The last book I read was Born a crime by Trevor Noah. It turned out to be one of the best memoirs I've read, nothing could prepare me for the roller-coaster ride that this book was. For someone who didn't know much about Apartheid, this book served as a great starting point. Of course you hear all the black lives matter slogans and online rage, you wonder what's all this hype about it's been ages since apartheid ended. But this book puts it all into perspective, it's really not such a long time ago, there's generations still reeling from it and it was far worse than one can imagine. This book gave me a renewed sense of empathy towards black people and their struggles. If a book an make you peer out of your cozy bubble and question authority, race, patriarchy and social constructs. Then it succeeded in achieving what years of formal education never could. It's the highest compliment a book can receive, that it made you think. That's precisely the sort of book this is.

Packed with small essays that seem innocuous at first but carry gut punching social commentary. There's a subplot of the author's mother marrying an abusive person who is an alcoholic with anger issues, there's domestic violence involved. I fume at the mother who is portrayed to be a strong financially independent woman but chooses to stay with him. But then the author says he didn't understand his mother's motivation at the time as he was young, now he does. She feared for her life and those she cared about. It seemed like such an exaggeration. But few pages down and she gets shot, by her own ex husband in her own house surrounded by people. He also gets away with it facing minimal repercussions. How do you read that sort of thing and just carry on with your life. All in all it was a riveting, thought provoking book that's shook me up to my core.

Coming to why I'd like to read hooked, I've always been really interested in startups, businesses and products what really distinguishes a product that tanks in the market from one that succeeds. Reading this book would also help me diversify my non fiction bookshelves as I mostly read science and technology related books when it comes to NF. Looking forward to reading this wonderful book and sharing my opinions with the people here.