Month: February 2025

This is a continuation of My books list in 2024, Part 1, where I give quick thoughts on all the books I read, including curated lists of my top favorites. Part 1 covered my top 5 books of the year, and Part 2 will now cover honorary mentions of books I enjoyed but didn’t make the cut of my top 5. I also included a few books that were recommended to me, either from podcasts or bestseller lists, but I didn’t especially love and why. 

With time, I’ll also slowly plan to also go through all my book lists that span back to 2016. Stay tuned!

A book I reread and still loved

1. The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch

   I sometimes like to read and reflect on mortality whenever I’m feeling anxious, and I hadn’t read this one since high school. This hit me a lot harder than it did previously. First, I put into context that Randy Pausch would be about the same age as my dad today, and it made me think about what life would be like growing up without my dad. Second, I’m so inspired that even with his short life, Pausch accomplished so many of his dreams, including working at Disney (which makes me think about how I, too, can one day also work at Disney). Third, he’s just a smart, funny guy who loves to teach, share, and pursue his ideas, and I would love to spend my life doing the same. Adding this book to my regular rotation of books to reread to remind myself that life can be tragically short yet remarkably full if you live it with intention. 

5 honorary mention books that I also enjoyed this year

1. If I Had Your Face – Frances Cha

   Fascinating read I found in the bookstore that dove into the life of different women in contemporary Seoul, touching on plastic surgery, prostitution, and motherhood. It was a no fuss, interesting, easy read that taught me a lot, even if I didn’t fall in love or was inspired by any of the women in particular. Sidenote: Reflecting on this now makes me think how cool it would be if there were a series (book or television) that examines a group of women in different cultural cities in the world, a la White Lotus style. I wish we had more instances of cultural commentary that’s smart and observant instead of hyperbolic dramatizations that is reality TV, but that’s a different topic. 

2. Silo (Wool, Book 1) and Silo (Shift, Book 2) – Hugh Howry

   Man, do I love a good sci-fi book, especially ones in a future dystopian world, and this one delivered. I came across this series first because of the Apple TV show and just had to know what happened after the finale, and I couldn’t wait till Season 2 came out. And I’m so glad I did because the book’s world and plot are fascinating. Disclaimer – Howry is a very detailed writer, at times reminding me of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, and can write at length about just one scene, and I sometimes would skip pages of his descriptions. Book 2 answered all my main questions, and the books are really long. To be determined if I’ll ever get to Book 3 or just watch the series. But would recommend at least Book 1 to sci-fi lovers.

3. The Nightingale – Kirstin Hannah

   I don’t tend to read much historical fiction, and this is the first book I read of Kristin Hannah’s. But my bookclub and I have joked that we should just be a Kristin Hannah bookclub. This book taught me so much about World War II from the point of view of women and made me feel the spectrum of emotions, including sorrow, anger, and hope. Even though it was set in France, it also made me think about my grandma growing up in Hong Kong during the war and gave me perspective on how far my family has come in the last 80 years.

4. Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng

   Another one of those books I saw everywhere and knew there was a series adaptation, but wasn’t immediately interested in. And I will admit, I do get skeptical if something appears overly commercialized. But after reading it, I understood the appeal. Ng has this power to unravel and examine human flaws and why we do and believe what we do, all without pointing fingers. This book is why products sell– it’s MAYA, most advanced, yet acceptable. It has a familiar premise – a mom and a daughter who are two outsiders who come to a perfect small town, and mystery and chaos slowly ensues. But the originality and depth of the characters, an immediate high stakes inciting incident that sets the tone of the book (a house burning, not a spoiler since that’s the title!), and solid writing made this book an entertaining read.

5. Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel

   Another amazing book that has a wide cast of characters and stories set across past and future time periods that somehow tie together at the end. Smart and imaginative, and one of those books that I’m surprised I never heard about because it was so good. I’m always impressed with sci-fi-esque books that imagine a creative future reality, but I was even more impressed with how Mandel wove it together with the past. It was almost too neatly tied up and lighter on characters and their development but still a fun read. 

6. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid

   I had seen this on so many shelves and never wanted to read it because it sounded like bad chic-lit about an actress who just kept getting remarried. But this book is a shining emblem of why you can’t judge a book by its cover. The book had so many clever and fun twists, and there’s nothing I love more than a satisfying ending (I’m still not over how Little Women ends).

3 books that people recommended but I didn’t love

1. Poor Charlie’s Almanack – Charlie Munger

   I can understand why this book is so famous. Charlie Munger is an extraordinary person, but I couldn’t get through it after reading how his children portrayed him. His kids were attempting to write positive tributes to their father, but all their stories could not mask that Charlie Munger was actually an unreasonably demanding, singularly focused, and, at times, detestable man. I’m all for more principled parenting than the current “gentle parenting” phenomenon, but sending your son back into a rainstorm on a motorboat to go across the lake to finish his chore of picking up the newspaper seems like an extreme way to teach responsibility. But perhaps it’s arguable that this is the type of parenting that builds character. I put the book down because I didn’t learn much from the initial chapters other than the fact that I don’t think I really like Charlie Munger as a person. But perhaps that’s mutually exclusive from being able to learn from him, so maybe I will give it another try and read more of his actual essays. 

2. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus

   It was a fine book. So much initial intrigue and promise in the setup about the type of woman who would write feminist reminders in the lunchbox of her 5 year old daughter and who would dread her job as one of the most famous faces in television. But the themes were common, and the plot was at times predictable. Also it had an unnecessary, long subplot about rowing crew, which did not move the story forward. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it wasn’t a bad book. Also sidenote – it’s interesting how television adapts books these days and intentionally tries to diversify the cast that were really written in the book as white (looking at you, Harriet Sloane). 

3. Olga Dies Dreaming – Xochitl Gonzalez

   Inspired by the author’s life about her mom being an activist fighting for Puerto Rico’s independence. I wouldn’t recommend it in general because I didn’t get much from the unlikability of the main character (typically I want to learn from or be challenged by characters, no matter if they’re likeable or unlikable, but Olga did neither) and how outrageous the second half of the book gets. But I did learn a lot about Puerto Rico’s history and culture. I also appreciated the commentary on the relationship between Puerto Rico and the US. Gonzalez is a good writer, and I’d commend her for accomplishing what she was trying to do. Just wasn’t my ultimate favorite book.

For reference, here’s the full list of books I read in 2024, in chronological order: 

2024: Bolded are ones I’d recommend 

1. Yellowface – R. F. Kuang
2. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
3. Expecting Better – Emily Oster
4. If I Had Your Face – Frances Cha
5. Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel
6. The Candy House – Jennifer Egan
7. What No One Tells You – Alexandra Sacks
8. The Self Driven Child – William Stixrud and Ned Johnson
9. Silo (Wool) – Hugh Howry
10. Silo (Shift) – Hugh Howry
11. Unreasonable Hospitality – Will Guidara
12. Compound Effect – Darren Harding
13. Almanac of Naval Ravikant –
14. The Nightingale – Kirstin Hannah
15. Stay True – Hua Hsu
16. Cribsheet – Emily Oster
17. Beartown – Fredrick Backman
18. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid
19. The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch
20. The Love Prescription – John Gottman, Julie Gottman
21. Olga Dies Dreaming – Xochitl Gonzalez
22. Fight Right – John Gottman, Julie Gottman
23. Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
24. Tiny Beautiful Things – Cheryl Strayed
25. Poor Charlie’s Almanack – Charlie Munger
26. The Women – Kristen Hannah