- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant - Eric Jorgenson
- Zikora - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The Great Mental Models Volume 1 - Shane Parrish
- Of Goats And Poisoned Oranges - Ciku Kimeria
- Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
- Money - Yuval Noah Harari
- Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun - Sarah Ladipo Manyika
- Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - Carlo Rovelli
- Weight of Whispers - Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
- Why I Am so Clever - Friedrich Nietzsche
- Range - David Epstein
- The Hairdresser of Harare - Tendai Huchu
- Atomic Habits - James Clear
- Deep Work - Cal Newport
- Spaceflight - Michael J. Neufeld
- Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - Neil deGrasse Tyson
- The Granta Book of the African Short Story
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Gems, gems and more gems on life.
A collection of thoughts by a deep thinker. I learnt a lot about my own ignorance going through this book. I made a collection of maxims I picked up from Naval, I would boil it down to finding yourself, knowing yourself, being yourself and excelling at it.
Zikora
A short story with such intensity and depth!
A poignant tale of a moment in time of a progressive African lady and the snippets of her life that gave the moment its meaning. It reminded how birth is such a bittersweet moment, how down to earth and bare (animalistic) it is and yet such a powerful moment as it defines destinies.
It is so moving that's it's at this moment Zikora goes through the people in her life. The women - mother, step mother, cousin and her younger self; and the men - her father and her now absent baby daddy. She brings up social issues of culture and tradition, friendship and commitments, and work and career ambitions.
Such an amazing story.
The Great Mental Models Volume 1
A succinct collection of great ways to go about thinking and reasoning. Grounded in science and philosophy and leaning on real life examples, it really does provide a toolbox for actively living life, whether be it career and business decisions or relationships and life decisions.
It reaffirmed some mental models I already new and also lead me to discover new models and new ways of interpretations. I made notes of nuggets I picked up.
Of Goats And Poisoned Oranges
An amazing Kenyan story, with such an intricate and surprising plot that kept me hooked. It was a pleasant experience for Ciku to mix both Kikuyu and English in her storytelling and still be captivating. I found the story very authentic, juxtaposing not only languages but also the characters and their lifestyles.
Highly recommended.
Tuesdays with Morrie
An amazing guide on living based on Morrie's life's work and especially his last years. It made me reflect on my own mortality, values and principles and what I consider meaningful in life.
Someone very close to me had me read it, and I will be eternally grateful to them. It has made such an impression on me and provided guidance on better living. Love wins, so pursue it in all you do. Always see the good in things, optimistic to the end. Value family and having close friends. Beware how the current society misleads, seek a meaningful life.
Money
A deep dive into the essence of money.
From what it is, it's history, current form and its future/implications.
Trust is the raw material from which all types of money are minted.
Yuval explains the philosophical grounds on which money stands - a system of mutual trust. He traces the evolution of money, starting with the Sumerians, through the Romans and eventually to the modern capitalist creed. He goes a long way explaining how the idea of credit has transformed the world. Finally he touches on the future of the world economy and the emergence of the useless class.
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun
I read this as a recommendation from reading Zikora.
It's a well written story, I was amazed how vivid it felt. I felt like I was there with Morayo, experiencing her world, her thoughts, her body.
I loved how Morayo's life seemed fulfilled. She had had so many experiences that shaped her being, she did not seem lacking in some aspect. Well, having kids maybe. And yes her growing old does come with challenges but reflecting on a life well lived gives value to the moment.
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
A great collection on great meaningful physics lessons for the general reader.
I liked the how Rovelli presents deep and difficult physics theories and discoveries in a concise, easy to grasp manner. It helped me appreciate great contributions in Physics and their implications and the existing struggle to re-unify general relativity with quantum physics.
I will definitely be re-reading this regularly, it provides a good basis for discussions on Physics and the world around us.
Weight of Whispers
Quite a story this one is! I struggled reading through during my first reading session and had to pause and gather myself before resuming the next day; that's how difficult the story is.
Written in a few pages on a small book is a big story, a story of war, a story of family, of friends..and a story of how the ground shifts beneath us and we are left on shaky foundations. The music of our lives stops, and we are left half-stepping through it, not understanding the new rhythm of our existence.
Why I Am so Clever
A collection of three "essays" by Nietzsche.
I struggled through Nietzsche's writing, especially his pompous style and sense of self-importance.
I however watched a Jordan Peterson's interview and it all started to make sense to me. I started to understand why Nietzsche was fascinated with "mundane" things as food, place and climate. I reviewed my relation with food as an example and realized how a long time and paid no detail to it but that changed over the last year as I tried to be lean. I reflected on the effects of alcohol, good and bad. It all slowly started to make sense. I'm writing this in Nanyuki, a rather cold place at night and in the mornings. I noticed how this weather has changed my routine, I no longer have early mornings nor late nights. It's too cold for that.
Nietzsche has other profound (simple) ideas which he doesn't dwell a lot upon but which I found useful. Notably is amor fati. It reminds me of selflessness, meditation and the acceptance that comes with it. Of not trying to change everything around you but of accepting and being at peace with it.
On that note, I realized I probably will never fully fathom Nietzsche and his philosophy but that's amor fati in a way.
I take flight almost always to the same books, really a small number, those books which have proved themselves precisely to me.
In all this - in selection of nutriment, of place and climate, of recreation - there commands an instinct of self preservation which manifests itself most unambiguously as an instinct for self-defense.
these little things - nutriment, place, climate, recreation, the whole casuistry of selfishness - are beyond all conception of greater importance than anything that has been considered of importance hitherto.
I know of no other way of dealing with great tasks than that of play: this is, as a sign of greatness, an essential precondition.
My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be other than it is, not in the future, not in the past, not in all eternity.
Range
Very eye-opening.
Range felt like an exercise in exposing my own narrow mindedness, myopic views on things and an unfounded clinging to one set of tools.
David Epstein's argument on expanding one's horizons by embracing variation and range is backed with numerous real world evidence - anecdotal and scientific.
It made reflect a lot on things I could be doing but that have not paid attention to. I made notes.
The Hairdresser of Harare
Another contemporary piece of African writing. It felt like reading about my own life experiences minus the violence. I felt connected to the characters in the book, admired and sympathized with them through out their stories. This book made me realize how similar Harare was to Nairobi, and how similar we are as people.
The author subtly brings to light the struggle of being queer in an African setting; the rejection by your own, violence and fear - it reminded me of Stories of our lives.
Atomic Habits
I reread (again) this gem of a book. I have made a vow to myself to reread this book and Deep Work each year.
It's always profound for me how much effective the little nuggets from Atomic Habits are. I have been finding the Two Minutes Rule quite effective of late in getting me to pick up old habits that felt as chores. Also changing my environment to improve my effectiveness has been another profound nugget.
James Clear's manages to break down habit formation, going through the four-step process intricately and using vivid real life experiences to ground them. He then outlines a four laws system to adopt and reinforce good habits and at the same time break and overcome bad habits. I particularly the summaries at the end of chapters and the cheatsheet that takes shape as one proceeds through the book.
It's a very actionable book on human behaviour and it distills away a lot of the scientific background that accompany other books on behaviour, leaving us with actionable insights and tools to use to shape our daily lives.
It has changed my life.
Deep Work
I reread the great organizational self-help book.
I honestly struggled through the first half of the book where the author lays down the groundwork for why deep work is important. It felt like he was rehashing the same arguments over and over again just in differently ways, I'm convinced, can we move on?. This section could have been way shorter and more effective IMHO.
I found the second half to be very resourceful. There are numerous tips and routines on how to work in depth and various strategies to deal with the challenges that arise. Generally great material here. The author does however rely heavily on his personal life to exemplify things and it requires a bit of imagination to see how this can fit in your own life, especially when you're not an academic.
Spaceflight
A very engaging account of space flight history painting the ~200 or so years of this cultural, scientific and engineering endeavour on the canvas that is time. From Jules Verne imagination in Autour de la Lune, the early soviet rocket enthusiasts, through the world wars that saw the acceleration of rocketry as a science, the cold war that ushered the space era and space agencies and finally to the current times with commercial exploration of space and scientific exploration of deep space.
The author provides a great lineage that helps in understanding how the space industry came to be. A major theme that emerges is the role of military in the early growth and it's continued role as a space user and innovator. One fascinating thing I learned and got to appreciate from the reading this book is that a majority of scientific work in space is actually unmanned and the human space programs are but a smaller piece of a bigger pie.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
after the laws of physics, everything else is opinion.
This is a nonsense deep dive into astrophysics, concrete enough for you to realize how expansive and scientific the field is and short enough for you not to be bogged with technicalities aka physics.
An all round take on the how the universe came to be, our little blue dot, mysteries such as dark matter and dark energy, and even the chemistry that makes up all matter. I watched Neil on a Joe Rogan episode where his expanded on the ideas and things presented in the book and it provided a lot more context that helped me see the bigger picture of astrophysics and especially its applications.
Watching the Cassini mission documentary after reading this book made the reading even more worthwhile.
People who believe they are ignorant of nothing have neither looked for, nor stumbled upon, the boundary between what is known and unknown in the universe.
The Granta Book of the African Short Story
What an anthology!
Hands down this is the best collection of African stories that I have read, up there with Encounters from Africa.
This gem is packed with stories from all over Africa, providing great breath and depth in the stories told and making you realize how much diversity lives on the continent. From the northern Arab speaking Maghreb, the French Sahel, to East Africa and down to southern Africa; there are stories from everywhere.
Each story is worth a thousand word but I must say, Faeries of the Nile by Mansoura Ez-Eldin stuck with me long after I had read it. I can't really articulate why but it struck a chord with me.