible. Essentially, Addie Larue becomes immortal after making a deal with some devil-like figure, and then spends 300 years only exploring bits of Europe and USA, and not really doing much. Or, we do not see what they do and instead see the 5 to 10 brief encounters she has with the devil-like figure, who really is not interesting at all. And what makes it worse is Addie Larue writes an auto-biography (called ‘The Invisible Life of Addie Larue’…), detailing her memories and many curious stories and interactions. That’s the book I would have much rather read!
Pachinko, Min Jin Lee. Recommended. Multi-generational story of a Korean immigrant family throughout the 1900s. Has been turned into TV show too, which I intend to watch!
The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Murakami. Recommended. This is first book of Murakami’s I have read and I can see why he has a high reputation! Creates a fantastical and engaging world, and is a pleasant read. If you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli, you will like this. And at one point in the story, Murakami uses the phrase ‘spirited away’ - and then repeats it a couple more times for those who missed the hat-tip to the Studio Ghibli movie of the same name.
As a side recommendation, this podcast with Joscha Bach on consciousness is worth listening to as it gives an explanation of Japanese animism, which is an important part of Japanese culture that is implicit in Murakami’s story. Worth saying the podcast is dense and hard to follow, and I definitely did not understand it properly. However, even getting a vague sense of animism is helpful.
The 7 or 8 Deaths of Stella Fortuna, Juliet Grames. Recommended. Multi-generational story of an Italian immigrant family throughout the 1900s. The book focuses on the life of Stella Fortuna. My main critique is that I would have liked more background on Stella’s adult life. But I can see how that could be a deliberate choice, to make a point about how Stella’s life stagnated.
Star Maker, Olaf Stapledon. Recommended. Starts off bit wonky, but if you push through you will be flooded with ideas on the possibilities of (alien) life. What makes it more impressive is it was written in the 1930s! I can see why later big sci-fi authors were strongly influenced by this.
The Old Drift, Namwali Serpell. Recommended. Multi-generational story of three families in Zambia in 1900s and early 2000s. Interesting mix of different genres, e.g. historical fiction, surreal fiction, sci-fi. Small tip: make a note of character names and main events as it is easy to lose track! It is not complicated as such, but just complicated enough that you cannot hold it all in your head.
Knots, Alexei Sossinsky. Recommended (for people with some kind of mathematical background). Nice small book that introduces knot theory. I personally like this as it is just the right level of detail for me: it presents some of the big ideas in a coherent narrative, without getting bogged down in unintuitive formalisms.
Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari. Recommend (or, recommend reading some high level summary). Makes explicit various changes - both positive and negative - about modern (Western US-centric, heterosexual) romance, e.g., how there is expectation for one’s partner to be ‘the one’. Definitely one to skim-read as it is not dense. Particularly interesting was example of two cultures with highly different norms, namely Japanese and Argentinian culture. Big downsides are that it is already a bit dated (written in 2015 when Tinder was fairly new) and the humour is forced and mostly weak.
The Psycopath Test, Jon Ronson. Not for me. I did not finish the book. Everything is told in an (engaging) story-telling way, that you often second guess which parts are literally true and which have been exaggerated for dramatic effect. This is pretty important for a book about psycopaths, where the behaviours are extreme enough that you would doubt them even if they were not embellished. And somehow I did not like how the author was main character - I want to learn more about psycopaths than his internal monologue (even if it is entertaining!). The last reason I stopped is I believe that as a society, we should not sensationalize these behaviours and create celebrities out of the most extreme individuals. I have not done thorough research at all, but a quick Google Perplexity search finds this article, for example.