Another year of reading. I learnt to slow down and not chase an arbitrary goal of a book a week. It’s more important to take time to ingest the book and let it change you and act. Some books provide pure entertainment, while others are impactful and the best are both. Some are a breeze to read, and some are like climbing a mountain, tough but a delight in the end and totally worth it. I’ve become more selective as I grow older. But that makes it hard to follow right after a great book and I go through dry periods where nothing seems good enough.

1. Shall We Tell the President – Jeffrey Archer

2. Sunset Club – Khushwant Singh

3. SeinLanguage – Jerry Seinfeld

4. Company of Women – Khushwant Singh

5. I Contain Multitudes – Ed Wong

6. Housemaid – Freida McFadden

7. All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr

8. When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi

9. Immense World – Ed Wong

10. Between Two Worlds – Suleika Jaouad

11. On Tyranny – Timothy Snyder

12. How to Know a Person – David Brooks

13. Wild – Cheryl Strayed

14. No One is Too Small to Make a Difference – Greta Thunberg

15. Vanderbilt – Anderson Cooper

16. Polly: Sex Culture Revolutionary – Polly Whittaker

17. Going Infinite – Michael Lewis

18. Tools – Dominic Chinea

19. Coming Wave – Mustafa Suleyman

20. Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan

21. Bits and Pieces – Whoopi Goldberg

22. 24 Years of Housework … and the Place is Still a Mess – Pat Schroeder

23. Leonardo da Vinci – Walter Isaacson

24. Genghis Khan – Jack Weatherford

25. A Man’s Place – Annie Ernaux

26. Lincoln Miracle – Ed Achorn

27. Tiny Habits – BJ Fogg

28. I Will Teach You to Be Rich – Ramit Sethi

29. Princess Bride: S Morgenstern Tale – William Goldman

30. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

31. Nexus – Yuval Harrari

32. Speaking from the Heart: 18 Languages for Modern Love – Anne Hodder-Shipp

33. Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt

34. Lonely Hearts Book Club – Lucy Gilmore

Target of 50 proved too ambitious. The 39 excludes travel books (mostly) and those I lost interest in midway through. It includes some books I skimmed parts of (anything below a 3 rating).

1. Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson
2. Give and Take by Adam Grant
3. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
4. Spare by Harry
5. How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil
6. Onward by Howard Schultz
7. Grief Trip by Stuart
8. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
9. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
10. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
11. How to Change your Mind by Michael Pollan
12. The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
13. Einstein by Walter Isaacson
14. Persuaders by Anand Giridharadas
15. Open by Andre Agassi
16. Stay True by Hua Hau
17. More Myself by Alicia Keys
18. Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
19. Outlive by Peter Attia
20. The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee
21. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman|
22. 100 tips for visiting Iceland by Eric Newman
23. Seven brief lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli
24. Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
25. Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson
26. Best American Travel Writing 2016 by Bill Bryson
27. Atomic Habits by Peter Clear
28. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
29. At Home by Bill Bryson
30. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
31. One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
32. Recoding America by Jennifer Pahlka
33. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
34. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
35. Joy of Costco by David and Susan Schwartz
36. The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs
37. BTS Biography by University Press
38. Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer
39. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

This was an eye-opening book for me. I was not familiar with US politics prior to Reagan. A lot to take in and digest. A few things stand out.

Up until the 1960s, being a Democrat or Republican did not imply a clear set of values, the left and the right we hear about now. Voters habitually split their vote for President and Congress between parties. Parties tended to dominate for decades and politicians got used to making deals with the other side to get things done. Now, they just wait for their turn. Reagan and Bush Senior raised taxes - that would be an anathema today in the Republican party. Clinton came into office on a tough-on-crime platform. That would be just as out of place in the Democratic party today.

The brilliance of this gem of a book by Trevor Noah blew me away. What an amazing childhood and upbringing Trevor has had growing up in South Africa! Respect. He paints it in brilliant strokes and educates the reader on the history of this southern tip of Africa in lucid detail. It’s equal parts beautiful and excruciating and heart-wrenching and funny.