Victory City

What Hacker News says

1. velavarDec 2023
   This was the year I got my attention under enough control to be able to read voraciously again like I used to in my childhood :)

   * I'll always bring up The Three-body problem because I re-read it every year

   * Piranesi because of it's fantastical story-telling

   * The Covenant of Water - because it's a fantastic medical drama and a sweeping story spanning generations

   * Victory City - Salamn Rushdie's latest novel which is surprisingly readable

   * The Enchanted Forest/Kaikeyi/Palace of Illusions - because they cover the major Indian epics from the lens of the women characters (think Circe with an Indian background)

   * Trust - The same story told from different viewpoints with a setting in the early NY financial world, which makes it extra interesting

   I notice that I do tend to favour books with an Indian background because of my nostalgia for it as I live in a foreign land. Maybe I'll branch out more next year!

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2. monkeypicksDec 2023
   Fiction:

   Victory City- new Salman Rushdie book. Great retelling of the history of one of the great medieval South Indian kingdoms. Not his best, but his writing is still top notch.

   Sea of Tranquility- speculative fiction from Emily St. John Mandel (of Station Eleven fame). It's a series of interconnected stories spanning centuries from the near past to the near future. Beautifully written. Read when I was down with COVID earlier this year and it invaded my dreams (in a good way). Short and easy read.

   Giovanni's Room- story of an American expat in Paris caught between his love for a man and his duty to his girlfriend. This is the first James Baldwin book I have read but will definitely check out more of his work in 2024.

   Theory of Bastards- speculative fiction by Audrey Schulmann. Literary sci-fi similar to Station Eleven. It's about a woman researching primate behavior set in the near future where the earth is ravaged by the effects of climate change. Very well researched, beautifully written and nothing like I have ever read before. This won the 2019 Philip K Dick Award.

   Invisible Cities- literary fiction by Italo Calvino. It's less than 200 pages but a very dense and tough read. It's a conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan where MP is describing cities in KK's vast empire. It's a strange, strange book that I think I will return to often. If you liked the world building in Piranesi and want more, this is the book for you. Calvino describes 55 cities in under 200 pages, with each one feeling very different. Again, first Calvino book I have read and will definitely check out more of his works in 2024.

   Non-fiction:

   Thinking in Systems: A Primer- by Donella Meadows. Read this based on HN's recommendation. Thank you!

   On Intelligence- by Jeff Hawkins. This was on my shelf for years and am glad I got to read it this year. The creator of the Palm Pilot presents his theory of intelligence and how the brain works. It's compelling. I hope to read his follow up book in 2024. Would love HN's recommendations of similar books.

   A Primate's Memoir- by Robert M. Sapolsky. Enjoyable read of the author's research on Savannah baboons and his adventures in Africa. His love for primates and humans alike come through clearly.

   Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making- by Tony Fadell. A great business book by the co-founder of Nest. Draws on his experience both as a startup founder and leading innovative teams at large tech companies (Apple, in his case). Just as any business book, this could have been shorter and less repetitive but thankfully, there is enough good material here to be a book rather than a blog post.

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