10 Books one should read in 2020

With the new year around the corner, let's challenge ourselves to read at least 10 books this year!

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?

Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.

Goodreads rating:4.44/5

 

2. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frank

Victor Frankl was a leading psychologist in Vienna (Austria) when he was arrested for being a Jew during the Nazi regime of Hitler. He survived the holocaust in the concentration camp and used his experiences to write this book. He propounded the theory that it is Man's constant search for meaning that allows him to survive even the most degrading and brutal situations in his life. This book was first published in 1946.
Man's Search for Meaning has been listed as one of the 10 most influential books. It has a message of hope that has continued to inspire readers for years. More than 12 million copies of this book have been sold to date.

Goodreads rating: 4.36/5

 

3. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

When Breath Becomes Air chronicles the life of Paul Kalanithi who after having completed a decade long training as a neurosurgeon is confronted with being diagnosed with lung cancer.
From being one who treated serious patients to being a patient with a terminal disease, Kalanithi started penning this auto-biography after he was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and was counting days.
It is a a moving story about Kalanithi’s own life: from being a student pondering over the meaningfulness of life to a famous neurosurgeon who operated brains that deals with the core of human identity, to being a new father at a time when his own life is awaiting an uncanny end.
In writing about his own life, Kalanithi puts forth some reflecting questions: what is a person supposed to do when his life is catastrophically cut off? What makes a life admirable and worth living right in the face of death? And, finally, what does it mean to have a child right when one’s own life is on the verge of perennial slumber?
Paul Kalanithi passed away while working on the book yet 'When Breath Becomes Air’ is regarded as a profound reflection on the acceptance of mortality and on the relationship between a patient and a doctor, all from an author, who had to face it all.

Goodreads rating: 4.35/5

4. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary, Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her accounts offer a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

Goodreads rating: 4.13/5

5. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled 'The Last Lecture'. Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave, 'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams', wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humour, inspiration, and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come. 


Goodreads rating: 4.26/5

6. The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time of Mahabharta that is a half myth, half history, and wholly magical. In this book, the author looks at Mahabharta by keeping Panchaali at the centre. This novel gives us a new interpretation of this ancient tale.

The novel traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India. Meanwhile, we never lose sight of her strategic duels with her mother-in-law, her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna, or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy. Panchali is a fiery female redefining for us a world of warriors, gods, and the ever-manipulating hands of fate.

Goodreads rating: 4.15/5

7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

Goodreads Rating: 4.29/5

8. The perks of being a Wallflower by Stephan Chbosky

‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ is an epistolary novel, where the narrator is a young introvert boy called Charlie. The story revolves around a series of letters written by Charlie to an anonymous person mentioning his experiences. Though shy and sensitive in nature, Charlie is an intelligent boy with unconventional thinking capabilities. His first letters start with Charlie mentioning about suicide of his Middle School’s friend and the death of his favourite aunt Helen and how these tragic incidents took a toll in his life. 

Goodreads rating: 4.20/5

 

9. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist. 

This masterpiece continues to change the lives of its readers forever. With more than 65 million copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has established itself as a modern classic, universally admired.

Goodreads rating: 3.9/5

10. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band

Goodreads rating: 4.15/5

KEEP READING | KEEP LEARNING


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