13 powerful Non-fiction books to read in 2024
Non-fiction books have always presented an allure for me. These books provide a unique opportunity for readers to expand their understanding of the world and gain insights into various subjects.
By delving into real-life stories, historical events, and scientific discoveries, readers can develop critical thinking skills and broaden their perspectives on different topics. Additionally, the knowledge acquired from non-fiction books can be applied to real-life situations, enabling readers to make informed decisions and engage in meaningful conversations.
While all books improve vocabulary and language, non-fiction books IMHO broaden our understanding of this complex world and its relationships.
This list is all the knowledge acquired from non-fiction books in 2023 and my principal takeaways from the book. With this post, I want to encourage readers to prioritize reading non-fiction books for personal growth and knowledge enrichment.
Tip : Many of the below featured books are available on Amazon's Kindle Unlimited Subscription for free or at very reduced prices.
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Self-help non-fiction books read in 2024
How to talk to anyone, 92 tricks for big success by Leil Lowndes
Develop your communication skills and stand out from the crowd. That’s what this book teaches us. And communication is not only through spoken language, but body language as well.
Understand not only what to do to achieve big success but also learn how to do it. With these techniques you will come across as a special person to anyone and everyone you meet.
A very practical book with easy to understand examples in every chapter. Very relatable, relevant and easy-going book. Whether you want to improve your personal life or professional, this guide is a must-have.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant – a guide to wealth and happiness by Eric Jorgenson
Health, Wealth, and happiness are the three most important skills to possess is what Naval Ravikant believes. And he is an entrepreneur, investor, and philosopher who has captivated the world through his principles of how to build these skills.
This book collects and organizes the pieces of wisdom he has shared through Twitter, blog posts, and podcasts, and shows you how to achieve the same for yourself. In the author’s words, this almanack is a guide to be read and consulted for specific topics related to wealth and happiness and it does just that.
I intend to revisit this guide at specific times when I feel demotivated or unhappy or looking for new ways to earn wealth.
Why Stories Work – The Evolution and Cognitive Roots of the Power of Narrative by Somdev Chatterjee
Who in today's world doesn't require story-telling? if you are in a profession like a writer or an author it is a must. but if you are a content writer, a blogger, a video creator, a student, or a teacher all of you need to create stories to hook your audiences and keep them engaged.
Why Stories Work by Somdev Chatterjee may not be a very in-depth book, but it is a well-researched book with a very scientific approach. All the quotations and references drawn from various books across diverse subjects on the human brain and evolution and survival are proof of this.
The author himself is a filmmaker and who better than him to talk to us about the importance of story-telling? His prose and language are eloquent and straightforward for all readers to understand. I did not expect a debut author to be this easy with words. I was absolutely and thoroughly engaged while reading this valuable and informative book.
Quiet : The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking by Susan Cain
Forever people and children who are quiet, shy, sensitive, and serious have been misunderstood. But it is time for everyone to listen to what they have to say, even though their voice is not as loud and lively as the naturally extroverted. And that is where Susan Cain’s Quiet helps us understand what this silence means.
Quiet as a book, is vital not only for calm people to understand themselves better, but also for the outgoing to understand their quiet partners/colleagues/friends.
The theme of the book is fresh and very relevant as unknown to us one-third of the world consists of introverts. And perhaps it is time we listen to this quiet voice of calm and reflection in this chaotic and loud world.
The 4-hour Work Week (Escape the 9-5, live anywhere and join the new rich by Timothy Ferris
This book serves as a revolutionary compass for everybody, be it an entrepreneur stuck in your own firm or an overworked employee.
Tim Ferriss teaches us -
- Is it possible to hire $5 per hour virtual assistants from abroad to handle your life?
- How do successful escape artists tour the globe without giving up their jobs?
- How about applying the ideas of a little-known Italian economist to cut out 50% of your job in 48 hours?
- What is the primary distinction between relative and absolute income?
- What are the CEOs of Remote Control's managerial secrets?
- How can I get 50–80% savings on airfare and free lodging anywhere in the world?
- How to make a meaningful life and fill the hole left by leaving the workplace and work behind?
Graphic Memoirs read in 2024
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
The Best We Could Do is an illustrated memoir of when Thi delivered her baby and then recollected how the same experiences would have been for her mother who had four kids and migrated from Vietnam to the US during a brutal war that was being raged in her home country.
The book discusses the author's relationship with her father and her mother, and the author is trying to find out why they behave the way they do and traces back their behaviour to their childhood and upbringing.
I love illustrated books that can recreate the scene of the story through their pictures. And this book had a grim and dark theme, and yet it had me engrossed in the illustrations as if I was watching a movie play out.
Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story by Sarah Meyer
This one was a very different read for me from my usual line-up of books and I am so glad I got to read this. I give a more detailed review here, where I elaborate what I loved about the book.
I picked this book because it combined two of my favorite genres – graphic novels and memoirs – and I made the perfect choice.
This isn’t a novel or a book it’s a genuine and heartfelt outpour of what goes through a mind of a person who is made different by other people because of how they look or because of the choices they make. It is the growing-up saga of Sarah who was born to Korean parents but was adopted by American parents and grew up in a small American town full of prejudices and biases.
The story is heart-wrenching, her feelings and expressions are so real. The graphics are detailed intimate and feel so real. I’ve read at least a few dozen graphic novels in my reading life but never have I encountered such detailed and perfect expressions through the eyes, the face, and the overall body language.
This book is an upcoming release and I have no clue how it will do once it is in print form. But be assured I will recommend this book to anyone and everyone looking to understand the perspective of a person who is different or even to readers who want to know what a brilliant graphics novel looks like.
Inquilab Zindabad : A Graphic Biography of Bhagat Singh by Ikroop Sandhu
Inquilab Zindabad is a graphic biography of Bhagat Singh, an Indian revolutionary, written by Ikroop Sandhu. Right from how he was driven into the freedom movement with inspiration from his Uncle to the day he was hanged and the after-effects in the country post his death. I have read the book Why I am an atheist by Bhagat Singh, a collection of his letters/statements to the government or speeches and even to his friends and family members. The fiery spirit of this young man shines through in both books. Because his words were said with such honesty and determination to do the right thing you are affected by them.
Although considered dangerous by the British in that era, his ideas were rational and well thought out. His actions were never sporadic. His sentiments never betrayed his country. His spirit was indomitable. He fought until the very end. This book does bring out all these radical incidents and portrays them through equally fiery illustrations. I liked that the graphics are in black and white because adding color I feel would have taken away the gravity and the importance of the man to the freedom movement. That time in Indian history was dark and should be shown accordingly.
Overall I enjoyed revisiting Bhagat Singh’s history through this graphic tale and uncovered some new facts about him like the indecent disposal of his body carried out by the jail authorities etc.
Any reader interested in history or in India’s past must read this biography.
Heart Touching Autobiographies to read in 2024
Annihilation of Caste by B.R.Ambedkar
“What the Communist Manifesto is to the capitalist world, Annihilation of Caste is to India.” —Anand Teltumbde, author of The Persistence of Caste
B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar – a figure like W.E.B. Du Bois – offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. The world’s best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to the provocation. The hatchet was never buried.
Arundhati Roy introduces this extensively annotated edition of Annihilation of Caste in “The Doctor and the Saint,” examining the persistence of caste in modern India, and how the conflict between Ambedkar and Gandhi continues to resonate. Roy takes us to the beginning of Gandhi’s political career in South Africa, where his views on race, caste and imperialism were shaped. She tracks Ambedkar’s emergence as a major political figure in the national movement, and shows how his scholarship and intelligence illuminated a political struggle beset by sectarianism and obscurantism. Roy breathes new life into Ambedkar’s anti-caste utopia, and says that without a Dalit revolution, India will continue to be hobbled by systemic inequality.
The Ballad of Bant Singh – A Qissa of Courage by Nirupama Dutt
Bant Singh is a Dalit labourer living in a small village Jhabbar, in Punjab. A night in January changed Bant Singh physically but it could not dampen his spirit. Boys from the upper caste Jats beat Bant so brutally that he lost his two legs and one arm but kept his consciousness in spite of the enormity of the violence meted out to his body.
Bant was only fighting for his daughter Baljit, who had been raped in a neighbour’s bungalow by similar upper caste goons. Baljit respecting Bant’s teachings decided to follow up with the criminals in the court of law and got justice served.
The book also discusses the Sikh past where Dalits were similarly trampled by the upper castes but heroes rose in every generation and brought justice to these hapless people living in perpetual fear.
I salute the indomitable spirit of Bant that sang revolutionary songs written by a Dalit poet even while recuperating in a hospital. Till today he continues to sing these songs and inspire his fellow comrades.
Baluta is the first Dalit autobiography written in Marathi and was first published in 1978. Back then the book caused a storm because it brought forth very clearly the brutality of the Indian Caste system.
What touches you about this particular literature is the candid and blatant way in which Daya has written about not only but caste system but also the people in his community and even about himself and his family. Although he declares himself a coward repetitively throughout the book, I think it took a mountain of courage for him to write this memoir that too way back in the 1970s.
It takes us back to the villages that had a prominent Maharwada on the outskirts of the village and to a Mumbai full of chawls, brothels, and slums. His confession that he could not give back anything substantial to his mother before she died, although she brought up him and his sister single-handedly, wrenches the reader’s hearts into a twist.
Baluta is a must-read piece of Marathi literature that depicts perfect story-telling and talks about oneself in a way that deserves to be heard.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“But race is the child of racism, not the father.”
How does it feel to be born in a Black body in America? How can these black people be free of the perpetual fear they live in? Through Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates tries to answers these questions in the form of letters to his young son.
Americans have exploited the blacks bodily through slavery, murder, rape and segregation. American history is tainted with the black blood and now these people want to free themselves from this burden. The author effortlessly blends American history and his personal experiences through his eloquent letter writing. His sincere and ardent concern for his son’s surroundings comes out brilliantly through his writing.
“Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have, and you come to us endangered.”
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