Enjoyed reading several novels this year, including The Institute by Stephen King, The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, Never by Ken Follet, Three Assassins by Kotaro Isaka, Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin, Nights of Plaque by Orhan Pamuk and Beyond the Burn Line by Paul McAuley, but the nonfiction books I read this year were also very gripping.
Here are some of the more thought-provoking nonfiction books I read this year; not in any particular order:
1. Home is Not Here by Wang Gungwu
2. Home is Where We Are by Wang Gungwu
3. Lim Kit Siang: Malaysian First by Kee Thuan Chye
4. My Story: Justice in the Wilderness by Tommy Thomas
5. The Iconoclast: Shinzo Abe and the New Japan by Tobias Harris
6. The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China by Kevin Rudd
7. Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming by Bjorn Lomborg
8. Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe by Roger McNamee
9. The Man who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America by David Gelles
10. Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties by David de Jong
11. Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern by Jing Tsu
12. The Artisans: A Vanishing Chinese Village by Shen Fuyu
13. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
14. The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town by John Grisham
15. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
16. Thomas Sowell: Controversial Essays compiled by Hoover Institution
17. The Sacred Band: Three Hundred Theban Lovers Fighting to Save Greek Freedom by James Romm
18. Behind Closed Doors: The Secret Life of London Private Members’ Clubs by Seth Alexander Thevoz
19.When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Michael Forsyth and Walt Bogdanich
20. The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir by Karen Cheung
21. In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom
22. Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for your Forever Files by Deb Perelman
23. Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today by Craig McNamara
24. Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire by Caroline Elkin
25. The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy by Diana Darke
26. The Last Days of The Ottoman Empire by Ryan Gingera
27. The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail by Ray Dalio
28. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
29. The Wollemi Pine: The Incredible Discovery of a Living Fossil From the Age of the Dinosaurs by James Woodford
30. Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World by Peter Zeihan