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: Why The Poor Don’t Kill Us
Why the Poor Donāt 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? Machiavelliās 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 isnāt 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
BrenĆ© Brownās Strong Ground explores vulnerability, values, and grounded leadership. Hereās 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 Explorerās Gene, Hutchinson takes readers through science, history, and storytelling to uncover why weāre wired to seek the unknown.
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Review: Deborah Levy’s Living Autobiography
Deborah Levyās 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 Rogersā 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 Lewisās 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 isnāt something you chase but something you learn to shape? Thatās the main idea behind Flow by MihĆ”ly CsĆkszentmihĆ”lyi.
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Review and Summary: Playful
We often think adults shouldnāt play, but Playful shows why play help us grow and thrive in careers that didnāt exist a decade ago.
Browse Nonfiction Books by Specific Genre
Have a specific book topic in mind?
Youāll 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 (79)
- 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: The Island of Missing Trees
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak is a moving story of love, war, exile, and a fig tree that remembers what history tries to erase.
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Review: In Ascension
In Ascension follows a marine biologist as climate change, deep-sea research, and space exploration collide.
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Review: The Wedding People
A woman at her lowest checks into a hotel and unexpectedly walks into a wedding. The Wedding People shows how strangers pull her back.
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Review: The Forty Rules of Love
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak tells a layered story of love, faith, and transformation across centuries.
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Review: There Are Rivers in the Sky
There Are Rivers in the Sky unfolds three characters living in different times and places, reveals how deeply they are connected by rivers.
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Review: On the Calculation of Volume I
On the Calculation of Volume I is a haunting time-loop novella where November 18 repeats for one woman. Time itself feels broken.
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