32 brilliant non-fiction books I read in 2021 and you should read too
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Self-help non-fiction books read in 2021
The Rudest Book Ever by Shwetabh Gangwar
I picked The Rudest Book Ever because whenever I went looking for a non-fiction book to read, this book always showed up among recommendations. And honestly, I haven’t read very many good self-help books by Indian authors.
The Rudest Book Ever is 17 chapters and about 213 pages long. Right in the beginning, Gangwar mentions that this book is not meant to teach but is written to make you think. How to think – is the critical question the book answers.
Drive To Thrive by Sharad Bajaj
Drive to Thrive is a book about helping you become a good manager. Sharad Bajaj started the book on an interesting premise about juggling real-life problems all needing his urgent attention. The following things were good:
- Well researched book.
- The writing style is as if he has poured his heart out.
- The content has Great intention to educate and equip the readers with tools necessary to become a good manager.
- The Chapter Summary in the end and the follow-up questions.
- The Quotes by Sharad Bajaj and other important people.
The following things were not so good -
- Very Few (almost none) Images/Graphs/Infographics
- Extremely Long Chapters
- Chapter CULTURE – VALUES AND HABITS started on page 77 and ended on page 120.
- Huge paragraphs of information overload without break for core ideas. Repetitive Ideas.
- Facing Failure as a concept is talked about in Culture-Values and Habits. Then again, when discussing Maps for success. and also during Hurdles of a Manager.
- An Incomplete TOC
Beginners in Corporate work or professionals thinking of managerial roles should give it a read.
Speed Reading by Justin Hammond
Author Justin Hammond himself was a slow reader during his school days. His book is written out of his own experiences. I must recommend this ultimate guide for readers seeking to pump up their speeds. Hammond provides excellent insights and practical doable advice. I’ve already increased my speed after reading this book. Go for it.
Highlights of the Books
Practical book
Easy-to-do actionable steps
Quick read at 60 pages
Lots of practice exercises
Atomic Habits by James Clear
On the final day of his sophomore year, James was hit in the face with a baseball bat between the eyes.
He suffered a broken nose, multiple skull fractures, and two broken eye sockets.
He went into a coma.
Six years after that incident, he was selected the top male athlete at Denison University and named to the ESPN Academic All-American Team.
His injury taught him a critical lesson – changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.
The effects of small habits compound over time. If you can get 1% better each day for a year, you’ll end up 37 times better at the end of the year.
Unfortunately, the slow speed of transformation makes it easy for us to give up and slide into a bad habit.
The Richest Man in Babylon by George C. Calson
I stumbled upon this book time and again whenever I was looking for effective books to read on personal finance. So I finally decided to give it a go and I wasn’t disappointed.
Although this book is written about an ancient kingdom that existed 4000 years ago, surprisingly, all the principals and money laws mentioned hold good and true even today.
Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horseley
Ask yourself: What would your life be like if you could learn and remember information easily, quickly, and effectively?
Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley is a guideline on how you can achieve any goal you set for yourself by learning anything you want to learn to accomplish that.
I loved the book for the plenty of examples it gave. Because although the first few methods are simple to grasp and link. Things get complicated with more advanced strategies when you start dealing with numbers and long lists. And that will require tremendous practice on the reader’s part.
Horsley has given us the tools. We need to learn to use them.
The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel
Two topics impact everyone, whether you are interested in them or not: health and money.
The premise of this book is that doing well with money has little to do with how smart you are and a lot to do with how you behave.
Financial outcomes are driven by luck, independent of intelligence and effort.
We think about and are taught about money in ways that are too much like physics (with rules and laws) and not enough like psychology (with emotions and nuance).
Financial success is not a hard science.
Zen: The Art of Simple Living b Shunmyo Masuna
Drawing on centuries of wisdom, renowned Zen Buddhist priest Shunmyo Masuno applies the essence of Zen to modern life in clear, practical, easily adopted lessons – one a day for 100 days.
From this book you will learn 100 ways to bring yourself true happiness and calm.
You will earn how to exhale deeply to eliminate negative emotions, to arrange your house simply to clear your thinking, to line up your shoes at night to bring order to your mind, to plant a single flower and watch it grow, to worry less about what you cannot control.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering.
Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Considered as one of the classics of twentieth century feminist literature, A Room of One’s Own is a book-length essay written by Virginia Woolf. Delineating the basic requirements of a woman to write, the author incorporates detailed revelations of the various power structures that stop a woman to excel and elucidate her creative capabilities.
Think Again by Adam Grant
Think Again explores the power of knowing what you don’t know. Through this book discover how rethinking can lead to excellence at work and wisdom in life.
Rethinking - Intelligence is traditionally viewed as the ability to think and learn. There’s another set of cognitive skills that matter more – the ability to rethink and unlearn. Our identities are old systems and so are our lives. We don’t have to stay tethered to old images.
Dear Stranger I know how you feel by Ashish Bagrecha
A book in the form of letters (epistolary) to all the strangers going through a condition of mental turmoil. All the letters begin with what I call describing the symptoms.
Is there some difficulty you're going through currently? Bagrecha says all these feelings are normal. Then he explains that it’s okay to feel them, he has a diagnosis of your condition-because he felt them too when he was in a situation like yours. Then he gives you the medicine- he tells you how you can overcome them.
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
The first thing that strikes us about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s speech/essay is the frankness. What she wants to say and tell us is crystal clear. Her very relatable real-life examples speak for themselves. They point out the obvious comparisons we have been making consciously or unconsciously through our lives. She speaks about her experiences in Nigeria, but her examples are believable even in India.
The easy and smooth language employed to narrate the author’s personal experiences makes it one of the fundamental reads for understanding feminism.
Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
If you’d like to know how our species was born, 70,000 years ago and how we evolved through the years and why things are the way they are, now and how did we survive all these years although no other species did, this book by Yuval Noah Harari will enlighten you. He believes we can create and connect ideas that physically do not exist (politics, religion, etc.)
The topic of the history of humankind in itself is quite fascinating. And I loved how Harari made it even more interesting with the story-like format he uses to explain concepts and the progress of the Sapiens.
Heart-Touching Memoirs read in 2021
Life Unknown By Kartikeya Ladha
Life Unknown is Kartikeya Ladha’s story of how he gained enlightenment and wisdom first while traveling through the remote regions of Leh and Ladakh and then while walking (1000 km) through the Southern states of India- from Kanyakumari to Goa. He was working as a sales lead for a company in New York, living the corporate dream. What motivated him to return to his motherland and leave family and home behind and follow a path anyone rarely thinks of these days—a path that is unknown, raw, lonely, and anything but easy.
This book is like a wakeup call.
Karukku by Bama - Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmstrom
Karukku is the first autobiography of a Tamil Dalit woman, Bama. Karukku means Palmyra leaves that have serrated edges on both sides, like a double-edged sword. In this book, we follow the author’s life from her childhood in a small south-Indian village to her educating herself despite all odds to become a nun in the Convent. But then she is compelled to finally quit that revered position after she realizes that what she thought would be her ultimate service to people like her, was a political fraud.
Bama’s heartfelt and ardent narrative will stay with you for a long time.
Night by Elie Wiesel
A Jewish 16-year-olds harrowing story of survival during the Holocaust. A first person account of a survivor’s perspective on the torture and murder he experienced during humankind’s most shameful era in history. In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech Eliezer mentions that he wrote this book to keep the memory of this unforgettable experience alive. Because forgetting it, he says, would make him an accomplice of the event. He questions the world on their silence when the atrocities took place and says we must take sides because neutrality helps and instigates the oppressor.
An unnerving read, that presents the readers with horrors a whole generation of people faced due to being born in a particular race/religion.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and his book details his journey from being a successful doctor to a hopeless patient. He was only thirty-six and was about to complete ten years of training as a neurosurgeon when tragedy hit him.
Paul’s journey towards death is arduous, painful yet he never faltered and faced it with integrity is evident from the book. His experiences helped him find meaning. What happened to Paul was tragic, but he was not a tragedy.
Educated by Tara Westover
The story of an extraordinary education. From no school to Cambridge, to Harvard, to the author of an internationally bestselling memoir. Tara Westover never went to school because her father did not believe in government establishments. She never stepped inside a hospital because her father didn’t believe in them either. Although every member of her family, including Tara, went through a near-death accident at different times in life, they never saw a hospital.
Youngest of seven kids, four of her siblings stayed in the mountain she was born in without even high school diplomas, while the remaining three of them including Tara went on to get doctorates and move away from their birthplace. She refused to be the child her father raised and transformed herself. She calls this transformation her Education. A must-read.
Know My name By Chanel Miller.
In 2015 Chanel was visiting Stanford with her sister Tiffany for a party, where she got had a few drinks and blacked out, outside the party venue. In her unconscious and vulnerable position, she was digitally (using fingers) assaulted by Brock Turner. Before he could do more damage was caught by two cyclists and tried to run away. Chanel woke up in a hospital and had no memory of what happened. But for the next one and a half years, she was reminded of what happened every day.
I felt overwhelmed and unable to think anything other than the book and Chanel's words for a little while after I finished the book.
My Story by Kamala Das
My story, first published in Malayalam as Ente Katha, gives us glimpses into Kamala’s childhood, her coming-of-age, marriage, relationships (affairs), writing journey, the birth of her three sons, and her brief fight with illnesses – leukemia and heart attacks.
Memoirs are a reflection of a true-life lived that had a remarkable story. Kamala’s life was filled with controversy.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis is the story of a girl, who lived in Iran, who was bold, intelligent, and wise beyond her years. Her great-grandfather was the prince of Iran. Her family although living in an orthodox and oppressive regime were forward-thinking and wanted nothing more than the safety and best education for their only child. Through this novel, we get to see the history and growth of a nation, Iran, at the same time we are exposed to the workings of the country that were overbearing, unjust, and sometimes absolutely ridiculous.
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E.Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D., was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. The observations he expresses in this book about his harrowing journey are not only from the point of view of a prisoner, but also as a qualified psychotherapist. The formula he offers in this book for making life worth living applies not only in extreme situations like a concentration camp, but also to everyday life and situations.
His short autobiographical work proves that something positive can be raised from the most miserable and worst times.
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Maus chronicles Spiegelman’s father experiences of the Holocaust as a surviving Jew. It follows his story frame-by-frame from youth, to marriage to re-marriage in pre-war Poland to imprisonment during the war in Auswitchz. The survivor’s tale that results is shocking, unadulterated and straightforward.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Michelle Zauner is the chief musician/singer in the sensational album Japanese Breakfast. This is her memoir detailing her mother’s journey through cancer, her growing up years as a Korean American, and her journey to creating an identity and her relation to her country and its cuisine in all of this.
Eloquent writing that is made rich with cherished anecdotes which will echo with all readers and audiobook listeners, Crying in H Mart is a book to treasure, share, and reread for a warm hug.
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Back in college, Morrie Schwartz was Mitch’s favorite sociology professor. After graduating, Mitch lost touch with him while living his own life. Morrie in his sunset years fell ill with ALS, an incurable disease that attacks the nervous system. Mitch was reminded of the professor when he saw a TV interview of his former professor.
He went back to meet him, together began a project to meet every Tuesday and talk. Talk about each other's problems and life. The topics range from love, family, relationships to death, community etc. And Mitch began recording these sessions and that is how this book was born.
A charming and simple memoir packed with inspiring lessons each of us can benefit from.
My Days: A Memoir by R.K.Narayan
In his usual winning, humorous style, R. K. Narayan shares his life story, beginning in his grandmother's garden in Madras with his ferocious pet peacock.
True Short Stories Read in 2021
Three Thousand Stitches - Sudha Murty
Unmasking both the beauty and the ugliness of human nature, each of the true stories in this collection is reflective of a life lived with grace.
The titular story is of how Sudha Murty helped 3000 devadasis get out of that system and become independent and live a life of dignity and honor. To show their appreciation they gifted her a quilt stitched by all 3000 of them.
To The Survivors by Robert Uttaro
Talking about sexual violence is always tough. Even though we are led to believe we are in a progressive society, sharing personal experiences about trauma is not an easy task.
But Robert Uttaro, who works as a rape counsellor for THP - The Healing Place has made this impossible task possible for us to read and understand these experiences through the survivor’s minds.
Robert Uttaro believes anyone can benefit from the words in these pages, rape survivor or not.
The Punished - stories of death row prisoners in India – Janhavi Misra
Between 2013 and 2016, Project 39A, criminal justice research, and litigation center based out of National Law University, Delhi, India, conducted interviews with death-row prisoners and their families. These interviews highlighted many things – the social-economic profile of death-row prisoners and their interaction with the criminal justice system.
More importantly, it brought forth the personal stories of real people.
The book has 19 such stories.
Letters from a Father to His Daughter by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
When Indira Gandhi was a small girl of ten, she spent the summer in Mussoorie, while her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was in Allahabad.
These letters were written during that time. This isn’t our everyday letters asking about health, promising surprises on the meeting, and conveying undying love for the kid. These letters are very unique and frankly quite interesting for young kids who are beginning to understand the natural world around them. This compilation will spark their curiosity and provide them information that will inspire them to explore more without overburdening them.
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