And now, let's pull down the shades and escape our world for a little bit...
1. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell. “Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.” Have you heard this Gustave Flaubert quote or one of its variations? I thought about it a lot before interviewing David Mitchell this month for 3 Books. I was beyond nervous. I have read all his novels since picking up his best known book Cloud Atlas back in 2012 (after learning of it through the criminally underrated Wachowski siblings film -- just read the comments on that trailer!). Five of David's past six books have been nominated for The Booker Prize, TIME declared him one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People, and Esquire called him "a genre leaping, mind bending, world-traveling, puzzle-making, literary magician." Well, both David himself and his brand new book Utopia Avenue do not disappoint. The book is a deeply woven tale of a psychedelic folk band emerging from the British music scene in the 1960s layered with vivid characters, twisting backstories, and an accelerating plot that crescendos onto a different plane by the end. And, amazing, fits with a snap into the evolving Mitchell Multiverse. I highly recommend it. And for my 3 Books conversation with the literary magician himself, click here. PS. To David Mitchell fans, I think this the longest interview with David available anywhere as well as his first podcast in five years. Nerd giggle.
Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - June 2020
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
How are you holding up between screeching halts and face-rippling accelerations? Has your work and life merged into one low-grade buzz at this point? Getting oriented in a disorienting world is tough. Books can help. Snap the addictive wafer in your pocket, kick the TV downstairs like a Slinky, and dive into a good book.
Below are my recommendations this month.
Hang in there,
Neil
1. Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss. I sat in Frances Frei’s office at Harvard Business School fifteen years ago telling her about the person I was in love with. She returned the favor telling me about Anne Morriss. She then pulled a sleeve of Starbucks cups off her bookshelf and handed me one with a quote from Anne that Starbucks deemed worthy of mass printing. It became one of my all-time favorite quotes and I still think about it often. (Photo below). My love didn’t last but Frances’s did. She and Anne now have two sons and are an ambitious, trailblazing force on the world stage in the field of modern, empathetic leadership. Frances has parachuted into Uber, Riot Games, and WeWork to address leadership, gender, and culture issues. She’s given an extremely popular TED Talk on building trust. And out this month is the book I’ve been waiting for since that day in her office years ago. Why? Because it comes with that same insightful, growing pain, stomachy tingly feeling I got sitting in her classroom. There’s a wonderful activist twang here and the book will force you to confront the darker and harder to mould sides of your leadership profile. A wonderful book. (PS. Chapter 2 of the book was published as a recent HBR feature story here.)
2. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Have you seen the current non-fiction New York Times bestseller list? To say it’s a reflection of our time would be an understatement. But fiction has just as much to teach us and that list hasn't really changed. What does it really feel like to live in another conscience? I revisited this incredible book published in 1937 which shares the story of a Black American woman born from a rape and raised by her grandmother. Here’s a flavor from Page 19: “You know, honey, us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes thing come round in queer ways…Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn’t for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do. Dat’s one of de hold-backs of slavery. But nothing can’t stop you from wishin’. You can’t beat nobody down so low till you can rob ‘em of they will. Ah didn’t want to be used for a work-ox and a brood-sow and Ah didn’t want mah daughter used dat way neither. It sho wasn’t mah will for things to happen lak they did. Ah even hated de way you was born. But, all de same Ah said thank God, Ah got another chance. Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin’ on high, but they wasn’t no pulpit for me. Freedom found me wid a baby daughter in mah arms, so Ah said Ah’d take a broom and a cook-pot and throw up a highway through de wilderness for her.”
3. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger. According to his daughter’s memoir, J.D. Salinger drank his own urine, spoke in tongues, and forcefully adopted new religions every season. True? Not true? Hard to say. He notoriously vanished from the literary scene in a puff of smoke and reputedly wrote many books that were never published. So what remains are works like The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zoey, and this stunning collection of nine short stories, many of which ran in The New Yorker before The Catcher in the Rye was published. How was the book? Well, three of these stories (this one, this one, and this one) left me staring frozen at my ceiling for fifteen minutes afterwards. I am still thinking about them weeks later. Others didn't catch me at all. But, the ones that did were absolutely gripping, twisting, unbelievable experiences of prying my mind from its wet cave, levitating it up, working it around like pizza dough, then dropping it back in. As David Sedaris says: “A good short story would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized now, and uneasy with the fit.”
4. Rosa by Nikki Giovanni. A wonderful award-winning children’s book aimed at 4-8 year olds sharing the story of Rosa Parks and her role of quiet, determined strength in the Civil Rights movement. It’s hard to tell from the cover above but the images on this book just exude the stress and heat of the moment so well. Illustrator Bryan Collier writes: “When I arrived in Alabama, the first thing I noticed was the heat. That is why my paintings for this book have a yellow, sometimes dark, hue. I wanted the reader to feel in that heat a foreshadowing, an uneasy quiet before the storm.”
5. How Humanity Released a Flood of New Diseases by Ferris Jabr. On coronavirus, it’s so hard to get deeper than the surface skim the news endlessly offers. As Ryan Holiday told us on 3 Books: “MSNBC’s goal is to glue you to a screen and sell you Subarus.” How do you get deeper? Find and treasure trusted voices. (Anyone else falling in love with Nassim Taleb or Ed Yong these days?) Here’s a great deeper looking piece from The New York Times Magazine on the issues around the chain reaction between our global species expansion, loss of global biodiversity, and the resulting havoc.
6. The Duel by Anton Chekov. If you haven’t read much classic Russian literature (ditto) then this isn’t a bad way in. It’s short at 92 pages, available free online at Project Gutenberg, and has a slowly building crescendo that will keep you flipping if you can make it through the opening dizziness. It tells the tale of a lazy Russian aristocrat who’s run off to a seaside town with a married woman and is trying to figure out how to extricate himself from the relationship just as he gets a letter informing him that her husband has died. Chaos ensues.
7. The Body: A Guide For Occupants by Bill Bryson. “In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power,” says historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens. I kept thinking about that while reading this top to bottom look at our fleshy homes. (Sidenote: I feel this is the perfect companion book to Sapiens, too. If that's “Where did we come from?” then this is “Wait, what are we?”) The early chapters on “The Brain” and “The Head” alone are worth the price of admission. From the back: “Don’t forget that your genes come from ancestors who most of the time weren’t even human. Some of them were fish. Lots more were tiny and furry and lived in burrows…. We would all be a lot better off if we could just start fresh and give ourselves bodies build for our particular Homo sapiens needs – to walk upright without wrecking our knees and backs, to swallow without heightened risk of choking, to dispense babies as if from a vending machine. But we weren’t built for that. We began our journey through history as unicellular blobs floating about in warm, shallow seas.” And it goes from there. A fascinating trip.
8. Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America by Box Brown. I fell in love with Box Brown when I read his graphic novel Tetris a couple years back. That was an exquisite origin story of the famous video game that read like a John Le Carré spy novel. (Cheers to Malcolm Gladwell for adding John Le Carré to our Top 1000) This is his newest on the history of cannabis and it reads a bit like a paint-by-numbers story from a super long Wikipedia article. And, like a long Wikipedia article, it’s just not quite deep enough on a few fronts. I kept wanting to know more about cannabis from a social, psychological, or cultural perspective, and it doesn’t really get into any of that. If you’re interested in the general history of cannabis then this is a great primer and some fun bits of trivia. But, if you’re looking for immersive graphic novel to get lost in, I’d recommend Tetris or the absolutely exquisite (yes I’m going to recommend it a third time) Berlin by Jason Lutes.
9. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. “First you find purpose, then you find style, then you find beauty,” Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie, told me that high in the Fisher Building in downtown Detroit before scrambling late into the recording studio for his Mitch Album Show. I flew down for a quickie twenty minute interview of 3 Books and that phrase formed the spinal column of his picks. “First you find purpose” was The Royal Road to Romance which lead him off the beaten path. “Then you find style” was The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe which married his musicality and writing. “Then you find beauty” was this gem which he holds as a beacon towards where he's heading today. There’s a reason Gilead is one of Barack Obama’s favorite books. Set in a small Iowa town named (yes) Gilead in the 1950s it’s a letter from a septuagenarian pastor to his first and only child, a young boy, with everything he wishes he’d be around to tell him when he got older. Sound tearjerking already? Just wait. There are layers beyond layers here and yet they’re all baked into a pastry that somehow feels light as a feather. I already feel like I need to read it again. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Pleasantly Featured in Neil's June 2020 Book Club.
10. Birds of Ontario by Andy Bezener. Birding has suddenly gone from fringe hobby to cliché. Do you have the Merlin App on your phone? Are you registered on eBird? What warblers have you spotted during the spring migration? You need a good bird book for the backyard. Birds of Ontario isn’t exactly a global resource but you gotta bird where you gotta bird right now. We like using the technique from my wife's grandmother: Keep a good pen in the book at all times (Pilot V5 Hi-Tecpoint Rollerballs, if possible) and write down the date and location of the bird you saw right beside the picture. Turn that bird book into a weathered bird journal that adds character to your shelves.
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
Click here to join the Book Club email list.
Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - May 2020
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
I hope you’re surprising yourself with how much you’re able to do just as often as you’re forgiving yourself when you’re not able to do much.
If you’re looking to put your mind elsewhere, the past two chapters of my award-winning podcast 3 Books share the story of a Korean twin adoptee searching for a sense of self in a white community across the world (listen here) and a trans artist exploring how masculinity was imposed on her as a boy and continues to haunt her as a girl while discussing the evolution of gender (listen here).
And, I also wrote 7 ways to calm your mind and sleep better.
Hang in there everyone,
Neil
1. In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré. I bought this book years ago and never found time to read it. Quelle surprise! (The most common reply I get to this book club is “How do you find time to read?” My answer in HBR articles here and here.) I believe this book is the balm or mirror we all need right now. If you’re feeling slow or sluggish already this book will smile at you warmly, pat you on the back, and help you settle deeper into that slower, wiser, more meandering self. In fact, you’ll feel positively virtuous for doing so! And if you’re the opposite, if you feel like the treadmill you’re on was just cranked to 10, then this book will offer you a little reflection to encourage you to pause and take pulse. Chock full of research and wonderfully narrated by Carl Honoré in that “sitting beside you on the bus” vein of Quiet or So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, I felt like this was the book I have needed for years. “There’s only us, there’s only this, forget regret, or life is yours to miss.” Yes! Forget regret. There’s only this. Slow it down. And read this wonderful book.
2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Do you read horoscopes? I remember skimming them in my hometown paper when I was a kid. I couldn’t understand how a couple pithy sentences might apply on any given day to one twelfth of all people. Then I realized that, of course, they’re just super vague. “Trouble is brewing at home. A wander helps focus the path ahead.” Yes! That’s me! They nailed it! Why do I mention this? Because this entire book is written something like that. What happens? Well, as Paulo Coelho writes in the introduction: “A man sets out on a journey, dreaming of a beautiful or magical place, in pursuit of some unknown treasure.” Does that sound like you? I bet it will as you read it. I don’t mean to sound sarcastic. It is an astounding feat to pull this off in the form of a 200 page parable. While reading it you’ll fall right into a wonderfully first person journey like I did. Perfect before bed book.
3. Sparkle Stories –Audio Stories for Children. Have your kids completely merged into the Netflix algorithm by now? I think we’re all there! Sparkle Stories offers a wonderful reprieve in the form of gentle, slowly narrated stories feeding kindness, respect, and wonder for our world. It works through a freemium model that we have just properly bought into after years of listening for free. Our kids love the stories and it’s actually a bit mind-blowing that this small, virtual mom and pop shop has quietly put together a library of 1300 (!) stories for kids aged 3 – 12. Highly recommended. (Sidenote: I get paid nothing for telling you about Sparkle Stories or any book ever on my list. As I like to say, nobody can buy their way on and nobody can buy their way off.)
4. The Old Man by Sarah V & Claude K. Dubois. When schools were still open my son went to the shelter with his class. They made food, brought it there, and talked about the experience. My wife Leslie went looking for some children’s books to open up the conversation at home about homelessness. She found this! A simple tale, with many wordless pages, of a day in the life of a man living on the street and how his day is changed through a simple kindness from a little girl. Fantastic way to open up the conversation.
5. The Stopwatch Gang by Greg Weston. Have you ever dreamed of robbing a bank? It’s okay. You can tell me. I’m pretty sure most of us have at least thought about it! Don’t pretend it’s just me. Well, in Ottawa, Canada, in 1980, three seemingly well-adjusted, gregarious everyday guys hatched a plan to really pull it off. So began one of the most electric bank robbing sprees in history. The Stopwatch Gang, as they came to be known, moved around the US for a decade, and this book is a step by step account of what happened written by a veteran true crime journalist. Thank you to Shane Parrish of Farnam Street for this book. (Check out my chat with Shane on his podcast The Knowledge Project here.)
6. Bill Peet: An Autobiography by Bill Peet. Critics uniformly predicted that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs would be a bomb. Makes sense! It was 1937 and was the first feature-length animated film ever. Who would really sit through a cartoon that long? Well, behind the scenes at the small outfit Walt Disney was a guy named Bill Peet, a plucky young art student who got the job through a newspaper ad and worked for decades on films like Fantasia, Cinderella, and The Jungle Book. He also wrote a litany of children’s books “on the side” so this autobiography is created in the fashion of one. The best part in this quick read is the up close view into Walt Disney himself and what it looked like on the inside of Disney through the middle of the twentieth century. (For a fun romp check out BillPeet.net. I love old websites like this so much. Shoutout to GeoCities!)
7. Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art by Madeleine L’Engle. I admit whenever I hear a book described as “a meditation on…” I sort of hear it as “a bunch of loose, semi-coherent rambles on…” How myopic of me! Because this book is indeed a meditation on faith and art and it is the furthest thing from loose and semi-coherent. With the powerful highbeamed mind of Madeleine L’Engle it dives down into the deeper, colder, darker waters far below other well-structured or well-researched or well-organized books to explore, to really meaningfully explore, the murky depths underpinning the massive overlapping circles of faith and art. As you read the book you’ll feel connected to a wise, patient, enlightened guide calmly showing you the meaning of all things. Absolutely mandatory reading for anyone creating art in any way. So, most people! Closest book I can compare it to would be The War of Art by Steven Pressfield but this gets a lot deeper in my view. Good book to pair with Chapter 43 of 3 Books with the wild Lisa Labute.
8. Becoming Better Grownups by Brad Montague. Do you remember the viral Kid President videos? They were created by Brad Montague. He has a butterfly soul of warmth, creativity, and kindness. Years ago when I was working at Walmart it was popular for the executives to go on listening tours. We’d pile into the company jet, which was essentially a rusty Dodge Caravan with wings, and then fly to remote towns to sit in the back of Walmart after Walmart and simply listen. Listen to who? Everyone! A group of cashiers. A group of assistant managers. A group of maintenance workers. “Tell us what’s on your mind”, “What’s frustrating about your job?”, “What isn’t working from the head office?” For the largest company in the world this was a remarkably nimble way to feed the top dogs with front line feedback. Why do I mention this? Because that’s exactly what Brad did to feed this book. He went on a 50-state listening tour to elementary school classrooms and asked them what they wanted from grownups. He then did the same with elders. And he compiled the lessons into this wonderfully written, beautifully illustrated guide to being a better grownup. Written in his whimsical, evocative style, it’s a great read full of life lessons and stories. Perfect gift for any new parent-to-be, too. (Sidenote: Check out Brad’s Instagram for daily inspiration.)
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
Click here to join the Book Club email list.
Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - April 2020
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
How you holding up?
Does it feel like your tank is draining just as this thing shifts into a higher gear? I can relate.
Want to take a breath together before chatting this month? Let's do it. Okay. Big breath in! Let your stomach push out and really fill your lungs as much as you can. And now hold for 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1. And now let it all back out... slowly.
I’ve started writing a brand new 1000 awesome things during the pandemic. I post them on Instagram or you can sign up here to get one at 12:01am each day over email.
I also released a live courageous coronavirus Q&A with questions like: “How do I manage my struggling teenager at home?” “How do I get through this by myself?”, “How do I manage the guilt of not being fully there for my child or my work?” The group was incredibly vulnerable so this is a very emotional offering. It’s here if you need it like I did. Here’s the link.
Let’s continue to let books be a safe space and salvation for us all right now. Please share this email and the links above with anyone you think it could benefit. As always, just hit 'reply' anytime and let me know your feedback.
And now pull up a chair (or toilet) and let's get into the books,
Neil
1. The Boy & The Bindi by Vivek Shraya. I was listening to an interview with Vivek the other day and the host asked which words she uses to identify herself. It was a long list! Artist, trans, queer, bi, person of color, brown. I first found Vivek when her book I’m Afraid of Men jumped out to me at a bookstore. I found it brave, challenging, and mind-expanding on a lot of levels and put it in this book club (and this Publisher’s Weekly article.) This children’s book is a beautiful rhyming story of a young boy who takes interest in his mom’s bindi. It’s an activist and gender creative book that doesn’t slip into the trappings of trying to argue gender norms but simply allows a young boy’s curiosity towards a traditionally female-sporting dot to ferment into love. Pairs well with I Love My Purse by Belle Demont. (PS. Vivek will be my guest on Chapter 53 of 3 Books on the Flower Moon next week.)
2. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I can’t recall a book this emotionally and racially charged since I read To Kill A Mockingbird when I was 15 years old. And I liked this one better. Toni Morrison died last summer at 88 after winning a Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, and slew of other awards. This is her very first book, published in 1970, and she didn’t become well known for a while afterwards. I loved imagining that when I read it. Her first book! Released without fanfare! It takes place in Northern Ohio in the years after the Great Depression and tells the story of a young black girl in an abusive family told from the view of another girl in her class. Some reviewers say the book could be triggering for people who have suffered physical abuse so I’ll leave you with that warning. (It has been banned a lot.) But if you are up for an enchanting book to set your mind firmly somewhere else and tell a briskly paced story with an unbelievably poetic voice … I highly recommend this. Oprah agrees, of course.
3. Boy Wonders by Cathal Kelly. Want to grow up poor and black in Northern Ohio in the 1930s? Read The Bluest Eye. Want to grow up in a family of Irish immigrants in the Toronto suburbs in the 70s and 80s? Read this one. With chapter titles like Star Wars, Porno, and Dungeons & Dragons, you know what you’re in for. Or maybe you don’t. Because every chapter has a deeper point of gritty wisdom below the surface and sometimes even a point below that. I should mention that Cathal Kelly is my favorite sports columnist. He writes for The Globe & Mail and his worldview is like a street smart philosopher who jabs with the fist and the tongue in equal measure. (Check out his obituary of Kobe Bryant to get a flavor.) If you’re a fan of funny, first-person narratives that seem about the mundane but eventually crescendo into gripping and nearly fantastical stories then you’ll love this book. Winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Canadian Humour. Perfect for fans of David Sedaris.
4. Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit & Wisdom of Charles T. Munger. Edited by Peter E. Kaufman. On one hand I sort of groaned when I flipped open this book. Seriously? The uber billionaire and longtime partner of Warren Buffet compiles a giant 500 page trophy to his accomplishments? But then I opened it and couldn’t stop flipping around. It’s chock full of wonderful commencement speeches, book recommendations, and mental models. It is one of the densest compendiums of wisdom you’ll find. If you’re even a bit intrigued on Charlie Munger, this is a good place to start before grabbing this book.
5. Two-Minute Mornings by Neil Pasricha. Yes, I'm using my own journal to get through this time. Mark Manson, my guest in Chapter 28 of 3 Books, wrote recently "From today until this is over, you have a new God, and his name is 'routine.'" I believe that and I think grounding and centering ourselves each morning right now is incredibly important. (Here's my take on it.)
6. Human Kind: Changing the world one small act at a time by Brad Aronson. I remember my eleventh grade teacher Ms. King telling us, “Jolt Cola, the hypercaffeinated sugary cola, with the slogan 'all the sugar, twice the caffeine', got popular in response to the new sea of diet and sugar free colas.” The whiplash effect! The Book of Awesome got popular partly because of the whiplash effect as it came out in a gloomy moment like this one. What are some coronavirus whiplashes? Well, one of them certainly appears to be kindness. Have you been watching Jon Krashinski’s SomeGoodNews? It’s wonderful. Brad Aronson’s book is smaller than Jon’s offering but in my mind it has a lot more utility. Human Kind is perfect for anyone feeling the weight of the world, itching to make a difference, and not sure which direction to baby step towards because the blankets of fog feel so thick. This book is a flashlight of well-written inspiring stories, simple lessons on kindness, and specific ways to help.
7. Deeper Thoughts by Jack Handey. Do you remember Deep Thoughts from Saturday Night Live? Someone put together a playlist of 57 of them in case you feel like killing half an hour. Or! You could grab this book. He’s written many others, too. And, for the super treasure trove, check out Jack Handey’s Shouts&Murmurs archive in The New Yorker. (Yes, he’s a real person.)
8. I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib. On my book tour for You Are Awesome last fall I spent three days in New York. I think I went to The Strand all three days. (PS. The Strand is shipping online!) I met bookseller and Floor Manager Sophia Nehlawi there who proudly showed me a table she’d set up featuring graphic novels by women. Wow, I miss going to bookstores. Where else can you find a curated display like that? I picked up this book from the table and it’s a fun autobiographical coming-of-age story from an Egyptian-Filipino first-generation millennial who grows up with her Catholic mom in suburban Los Angeles and spends summers with her Muslim dad in Egypt. I loved the little window into both cultures but found it on the lighter side overall although that may be because my body is still reverberating from the incredible layered complexity of Berlin last month. I still can’t stop thinking about Berlin. You must read Berlin!
9. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Speaking of New York, my friend Brian took me to The Mysterious Bookshop. It’s the oldest mystery bookstore in the US. (Also taking online orders!) I walked in and said “I don’t know anything about mysteries. Gimme a gateway drug!” and the bookseller passed me this book. Really? I thought. Agatha Christie? Well, she’s sold two billion books for a reason. (Want to guess where she is on the all-time list of bestselling fiction authors? Okay, guess, then click here to find out.) After a slow start of about fifty pages of mood and landscape setting this book took off like a cork out of champagne. I stayed up late a few nights in a row and it left me breathless by the end. The gates are open.
10. Walking by Henry David Thoreau. I know I put this in my "25 of the best books to read during coronavirus" article, too. But I really feel we all need to reread this phenomenal essay written in 1862 to help us adjust and embrace some elements of social distancing. My latest medicine for feeling overwhelmed? The super long, super late night walk.
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
Click here to join the Book Club email list.
Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - March 2020
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
It feels like a decade has passed since my February Book Club. I hope you are finding comfort in simple things and staying connected with loved ones.
I wrote 49 things to do if you’re home due to coronavirus and 25 of the best books to read during Coronavirus and will keep sharing monthly book clubs, new articles on Neil.blog, and new chapters of 3 Books on every new moon and full moon.
One day at a time.
Hang in there,
Neil
1. Walkable City: How downtown can save America, one step at a time by Jeff Speck. Suddenly the whole world is grounded. Whether you’re a hero working the front lines or quarantining yourself for the greater good, I’m guessing your primary method of transportation has suddenly become your feet. I’m a big fan of long walks and in non-quarantined times I try and spend a day or two a week going untouchable and bringing out my inner flâneur. I absolutely loved this book about walkability and its power to completely transform our health, our planet, our economies, and our communities. Jeff Speck presents The General Theory of Walkability which explains how, ‘to be favored, a walk has to satisfy four main conditions: it must be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting’ and calls pedestrians ‘an extremely fragile species, the canary in the coal mine of urban liveability.’ I can’t recommend this punchy, well-researched, and witty book enough. The world is changing and can’t help but feel like Jeff Speck’s ideas will be a big part of where we’re heading.
2. Berlin by Jason Lutes. I remembering visiting my friend Chris Kim at his Boston apartment years ago when he passed me his copy of Maus by Art Spiegelman. That OG graphic novel about the holocaust completely blew me away. I sadly never had a chance to return it so it sits on my shelf today and has since been joined by incredible work by artists like Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Adrian Tomine (Killing & Dying), and Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis). However, I am pretty sure I have never read a graphic novel with the level of layered emotional, character, and plot complexity of this nearly 600-page wonder. I am not surprised Jason Lutes spent 22 years writing and illustrating it. If you’re like me, the graphic novel will take 50-100 pages to get into as new people and storylines keep popping out of nowhere but once you get a loose grasp on the dozens of characters you will absolutely get lost in it. Berlin was the progressive center of Europe during the Weimar Republic of 1918-1933 where ‘creativity, political thought, and sexual liberty burned bright before being snuffed out under the bootheel of fascism.’ This is a story of that time. If you have a craving right now to walk onto the Holodeck, press a button, and live somewhere else for a while, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.
3. What Is Hinduism? by Mahatma Gandhi. I felt bad for Gandhi the other day. This book was sitting in the dollar bin outside a used bookstore and I picked it up thinking he deserved better than that. What is Hinduism? I’m glad you asked. This thin book is a series of short, clear essays he contributed to magazines throughout the 1920s with titles like “What is Hinduism?”, “Equality of Religions”, “Non-Violence”, and “God and Congress.” Considering how much I’ve seen and read about Gandhi it seemed high time I read some of his own words. I think in general if I notice myself reading about someone (or resonating with quotes from someone) over and over I should pick up one of their own books. New Life Policy.
4. Matilda by Roald Dahl. Which Roald Dahl book should a child read as their very first? Kevin the Bookseller told me in Chapter 44 of 3 Books that he’d suggest Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, or Matilda. I agreed with the first two but had never read Matilda. So I bought it. And now I have. What do I think? Well, while it finishes with a flourish I found it mostly An Unfortunate Series of Sadistic Events starring Matilda’s school principal. Sorry Kevin, but I gotta round out my Top 3 with The BFG instead. (Note: Kevin did add the first Roald Dahl book to The Top 1000 and it was, strangely, none of these three.)
5. Think Like A Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life by Ozan Varol. I love Ozan Varol. He’s a rocket scientist turned award-winning professor, author, and podcaster. (I just did a rare AMA on his wonderful Famous Failures podcast.) More than that he’s a brilliant mind, a warm and kind heart, and the exact type of spirit we need putting resilient vibes into the world right now. I don’t envy anyone launching a book right now with so many festivals and bookstores closed but I am hoping this book picks up steam. I think it will and it absolutely deserves to because there’s just an endless series of brain nuggets chapter by chapter. There’s a reason Adam Grant put it as #1 on his list of 20 leadership books to read in 2020.
6. The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake by David Brooks. This cover story from the March issue of The Atlantic is a history of how we live together (that almost reads like a chapter excerpt from Sapiens) as well as an incredibly well-argued push to broaden and deepen our community connections today. Are you feeling the neighborly love through Coronavirus everything? This is a push to lean into that drawn from the simple fact that we always used to. From the article: “Americans are hungering to live in extended and forged families, in ways that are new and ancient at the same time. This is a significant opportunity, a chance to thicken and broaden family relationships, a chance to allow more adults and children to live and grow under the loving gaze of a dozen pairs of eyes, and be caught, when they fall, by a dozen pairs of arms. For decades we have been eating at smaller and smaller tables, with fewer and fewer kin. It’s time to find ways to bring back the big tables.”
7. Lie With Me by Philippe Besson. Translated from French by Molly Ringwald. “Yes, that Molly Ringwald,” read the handwritten cue card on the Staff Picks wall at Toronto indie bookstore Type Books. (PS. Toronto folks -- call Type! They're taking phone orders and delivering.) That’s where I first discovered this gem about a hidden love affair between two teenage boys in rural France in 1984 which timewarps from the past to today told as a first-person memory by the author. That summary means nothing, though. Put it this way: This book will twist and squeeze your heart in so many ways all leading up maybe the most emotionally exquisite final page of any novel I’ve ever read. André Aciman, author of Call Me By Your Name, says “Two young men find each other, always fearing that life itself might be the villain standing in their way. A stunning and heart-gripping tale.” This book is a true masterpiece.
8. The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink. Do you ever have a friend come visit you from out of town and then you take them to one of your favorite local bookstores to browse for a while and you end up buying each other one of your favorite books and you feel like it’s a super fun thing to do because it’ll give you both a memory of the trip and of your friendship forever but then after they leave and you actually open up and read the book you find you like parts of it but you don’t totally love it in fact you don’t really love it at all and you don’t really know what to make of it but you don’t want to insult your friend who has told you it meant so much to them so you sort of plod through it so you can definitely say you read it if they ever ask but just sort of never really mention it again? Me too. Sorry Rob.
9. For The Love Of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library by Thatcher Wine & Elizabeth Lane. Do you have a lot of time on your hands right now? Time to finally organize all your bookshelves! I suggest grabbing this wonderful book to help. My friend Joey Coleman sent me this book and I am so grateful he did as it widened my understanding of the value of a home library. Beautiful prose on book history complements incredible photos throughout.
10. Mister Rogers Neighborhood. I felt the need to interrupt the book list by mentioning that five free (and commercial free) Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood episodes are posted on MisterRogers.org every other Monday.
11. The Dog of the South by Charles Portis. Charles Portis is a writer’s writer. People like Donna Tartt, Stephen King, and Roald Dahl line up to praise him. His voice is a completely original deadpan bonkers. Dave Barry first told me about him and he picked this book as one of his most formative. Portis wrote only five novels total until his death last month including True Grit, his most famous. But this book seems like a good one to start with. In it, Ray Midge is attempting to track down his wife Norma who has run off to Belize with her first husband which leads into a mad caper through the Southern US and Mexico with a band of wild characters.
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
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Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - February 2020
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everybody,
How’s your sleep been lately? Mine’s been pretty shot. Stress, I think, built up from a number of things. Three months promoting You Are Awesome. (Thank you so much.) Way too much late night cell phone use. A few people close to me going through challenges.
When I find my sleep suffering I know it’s time to get back into self care. Going to the gym. Lots of long walks. Shutting off the phone early. Getting ready for bed early. And, of course, flipping open a book before bed so I can just slip away into another conscience.
Here are some consciences I slipped into this month,
Neil
1. Quiet by Susan Cain. We need a word to describe that feeling when you feel for years like you’ve already read a certain book but then when you start reading it you suddenly realize you haven’t. That feeling. You know the viral TED Talk, you’ve flipped through the book in airports, you’ve read articles from the author, and maybe you’ve even talked about some key points from the book a dozen times. Maybe even acted like you’ve read it! But you haven’t. You haven’t read the book. What’s that called? A dummy book? An almost book? A placebo book? Do you have something better? If not I’m going with Placebo Book. Well, Quiet was a Placebo Book for me. I thought I had read it! Turns out I hadn’t. And that’s too bad because it’s a wonderful journey. And it is a journey, too. You are basically sitting beside Susan Cain on her six year (!) global quest to understand introverts -- from Tony Robbins seminars to Harvard Business School cafeterias to even Truth and Consequences, New Mexico to speak to the woman played by Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds. It’s a helluva journey. And the wanderings, curios, and insights that jump out of the jungle along the way are incredible … all puzzle-pieced together by Susan’s stunningly brilliant mind. You will miss Susan at the end because this book is an incredible joy. Must, must, must read.
2. Election by Tom Perrotta. I absolutely loved the 1999 Reese Witherspoon / Matthew Broderick movie Election and I don’t think I realized it was based on a book. Guess what? It is! And it’s a great one. A super fast paced dark comedy that will briefly pluck you out of your brain and drop you right in the midst of a volatile high school student council election. Somehow light and dark at the same time.
3. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. I can’t think of a more beautiful way to slowly introduce a child to deeper issues around death and friendship than Charlotte’s Web. Do you remember Charlotte’s Web? When I picked it up both Leslie and I thought we did … but we didn’t. “Doesn’t the pig die at the end?” “Yes, yes, of course. Charlotte the Pig.” No! That’s not what happens! Take a trip back to your childhood and read (or reread) this wonderful magically realistic tale. (Sidenote: I did not realize that E.B. White was a famous New Yorker writer for more than fifty years and he wrote several children's books including Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan.) (Sidenote sidenote: Did you know Conan O'Brien and E.B. White exchanged letters??)
4. Martin Luther King: The Peaceful Warrior by Ed Clayton. Do you remember Denzel Washington’s character in Philadelphia always saying “Can you explain this to me like I’m a six year old”? I’ve always loved that idea and it’s similar to how a CEO I used to work for at Walmart would ask me if the slides I wrote up would pass “The Grandma Test” or basically be simple enough that somebody’s grandmother, who knew nothing about Walmart, could understand them. I have a deep love for material that aims wide, clear, and simple enough that it appeals to a wider audience. (It’s a lot harder to be simple than fancy!) Personally, I’m starting to even feel that phrases like Young Adult, when it comes to book categories, are bizarrely ageist. Like who’s to say how old you should be to read Peter Pan or The Fault In Your Stars, you know? This Young Adult book by Ed Clayton is a great example. Martin Luther King Jr. personally hired Ed Clayton as a PR man for the civil rights movement. One of his tasks was introducing MLK Jr. to a wider audience so he wrote this straightforward biography about his upbringing and his work. It is a perfect way to go from 0/10 to like 5/10 on MLK Jr knowledge very quickly. I want to spend a month reading a book like this about every important person in history. Do you have any similar ones you recommend? (Sidenote: Anyone else feel like watching a great Denzel scene from Philadelphia? I couldn't find the six-year-old clip.)
5. The Essential Rumi. Translated by Coleman Barks. If you’re like me you’ve been seeing Rumi quotes floating around the Internet forever. And, if you’re like me, you had no real idea who Rumi actually is or was. Well, here’s the quick rundown: 1) He’s a he! Let’s start there. I always thought he was a she, 2) He was a 13th century Persian poet originally from Greater Khorasan, fled invading Mongol armies, and settled in Konya, Turkey, 3) He met Shams-e Tabrizi and thought of him as a spiritual sounding board and wrote a ton of incredible epic poems about soulful expression, love verses filled with yearning and desire, anecdotes, life lessons, moral stories, and even satirical tales. This is a book of his work and, if you’re like me, some poems will bounce off your tin can shell making zero impact and others will penetrate your heart deeper than you ever thought possible.
6. Professor at Large: The Cornell Years by John Cleese. A few years ago I was researching the idea of “creating space” for The Happiness Equation and I came across an incredible speech by John Cleese talking about your brain in open mode and closed mode. Turns out that was one of many speeches Cleese gave while serving as a Professor At Large (PAL is what they call him) at Cornell University. This book is published by Cornell University and is a great collection of speeches and conversations he’s held at the school. Thank you to Kevin Marusic (aka Kevin The Bookseller) for this recommendation. (Check out my chat with Kevin in Chapter 44 of 3 Books.)
7. David Foster Wallace: The Last Interview and Other Conversations. Edited by David Streitfeld. I just discovered this book series called The Last Interview. Do you know it? They have one with Hunter S. Thompson and one with Ernest Hemingway and one with Ursula K. Le Guin and one with (yes) David Foster Wallace. David Foster Wallace has such a beautifully complex mind and yet he’s able to explain big gargantuan ideas in such clear and simple language. One of my favorite answers in this book is when he’s asked by his Amherst Alumni Magazine “How would you describe the impact of your work? ... And how do you measure the success of your work?” Here’s a tweet I sent out with his reply. (If you like this, you will find plenty of other gems in the book.)
8. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. Last year I recommended the book Totto-Chan: The Girl At The Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi which was, a bit surprisingly I think it’s fair to say, one of Ryan Holiday’s most formative books. Nearly twenty years ago I spent a couple weeks in Japan and fell in love with the culture and Totto-Chan was a tiny window back in. Then the other day I was browsing the Staff Picks wall of a local indie bookstore and saw this Japanese novel was newly translated into english and slathered in awards I was like “Ooooo, gimme, gimme, gimme!” Perfectly satisfied my craving for another Japanese slice-of-life book. This time the slice of life is that of a middle-aged woman working in a convenience store in a downtown city. Want to hang out there for a few hours? Then this is a perfect conscience for you.
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
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Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - January 2020
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everybody,
Happy January and welcome to the best reading year of your life! Turn off the news and delete social media because it’s time to crack into a good book.
Before the recos! Quick reminder: I have three email lists including this monthly book club, my bi-weekly article on intentional living, and my two-line “postcards” whenever I drop a new chapter of 3 Books. Visit this link to make sure you’re on all the lists you want. All are 100% ad free, spam free, commercial free, and I never share your email with anyone.
Thanks for reading and onto the picks…
Neil
1. Dibs in Search of Self by Virginia M. Axline. I stayed up late, night after night, reading this completely absorbing non-fiction recount of an emotionally lost little boy named Dibs as he’s slowly coached back from the brink by gifted therapist Virginia M. Axline. Have you ever had a therapy appointment and wondered what they were writing about you afterwards? Me too! Well, this book feels exactly like you’re reading a therapist’s personal notes. The book opens with Dibs about to be shipped off to a mental institution by his exasperated parents and teachers. Why? Because he never talks, hides under desks at school all day, seems totally non-responsive, and screams and scratches anyone who comes near him. The book was published in 1964 and the cover screams “The Child Therapy Classic!” There are wonderfully insightful gems here for anybody looking to become a better parent, coach, or leader. (Nicely pairs with a lot of lessons from The Coaching Habit, actually!) I learned a lot of language and communication techniques to help children search and find their true self. A brilliant book I can’t recommend enough!
2. The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. At the very back of Quiet by Susan Cain there is a little two-page extra called “Recommended Reading: Introverts in Literature” and the very first book recommended … is this one. A wonderful 30-page pen-and-ink drawn children’s book from 1936 (1936!) about a bull named Ferdinand who prefers sitting alone and smelling the flowers while all the other bulls like to fight. Good news? His mother understands him! The matadors are sad but they get it and ship him back home! The story ends with him quietly sniffing flowers. Too bad all introverts aren’t so lucky. Perfect for the quieter child in your life…
3. Claudine at School by Colette. Back in the late 1800s a young French woman named Colette was locked in her room and ordered to write books by her much older husband Willy. He took authorship of her books which became giant bestsellers in France. She eventually broke free of the marriage and continued to write nearly eighty (!?) published works up to 1954 when she died and was given a state funeral and mourned as a national treasure. Claudine at School (or Claudine A L’École) is her very first book and, according to the introduction, it invented the century’s first teenage girl: “rebellious, secretive, erotically reckless and disturbed, determined to be an individual in her own right, but confused about how….” This book is sometimes considered the first ever queer YA novel and is absolutely hypnotic. It’s assumed to be based on Colette’s own boarding school experiences in France in the 1880s and reads like a deeply personal diary. Deeply escapist. (PS. I haven’t seen it but there’s a recent film about Colette starring Keira Knightley. Check out the trailer.)
4. Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How To Stop Yelling and Start Connecting by Dr. Laura Markham. Do you yell at your kids? I do. And then I feel terrible afterwards. It’s embarrassing. What am I doing? How do I let my buttons get pushed by a three year old refusing to put on his shoes? Enter this book. Dr. Laura Markham’s work is deeply empathetic, connected, and loving and her simple advice will have you thinking “Yes, yes, yes, totally” but (of course) the hard part is doing it. I can confidently say this book has turned me into a better father by offering a simple three-step approach to be a more peaceful parent. Step 1. Regulating Yourself, Step 2. Fostering Connection, and Step 3. Coaching not Controlling. She says that discipline never (never!) works and offers many solutions using games and connection to coach behavior instead. I just got back from interviewing Dr. Laura Markham in Brooklyn and am eager to share our chat in the very next chapter of 3 Books. (PS. If you’re intrigued by Dr. Laura Markham’s work but don’t want to jump into a book, then start with her fantastic newsletter. Link at bottom left of the page.)
5. Books for Living: Some Thoughts on Reading, Reflecting, and Embracing Life by Will Schwalbe. Did you ever have a librarian sit on a rocking chair in the corner of the library share a stack of books with your entire second grade class sitting on an old green carpet? And the librarian had like big excited eyes behind thick glasses? And all the books had like crinkly plastic coverings and Dewey Decimal stickers on the spines? And then everyone got all excited to read them all and people literally ran to sign out James And The Giant Peach or whatever afterwards? I feel like I have the memory of that happening to me but maybe I just saw it in the movies. Why do I mention it? Because this book feels like that exact scene. Starring Will Schwalbe as The Librarian. Will has lead a rich and diverse life and he loves books, reads a ton, and takes you, the eager second grader, on a welcoming and warmhearted journey through a series of great books to help you with the lofty goal of living. From Stuart Little to Wonder to The Little Prince to dozens of others it’s a beautiful way to cattle-prod your reading or help open your eyes to books far outside your field of vision. I loved it.
6. How YouTube Gives Us Love Without The Messiness by Michael Harris. Did you see Her by Spike Jonze and starring Joaquin Phoenix? That was one of my Seatglue Movies. What’s a Seatglue Movie? Any movie that has you glued to your seat in theaters until the end credits have completely rolled and the guy cleaning up the garbage asks your to leave and (even then) you have a hard time getting up because you are so emotionally stunned by what you’ve just seen. You are glued to your seat. You cannot move. What’s your Seatglue movie? It’s fun to talk about. Anyway, longtime readers of this newsletter will remember how obsessed I was with Solitude by Michael Harris a couple years ago. I loved it and hung out with Michael in Vancouver to interview him for 3 Books! I love his writing and his lens exploring how we live. What does that have to do with Her? Well, Michael’s brand new article in The Walrus takes a closer look at where “dating a computer” is today. Turns out we are closer to the world of Her than I thought!
7. 1000+ Little Things Happy Successful People Do Differently by Marc & Angel Chernoff. One of the best parts of my book tour for You Are Awesome was reconnecting with old friends. Way, way back in the early days of 1000 Awesome Things I developed a friendship with Marc and Angel who were putting out great self-help content on their blog “Marc and Angel Hack Life.” That was over a decade ago! Well, they are still at it and have grown their community by leaps and bounds. They sent me a copy of their latest book and I think it’s perfect for our Enlightened Bathroom Reading series. A deeply accessible 300-page pack of listicles like 10 Habits You Must Quit To Be Happy, 12 Relationship Truths We Often Forget, and (my favorite) 12 Things My Grandmother Told Me Before She Died.
8. Inherit The Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Almost a hundred years ago, way back in 1925, a schoolteacher in Dayton, Tennessee was put on trial for teaching evolution. The trial was covered around the country and considered one of the biggest legal wars of the century. Thirty years later in 1955 this play was written which is fictionalized but does use some actual quotes from the 1925 courtroom transcript. The play last ran in New York just over a decade ago starring Christopher Plummer and the script reads incredible fresh today. A wonderful quick read.
9. The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Do you ever fantasize about winning the lottery? I wrote about it a while back and wondered if I’d choose the tall, snooty butler with a pencil moustache or the short, bumbling one with a heart of gold. I wondered whether I’d get a pool or a tennis court or maybe skip both for a helipad so my new rich friends would have a place to park when they came over for polo. Well, this tightly written dystopian parable by John Steinbeck crashes those illusions down hard. When poor Kino and his wife find a giant pearl they dream of a new life for themselves. I won’t ruin what happens next but let’s just say no butlers are involved. Thin, tight, terse, and tense, if you liked The Road by Cormac McCarthy you’ll love this book.
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
Click here to join the Book Club email list.
Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - November 2019
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
This month has flowwwwwwwn.
You Are Awesome dropped November 5th and became a #1 international bestseller in its first week and has so far made six bestseller lists in the US and Canada alone. (Thank you!)
A dozen TV and radio interviews, half a dozen podcasts, four bookstore events, and three keynote speeches … between today and Saturday alone. Fun! Beautiful! Amazing! I am not complaining. I know how lucky I am. But it's simultaneously energizing and draining. And I couldn’t be doing any of this without Leslie, my family, and all of your endless support.
I got a couple emails from people saying I am sending too many notes about my new book. So I thought I’d share: The reason I am able to make the decision to avoid putting ads on anything I make – my 3 Books podcast, 1000 Awesome Things, GlobalHappiness.org, Neil.blog, all my email newsletters, this monthly book club, all my social media, etc -- is 100% because of the support you have given me on my books. Every few years I will ask you to buy one! (Buy one!) I hope you feel it’s a fair trade. I appreciate your support a ton. And I will never put ads on my stuff.
Sincerely yours, a burnt out, tired, grateful, and book launch crazy,
Neil
–
1. Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Day of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari. Do you think drugs should be illegal? Which ones? Why? What happens when they’re not? What happened when they weren’t? Who made them illegal? Why did they do that? And what happened when they did? It turns out that precisely zero of the answers to these questions are obvious. This is a massively illuminating and mind expanding exploration of our relationship with drugs. Everyone should read it. It is at once a detailed history of the drug war, a buddy-beside-you-on-a-bus account of one man’s obsessive across-the-world multi-year exploration into the abyss of the war on drugs, and a series of hopeful stories full of compassion and love that will honestly surprise you so much you might cry. I did. I absolutely cannot recommend it enough. This could be the best book I have read in 2019. It will definitely be on my Best Of 2019 list which comes out in a couple weeks.
2. The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts by Shane Parrish. Do you read the Farnam Street blog? You should! Shane Parrish and his team are putting out some of the highest quality content on the internet and it’s all clean, thoughtful prose about how we think. They summarize big books, share mental models, and help people master the best of what other people have already figured out. It’s no wonder The New York Times profiled Shane under the headline “How A Former Canadian Spy Helps Wall Street Mavens Think Smarter.” Shane and his team pick at big issues and this book is a neatly packaged exploration of mental models that can be used to strengthen your thinking again and again. As a sidenote: I also recommended BrainFood in my list of 9 of the world’s best email newsletters.
3. The Vagina Bible by Dr. Jen Gunter. Yes, I have the Vagina Bible on my bookshelf. When gynecologist Dr. Jen Gunter gave birth to preemies a number of years ago she was stunned how difficult it was to sift through the misinformation about learning how to take care of them. So she wrote a book! For herself and others. Called The Preemie Primer. Since then she’s become a medical crusader. People call her Twitter’s OB / GYN because she posts epic takedowns of bizarro natural products with big claims (i.e., jade eggs, anyone?) using deep research and fact-checking. As Jen says: “Medicine has been rooted in mansplaining since the beginning.” Why? Most (all) doctors were men and they couldn’t / wouldn’t do autopsies on female cadavers. So the research has been rapidly playing catchup. Enter Jen and her new book The Vagina Bible which, as the title says, serves as a definitive resource for all things vulva and vagina. Now, can someone please write The Penis Bible? (PS. Jen was my guest on Chapter 41 of 3 Books (listen to her!) and here she is on Twitter Jensplaining, as she puts it.)
4. Commute: An Illustrated Memoir of Female Shame by Erin Williams. Have you ever spent an afternoon walking around The Strand in NYC? They claim there are 18 miles of books in there so you really can get lost. While wandering around a couple weeks ago I met an incredible bookseller named Sofia who showed me the new “Women in Comics” display she’d put together featuring graphic novels by women. (Sidenote: I love when bookstores have super unique or strange sub-categories. Shoutout to “Plotless Fiction” at Type Books in Toronto!) I picked up this graphic novel from there and it … kind of shocked me. I recommend it but it is a painful read. It is billed as “An intimate, clever, and ultimately gut-wrenching graphic memoir about the daily decision women must make between being sexualized or being invisible.”
5. The best ever indie bookstore bookmark. Not a book! A bookmark. See, I love indie bookstores. Did I mention I love indie bookstores? (#indielove!) I did Chapter 4 and Chapter 21 of 3 Books in indie bookstores. And, I am also a sucker for indie bookstore bookmarks. I love them. They are always unique. Super thin and hard! Super wide and flappy! Covered in nerdy Shakespeare or Tolkien quotes! I leave them in the books I buy from the bookstore forever as a souvenir of the store and my experience there. (This strategy pairs well with my Life Rule to never leave an indie bookstore without buying something. Will you join me in observing it?) Over the past few weeks I’ve got bookmarks from The Strand in NYC, Anderson’s Bookshop in Chicago, Black Bond Books in Vancouver, and Mable’s Fables in Toronto, amongst many others. But one stands out! Check out this epic bookmark from Book City! Read the whole thing. (Link just goes to a pic of the bookmark I tweeted.)
6. Don’t Keep Your Day Job by Cathy Heller. One of the most fun parts about my book launch has been doing podcasts. I feel like I’m always walking into a glorious invisible mental room within some fascinating mind. Some go beautifully all over the place like Sickboy. Some focus deeply on a core issue like parenting like my chat with Jason at mindbodygreen or Anna at Authentic Parenting. Some go deep into the book’s research and takeaways like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Some are great catchups with friends like The Learning Leader Show or The Ziglar Show. Some are super specific premises like answering complex reader questions at Dear HBR. Some are playing with giant minds like The Knowledge Project, Terrible Thanks For Asking, and Chase Jarvis Live (excited to share these when they air). And then some turn into a deep soul connection out of nowhere. Like my chat with Cathy on her great podcast Don’t Keep Your Day Job. I love Cathy! I love the energy she’s putting out into the world. Her community has completely buried me in notes for the past three weeks. But that’s okay! That's all right. Because they are my kind of people. Explorers. Seekers. Artists. This book is full of wisdom from Cathy herself and people she’s chatted with like Gretchen Rubin and Jen Sincero.
7. Molly’s Game by Molly Bloom. Molly grew up in rural Colorado in an extremely super achieving family. Like Harvard surgeon and Olympian athlete type super achieving. After being a top ranked national skier she left to go to LA for brighter pastures and ended up – as one does – running one of the world’s highest stakes poker games with millions getting swapped at the table every night. And then? She was busted by the feds. Don’t worry. Not a spoiler. That’s the opening scene. This is a gripping page-turning memoir which, of course, was turned into the Oscar-nominated film by Aaron Sorkin. If you’re curious what is below this story and what happened after Molly’s Game ends … then listen in to my recent conversation with Molly on 3 Books. (Okay, is it a spoiler if I tell you one of her books is a series written in the second-person...?)
8. The Awesome Music Project Canada: Songs of Hope and Happiness by Terry Stuart and Robert Carli. I have a thing for super gigantic passion projects that are insanely hard to pull off but of course are going to be pulled off because the Jupiter-sized heart of the person leading the thing. Things like the insanely delicious sushi restaurant with the freshest fish in the city who only take one reservation every half hour to serve them well. Things like the bartender who wants you to mix your drink through a detailed examination of your mood. Things like Frank Warren spending over a decade collecting, curating, and publishing a thoughtful examination of the human condition through anonymous postcards every single Sunday. And things like The Awesome Music Project. Terry and Robert spent years assembling personal, heartfelt stories of how music touched people’s lives (including one from me) and sewed them into this beautiful hardcover book with all proceeds going to support music and mental health charities. A gift.
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
Click here to join the Book Club email list.
Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - October 2019
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
Hope you’re having a great October.
I’m going on book tour for You Are Awesome in less than two weeks and hope to see some of you in Toronto, New York, Vancouver, Chicago, or Calgary. (All ticket and event details are here.)
And now ... to the books!
Neil
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1. The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. I remember reading an old interview with famed editor Amy Einhorn (The Help, Big Little Lies, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, The Book of Awesome) where she was asked how she found her books and she said something like “I just look for voice.” What? That’s it? Just voice? Yes, just voice. Not genre, trends, platform size, celebrity. Just voice. How rare! How refreshing! And likely a huge part of her success. Well, I kept thinking about that when I finally read The Catcher in the Rye because (frankly) I thought the plot was boring. Holden Caufield gets kicked out of high school and bums around New York for a few days. The end! Yet the voice was so magnetic that I felt myself drawn to the book as it sat on my bedside table. I kept walking over to it and reading a few more pages. Then I’d walk away and walk back again. Then I’d walk away and walk back again. I couldn’t stop hanging out with this guy. He felt like an old friend. He trusted me. I trusted him. I felt a deep connection. This book is 75 years old! But listen how fresh it still sounds from the opening sentence: “If you really want to hear about, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” A true study in reader seduction. Go back and read it if you haven’t!
2. Ask Me About Polyamory by Tikva Wolf. I had no idea what the phrase “I’m poly” meant until maybe a year ago. Since then I’ve heard a dozen or so people share that they’re poly including 3 Books guest Juniper Fitzgerald (How Mamas Love Their Babies) and Jeremie Saunders (Sickboy, Turn Me On). What is poly? According to Wikipedia polyamory is ‘characterized by or involved in the practice of engaging in multiple sexual relationships with the consent of all people involved.’ This book broadens and deepens that definition, though. It is a collection of comics that serve as an incredibly accessible, warm, funny, enlightening, and welcoming introduction to a huge variety of polyamory, queer, and genderqueer issues. I loved it. (PS. Here’s the online home of Tikva’s comics.)
3. Stories That Stick by Kindra Hall. I met Kindra Hall when we were accidentally wedged together in the back of a car on the way to the Los Angeles airport. We had both just finished speaking for the YMCA and were frantically pushing buttons on our cell phones (ugh) before racing to catch flights. At some point in the middle of the drive we managed to actually turn to each other and say hello. And the conversation took off because Kindra is (you guessed it) an incredible storyteller. You can’t stop listening to her! That’s kind of her thing. She gave me an early copy of her new book and I opened it and couldn’t stop listening to it, either. Just came out last month and debuted on a bunch of bestseller lists. I’m not surprised because her stories keep you flipping and the book forces a nice, healthy mental chiropractic adjustment of what you’re telling the world … and how. What is your Value Story? (Why do people need what you provide?) What is your Founder Story? (Why should people invest in you?) What is your Purpose Story? (How do you inspire employees?) Although it is purportedly a ‘business book’ and for those who really need to nail their elevator speech or pitch I think the book applies much more broadly. I took a lot away from it.
4. David Sedaris Diaries: A Visual Compendium edited by Jeffrey Jenkins. I was listening to an episode of Dax Sheppard where he introduced David Sedaris as ‘a national treasure.’ Tall praise! But he’s right. Because how many people could publish a big, heavy, full-color, 250-page coffee table book of their diaries and sell it? Not many people who aren’t national treasures. Since 1977 David Sedaris has kept roughly four diaries a year. He told me last year that ‘I write on Christmas, I write on my birthday.’ So on top of his New Yorker essays and books are over 150 (so far) diaries that he arranges in a tall bookshelf with a big skull on it. (There’s a picture of the shelf in here.) The diaries are full of glued in bits and pieces that he found or came across, head-trippy collages that he painstakingly arranged, and endless wry and pithy observations about the world. Jeffrey Jenkins clearly went to great lengths to mimic those diaries in this book. There are little cardboard popouts. There’s a plastic envelope in the back with random ephemera. And there is a great intro from Sedaris himself. Perfect for Sedaris completists.
5. Terrible, Thanks For Asking by Nora McInerny. How often do you meet someone and then wonder how you didn’t know them before? That happened with me and Nora McInerny earlier this year. Nora’s life was upended a few years ago when in the span of a few weeks she had a miscarriage, lost her dad to cancer, and then lost her husband to a brain tumor. Over the years she has channeled the insights from those experiences into a remarkable body of work and art that is equal parts poignant and truly and deeply hilarious. If you don’t know her, catch up! Step 1: Watch her TED Talk “We don’t ‘move on’ from grief. We move forward with it.” Step 2: Subscribe to her podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking. Step 3: Check out her books. (I’m on Step 3 right now). I love what Nora McInerny is putting out into the world. In this age of rising loneliness, separation, and disconnection, we need people like her working to emotionally connect us with their full and true hearts.
6. This Is Water by David Foster Wallace. I found a big stack of these small and tiny hardcovers in the remainder bin of my local used bookstore so after my eyes did that Looney Tunes popout thing I bought a big pile. Sure, I had watched the video of this commencement speech before (which Time somewhat puffily calls “The Last Lecture for intellectuals.”), I had read the text online multiple times, but now I own it and it lives with me in my house and feels different. An incredible speech about living an intentional life and about constantly trying to see the water you’re swimming in and navigating forward from a place of empathy, humility, and compassion. (PS. For David Foster Wallace nerds only: While digging around on the Internet I came across this hilarious and incredible 2005 course syllabus from a class he taught at Pomona College...)
7. Ernest Hemingway on Writing by Larry W. Phillips. This is the best book on writing I have ever read. Yes, I said it. I honestly liked it better than the (much more popular) Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott or On Writing by Stephen King. Those books are (very) good. This book is (very) great. Ernest Hemingway thought it was bad luck to talk about writing. So he didn’t! Or he thought he didn’t. But twenty-five years after he died journalist Larry W. Phillips combed through Hemingway’s personal letters to friends, editors, fellow writers, and critics, as well as interviews he conducted over his career, and pulled out the many wise and remarkable thoughts Hemingway shared on writing over his life. He then sort of shaped and sculpted them together by theme (“Working Habits”, “The Writer’s Life”, “Characters”, etc) to produce this slender 140-page volume of endless gold nuggets. I circled so many quotes and made so many notes in the margins that I just ended up leaving it on my bedside table when I was done in the hopes that it will slowly merge into my subconscious. A gem for anyone that writes and wants to write better. Highly recommended.
8. Don’t Touch my Hair! by Sharee Miller. How do you teach children about boundaries? Read them this book. A wonderful story about a girl named Aria who has big, bouncy, curly hair that everybody wants to touch. After she has a big scream one day (“Don’t touch my hair!”) she learns that people need to ask permission to touch her hair and that she can feel confident saying yes or saying no.
As always, thank you so much for reading. Reply any time with your own thoughts and suggestions. I get my best book recommendations from the readers of this list...
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
Click here to join the Book Club email list.
Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - September 2019
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
My new book You Are Awesome: How to Navigate Change, Wrestle With Failure, and Live an Intentional Life is available to preorder now. Click here to learn more.
And now ... onto the books,
Neil
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1. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Last year I flew down to Key West, Florida to visit Judy Blume in her bookstore for 3 Books. Life highlight! And when I was there she shook this book in her hand and said, “Oh, we love Celeste Ng here.” I had never heard of Celeste Ng. But now I love Celeste Ng here. Because this book is a screamer. I know it was just last month when I said Less was probably the best novel I’d read this year but Little Fires Everywhere is suddenly knocking on that same door. A picture-perfect family in Shaker Heights, Ohio is slowly peeled back to reveal all sorts of spaghetti-noodle machinations on the inside. You will feel love, you will feel pain, and (best of all) you will feel yourself rubbing up against bigger ethical questions that will make you stop and wonder “What would I do in that situation?” This book will bubble in your blood. Highly, highly recommended! (PS. I hear Reese Witherspoon is making the mini-series so grab it before they ruin the cover!)
2. Flying Creatures Paper Airplane Book: 69 Mini Planes to Fold and Fly by Jeff Lammers. Have you ever folded a paper airplane specifically so it would barrel roll or do a loop-de-loop? I never had until my son begged me to buy this book for him. (Life Rule: Whenever a kid begs for a book, say yes.) There’s a little bit of preamble on paper airplanes and then the rest of this book is an incredibly detailed pile of perforated paper plane perfection. (I always allow alliteration.) You rip one out, follow the instructions, and suddenly the Dragon or Stingray you just built is zooming around the room. Hours of entertainment.
3. Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid. Do you ever feel like you owe an artist your money? I feel this a lot. Like, you love their debut album so you buy their next one before hearing a single song. You’ve been watching their TV show for years so you race out to buy their new book. Or maybe you did what I did with Mohsin Hamid which was read all his other novels over the past few years – The Reluctant Fundamentalist, How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, and Exit West – and then, slowly, finally, steady my gaze on this one. I didn’t want to read it! I kept thinking two conflicting thoughts: 1) If I read it I will have no more Mohsin Hamid novels to read. Sad emoji with tear. And 2) I knew it was his first book and seemed less popular so I was worried I wouldn't love it and he'd slip a few notches from the pedestal I’d placed him on. But I got over those fears! Because I owed him. His others novels were incredible. And now that I’ve read it? It is very good, too. I mean, I see why it’s not as popular! It is super layered (demanding), told from a slew of different viewpoints (confusing), and the protagonist is a Pakistani banker who slowly falls into a painful ruin (sad). Yet we get incredible class and cultural tensions mixed together with the sort of human and business insight I love from Mohsin Hamid. A solid read for Hamid completists. If you are new to him I would recommend The Reluctant Fundamentalist first and How To Get Filthy Rich second.
4. Talking To Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm Gladwell has stated that his career goal is “to be left alone.” When I went down to the West Village to interview him for 3 Books his lovely assistant Camille mentioned in passing that he sometimes sits and reads all day. (Jelly!) Our interview took place in a room with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on all walls. “These are a fraction of my books, I should say,” he said. And when I asked him why hardcovers, why only hardcovers, he said paperbacks seem so … “impermanent.” I am crazy about this crazy man. He is a huge nerd hero! And in his lifestyle design I see a pattern emerging in the most successful people I know. What is it? Gigantic patches of silence. Huge unplugs. Lots of Untouchable Days. And, since he’s had a bit of success (*cough* The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers) he doesn’t need to rush. Indeed he told me that the best advice for writers is to “let it germinate.” So after six years of germination comes his brand new book Talking To Strangers. He got interested in the fact that tons of people are wrongly prosecuted and convicted because of our biases and poor judgement and, him being him, he dug deeper and deeper into the data until he pulled out big themes that help us understand how we make sense of the unfamiliar and why we're bad at judging people.
5. Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday. Speaking of patches of silence, here comes Ryan Holiday with a book about stillness. This book is the completion of his Stoic philosophy trilogy that begins with The Obstacle Is the Way and middles with Ego Is The Enemy. Ryan defines stillness as “Kennedy in the Cuban Missile Crisis, it’s Marcus Aurelius with his journals, it’s Tom Brady down 28-3 in the Super Bowl, it’s Martin Luther under interrogation...” and he, as always, leverages lessons from history and philosophy to make his case. You feel smarter after reading Ryan’s books because he’s put in the thousands of hours of research to give you so many never-heard-em-before nuggets of wisdom. I flew down to Austin to interview Ryan for 3 Books and he’ll be my next guest on September 28th at 2:26pm EST, the exact minute of the new Super Moon. (As an aside, for anyone who wants to be a bestselling author, and I get lots of people asking me how to do it, I'll tell you straight up: follow Ryan’s model. It goes like this: give, give, give, give, give, give, ask. Here it is with links to some of the things he's giving: give, give, give, give, give, give, ask.)
6. Howard Stern Comes Again by Howard Stern. I love TED Talks but don’t watch many. Why? Because I always read the transcript instead. So instead of an 18-minute talk I get like a 2-minute read and when my brain is in whale-sucking-up-plankton mode I can learn from nine TED Talks in the time it takes to watch one. I know, I know, life isn’t a race, but it’s so tempting because we read so much faster than we watch or listen. And that’s partly the beauty of this book which was recommended to me by Mel Robbins. (Do I get to say TV sensation Mel Robbins yet??) Howard Stern has essentially taken his forty years of hosting a daily morning show, chiseled away 99.99% of his interviews, and shaped the remaining few dozen into this exquisitely beautiful carving. Jerry Seinfeld, Amy Poehler, Ellen DeGeneres, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, and so many others let their guard down, ditch all talking points, and let the conversation bloom into vulnerable, revealing, and hugely insightful discussions offering an endless platter of illuminating insights on motivation, artistry, habits, and relationships. And, I’ll just add, if you’re interested in learning how to be a better interviewer (as a leader, presenter, podcast host, whatever) then you’ll gain a ton here, too. Howard sounds like a guy chilling with you at a bar but in this book he reveals his incredible preparation method and you get to watch it in action. This book blew me away. I believe it's easily worth many, many times what it costs.
7. Bust Magazine. Did you know that Bust is the largest feminist magazine in the world? Or that it’s one of the few magazines that boasts a stable circulation in this era of declining print everything? I know the mag is purportedly for “women with something to get off their chests” but when I see it on newsstands I often grab one because I find it an incredibly clear-voiced glimpse at the world from a beautiful angle. (And maybe because it reminds me of flipping through my sisters's YMs when I was a kid. Who remembers "Say Anything"? Okay, I am saying too much.) I was lucky to sit down with Debbie Stoller, founder and editor, and she gave me a hard and fast lesson on all things feminist. While most magazines have been watered down into Wikipedia style writing this one retains a fresh and fist-forward voice that’s always a great breather from the patriarchy.
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
Click here to join the Book Club email list.
Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - August 2019
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
I’ve got something big simmering and I am so pumped to send you an exciting note soon. In the mean time I hope you’re enjoying the end of your summer (or winter, for my many Falkland Island readers) and you’re making time for books always.
Friends and lovers come and go.
Books are here for you always.
Here are my recos this month,
Neil
1. Less by Andrew Sean Greer. My friend Alec told me to read this book. I said I would. Then I didn’t. The next time I saw him he asked if I read this book. I told him no but I would. Then I didn’t. The next time I saw him he had actually bought me a copy, put it into my hand, and said again, with cold penetrating eyes, “Read this book.” Perseverance. I like that! To be honest I was a bit intimidated by the Pulitzer Prize sticker on the front. But I finally cracked it open and fell into it like a big warm pond. What a story! When writer Arthur Less gets an invitation to his ex-boyfriend’s wedding he decides to accept a slew of half-baked authorly invitations around the world rather than shamefacedly attend the wedding as the awkward dateless former lover. What follows is an incredibly hilarious and woven tale through distant countries. I absolutely loved it. First off, it feels like you are visiting everywhere he goes. How does he pull this off so well? You’re in Morocco, you’re in India, you’re in Japan. You’re traveling. You’re right there. Second, it’s hilarious. Laugh-out-loud funny. If you liked books like Barney’s Version or A Fraction of the Whole or Catch-22 I think you’ll love this. And, finally, the finishing move: the entire book is written by an eloquent first-person-floating-over-the-scene narrator whose identity isn’t revealed until the final pages. Best novel I’ve read all year. Highly recommended!
2. Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib. Last year I went on and on about They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib, a collection of essays on music and life and politics and justice and what it’s like growing up black in the US today. I loved that book! And here is his follow-up. It came out from a small university publisher and immediately smacked onto The New York Times bestseller list. I think a lot of people feel like Hanif Abdurraqib is becoming one of the most exciting writers around. Now, if you know anything about A Tribe Called Quest, great, but if you don’t, well, great as well. Once again you get exquisite writing featuring hip-hop history and culture woven into reflections on race, family, and politics. A loving portrait.
3. Art Matters by Neil Gaiman. A nice zippy illustrated collection of four Neil Gaiman essays on art including his famous Make Good Art commencement speech. The other three essays are Credo, Making A Chair, and On Libraries. A nice little push for the aspiring artists in your life… or the aspiring artist inside you.
4. The Algebra of Happiness by Scott Galloway. The original working title for my book The Happiness Equation was actually Truly Rich. I wrote the book as a letter to my unborn child and was hoping to redefine rich into this more all-encompassing term. But then we made the eleventh hour decision to change the title to The Happiness Equation because there was an underlying formula in the book (Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything) as well as a ton of sort of mathy equations and scribbles. After I released it in 2016 I’ve found a couple great books on this same theme of distilling happiness into simpler language. One is Solve For Happy by Mo Gawdat. The other is this book. Both veer much more into personal memoir and both offer unique nuggets on happiness. Scott is a professor at NYU and his YouTube videos are super popular if you want to check him out there. (Sidenote: I discovered this book through this video by Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, where he discusses it as well as The Happiness Equation.)
5. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. I think one of the ugliest things in the world today is the polished resume. Polished everything! Too much polish. I am not a fan of LinkedIn. It is full of polished resumes. Everyone sounds perfect! I like blemishes. Blemishes are interesting. Weird jobs, strange hobbies, gap years. Have you read Jordan Peterson’s bio? Regardless of what you think of the dude, talk about an interesting resume. When I interviewed candidates at Walmart I was always most interested in those gaps and rough edges and the stuff painted outside the lines. Because that’s where the person had come from, how they grew, how they had developed. The crucible moments where their character was forged. I think the increasing specialization of our world, at younger and younger ages, results in far too much fragility. Being really great at one thing often means you’re pretty bad at lots of things. But the jack of all trades is the next king of the world. This book is a powerful refutation of the famed 10,000 hour rule (and was originally spawned when David Epstein was asked to debate Malcolm Gladwell over that exact point). A powerful book for those feeling wobbly in their career, wondering what’s next, or for anyone thinking all the tiny things they’ve done don’t amount to much. Actually, they amount to a lot. And this powerful book shows you why.
6. HBR Guide To Your Professional Growth. Okay, I included this book to show the power of this email list. When I started sending you guys book recos a few years ago the most common question you sent back was “How do you read so many books?” So I wrote an article for HBR in response called “8 Ways To Read (A Lot) More Books This Year” which became the Most Popular article on their site for something like six months. Now that very article has been immortalized for eternity in this new HBR book. They mailed me a few copies and I found the whole book pretty good. Good gift for co-workers. (P.S., No, I don’t get royalties. You are feeding into the impoverished Harvard endowment. Please give generously.) (P.P.S., I wrote a follow-up to that article called "8 More Ways To Read (A Lot) More Books" on my blog).
7. Minding The Store: A Big Story About A Small Business by Julie Gaines. I love graphic novels but so many are something like “one person’s tale of battling awkwardness through high school” or similar. Good story! But a bit of a tired story. Yet the medium is so powerful so I’m always looking for it to explore new territory. That’s why I loved Tetris by Box Brown. It’s why I just bought Amazing Decisions by Dan Ariely. And it’s why I picked up this non-fiction graphic novel about the famous Fishs Edy store in New York City. (Do you know those Manhattan skyline dinner plates? Those came from here.) It’s a fun family and small business told by the store’s co-owner and drawn by her son.
8. Turtles All The Way Down by John Green. Do you like blue cheese? Some do. Many don’t! It’s an acquired taste. Or a never-acquired taste. Smaller market. But those who love it, love it a lot. Well, this is John Green’s blue cheese book. I’m glad he wrote it. He went somewhere new. But it’s definitely an acquired taste. Many characters are not easy to love. The protagonist has mental illness and since it’s told in first person you live inside that brain. I skipped a lot of the pages filled with anxiety-ridden thoughts because they became too much. (I’m sure that’s the point.) Good for John Green superfans or those craving a young adult look inside the many tougher-to-answer questions around mental illness today. Green’s writing remains so confident and thick-globbed and powerful. I’m excited to see what he does next.
9. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? THE MOVIE. What is a movie doing on this book club? Well, Where’d You Go Bernadette was literally #2 overall on my list of The Very Best Books I Read in 2018. #2! I read over 100 books last year and it was #2. So I didn’t want to see the movie and ruin it in my head. I didn’t even want to picture the characters! (That’s why I’ve never watched the Harry Potters and why I am upset Daniel Radcliffe has mentally replaced Harry in the books for me.) Plus, the movie is 48% on RottenTomatoes. 48%? What a death blow! But Leslie and I had a super rare movie night, and she wanted to see it … so we went. I confessed my hesitation to her just before it started and we debated leaving the theater. But we stayed. And were both blown away. There were so many emotional layers in it. I surprise-cried through like three different scenes. If you have any form of “mental illness plus love” in your family I think it will hit you hard. It was true to the book (Maria Semple was an Executive Producer), directed by Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Before Midnight), and Cate Blanchett just nails the title role. I highly, highly recommend the book! This is a book email! Buy the book! Read the book! But then, for the purists out there, trust me that the movie really does hold up.
10. The Floor Is Lava: And 99 More Games for Everyone, Everywhere by Ivan Brett. Did you play that game when you were a kid where you pretended the floor was lava and you had to jump between all the couches and coffee tables to avoid melting into the Earth’s molten core? Well, I never really thought about it but what was most beautiful about that game is that you didn’t need … anything. Nothing! You didn’t need a thing. This book is a collection of games like that. Fun games you can play around a dinner table or on a long car ride. My wife Leslie loves it and we’ve successfully introduced a few good ones to the kids.
Interested in more of my reviews? Read my monthly book clubs or visit my Goodreads page.
Click here to join the Book Club email list.
Neil Pasricha's Monthly Book Club - July 2019
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
Hope you're having a great month.
In somewhat strange news, my journal Two-Minute Mornings has been going crazy lately and ranking in Amazon's Top 100 for a couple weeks. Each page in the journal lists the three simple prompts I fill out to start my day: I will let go of..., I am grateful for..., and I will focus on.... Here's a TV clip where I explain where it came from.
And now, the books!
Neil
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