Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J. Sandel. Whether you agree with him or not, it gives you a lot to think about in terms of how to organise society in a way that helps people flourish. Also contains some deep insights into some of society's current problems.

Shon Faye's 'The Transgender Issue'. Revolutionary.

1941, picked up a copy when visiting Pearl Harbor in October. Made me realize nation states will take suicidal decisions knowingly, politics and institutions can lead to insane burden the populace will have to take over. Projecting to today, it makes me think a war with the east is not improbable.

That will be Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's Smells, by Harold McGee. I doubt it will have the same impact as his masterwork On Food And Cooking, but, by jove, it blew my mind several times.

The book is a somewhat systematic tour of the smells of the world. Most of which are generated, one way or another, by organisms. It makes you realize that (because of this simple fact) the world is an even more special place than you already thought: most of the smells in this world probably exist nowhere else in the universe.

The book makes you see (smell) the similarities between things as disparate as a pine trees and lemons, melons and fish, ants and ginger, and it explains why they exist. You come out of the experience with a rich new vocabulary and a plethora of fascinating facts.

The book is a bit technical (lots of high school level organic chemistry) but it is a joy to read, because McGee is a very good writer who manages to be precise and lyrical at the same time. A book to savor slowly.

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, translated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West

https://www.nyrb.com/products/when-we-cease-to-understand-th...