A Blog on Books

After reading, finishing, and sitting with The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer , I feel confident saying this is not only one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read — it’s also my personal favourite in the popular science genre. Last year, I read The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human , also by Siddhartha Mukherjee. While I appreciated the ideas it explored, it didn’t leave quite the same impression. So I approached The Emperor of All Maladies somewhat cautiously, unsure of what to expect after a lukewarm experience with his more recent work. In hindsight, I’m so glad I picked it up. I’m already thinking about revisiting The Song of the Cell with fresh eyes and reading more of Mukherjee’s work. An Emotional and Scientific Journey This book is not always an easy read emotionally — cancer is a heavy, deeply human topic. In my undergraduate classes, I learned about the biology of cancer in a clinical, detached way: the mechanisms behin...

It’s been a long time since I’ve picked up a self-help book. To be honest, I’ve usually found them either too specific and narrow to be widely useful, or the complete opposite—so vague they feel like filler stretched across hundreds of pages. Most of the time, I finish those kinds of books thinking the same message could’ve been delivered in a 10-minute YouTube video. So when I started reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , I didn’t have the highest expectations. But I’m happy to say that this book proved me wrong. I probably wouldn’t have read it on my own. My mom saw a TikTok recommending it, and since I was off for the summer before starting school again in August, I figured I had the time. Not working over the break was starting to make me feel unproductive and restless, so I thought, 'Why not give it a try?' Even though I expected the usual repetition and fluff that tends to come with books in this genre, I went into it with an open mind. And I was genuinely sur...