Best Non Fiction 2024

Some great non-fiction I read this year (in no particular order). The hyperlinks take you to my posts inspired by the book:

1. We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience
   I’ve been reading up on biographies of philosophers to better understand their ideas. This one on Arendt was great and so was Devra Lehmann’s Spinoza: The Outcast Thinker.

2.The Crisis of Culture: Identity Politics and the Empire of Norms by Olivier Roy
Roy was my best discovery of the year. Reading a French intellectual writing about immigration and mass media was a welcome change from the usual American voices.

3. Is Europe Christian
   Roy’s work on Christianity in Europe was a fascinating read. I was also mentally referencing the ideas of this book while watching Conclave earlier this week.

4. The Gilded Chalet: Off-Piste in Literary Switzerland
   Hands down the most fascinating literary history I read this year. Rooney writes about the influence of Switzerland in the modern day writers and tracks down their encounters with this unique, mysterious and shady paradise of a country. Referenced it in this post.

5. Indonesia, Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation
   Read a lot on Indonesia this year and Pisani’s travelogue was amongst the best.

6. The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir
   Gornick’s memoir is not exactly one but more of a record of a woman’s encounter with the city. The writing was so great.

7. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
   His fatwa, his life afterwards, his celebrity status as an outspoken critic of fundamentalism and the dastardly attack on his life, were all events of our lifetime. His memoir of the attack is a must-read.

8. Nuclear War: A Scenario
   The most unnerving book I read this year.

9. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
   Probably the greatest analysis of the horror that Leopold unleashed on Congo. Read it as part of my homework before visiting Belgium

10. How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World’s Most Dynamic Region
    A great work explaining the rise of the South East Asian countries. Essential reading for anyone interested in India’s development.

11. Shadows At Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century
    I’m midway through this work and I can confirm its one of the greatest works written on India. Despite having read a ton of modern Indian history, I learnt so many fascinating tidbits that are critical to understanding our country today. A worthy recipient of the 2024 Wolfson History Prize

12. Question 7
    A genre defying work which was so moving and powerful.

13. Bibek Debroy’s self-written obituary
    I was saddened by Debroy’s death. His fascination with the epics, his herculean feats of translating them along with his day job, his love for fountain pens and above all his self-effacing persona made him a hero for me.

I think of Yayati. I have been unfair to him, interpreting it as desire for sensual pleasures. It is deeper. It is hankering after control over the physical body, the craving. Will I trade my life for that of Harish? Will he? Was “prayopavesa” such a terrible idea? Some animals still practise it. I spend my time with such conversations in solitude, thinking about Salman Rushdie’s “Knife” and “Ashtavakra Gita,”

Last Year’s list: | 2023 |