Here are a few books I read recently that are worth checking out.

Fiction

• Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. First book I read by this Polish Nobel laureate. A unique collection of stories, some just one-paragraph reflections, others longer, all loosely connected by the theme of travel. Her style is captivating and I really enjoyed it.
• Un lugar soleado para gente sombría (A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories) by Mariana Enríquez. A collection of contemporary short horror stories, in my opinion, much better than her previous collections. I love the style of this Argentinian author: an enchanting, casual voice to describe everyday life twisted by unsettling elements. For something longer, don’t miss her amazing novel Nuestra Parte de Noche (Our Share of Night).
• The Vegetarian by Han Kang. A strange novel by the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. While the prose and style are beautiful, I didn’t particularly connect with the story. Still, it’s worth reading given her recent recognition and the fact that it’s a short read. I’m looking forward to trying some of her other works.

• Maniac by Benjamin Labatut. True to his style of historical fiction, Labatut shares several biographical stories, most notably that of John von Neumann. Von Neumann was a genius central to the development of both the atomic bomb and the first computer (initially developed and used to calculate the bomb’s destructive power). I found the final section about AlphaGo, the AI program that beat Go master Lee Sedol, less compelling, weakly connected to the rest of the book (the only connection seems to be computer developments), and a strange finish. Maybe he included it to get to a minimum number of pages for the book.
• Wanderers by Chuck Wendig. Great (and long) sci-fi novel about a group of mysterious sleepwalkers. I didn’t particularly enjoy the writing style, but the story is very interesting. I can’t say more without spoilers.

Non-fiction

• Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. A detailed, sobering, and frankly terrifying account of how the nuclear weapons infrastructure works and how a nuclear war could start. Built on the technological legacy of figures like von Neumann (from Maniac), this war machine defies logic or moral justification. The power to unleash global destruction lies in the hands of a very small number of individuals who probably aren’t balanced enough, if anyone could be, with that power! There are minimal checks and balances to the destructive power these individuals have. 
• The Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. A continuation of Gladwell’s classic and excellent The Tipping Point, this book explores social pandemics and their tipping points through recent real-world examples. Great and entertaining read.
• Taming Silicon Valley by Gary F. Marcus. A manifesto by AI expert Gary Marcus arguing against the unregulated development of AI by big tech (Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, etc.), especially the generative AI wave we’re currently seeing. While I don’t agree with all his concerns, many of his points are valid. Most governments have avoided regulating AI, perhaps out of ignorance or overwhelmed by its rapid evolution. Marcus offers policy recommendations, though many would be difficult to implement.

If you’re looking for more, you can check out my previous book recommendations post here.