On this journey, I create some of my own “best of” categories to look back at the books I read this year and the podcast. I also talk about my reading plan for next year and changes coming to the podcast, in sha Allah.

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Books

• Non-fiction that made me go “whoooa” the most: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
• Non-fiction that changed my perspective on a global scale: Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall
• Novel that I learnt the most from: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• Novel that I was most conflicted about while reading: The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
• Novel that defied my expectations: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

 

Podcast Episodes

• Most enjoyable episode: The themed episodes: Ep. 32 – Reading Far Away Lands and Ep. 38 – Reading Children’s Literature – Then and Now
• Episode that makes me realise how much I’ve learnt since recording: Ep. 21. China: China in Ten Words by Hua Yu
• Episode I learnt the most in while recording: Ep. 23 + Ep. 24: Algeria: Au Café by Mohammed Dib
• Easiest episode to record: Ep. 34. USA: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
• Hardest episode to record: Ep. 35. Nigeria: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

Other Books Mentioned (by me and Instagram Live commenters)

• White Dancing Elephants by Chaya Bhuvaneswar
• The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison
• When We Were Arabs by Masoud Hayoun (discussed by Assia in Ep. 32 – Reading Far Away Lands)
• The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell