Wren & Martin

 Birds are all around us and so are many other small animals but we hardly notice them so busy in our day to day lives. Ok, I don't know about y'all but it was certainly true for me - I lived close to 30 years in various parts of India scarcely noticing any birds and same in US for a long time. In US, one thing I did notice was the scary congregations of huge flocks of blackish brown birds in supermarket carparks. It did seem straight out of Hitchcock's 'Birds' movie. I started living in a proper residential area in suburban Dallas in early 2020, not living in apartments meant being surrounded by lot of trees and greenery. I also started doing my morning walks around the neighborhood and a wooded park area with a lake. This meant I started seeing a lot of birds and as the seasons changed, the birds I heard (happened more than seeing) changed as well. Naturally there was some curiosity and then by chance I happened upon a book in my local public library about birds of Texas. This seemed to be a great chance to go over this with my then 3-4 year old daughter. We continued to be somewhat cooped up at home with very limited outings because of the lingering pandemic. So I used to take her out for walks around my neighborhood and we would try to spot various birds and animals ( which means squirrels, rabbits or someone's pet dogs).

Colorful birds ofcourse were easy to spot, so we would easily spot a somewhat common Northern Cardinal which had a brilliant red color - males ofcourse, with females somewhat drab in comparison which irritated my little girl a lot. Its kinda obvious perhaps but initially I could not explain these things, but reading more about bird life makes it easier to explain some of these adaptations clearly and one can't help but marvel at evolution and nature in general. There was also Blue Jay which was very common and the color makes it easy to notice, we ofcourse noticed crows and an odd Robin or two ( with reddish orange on chest) and mourning doves but hardly saw anything else that easily. I did notice something strange once where a lot smaller birds were making a huge ruckus and a really big bird eventually flew away from a tree near my house. Later figured out this was 'mobbing'. Another major birding moment was when sitting in the backyard of house, I have a patio area which has roof and a wall on one side but is open otherwise and sometimes I sit there and work or read books. One evening, I noticed very small flicker/movement and realized it was a hummingbird visting flowers in the garden.The sight of a hummingbird is very hard to put into words but it is one of those moments when you just marvel at nature for producing something so delicate but so full of life and capable of so many outstanding feats. Just seeing something so tiny and fragile fluttering wins so rapidly, hovering and moving forward and backward just takes your breath away. As I read more about it and learnt about a few different species that visits my area and that this tiny speck of a bird migrates super long distances - it was mind blowing.

Sometime last year I chanced upon this book - Around the world in 80 birds - despite the title or perhaps because of it, I picked it up from library. The author like Phileas Fogg, takes us on a tour around the globe through the pages with each page ( or two at times with illustrations) covering some really interesting birds from North America, various countries in Central, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania. That literally was the take off point for me to dive into more details on life of birds in general and to understand them more. 

I considered joining an organized bird walk with my daughter but schedules didn't work out and I figured I'm not that crazy enough to go traipsing around various fields or forests long rides away. So armchair bird reading would do for now and I dived into some well known books like David Sibley's "What's it like to be a bird", "The Genius of Birds", "Bird Sense : What its like to be a bird" among several others to give me varied perspectives of various things related to their anatomy, how they live, migration and to even an exploration of whats probably going on inside their head. The only surprise for me as I look back at this is the total lack of knowledge I had so far and the realization that I'm still scratching at surface as I take all of this in and find out there is lot more stuff out there which is super fascinating. 

I also downloaded a super handy and neat app called Merlin from Cornell Lab of Ornithology, you can upload a pic or sound recording and app identifies with satisfactory accuracy the bird. This helped a lot with bird sounds, it helped me understand and map the sound I hear when I'm outside with the bird and infact several times helped me spot the bird better among the tree canopy now that I knew what I was looking for.  It was possible to spot Chickadees, Starlings, Barn Swallow, Finches, cowbirds, tufted titmouse  and the fantastic Scissor tailed fly-catcher during my morning walks in neighborhood and a tree filled park / lake trail nearby. Lake also was a place to see several types of ducks ( Mallard was the most common), white heron and Great blue Heron. 

So why refer to a high school English grammar book in the post title? Kinda hiding in plain sight it is of course also names of a couple of birds seen North America - purple Martin and Wren. I did spot/identify two different types of Wrens ( only thanks to the app which told me what the bird was from sound and then I was able to cross-check it later with description and the big fat bird book I have of birds of America) but the Purple Martin was elusive though I did read about in some of books this year. All the time spent reading about birds and developing a surface level understanding of them was among the best moments of this year for me.

It takes one day

 Such is life ... its the morning after the 2023 ODI WC final, where the serial champions yet again took the crown on which the utterly dominant home team almost had their hands on. Its the morning after the final and you wake up early morning at 5am as has been the case for last 6 weeks. As you pick up the phone to check the score to get a sense of the action in that day's cricket match you flinch as you realize its all over and once again its all over without the cup of joy. A familiar feeling for kids of 90s who habitually used to wake up early in the morning to watch the men in yellow/green overwhelm us. Multiple decades has passed, you are much older and are in another corner of the world where you wake up super early in the morning to watch action unfolding at home ( India). 

For the last 6 weeks, early mornings were spent this way - half awake from 4-4:30 am onwards checking score on cricbuzz, sometimes following ball by ball action for a bit. Then slowly getting out of bed by 5 am to go and make filter coffee and then spend another hour or so watching the match on TV while parallely catching up with all the online chatter around the match so far. By then a small college WhatsApp group will be active with match related chat. My current job as of now is fully remote with lot of folks I work with on west coast of US which means I can start my day/work a bit later than usual. So when cricket happens in India its much easier to follow it as you slowly start the work day. I'm no longer a big fan of ODI format and feel it has lost its relevance except for bigger tournaments. However even the sceptic in me had to admit that this WC was super fun and I found myself watching the action lot more than I ever expected.  

One thing that came with World Cup viewing this time was the hope, it gradually kept increasing with every match that Team India played somewhat like some of the past campaigns ( 2011, 2019) but unlike in the past there was no defeats to recalibrate the expectations to allow room for caution or to ground you to reality as the hopes soar. Even back in 2003 - with a team had so many large gaping holes we had high hopes of a win when the title round against reigning top dogs materialized. We just hoped our talismanic wunderkid/man plays another of those epic knocks to cover lot of the gaps/holes in the team and pulls us across. It was not to be, we - the Indian fans - learnt that day that you can beat most teams by putting on a good consistent show but when you face a mighty all conquering juggernaut who have all bases covered its very hard to consistently deliver your A game across both innings. Sooner than later something will crumble and they will overwhelm you, a lesson repeated to another unbeaten Indian team in 2015 when they squared off against a mighty titan. All those lessons were painfully absorbed and 2019 was explained away to tough conditions / top order collapse / Dhoni falling short by an inch or so from a miracle. 

So when the tables got turned and all conquering squad emerged which was clad in yellow jersey but in fact were Men in Blue, it was scarcely believable. Of course we all lived through a joyful 2011 campaign but we did lose one match and just about managed to tie another one - the SF win was also not really a cakewalk. From there to seeing a team just about dismissing everyone else from presence, with every single person in the XI firing and firing well, it was just unreal. One can be excused for thinking or rather believing this is it - this one is a done deal. It was not just die hard fans, it was the whole chorus of pundits on the popular Pavilion show, writers on cricinfo, widen and most youtubers/podcasters. Memes were running riot on how its all inevitable and there was lot of scorn as well on how its all almost 'engineered' and the excess of it. 

Then the final arrived at that stadium and pitch where things are always dicey.  The challenger who were written off initially as a hastily put together team with minimal thought and who had horrendous campaign at the start and looked ripe for an upset was finally looking ready. They were looking happy to have somehow made it past so many fires and reaching the finals was almost a miracle. But as they say what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, so here they were. But we knew from so many past campaigns how this script was to play out, the plucky challenger will throw several punches try to put on their A game but somehow against the all mighty dominant team they will falter at some point. And then the script flipped, they all declared there was almost no weakness for Team India - except the 4 no:11s once you get past 6 batters - but no one really could so far so that was not an issue except when it happened in the finals. The challengers played a near flawless A game and kept India to a clearly under par score. Next when they had to bat, for a while it looked like things were happening as expected until it stopped and then one man stood up and played an innings for ages. Everything we or for that matter the fans of losing finalists of 99, 03, 07 expected actually ended up happening. The good challenger played at their best and then some individual brilliance of all time to top it off and the mighty dominant team got felled for once breaking the usual script and breaking lot of our hearts with it. 

Such is life and sport but there is always hope and good times are just around the corner and we continue to hope for that one day again!

 

 

Watching cricket in USA

 Cricket is not something you would associate with the USA. When I moved here more than a decade ago, had heard from my couple of cousins about the thriving cricket scene among desi 20-30 somethings working in Software companies all over the US. Wherever you had a sufficient number of young ones, there were cricket matches and stuff. Sure there were attempts made to bring in the Indian team to play some matches in Florida, but still watching a match in a stadium was not something I expected I would do in the US. 

And then, here we were in Grand Prairie stadium outside Dallas, Texas watching/cheering for Super Kings. It was a bit surreal to suddenly hear about a league being planned and lots of uncertainties and then the first season gets underway with half of the teams owned by IPL franchisees who bring the same brand name, identity and some of those players. Then comes the news that there is going to be a team based out of your city and that team is owned by your fav team from the IPL. Then to compound your joy, it is announced that 70% of matches in season one of Major League Cricket ( MLC) is going to be played in your city. But then there is this small matter of 100+ degree heat and of course the stadium is far away and the whole thing is a lot of unknown.

Yet there was no hesitation when a friend reached out asking if I would be interested in attending a few matches during the first weekend of the league. We planned to watch a double header  - a day game and night one. July typically is super super hot and this was no different, I felt it was going to be a tough experience sitting in an open stadium. So yeah it was an open stadium as this was a Baseball park converted into a cricket ground, so the stands don't have shade. If you need shade you go up to concourse above where you can stand and watch the action - consume some food and drinks or you can get pricey tickets in the stands above which are covered and have option of sitting inside with AC as well and even rubbing shoulders with or seeing up close the franchisee owners / core supporters.

On the match day there was a stroke of luck as it rained heavily in the morning, unseaonally heavy rains early in the morning. I was thinking about the usual cricket and rain jokes - here I'm going to watch my first cricket match in 11 years in the middle of summer and out of nowhere there is heavy downpour. My friend was not easily discouraged and he felt that things would work and we can probably still go at 3 pm as planned. The rain did stop around mid day and as I was driving to that place I saw that instead of 100F as is usual that time of the day - it was showing 85F which meant good conditions to watch the match if the outfield had dried. There was a huge huge line of cars waiting to get to the parking - so it turned out to be 30-40 wait to get to parking area from near the stadium. The match had already started and we rushed in. There was not much of line or rush to get inside - the usual check for guns ( it is texas) and after a quick scan of our mobile tickets we were in. The Stadium looked pretty nice - it was my first time ever inside a stadium of any kind in USA. My previous experience of stadiums were from Kerala ( football stadiums), Mumbai and Chennai - all much older stadiums and not been through any major renovation when I visited long back. So this looked pretty neat and well set-up in comparison though much smaller ( 7-8k capacity).

The crowd predictably was heavily desi and we had seats right at edge just behind the fence/concrete wall. The boundary rope was like 10 yards in front of that and it was square of the wicket  with a fielder from Super kings not very far from where I was seated. We watched a couple of overs and were settling in when someone came to check our tickets to confirm folks were sitting on right seats. We were told we were in wrong section and had to go to the next one, so we walked a little further to the right. Now these seats were properly near deep square leg fielder, but someone else was already sitting there - two gentlemen wearing South African green jersey of 92 WC - took a while to explain and once they realized they apologized and moved away as they also got confused with numbering just like us. Right behind us were a couple wearing Sri Lankan colors and there were a few odd Pakistani, some Bangladeshis but 90% of the crowd seemed like Indian. Before the match when I read various stories/reports on cricinfo and a few other portals the stories were about white Americans discovering cricket ( there were some whites too) and folks from different places in USA visiting for cricket. I guess these stories make it more readable, but for sure bulk of the folks came from this area and were desis! 

After watching till 20th over, got up to take a look around, I wanted to see if we could get near commentary box to see if we could spot Sunil Gavaskar and other commentators, but no luck. Security was present and was checking anyone who tried to go to the area near commentary box. Walked around for a while to see what else was around and got some flags handed out by Knight Riders team for the next match - I was late for the first match so missed getting Super Kings yellow flags which would have been cool. Restrooms were neat and clean and food & water while certainly priced above usual was still reasonable which made the whole experience good. There was a Lions mascot of Super kings posing for pics with kids and they had face painting and some games for kids going on in the side. The crowd had lot of young men as expected but lot of families were there as well with young kids who were looking to get autographs of the players. Now this was a different experience for me, I have been to matches in India in 2000s and in general we have some big mesh barrier separating the crowd from players and interactions are very hard from what I remember. It was very different here and it was like grounds in England or Australia maybe - the player is like 10 yards in front of you. Soon every over break kids would run over and stand pretty near my seat trying to grab the attention of the fielder at deep square leg to get autographs. After a while the players - initially it was US local team players fielding there - would come and sign. It did make it hard to see the action and got a bit annoying after a while but at the same time it was a fun experience as crowd kept trying to talk / encourage the fielder to make them notice you/smile and then come and sign some flags or paper or pose for selfie. 

Some of the big name players I was hoping to see like Faf, Devon Conway flopped with bat and it did look like the match was going to be one sided until Dwayne Bravo decided to take charge with bat. My friend and I were talking about how Bravo bats arching his body and the next seconds he hit a six the way we were describing from our memories of his batting in t20I and IPL games. Bravo tonking several sixes and keeping TSK in hunt till last few balls made it a good match to watch though the home team lost in the end. The next match was between Mumbai Indians NY ( weird name) and LA Knight riders - so the famous West Indian stars were there - Pollard, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. We also spotted Lasith Malinga as bowling coach conducting the warm up drills somewhat near where we sat. When Knight Riders started bowling in the next match, Dre Russ was pretty near where I was sitting and crowd really went wild trying to catch his attention. But he said clearly I'm not gonna pose for pics or autographs for now. After a few overs he went to bowl and after that he didn't come this side to field and others who came were quite ok with signing autographs leading to made scramble. Here we were spending a bit of money and half of Sunday to drive all the way to watch some action live and view was totally blocked by autograph seekers. With little kids, I found it somewhat ok as they were somewhat well behaved and after explaining to them that I cannot see they would duck a bit when a ball was being bowled and only at end of the over they would stand to try and engage their target. But after a while bigger names started fielding there and grown men pulling children along started crowding around in front of us it just got a bit too much. Sri Lankan lady right behind me lost her cool with these guys crowding and told them off properly and marched them back to their seats. Order was restored for another 5 mins or so then again repeat. 

Once MI NY team started fielding, they put Tim David over there and he started talking to the crowd and was ok to sign autographs and then after a while Trent Boult after finishing his spell got moved there and it was proper pandemonium as Boulty seemed super nice and keen not to disappoint kids seeking autographs and selfies. It got so bad for us that we had to abandon our seats and move elsewhere. I had quick look around to see if I can spot any other jerseys and spotted a few England ( 2019 I think) t-shirts, some Aussies  and a few WI jerseys as well and a small group of Afghans in their traditional gear with Afghan flag wrapped around them. There were some nice moments as well with an Indian, Pakistani supporter taking a pic together and then someone called out and got a SL and Bdesh guy to join them in the pic. This was also the first time I was seeing DRS in action, something would happen and fielders would celebrate and a review would happen and we all watch the screen and wait for the replay and umpire to make a decision. Without the commentary  - though there was a screen over there showing replays - and viewing this from side of the wicket it was a different experience all together. Best part was sitting among a diverse crowd and seeing players super super close right in front. But at the same time, it was hot and tiring and there was a lot of effort in getting into the stadium and exiting as well plus some annoying fans. So it was a mixed bag but with lot of positives for a totally unexpected chance to watch somewhat good quality cricket right where you live without too much effort. Seeing top WI cricketers lot of SA players and assorted Aussies, Kiwis live in action was for sure worth it. Overall the league seemed to be set-up well for success for this market at least. Looking forward for year 2!

2022 List of Books

Twas a good year for reading began my 2021 book list blog. The same applies for 2022 as well, it took me a while to get reading added as proper habit. While talking to a close friend about reading during the year he noted that I had successfully assimilated reading into daily life as a strong habit. That is so true, I used audio books again a lot this year ( close to 1/3rd of the books) and combined it mostly with long walks outside. Most of the summer I would get up early and go for a long walk with the intention of listening to a book and end up improving my general fitness level as a bonus. This year I started frequenting the library a lot mainly to take my daughter there for her to pick up books and in the bargain started borrowing and reading a lot of physical books from the library as well.  

In terms of what I read in 2022, there were some of my usual interests - countries/people around the world, cricket biographies and productivity/improving myself genres but this year I covered a lot of nature books which were among the ones that gave me the most joy. Lot of reading this year was also driven by chatter on a few book review/recco groups I frequented - which were close to half of the books I read and some picked up from other book lists from previous years.

So without much further ado here is the actual list. I have sorted it into Non-fiction ( with sub categories of my own) and Fiction

Non Fiction

1.Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough

I read this somewhat viral essay - 'I was a cable guy and saw the worst of America' and then proceeded to pick up this book which is a sort of memoir but more of collection of essays covering her childhood growing up in a cult, how she got ill-treated when folks in airforce figured she was gay and her subsequent life living paycheck to paycheck and of course the Cable guy one which again is a superb read on how it is like for female blue collar worker. 

2.War Minus The Shooting : A journey through South Asia during the 1996 Cricket World Cup by Mike Marquesee

This was one of those classics which almost went out of print and then got back into circulation recently and was covered passionately by a lot cricket podcasts and followers. Was a good trip down the memory lane as he tours the subcontinent and not only covers the game but also its a commentary on these nations. 

3.100 Things We've Lost to the Internet : by Pamela Paul

4.This is How They Tell Me the World Ends : The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perloth

Really scary read! Super long read though. The author takes a highly technical field and lays out in somewhat easy to understand language and very frightening. Change your passwords asap and add multi-factor authentication! 

5.Four Lost Cities : A Secret History of Urban Age by Annalee Newitz

6.Arriving Today : From Factory to Front Door -- Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy by Christopher Mims 

Pandemic brought into focus supply chains and how extended they are. The author starts from a factory in Vietnam where the parts that make up a humble cell phone charger are assembled and packaged into a box. He follows this phone charger box through the supply chain from Vietnam factory to port to ships that transport most of the stuff we buy, ports in US, 18-wheeler trucks to Amazon's somewhat automated warehouses/ fulfillment center till the last mile UPS truck which drops a package at customer's doorstep. He follows the entire journey and takes a look at the lives of all these folks who make instant gratification happen.  

7.No Spin : My Autobiography by Shane Warne

One of the all time greats passed away suddenly, so picked this one up to read.

8.Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh : India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence by Shrayana Bhattacharya

This was one of those books someone had recommended last year to get a sense of real India. It was very illuminating read. Its not SRK the actor but the concept/myth of the ideal partner which gets examined as the author walks us through her own story and stories of several young women across social strata and how they fared in their relationships/marriage. SRK appears as a totem for most of these women. Very interesting read.

9.Life is Short And So Is This Book by Peter Atkins

10.Mrs Funnybones by Twinkle Khanna

11.Whole Numbers and Half Truths by Rukmini S

Very interesting read, the author uses numbers to probe further some common questions/opinions and helps us understand the complex country that is India. 

12. Half Lion : How P.V.Narasimha Rao Transformed India by Vinay Sitapati

Another book I totally enjoyed as kid who grew up in 90s India and Rao govt is one the earliest ones I can remember as I started listening to TV news daily around this time. My memory of the man was that he was a controversial figure who presided over some tough times and miraculously managed to survive ( corruption allegations aside) with a minority Govt for a full term. Though I sort of knew PVNR was some sort of scholarly person, it was only when I read this book I learnt more about the man who was a polymath with wide range of interests ranging from literature, philosophy to even computer science . The author got access to Mr.Rao's personal papers and uses that plus interviews among other sources for this biography and paints a very vivid picture of a man of two parts. PVNR perfected the art of running with hare and hunting with hound while running his minority Govt and managed to usher in some remarkable reforms in the economy. Book is a good read to revisit and see how he managed to pull this off and in a sense its a lesson in management too. The book like all biographies with inputs from well wishers of a remarkable person is slanted in his favor. The author to his credit does look at several taints in PVNR's legacy as well. I really loved this book. 

13. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

14. How China Sees India and The World by Shyam Saran

15. Line and Strength by Glenn McGrath 

I'm not sure how I ended up reading this, but it was good read as a sporting tale. One of the greatest fast bowler ever was dismissed as an untalented bowler in his youth. He grew up in rural Australia and so easily could have just given it up and stuck with farm work. Instead it was sheer willpower to prove himself coupled with incredible hard work day and night that managed to turn him into a power house.

16. The Untold Story of the Talking Book by Mathew Rubery

This probably will be a post on its own, the story of audiobook at a personal level. I keep telling a lot of people how awesome audiobooks are and have had several conversations on this medium. This book goes back to the roots and is a detailed account of how this medium evolved over last 100 odd years.

17. The Cryptopians : Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze by Laura Shin

Crypto stories are usually wild, this is an account of how Ethereum one of the top cryptocurrencies / framework/platform which underpins a lot of innovation in this space came to be. While Vitalik is the main name, there is a foundation / group which sort of manages it. This is the behind the scenes account of the chaotic rise of this platform and various factions trying to get close to the power center.

18. Like, Comment, Subscribe : Inside Youtube's Chaotic Rise to World Domination by Mark Bergen

Our favorite time sink - Youtube. This is a very neat book chronicling its origin as a video sharing platform to getting bought by Google and the subsequent evolution into what it is now. Unlike some other business stories that we read, this feels different because a lot of us had seen/used this product for a long time now and sort of saw how it slowly but firmly entered our daily lives. This is no dry read, this is an interesting behind the scenes look which pretty much rips into the company with at times harsh lens. The book also looks at the key part of Youtube's rise - Creators and how often they get the short end of the stick and how despite its commitment for being a force of good - the drive for profits/poor decisons led Youtube/Google into becoming a place for violent, racist and harmful content as well and how they struggled to deal with it. Felt the author was a bit harsh sometimes towards a company which seemed to make mistakes by inaction or misplaced ideals rather than any malice.

19. Nothing Like I Imagined by Mindy Kaling

Set of light hearted personal essays by Mindy Kaling which was a fun read.

20. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Friend of mine had mentioned this earlier and I wanted to pick up a running related read this year. This covers the celebrated authors thoughts on running in general and what it means to him and his notes in general for a period of over an year and half as he runs a few marathons and competes in triathlon. 

Travel / Countries / Cultures

21. The  Nine Lives of Pakistan : Dispatches from a Precarious State by Declan Walsh

A look into a nation full of contradictions ( which to me is not a bad thing per se) by a foreign correspondent who spent several years in the nation. He paints a portrait of the nation through life/stories of 9 personalities from Pakistan. Was an interesting read but again I'm sure most Pakistanis will think its superficial. It was like reading multiple well written long form articles and the author ultimately got expelled from the country for his reporting which rubbed the military rulers the wrong way. 

22. Sovietistan : Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Krygyzstan and Uzbekistan by Erika Fatland

I really like this genre of a traveler who explores far flung corners of the world and documents life in these countries. This was written almost 10 years back and this is an English translation of the original - but its great to learn about Stans about which I almost knew nothing until I read this book. One minor quibble is that she looks at country from western lens for most part and doesn't get to understand the culture / some strange practices in some of these countries from a a local perspective. 

23. Radio Shangri La : What I Learned in the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli

Started with great hope and was a bit let down mainly because of my expectation didnt match. Nevertheless a ring side account of Bhutan as it started opening up to outside world and impact it had on its people. The author is a TV/radio show host from US who gets a chance of visit Bhutan and train folks at a new semi private radio station set-up to cater to younger crowd. It turns out to be a healing journey for her in some part but its also about globalization and western influence. These are like flames before moths and their lure is so hard to resist. Perspectives matter, for the author who was from US the visits were an escape from commercialism but for the Bhutanese she meets the peaceful, tranquil life is also filled with lot of hardships and the commercial life in western world is what many aspire for.

24. Cool Japan Guide : Fun in the Land of Manga, Lucky Cats and Ramen by Abby Denson

Super light book I picked up from library mainly because the cover looked catchy and the fact that this was a travel and cultural guide book written in comics format. Seemed so apt for Japan. Was a breezy read but realized as I read that this must be pretty outdated by now as it was written in 2013. 

Nature / Animals / Plants

25. The Inner Life of Animals : Love, Grief, and Compassion : Surprising Observations of a Hidden World by Peter Wohlleben

I have been reading his books last couple of years which were focused on trees & forests, this one was on animals. Equally good.

26. The Songs of Trees : Stories from Nature's Great Connectors by David George Haskell

Haskell tells us stories about trees across the world covering various types of trees and his connection with some of them which co-exist with human population.

27. Cities and Canopies : Trees in Indian Cities by Harini Nagendra

Decided to try an Indian equivalent of the book just above this one to learn more about trees in Indian cities.

28. The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

We use words like bird brain without realizing how wrong it is. The author travels around the world and brings some truly remarkable accounts of intelligence of various bird species. She primarily covers what scientists have uncovered from research but also includes several anecdotal tales too which make it interesting. Its a truly comprehensive book on bird intelligence. This has inspired me to add several other related books into my reading list for next few years. 

29. Whatever You Do, Don't Run : True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison

This was a truly delightful account of some interesting incidents from his life as safari guide in South Africa and Botswana. Love for animals and nature combined with loads of humor made this a wonderful read. 

30. The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony 

A South African game park owner decides to accept into his private game reserve a group of 'troubled' elephants who were deemed nuisance and close to being shot. He takes a lot of effort in trying to ensure this magnificent heard gets comfortable there and in the process forms an incredible bond with them. Though this is a non-fiction book, it has a very gripping and exciting plot with ill-treated and angry elephants, poachers and other problems surfacing and despite all this there are some incredible stories/incidents of intuition and trust displayed by these wonderful animals with the author. Found it really moving. 

31. Wild Lives - Leading Conservationists on the Animals and Planet They Love  by Lori Robinson

Partly as result of the 2 books above, I tried reading more on conservationists and the great work they do. This book celebrates 20 such heroes across the globe and highlights the great work they do even when faced with incredible odds and great personal danger.

32. Animals Strike Curious Poses by Elena Passerello

 This one has 16 very well written essays about different animals named by humans and in public view over various periods spanning fossils, circus animals, animals from paintings, royal palaces and some wild animals capturing public imagination and getting a name from their fearsome reputation. Her writing is something else, brings out so much color and transports you to that era where the story is set. A very different book from others in this list yet similar in the sense that while this is about animals its also equally about humans and their attitude towards nature and these animals which fascinate and terrify them until they can control and subjugate them. Was not a breezy read by any means and it takes time to get used to, plus some stories full of cruelty makes you really sad. I ended up reading this over a few months.

33. H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald

I had seen this in my cousin's list but could not remember the details and amazon/good reads kept recommending this one given what I had been reading in that time. So I basically got into this without clearly understanding it, which made it a bit hard to process this. It took a while to come to grips with this one. She covers a few things - her experiences grooming a hawk primarily. This interest in falconry was developed from reading a lot of books during her growing up years - mainly "The Goshawk". So when a tragic event happens in her life as a way to cope with grief which constants envelops her, she decides to take get a hawk and raise it. Which as we learn is very hard and the book is at once about her coming to terms with a personal loss and this hard challenge which she contrasts with how the famous author of Goshawk fared while raising his hawk ( terribly). In a sense this is a memoir plus nature book and a look at falconry in past. It was still hard book for me to process and took me while but I was glad to have stuck to it and finished it. 

34.  Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans De Waal

This matched rest of the reading this year on this theme of animal / bird intelligence and was a look at several such stories/examples.

35. Ranger Confidential : Living, Working and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Lankford

We often complain that pay for some very important jobs ( like school teaching in US) are shockingly low and I learnt about one more such job with this book. Its a look at National Parks system which to me coming as an outsider was one of the most wonderful things I saw in US. How well set-up these parks are and how they are maintained and the role they play. This was a gut punch of sorts to realize how poor the working conditions and pay is for some of these passionate folks who help in running of these parks.  Its just incredibly unfair.

Business/Productivity 

36. Inspired : How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan

Among the best books in this genre and a must read for any PM.  

37. How I built This : The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs by Guy Raz

I love the Podcast - 'How I built this' and used to often listen to this and this is like a best of version where he distills a lot of lessons and stories from the podcast as a book

38. The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo

As someone who manages a small team, I felt it was a good idea to turn to a good resource to pick up a few pointers and this was truly good.

39. Start With Why  by Simon Sinek

Basic point is that we get caught up with the 'What' and 'How' and don't spend enough time examining the 'Why' before we get started. 

40. Outcomes Over Outputs  : Why Customer Behavior is the Key Metric for Business Success by Josh Seiden

Was something an Agile coach recommended and decided to give it a try. Its short book and makes the point quickly and efficiently which was good. Essentially asking us to build things with focus on what we want to achieve rather than building features. Its a mindset change which gets explained well.

Fiction :

41.The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

This was a book about books with basic plot being a book reading list that gets passed between strangers who borrow books from a library and ending up changing their life for the better. The books in the list were also a nice collection and I hope to read some of those classics again. Was a nice warm read. This is an ode to reading and to the power of books to heal and bring joy. 

42. The Quiche of Death by M.C.Beaton

43.The Vicious Vet by M.C.Beaton

These two books were part of Agatha Raisin murder mystery series. This is a successful middle aged PR woman who decides to retire pretty early and settle down peacefully in British Countryside ( Cotswolds) only to find herself solving murder mysteries in rural England. I read a few and then tried the TV series so I can watch it with my wife. The TV series were a big let down after reading the books, so maybe I might pick this series up again later. 

44. The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

Recco from a book reading group. This was somewhat similar to #41 - The Reading List and another of those warm reads but was tad predictable after a point.

45. Moustache by S.Hareesh ( malayalam translated into English)

This was a super interesting book which is hard to classify or slot. It was not an easy read and you need some context to understand it, plus I feel the English translation might have dropped a few things along the way which probably made it harder. This is a story of myths which as it gets passed along start ballooning and an event when it gets related can take many variations based on story tellers. Lot of hard passages as well but again found it pretty easy to read and the whole concept fascinating. Only after I read this I heard from my friend Ramki about this being a super controversial one in Kerala and can understand why.

46. The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Recco from Indukka and this was easily the best fiction book I read this year. This is set in Australian outback as two brothers catch up to look at the unnatural death of a 3rd brother and they slowly revisit their troubled past. While is was a bit dark and packed enough suspense yet the characters were very well fleshed out that you feel a sense of connection to all of them. The whole Australian outback with vast properties in harsh desert climate spread out of over a huge huge distance with chances of interacting with other humans being very low is something the author superbly sets it up and its a key part of the story. 

47. Mickey7 by Edward Ashton

I wanted to read more science fiction but ended up with just 1 this time. This is soon to be a movie/tv series I hear so don't want to spoil anything. 

48. Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian

Super interesting book this one. Its for most part a tale of a desi kid growing up in suburban US ( where I live) in 90s with pushy barely white collar job parents eking out a living pushing the kids to excel in academics. So it spans adolescence, weigh of expectations and social pressure from multiple sides other kids who want to break the boundaries and strict Indian parents who don't want kids to do any nonsense. The classic stuck between rock and hard place coming of age story of children of first gen immigrants. Then out of nowhere this spins into a different trajectory with introduction of dark magic/fantasy bit but still at the same time it remains a very human story of dreams, hopes, disappointments and redemption. 

49. The Bodies in the Library by Marty Wingate ( First Edition Library series)

50. Murder Is a Must by Marty Wingate ( First Edition Library series)

51. The Librarian Always Rings Twice by Marty Wingate ( First Edition Library series)

Murder mysteries set in and around a library which stocks First Edition books of murder mysteries.  The main protagonist who solves the murder mysteries is the curator of this library collection and is an everyday woman character. Was a total meta one thats what made me pick this one up from my local library. Was just okayish but since I ended up picking the Book 3 at first by mistake, I decided to read the first 2 as well. This was a pretty light read.

52. The Tales of India by Svabhu Kohli

This was another surprising find at my local library. This a collection of folk tales from India collected around late 19th century / early 20th Century and published 110 years back in British India. This edition pulls 16 stories/folk tales from 3 different books - stories from Tamil Nadu, Bengal and Punjab. There were a few stories I probably heard when I was a child but those versions very much milder than the ones in this book. That's probably what 80-90 years did to these tales. I really enjoyed this book. There were a few stories I heard as kid but in much more sanitized form than the ones here but majority were unknown stories but several were delightful reads. I look forward to trying get more such folk tales next year.

53. Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Set in small town Alabama this novel starts in 1980s in a post-civil rights America which still is only slowly coming to terms with intermingling of races. The story begins in an old age home with a chance encounter between two women of different eras. Its the classic set-up of older women inspiring the younger one and most of the story is tales from rural Alabama settlement from 1930s to 1950s. You get the proper southern charm as you meet a whole host of characters that populate the small town during that period. Touches upon co-existence, non-traditional families and empowered women in a heart warming tale. Was pretty sad when the story was ending as it was such a delightful read. Another interesting thing was this being a big book and because I started when I was pretty busy with work - I took a while to finish and library loan ended. So when I renewed it, I took an audio book to continue the story and it was read in a southern accent which was very enjoyable too.  

54. The Animals In That Country by Laura Jean McKay

Lot of my non-fiction reading at one point this year was around Birds & Animals and what they do, how smart they are and then out of nowhere I came across the blurb about this book which is about a flu which hits Australia where this story is set which makes it possible to humans to understand Animals. The premise was exciting and the book takes this complex subject and deals with it ingeniously. Its not for everyone though with its mad max dystopia type treatment.

So the tally at the end of the year was 54. I did want to hit at least 52 books - 1 for every week and I'm happy that I managed to clear that easily. The split between Non-fiction - 40 and Fiction -14 is a bit uneven but that is expected.  I can't exactly pin point what/how but somehow started picking up a lot of nature related reads and that dominated my reading. By default I pick up non-fiction works and it needs some effort to pick up fiction and read for me at this point. I'm hoping I can cover more fiction reads next year.  Reading means several things to me, the primary one being a source of joy and relaxation, nothing like losing yourself in a book but at the same time I hope to learn more about the world around me, several topics of interest and improve myself to become a better human being. 

While it does look like I read quite a bit, what this list does not cover is the list of books I dropped somewhere along the lane because I got distracted with my phone and library loan period ended or I just gave up. There were periods where this publicly declared challenge of 1 book a week, spurred me to read and sometimes that lead to reading at good pace but there were equally periods where I struggled to read and got bogged down as well. As we march through 2023, I hope I can channelize the good periods and keep this up and continue to do better in 2023 in terms of reading. Last year I started using Good Reads to capture the books I read and post the progress level purely from a self motivation perspective and found it worked for me. Hope to use GoodReads more effectively this year and maybe start writing some notes/reviews so I don't need to try and remember stuff when I publish this blog towards end of the year.