1) Higher Orders
My first book is titled Higher Orders and can be purchased here on Amazon (the kindle version is not available in all markets, Amazon’s fault, not mine)
Higher Orders explores the topics of intelligence and consciousness in a methodical and novel way. In the first part, the book dissects the processes of concept formation, perception, generalization and creativity and how they combine to produce new knowledge and common sense. The second part focuses on consciousness, dealing in turn with the notions of the soul and the self, free will and determinism, awareness, and sentience. That last topic is covered at length since it is the most puzzling of our mental activities and the cornerstone of our subjective experience of the world, that which fundamentally differentiates us from the machines. I then review some of the existing hypotheses about the generation of qualia and offers a new one that seems to solve the issues of information storage, transmission and integration. In the last part, the principles and conclusions exposed earlier are combined with high level technical explanations about the mechanisms of artificial intelligence to explore the threats, opportunities and ethical implications raised by the ongoing development of AI and down the line, its potential union with artificial sentience.
2) Recommended books
Welcome to my personal book recommendations page – call it the Syllab book club perhaps. I have arranged books in different genres and ascribed one of four different ratings to them although I could have added a “did not enjoy” and attributed this tag to quite a few books but decided against it; consequently the books I have read but would not recommend at all do not appear in this list. I should also note that I have read (or attempted to read) all entries in the list and, since reading a good work can be relatively time-consuming, I do a fair bit of research beforehand based on other existing reviews, so you can think of this list as a second layer of quality control!
Books are an indispensable ingredient on the path to better understanding the world, building knowledge, and enjoying the richness of the written mode of expression. This list is by no means extensive, of course, but should provide plenty of suggestions to cater to a wide range of curious readers and moods.
The links embedded in the books’ title will send you to the Amazon page for the simple reason that it is the largest and perhaps most competitive book seller in the world. These affiliate links will hopefully generate a small income stream that helps support this website, at no extra cost to you (the affiliate fee comes out of Amazon’s margin so don’t hesitate). If you have a Kobo rather than a Kindle, you should also find a fair number of the titles in your library.
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Ratings used:
★★★ Highly Recommended
★★ Very Good
★ Worth Reading
~ Ambivalent (good aspects but let down by some flaws)
Very short list of highly recommended titles
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Genre is Economy & Behavioural (buy)
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. Genre is Sciences & Tech (buy)
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Genre is Sciences & Tech (buy)
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Genre is Philosophy & Ethics (buy)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. Genre is Philosophy & Ethics (buy)
Animal Farm by George Orwell. Genre is Philosophy & Ethics (buy)
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Genre is Science Fiction (buy)
1984 by George Orwell. Genre is Science Fiction (buy)
À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust. Genre is French Literature (buy)
Below if the full list organised by genres. You can jump straight to each genre section by clicking on it. Hope you find it useful
– Economy & Behavioural
– Historical & Cultural
– Current Affairs
– Sciences & Tech
– Philosophy & Ethics
– Travelogues
– Classical Literature
– British Literature
– French Literature
– American Literature
– Russian Literature
– Latin American Literature
– International Literature
– Historical Fiction
– Science Fiction
– Fantasy
a) Economy & Behavioural
Title: Thinking, Fast and Slow (buy)
Author: Daniel Kahneman
Rating: ★★★
Review: A book I recommend very often in conversations as it made me appreciate a lot of the asymmetries our mind and behaviours are subject to such as pain and pleasure, experience and memory, loss and gain. Make sure you continue to the end, if I recall correctly (it must have been in 2015) I took the most away from the last third of the book.
Title: The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (buy)
Author: Daniel Yergin
Rating: ★
Review: You are back in history & geography class except that this time the teacher explains the actual underlying reasons rather than feed you dates and facts. The economic reasons underly it all, alongside the quest for personal power, and we should be aware of them. It is long, but it is all worth knowing.
Title: Chip War (buy)
Author: Chris Miller
Rating: ~
Review: Interesting topic, way over-advertised book. Suffers from massive systematic fact fitting and confirmation bias that really gives the impression silicon chips have been at the centre of geopolitics for a while now. Wait till the oil and gas stop flowing in case you harbour any doubt which commodities are the top of sovereign security. Even the historical aspects are pumped up. It’s on the list for anybody who doesn’t know anything about the concentration of chip manufacturing capabilities in North and East Asia. Others can skip.
Title: Why Nations Fail (buy)
Author: Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson
Rating: ★
Review: On the importance of institutions and the concept of extractive governments. Somewhat repetitive but a very useful framework to observe and analyse different states, corporations, economic and political systems.
Title: Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) (buy)
Author: Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson
Rating: ★★
Review: How to write such a long book on self-justification? Well, the authors did a brilliant job of it. Backed by good research and engaging writing style. I can guarantee you will be happy you have read it and I bet you will try to get your other half to read it as well…
Title: The Big Myth (buy)
Author: Erik M. Conway & Naomi Oreskes
Rating: ★★
Review: Impressive heavy lifting to back up statements and analysis as the authors knew their libertarian and big business opponents would pull no punches. Mildly tedious at times but I think that is what it took to make the book and message so convincing. Now, as a continental European the hyper-capitalist and pro-market stance of Americans always puzzled me, was I missing something? Nope, they have just been fed propaganda and stories, even in school. Unfortunately, the tide has not turned.
b) Historical & Cultural
Title: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (buy)
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Rating: ★
Review: What to say that has not been said with this book. Well, to me it is interesting in parts but I am very unconvinced by some sections. There are logic jumps aplenty and correlation is taken to equate causation. Also, feels like a historian showing off. That said, there are enough ideas to land it on this list, especially the one about the concept of story (which you will hear about ad nauseum if you see some of Yuval’s interviews).
Title: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (buy)
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Rating: ~
Review: A few good ideas here but the flaws of Sapiens are magnified. It is no longer logic jumps; it just lacks logic and there is consistent “over-fitting” of the data (in the machine learning sense of the world). Data as a religion is the crowning section where passive phenomena are described as if there were active ones. So try to borrow it rather than buy it and scan it with a critical eye for the good bits.
Title: A Peace to End All Peace (buy)
Author: David Fromkin
Rating: ★★
Review: Read this probably before 2010 and though I can’t recall the details I still think about it as the primer of how Europe (well, the British government and also somewhat the French one) undermined the foundations of the Middle East for a long time to come. Well researched, well written and from memory it was as objective as telling history can be since this art always require an interpretation layer over facts.
Title: The Habsburgs: To Rule the World (buy)
Author: Martyn C. Rady
Rating: ★
Review: This was the Central European power, and the story is well told. Detailed just enough. Funny how happenstance can appear like well-planned, linear progression from a distance. Makes you think that history is sliding doors, everywhere, all the time. A bit like the weather.
Title: The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (buy)
Author: Christopher Clark
Rating: ★★
Review: When ambassadors still made policies and a central executive was an idea rather than the reality. It wasn’t sleepwalking as much as the “elite” not caring about the effects of actual war because they did not have to go to the trenches. The book is as much about the beginning of the First World War as it is about how politics worked at the time.
Title: American Prometheus (buy)
Author: Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin
Rating: ★
Review: There is so much more in the book than in the Oppenheimer movie. Incredibly well researched and four themes in one: the bio of J Robert Oppenheimer, the personal ambition of small men and McCarthyism, the story of the Manhattan Project, and some nuclear physics. What a cocktail. And it is well written.
Title: The Arabs: A History (buy)
Author: Eugene Rogan
Rating: ★
Review: Weaving between different empires and geographies was not an easy task and the author pulled it out quite well. Brings plenty of cultural and historical perspective to the conflicts in the Middle East but the other periods and regions covered are also well worth knowing about.
Title: Iran: a modern history (buy)
Author: Abbas Amanat
Rating: ~
Review: Oh my. I wanted to know more about Iran, started and stopped after reading the intro and first chapter. It is interesting and quite well written (the reasoning seems a little hasty or unconvincing at times though), however there is so much factual information and it is 800 tightly-typed-pages long therefore I decided I could not invest so much time, not then. This isn’t a casual read to be sure. I may pick it up later before I visit this culturally fascinating place.
Title: The Search for Modern China (buy)
Author: Jonathan D. Spence
Rating: ★
Review: My first experience as an audiobook and it worked well (except when reading statistics tables). The pacing is good, some details for liveliness, with a good layering of the imperial and provincial dynamics. Read it to understand why the CCP rules with an iron fist (well a few of the reasons at least) and some of the tensions with Japan, not to mention the official position regarding Taiwan.
Title: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (buy)
Author: Timothy Snyder
Rating: ~
Review: Extremely interesting topic, unfortunately the book suffers from facts over-fitting and the very obvious use of empathy to impress ideas on the reader. And these are gruesome, and relentless. I stopped because I did not like the style, felt too much like the editor telling the author what makes a book sell. A shame since the people of Ukraine could do with more people knowing about their country’s unfortunate 20th-century past.
Title: Bayonets to Lhasa (buy)
Author: Peter Fleming
Rating: ★
Review: An interesting piece of history, surprisingly little known that is well narrated by Peter Fleming. What happens when you have incomplete information and are suspicious of your enemy… Unfortunately this event had consequences for the Tibetans down the line as it helped justify China’s invasion in 1950 and their occupation since then.
Title: All the Shah’s Men
Author: Stephen Kinzer (buy)
Rating: ★
Review: Well researched, structured and written. Impossible not to run some counterfactual, thinking about what might have been of Iran had not the UK and the USA interfered. Of course, no amend was ever done for this, and in fact the overthrow of Mossadegh turned out to be the first in a long series for the CIA.
Title: The Great Arc (buy)
Author: John Keay
Rating: ★★
Review: Witty and surprisingly interesting. You will learn plenty about refraction, the challenges of carrying out survey in tropical jungles or hazy plains lacking prominent features. And of course, the story behind the first survey of the Himalayas and the naming of the tallest mountain in the world. The full title is ‘The Great Arc : The Dramatic Tale of How India Was Mapped and Everest Was Named’
Title: The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History
Author: Alexander Mikaberidze (buy)
Rating: ★★
Review: An all-embracing analysis of the wars that raged in Europe from the early 1790’s, at the back end of the French Revolution, all the way into the early 1810’s – and more. Indeed, unusually, we are treated to a global analysis that includes the colonies, the nascent United States and even China and the increasingly British India. An amazing work of scholarship and well-structured with interlocking periods and geographies.
Title: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (buy)
Author: Toby Wilkinson
Rating: ~
Review: Genuinely interesting in many respect but probably over-dramatic in style (trying too hard to find incisive one-liners), somewhat repetitive and, much more importantly, a lot of descriptions are made up and inferences can be quite aggressive, more possible than probable. A real drawback when trying to tell history rather than historical fiction. Still, some of the information and depiction is quite an accomplishment considering the scarcity of written records at the disposal of the author.
Title: Spice
Author: Roger Crowley (buy)
Rating: ★★
Review: Maybe it is my personal fascination with this part of the world but the book is fascinating in many respect. One would not believe it if it did not happen. There is geopolitics, exploration on sailing ships, plotting and more – all historical. A very engaging read. The full title is ‘Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World’
c) Current Affairs
Title: I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country (buy)
Author: Elena Kostyuchenko
Rating: ★
Review: If you think you are a firebrand, not afraid to speak your mind, see if you can measure up to Elena. If you thought your life is challenging, see if you prefer to live among the majority of Russians whose perspectives in life have been obliterated by their current regime and the collapsing economy.
Title: Putin’s People (buy)
Author: Catherine Belton
Rating: ★
Review: It boggles the mind, even if only half of the facts and inferences are correct. So brazen, so evil. How can a man like Putin and a group of people around him can remain in power, and even have some degree of popularity at home, is an intellectual puzzle. I can’t recall the style of the book, only the content, sorry.
d) Sciences & Tech
Title: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (buy)
Author: Richard Feynman
Rating: ★
Review: The book version of four Feynman lectures on Quantum Electro Dynamics. Even if some sections are definitely technical, pretty much any reader should enjoy learning about the strangeness and workings of the “real” world, that of light, matter and forces.
Title: Faust in Copenhagen (buy)
Author: Gino C. Segrè
Rating: ★
Review: Catchy title and over-exaggerated role of the 1932 Copenhagen meeting between the world’s foremost physicists of the time. That said, I really enjoyed the book, knowing more about the key “protagonists” and the evolution of their ideas. Such towering intellects, I would have loved to live among them a few years… and I doubt I am the only one.
Title: Pale Blue Dot (buy)
Author: Carl Sagan
Rating: ★★★
Review: Accessible, mixing philosophy and astrophysics. A must read in many ways, for inspiration and humility.
Title: Cosmos (buy)
Author: Carl Sagan
Rating: ★★
Review: One of the best known books of popular science. Make sure your children read it as well. I preferred Pale Blue Dot but both are worth your time. Space is an endless (!) source of fascination.
Title: Helgoland (buy)
Author: Carlo Rovelli
Rating: ~
Review: Intriguing topic and intriguing matrix mechanics. Interesting book on Heisenberg and the birth of quantum mechanics but perhaps Carlo is trying to be a little too poetic and intellectual.
Title: The Selfish Gene (buy)
Author: Richard Dawkins
Rating: ★★★
Review: If there was only one. You can’t read this book and still think there is designer or not understand the importance of natural evolution. More than that, there are powerful concepts all over, such as evolutionarily stable strategy – these are not all Dawkins’ idea to be sure, but he calls on these concepts to explain seemingly perplexing dynamics. And then it all makes sense. Such a brilliant scientist and storyteller.
Title: A brief history of time (buy)
Author: Stephen Hawking
Rating: ★
Review: Despite the Hawking’s authorship I do not remember being particularly impressed by the book. Of course he was a genius but I thought the book was good, not exceptional.
Title: A short history of nearly everything (buy)
Author: Bill Bryson
Rating: ★
Review: Accessible and written in an entertaining style. We all ought to know more about the human body. Crazy that we don’t…
Title: On the Origin of Species (buy)
Author: Charles Darwin
Rating: ★
Review: One of the most important book ever. Not one of the best read though. It is fine but a bit tedious. Later books incorporating Darwinist ideas tend to be better, those of Dawkins for instance.
Title: Surely you are joking Mr Feynman (buy)
Author: Richard Feynman
Rating: ★
Review: What a show off, what a character and what a genius. Not a must read but a good one for those interested in the life of Feynman and his contribution.
Title: The Brain: The Story of You (buy)
Author: David Eagleman
Rating: ★
Review: I recall being very impressed, initially, until I reached later chapters where I felt I knew or understood more than the author and could see plenty of flaws in his logic (causation Vs correlation, among other issues) which made me wonder if what I had read before should be taken at face value. He writes well but doesn’t make it clear when and whether he is speculating, interpretating or stating facts. That may be fine for historical fiction, not for a sciences book.
Title: The Gene: An Intimate History (buy)
Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Rating: ★
Review: Extremely well researched and interesting, if a bit long. However, again this seemingly artificial tendency to weave in relatable, personal anecdotes to create empathy with the reader. Can editors or publishers stop asking authors to do that.
Title: Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity (buy)
Author: Peter Attia & Bill Gifford
Rating: ★
Review: Plenty that is actionable in there and conveys the idea that preventive medicine is far more effective than the cure. Which should be obvious but presumably that is not where the dollars are and, on a less cynical note, it requires changing people’s habits – quite a challenge. Two things I did not really fancy: sometimes the author’s humility feels fake, though I could be wrong, and since he has changed his mind so often in the past what is to say he won’t do it again in a few years and tell us what he wrote should be discarded. Fortunately, in this case, a lot of the materials and conclusions feel very reasonable so I don’t think this is a real risk.
Title: Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies (buy)
Author: Douglas Hofstadter
Rating: ★
Review: Research papers turned book by the maestro. Quite a bit of overlap between the “chapters” but makes one realize how mind-blowingly complex what we call intelligence is. I agree with Doug about microdomains and I think the routes followed by AIs with LLMs will lead to an AGI dead-end.
Title: Gödel, Escher, Bach (buy)
Author: Douglas Hofstadter
Rating: ★★
Review: How can somebody come up with such a book? Douglas Hofstadter reminds us what a polymath is and can create by mixing skills and inter-disciplinary knowledge. If you want to be impressed, this should be on your very short list. I am still unable to appreciate Bach but I really want to get there one day!
Title: I Am a Strange Loop (buy)
Author: Douglas Hofstadter
Rating: ★
Review: An insightful book on consciousness with good questions regarding the self. I personally disagree with the recursive loop idea however.
Title: Isaac Newton (buy)
Author: James Gleick
Rating: ★
Review: The autobiography only serves as the central narrative thread, the focus in on the genesis of the laws of motion, the concept of gravity and Newtonian mechanics at large. Not an overnight process, let alone a revelation, but a long terms gestation built on incremental progress and observations. Good though quite short considering the price of the book.
Title: On the Origin of Time (buy)
Author: Thomas Hertog
Rating: ~
Review: Mixed feelings about this one. There is some interesting science and concepts around the nature of time and the laws of physics and yet, to me these are unfortunately overshadowed by the fact that the author consistently build its arguments by treating ideas within the domain of the plausible, sometimes barely so, as if they were now widely accepted and very probable just because the mathematics work or because they don’t face a cosmological dead-end. In addition, the narration puts Hawking on a pedestal, which I don’t think reflect the importance of his work compared to other high-calibre contemporaries, there is a lot of repeats, trying to stretch the book to 300 pages, and the philosophical elements just do not gel, or worse.
e) Philosophy & Ethics
Title: The God Delusion (buy)
Author: Richard Dawkins
Rating: ★★
Review: A very good book, and of course very convincing. The issue, and that is not the author’s fault, is that those who need convincing will either not read the book or not respect logic when presenting their counter-arguments. The main incremental takeaway for me is the aberration of forcing religion onto children. Dawkins has been very vocal about it, for good reason.
Title: The Republic (buy)
Author: Plato
Rating: ★
Review: Plato’s most famous work. Incredible to think of the path we have travelled since then. At least, he was asking questions and coming up with hypotheses.
Title: Letters from a Stoic (buy)
Author: Lucius A. Seneca
Rating: ~
Review: Kept hearing good things about Seneca but, if you are already somewhat of a stoic, the content is quite repetitive and a bit meh. Also, did not quite tally with the way the guy lived his life.
Title: Critique of Pure Reason (buy)
Author: Immanuel Kant
Rating: ~
Review: The quintessential work of philosophy, supposedly. Not in a good way in my opinion. Some good ideas and plenty of useless playing with words and concepts, often in an impenetrable style. I must have missed something, probably because we have very different point of views regarding metaphysics.
Title: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (buy)
Author: Atul Gawande
Rating: ★★★
Review: What matters in the end. Substance over form. Healthspan over lifespan. The central idea of the book is one we all need to think about, for us and our relatives. And the author is well qualified to express his opinions. Hence the “highly recommended” rating.
Title: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (buy)
Author: Robert M. Pirsig
Rating: ★★★
Review: You won’t expect the depth of what’s coming as you embark on this road trip. Such a smart book, such a powerful message, in my opinion. Quality might not be quite the same as truth but it can serve as a compass and an ideal in our life. The book, colloquially known as “ZAMM”, is considered to be the best-selling philosophy book of all time. Funny to think the manuscript was rejected by over 100 agents or publishers. Says something about the industry, don’t you think?
Title: Animal Farm (buy)
Author: George Orwell
Rating: ★★★
Review: Don’t be fooled by the size, this is a heavy hitter. Orwell mastered the metaphor. The story of social classes, the dynamics of dictatorship and the rewriting of history is as relevant today as it was then.
Title: Candide (buy)
Author: Voltaire
Rating: ★★
Review: A well-chosen title for a book that is easy to read, full of insights, and quite daring for the time. It is important to bear in mind this was written in the mid-18th century so satire was a lot riskier then than it is now (at least in most countries).
Title: Zadig (buy)
Author: Voltaire
Rating: ★
Review: Another very good philosophical novella by Voltaire, not as well-known as Candide but still worth your time. I don’t think a foreign language translation would lose a lot of quality and impact compared to the French version.
f) Travelogues
Title: A Carpet Ride to Khiva (buy)
Author: Christopher Aslan Alexander
Rating: ★★
Review: The end of the title is “Seven Years on the Silk Road”; this is a powerful story of trying to make a small difference in the world, the pettiness of some people and the unfairness of it all. The right length, some humour and set in a historical silk town oasis: it isn’t exactly a travelogue but it has much of the same successful ingredients.
Title: Sovietistan (buy)
Author: Erika Fatland
Rating: ★
Review: The full title is Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It takes place early in the 2010s and describes fairly well what to expect. Shame about the many inaccuracies but the simple writing style (translated from the Norwegian), dry humour and socio-political observations are spot on. Note that she did not follow the standard tourist itinerary as she was on an investigative journey so you will probably have an easier time than her when visiting the “stans”.
Title: News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir (buy)
Author: Peter Fleming
Rating: ★
Review: Hardly believable and yet, I have no doubt it is true. One can still enjoy adventures when travelling but these stories are from another time. Grab a world map, some mint tea and enjoy crossing forbidden Sinkiang with Ella and Peter in 1935.
Title: The Road to Oxiana (buy)
Author: Robert Byron
Rating: ★★
Review: Quite the road trip through Persia and Afghanistan all the way to Peshawar in the early 1930s, and pretty much all that could go wrong did. Witty, ironical, great cultural information and observations. I wish there were plenty more like this.
Title: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (buy)
Author: Eric Newby
Rating: ★
Review: A book about how not to take yourself too seriously and being ill-prepared to climb a ~5,800m mountain (Mir Samir, in north-eastern Afghanistan). Really, the A-team for the job. Funny and colourful.
Title: The Snow Leopard (buy)
Author: Peter Matthiessen
Rating: ★
Review: The book is regarded as much as a philosophy work as a travelogue. It is both, really. The Dolpo region of Nepal remains a challenging one to access but, in those days, even more so – very much an expedition. Very powerful and moving.
Title: Dark Star Safari (buy)
Author: Paul Theroux
Rating: ~
Review: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town is the subtitle and, in this book, Paul Theroux brings us along all sort of transports across Africa and takes stock of the impact of aid programs designed to help the continent. The assessment isn’t glowing. I recall being of two minds about this work, did not quite like the author’s attitude though the conclusions are probably accurate enough.
Title: The Amur River: Between Russia and China (buy)
Author: Colin Thubron
Rating: ★
Review: Quite unusual because the pacing is somewhat subdued and the landscapes perhaps not the most impressive, and yet the description of the urbanism, swamps and forbidding remoteness all come together to create quite a strong impression on the reader. Also, we witness the “character development” of an entire region and not-so friendly relationship between 2 massive countries. Worth reading is an apt rating.
g) Classical Literature
Title: The Odyssey (buy)
Author: Homer
Rating: ★
Review: Mythology aplenty and so much better than The Illiad. One hears so many bit and pieces extracted from Ulysse’s adventures that it is worth reading the book once to put it all in context, and in order. Feels a little dated, no doubt, but it deserves its place among the classics.
Title: The Illiad (buy)
Author: Homer
Rating: ~
Review: This one I don’t get it. Yes, it is replete with Greek (Achaeans) and Trojan heroes but there can only be so many stars in a cast and it is bafflingly repetitive and gory. Struggled to go through it, possibly because I was at the back of a public bus in the mountains of Yunnan.
Title: Don Quixote (buy)
Author: Miguel de Cervantes
Rating: ★
Review: Published in the early 17th century, it is arguably Spain’s best-known literary work and still reads quite well even today. A very direct criticism of chivalry and regularly quite funny, it is a long but worthy read.
Title: The Divine Comedy (buy)
Author: Dante Alighieri
Rating: ~
Review: Another classic I was very disappointed by, probably a lack of belief and hell and heaven and not having read it in the original Italian language. Not in my literary canon.
Title: The Prince (buy)
Author: Niccolo Machiavelli
Rating: ★
Review: Machiavelli’s book is in your face, no pretending, the end justifies the means. Was this really meant to be published rather than whispered in the ear of the next sovereign in line? Or maybe the standards of the time were quite different and the ruling elite did not have to pretend…
h) British Literature
Title: Never Let me Go (buy)
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Rating: ~
Review: Ishiguro manages to create a very unsettling atmosphere. However the passivity of the characters is a bit too much to withstand and I don’t quite buy the whole story. Still, there is something a little haunting about it.
Title: The Remains of the day (buy)
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Rating: ★
Review: Beautifully written and succeeds in conveying an atmosphere of memory and nostalgia. It is pretty rich actually but come for the style, not the plot.
Title: Kim (buy)
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Rating: ★★
Review: A masterclass of sarcasm and irony, some humour and great storytelling about The Great Game. A very underrated book in my opinion (outside of the UK). Yes, there are some patronizing colonialist statements but one need to place the author in the context of his time and, if my memory serves me right, the harshest critics are directed towards westerners.
Title: The Jungle Book (buy)
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Rating: ★
Review: This isn’t a children’s book and the plot and character’s personalities are unlike the animated movies adaptations. An enjoyable read though not as good as Kim. Same comments as for that other Kipling’s book regarding the colonialist context and the author’s use of critic.
Title: A Tale of Two Cities (buy)
Author: Charles Dickens
Rating: ★★
Review: Have not read many Dickens’ books but this is my favourite, really liked the story telling and quality of the prose. Not light-hearted.
Title: Heart of Darkness (buy)
Author: Joseph Conrad
Rating: ★
Review: Dark is the word. A critic of European colonial rule in Africa that, even more than Kipling works, need to be recontextualized in Conrad’s time (they both wrote their major works in the late 19th century). Not an easy book despite its short length.
Title: Burmese Days (buy)
Author: George Orwell
Rating: ★
Review: Orwell did spend time in Burma in the 1920s, hence the quality of the insights into the psychology, behaviours and dynamics of the representatives of the British Raj. Somewhat depressing but then a lot of books with serious topics and realistic endings can be.
Title: Ulysses (buy)
Author: James Joyce
Rating: ~
Review: A book like no other, thankfully. It is lauded as one of the greatest novels ever to be written and although there is no denying the technical capabilities of Joyce, especially as relates to the use of stream of consciousness, I personally did not enjoy it. Probably partly due to not having English as my mother tongue and missing many British and Irish cultural references.
Title: Pride and Prejudice (buy)
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: ★
Review: If you want to enjoy well written prose sprinkled with irony and a sweet, albeit somewhat predictable plot. Easy and satisfying, if a little shallow.
Title: Persuasion (buy)
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: ★
Review: Very much feels like a repeat of Pride and Prejudice so don’t read both books back-to-back. Same comments apply: well written and good wins over evil.
Title: Wuthering Heights (buy)
Author: Emily Brontë
Rating: ★
Review: A very powerful story set in the seemingly dramatic landscape of the West Yorkshire moors. The natural environment is leveraged to good effect and the characters are not quite your run of the mill. An impressive novel in many ways, with a lot of shortcomings.
i) French Literature
Title: À la recherche du temps perdu (buy)
Author: Marcel Proust
Rating: ★★★
Review: : English title: In Search of Lost Time. It would be futile to try and something original about one of the greatest work of French literature other than the fact that I can only guess quite a bit of the stylistic aspect quality is lost in the translation into other languages. Many readers may find it too long or slow, that may be so but the flow of the prose and mastery of both the language and personalities of the main protagonists are unparalleled. My advice is not to rush and read one of the seven books every 6-8 months rather than back-to-back. That’s what I did and it worked well. The list of the volumes is as follows: Du côté de chez Swann, À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, Le Côté de Guermantes, Sodome et Gomorrhe, La Prisonnière, Albertine disparue, Le Temps retrouvé.
Title: L’ Étranger (buy)
Author: Albert Camus
Rating: ★★
Review: English title: The Stranger. Arguably Camus’s best work, don’t come looking for a plot and what is said but what is not said and a philosophical outlook, absurdism in particular. Context is important as it was written during the Second World War.
Title: La Peste (buy)
Author: Albert Camus
Rating: ★
Review: English title: The Plague. Absurdist yes, existentialist perhaps. Camus once again at his powerful best makes for some emotionally brutal reading. I personally prefer L’ Étranger (The Stranger) but it is not a repeat so worth reading both.
Title: Le Comte de Monte Cristo (buy)
Author: Alexandre Dumas (Père) & Auguste Maquet
Rating: ★★
Review: English title: The Count of Monte Cristo. A larger-than-life protagonist, a fast-flowing plot and excellent narrative technique (nothing original though). A very easy and enjoyable novel.
Title: Illusions Perdues (buy)
Author: Honoré de Balzac
Rating: ★★
Review: English title: Lost Illusions. One of the greatest works of 19th century French literature and a classic novels depicting the social ascent together with Stendhal’s The Red and Black. Great technique, character development and piercing description of the upper strata of the French society at the time.
Title: Le Rouge et le Noir (buy)
Author: Stendhal
Rating: ★★
Review: English title: The Red and the Black. Following the ups and down of the life and morals of Julien Sorel and some clear-sighted account of the clergy and aristocracy in France during the Bourbon Restoration period (1814-1830).
Title: La Chartreuse de Parme (buy)
Author: Stendhal
Rating: ★
Review: English title: The Charterhouse of Parma. This is Stendhal’s second-best known book, written during his extended stay in Italy. Considered a masterpiece of realism, it inspired a lot of other writers, including Tolstoy. Wikipedia describes it as “an exploration of human nature, psychology, and court politics”. I quote because I read the novel more than 25 years ago and can’t recall much, other than the books’ quality.
Title: La Confession d’un Enfant du Siecle (buy)
Author: Alfred de Musset
Rating: ★★
Review: English title: The Confession of a Child of the Century. Great prose and witty, another excellent panorama of the genteel 19th-century French Society. I would think some of the book’s quality will be lost in a foreign language translation.
Title: Madame Bovary (buy)
Author: Gustave Flaubert
Rating: ★
Review: One of the best examples of literary realism and not a novel that will inspire you to live in the province (in those days, that is). But then the story is told from a very particular point of view. I agree the book is somewhat long and boring though I suspect it would be a lot less powerful if it weren’t.
Title: Ruy Blas (buy)
Author: Victor Hugo
Rating: ★
Review: Considered to be Hugo’s best drama, oddly enough I can’t compare it to the best-known works of the author since I have not yet read the The Legend of the Ages or The Contemplations.
Title: Le Bateau Ivre (buy)
Author: Arthur Rimbaud
Rating: ★
Review: English title: The Drunken Boat. One of the best-known French poems, generally published as part of a collection of other works by young Rimbaud who was 16 when he penned this symbolist masterpiece.
Title: Les Fleurs du Mal (buy)
Author: Charles Baudelaire
Rating: ★★
Review: English title: The Flowers of Evil. Symbolism, eroticism, suffering, it is all there in the compilation of most of Baudelaire’s poetry. If you think of tradition, this is the antonym. There is plenty that is uninteresting but the good poems really are something.
Title: La Gloire de mon Pere (buy)
Author: Marcel Pagnol
Rating: ★
Review: English title: My Father’s Glory. A classic of French literature in the classroom. It reads super easily but there is a lot more depth under the surface. The novel is the first part of Souvenir d’enfance (“Childhood Memories” series), the other three are Le Château de ma mère (“My Mother’s Castle”); Le Temps des secrets (“The Time of Secrets”); and Le Temps des amours (“The Time of Love”).
Title: Phèdre (buy)
Author: Jean Racine
Rating: ★
Review: One of the best-known French dramatic tragedies, written in alexandrine verses in the 17th century. It is quite formal and works best if you can read it in the original language.
Title: Leon l’Africain (buy)
Author: Amin Maalouf
Rating: ★
Review: English title: Leo Africanus. Exotic and mildly philosophical, the perfect book to change your mind and be transported into another place, another time.
Title: Samarcande (buy)
Author: Amin Maalouf
Rating: ★
Review: English title: Samarkand. I really enjoy Maalouf’s style, topics and settings. Awakens a wanderlust across time and geographies. Here, we have a fictionalized account of the genesis of the Rubaiyat by the Persian poet Omar Khayyám.
Title: Le Rocher de Tanios (buy)
Author: Amin Maalouf
Rating: ★
Review: English title: The Rock of Tanios. Another truly enjoyable book by Maalouf, this time set in his native Lebanon. A story across mountain and the sea. What a gifted storyteller he is.
Title: Mermoz (buy)
Author: Joseph Kessel
Rating: ★
Review: A powerful tale-like story of the adventurous pioneers of the Aeropostale. I read it decades ago but I recall enjoying it very much. Mermoz was a greater than life character. Unfortunately I can’t find a link to an English version of the book.
j) American Literature
Title: The Fountainhead (buy)
Author: Ayn Rand
Rating: ★
Review: A novel about talent and anti-conformism. The style shows true talent but the character development is somewhat non-sensical. It’s a shame Ayn Rand’s career and political inclinations went the way they did. As a side note, her best known work is Atlas Shrugged but none of what I read about this book makes me want to read it.
Title: On the Road (buy)
Author: Jack Kerouac
Rating: ★
Review: The defining work of the Beat generation. Free-spirited young men you sometimes want to slap. Those were simpler days, it seems.
Title: American Pastoral (buy)
Author: Philip Roth
Rating: ★
Review: An acid, barely veiled critic of upper middle-class America and I bet many would wonder what is wrong with that settled suburban life. I did not know Philip Roth before that and came away extremely impressed.
Title: The Plot Against America (buy)
Author: Philip Roth
Rating: ★
Review: Alternative history that feels a little too close for comfort. Time will tell if that was a book about the past, or the future, when antisemitism seeps into acceptable morals.
Title: The Grapes of Wrath (buy)
Author: John Steinbeck
Rating: ★★
Review: Read this as a young man and have not forgotten the intersecting backgrounds of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The untold stories of the have nots, barely scraping by.
Title: Of Mice and Men (buy)
Author: John Steinbeck
Rating: ★
Review: A novella about aspirations and powerlessness. The language is sometimes crude and very politically incorrect, but one should not infer this reflects the author own views. Not for the classroom.
Title: To Kill a Mockingbird (buy)
Author: Harper Lee
Rating: ★★
Review: The novel set in the Deep South of the 1930s masterfully tackles the serious topics of racial inequality and rape. Such depth narrated in such a simple way. Hats off and long live Atticus Finch.
Title: Catch 22 (buy)
Author: Joseph Heller
Rating: ★
Review: The book makes great use of circular, often paradoxical reasoning (and is at the origin of the common Catch-22 idiom). The main character, Yossarian, is also not shy about challenging the existence of an omnipotent and omniscient god, or at least one who is friendly and cares about us.
Title: The Great Gatsby (buy)
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rating: ★
Review: A novel about the Jazz Age, the American Dream, and social classes (and the superficiality of the whole game). It is cynical but perhaps in too light a fashion so that the real objective gets lost on many readers who fail to appreciate the book as a satire. Good but overrated, in my subjective opinion.
Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (buy)
Author: Mark Twain
Rating: ★
Review: I came at it not knowing what to expect, simply aware of the children’s animated series that bears the Tom Sawyer name. Very much like the Jungle Book this is actually not a children’s book at all, it is smart and witty, as one would expect from Twain. It is good. Huckleberry Finn is better.
Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (buy)
Author: Mark Twain
Rating: ★
Review: The sequel of Tom Sawyer and the picaresque novel par excellence. It is sharp and layered in its dialogue and societal observations. All the recipes of a great satire for the young and not so young.
Title: The Sound and the Fury (buy)
Author: William Faulkner
Rating: ★
Review: You’ve got to admire the narrative technique and interlocking perspectives but this is really a challenging read. Not for everyone. Personally did not genuinely enjoy it.
Title: For Whom the Bell Tolls (buy)
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Rating: ★
Review: Really enjoyable writing style, serious topics, and an emotional plot. Would have loved to know Hemingway, such tales to tell, such a character.
Title: A Farewell to Arms (buy)
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Rating: ★
Review: The book that made Hemingway, blending romance and a world at war. Very moving.
Title: Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process (buy)
Author: John McPhee
Rating: ★
Review: Such a sharp mind he had Mr McPhee. This book will be useful to the budding writer of course, but more importantly it brings forward the craft and effort that goes into writing, and the overriding importance of structure. Remember that when you next write an essay. Made me want to read more of his non-fiction works, which are not well-known outside of North America.
Title: Lolita (buy)
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Rating: ★★
Review: This is peak writing technique, and English was not even Nabokov’s first language. The unsavoury plot will put off many readers and I also wished the author’s talent had been showcased otherwise but it is what it is. The annotated version brings a lot to the table by the way.
k) Russian Literature
Title: Crime and Punishment (buy)
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Rating: ★★
Review: Innovative narrative perspective and a descent into the mental anguish of Raskolnikov. A work of genius and deservedly considered one of the best works of Russian literature. Make sure to read when you are feeling psychologically strong and healthy.
Title: The Idiot (buy)
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Rating: ★
Review: The young prince at the centre of the story serves as a prism allowing us to explore the flaws of men and women in society. It may be useful to read about Dostoevsky’s bio to understand where he was coming from when writing this book (and The Brothers Karamazov later on).
Title: The Brothers Karamazov (buy)
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Rating: ★★
Review: Arguably the greatest work of Dostoevsky, even though Crime and Punishment is perhaps the first title that would come into most people’s mind. It is about faith, 19th century Russia, suffering, the dark side of the average man, and personal grief. A stable mind would not be able to birth such stunning work.
Title: Dead Souls (buy)
Author: Nikolai Gogol
Rating: ★★
Review: A masterful satire of provincial Russian society in the early 19th century. Not as well-known as some the authors that followed him but his work has had a great influence on Ukrainian and Russian literature.
Title: Anna Karenina (buy)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Rating: ★★
Review: A story about the idea of a simple life, family, Imperial Russian society and, most notably, one of the early used of the narrative technique of the stream of consciousness. Personally, I enjoyed this novel much more than War and Peace.
Title: War and Peace (buy)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Rating: ★
Review: A human and historical tapestry, and a long one at that. It is good, impressive, but I was somewhat disappointed considering how highly rated this novel is. In this case I presume the fault is mine, must have missed some layers and gone through the book without digesting it properly.
l) Latin American Literature
Title: Cien años de soledad (buy)
Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: ★★
Review: English title: One Hundred Years of Solitude. The paragon of magical realism, this is disorienting, a true marvel. It is as good as they say, and then some. Best enjoyed in the Spanish language, without a doubt.
Title: El otoño del patriarca (buy)
Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: ★
Review: English title: The Autumn of the Patriarch. Never a book about dictators was written in such style: magic realism, labyrinthine sentences, and acute socio-political observations. Another García Márquez masterpiece.
Title: El amor en los tiempos del cólera (buy)
Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: ★
Review: English title: Love in the Time of Cholera. Change of style and topic for García Márquez, this time it is about love and passion (and aging, and death).
Title: Conversación en La Catedral (buy)
Author: Mario Vargas Llosa
Rating: ★
Review: English title: Conversation in The Cathedral. Not a fun book, at all. Very powerful intersecting stories that paint a not very enticing portrait of Peru under Odría in the 1950s.
Title: La guerra del fin del mundo (buy)
Author: Mario Vargas Llosa
Rating: ~
Review: English title: Conversation in The Cathedral. Not a fun book, at all. Very powerful intersecting stories that paint a not very enticing portrait of Peru under Odría in the 1950s.
Title: 2666 (buy)
Author: Roberto Bolaño
Rating: ★
Review: Fragmentary, long, brutal and chilling. This is one heavy book, in the figurative and literal senses of the word. Very unsettling and can’t deny the talent of the author who passed away before the novel was released.
m) International Literature
Title: The Cairo Trilogy (buy)
Author: Naguib Mahfouz
Rating: ★
Review: A real fresco of popular socio-economical life in Cairo in the early 20th century. Talk about character development and detailed insights. It isn’t just a literary painting; it is also a deep analysis about the importance of Islam in this part of the world and the changing role of women at the time. There was a sense of progression, unfortunately history has gone the other way for the time being it seems. The three books in the series are: Palace walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street (all street names of Cairo).
Title: The Palace of Dreams (buy)
Author: Ismail Kadare
Rating: ★
Review: You will realize very quickly this was written by somebody who lived through a bureaucratic and totalitarian system. The Albanian version of Orwell and Kafka if you will. Of note: the book was written when the country’s Politburo was still ruling, so it took a lot of courage to get this story out.
Title: Norwegian Wood (buy)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Rating: ★★
Review: My first interaction with a Murakami novel back in 2005 and I loved it. It is the book that made him famous in Japan. Not too long and not too weird, a beautiful book about loss. Since then I have read many of the author’s novels and must admit the technique and artifices gets somewhat repetitive, especially in 1Q84, which I did not include in the list as I did not really enjoy it.
Title: Kafka on the Shore (buy)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Rating: ★★
Review: My favourite Murakami book alongside Norwegian Wood and possibly Hard-Boiled Wonderland, it gets stranger than the first mentioned but not as disorientating as the second. Set in Shikoku, this one is for cat and jazz lovers.
Title: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (buy)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Rating: ★
Review: Make sure you are not distracted and enjoy the ride! This is one hell of a tale, which I suspect won’t be everybody’s cup of tea. A Murakami special.
Title: South of the Border, West of the Sun (buy)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Rating: ★
Review: Not in the top three from Murakami but not far behind. Jazz and nostalgia as recurring themes with a sprinkle of magic realism.
Title: A Wild Sheep Chase (buy)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Rating: ★
Review: One of Murakami’s early works, the book is often recommended as an intro to the rest of his writing. Weird plot and magic realism are already present and the best parts are set in Hokkaido.
Title: The Narrow Road to the Deep North (buy)
Author: Richard Flanagan
Rating: ★★
Review: A deeply moving historical fiction (though I did not allocate this novel to that category); one can understand why the Burma Death Railway was called thus and the ferocity of the Japanese army during WW2. Not all of Flanagan works are as good (was very disappointed by Gould’s Book of Fish).
Title: Faust (buy)
Author: Johann W. von Goethe
Rating: ★
Review: The most famous tragic play of uber famous von Goethe, I’ll admit the depth of this work must have gone over my head because I thought it was fine but not a reference work, Part Two in particular. Give it a try. In the worst case, you will come out with a better understanding of what a Faustian bargain is.
Title: The Kite Runner (buy)
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Rating: ★
Review: Set in Kabul and covering a period ranging from the fall of the country’s monarchy through to the rise of the Talian regime. The book is about lost innocence, friendship, betrayal, and redemption but the cultural setting is perhaps the greatest attraction there.
Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns (buy)
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Rating: ★
Review: The second beautiful book of Khaled Hosseini, also set in urban Afghanistan (Herat and Kabul). Many rate it better than The Kite Runner and, from memory, I think I did too.
Title: My Name is Red (buy)
Author: Orhan Pamuk
Rating: ★
Review: Understated topic (miniatures paintings), intriguing setting of late 16th century Istanbul under the Ottoman Empire, and the unique prose of Pamuk. Wish I could read it in the original Turkish version. It is a little slow at times but very rewarding culturally and extremely well structured.
Title: Midnight’s Children (buy)
Author: Salman Rushdie
Rating: ~
Review: I remember wondering what the fuss is about the book. Of course Rushdie is gifted but the work feels like a continuous showing off penmanship and intellect. Anyways, I think it is a very personal opinion considering the vast majority of reviews are extremely positive. In fact, one would expect this type of author and talent not to draw unanimity, and I am saying this in a positive sense.
Title: The Luminaries (buy)
Author: Eleanor Catton
Rating: ★
Review: Talk about precocious talent. Eleanor Catton is certainly inspired but that is not enough, there must have been a lot of work behind the scenes to structure the storyline. It is different and enjoyable though it probably lacks some depth to become a literary classic.
Title: The Magic Mountain (buy)
Author: Thomas Mann
Rating: ★
Review: A classic of 20th-century German literature, yet under the radar, I thought the rendition of the atmosphere and the pacing were outstanding. It feels drawn out at times but that is part of the artifice, one loses the sense of time – one of the key themes of the book alongside illness and death. Very impressive.
n) Historical Fiction
Title: Shōgun (buy)
Author: James Clavell
Rating: ★★
Review: The first of Clavell famed Asian Saga by chronological order of setting (17th century Japan). You will relish in the details and variety of characters. For me, the best alongside Tai-Pan (though arguably King Rat plays in a different register). It is long, just enough!
Title: Tai-Pan (buy)
Author: James Clavell
Rating: ★★
Review: The second in the Asian Saga, tie for first place in terms of quality. Takes place in Hong Kong and if you have lived in Southeast or East Asia you will realize how brilliant the descriptions and cultural insights are. Truly well researched. Master storyteller.
Title: Gai-Jin (buy)
Author: James Clavell
Rating: ★
Review: Back to Japan, this time in the mid-19th century, just in time for the Meiji restoration, a major political and cultural turning point for the country. Still very good but not quite on par with Shogun.
Title: King Rat (buy)
Author: James Clavell
Rating: ★
Review: Set in Singapore’s infamous Changi prison during WW2, it reveals some of the worst and best of men. Clavell himself was a PoW there so he knows what he is talking about.
Title: Noble House (buy)
Author: James Clavell
Rating: ★
Review: Noble House is to Tai-Pan what Gai-Jin is to Shogun, and like that sibling, it is enjoyable but no match for the first Hong Kong-based instalment.
Title: Whirlwind (buy)
Author: James Clavell
Rating: ~
Review: An odd one which barely connects with the rest of the Asia Saga. Some interesting aspects and a complete change of cultural décor (Iran 1979 this time). It is fine but the only reason to recommend it is if you have read all other five titles and want to wrap it up.
Title: The Pillars of the Earth (buy)
Author: Ken Follett
Rating: ★★
Review: On hindsight it looks almost obvious but what a bet by Follett. The story is great, the setting completely unexpected and so is the topic. What an engaging epic though and you never thought you would learn about Gothic architecture this way.
Title: World Without End (buy)
Author: Ken Follett
Rating: ★
Review: The sequel to Pillars of the Earth takes place a century and a half later during the 14th century Black Death and at the start of the Hundred Years’ War – certainly a great time to be alive. More architecture and another great plot. The two books have become the first two instalments of the Kingsbridge Series which also comprises A Column of Fire, The Evening and the Morning (a prequel) and The Armour of Light; I have not read those three.
Title: Birds Without Wings (buy)
Author: Louis de Bernières
Rating: ★★
Review: Heart wrenching story of uprooting, separation, religious intolerance and nationalism taking place during the rise of Turkish nationalism and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Brilliant book.
o) Science Fiction
Title: Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy (buy)
Author: Liu Cixin
Rating: ★
Review: This trilogy includes The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End. It is long, too long. There are some very good ideas in the book, especially the Dark Forest as a very valid hypothesis to answer Fermi’s paradox. And yet, there are so many flaws that I can’t rate it more than “worth reading”. My main gripes: #1 the author is trying to introduce romance and depth to its characters but it never gels, feels completely forced; #2 there are many slow sections, those where he attempts to do character development in particular; #3 the dark battle is BS; #4 the whole speciesism, so central to the book, is such a toxic and illogical idea and a flagrant upgrade of nationalism (this opinion was reinforced when I read about the author’s bio).
Title: The Martian (buy)
Author: Andy Weir
Rating: ★★
Review: The engineer in you will love this. The movie adaptation is good, the book is next level in comparison. It is scientifically consistent, well-paced, and often funny. Andy Weir really did science the shit out of his plot.
Title: Project Hail Mary (buy)
Author: Andy Weir
Rating: ★★★
Review: Another story from Andy Weir where space does not cooperate. And I rate it even higher than The Martian. The process of sciences with controlled experiments and full-blown Mc Giver engineering would be enough to make an excellent book but when you add humour and a rethink about human sensory system and intellectual capabilities, you’ve got yourself a marvel of a work (made sure not to include any spoiler here). I hope they don’t mess the movie.
Title: Dune (buy)
Author: Frank Herbert
Rating: ~
Review: Quite atmospheric but the power dynamics are unrealistic and the plot predictable, frankly. Good casual read though nowhere close to the best works in the genre.
Title: Cryptonomicon (buy)
Author: Neal Stephenson
Rating: ~
Review: Smart and entertaining but way too long, especially as Stephenson buries himself into a plot that no longer make much sense. Conspiracy theorist should love this stuff. I think it could be made excellent by trimming several parts and redirecting the story.
Title: Snowcrash (buy)
Author: Neal Stephenson
Rating: ~
Review: Another Stephenson entry and there is no denying the guy is mart and a visionary. Nonetheless, the book has pretty much the same flow as Cryptonomicon (well, it is actually the other way around): too long and after a strong start the plot drifts to some land where it loses credibility.
Title: 1984 (buy)
Author: George Orwell
Rating: ★★★
Review: the mother of dystopian novels and it has not really aged. Doublethink seems to have become a thing in some society. Such an acute observer of society and government he was Mr Blair (NB: Orwell was a pen name).
Title: Brave New World (buy)
Author: Aldous Huxley
Rating: ★
Review: the other dystopian book of the mid-20th century (or thereabouts, it actually predates 1984 by nearly two decades). It still feels very much the way we are headed in a world where hedonism and instant gratification prime over deeper values and principles.
Title: Robot series (buy)
Author: Isaac Asimov
Rating: ★
Review: Asimov wrote well and he wrote a lot. Fascinating how he managed to have such powerful insights and such blind spots (computational capabilities of machines for instance). Not the latest and greatest science fiction works by any means, and quality is a little inconsistent, however they are good and easy reads. The Robot Series include the following: I Robot, The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn + potentially Mirror Image and Robots and Empire, and other short stories.
Title: Galactic Empire series (buy)
Author: Isaac Asimov
Rating: ★
Review: This series comprise #1 The Stars, Like Dust; #2 The Currents of Space; #3 Pebble in the Sky, to which could be added Blind Alley. They sit between the Robot and Foundation series and can be read independently. Same style and comments as the Robot Series.
Title: Foundation series (buy)
Author: Isaac Asimov
Rating: ★
Review: Possibly the best of Asimov books, especially the sequels (last two) and the prequels (first two) that are clearly one notch above the original three works. The plots are quite good and if you have read the whole of Robot and Galactic Empire books as well it all concludes nicely. By the way, I recommend interspacing your Asimov books between the reading of other works, like a decompression and recovery habit. The series consist of: Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation’s Edge, Foundation and Earth.
Title: 2001 A Space Odyssey (buy)
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Rating: ★
Review: An early cautionary tale about machine intelligence and the threats it may pose one day. Some good space science in there as well. Feels a bit dated but still a reference work.
Title: The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy (buy)
Author: Douglas Adams
Rating: ★
Review: Very left-field type of humour mostly works even if repetitive at times, especially as you progress through the novels. There are five books in the series named ‘The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide’, the other four are: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; Mostly Harmless.
Title: Exhalation (buy)
Author: Ted Chiang
Rating: ~
Review: Many of these stories start full of promises and there are clever strands but none ever progresses to the point where the ideas are truly being tested so, taking a step back, it all feel very superficial. This impression is further enhanced by the lack of consistency within the stories, or to put it another way, the author seems to avoid staying in the same theme for too long to avoid the unravelling of original storylines. The exhalation piece is worth reading, a nice metaphor about heat death.
p) Fantasy
Title: The Lord of the Rings trilogy (buy)
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Rating: ★★
Review: One of the first epic fantasy novels and still one of the best, not that I have read many, but at the very least it doesn’t pale in comparison with more contemporary works. The storyline plods along nicely, the characters are well defined, and the events follow one another. Perfect for those long cosy winter or rainy nights in bed. The trilogy consists of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.
Title: The Hobbit (buy)
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Rating: ★
Review: This is the prequel to The Lord of the Rings and, contrary to the trend nowadays, it was written before the famous trilogy. In comparison, The Hobbit is not only much shorter but also works much better as a children’s book though adults should also enjoy it. Interestingly, the second edition included retrospective accommodations to better fit The Lord of the Rings.
Title: Mistborn series (buy)
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Rating: ★
Review: Tried this epic fantasy series based on reviews and was very pleasantly surprised: engaging, atmospheric, good plot and pacing and interesting magic system. The first trilogy (“Era One”) is very good and consists of The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. The books in Era Two are one notch below, in my opinion, so I stopped reading them halfway through.