This has been on my book list for some time. Cain makes a good case for the power of introverts in the workplace, and how office plans often overlook those needs (OPEN OFFICE PLANS ANYONE!). She also has some interesting research on how introverts often pair with extroverts and the unique challenges that arise. “Why do I have to go out with you?”
This was my easy vacation read. I really need a book tree to keep track of how these lovely stories come into my purview. This was on my wish list, but I found it at the book sale. Thanks book sale! Useful and funny/sad self help advice.
I took two pieces of advice to heart. Treat yourself kindly. Buy the lilies if they make your week. She mentioned that she cleaned her bathroom sink every night with some wonderful smelling cleaner. I bought some lavender spray and made this a habit. Small perfection.
If someone treats you poorly, it is not a reflection of you. Sometimes people are doing the best they can, not the best you wish they could.
At the end of every year, my mother and my friend Ann and I exchange our yearly reading lists. As a result, I have my lists from 2001 onward. Enjoy. Find yourself a good read.
Book List
2001
Marie Rudisill – The Southern Haunting of Truman Capote
James Carville – Stinkin’ The Case for Loyalty
James Carville – And the Horse He Rode In On
James Carville – We’re Right and Their Wrong
Henry Miller – Moloch: Or This Gentile World
William Wiser – The Twilight Years: Paris in the 1930s
Peggy Guggenheim – Confessions Of An Art Addict
David Mamet – Writing in Restaurants
Louis Auchincloss – Woodrow Wilson
Marie Gordon – Joan of Arc
Douglas Brinkley – Rosa Parks
Deborah Tannen – The Argument Culture
Zora Neal Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching God
Slavenka Drakulic – Care Europe : Life After Communism
Al Franken – Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot
John Howard Griffin – Black Like Me
Milan Kundera – Testaments Betrayed
Steven Dunderson & Rob Morris – House and Home
Vincent Bugliosi – The Betrayal of America
Gerry Spence – How to Argue and Win Every Time
Milan Kundera – The Farewell Party
Sherwin B. Nuland – Leonardo de Vinci
Alan M. Dershowitz – The Best Defense
Slavenka Krakulic – How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed
Eric Schlosser – Fast Food Nation
George H. Smith – Atheism: The Case Against God
Alan M. Dershowitz – Letters to a Young Lawyer
Alan M. Dershowitz – Reasonable Doubts
Michael Kingsley, ed. The Slate Diaries
Michael Paterniti – Driving Mr. Albert
2002
Russel Martin – Beethoven’s Hair
Hermann Hesse – Steppenwolf
David Sedaris – Me Talk Pretty One Day
Dave Edmonds & John Eidenow – Wittgenstein’s Poker
David Sedaris – Naked
V.S. Naipaul – Among the Believers
V.S. Naipaul – Beyond Belief
Chris Matthews – Now Let Me Tell You What I Really Think
Michael Ondaatje – Anil’s Ghost
V.S. Naipaul – A Turn in the South
Viktor E. Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning
Andrea Tone – Devices and Desires
David Sedaris – Barrel Fever
Christopher Hitchens – Letters to a Young Contrarian
Alain de Botton – The Art of Travel
Adam Haslett – You Are Not A Stranger Here
Michael Shermer – How We Believe
V.S. Naipaul – India: A Wounded Civilization
Colson Whitehead – John Henry Days
2003
Penelope Hughes Hallett – The Immortal Dinner
Normal F. Cantor – In the Wake of the Plague: the Black Death and the World It Made
Greg Critser – Fat Land
Jim Collins – Good to Great
Candace Bushnell – Sex and the City
Samantha Weinberg – A Fish Caught in Time
Eric Schlosser – Reefer Madness
Michael Neumeier – Brand Gap
Simon Winchester – The Map that Changed the World
Frederick Lewis Allen – Only Yesterday
V.S. Naipaul – India: A Million Mutinies Now
Alexa Albert – Brothel: Mustang Ranch and It’s Women
James Laxer – Discovering America
Al Franken – Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
Robert Darnton: George Washington’s False Teeth: An Unconventional Guide to the Eighteenth Century
Don Delillo – White Noise
Jessica Warner – Craze: Gin and Debauchery in the Age of Reason
Simon Winchester – Krakatoa
Tony Horwitz – Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
2004
Bill Bryson – In a Sunburned Country
Stanley Weintraub – Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce
Augusten Burroughs – Dry: A Memoir
Augusten Burroughs – Running with Scissors
Tony Horwitz – Baghdad Without a Map
Bill Bryson – Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe
Bill Bryson – Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States
Mary Roach – Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Bill Bryson – Notes from a Small Island
Peter Mayle – A Year in Provence
David Lamb – The Arabs: Journey Beyond the Mirage
Audre Dubas, III – The House of Sand and Fury
Bill Bryson, ed. – the Best American Travel Writing, 2000
Geraldine Brooks – Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women
Suze Orman – The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom
Cynthia and Anna Benson – Firm for Life
David Sedaris – Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Ian Frazier – The Best American Travel Writing, 2003
Tim Cahill – Hold the Enlightenment
Jan v. White – Editing by Design
Ken Cato – Design by Thinking
Milan Kundera – Ignorance
Frederick Lewis Allen – Since Yesterday, 1929-1939
Tim Cahill – Pecked to Death by Ducks
Tony Howitz – Blue Latitudes
Sean O’Relly, ed. – Hyenas Laughed At Me and Now I Know Why
Sarah Vowell – The Partly Cloudy Patriot
Pete McCarthy – McCarthy’s Bar: A Journey of Discovery in the West of Ireland
Sarah Vowell – Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World
Sarah Vowell – Radio On: A Listener’s Diary
W. Hampton Sides – Stomping Ground: A Pilgrim’s Progress Through Eight American Subcultures
Hank Stuever – Off Ramp: Adventures and Heartache in the American Elsewhere
Steve Almond – Candy Freak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America
Augusten Burroughs – Magical Thinking
Slavenka Drakulic – The Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War
Nick Flynn – Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
Paul Theroux – The Best American Travel Writing, 2001
2005
Hollis Gillespie – Confessions of a Recovering Slut
James Frey – A Million Little Pieces
The Best of Outside: The First 20 Years
Tim Cahill – Jaguars Ripped My Flesh
William Bridges – Transitions
Dalai Lama – The Art of Happiness
Melissa Bank – The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Jeanette Winterson – The Passion
Jennifer Gonnerman – Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett
Garrison Keiller – Homegrown Democrat
Alain de Botton – Status Anxiety
2006
Alice Sebold – Lucky
James Frey – My Friend Leonard
Azar Nafisi – Reading Lotlita in Tehran
Pico Iyer – The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home
Hollis Gillespie – Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch : Tales from a Bad Neighborhood
Pico Iyer – Sun After Dark: Flights Into the Foreign
Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita
Willa Cather – Death Comes for the Archbishop
Pearl S. Buck – The Good Earth
Robin Williams – Web Design Workshop
Melissa Bank – The Wonder Spot
George Carlin – When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops
Greg Critser – Generation Rx
Chuck Palahniuk – Diary
Laurie Notaro – Autobiography of a Fat Bride
Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner
Chuck Palahniuk – Stranger than Fiction
Bruce Robinson – The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman
Tim Cahill – Road Fever
Julia Scheeres – Jesus Land
2007
Bill Bryson – A Walk in the Woods
Hampton Sides – Americana
Tim Cahill, ed. – The Best American Travel Writing, 2006
Augusten Burroughs – Possible Side Effects
Frances Mayes – Under the Tuscan Sun
William Faulkner – As I Lay Dying
Jacqueline Cangro, ed. – The Subway Chronicles: Scenes from Life in New York
Sarah Turnbull – Almost French
Norah Vincent – Self-Made Man
Diablo Cody – Candy Girl: A year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper
Frances Mayes – Bella Tuscany
Irvin Yalom – Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
Alexandra Fuller – Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
Tom Negrino and Dori Smith – Macromedia Dreamweaver 8
Emma Larkin – Finding George Orwell in Burma
Marilyn Johnson – The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasure of Obituaries
Asne Seierstad – The Bookseller of Kabul
James C. Hunter – The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen – Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death
Jhumpa Lahiri – Interpreter of Maladies
Peter Mayle – Acquired Tastes
Howard Schultz – Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time
Eric Hansen – The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer
Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Eric Hansen – Strangers in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo
Eric Hansen – Orchid Fever: A Horticulture Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy
Rachel Dewoskin – Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China
Irvin D. Yalom – Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy
2008
Graham Greene: The Quiet American
Tim Cahill – Pass the Butterworms: Remote Journeys Oddly Rendered
Elizabeth Gilbert – Eat, Pray, Love
Julian Barnes – Flaubert’s Parrot
Adam Gopnick – Paris to the Moon
Anthony Bourdain – Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Graham Greene – The End of the Affair
Christopher Hunt – Waiting for Fidel
Patrick Symmes – Chasing Che: A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend
Paul Loeb and Suzanne Hlavacek – Smarter Than You think
Patricia B. McConnell – The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs
Miranda July – No One Belongs Here More Than You
J. Maarten Troost – The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
J. Maarten Troost – Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
David Sedaris – When You Are Engulfed in Flames
2009
Susan Orlean, ed. – The Best American Travel Writing, 2007
Chuck Palahniuk – Choke
Tim Cahill – Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone
Elizabeth Castro – HTML, XHTML, and Css
Khaled Hosseini – A Thousand Splendid Suns
Burkhard Bilger – Noodling for Flatheads: Moonshine, Monster Catfish, and the Other Southern Comforts
Chuck Thompson – Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer
Eric Hansen – Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea
Pete Jordan – Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States
Cecily Von Ziegesar – Gossip Girl
Barack Obama – Dreams of My Father
Anthony Bourdain, ed. The Best American Travel Writing, 2008
Jeffrey Eugenides – Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides – The Virgin Suicides
Mike Daisy – 21 Dog Years: Doing Time at Amazon.com
2010
Katherine Ulrich – Flash CS4 Professional
Cesar Millan – Be the Pack Leader
Henry Miller – The Rosy Crucifixion 1: Sexus
Henry Miller – The Rosy Crucifixion 2: Plexus
Henry Miller – The Rosy Crucifixion 3: Nexus
Rosamund and Benjamin Zander – The Art of Possibility
Alain de Botton – How Proust Can Change Your Life (second read)
Alain de Botton – The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
Alain de Botton – The Architecture of Happiness
Lauren Weber – In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue
Kelly Cutrone – If You Have to Cry, Go Outside
J. Maarten Troost – Lost on Planet China
Jon Krakauer – Into the Wild
Cesar Millan – Cesar’s Rules: Your Way to Train a Well Behaved Dog
Michael Schaffer – One Nation Under Dog: America’s Love Affair with our Dogs
2011
Chuck Thompson – To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism
Alexandra Horowitz – Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know
Gary Dell’Abate – They Call Me Baba Booey
Cesar Millan – Be the Pack Leader
Sloane Crosley – I Was Told There’d Be Cake
Randy Kennedy – Subwayland: Adverturns in the World Beneath New York
Bernard-Henri Levy – American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville
Jonathan Franzen – How to Be Alone: Essays
Stefan Bechtel – Dogtown: Tales of Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Redemption
Malcolm Gladwell – Outliers: The Story of Success
Tim Clissfold – Mr. China: A Memoir
Stephanie Meyer – Breaking Dawn
Patton Oswalt – Zombie, Spaceship, Wasteland
Anthony Bourdain – Medium Raw
David Sedaris – Holidays on Ice
Sloane Crosley – How Did You Get This Number
Stephanie Meyer – Twilight
Stephanie Meyer – New Moon
Stephanie Meyer – Eclipse
Mishna Wolff – I’m Down: A Memoir
Carl Hoffman – The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World via It’s Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Planes, and Trains
Michael Tonello – Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World’s Most Coveted Handbag
Adam Carolla – In 50 Years, We’ll All Be Dead
Jillian Lauren – Some Girls: My Life in a Harem
Mark Bryan, Julia Cameron, and Catherine Allen – The Artist’s Way at Work: Riding the Dragon – Twelve Weeks to Creative Freedom
Frances Mayes, ed. – The Best American Travel Writing, 2002
2012
Virginia and Lee McAlester – A Field Guide to American Houses
Kelly Cutrone – Normal Gets You Nowhere
Tina Fey – Bossypants
Jeroen Van Bergeijk – My Mercedes is Not for Sale
Mireille Guiliano – French Women for all Seasons
Adam Carolla – Not Taco Bell Material
Neil Steinberg – Drunkard: A Hard Drinking Life
Malcolm Gladwell – What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures
Chuck Klosterman – Eating the Dinosaur
2013
Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D. – For the Love of a Dog
Miranda July – It Chooses You
Suzanne Clothier – If a Dog’s Prayers Were Answered, Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening our Relationship with Dogs
W. Timothy Gallwey – The Inner Game of Tennis
Tim Gunn – A Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style
Michelle Nevis and James Nevis – Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York
Sloane Crosley, ed. – The Best American Travel Writing, 2011
Jonah Lehrer – Proust Was a Neuroscientist
Jon Ronson – The Psychopath Test
NY Transit Museum – Subway Style: 100 Years of Architecture and Design in the NYC Subway
Allee Sparberg Alexiou – The Flatiron
Chuck Thompson – Better Off Without Them: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession
Malcolm Gladwell – Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
2014
Stephen Budianky – The Truth About Dogs
Marc Maron – Attempting Normal
David Sedaris – Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
Patti Smith – Just Kids
Andre Agassi – Open
Daniel Drennan – The New York Diaries
J. Maarten Troost – Headhunters on My Doorstep: A True Treasure Island Ghost Story
Sophia Amoruso – #Girlboss
Rosecrans Baldwin – Paris, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down
2015
Christopher Winn – I Never Knew That About New York
Simon Doonan – The Asylum
Olivier Magny – Stuff Parisians Like
Jon Ronson – So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
Benny Lewis – Fluent in 3 Months
David Epstein – The Sports Gene
Elizabeth Cline – Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion
2016
Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin – Skinny Bitch
Nina Garcia – The Little Black Book of Style
Patrick Smith – Ask the Pilot
Daniel Goleman – Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
Simon Sinek – Leaders Eat Last
Bill Bishop – Going to the Net: Winning the Psychological Game of Tennis (And Life)
Simon Sinek – Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Sam Quinones – Dreamland: True Tales of America’s Opiate Epidemic
William Alexander – Flirting with French: How A Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart
Fredrick Eklund – The Sell: The Secrets of Selling Anything to Anyone
Julie Barlow – The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Code of French Conversation Revealed
2017
Sebastian Junger – Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
Jon Ronson – Them
Adam Grant – Originals: How Non-Conformists Made the World
Yann Martel – Life of Pi
Michael Lewis – Boomerang: Travels in the Third World
William Skidelsky – Federer and Me: A Story of Obsession
Maria Sharapova – Unstoppable
Cheryl Strayed – Wild
David Greene – Midnight in Siberia
Mary Roach – Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War
Dan Harris – 10% Happier
Gabrielle Bernstein – the Universe Has Your Back
2018
Thomas L. Friedman – Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Acceleration
Melissa Milgrom – Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy
Robert Wright – Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
Penny Garfinkle – Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Memory, Happiness, and The Man Who Found Them All
Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman – Love Your Enemies: How to Break the Anger Habit and Be A Whole Lot Happier
Mark Epstein, MD – Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness
Vivian Gornick – The Old Woman and the City: A Memoir
Daniel Pink – Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Maryn McKenna – Big Chicken: How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed The Way The World Eats
David Foster Wallace – String Theory
Austin Kleon – Steal Like an Artist
Adam Gopnik – Through the Children’s Gate: At Home In New York
Lee Gutkind, ed. – The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol 2
Dana Thomas – Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster
James Blake – Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life
Rafael Nadal – Rafa
Sian Beilock – Choke! What The Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To
Daniel Pink – A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainedness Will Rule the World
Brad Warner – Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen’s Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye
Robert Sullivan – Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants
Brad Warner – Don’t Be A Jerk and Other Practical Advice from Dogan, Japan’s Greatest Zen Master
Shawn Smucker – Building a Life Out of Words
2019
L. Jon Wertheim – Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played
Brad Warner – Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth About Reality
Rowan Ricardo Phillips – The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey
Mark Epstein, MD – Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself
Patrick Mouratoglou – The Coach
Jake Dobkin – Ask A Native New Yorker: Hard Earned Advice on Surviving and Thriving in the Big City
Judy Murray – Knowing the Score: My Family and Our Tennis Story
Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson – Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food
Brad Warner – Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate
Carrie Brownstein – Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir
Malcolm Gladwell – Outliers: The Story of Success
Arthur Jeon – City Dharma: Keeping Your Cool in the Chaos
2020
Malcolm Gladwell – Blink
Piper Kerman – Orange is the New Black
Tom Jokinen – Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker in Training
Casey Schwartz – Attention: A Love Story
Elizabeth Wurtzel – Prozac Nation
Wayne Koesternbaum – Andy Warhol
Trevor Noah – Born A Crime
Michael Rips – The Golden Flea: A Story of Obsession and Collecting
Hunter S. Thompson – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Louise Bernikow – Dreaming in Libro: How A Good Dog Tamed a Bag woman
Sloane Crosley – How Did You Get This Number
Michael Arceneaux – I Don’t Want to Die Poor
Stephen King – On Writing
Michelle Alexander – The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Chuck Klosterman – Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
Anne Lamott – Bird by Bird
Stieg Larsson – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
David Sedaris – Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002
Stieg Larsson – The Girl Who Played With Fire
2021
Stieg Larsson – The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
Hillary Allen – Out and Back: A Runner’s Story of Survival Against All Odds
William B. Helmreich – The Manhattan Nobody Knows: An Urban Walking Guide
Olivia Laing – The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
Black Gopnik – Warhol
Rosecrans Baldwin – Everything Now: Lessons from the City State of Los Angeles
Jonathan Safran Foer – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Ben Rhodes – The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House
Peter L. Bergen – Manhunt: The 10 Year Search for bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad
John Steinbeck – Cannery Row
Thomas Dyja – New York, New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation
Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone – Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World
Haruki Murakami – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Phil Knight – Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
Michael Pollan – This is Your Mind on Plants
David Sedaris – A Carnival of Snakery
Gerald Marzorati – Seeing Serena
Megan Rapinoe – One Life
Anthony Bourdain – Kitchen Confidential (second read)
Michael Pollan – In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
Michael Pollan – How To Change Your Mind
Rebecca Solnit – Men Explain Things to Me
2022
Emily Rapp Black – Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg
Joshua Foer – Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Scott Berkun – The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work
Martha Wells – All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries
Alfons Kaiser – Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Fashion
Pietra Rivoli – Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and the Politics of World Trade.
Sarah Vowell, ed. The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2017
Brad Warner – Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen
David Shaftel and Caitlin Thompson, eds. Racquet: The Book
Meg Bowles, et. al, eds. How To Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from the Moth
David Sedaris – Happy-Go-Lucky
Bruce Mowday – Stealing Wyeth
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz – Dr. Mutter’s Marvels
Malcolm Gladwell – Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know
Stephen King – It
Anthony Doerr – All the Light We Cannot See
Dave Eggers, ed. – The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2002
Alexandra Horowitz – On Looking: A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation
Michael Booth – Three Tigers, One Mountain: A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of China, Korea, and Japan
Claire Wilcox – Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes
Norman Ohler – Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich
Michelle Zauner – Crying in H Mart
Robert I Sutton, Ph.D. – The No Asshole Rule: Building A Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t
Richard Russo – The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers, and Life
Angie Thomas – The Hate U Give
Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus – Love People, Use Things
Bruce Levin – Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice
Catherine Burns, ed. – The Moth
Charles Leerhsen – Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain
2023
Jennifer 8. Lee – The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
Camper English – Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, and Spirits
Tori Dunlap – Financial Feminist
James Clear – Atomic Habits
Johann Hari – Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again
Mika Brzezinski – Know Your Value – Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth
Salman Rushdie – Joseph Anton
Tiffany Aliche – Get Good with Money
Bee Wilson – Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat
Amor Towles – A Gentleman in Moscow
Greg McKeown – Effortless: Make it Easier to do what Matters Most
William Middleton – Paradise Now: The Extraordinary Life of Karl Lagerfeld
Greg McKeown – Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Todd Henry – The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice
Erik Larson – The Devil in the White City
Haruki Murakami – Novelist as a Vocation
John Higgs – William Blake vs. The World
Austin Kleon – Show Your Work
Marie Kondo – The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
Cheryl Strayed – Tiny Beautiful Things
Austin Kleon – Keep Going
Jonah Lehrer – Imagine: How Creativity Works
Tom Wolfe – The Kingdom of Speech
Tom Vitale – In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain
Allie Brosh – Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
Rebecca Solnit. – Recollections of My Nonexistence
Anthony Bourdain – The Last Interview and Other Conversations
Yasunari Kawabata – First Snow on Fuji
Susan Cain – Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
Tara Schuster – Buy Yourself the Fscking Lilies and Other Rituals to Fix Your Life
Twyla Tharp – The Creative Habit
Lauren Hough – Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Part – Essays
Debbie Millman – How To Think Like a Great Graphic Designer
Jill Lepore – The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Gary Keller – The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
Tony Tetro – Con/Artist: The Life and Crimes of the World’s Greatest Art Forger
Tara Schuster – Glow in the Fscking Dark
Brene Brown – Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Jen Sincero – You Are A Badass
Burton G. Malkiel – A Random Walk Down Wall Street
Yasunari Kawabata – The Master of Go
Samantha Irby – We Are Never Meeting in Real Life: Essays
Elizabeth Gilbert – Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
David Sedaris – The Best of Me
Stephanie Elizondo Griest – Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havanna
Zeba Blay – Care Free Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture
Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow – The Story of Spanish
Samantha Irby – Meaty: Essays
Samantha Irby – Wow, No Thank You: Essays
Lulu Miller – Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
Jennifer Ackerman – The Genius of Birds
Samantha Irby – Quietly Hostile: Essays
Jena Friedman – Not Funny: Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Etc.
Jenny Lawson – Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things
James Hamblin – Clean: The New Science of Skin and the Beauty of Doing Less
Arnold Schwarzenegger – Be Useful – Seven Tools for Life
Stephanie Land – Maid
Gregory Gibson – Hubert’s Freaks: The Rare Book Dealer, The Times Square Talker, and the Lost Photos of Diane Arbus
Jon Fosse – Scenes for a Childhood
Craig Taylor – New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time
Julie Zhuo – The Making of a Manager: What to do when Everyone Looks to You
Philip Mark Plotch – Last Subway: The Long Wait for the Next Train in New York City
Anton Wormann – Free Houses in Japan: The True Story of How I Make Money DIY Renovating Abandoned Homes
George Watsky – How to Ruin Everything: Essays
Laura Belgray – Tough Titties: On Living Your Best Life When You’re the F-ing Worst
Mark Epstein, M.D. – The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life
2024
Marie Kondo – Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
Nora Ephron – I Feel Bad About My Neck
Joan Didion – The Year of Magical Thinking
Augusten Burroughs – A Wolf at the Table
Peter Kaminsky – Pig Perfect: Encounters with Remarkable Swine and Some Great Ways to Cook Them
Jonathan Van Ness – Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love
Tan France – Naturally Tan
Jonathan Van Ness – Love that Story : Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life
Margareta Magnusson – The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
Mary Norris – Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
Benjamin Lorr – The Secret Life of Groceries
Lindy West – Shrill
Chuck Palahniuk – Consider This: Moments in my Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different
Susan Orlean – The Library
Chuck Palahniuk – Non-Fiction
Kara Swisher – Burn Book
Robin S. Rosenberg, Ph.D. and Shannon O’Neill – The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
James Patterson & Matt Eversmann – The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading
Chuck Palahniuk – Fugitives and Refugees
Padma Lakshmi – Love, Loss, and What We Ate
Elizabeth Lesser – Cassandra: When Women Are Storytellers, The Human Story Changes
Salman Rushdie – Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder
I bought this book after watching Michael Arceneaux speak at an online event hosted by Midtown Scholar Bookstore. The event link is below.
This is Houston native Arceneaux’s second book. His first, I Can’t Date Jesus, explored growing up gay in the south among other topics.
This book deals a great deal with student debt. While the exact number is never mentioned, the author hints that it includes six digits and describes in great detail the never ending grind of the payments ($800-1000 a month) and the phone calls from debt collectors at all hours of the day.
He is also forced to constantly justify his career choices. While a talented writer, many, perhaps well-meaning, friends ask him to consider a more lucrative career as a means out of the situation.
Arceneaux stresses in the book and again in the discussion at Midtown that this is a larger issue than one person. Minority and working class students increasingly turn to college as a means of climbing the social ladder only to see themselves saddled with debt that may never cease. The author’s mother also cosigned some of his loans, so the phone calls she receives from debt collectors weigh especially heavy on him. “I worry that ultimately, this experience has been just another way of me disappointing you,” he notes in what I think was the most moving chapter, Mama’s Boy.
This is actually the lightest of the three books I’m reading now in this heavy time. It was interesting to walk in entirely different set of shoes for a weekend.
Wimbledon is my least favorite tournament. I hate the all-white rule. I hate that the grass gets cut up and causes injuries nearly every year. See also Bethany Mattek-Sands. It starts late, and the players don’t play on the middle Sunday. It rains. All. The. Time.
That said, I literally watched Strokes of Genius four times, so I thought it was time to read the book. Author Jon Wertheim is an entertaining commentator, and while he covers all five sets of this final, he fills each with tidbits about tennis, the All England Club, and about the players themselves.
The most interesting parts for me: Hawk-Eye is named for its creator, a 30-something (at the time) Brit named Paul Hawkins. The system employs 10 evenly spaced high definition cameras and projects the probably path of the ball to within 3.6 millimeters.
Federer does not have “tennis parents.” His father Robert worked for Ciba and traveled to South Africa, where he met Roger’s mother, Lynette. There are no great athletes in the family, and Wertheim describes Robert as 5’7″ish with sausage fingers. Lynette comes across as the bigger force when she takes an 8-year-old Roger to the local TC Old Boys club and says, “Here is Roger. I think he can already hit many shots. Maybe you can train him.”
Since they travel so much, appear worldly, and are usually only asked about sports, it’s easy to forget that professional tennis players don’t always have a lot of formal education. Roger left school at 16. Roger had a tendency to break racquets and throw things on court when he lost but says he gained confidence after winning his first grand slam.
Rafa, by contrast, was never allowed to throw racquets and Uncle Toni stressed that the shoes and equipment he was given were expensive and to be treated with care. Roger didn’t initially employ an agent and negotiated a poor initial Nike contract. Mirka took over the reigns of the Fed empire and now manages his interviews and appearances and helped design the RF logo.
Wilson spent more than a year designing Roger’s new racquet. Rafa will almost literally play with any AeroPro Drive you give him. Babolat describes him as the perfect pitchman. Wins a lot of matches. Isn’t very picky. Rafa plays with Babolat because that’s what Carlos Moya used. Moya is also from Mallorca and is currently Rafa’s coach. Rafa plays in very tight shoes because that’s what soccer players do. Not sure what to make of that one.
Strokes of Genius is an interesting and fast tennis read. My copy is going to a sports obsessed fellow traveler. It is available at the library. The movie is very different, so go ahead and watch that too.
I wanted to read The Circuit, Rowan Ricard Phillip’s book on the 2017 ATP season, since I heard him on the Beyond The Baseline podcast. Phillips came up with the idea for the book while recuperating from tearing his achilles on the basketball court. An accomplished writer and poet, the Manhattan-based Phillips would watch all the majors and travel to some while writing this exquisite book suitable for tennis nerds everywhere.
So what were the stories of 2017? The resurgence of Fed, whose surprise Aussie Open win that year was followed up by another Wimbledon title. 2017 was La Decima for Nadal at Roland Garros, and he also picked up the US Open title in an easy walk past Kevin Anderson. It was also a good season for Sasha Zverev and young American Frances Tiafoe, who took Fed to 5 sets in the first round of the Open. Phillips doesn’t cover Jack Sock, who is ranked as high as 15 during 2017 but would fall off to a subpar singles ranking in 2018. It was a disaster of a season for Murray, who started the season No. 1 but struggled with his hip injury all year. Nole, likewise, ended his season early with an elbow injury.
Phillips has some interesting reporting on Alexandr Dolgopolov, who suffers from Gilbert’s syndrome, which causes sudden exhaustion. He adjusted his style of play to limit his time on court. Phillips also has a soft spot for the diminutive Goffin, a player I barely follow.
Phillips saves some of his best pages for the talented and temperamental Aussie Nick Kyrgios. “Kyrgios is clearly bored. He’s not bored when he plays Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, or Murray. Adrenaline, opportunity, and pride run through the veins then. But aside from that? He loves basketball, he’s passionate about it. He ended up being better at tennis. Let’s leave his parents out of this and say tennis chose him. He hates to train. He hates to travel, the alpha and omega of being an elite tennis player; but let’s just say tennis chose him. He and tennis are at odds. And he lashes out at it. There’s not much in the way of sympathy or empathy that comes his way from people who have paid to see a proper match and, let’s be honest, aren’t inclined to root for him anyway because he’s brown, and recalcitrant is not what people pay to see at a Grand Slam or Masters 1000. Foolish but not stupid, he must sense this, because it looks like he carries this dark cloud often to the court with him.”
Besides the 2017 season, Phillips has a nice chapter on the creation of the clay court. You can find it as a stand along article in Paris Review here. #recommended
I learned about Choke through a Freakanomics Podcast that featured author Sian Beilock. Since the episode centered heavily around sports, I was hoping to learn more about keeping my cool during a tennis match when I purchased the book. However, in reality, there are all sorts of high pressure situations that are ripe for choking – musical performances, business presentations, public speaking, and test taking to name a few.
One of the most interesting concepts was on awareness of negative performance stereotypes. If you remind women that they’re bad at math before they take a math test, even women who are good at math will score lower.
Likewise, if women see other women in leadership roles, they’re more likely to say that women are capable leaders. This same research was done with African Americans around the election of Obama. In short, diversity in leadership matters because it inspires others.
The pressure of a clock tends to degrade tests scores for those with demonstrated ability in a topic. In a world where tests determine who is “in” and who is “out,” that’s a real problem.
What can you do to avoid choking? Distract yourself. When I play tennis, I sometimes focus on my feet and the pressure of the court surface. Don’t slow down. Don’t give yourself too much time to think. Practice under stress. This way the moment will be more familiar when it comes. Don’t dwell. See your failures as a chance to learn and improve. Focus on the outcome, not the mechanics. Thinking about your arm when swinging a racquet or putting can cause you to seize. Think about where you want the ball to land or something outside your body. Find a key word. A one word mantra can keep you focused. Focus on the positive. If you focus on the negative, you’ll feel out of control.
Another book sale find, Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative, by Austin Kleon is a charming advice book you’d give to a special friend or a new graduate and hope they read it a few times. I placed it on my “to read” list after seeing a reference in another book, whose name escapes me.
The book has some lovely illustrations and is printed on coated paper that feels smooth and special. Kleon’s book is centered around artists but applies to all – get a side hustle. Do good work. Stay focused. Copy those you admire. Get to know those who are more talented than you. Learn from others. Make friends. Channel your free time creatively.
Kleon’s best advice is worth repeating. Enjoy captivity. You need space and time – a space to work and some self-imposed exile. “I always carry a book, a pen, and a notebook, and I always enjoy my solitude and temporary captivity.” Put the phone down. Ignore the free wi-fi, and create.
When I was 18, I left the part-time, amusement park job I had since I was 14 and moved to greener pastures – a job at a Coach outlet store. At the time the company was owned by Sara Lee Corporation, which then funded a college grant program that sent me through college and grad school loan-free. I also met some amazing people that are still my close friends. Not a bad gig.
While I was initially mystified at the devotion of Coach fans, I would quickly become one of them. I didn’t buy many bags then, but I’d acquire them in thrift stores and garage sales for decades after.
Soon after I left, the company was sold and the brand moved in a different direction – off-shore production, canvas materials, gaudy linings, and logos everywhere. I hated them. The book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster explains what happened to Coach and many other high end brands.
Most luxury brands are today owned by large conglomerates, who slowly acquired what had been small, family-owned companies and brought in new management, rung efficiency from every corner, advertised relentlessly, and moved production to lower cost regions. They introduced starter products like perfumes, scarves, and handbags to get first-time buyers to splurge on the brand. The assembly line efficiency meant major dollars in a category with already enviably high margins.
Author Dana Thomas covers every angle from handbags to perfume production to silk production and counterfeiting. Hermès bags are still made largely to order and by hand. Chanel No. 5 is the company’s most valuable scent, and unlike many perfumes, it contains over 70 ingredients. Chanel contracts one entire farm in France for just one ingredient in the formula. Many of the companies mentioned were founded in the 19th century in France and Italy and family-owned and operated. Hermès began by making saddles. They still do. Counterfeiting luxury goods is a lucrative business largely tied to organize crime, so resist the temptation to attend a purse party or peruse Canal Street and buy one. #recommended
I found this volume at a book sale in May. Cobbled together from obscure sources like The Big Ugly Review and some familiar ones, like Harper’s, by editor Lee Gutkind, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, this volume was worth the $2 I paid just for the story Moby Duck, which is about a shipping container of children’s bathroom toys, all 28,800 of them, that was lost at sea.
The boat in question was traveling from Hong Kong to Tacoma on January 10, 1992. The toys slipped overboard at 44.7 degrees N, 178.1 degrees E. Shipping containers are stacked like legos on a boat deck, but if said boat rolls more than 35 degrees, then the containers can break lose and sail into the open sea. The water pressure will crack the casing as the container sinks.
About 18 months later, the toys started showing up on beaches in Alaska. The author traces the toys through small newspaper ads and beach combing community publications. The toys – a red beaver, a blue turtle, a green frog, and a yellow duck – would be bleached and changed by their time in the ocean but still recognizable as toys.
Throughout the story, the author explored the rise of popularity of the rubber duck (thanks Sesame Street), the evolution of children’s toys, and, especially, the huge amount of plastic in the Pacific Ocean, which is larger and deeper than the Atlantic with current patterns that form a dead zone where winds fall below 10 knots and lost garbage collects. The North Pacific Garbage Patch encompasses one million square miles of ocean.
