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I currently have 432 books on my "books to read" Pinterest board, but that doesn't stop me from adding more. Here are a few intriguing books that I've added to the list recently.
Recent Additions To My Reading List
Genius Gut: The Life-Changing Science Of Eating For Your Second Brain by Dr. Emily Leeming
Science Nonfiction
Ever experienced ‘gut feelings’ or ‘butterflies in your stomach’? Turns out there’s real science behind them. Your gut isn’t just a digestive system, it’s a powerhouse—your second brain.
Microbiome scientist and registered dietitian Dr. Emily Leeming explains the ground-breaking evidence on the relationship between food and mood, unveiling the powerful gut-brain connection and exciting new links to your gut bacteria.
Understand how the food you eat and the habits surrounding it can elevate your memory, sharpen your focus, and make you feel amazing through the Genius Gut method.
Why I want to read it: Honestly, I'm hesitant about this one. It sounds way too much like cure-all self-help nonsense. However, I read I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong earlier this year, and it made me curious about the microbiome. I want to know about the creatures that live inside me and what they're doing in there. I hope they like Diet Coke and nachos. That's mostly what I feed them.
High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped And How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley
Psychology Nonfiction
When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”—in our politics, at work, or at home—it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over.
That’s what “high conflict” does. It’s the invisible hand of our time. And it’s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s good conflict, and it’s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people.
High conflict, by contrast, is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them. In this state, the normal rules of engagement no longer apply. The brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side.
New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict—and how they break free.
Why I want to read it: I want to read more Amanda Ripley books. I loved The Unthinkable, which is about how people survive natural disasters and other random deadly events. I'm interested in this book because I'm still attempting to have a relationship with my parents. They live in a different reality than me. In their reality, I'm stupid, evil, and destroying the world. In my reality, I'm way too tired to be nefarious. It's confusing for sure.
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Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Adult Literary Fiction
Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.
Why I want to read it: It keeps winning awards! Also, at the end of last year, I read 200+ "Best Books Of 2024" lists. This novel showed up frequently. According to reviewers, it's a darkly funny story about a man trying to uncover a family secret.
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On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
History Nonfiction
Timothy Snyder is one of the most celebrated historians of the Holocaust. In his books Bloodlands and Black Earth, he has carefully dissected the events and values that enabled the rise of Hitler and Stalin and the execution of their catastrophic policies. With Twenty Lessons, Snyder draws from the darkest hours of the twentieth century to provide hope for the twenty-first. As he writes, “Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism and communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.”
Why I want to read it: Because . . . *Gestures vaguely at everything.*
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Pathogenesis: A History Of The World In Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy
History Nonfiction
According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires.
Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through sixty thousand years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals, the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one of the world’s major religions.
By placing disease at the center of his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about our collective past—and urges us to view this moment as another disease-driven inflection point that will change the course of history.
Why I want to read it: This is another book that ended up on my list after reading I Contain Multitudes. I guess the takeaway from this blog post is that you should read I Contain Multitudes. I want to know everything about the interaction between humans and microbes. For some reason, it's a very interesting subject.
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The Sound Of A Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Nature Nonfiction
While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater understanding of her own confined place in the world.
Intrigued by the snail’s molluscan anatomy, cryptic defenses, clear decision making, hydraulic locomotion, and mysterious courtship activities, Bailey becomes an astute and amused observer, providing a candid and engaging look into the curious life of this underappreciated small animal.
Why I want to read it: This is another book I'm hesitant about. It sounds a bit . . . sentimental. But, the book has tons of fans, and I'm always happy to learn snail facts.
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Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Adult Historical Horror
Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifred spends within the estate’s dreary confines and the more she learns of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family, the more trouble she has sticking to her plan.
Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past until her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning.
Why I want to read it: It's historical horror! Those are two of my favorite genres. The synopsis reminds me of The Butcher's Hook by Janet Ellis, which is one of my favorite historical horror novels. Bring on the Victorian gore!
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Walden; Or, Life In The Woods by Henry David Thoreau
Nature Nonfiction
Originally published in 1854, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, is a vivid account of the time that Henry D. Thoreau lived alone in a secluded cabin at Walden Pond. It is one of the most influential and compelling books in American literature.
Why I want to read it: A few weeks ago, I got a really bad respiratory infection and spent a week suffocating in front of the TV. I was watching random travel videos on YouTube and came across one about Walden Pond. Now I can't find the video. Maybe I hallucinated it. I don't know. I loved how it blended nature, history, philosophy, and literature. The video spent a lot of time talking about this book and its author. Now I want to read the book.
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Have you read any of these? What did you think of them?
Which books have you added to your reading list recently?
I did love The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. And it is a bit sentimental. It helped me through the grief of losing my aunt - there is just such a quiet quality about it. And, all the snail facts helped make me especially nerdy when I got together with my friends after reading it and I had to download all my new information to them. Lol.
ReplyDeleteOn Tyranny sounds excellent.
ReplyDeleteMartyr! sure piqued my interest. I kept seeing it, too.
ReplyDeleteyani @ litfae ✿
Martyr! is also on my TBR and I'm very curious about it cos it does keep winning awards and everyone seems to love it. I bought it earlier this year and I hope that I'll be able to get to it at some point this year to see what all the hype is about!
ReplyDeleteGet 'On Tyranny' right away. It will blow your mind. It is also very short. Doesn't belabor any point. I read the graphic novel version of it, my husband read the regular print version. Both excellent.
ReplyDeleteI am all about the gut health to protect my brain. I try to eat 30 different plants a week, but I don't go crazy. I hope you learn some good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI have over *cough* 700 on my want to read list, LOL! I am always reading from it, the problem is that I am always adding to it as well! I have been blog hopping today and have added several already, LOL!
ReplyDeleteThankfully I had added a couple of the books to my TBR when I saw them in a previous post on your blog, so I have two less books to add to my TBR in total :)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ladyinreadwrites.com/magic-lamps-for-book-lovers-10-reading-wishes-to-ask-a-genie/
So many of these are new to me! Lots of intriguing titles...
ReplyDeleteA good collection with a variety of genres. These days, I think everyone needs to read "On Tyranny"
ReplyDeleteI keep seeing Martyr! around too. It definetly dings my curiosity.
ReplyDeleteI had to read Walden for college classes and remember finding it incredibly boring but interesting. We had some great in-class discussions about it.
ReplyDeleteI too would like to try Pathogenesis.
I've heard excellent things about Martyr!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of these, but they do look good. I hope you enjoy them.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of these, but I do remember hearing/seeing a lot of praise for the Wild Snail book! hope you enjoy.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic list. So many of them look good, and I really learned a lot from Pathogenesis. Victorian Psycho looks too good to pass up, so that's going right on my TBR.
ReplyDeleteI've only read Walden from this list. I enjoyed it!
ReplyDeletePathogenesis sounds absolutely fascinating - that needs to go on my want-to-read, stat!
ReplyDeleteI am intrigued by The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. Hope you'll love all of these!
ReplyDelete