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.
Me, More or Less
These lists are pretty much describe me in a nutshell.
Latest Nonfiction Book Reviews
Check out my nonfiction book reviews, featuring thoughts, summaries, and favorite quotes.
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Review: Collaborating with the Enemy
Collaborating with the Enemy unpacks idea of stretch collaboration and the choices that shape how we work with others.
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Review and Summary: Why The Poor Don’t Kill Us
Why the Poor Don’t Kill Us by Manu Joseph is examining poverty, power, and why inequality rarely leads to revolt.
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Review: Poetry Unbound
New to poetry and not sure where to start? Poetry Unbound is the perfect guide to help you discover the beauty and meaning behind every poem.
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Review and Summary: Embracing Alienation
Embracing Alienation explores outsiderhood across cultures and identities, suggesting alienation as a source of freedom and meaning.
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Review: The Rebel
The Rebel by Albert Camus explores rebellion, moral guilt, and violence in an absurd world where crime seeks justification.
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Review: For Small Creatures Such as We
Can we find meaning without faith? Sasha Sagan explores rituals and wonder through a secular lens in For Small Creatures Such as We.
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Review: The Prince
Curious why a 500-year-old book keeps resurfacing in global events? Machiavelli’s ideas in The Prince still shape power and politics today.
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Review: The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting
Evanna Lynch shares a raw emotional story of eating disorder and healing that shows why perfection isn’t worth chasing.
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Review: The Art of Thief
The Art Thief tells the true story of a man who stole hundreds of artworks. Not for profit, but to admire them in secret at home.
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Review: A Velocity of Being
Why reading matters? A Velocity of Being is a collection of letters written by wonderful people about how reading shaped their lives.
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Review and Summary: Strong Ground
Brené Brown’s Strong Ground explores vulnerability, values, and grounded leadership. Here’s my take and the insights that stood out most.
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Review: The Peace of Wild Things
The poems in The Peace of Wild Things beautifully frames our inner unrest with lyrical brilliance, deeply resonating with today’s anxieties.
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Review and Summary: The Explorer’s Gene
In The Explorer’s Gene, Hutchinson takes readers through science, history, and storytelling to uncover why we’re wired to seek the unknown.
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Review: Deborah Levy’s Living Autobiography
Deborah Levy’s Living Autobiography trilogy is a poetic meditation on womanhood, writing, and self-reinvention through the decades.
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Review: The World According to Mister Rogers
Fred Rogers’ thoughts on silence and wonder pulled me into his book. It explores the heart behind his meaningful words.
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Review and Summary: An Experiment in Criticism
What if the value of a book depends on the person reading it? Read Lewis’s take on reading that may reshape your own reading habits.
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Review: The Dawn of Everything
The Dawn of Everything reshapes our understanding of human history with bold, thought-provoking ideas that challenge familiar stories.
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Review and Summary: Flow
What if happiness isn’t something you chase but something you learn to shape? That’s the main idea behind Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.
From Facts to Fiction
Nonfiction teaches me about the world, but fiction helps me feel it.
Every review comes with the quotes I saved.
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Review: The Bright Years
The Bright Years looks like a sweet love story at first, but it hides addiction, secrets, and a family falling apart underneath.
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Review: On Earth as it is Beneath
On Earth As It Is Beneath is set in a Brazilian prison built on hidden bones, where inmates are hunted each month in a brutal survival ritual.
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Review: Demon Copperhead
Demon Copperhead, forced to grow up too fast amid poverty, addiction, and a broken foster system. A rich retelling of a Dickens classic.
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Review: And Every Morning the way Home Gets Longer
A grandfather is forgetting his memory. His son and grandson are left holding onto what’s slipping away in this short, aching book by Backman.
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Review: The Answer Is No
Meet Lucas, a man happy in his own world, until a frying pan changes everything in The Answer is No, Fredrik Backman’s witty short book.
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Review: The Trouble with Happiness and Other Stories
Some people always want more from life than life will hand them. The Trouble with Happiness is about that ache, and the homes it wrecks.
Browse Nonfiction Books by Specific Genre
Have a specific book topic in mind?
You’ll likely find it in these categories!
- Biographies and Memoirs (33)
- 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 (27)
- 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 (80)
- Technology and AI (10)
- UI/UX (2)
- Women's Studies (6)
- Writing (9)
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 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
- Looking after fresh flowers asks me to slow down and be present. Here are my personal notes on keeping them beautiful and alive for longer.
Home Gardening
- There’s something grounding about growing things at home. Follow along with my notes as I watch things grow, season by season.
Life in Helsinki, Finland
- Living in Helsinki has shaped how I read, think, and move through the world. A little window into my 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