Sekar Writes
A Collection of (Mostly Nonfiction) Books Review and Personal Notes
Welcome!
Take a look around my blog, where I bring you book reviews filled with knowledges and favorite quotes. Alongside my literary explorations, I share personal stories and some side projects.
Latest Nonfiction Book Reviews
Check out my nonfiction book reviews, featuring thoughts, summaries, and favorite quotes.
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Review and Summary: Sorrow’s Long Road
Sorrow’s Long Road explains grief through science and personal stories. It helps you comfort and understanding in your journey of loss.
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Review: Empire of AI
Empire of AI takes us inside the hidden world of AI and ChatGPT. This book explores the power, risks, and the people shaping our tech future.
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Review and Summary: The Magic of Imperfection
What if imperfection is the secret to success? Explore “three-quarters baked thinking” and see how it transforms creativity and growth.
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Review: Four Walks in Central Park
Feeling burned out or lost? These four poetic walks through Central Park offer comfort, even if you’ve never been there.
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Review and Summary: Zen in the Art of Writing
Behind Ray Bradbury’s stories lies his deep passion for writing, beautifully revealed in Zen in the Art of Writing.
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Review: The Myth of Sisyphus
What happens when you slow down and asking what life is for? The Myth of Sisyphus explores the questions we’re often too afraid to face.
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Review and Summary: Leaving a Trace
Can journaling be more than just notes on a page? Leaving a Trace explores its hidden power for creativity and self-discovery.
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Review and Summary: The Wisdom of Trees
The Wisdom of Trees reveals how trees quietly sustain life, offering meaningful lessons in resilience and connection.
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Review and Summary: Letters to Milena
Letters to Milena is a portrait of an impossible love that’s too intense, too fragile, and perhaps too real for the world outside the page.
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Review: The Trouble with Being Born
The Trouble with Being Born is a dark yet thoughtful read that questions life, meaning, and being human in sharp, unforgettable lines.
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Review and Summary: Secrets of the Octopus
Think intelligence is just for mammals? Secrets of the Octopus uncovers the genius of these shape-shifting, quick-thinking creatures.
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Review and Summary: Feel Something, Make Something
Struggling to process your emotions? Feel Something, Make Something offers a gentle, creative approach to untangling feelings through art.
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Review and Summary: Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer
Wendell Berry’s choice to reject computers opens up a powerful conversation on feminism, technology, and the meaning of work.
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Review: You Are Here
You Are Here is a nature-themed poetry collection featuring 50 original poems that reflect on our connection to the earth.
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Review and Summary: Are You Mad at Me?
The trauma response no one talks about might be ruling your life. Are You Mad at Me? explains why we can’t stop people-pleasing.
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Review and Summary: More Than Words
Talking does more than share words, it trains your brain. More Than Words shows how everyday chats can boost focus, memory, and mood.
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Review: One Long River of Song
One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle is a heartfelt essay collection about nature, faith, family, and the beauty of everyday life.
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Review and Summary: The Happiness Files
Your life is the most important project you’ll ever manage. The Happiness Files shares insights for finding purpose, balance, and meaning.
Browse Nonfiction Books by Specific Genre
Have a specific book topic in mind?
You’ll likely find it in these categories!
- Biographies and Memoirs (32)
- Biology and Life Sciences (12)
- Child Development and Parenting (13)
- Climate Change (2)
- Cooking and Culinary (3)
- Critical Thinking and Research Skills (15)
- Data and Statistics (8)
- Economics (6)
- Education and Learning (10)
- Essays (26)
- Evolutionary Biology (6)
- Fitness and Human Performance (23)
- Health and Medicine (30)
- Leadership and Career (8)
- Life Transitions (11)
- Linguistics (4)
- Literature (2)
- Luck and Chance (3)
- Mathematics (2)
- Mindfulness (3)
- Nature (21)
- Neuroscience (13)
- Poetry (15)
- Politics and Society (41)
- Productivity (25)
- Psychology and Behavioral Science (49)
- Science (44)
- Self-Development (78)
- Technology and AI (10)
- UI/UX (2)
- Women's Studies (6)
- Writing (9)
From Facts to Fiction
Nonfiction teaches me about the world, but fiction helps me feel it.
Every review comes with the quotes I saved — maybe you’ll want to save them too.
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Review: Playground
Four strangers, a remote island, and an ocean full of secrets. Playground is a stunning story of nature, friendship, and life’s big questions.
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Review: The Trees
Brutal murders shake the town where Emmett Till died, and the truth cuts deeper than anyone feared. The Trees is haunting and funny.
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Review: The Deal of a Lifetime and Other Stories
A regretful father and a dying little girl meet in one hospital room. One choice could change everything, what is a single life really worth?
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Review: Arborescence
Imagines a world where humans turn into trees as the planet grows greener and emptier. A story of nature, tech, and the cost of letting go.
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Review: Heart the Lover
Heart the Lover explores how the choices we make in youth ripple through our entire lives, for better and worse.
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Review: The Details
Through malaria and fever, a woman remembers the four people who made her. The Details shows how we’re built from the ones we love.
Life in the Margins
Here’s what else you’ll find on this blog.
Reading Life
- Snapshots of my reading life: the habits, the tracking, and everything around the books.
Journaling
- Writing is how I make sense of things. A look at my journaling practice: how I do it, why I do it, and what it’s given me.
Fresh Flower Care
- There’s something grounding about tending to fresh flowers. My personal notes on keeping them beautiful and alive for longer.
Home Gardening
- Growing things at home with a lot of curiosity. A record of my small gardening experiments, wins and failures included.
Life in Helsinki, Finland
- Living in Helsinki has shaped how I read, think, and move through the world. A little window into daily life in the north.
Hi, I am Sekar!
My passion for reading (at least) one book a week fuels my love for books and drives me to share the insights with others.
Medical science by training, curious about everything else. Here I share my hobbies and the things life teaches me.
Feel free to reach out and join me in celebrating books and all the small joys that make life fuller.
Books let us know we’re not the center of the universe; the universe has many centers.
Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie