I started this new habit of documenting ‘books and podcasts’ that I read or heard. Summarizing the list at the end of year is a great feel good factor and also helps me be conscious about where I spent my time. Hopefully publishing online motivates others to follow suit. Book selection is based on interest areas, gifts and suggestions from my book club.
So here goes by category …
Leadership & Self-help
- Lessons for the 21st century by Yuval Harari (Audible)
- Growth Mindset (self-help)
- What got you here does not get you there (re-read)
- Atlas of the heart by Bene Brown (psychology/coaching)
- Five dysfunctions of a team by Patrick Lencioni (office reco)
- Smart Brevity (Office gift — reading in progress)
Engineering Management
- SRE — Monitoring & Alerts (Technical)
- An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management (Re-read — a must read)
- Managing the unmanageable (Management — partial read)
Diversity & Inclusion Kinds
Book of Woman by Osho (Spiritual) ; Seeing like a feminist by Nivedita Menon (D&I) ; Peacocks in the land of Penguins (D&I)
Joy of Fiction
- A Nation of Idiots by Daksh Tyagi (Satire)
- Dare to Run (Memoir) — Inspiring
- Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine (Fiction) — My favorite
- Reading with Lolitha by Nafisi (Memoir) — (Gift from a friend)
- Heads you Win by Jeffry Archer (Fiction reading in progress
- Palace of illusions by Chitra Devikurani
Books written by friends!
- Be a Star for Teens by Deepma Jadeja (Books authored by friends)
- Journey of a corporate persona by Shefali Bansal (Books authored by friends)
Book that inspired me most (picked a few) …
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
Short and touching story of a 30year old girl living a routine life and not realizing that she was going through clinical depression until a kind soul came into her life and helped her see that she needed help.
She was a victim of child abuse by her own mother for many years and lives in fear of displeasing her. Her mummy appears to be a unstable, volatile and ambitious personality trying to bring up 2 young girls. My takeaways:
- Abuse comes in different forms (repeated and regular cruelty)
- Don’t judge people so quickly — You don’t know what they have gone through and what they are doing through
- Physical care alone does not make a human human — it is the connection, warmth, kindness and feeling that helps a human become a good human
Dare to rerun (reread) by Amit Sheth
I picked this book to motivate myself into running/physical exercise. The book is the story of Amit Sheth and his wife Neepa’s quest to run the Comrade Marathon. He explains his journey from being a couch potato through all his runs and races, to one of the most respected ultra marathon in the world.
What I liked in the book are the spiritual nuggets and the lifestyle changes he makes along the way. These philosophies can apply to any activity. Few excerpts from the book that show the emotions and passion felt ….
“I feel good about myself every time I see myself in the mirror. The sweat streaming down my face and the satisfaction is indescribable While I run the mountains, I feel liberated from the entire world and its problems. I feel a solitude which is addictive. The burdens of the day fall away and I am myself, happy and content”
“I am in search of what Osho calls ‘no-mind’. I want to simply ‘be’. I want to be in the present, without any thoughts. I want to be empty of all thoughts. Some people sit in meditation to get to this state. I have experienced this state when running. On some magical occasions, I suddenly become aware that I am not thinking or feel anything. I can stand outside myself and watch myself “
Reading Lolita in Tehran, A memoir in Books by Nafisi
What makes this book precious is that this is a gift from a dear friend in my book club and her rationale for gifting me this book.
Authors experiences around returning to Iran during the revolution in 1978 and living under the Islamic republic of Iran Government until 1997 . Her teachings in the University of Tehran and her refusal to wear a veil and how she got expelled from university during the Iran-Iraq war, her decision to start a book club in her living room and finally to emigrate. Book club has 7 female students who meet weekly to discuss Western literature including the controversial Lolitha, Gatsby, James and Austen.
Nation of Idiots by Daksh Tyagi
Book talks about what an interesting bunch we are, twisted in thought and action. The author uses day to day thought provoking and amusing stories to point out the contradictions in our beliefs and reality from making of an Ideal Indian man to the state of women in the country, raising kids and parenting, Religion & Politics etc. The book ends with some awareness on how to identify and diffuse an ‘Idiot’
Interesting lines that caught my attention —
- Habit becomes a custom if enough people start doing it. Custom becomes a practice if it is followed consistently and is standard. Practice becomes a tradition if we cannot live without doing it. Tradition becomes a religion if fear and faith is attached to it. Religion becomes communalism if we cannot tolerate how others do it.
- 40k rapes a year, 110 a day. In our society, parents protect a girl and defend a boy. When they grow up, the rules of society will defend the boy who becomes a man. But the girl who is now a women will need protection from the man. Because all the norms we have in place make women vulnerable!
- Parenting and Raising kids — Is our parenting style anything more than cloning more of the same? We prefer to bring up followers and somewhere along the line, kids stop questioning behaviour. blame and reflection of parents
- Inheritance from previous generation is not just monetary but thoughts and ideas. At what point is a generation free? Free to re-examine their way of life and embrace what is good and discard what makes them miserable.
