We should all be feminists

 Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Genre: Feminism, Essay, Women, Gender

Rating: 5/5

Verdict: A delightful read. I've never read anything better on feminism and gender equality.

Over the years, I have come across so many speeches/essays and talks on feminism and I have hated it every time. The word "feminism" has been so overloaded and misused totally out of context on multiple occasions so I have always been wary of anyone who calls themselves a feminist and that is precisely why I have put off reading this for a long time. But Adichie's essay on this subject is simply brilliant, the best I have ever read on feminism.  It is a very crisp, accurate piece of writing. 

This woman, Adichie is a hero! She talks about her youth growing up in Nigeria and the gender discrimination just sprinkled casually in every day encounters and it is not specific to just Africa. It sounded too familiar and resonated with me growing up in a patriarchal society in India. While growing up, I didn't realize the patriarchy surrounding me everywhere in my own home and outside. When I think back and reflect on it now, it makes me very angry but I do not want to be the stereotypical angry feminist. I want to make changes wherever possible and make this world a better place for my kids and the next generation. Throughout the read, I found myself nodding along vigorously with Adichie. It is a strong reminder to me to raise my son as much as a feminist as my daughter. 

This is a very sharp, convincing, focused and fantastic essay and Adichie does it with such ease without being too preachy or angry. I loved it.

எண்ணங்கள்

 Author: M.S Udayamurthy

Genre: Self Help, Thoughts

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: An inspirational book for every day life and dealing with its challenges.

My father is a big fan of Dr. M.S Udayamurthy and his writings. We had 2 books at my home when I was growing up and I have heard my father talk about Udayamurthy a lot. When I watched the tamil movie "Unnal mudiyum thambi" and its hero is named after this author, I became more interested in reading his books. Unnal Mudiyum thambi is one of my all time favorite tamil movies. Most of Udayamurthy's books are about self improvement and character/personality development. This book provides a good insight into how our thoughts shape and affect our lives. The power of positive thinking, visualizing victories, how to remove fears from our minds and increase self confidence are all things we deal with on a day to day basis and it is a good reinforcement of "what we think we become". A very short one written in simple Tamil which makes it a quick read. 

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

Author: Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia

Genre: Self-Help, Japan, Health, Happiness

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: Do me a favor and read this. A very uplifting and calming book with simple language.

Don't you feel an instant calm and happiness when you see the cover of this book? Just staring at the cover relaxes you and puts you in a great mood. The book lives up to the much hyped and talked about "Ikigai". I was holding off on reading this book after bring burnt by reading about - The Hygge. I thought what if this is yet another latest fad which doesn't offer any meaningful insights into the true concept of Ikigai and boy was I wrong! Happy to have been wrong and read this book.

The book talks about the world's centenarians and in particular about the lifestyle and habits of the people of Okinawa - one of the blue zones, where people live the longest and the healthiest. Ikigai is about finding your purpose in life, what makes you get out of bed everyday. It is different for different people but the underlying idea is how to be content and happy with yourself and live everyday with meaning and passion. Although I completed this book in 2 days, I would recommend reading it slowly, savoring every line and idea, ruminate over it and take notes along the way. I loved reading about the inhabitants of Okinawa and their way of life. So much of their habits and life style resonated with me because I spent my entire childhood in a very closely knit colony of self sufficient people. My parents and everyone in the colony had a vegetable garden where they grew and got their produce from, a cooperative society for loans, discounted prices on things, an organizing committee for conducting various events and celebrations. Everyone knew each other and formed very special bonds and friendships which I recall fondly even now. This is exactly what the people of Okinawa live and I now long to visit the island and see them! I'm sure someday I will!

Some reminders I noted down:

- Stay active, never retire

- Don't fill your stomach to the full, eat only until you are 80% full

- Surround yourself with friends and nurture and cherish relationships

- Get in shape for your next birthday

- Fall seven times, but get up the 8th time.

- Slow down a little

- Do not multitask. Focus on a single thing at once.

Like I said, take your time to read this book, it will give you a warm fuzzy feeling when you start which will stay that way until you finish the book and every single time after that when you recall what you read!

A refreshingly simple read! I loved it.

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

 Author: Phil Knight

Genre: Autobiography, Memoir, Sports

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: It was an interesting book, but gave me the "take the risk if you have rich parents backing you up" vibe, didn't get a feel for any real leadership lessons.

I've seen this book on many people's list of must read or read. One of my favorite genres in (auto)biograhies/memoirs of famous personalities because I look forward to drawing inspiration and learning all about hard work, dedication, passion, lessons from mistakes that I can apply in my own life to make it better. I read this with that hope. It is a good book about grit and passion but lacks any real leadership or life lessons. To be honest, the biggest outcome or revelation for me after reading this book is that I don't like Phil Knight very much!

The book follow's Phil Knight's life from his early 20's after graduating from Stanford into his life starting a business. Some of the incidents where he talks about how he persuasive he was when he went to Japan to initiate his business idea and further overcame the betrayal from the Tigers partnership demonstrates grit and courage. But that was it for me. The latter parts of the book was all about Phil bragging and proudly saying he never encouraged or supported his employees even during times of distress and it felt like he was watching out for his own fame and covering up his base all the time without giving his employees any credit. Nor did he spend any time with his sons and even goes to the extent of saying he was disappointed that they didnt turn out to be athletes like him. The part where he describes about his older son's death was very shallow and insincere which was shocking to me. He didn't even talk about his son in even as much about the famous sports personalities who called him with condolence messages.

Overall, I felt that much of Nike's success was more because of Bowerman and his innovation than Phil himself. In fact, I did love Nike's early employees so much more than Phil himself. This book does not have a lot to learn from, its probably best listened to in a concise version as a podcast.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 Author: Douglas Adams

Genre: Science fiction, Humor, classics

Rating: 3/5

Verdict: It's not you, It's me kind of a book. The satire and dry humor was a bit much for me but still liked it overall.

I must have heard the name of this book at least a few hundred times in my life so far. This was also my first sci-fi book and I must say I didn't quite enjoy it even though this is a cult/classic that people have always raved about. It is a hilarious story of the adventures of Arthur Dent a human on earth and Ford - an alien hitchhiker as they journey through galaxies. I didn't think the book was hilarious and the dry humor was very hard to understand in many places. The plot was ok but I just didn't get it in many places and there were far too many characters to keep track of. 

I'm not sure what else to say of this book. I didn't have the patience to read it after a point and almost wanted to end it but I just powered through finishing it just to say I've read it. Thankfully it was a short book and I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either,