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: All About Love
Bell Hooksā All About Love explores what love means beyond romance, touching on family, community, and how we care for each other.
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Review and Summary: The Nature Fix
Feeling stuck indoors? The Nature Fix shows how nature can heal us and reveals inspiring ways people around the world embrace the outdoors.
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Review and Summary: The Brain at Rest
The Brain at Rest shows how doing nothing can actually help your brain work better. Find out how rest can boost mood, focus, and creativity.
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Review and Summary: The Call of Wonder
Can science and faith go hand in hand? The Call of Wonder offers a gentle starting point for exploring how reason and belief might connect.
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Review and Summary: The Language Puzzle
The Language Puzzle explores how language began and changed over time. This book takes you on a deep journey into how humans learned to speak.
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Review and Summary: The Genius of Birds
Think birds arenāt smart? The Genius of Birds reveals their surprising intelligence. Prepare to see them in a whole new light!
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Review and Summary: The Hidden Life of Trees
Trees talk, help each other, and even form communities. The Hidden Life of Trees reveals their secret world in a way youāll never forget.
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Review: What It Is
“What It Is” by Lynda Barry is part memoir, part writing guide, part poetry collection, and entirely its own thing.
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Review and Summary: It’s Not You, It’s Everything
Feeling burned out by life? Itās Not You, Itās Everything reveals why modern pressure is crushing us and what that says about our world.
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Review and Summary: The End of Ageing
The End of Ageing is a book about living longer that also raises the overlooked questions of retirement, fairness, and the future of society.
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Review: With My Back to the World
A poetic reflection on Agnes Martinās art, where Victoria Chang gives voice to emotions we often canāt name.
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Review: I’d Rather Be Reading
I’d Rather Be Reading explores why some book feel like they were written just for us and what makes reading so personal.
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Review and Summary: On Writing
Ready to take your writing seriously? On Writing is Kingās honest, no-nonsense guide that will remind you why your words matter.
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Review: Good Grief
Poems and stories on grief, healing, and self-love that remind you you’re not alone. Good Grief speaks to the soul.
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Review and Summary: Humble Inquiry
Humble Inquiry explores how the way we communicate shifts depending on whether we come from a place of certainty or curiosity.
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Review and Summary: This is Not the End of the Book
Not just about books, This Is Not the End of the Book explores memory, technology, storytelling, and the way we think.
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Review: Enchantment
Katherine Mayās Enchantment is a reflection on how slowing down and noticing small moments can reveal the hidden magic in everyday life.
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Review and Summary: Gathering Moss
Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer reveals the quiet wonder of the forest floor, changing how you see moss and the world around you.
Browse Nonfiction Books by Specific Genre
Have a specific book topic in mind?
Youāll 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 ā maybe you’ll want to save them too.
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Review: Atmosphere
Atmosphere tells what happens when ambition burns bright: the sacrifice, the growth, and the real cost of dreams.
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Review: At Night All Blood is Black
This Booker Prize winner exposes the true cost of war: how it destroys humanity and feeds the machinery of colonialism.
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Review: A Man Called Ove
A grumpy widower’s plan to die keeps getting interrupted. A Man Called Ove is a funny, heartbreaking story of grief and love.
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Review: Small Comfort
Five stories about money, ambition, and the dreams we hide. Small Comfort is full of bitter truths most of us are never taught.
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Review: Departure(s)
Departure(s) has a beginning, an ending, and a hole where the middle should be, and three people whose memories bend the truth.
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Review: The Words that Remain
A man holds a love letter for fifty years but can’t read a word of it. The Words That Remain is a heartbreaking story of love and time lost.
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