Here are the books I've recently read and short reviews of them, starting in 2026.

• The High Cost of Free Parking (January 2026)

These are some of my favorite books I read between 2020 and 2025, sorted by genre groups.

Science fiction

• Project Hail Mary - so good!
• The Three Body Problem - Awesome books! I don’t know how Cixin Liu came up with such good ideas and plots. The series keeps getting better as you read on.
• Red Rising - mostly war so be prepared
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - a short, entertaining read
• Brave New World - An interesting plot and the oldest book on this page (at least at the time of writing this).

Other fiction

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Definitely a page turner! I read this the week that I had my PhD qualifying exams, and it was a great book to read before bed to relax.
• Song of Solomon - good character development
• Animal Farm - metaphorical
• And the Mountains Echoed - Interesting in that it covers several decades and switches between the point of views of multiple interconnected characters.
• Pachinko - Likable characters with interesting storylines.
• Piranesi - A short fantasy novel that is super entertaining and interesting to read.
• Chain-Gang All-Stars - I really enjoyed some of the storylines and characters developed in this book about prisoners who attempt to fight and kill their way toward freedom as part of a reality TV show in America.

Memoirs

• Becoming by Michelle Obama - She is such a good writer and tells a great story. Way better than Barack’s memoir in my opinion.
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah - This is an interesting and funny read by the comedian Trevor Noah.
• I’m Glad my Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy - Jeanette, the actress who played Sam in iCarly, talks about the effect her mom had on encouraging her eating disorder and controlling her life as a young actress.

Science nonfiction

• Bonk - I’ve really liked the couple Mary Roach books I’ve read, including this one. She writes about the human body and other science topics in an engaging way with humor mixed in.
• An Immense World - I learned so much about how different animals percieve and experience the world around them. There are a lot of facts, though - beware.
• Four Laws that Drive the Universe - Atkins dives into how thermodynamics works and what all the terminology really means. It helped clarify a lot for me while also making me realize there was a lot I didn’t fully understand! It is supposedly written such that someone without a scientific or thermodynamics background can easily understand it, but I read it after having already taken several thermodynamics courses and am a little doubtful of that claim.
• Absolutely Small - This quantum mechanics book uses very minimal math, with a focus on basic conceptual understanding. Some of the material is hard to fully process without drawing it out or reviewing a little math yourself I think, but Fayer does a good job at repeating and re-explaining the trickier parts to help readers understand. I read this while taking my first quantum class, and it complemented the math-heavy side of quantum studied in class well.
• Why We Sleep - I learned a lot about sleep from this book. There has been a lot of backlash and criticism about this book, though … the facts might not be that credible. But I still liked it so am keeping it on the list.
• Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction - This book helped clarify some chemistry concepts that were confusing to me when I learned them in high school and college intro chemistry. I really liked Atkin’s organization of the ways that atoms can bond and the explanations he gave in that section. The book gave me a good overview of the field of chemistry and introduced me to some cool developments and applications.
• Into the Clear Blue Sky - Leading climate scientist Rob Jackson discusses methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove methane from the air, primarily through interviews with people around the world and personal anecdotes. The structure of the book reminds me of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel documentary.

Other nonfiction

• Strong Towns - A short, engaging book about how cities work and the effects of car-dependent infrastructure and development in America.
• Dopesick - I found it really interesting to learn about the history of the opiod crisis in America and the role of big pharma in it.
• Sidecountry - This is a compilation of articles of inspiring stories about lesser-known sports and athletes. Because who doesn’t love a good sports story?
• Freakonomics - For someone with limited economics background like me, this was an entertaining read.
• Born to Run - This book is focused on Tarahumara culture and tradition of long distance running and argues that humans evolved to run long distances.
• Deep Survival - What makes some people survive and some not in disasters in the wilderness? It turns out that it is mostly mental. Many of the stories (all true) in this book are wild.
• Quiet - This book discusses extrovert and introvert tendencies and how this differs by culture, as well as the values that both groups bring and how the two can best interact with each other.
• The Pyschopath Test - This book describes the tests used to determine if someone is a psychopath (the dividing line is blurry), how pyschopaths differ from non-psychopaths, and rehab center strategies and history.
• Sapiens - It covers the history of homo sapiens in an easy-to-read and entertaining way that makes you think. Harari shares some interesting perspectives on and opinions about the history of our species. I found it interesting that Harari dismisses religion as being made up and writes as if modern day people don’t believe in it, despite much of the world in fact believing in God.
• Braiding Sweetgrass - A collections of essays and stories mainly focused around Native American teachings and views. It really deepened my admiration of Native American people’s relationship with and gratitude for land and the other species we coexist with.
• The Gates of Gaza - Written by a journalist from a community in Israel that borders Gaza, this book alternates between recounts of the October 7th attack and the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, shared from the perspective of Israelis living in a kibbutz on the border. I found it to be an engaging, interesting read.