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Presenting the best books I DIDN’T read this year (but wanted to). The end of one year and the beginning of another is arbitrary, but it still leaves you with a sense of an ending, and with that comes everything that was left undone — or in this case, unread. I think it’s important to remind myself that December 31st is not a deadline. I would love to know what books you wanted to read this year but couldn’t get to. Write it in the comments below or post your own picture of #bestbooksididntreadin2019. Let’s bond over what still remains to be done/read, and know that it’s okay to carry some of our unfinished business with us into the new year. #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookish #bestreads2019 #booksididntread #tbr #igreads #readersofinstagram #reading #books #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookcommunity #readingchallenge #reading2019

Move over Mickey Mouse, and make way for the New Kings of pop culture! One of my most fun reads this year, Bhutto’s latest book argues that the days of global dominance of American culture have come to an end, overtaken by the “new arbiters of mass culture” from outside the western world: Bollywood, Turkish TV (dizi) and (very briefly) K-Pop. To prove how global they are in their reach and allure, Bhutto reports from Peshawar, Dubai, Beirut, Lima, Seoul, and even a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon. If you grew up in Pakistan in the eighties and had access to cable tv, chances are you grew up watching American cartoons, sitcoms and soap operas like The Bold and the Beautiful (which I used to watch when my parents weren’t home). Fast forward a few decades, I was part of the Turkish TV (dizi) craze in Pakistan that started in 2010 and faithfully followed Behlul’s antics in Ishq e Mamnoon and the epic intrigues and delicious sets and costumes of Mera Sultan. It was interesting to read about my own experience in the context of what’s happening in the world. Among other highlights and interesting tidbits of information/anecdotes, Bhutto interviews Shah Rukh Khan in Dubai, spends time at his annual birthday party celebration by his fans in Lima (my favourite part of the book), and talks to Halit Ergenç (the actor who played Sultan Suleiman), who throws shade at Sex and the City. Weaving together themes of migration, globalisation, representation, of the neoliberal economic world order and the people it left behind, New Kings is a thoughtful and entertaining look at the shifting landscape of global pop culture. I just wish it had been longer and more detailed, and that we heard more from the people she interviewed (the best parts were her interactions with people). It’s worth noting that the book was commissioned by @columbiagr and designed to be a super short read. Sadly it’s not available in Pakistan yet but will be early in 2020! #newkingsoftheworld #fatimabhutto #bookstagram #books #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #readersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #igreads

Some old favourites and recent reads for #nonfictionnovember. I love a good novel, but reading nonfiction (memoir, essays, reportage, history, science) is a different but equally joyful thing for me. And as you can probably tell by how well-worn some of these are, I read nonfiction books almost like textbooks, underlining, marking and scribbling in the margins. Have you read any of these? Do you write in your books too? #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #books #bookish #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #nonfiction #bibliophile #bookishlove #booksbooksbooks

I meant to post this on #worldmentalhealthday, but it’s always a good time to talk about mental health. If you’re looking for the latest scientific research into depression and anxiety, look no further than this eye-opening book. It will forever shift your perspective on mental health. Johann Hari’s book revolves around his own personal journey with depression, after having taken antidepressants for years and still feeling depressed. According to the answers he had been given about depression by his doctors, this shouldn’t have been happening. So he set out in pursuit of better answers. Essentially, Hari is critical of the dominant view that depression and anxiety are caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and must be treated primarily with antidepressants. After combing through the scientific data (which is not nearly as robust as you’d think), he concludes that drugs do help some people and they helped him for a while too, but that they will not cure most of us. The facts suggest that there are biological factors that contribute to depression and anxiety, but – and here’s the point of his book – if we allow biology to be the whole picture, we are being grossly inaccurate and unjust to people who are suffering. Most of the factors that have been proven to cause depression and anxiety are not biological, they’re “factors in the way we live.” Like our biological needs, we all have natural social and psychological needs that must be met: to belong, to feel your life has meaning and purpose, that people see and value you. Our current (capitalist, consumerist) culture is not good at helping us meet these needs; in fact it makes it very difficult to be happy. Also crucial: Hari says you can’t solve depression by only making individual changes to your life. Because depression is a collective problem, the solutions must be collective too. “If you stay broken up and isolated, you will likely stay depressed and anxious. But if you band together, you can change your environment.” — “Your depression is not a malfunction, it’s a signal. It’s telling you something.” @johann.hari — #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #johannhari #mentalhealthawareness #books #bookish

Reading this book has made me so, so happy. I bought it to read to my writing students, but it’s filled my own heart with joy. — The idea of the book was ignited by a shared love and belief in the power of the written word by two women who get it. Maria Popova (of Brain Pickings @brainpicker) and children’s book publisher Claudia Bedrick reached out to writers, artists, scientists, philosophers, and ‘cultural heroes of various stripes,’ inviting each to write ‘a short letter to the young readers of today and tomorrow about how reading sculpted their character and their destiny.’ — The result is this beautiful book. It contains over a hundred letters from the likes of Neil Gaiman, Ursula Le Guin, Jane Goodall, Shonda Rhymes, Rebecca Solnit, Dani Shapiro, Marina Abramović, Anne Lamott, Judy Bloom, Yo-Yo Ma and so many others. Each letter is paired with an illustration by an artist ‘to bring its message to life visually.’ And if that wasn’t reason enough to love this book, all proceeds from its sales will go to the New York public library system. — Reading is magic, plain and simple, and a childhood spent with books shapes us in wonderful ways we can’t fully explain. In her forward, Maria Popova gives us perhaps one of the best descriptions of reading ever: she describes the notion of reading as an ‘intellectual, emotional and spiritual surrender to a cohesive thread of thought composed by another human being, through which your own interior world can undergo a symphonic transformation.’ WOW! — #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #childrensbooks #mariapopova #mariapopovabrainpickings #books #readersofinstagram #amreading #reading #bibliophile #bookish #lovebooks #igreads #booksbooksbooks #booksandcoffee #readersofig #readerslife #readinglife

Lahore transforms when it rains. Reading about depressing stuff (air pollution) but this view is helping me feel better. Working from @comomuseum again today 😍 — #rainylahore #workhardanywhere #work #rainyday #rain #lahore #comomuseum

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