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Hey everyone,
Ho, ho, ho! Beginning to feel a lot like that time of the year.
If you’d like to gift a signed copy of one of my books, just reply with your name, address, and which book, and I’ll drop a signed bookplate in the mail for you. Totally free. Anywhere in the world. I always enjoy signing and sending them.
Let's get right to the books!
Neil
1. Braving The Wildernessby Brené Brown. How does she do it? How does Brené Brown take such a complex and amorphous concept like belonging and distill it into gripping stories tied around a crystalized, easy-to-remember framework? Before I read this book I had no idea belonging was even an issue. By the end I felt like it’s the central issue of our time. I felt touched and committed to making changes in my life right away. I heard Brené speak last month and said her “tribe of mentors” includes Shonda Rimes, JK Rowling, and Ken Burns. It shows. The stories are remarkable. And this is truly a powerful and quick read I can’t recommend enough. The four takeaways are simple to understand but hard to practice. At least for me. “People are hard to hate close up. Move in.”, “Speak truth to bullshit. Be civil.”, “Hold hands. With strangers.”, and “Strong back. Soft front. Wild heart.” I have a crush on her in case you couldn’t tell.
2.How Proust Can Change Your Lifeby Alain De Botton. First, I should explain how I stumbled upon it. My friend Mike has been talking about great videos he’s watched on The School of LifeYouTube Channel. I dug into it a bit and discovered the channel (and the related institution) were founded by Alain De Botton, a Swiss author and philosopher. I picked up this book and was really blown away. First off, I’ve read zero Proust. Who’s Proust? You got me. Now some of you will know he wrote the early 20th century magnum opus In Search of Lost Time. That beast clocks in at over 4000 pages. Yeah, 4000 pages! Thing makes Infinite Jestlook like a People magazine. And Proust wrote that book from age 38 until his death at age 51. It wasn’t even edited and released until after he died. It’s so massive I just am probably not getting around to that. But since his work is considered so masterful this much smaller book doubles as both a biography of Proust and a sort of arrow-stabbing insight into the heart of his writing, all brought into beautifully accessible wisdom under headings like “How to go on a vacation”, “How to be a good friend”, and “How to express your emotions.” A wonderfully written book I plan to reread again and again.
3.Baking with Kafkaby Tom Gauld. Tom Gauld draws and writes a weekly “cultural cartoon” in The Guardian. They’re super literary and seemingly written exclusively for book lovers, authors, and librarians. I guess that’s to say I really loved them. If you laugh at the examples here, here, here, and here, you’ll love this book.
4. The Rose That Grew From Concreteby Tupac Shakur. A collection of handwritten poetry Tupac wrote in his late teens and early 20s. (His tragic murder happened at age 25.) Sort of a pre-Milk and HoneyMilk and Honey, if I can call it that. I can’t explain why I picked this up but I felt moved in the way good poetry can sort of pick you up and drop you off somewhere else.
5. Pogue’s Basics: Life: Essential Tips And Shortcuts No One Bothers To Tell Youby David Pogue. Did you read Life’s Little Instruction Bookwhen you were younger? We always had it lying on the coffee table. I still remember some of the advice. Always overtip the breakfast waitress. Know how to change a spare tire. I was excited about David Pogue’s book because I thought it was going to be like that. And some of it was. Freeze clothes to get off chewing gum. Put nail polish on keys to tell them apart. Press K to pause YouTube videos. There’s even a little writeup on our old friend The Gas Arrow. But the problem is those entries have, you know, entire paragraphs explaining them when they could just be headlines. (I know! How hypocritical of me!) But they’re also wedged between meatier and more editorialized “tips” like “How not to raise an annoying dog” and even “How to be happy.” I feel like this book could have been much better edited. He has a lot of wisdom but it’s buried inside and it’s a lot of work mining it out. My wait continues for a better Life’s Little Instruction Book.
6. Mrs. Fletcherby Tom Perrotta. Did you know the movie Electionwas based on a book? I didn’t until I came across it in a remainder bin at one of my favorite downtown bookstores. I did the whole “Well, I’ve already seen that movie, so what else has this guy written?” and found this book which came out this past summer. It’s a strange book. I can’t say I loved it. But I will say it pulled me along. It’s about a 50-something who drops her son off to his freshman year at college and then develops a pornography addiction. It’s explicit but not crude and while the themes of consent and sexuality feel very fresh I felt, on the whole, that the characters were a bit thinly drawn. (As a sidenote, this book has a strange “review breakdown” on Amazon with a somewhat even split across stars. So it may not pass the Tomatometer but you could love it!)
7. The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on The Art of Livingby Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. Is there a harder working writer out there than Ryan Holiday? If so, I haven’t met that person. I do know Ryan and get a chance to see up close how hard he works at his craft. It’s inspiring. He’s 30 years old and has written six bestselling books … in the last four years. And now comes this beautiful journal. He explains a Stoic concept each week and then opens each day with a related question like “Which of my possessions own me?”, “What bad habit did I curb today?” or “Am I doing deep work?” My only qualm was the calendar structure felt a bit too strict with all the dates labeled through the year. But that’s a small quibble with what is a truly powerful tool for personal growth. As a reminder, I based this monthly book recommendation on Ryan’s email which you can sign up for here.
8. What I Learned Losing A Million Dollarsby Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan. The premise of the book is that there are a million ways to make a million dollars but a few specific and preventable ways to avoid losing a million. I skimmed the first third of the book which is really a biography of the author and how he managed to sink a ton of money as a banker. The book then gets into the psychological fallacies that cause big losses. One example is overvaluing wagers involving a low probability of high gains and undervaluing wagers involving a high probability of low gains. Another is the Monte Carlo fallacy that after a run of successes, a failure is mathematically inevitable and vice versa. Decent book but unfortunately like many business books, it could have been five pages instead of a hundred and fifty.
9. Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatchby Eileen Spinelli. I may have found it! This could be the most beautiful children’s book of all time. Move over, Love You Forever. We have a new winner in town. Well, thirty year old winner. A tear-inducing story of a lonely old man who receives a giant box of chocolates from a secret admirer which helps him become a loving citizen, friend, and neighbor. When it turns out the box was delivered to the wrong address, he quickly returns to his glum and depressed state. But the people he began loving haven’t forgotten all the love he showed them and the book closes with them lifting him back up. For ages 5-8 or, you know, anyone who wants to cry happy tears while putting their kid to bed.
10. Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna. This is a like a Shel Silverstein book of poems for millennial creatives battling all the mental anxieties that come with living online. I thought it was hilarious. And more than a few poems hit home pretty hard. There is wisdom behind the LOLs. In her poem Match she writes “sometimes you need to pick yourself up, / brush yourself off, / take a good, hard look in the mirror / and ask yourself / “would i swipe right?” In Fair she writes “life isn’t fair / but it’s unfair to everyone / so that’s fair i guess”. The longer poems are more reflective but I couldn’t fit them in here. If you like Deep Thoughtsby Jack Handey or Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Broschthis is a must-read.
