The Best Books We Read in 2026
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Discover a curated selection of the most compelling nonfiction books that educate, inspire, and captivate readers. From groundbreaking memoirs to thought-provoking essays, this blog explores stories that delve deep into real-life events, personal growth, history, science, and more. Whether you're looking for books to expand your knowledge or gain fresh perspectives, this list has something for every nonfiction enthusiast.
Demystify Generative AI for Everyday People
Book by Pritam Sahoo
Published by Digital Writopreneur
In Demystify Generative AI for Everyday People, Pritam Sahoo sets out to explain the most mystifying technology of our times with the affable cheer of a TED speaker and the confidence of someone who has spent enough hours with Google’s AI ecosystem to call it a friend. The ambition is noble: take a complex, shape-shifting subject and make it not only legible but welcoming to the “everyday person.”
But the book’s charisma, much like an overenthusiastic emcee, has a habit of wandering.
Sahoo is at his best when he treats AI as a mischievous companion, “that friend who’s read way too much and always has a clever line ready.” In these moments, the book is charming, warm, and a little bit goofy, giving readers the rare pleasure of learning something technical without feeling they’ve wandered into the wrong classroom. His core premise is sound and even elegant: generative AI is merely a tool, and its brilliance or danger depends entirely on the human behind the keyboard. His argument that ordinary people don’t need to understand the engine to drive the machine feels reassuring in a world overwhelmed by jargon.
Yet this lightness proves difficult to sustain. Midway through the book, the breezy wit gives way to a more formal, lecture-like tone, as if the crowd chuckling at a punchline suddenly realized they were enrolled in a compulsory course. The tonal shifts are jarring. One moment you’re laughing at a metaphor; the next you’re staring at terminology that would make the average person quietly close the book and reach for their evening tea.
Part of the issue lies in the promise made by the title. It gestures toward accessibility and suggests AI for the milkman, the math teacher, the neighborhood uncle who still types with one finger. However, the content skews unmistakably toward entrepreneurs, small business owners, creators, and anyone already curious about AI. If you handed it to someone who has barely made peace with WhatsApp video calling, half the vocabulary would glide cleanly over their head.
To the book’s credit, its use of AI tools in the writing is remarkably restrained. Despite being steeped in Google’s AI platforms, the prose never feels synthetic or machine-lifted. This is perhaps the book’s quiet triumph: it advocates for AI while proving, through its own natural voice, that humans still very much run the show.
Ultimately, Demystify Generative AI for Everyday People offers not a universal guidebook but a thoughtful, occasionally uneven introduction for the curious professional. If Sahoo had fully committed to a single persona, perhaps a more playful and desi-infused storyteller, the book might have achieved the warmth and accessibility its title promises. Instead, it exists in two registers: part stand-up comedy, part seminar.
Still, for those standing at the edge of the AI waters and unsure whether to dip a toe, Sahoo provides encouragement along with a gentle push. Whether it will keep “everyday people” afloat is another question.
The Power of Words
Book by Shree Shambav
Published by Clever Fox Publishing
In The Power of Words, Shree Shambav offers more than a manual on communication; he delivers a meditation on language as an ethical act. This slim but resonant book proposes that words are not mere sounds strung together but the very architecture of our relationships, each syllable shaping the reality we inhabit.
Shambav frames careless speech as a kind of moral negligence, what he calls the “sins of speaking.” We wound when we interrupt, when we answer without listening, when we speak only to reinforce our sense of self. Conversely, gracious speech becomes an act of creation. “Every word you speak is a transaction,” he reminds us, a seed that may take root as kindness or cruelty in another’s heart.
What makes this book compelling is not simply its admonitions but its insistence on mindfulness as a form of liberation. Our words, Shambav argues, are conditioned by our own biases, fears, and histories; only in stillness can we begin to hear truth as it is, unclouded by reflexive judgment. He writes with the cadence of both teacher and poet, invoking scripture (“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones”) while grounding his reflections in the everyday frictions of modern life: arguments, hurried conversations, advice offered without compassion.
The book is not prescriptive in the way of corporate communication guides. Instead, it is an invitation to inhabit speech as an art of attention. Shambav suggests that kindness is not simply ornamental but instrumental. It is what allows us to defuse conflict, to create “gardens rather than weeds” in the landscapes of our lives. A kind word, he insists, can ripple outward, touching lives in ways we may never see.
At a moment when public discourse often feels corrosive, The Power of Words reads less like a self-help tract and more like a quiet act of resistance. Its message is disarmingly simple, yet urgent: speak with grace, listen with humility, and recognize that language is not neutral. It is destiny.
Modi’s Bharat
Book by Amit Bagaria & Savio Rodrigues
Published by BlueOne Ink
Modi’s Bharat, co-authored by Amit Bagaria and Savio Rodrigues, reads less like an investigative chronicle and more like an extended tribute. The book is clearly written for those who admire Prime Minister Narendra Modi, compiling a sweeping list of achievements and initiatives credited to his government. In tone and intent, it resembles a celebratory scrapbook, a political highlight reel rather than a probing examination.
The authors’ approach will likely resonate with Modi’s supporters, who will find satisfaction in seeing their leader’s accomplishments meticulously catalogued. Yet, for readers seeking a nuanced portrait of Modi’s India, the book’s one-sided perspective may feel incomplete. The text offers little engagement with criticism, controversy, or the broader complexities of governing a country as vast and diverse as India. The absence of this counterbalance gives the book an air of advocacy rather than analysis.
Its structure, too, presents challenges. By emphasizing recent achievements without a chronological or thematic framework, the narrative risks feeling scattered and fleeting. Many of the statistics and data points cited have already shifted in the fast-moving world of Indian politics, giving the work a sense of immediacy but also impermanence. A more enduring approach, placing Modi’s policies in historical context and charting challenges alongside victories, might have elevated the book from fanfare to reportage.
Still, Modi’s Bharat offers a window into how Modi’s supporters view his tenure, and in that way, it captures an important slice of contemporary Indian political sentiment. Its unapologetic admiration makes it less a mirror of Modi’s India than a portrait painted by its most ardent believers.
Stronger
Book by Dinesh Palipana
Published by Macmillan Australia
In Stronger, Dinesh Palipana recounts a life that has been anything but ordinary. After surviving a devastating accident that left him critically injured, Palipana, Sri Lankan born and Australian trained, emerges as a storyteller of remarkable warmth, humor, and perspective. His memoir doesn’t linger on tragedy; instead, it examines resilience with a sharp wit and a Jeremy Clarkson–like irreverence. Palipana’s journey meanders through Sri Lanka’s turbulence, the corporate grind, and the daunting world of medicine, yet his focus remains firmly on what can be learned from others’ struggles as much as his own.
What sets Stronger apart is its insistence that life’s worth isn’t measured by tomorrow’s promises but by today’s presence. Palipana reminds us that extraordinary lives are rarely built by following the stream; they are forged by jumping out of it. Disability, he argues, is not synonymous with inability. His narrative celebrates discipline: “big things are a collection of little things done well,” and the unseen labor behind every achievement.
Far from being a self-help manifesto, Stronger is a meditation on perspective. Palipana’s wealth lies in relationships, laughter, and memories, not accolades. He extols curiosity, particularly the transformative power of conversations with strangers, and delivers his wisdom with a lightness that makes the book more invigorating than solemn. In a cultural moment obsessed with spectacle and speed, Palipana’s reflections feel radical. Ordinary is easy. Extraordinary requires courage. His story isn’t just inspiring; it is a quiet rebellion against despair.
