Books I’ve Read and Recommend
Here are some books I’ve read and would recommend, along with my own reflections. Some made me reconsider my life, some connected things I had learned in different subjects, and others left me with questions that mattered more than their answers.
I’ve grouped them by topic. Ratings are out of ten and come from my reading notes. Beyond the numbers, I want to remember why I recommend each book and what I was thinking when I read it. I’ll keep adding to this list.
University, growth, and the self
金榜题名之后：大学生出路分化之谜
Zheng Yajun · 10/10 · Finished June 2026
Reading this book about how university students end up on different paths felt like looking in a mirror. After the college entrance exam, the thing that had occupied most of my life suddenly disappeared. University brought GPA, papers, student organizations, and career decisions, but my habit of thinking through grades and rankings stayed with me.
One question stayed with me: why do being a good student and finding a path forward follow different rules? Students at the same university may have very different access to information and resources, and different understandings of their goals. Effort and grades alone leave too much unexplained.
I’m glad I read it in the second semester of my sophomore year. Earlier, I might not have recognized so much of it; later, I might have wished I’d found it sooner. I especially recommend it to people entering university, or already there and unsure what all their busyness is for.
Educated
Tara Westover · 9/10 · Finished June 2026
The Chinese title is evocative, so I initially wondered why the English title was simply Educated. Thinking back on the author’s painful relationship with her family, I began to see the connection: education can give someone the ability to judge their circumstances and choose a different life.
I find it difficult to fully relate to her family experiences. What troubled me most was the distance between knowing rationally that she needed to leave and being able to accept it emotionally. Even finding her own way out did not mean she could change everyone around her. That struggle stayed with me more than the story of academic success.
The Courage to Be Disliked
Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga · 9/10 · Finished June 2026
The idea that stayed with me most was the separation of tasks. It initially sounded cold, but on reflection it helped distinguish care from control: expressing an opinion does not mean choosing for someone else, or needing everyone to approve of me.
Much of my worry is about what others think of me. The discussion of equal relationships, comparison, and inferiority gave me another way to examine that habit. The dialogue between a young man and a philosopher makes for a quick read, though the information density is fairly low and the questions do not always follow my own train of thought. I still recommend it, especially to people whose feelings are easily pulled around by others’ judgments.
Learning and ways of thinking
认知觉醒
Zhou Ling · 10/10 · Finished May 2026
I happened to read this book during a low period, which shaped my response to it. Many of its ideas were familiar. What made me reflect was the question of why so little of what I read actually made it into my life.
In my notes, I wrote that I worried about the future while studying and about my studies while relaxing. Neither activity felt satisfying. The discussions of attention, concrete plans, and breaking goals into smaller steps connected directly to those problems. The high rating has a lot to do with timing. I’d recommend it to someone who knows plenty of advice but feels they are still going in circles.
How We Learn
Benedict Carey · 9/10 · Finished September 2026
The title initially sounded like a sales pitch. Isn’t learning just sitting at a desk and studying hard? As I read, I noticed how tightly my image of learning was tied to concentration, effort, and suffering.
The book’s discussions of spaced study, self-testing, interleaving, and rest made me question those assumptions. Even after finishing it, I still felt an instinctive distrust of the idea that learning could be enjoyable. That reaction says something in itself. I’d recommend it to anyone used to measuring learning by hours spent and hardship endured.
Thinking in Systems
Donella H. Meadows · 9/10 · Finished May 2026
The systems here differ from the programs and models I usually work with, yet they connect to things I’ve studied before: feedback and self-organization in high-school biology, and predator–prey models in differential equations.
My main takeaway was to ask more about the relationships surrounding a problem. What we see may be only one part of a system; looking at it alone can hide what is happening around it. I recommend this to readers who enjoy connecting ideas across subjects.
The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom
Stephen M. Stigler · 8/10 · Finished March 2026
I made separate notes on aggregation, information, likelihood, intercomparison, regression, design, and residuals. One particularly interesting question was why compressing observations into a statistical summary can bring us closer to what we want to know, even though it discards detail.
Following these questions connects statistical methods with the difficulties they address: measurement error, differences in data, and aspects of observations that a model does not explain well. I recommend it to readers who have encountered statistics and want to understand more of the thinking behind the methods.
Individuals in history
1587, A Year of No Significance
Ray Huang · 10/10 · Finished August 2026
I liked the way this book is organized around the circumstances of the Wanli Emperor, Zhang Juzheng, Shen Shixing, Hai Rui, Qi Jiguang, and Li Zhi. Each chapter can read like a short biography; together, they form a portrait of a dynasty.
When I read popular Ming history as a child, it was easy to focus on heroes, villains, winners, and losers. This time I was more interested in why people with such different characters and choices encountered limits they could not overcome. The relationships between personal morality, bureaucratic habits, and institutions stayed with me. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical stories and wants to ask what lies behind them.
To Live
Yu Hua · 10/10 · Reread May 2026
This was my third encounter with To Live, counting an earlier reading and the film. Previously, my main impression was simply how much Fugui suffered. This time, I paid more attention to the historical circumstances of his life.
He tries to rebuild his life, only to face another blow when things begin to improve. War, political campaigns, and social change land on an ordinary person and his family. That was what moved me most in this rereading. I recommend returning to it, too: the same book really can reveal different things at different times.
Love, marriage, and people’s circumstances
The Art of Loving
Erich Fromm · 10/10 · Finished July 2026
My notes on this book currently consist mostly of excerpts. They gather around one question: when we think about love, are we concerned with whether we deserve to be loved, or whether we have the ability to love?
The discussions of giving, care, responsibility, respect, and understanding are worth reading alongside novels about relationships. The emphasis on knowing another person as they actually are connects especially well with the questions about fantasy in The Painted Veil and Madame Bovary. I recommend it to anyone who wants to think carefully about what loving someone means.
The Painted Veil
W. Somerset Maugham · 10/10 · Finished August 2026
I read Love in the Time of Cholera, Madame Bovary, and The Painted Veil over the same summer, so I naturally thought about them together. A marriage that looks respectable from outside and the happiness of the people inside it seem to be different things.
In my notes on The Painted Veil, I asked: after lifting the veil, can we still love the person in front of us? As Kitty begins to see through things she once valued, she also begins to understand others differently. Her changes made me ask how much of our hope for happiness we entrust to marriage and love, and how much we need to face ourselves.
I recommend the other two alongside it. Love in the Time of Cholera (10/10, finished August 2026) made me think about different forms of love and the distance between fantasy, passion, and long companionship. Madame Bovary (9/10, finished the same month) drew my attention to Emma’s imagined romantic life and the way the identity of “wife” can constrain a person. Reading them together leaves even more to consider.
The Vegetarian
Han Kang · 10/10 · Finished August 2026
I read it in one day, my first encounter with Korean literature. My immediate response was a sense of dread and oppression; it sent a chill down my spine.
Alongside the other books, it made me think about the women’s circumstances: among the demands of fathers, husbands, and family, how much room remains for a person’s own wishes? My notes focus on the sisters’ pain, resistance, and responsibilities they cannot easily escape. I recommend it because it made me pause over these questions, though the reading experience is certainly heavy.