2023 Year in Books

As I sit on the window ledge of my living room, peering outside at drops of rain that has defined the last few days of this year in Singapore, it almost seems as if Nature is weeping as it says goodbye to the year. I in turn cradle my last book of 2023 and wonder if the year has been a good one and worth weeping for.

As usual, it really depends on who you ask. For many in the tech industry, it has been a year of continuing layoffs that began last year. For those in the AI space in particular, it has been a booming one especially for a company like Nvidia which reached a Trillion dollars in capitalization thanks to the high demand of AI chips. The stock market also surprised analysts and defied predictions with bull runs in the middle and end of the year.

However, the obvious elephant in the room in terms of global politics is the Israel-Gaza Crisis. Hardly anyone even talks about the Russian-Ukraine crisis now as it has been pushed to the background with the new hostilities in Gaza taking a center-stage. Given the magnitude, 2023 will forever be associated with this crisis in the global consciousness.

But let’s focus on 2023 in books. For the last 5-6 years, I have made it a tradition to pledge a number of books I wish to read before the year ends and this year was no different. I usually surpassed the goal for the first few years but that has not been the same in recent years. Adult life, right? Nevertheless, I am happy that I make time to enjoy books across different fields of life even though I don’t hit the goal. This year, I read 27 out of the 30 books I pledged.

Another tradition, for which this is the third installment, is an annual review of some of the books I read during the year, usually published on 31st December. You can find the reviews for the previous years on my blog. I look back at my reading list for this year and think it was a good year irrespective of the chaos in the world and some of the uncertainties in my own life. Here I will publish my reviews for a select number of these books written in the course of the year and as usual, you can find all my other reviews on my Goodreads page.

Title: Thinking, Fast and Slow
Author: Daniel Kahneman

A good treatise on behavioural psychology that challenges the concept of rationality for humans. Many fields in the sciences and social sciences such as Economics base their theories on what a rational person would do. But it turns out that the human decision making system does not fit into the sharp edges of our standard model of rationality. Instead the system is much more curved and nuanced. Do we consider winning x will give us as much happiness as the sadness of losing x? The standard model of rationality will say yes but prospect theory says “not really” and “it depends”. From priming to outcome bias, from the pique-end theory and remembering self to the illusion of validity, every human appears irrational under our standard model.

Daniel Kahneman really went deep into this one. And one of the amazing things about the book is that most of what is written results from experiments and studies by the author and not just gathered from other sources. It’s a long read but definitely a great read.

Title: Meditations
Author: Marcus Aurelius

This is very much the Bible of Stoicism. While it is argued that much of meditations isn’t original but a collection of reflections from other Stoic philosophers and their interpretations by the Augustus for himself, it is still one of the most complete works on Stoicism today.

For Aurelius it doesn’t really matter whether you believe in a universe of providence where everything is planned by God or a stochastic universe where chance rules supreme. For if it is providence then why worry about what happens to you if God has planned it, in which case it is for the greater good. And if it is by chance then you are powerless against it anyway and can’t affect it, so why worry so much about it? But he doesn’t encourage you to descend into nihilism because of your powerlessness but to just accept whatever is happening and try to lead a good life by actions within your own control.

Against this central tenet, what is death? What is the loss of a loved one? What value is the opinion of others to you? Just do your part and leave the rest to providence or chance!

While the tenets of stoicism should indeed help one lead a better life, it tends to look at life from the outside ignoring the role of human emotions. Our emotions oppose logic and rationality and so in the words of Aurelius himself, is it not madness to expect stoic calmness from emotional beings in the face of troubles and calamities?

Title: Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
Author: Bell Hooks

At the intersection of racism and sexism lies the black woman even though she’s not acknowledged as the main victim of either. The evils of racism brings to mind a black male victim while issues raised in sexism focuses on a typical middle class white woman. So where does the black woman stand in all this? Unrepresented and barely acknowledged. If they put up a struggle against racism then the society sees them as “emasculating” black men. As for feminism? They’re not even seen as “woman” enough for their “lack of sexual chastity”. This is the dilemma of the black woman as she searches for her place in the society.

Bell Hooks explores this dilemma thoroughly in a way that exposes the racist and sexist sides of it. As a black man, it pains me to find out how oblivious I was to this fact. But it’s not a lost cause. We can all make amends in our own ways to create a better society for our women especially for our black women who have been at the receiving end of the most vile forms of discrimination.

Title: The Art of Loving
Author: Erich Fromm

Love - one of the most confusing and mystical of emotions. Is it even an emotion or the collection of other emotions? Erich Fromm looks at this from the psychological point of view that one may conclude this is more of the “science of loving” rather than the art of love as the title suggests.

A baby is born and it is wholly dependent on its mother - there is an unconditional love from the mother which is given to the baby. Unlike the mother’s, the father’s love is conditional and has to be earned. The trade-off is that while a mother’s love is unconditional, it cannot be attained if it is not there, it simply is there or isn’t. But a father’s love can be attained by deeds. And that is why kids struggle to make their father proud. The romantic kind of love is somehow opposed to the mother’s love in that it leads towards union unlike a mother’s love which nurtures the baby to grow and be independent and so leads towards separation.

Fundamentally, humans hate separation, and that according to the author, is the basis of romantic love - the struggle against separation. Erich Fromm deviates from Freud’s idea that romantic love is purely sexual - a result of sexual yearning. He instead insists that it is the other way round - sexual release is one of the ultimate ends of love which desires union to escape separation.

Title: The Psychology of Money
Author: Morgan Housel

“You should like risk because it pays well over time. But you should be paranoid of ruinous risk because it prevents you from taking future risks that will pay off over time”

This book combines the behavioural psychology ideas of Daniel Kahneman and the ideas on luck and randomness by Nassim Taleb among others to explore money and investing. The wealthiest people to whom many of us look up to, got to where they are as a result of chance. But they were prepared to take advantage of that chance in a way most people are not. We cannot control chance, so we only focus on what we can control but it’s important to acknowledge its role. Compounding is the magic of investing, the longer the x^better(yes, x to power better!). Determine your goals and your risk level and use them as guidelines to build your portfolio.

Risk is good but just don’t find yourself at the extreme ends of risk in your financial decisions. Any risk that can wipe you out is often not worth taking. Be ready to pay the “fees” of investing in form of volatility. The sweet goddess of money will always find how to collect its fees and if you try to run from it, you may just be running to your doom. Be patient and diligent and hopefully, chance will smile at you.

Title: The Kreutzer Sonata
Author: Leo Tolstoy

In the classic style of Russian writers, Tolstoy lays bare the mind of the protagonist in this short story - his philosophy and contradictions, the internal conflict that arise between his beliefs and behaviour. What is marriage? A union of people in love? Nay, it is simply a social construct! cries the protagonist. Man and woman are driven together by mere passions and once those are satisfied, there is no need to continue to cohabit in perpetual pretense. The passion may last for days, months or even years, but just like all passions, it ends after sometime and all that is left is a sort of societal compulsion.

And why in fact should we long to preserve our society? Are we meant to live forever? Of what use is life for the sake of prolonging existence. Surely, there has to be another purpose for life. The protagonist goes further to say in fact that an ultimate purpose of ours as a sentient species is to get rid of sexual passions. But then why wouldn’t God just create us without sexual passions, you may ask. To this he answers: suppose that God created us with a purpose in mind. If he made us mortal without sexual passions then we as a species may never achieve that goal as we are unable to procreate. But if he made us as immortals without sexual passions then we would still not achieve life’s purpose because we have eternity to attain it. What’s the rush, we would say. It then makes sense that he made us mortal and with sexual passions to procreate long enough to attain life’s purpose after which we must then get rid of sexual passions and cease to exist as a species.

This book seems quite dark but embodies a lot of questions that we ask ourselves in our relationship with others, especially in romantic relationships.

Title: Civilization and Its Discontents
Author: Sigmund Freud

Civilisation essentially calls for the restriction of the freedoms of the individual to achieve a greater freedom for the society. It focuses on the sum total of the happiness of the society as an organism while almost disregarding that of the individual. We love to believe that humans are born good, then corrupted by the world but many scholars have proven that this couldn’t be further from the truth. We are born with instincts then tamed by culture and civilisation. That is, we are born “uncivilised” and ruled only by our instincts which is selfish by nature. Our superego develops as we integrate into the society, then punish our ego through our conscience.

If we really were good by default then we wouldn’t need laws because our instincts would naturally follow those laws. Instead, laws are made to inhibit our instincts because we wouldn’t coexist with others purely on our instinct. But it is important to note here that “good” or “bad” in this context relate purely to our relationship with other members of the society. As Freud comments, the notion of being bad is cultivated by the individual as that which makes the society love him less and this of course is heavily influenced by culture. Ant societies do not need laws because their instincts alone already encode the necessary “goodness” for the existence of their civilisation. Humans differ greatly in this respect.

Title: Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
Author: Simon Sinek

The author approaches work from a rather idealistic perspective - people should enjoy their work and really want to do it everyday. And as a leader in a company, your primary goal should be to build a culture than enhances this. From the very nature of it, work is a form of servitude and many would rather not do it. People see work as a necessary evil, a sacrifice instead of something they do out of passion. Granted that this feeling of sacrificing oneself for work can be alleviated by building a positive culture in the company, it will not suddenly make people see their work as a passionate endeavour instead of a necessary exchange of time, skill and effort for compensation. There are of course exceptions but that’s exactly what they are - exceptions and not the rule.

Furthermore, Simon ascribes growth in firms almost solely to the management and company culture and tries to prove this by handpicking some stories that fit his narratives. In reality, much of the success of companies is really luck and chance. Of course, they need to be prepared to take advantage of the chance and opportunities but chance does play a great role as Nassim Taleb, Daniel Kahneman and other psychologists have confirmed.

Nevertheless, the book does explore interesting biological foundations to human relationships and leadership. The hormones in our body incentivise us to listen to a good leader and cherish working in great teams. So it’s a good read nonetheless.

Title: Birth of a Dream Weaver
Author: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

The memoir of a great writer and not even the first but the third installment of it. Oddly enough, it is the first of his works that I am reading. As an African with great appreciation for academic and literary endeavours especially among people from the continent, I find this memoir quite interesting that I am even envious in a way. At that young age and during his university days, he had already made such an impact and met with great names in his profession, the likes of Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. His thought process and experiences were rich and spanned topics of national and continental importance. What can someone at the same level in university hope for in our times? Do we have such influence? Unfortunately not. Is it the Education system? Or that we lack the motivation of these pioneers? Or that going to university is no longer a novelty or something special as most people have university degrees these days? The answer probably lies at the intersection of these points. Where is the spirit of collaboration with other Africans across borders to deepen academic pursuits?

Coming to Ngugi’s story, it is simply thrilling. The descriptions of Makerere conjure memories of my time in boarding school in Nigeria - the inter-house rivalry, the pride in academic achievements, though not so much the struggle. A birthplace of many great minds but for some reason, I have only heard of it for the first time. The Nigerian alternatives of such centres that nurtured early pioneers would be Kings college Lagos and University Of Ibadan. The thought that these big names once walked about the halls of the same institution at the same time as mere students is simply beautiful to behold.

Of course Ngugi shines light on the colonial system that was paving way to quasi independent nations at the time. Even at institutions that touted equality and academic freedom, it was ever rarely the case, especially if the colour of your skin happened to be different from that of the people at the top at the time. Even academia could not fully separate itself from the political system. Albeit a miniature society of its own, it nevertheless perpetuated the inherent political and social hierarchies and stereotypes of the larger society.

This has introduced me to the works of Wa Thiongo and indeed other great African writers and so I highly recommend it!

Title: Paradise
Author: Abdulrazak Gurnah

The world of Yusuf, the protagonist of this story, is a rather complex one. His life journeys bring him across the diverse groups that defined the demographics of East Africa in the turn of the 20th century. At the top of the hierarchy are the Germans, the colonial lords who lived like gods and were even believed to be something of the sort by some of the locals. But hush, a Muslim cannot so blaspheme! Their contemporaries are the English who are only mentioned in passing as the adversaries of the Germans. Then come Arabs and specifically the Omani who ruled the beautiful island of Zanzibar. The Indians and “civilized” locals, who live in urban areas and have adopted Abrahamic religions specifically islam, occupy the next spot. The “barbarian” natives who dared not accept these new norms and live in the interior, having the least contact with foreigners, come at the very bottom of the hierarchy.

12-year old Yusuf lived with his “civilized” muslim parents somewhere in the interior before being taken away by an “uncle”. Yusuf’s journey away from home is filled with uncertainty and that air of uncertainty remains till the end of the story. Why was he taken away? Why hadn’t his parents told him anything? Is his “uncle” really his uncle? Nevertheless, he has to survive so he adapts. He is handsome and very likable, adorned with physical graces that attract the old and young alike, even the men want a piece of him. He makes a friend who is in service to his uncle and goes on trading journeys. The events of his journeys bring into view the division between the diverse groups. Ethnic divisions as well as religious ones - everyone seems to fit in a particular box. The muslims are grateful that they are not as uncivilized as the “barbarians” in the interior and scorn them. The Indians think the muslims are too narrow-minded with their religion and the natives of the interior hate everyone as they get exploited by all. But no worries, the Germans are there to keep everyone in check with their iron-eating might and take advantage of every squabble to assert more control.

Yusuf wonders where his place is, and there is the question of adolescence creeping up on him. Staying with his “uncle” was like living in paradise but he slowly learns that this paradise is not what he thinks. When he finds out that he was in fact sold to the merchant who was not his uncle at all and that it is impossible to be with the object of his romantic interest, he decides to leave paradise and go to a war he has no interest in, because what is the point?

Title: Crime and Punishment
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Having read The Brothers Karamazov and other works of Dostoevsky before this, I must say this lacks the depths of the ones I have read. But this was his first full novel, so I guess it is to be expected. This also seems to be his most popular work so maybe I am biased.

In our world, the normal folks maintain the status quo and keep the world running as it is, merely passing through it and not really letting the world pass through them. The evolution of society is however wrought by a different class, the Hero class. This class of people do not leave the world the way they met it but effect significant change. It should be noted that this change is not always positive but the entire world feels it. This seems to be similar to some of Nietzsche’s ideas but not inspired by them as the book came out before Nietzsche began writing.

This idea was picked up by the protagonist Raskolnikov who expounded it further to say that because the changes wrought by the Heroes are important to society, all the sacrifices that lead to said changes can be justified. Take for example Isaac Newton. If a sacrifice of hundred men was required for Newton to accomplish his goals and publish his studies on Mechanics, isn’t it justified by the numerous gains from the knowledge? Wouldn’t we as a society have encouraged Newton to go ahead and make such sacrifices? What Raskolnikov failed to consider was that this is in retrospect. The society would have frowned at such ideas before Newton’s studies started yielding great fruits for mankind which was much later.

Driven by the idea that the Hero class is justified to commit crime, he decides to do the same, judging that he too is part of the Hero class. He kills a pawnbroker in order to use her money to better himself and then later the society.

But after the crime, he discovers he fills guilty about it. Surely, Napoleon didn’t fill any guilt for killing people when he had big goals for his people?? or could it be… could it possibly be that he Raskolnikov is a mere cat trying to play a Lion’s game? Could it be that he is not part of the Hero class? This conflict torments him and plays out in his relationship with his family, friends and other people around him. This part is the punishment. He feels alienated from society and seeks out similar people like the young girl Sonia who had to turn to prostitution to make money for her family.

Title: Things Fall Apart
Author: Chinua Achebe

Rereading this book having read it as a teenager. You’d be surprised to know that even though this book is quite popular globally, it wasn’t a mandatory read in any of my classes in school in Nigeria. I read it purely by chance for the first time having come back home from boarding school for a break and found it in our book shelf at home. I dusted it and sat on it for the whole day and was done in less than 24 hours. Well, not that I had much to do during those breaks anyway.

Chinua Achebe exposes the culture of the Igbo people of Nigeria in this epic. And he does this in a rather unbiased way - both the good and bad are laid bare and raw. He did not try to romanticize the culture being a product of it himself, but just told it as it is. Okonkwo is a typical hard-headed Igbo man and indeed an archetypal African man. He is very brave but lives in fear…the fear of failure, the fear of being weak or worse still, perceived as so. You could even say this stems from childhood trauma from having a weak father Unoka. Unoka is not really weak per say, he just had a different kind of strength. But Okonkwo soon realizes that the weak begets the strong and the strong begets the weak.

Motivated by this fear, he strives to achieve greatness in his native land of Umuofia, a clan of nine villages, deep in the Igbo hinterlands in the Lower Niger. He gathers as many chieftancy titles as he can and is at the forefront of village affairs, having secured the title of the strongest warrior of Umuofia in living memory, thanks to his contest with Amalinze the Cat.

Against an advice from a wise old man, Okonkwo partakes in a killing ritual of one who calls him father. Again driven by fear of being perceived as weak. But it would seem that his Chi was not pleased by this and there his troubles begin. At this period, the missionaries and accompanying British officials start penetrating the Igbo hinterlands from the coastal areas where their primary activities had been. They bring their bibles and proclaim that the gods that Okonkwo and his ancestors worshiped were fake and that the villagers should embrace their own gods. For a proud man like Okonkwo, this is unacceptable. At last he resolves that the world was not worth living in anymore. A world where his ancestors are no longer revered and respected. A world where he and his people are second-class citizens in their own land. So he ends it.

As a person of Igbo origin myself, I felt suddenly thrown back to my childhood days in the village listening to those tales of the tortoise, hearing the town crier’s gong, devouring all the yam delicacies during the new yam festivals and running away for dear life from the masquerades. It suddenly feels like bliss, not because it was special on its own. But because these traditions are slowly fading. I also learnt some things I didn’t know about my people. Though I have read this book before, I don’t think I had the mental maturity as of then to truly appreciate it as I do now.

Rest in Glory, Mazi Achebe!

Title: No Longer at Ease
Author: Chinua Achebe

While the first book Things Fall Apart focused on the village of Umuofia and Igbo customs and traditions, this second book in the installment zooms out and looks at a bigger Nigeria from a metropolitan point of view.

What does it mean to be Nigerian? and how does this factor into the already explored Igbo identity? For Achebe, the Nigerian identity is closely tied to corruption. Unlike the smaller communities of precolonial societies like Umuofia who pride themselves on their virtues, the bigger Nigerian society is much more chaotic.

Obi Okonkwo, the grandson of the great Okonkwo of Umuofia is a product of both societies. Having been raised in the smaller Umuofia, he held his morals in high esteem and argued he could never stoop so low to the level of the metropolitan Nigerians of Lagos. His education in England served to reassure him of this. But coming back to the country, conditions gradually made him embrace his Nigerian identity.

It’s interesting to see how the Nigerian society of Achebe’s time is not very different from the modern one. The language, the lifestyle, the culture. And the people.

Title: I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Author: Malala Yousafzai

I picked up this book because Malala is my partner’s hero and I had never even heard of her. It started with the “Guess the famous person” game and I was at my wit’s end as I couldn’t guess who. She finally revealed the person and I was unimpressed. “But I don’t know her!” - I protested. “It means she’s not so popular then!” Little did I know…

I picked up the book anyway as a nice gesture to my partner.

I am Malala, I come from a country which was created at Midnight, when I almost died, it was just after midday!

I was already hooked after this line. From there Malala went on to talk about the beautiful Swat Valley and her childhood. I felt a wave of nostalgia about my own childhood in my village and an allure for the paradise described by Malala.

Her narration opened up the history of Pakistan for me and having read a good number of literature about colonized nations like mine, I couldn’t help but see the parallels - the political turmoil post-independence, military coups, the almost inevitable civil wars, etc. I was thankful to Malala for enriching my knowledge about yet another post-colonial society.

For a girl of her age, I was quite surprised and amazed at the relentlessness of her and her father in fighting for the education of kids even in the face of threats from the Taliban who have shown that they will go to any length to deliver their “justice”.

Radicalisation is never the answer in any society. Did they have cause for grievances? maybe. But when people take it upon themselves to force their ideals of a religion/culture on everyone else, ultimately becoming the judge, jury and executioner, they taint their otherwise good ideals with their actions.

A little girl stood up to thousands of militants with machine guns and bombs. And what was her weapon? Her pen, her book and her father and teacher.

One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world

She is Malala, I am Malala, We should all be Malala!

Title: The Gardens of Mars
Author: Michael Burns

Just like most countries in Africa, things seem more difficult as years go by. It feels like the state is going to implode any moment, just any moment now…but not quite, the progression is asymptotic and people are still managing to get by. But you don’t quite get why hope fills the air. Are these people blind? Can’t they see what they lack? Don’t they see how they suffer? You talk to some locals and find out that these miserable people are strangely happy, possibly even more than those in saner climes. Even the humanitarian organisations are at loss for how to help people who already seem happy. They’re insane!

If the conveniences of life don’t bring us happiness then what does? And what’s the point of having those inconveniences anyway? You’re confused and begin to question your own understanding of life. If the goal in life as is popularly believed is to be happy, then everything should be thrown into optimising the function of happiness. So then surely, surely the technology, the many conveniences of life should contribute to that, no? How then do these people who lack the most basic amenities seem happier ? Do they have a secret you don’t know of?

Madagascar sounds like another dimension, almost like a movie. Like the fantasy world in those epics you love but will dread in real life. The author has done a great job in exploring the rich history of the world’s 4th largest island in a manner that won’t send you to sleep like those big tomes in school libraries.

And that’s a wrap!

Happy New Year 2024!