I read 42 books this year -- wow crazy haha. I have included reviews of my two favorite books from 2020, Emperor of All Maladies and Winners Take All. I have also included some shorter reviews from other novels I read this year.

Emperor of All Maladies

5/5

This was one of my favorite books that I read (listened to) in 2020. The author does an exceptional job navigating the almost insurmountable amount of information and complexity of cancer to make a digestible, fascinating, and engaging book about the history of cancer treatment and research.

While Mukherjee's writing style can sometimes be overwhelming and verbose, I found myself enjoying the rich metaphors employed throughout the novel. I especially appreciated portions of the book that dove into tangential topics such as the creation of antiseptic and its profound impact on tumor removal, or the etymology of cancer and other medical terms -- did you know the word "patient" comes from the Greek for "one who suffers".

Moreover, the novel finds a strong balance between covering a breadth of different cancers such as leukemia, breast cancer and lung cancer while also delving in-depth into their treatments and the history of prevention. Mukherjee spends a portion of the novel focused on the ties between the rise and precipitous drop in lung cancer cases and the historical arc of cigarette smoking. In it, he weaves a tapestry of the history of cigarette ads, smoking's rise to prominence in suburbia and its eventual downfall due to a litany of legal cases from both the private and public sector. This form of intersecting histories with the common root of cancer is what elevated this novel to one of the best I have ever read.

While I have already said that this book was one of my favorites of 2020, it was by no means a perfect novel. The last 20% is focused on modern research and identification techniques involving the "oncogene". Mukherjee is straightforward in noting that this is his field of expertise and at times becomes lost in the technical depth of knowledge that he has. As a scientific layman, this was a slog to navigate. While I am now better informed of the 10 - 15 different gene mutations of a tumor harboring cell, it was at times challenging to stay focused and hurt the overall quality of the novel.

Overall, I feel as if I have just scratched the surface of a well of knowledge that has blossomed out of this book and has driven me to explore additional works about cancer, clinical research and novels written by Mukherjee. I would recommend this to any reader that would like to become more informed about cancer, increase their vocabulary or simply enjoy a very good nonfiction novel.

Winners Take All

5/5

It is not every day that a book creates a paradigm shift in the way that I view my career, the actions of the wealthy in American society, and the technology and consulting branches of the American economy. As someone who currently works at a startup and has spent hundreds of hours listening to self-improvement podcasts and reading business books, this novel forced me to take a hard look in the mirror of my intrinsic career aspirations and the logics I had operated under for years. Does a startup like Robinhood actually help its users like it says it does? Are the uber-wealthy like Zuckerburg or Bezos those who we should turn to for reshaping our world into a better society? Should I aspire to be like these individuals?

This book is one of the few dissenting voices of an overwhelming onslaught of self-help and self-improvement novels and is worth a read for any young professional working in the private sector.

In this wide-ranging and thought-provoking novel, although not without its flaws, Giridharadas supports the thesis that "MarketWorlders" or those who strive to do good via the private sector. He posits that they are deeply flawed in their thinking because a) for-profit organizations will rarely, if ever, truly be able to solve the largest problems plaguing the world because these organizations prioritize profit over any mission statement and b) wealthy individuals will never change society in deep structural ways because society's current structure is what has allowed them to become and remain wealthy.

Giridharadas points to companies (Even, McKinsey), billionaires and influencers (Carnegie, Clinton), and institutions (Aspen Institute) that embody his thesis. In one notable moment, Giridharadas explains a McKinsey board meeting that he was an observer of. The McKinsey team were working with a non-profit to improve an economically poor area in India. The team (of all white men) presented a variety of Powerpoints outlining how to streamline the crop production in the area. However, the team did not take into account the potential impact of these changes to the locals who depended on the current system to survive. Giridharadas deeply questioned the role of "consulting thinking" to solve larger societal problems in which they had no expertise or even a representative from the region to help inform the decision, a common trope in consulting and technology.

This book, though, is not without its flaws. While Giridharadas rips into consulting firms, tech companies, and wealthy non-profit institutions and continually exclaims that societal shifts cannot be created by the elite, he sits deeply entrenched in the ecosystem of the wealthy. He is a member of the Aspen Institute. He is a college graduate from an elite university and was once a consultant. I would recommend reading his bio (at the end) before beginning this novel.

Frustratingly, Giridharadas also does not provide any solutions in the novel. He does not point to potential solutions to the pitfalls of how Americans approach solving major issues or how a young person working in one of the sectors outlined can reshape his or her life to help others. There is a lack of actionable insights that were tangible from the novel, for me.

Overall, I have recommended this book to numerous friends (we read it for my book club) and would continue to recommend it moving forward.

The Inner Game of Tennis

3.5/5

I agreed with many positive reviews of "The Inner Game of Tennis" on Goodreads, but I found two main critiques that I could not overcome. 1) There was never any reference to any "hard data". It was almost entirely anecdotal and usually followed the frustrating story format of a) I noticed this problem with one of my students b) I told them to use my method of self one vs self two c) they improved almost immediately and drastically. While I do not doubt that these stories are true, I found myself skeptical of the quick turnaround his method provided for his students. 2) The book did spend a decent percentage of time 30+% focused on tennis itself. While I understand it is the "Inner Game of Tennis" Gallwey explains that you can apply his book to any activity and that tennis is just a tool to explain deeper concepts. However, it became hard to read at times as he began to dig into the weeds of tennis grips and footwork. This became frustrating as a non-tennis player.

However, overall, I found the last 25% of the book to be an extremely thoughtful dialogue about the purpose of competition and the desire to improve a skill. I would recommend this book but provide a few caveats in my recommendation.

Cubed: The Secret History of the Workplace

3/5

Like... meh. I pushed through this book but it was not super enjoyable. It was interesting learning about a new topic and the history of the workplace but Saval was meandering in his choice of topics and history. Moreover, the novel ended with a "So what?" for me. I wish there had been a little bit more predictions of the future of the workplace (could have been very prescient for the shift occurring due to Covid right now) and a better grasp of why the modern "white-collar worker" should care to know about the history of the office cube.

Rhythm of War

I love epic fantasy novels -- they are my reading guilty pleasure. This is the 4th book of a series each over 1k pages

4/5

The reviews of this book on Goodreads sing its praises. Storms, most readers seem too have found it to be their favorite book of the series. I take a slightly more cynical view.

On a positive note, I did finish this 1000+ page tomb in under two weeks so it does speak to the gripping nature of Sanderson's writing. It is easy to be all consumed by his storytelling and the entire novel world of Roshar. At the end of almost any chapter I ask myself "What's going to happen next!?!?!" and then become gripped by an entirely different tangential storyline. For that, Sanderson is the best epic fantasy writer out there. It's also hard not to root for the main protagonists specifically Kaladin, Shallan -- and in this novel for the first time Navani -- as they navigate bizarre worlds, epic powers, and the fate of the world.

Now come my issues with Rhythm of War. A caveat, as someone who has read A LOT of major epic fantasy series that have been published in the genre in the past 10+ years, I have noticed that similar issues plague the genre more broadly and not just Rhythm of War or Sanderson's novels.

Firstly, I found the character arcs of Kaladin and Shallan to be altogether frustrating. While Sanderson is navigating complex topics, albeit slightly bluntly (PTSD, multiple personality disorder etc.) the larger arc of the characters is fairly repetitive. Each book starts with the main character struggling with self-doubt that at times takes on a whinny quality that by the end of the novel is cured by speaking an ideal or through solving the "insurmountable obstacle" proffered by the enemy. I find myself wanting to scream at the characters about how much they are misinterpreting the situation. Flawed characters are what makes a great novel, but the flaws can sometimes be a little predictable and frankly frustrating.

Secondly, there are A LOT of characters. I understand it is epic fantasy, but I feel like Sanderson can shorten the novel and focus more on central characters and their relationships with each other, their spren, their powers, and their unraveling of the mysteries of Roshar. There are so many competing mysteries, powers, characters that the appeal of the main storylines becomes diluted. Just to name a few characters: Kaladin, Teft, the Stormfather, Odium, Venli, Shallan, Adolin, Reniarin, Wit, Pattern, Syl, Dalinar, Jasnah, the original radiants, Szeth, Mzar, Tarvarian, Lyft, the Sibling.... just to name a few. And each character seems to play a central role in being a critical piece of the war, the mystery of the world and more. It can become a little overwhelming and mind-numbing.

Thirdly, I found myself skimming or entirely skipping over the sections involving Venli's flashbacks. I didn't find they added to the current situation and were just filler. When a book is this long, you would hope that some of the fluff could be removed.

Overall, I could only recommend this series after reading the most recent book to the most hardcore fantasy fans. I obviously eagerly await the last book as I am vastly curious how Sanderson wraps up all the loose ends in (10 days?????) the final book.

Here is my full reading list for 2020: