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 May.
Has been a wild one for me with ten speeches everywhere from Orlando to Austin to Omaha to even my high school reunion this past weekend. I'm writing from New York where I'm interviewing a certain big-frizzy-haired New Yorker writer for my podcast as well as attending Book Expo of America to share my upcoming book with all the industry peeps. What upcoming book? Stay tuned! Details coming soon...
And now! Ze books,
Neil
1. C is for Consentby Eleanor Morrison. This is my favorite children’s book in a long time. I honestly don’t think I understood the full meaning of consent until I read this book. Shameful, embarrassing, but true. When I grew up children were told to kiss and hug every auntie and uncle at parties. And uninvited cheek squeezing was certainly part of the game. These days I did the same with my nieces and nephews. Until I read this little book. Why did I read it? Because my (much more enlightened) wife is teaching our kids about consent. Such a huge issue. Who gets to do what with your body? Yesterday as I was saying bye to my niece I asked her: “May I give you a hug?” She paused, smiled, and then said yes. And it felt much sweeter than the old “Come here!” bearhugs I used to give. Everyone should read, and buy, and give away, and then buy more copies of this wonderful book.
2. How Music Worksby David Byrne. David Byrne cofounded Talking Heads and in this book he zooms out from the industry to see it from a more discerning distance. At the beginning he explains that this “book” is actually a series of unconnected essays so I took that as permission to jump around a lot and pick out parts interesting to me. His opening chapter on how sound evolves to fill the space, not the other way around, kind of blew my mind. (Think drums on African plains, tall organs with long notes in tall churches with long spaces, etc.) Also loved the part on the power of curation in a world of infinity and the behind-the-scenes look at how the music business really works.
3. The Blind Side: Evolution of a Gameby Michael Lewis. Years ago Michael Lewis stumbled upon a strange fact: One position in the all-for-one-and-one-for-all egalitarian unit of an NFL offensive line started getting paid much, much more than the others. Why? He was protecting the quarterback’s blind side just as the NFL was evolving into a passing-first league. As a football fan I loved the history of the league told through the braided narrative of Michael Oher coming up from the mean streets to the top of the game.
4. Career Rookie: A Get-It-Together Guide For Grads, Students, and Career Newbiesby Sarah Vermunt. I’m not a grad, student, or career newbie and yet… I couldn’t put down this book. Why? The tone. The incredible tone! Sarah is sharp, funny, and hilariously in your face. I met her on the CityLine set and we really hit it off. A great gift to the wandering, aimless youth in your life. Here’s the blurb I gave for this book: “I sucked at my first job. And my second. And my third. This was the book I needed. It’s a smacking slap, bright flashlight to the eyeballs, and cozy sweater hug all wrapped in one. Preach on, Sarah!”
5. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifestoby Michael Pollan. In this book, Michael Pollan makes a convincing argument to take over the role of Your Grandmother. He takes a slightly academic approach to laying down the basics of good eating: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. A nice rail against fads and trends and helps with awareness of all the politics behind some of the garbage we eat. I did find it quite skimmable because I was sort of like don’t we all know this by now? Advice like “Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does”, “Eat slowly”, and “Buy a freezer” felt… obvious.
6. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughterby Erika L. Sánchez. I am mad at the publishers of this book. You lied, Ember Publishing, a division of Random House Children’s Books, a division of PenguinRandomHouse! The back paints this young adult book as a mystery. What happened to the protagonist’s recently deceased sister? Was she really as perfect as she seemed? But then you read the book and surprise! It’s about mental illness and cultural trauma. I guess they figured that would have made for a tougher tagline? So, while I’m mad at the publishers, I am not at all mad at Erika Sánchez who wrote this beautiful book. Pop quiz: what was the last Mexican-American coming-of-age immigrant story you read? Hands? Anyone? I had nothing there. No awareness, no understanding. This book was a wonderful eye-opener. I think if you’re a fan of Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give, On The Come Up) you’d enjoy this one.
7. Rhymes of Whimsy: The Complete Abol Tabolby Sukumar Ray. Sukumar Ray is a Bengali poet, writer, and playright who died in 1923 and is often compared to Lewis Carroll. Why? Because he wrote disguised socio-political satire written to mock early 20th century colonial India… and published them (hid them) in children’s newspapers and magazines! This book is the first completely English translation of his complete poems. A fascinating and fun little glimpse of history.
8. Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Windowby Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. This is a non-fiction book that feels like a fairytale. Originally published in 1981 in Japan (where it sold nearly 5 million copies in its first year), it was finally translated to English thirty years later. Kuroyanagi was one of Japan’s most popular TV personalities for decades and this is a memoir of her childhood of joining a completely unconventional school near Tokyo during World War II. If you believe that trust and controls are inversely related (like I do) you will love this book. You can read it as an innocent story of an unconventional childhood or a prickly indictment of the entire factory-style education system. A wonderful book either way. Highly recommended.
9. Meanwhile: Pick Any Pathby Jason Shiga. Did you like Choose Your Own Adventure books when you were a kid? If so, you’ll love this post-modern graphic novel with 3856 story possibilities (seriously!) all told through images and rampant flipping between pages. It’s head-twisting, it’s frenetic, it’s mad-scientist, but if you’re into puzzles or games (or your child is) then this is for you. Completely disrupts the idea of a book, too.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
I started this email list back in 2016 and it’s helped me read so much more. (Here is a-one and a-two articles on how!)
This list helped me fall back in love with reading and with readers. That love bloomed into my podcast 3 Books. Thank you to those who’ve checked it out.
1. Unlearnby Humble The Poet. Kanwer Singh aka Humble The Poet is a master of taking simple truths and thumping you across the side of the head with them. He is a former elementary school teacher who grew up online and his regular musings on Facebook or Instagram tend to go super viral. This book is his best advice. A simple, quick, and fun read. (Btw, if you’re a podcast lover, Humble’s been on some huge ones: Aubrey Marcus, Jay Shetty, Lewis Howes...)
2. A Man In Full by Tom Wolfe. Who’s your favorite dead person? I think it’s worth thinking about. Tom Wolfe is quickly climbing up my list. (Watch out, Seneca and John Lennon!) Last year I read The Bonfire of The Vanities after Paulette Bourgeois picked it for 3 Books … and it blew me away. Even made my Best of 2018 list. And now I just finished A Man In Full and it’s another masterpiece. A fast-paced yet exquisitely told story of Charlie Croker, a down-home country cracker from Georgia, as he tries to stave off an epic downfall. Settings pop, dialogue sizzles, and the depths Wolfe gets into his characters’ minds is almost unsettling. I can’t recommend it enough.
3. The Machine Stops by Oliver Sacks. I believe that cell phone addiction is quickly becoming an epidemic. This is not a book but an important New Yorker article from the famed neurologist about cell phones and how they are hurting us. A dystopian must read.
4. Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hopeby Mark Manson. How would you follow up a six-million-plus copy bestseller like The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck? Would you give the world a sequel? The Even Subtler Art? The Subtle Art For Teens? The Subtle Art For The Golfer’s Soul? Well, if you’re Mark Manson, you take your time, you stay super tight on integrity, and you follow your heart where it leads you. I think of his brand new book (out in a few days) as Mark taking us up, up, up into a gigantic macro-everything view of things. He has such a gift for reading bigger books than I can lift and then distilling all the giant complexity from them into simple (and profanity-laced) prose. Everything is F*cked offers a slew of Mark’s epic distillations on topics as diverse as religion, politics, and our unhealthy relationships with money, entertainment, and the internet. I won’t lie. There were times the book made my head hurt! It was challenging (for me anyway) and I sometimes wanted him to come back down to street level. But I think it’s a great guide for those feeling generally itchy about the world today and an encouragement to keep moving. Mark Manson will be a writer to follow for decades. (Btw, Mark is also my next guest on 3 Books. It will be released on May 4 at 6:45 PM EST which is the exact minute of the next new moon.)
5. Hello, Friends! by Jerry Howarth. Jerry Howarth was the voice of the Toronto Blue Jays for 37 years. He kept me company for thousands of hours on late night drives and weekend afternoons. He retired last year and this is his memoir of his time at the mic in Toronto. You know how baseball announcers time their anecdotes to perfectly fit between pitches? Well, this book reads like a thousand of those anecdotes one after another. Perfect for Toronto sports fans. (PS. Here’s my friend Drew Dudley’s fantastic piece on Leadership Lessons he learned from Jerry Howarth. I found the story about how he received a letter from a First Nations fan after the 1992 World Series fascinating as it cause Jerry to avoid saying the Cleveland and Atlanta team names decades before others stopped saying them...)
6. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Caroll. I read this book as a child… and stopped. I didn’t like it. I read this book as a teen… and stopped. I didn’t like it. I read this book a few weeks ago… and couldn’t stop. I loved it. Proof that a book has to catch you at the right time. I think my whole life I thought this was a children’s book and that was the problem. It’s not! It’s deliciously adult. The twisted references and crazy absurdism is such a fascinating reflection of the world. And did you know Lewis Caroll was an Oxford-education mathematician? Just read this section on Wikipedia about the style, themes, and allusions in this book. So many hidden math references that flew over my head the first couple times. I don't say many books are a must read ... but this is a must read.
7. The Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. If you’re not a comic book nerd, do you ever do what I do and occasionally stroll into the comics section of the bookstore before getting immediately overwhelmed at the giant floor to ceiling bookshelves full of indexed, spine-out, catalogued series that you have no idea how to possibly navigate? If so, start here! That’s what I did. My friend Mike who runs a local bookstore recommended it as an entry point. The Dark Phoenix saga was published in a series of 10 comic books between January and October, 1980 and is a gripping story of friendship and power.
8. Damn Good Advice (For People With Talent!) by George Lois. Pompous, egotistical, and full of gold nuggets. George Lois is one of the original Mad Men and he invented a ton of famous ad campaigns over decades in the business. This is his blunt, no-nonsense list of complete life and business lessons. Mandatory reading for anyone in marketing, sales, or advertising.
9. P Is For Pteradactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever by Lushlife aka Raj Halder. A is for Aisle. E is for Ewe. T is for Tsunami. And below each beautifully illustrated drawing is a tricky, head-scratching sentence. Like for the letter T it says: “The charging tsunami washed away all of Tchaikovsky’s tchotchkes.” A picture book for older kids and younger kids who get that the English teacher has been pulling a fast one on them. And word nerds of all ages. (Raj is also coming on 3 Books later this year!)
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
This monthly reading club continues to be my largest and fastest growing email list. (Here are the others.) Thank you. I feel like reading is on trend right now. Right? Down with screens! Down with social media! Up with people. Up with books.
2. Birds Art Lifeby Kyo Maclear. I loved this fragile, unique, small memoir of discovering urban bird watching while dealing and wrestling with middle age. On its surface, this book may seem … strange. A memoir of urban bird watching? But there’s more here. Portlandia co-creator Carrie Brownstein says “We’re living on a million tiny stages. Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, YouTube. Dinner plates are showcases for our food, beds become venues for our slumber, selfies are curtain calls for our faces.” And as Kyo writes in this book “our economic growth model assumes if you make something small (unless it is boutique and artisanal, and thus financially large or monumentally miniature), it is because you are somehow lacking and frail.” Three years for small. Bring back small! This is a book about life’s tiny beautiful things. I loved it.
3. The Autobiography of Malcolm Xby Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. I knew essentially nothing about Malcolm X before reading this gripping book. How gripping? Here’s the first sentence: “When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska, one night.” Ultimately this is a story of US race relations through much of the twentieth century. Alex Haley interviewed Malcolm X regularly for years (years!) to put this together. Malcolm X was sadly assassinated just before it was published. (Btw, this is one of Angie Thomas’s three most formative books… she's my next guest on 3 Books!)
4. Zenobiaby Morten Durr and Lars Horneman. A graphic novel of the Syrian refugee crisis told through the lens of one little girl. This book takes ten minutes to read. And yet I’ve been thinking about it for weeks. Haunting. Chilling. A window into a world that most of us only touch from a far off place. This will zoom you right in. Highly, highly recommended.
5. Outer Order, Inner Calmby Gretchen Rubin. Years ago Gretchen told me she tidies her room for five minutes before she goes to bed at night. Put your toys n' things away before bed? How childish! How neurotic! But then I tried it. And it really does help me sleep better. So what is her complete list of tips to create inner calm then? This book. Just note: This isn’t a traditional Rubinesque deep, chatty, human exploration of a giant topic like happiness or habits. This is a smaller book – both physically and in spirit. It’s a giant listicle of ways to get organized.
6. How Parents Are Robbing Their Children of Adulthood. What comes after the helicopter parent? The snowplow parent. There’s a story within this New York Times article that made me laugh out loud. I’ll see if you can guess which one. (Hint: Sauce.) (Fascinating comments, too.)
7. Get In Troubleby Kelly Link. My favorite bookseller Sarah Ramsey recommended this book to me. A compilation of nine long-ish short stories steeped in magic realism. Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, too. A couple of these stories stunned me. Bizarre, gorgeous, troubling, all at the same time. Some were just plain bonkers. All took forever to figure out like riddles printed upside down and backwards. And some I was just too dumb to understand and had to skip. Kids microchipped by parents. Pocket universes. A celeb couple popular for vampire makeout scenes reconnects years late under bizarre circumstances. A Vanity Fair blurb on the book says it best: “These stories soar and zing like LSD-tipped arrows shot into the farthest reaches of the imagination.”
8. Savage Seasonby Joe R. Lansdale. This book felt like a Quentin Tarantino movie. Two loudmouth, straight-talking friends down in Texas get sucked into a bumbling plot to find some lost money and everything goes horribly wrong. Fast-paced action, snappy dialogue, and a constantly swerving plot. You’ll feel dizzy and satisfied by the end. And like a Quentin Tarantino movie, it’s definitely Rated R. I loved this book.
9. The Secret Life of Cowsby Rosamund Young. Have you ever wanted to be inside a cow’s brain? Now you can! Rosamund Young has run a famous free-roaming farm in England for decades. This is a fun if slightly all over the place look at what cows are thinking told through deeply observed behavior.
10. How Mamas Love Their Babiesby Juniper Fitzgerald. Whoa! An exquisite, loving, totally open-minded poetic collage of the myriad of ways that mamas love their babies.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
Hey, hey, what do you say? It’s time to read some books today. Here are my February faves. Thanks for reading!
Neil
–
1. On The Come Upby Angie Thomas. Have you heard of sequelitis? It’s a publishing term for the idea your second book won’t be as big as your first. I heard this a ton after The Book of Awesome. “Sure, nice one, now get ready for a bomb.” The idea is that if your first book was big then there were probably a ton of factors. Luck, timing, a key TV spot, Oprah picked it, whatever. So if your first book was the 100-week New York Times bestseller The Hate U Give, then you’re probably in trouble. Good luck following that! Well, Angie Thomas followed that. On The Come Up is the powerful and vivid and captivating story of a young woman named Brianna who wants to be a rapper. Her dad was murdered, her aunt’s a drug dealer, her mom can’t pay the bills, and so we get a beautifully braided plotline of fumbling love and family dynamics and fighting for your dreams set in the same modern, racially-charged setting as The Hate U Give, but a year later. Includes some great 8 Mile-esque rap battle scenes. Angie Thomas is a force. This is a great book. Sequelitis be damned.
2. What Makes Sammy Run?by Budd Schulberg. Apparently this novel is a portrait of Budd Schulberg’s own father who rose to the top of the Hollywood elite through swashbuckling, hucksterism, and questionable ethics. We see the dirty tricks up close in Sammy’s story which is told from the view of his only friend who is endlessly fascinated by Sammy’s trickery and lecherous ways. The book feels something like a House of Cards script written fifty years earlier. A cautionary tale about the dangers of unbridled ambition. I have some pretty raw ambitious streaks and this was a nice reminder to constantly ground and recenter. Super snappy and fast-paced, too. Couldn’t put it down.
3.Pushby Sapphire. Do you remember the movie Precious? Nominated for a slew of Academy Awards. I never saw it. And then I came across the book recently and had that clichéd dawning moment. “Wait, this was a book first?” I should have known. I read the first few pages and was hooked. Gritty and gripping voice that pulls you in sharing the first-person story of Precious, an obese, illiterate teen in Harlem in the 1980s pregnant with her second child from her father. There is pleasure amongst the pain but the pain is pretty harsh. Soul jolting.
4. The Art of Simple Livingby Shunmyo Masuno. A peaceful meditative listicle of 100 Buddhist principles for living a content and simple life. In my blurb for this book I wrote: "Our mind is blazing in the new dopamine war between alarmist news and attention-hooking apps. The Art of Simple Living is a bucket of water on the flames." Add this one to the Enlightened Bathroom Reading series.
5. HatchetbyGary Paulsen. What’s one of the most common questions I get in Q&As these days? “How can I help my kids be more resilient?” It’s a good one. Because we’re softies, aren’t we? I talk about resilience in my TED Talk and it’s the focus of my next book, too. (More details in the next few months.) As for books, I feel like Solitude by Michael Harris, The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday, and Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed get at some of what we need here. And this YA book could fit there, too. A boy is taking a tiny prop plane from his mom’s place in Boston to his dad’s place in Canada when the pilot suddenly has a heart attack and dies mid-flight. The boy crash lands the plane in the middle of the Canadian wilderness and is suddenly lost in the barrens with bears, tornados, and a barrage of inner battles. If you don’t have the stomach for dropping your child in the middle of a forest for a few months, then maybe grab them this book.
6. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cryby Mildred D. Taylor. I didn’t realize I read so many young adult books until writing up this book club. Maybe I’ll read more adult books next month. Or maybe I’ll get a new pack of inflatable bath books about dinosaurs that fascinate me. Either way. This is a gem. It’s an autobiographical scenescape like, say, Little House in the Big Woods, which tells the story of a young black girl growing up in rural Mississippi in the 1930s. This book is a vitamin for growing empathy. The characters pop, the dialogue crackles, and it reads like an action movie with the constant acceleration to the finish line. This is my “kept me flipping pages till 3am” book this month. I finished it in the middle of the night and then let out a huge deep breath.
7. Fun Homeby Alison Bechdel. I feel like graphic memoirs can sometimes hit an emotional high water mark that words or pictures alone can’t quite always reach. (Maus is a great example.) Alison was raised in a funeral (“fun”) home by parents with secrets. When she came out as a lesbian her mother said “Well, your father’s been sleeping with men for years.” Dark, introspective, and especially perfect for word nerds as she writes with a David-Foster-Wallace-like vocabulary. Not surprised she won a MacArthur Fellowship.
8. Autobiography of Redby Anne Carson. Do you have any Once A Decade books? These are books you keep on your shelf just to open them once a decade. You can’t quite toss them. You wouldn’t call them favorites. But maybe they remind you of somebody. Maybe you feel an obligation to them. Maybe you’re hoping to grow into them. Whatever! Well, I’m marking Autobiography of Red as a Once A Decade book. It’s a mythological parable written in a book-long poem about a gay monster. Seriously. If you haven’t heard of Anne Carson, this NYT Magazine profile sheds light on why she’s kind of the literary writer’s literary writer. Parts of the book were way over my head but other parts shook me emotionally. I can’t quite toss it. I wouldn’t call it a favorite. So when will I check it out again? Look for it in the February, 2029 book club.
9. F---yourF---ingCellphone.com. Not a book but a website. My friend Chad and I have been talking for a long time about how addicted we are to our phones so we came up with a list of tiny solutions. Are you as addicted as us? If so, here’s a cuss-filled site to feed you suggestions for easing off the drug. Cell phone addiction is the next epidemic. We have to prepare for battle!
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
It's January! First month to get the reading going. If you’re off to a great start, clap, clap, clap, keep going! If you’re slow out of the gates like, say, Donkey Kong in Mario Kart, well then I hope one of these picks will get you motoring.
Happy reading,
Neil
–
1. The Common Good by Robert B Reich. Think of a beautifully safe small town where nobody locks their doors. Now imagine the first person who comes through breaking and entering. Pretty easy pickings! Nobody locks their door. Trust plummets. Arms race erupts. Locks. Security systems. Video cameras. This type of trust evaporation and arms racing has happened everywhere and Robert Reich gives an incredibly lucid portrait of exactly what happened when to get us where we are now. I call it trust, he calls it the common good, but either way, this is a vital read to help understand the world we live in. Strongly recommended. (Sidenote: If this area interests you, my friend Frank Warren (PostSecret) and I are running a panel at SXSW called “Building Trust In Distrustful Times.” Would love to see you there!)
2. Love For Imperfect Things by Haemin Sunim. A Korean monk who’s gone viral! Sounds like a movie plot. But it’s Haemin Sunim’s real life. I like this guy. A beautiful book with simple wisdom. Easy reminders, little insights. Nice addition to our Enlightened Bathroom Reader Series. Check out his Instagram for a flavor.
3. The Strangerby Albert Camus. Disorienting, absurdist, slow-mo psychodrama about a man who kills another man on a beach and is sentenced to death. Short, staccato writing with all kinds of layers and allusions and metaphors, a few of which I actually understood. A good, short, easy reading classic if you’re finding yourself in the middle of some big book quicksand.
4. I’m Afraid Of Menby Vivek Shraya. I often feel like there’s a gigantic emerging world I don’t understand. Worlds, actually. Many worlds. Universes! It’s that Rich Gibbons quote from Chapter 14 of 3 Books: “The more I know, the more I know I know nothing.” I heard a Bill Gates quote when I was a kid that was something like “Whenever I’m at a magazine stand I buy a magazine I’ve never heard of because… that’s how you learn.” Dude is smart. I try to apply that to books, too. The tag on this one is: “A trans artist explores how masculinity was imposed on her as a boy and continues to haunt her as a girl – and how we might reimagine gender for the twenty-first century.” Although it’s one person’s story versus any sort of broader history or societal overview in general, it was a great read. Brave and enlightening on many levels.
5.When You Are Engulfed In Flamesby David Sedaris. About ten years ago my friend Shiv told me she read a David Sedaris essay every night before bed. What? Something felt off about that. But then I tried it. And she’s right! There’s something so soothing about his slow and peaceful writing – especially if I’m traveling on my own. Feels like I’m hanging with a friend. The laughs wash away stress, too. Here’s “It’s Catching” by Sedaris in The New Yorker if you want a sample from this collection.
6. Sabrinaby Nick Drnaso. This is the first ever graphic novel nominated for the Man Booker Prize. I didn’t know that when I bought it, I didn’t know that when I read it. All I can say is it felt like a really moody artsy thriller type of movie. Disorienting. Unsettling. Pretty blood-chilling but you can’t stop reading. A woman goes missing, her boyfriend is a mess, he moves in with an old friend, and the story is told from that old friend’s point of view. As it erupts into a national news headline capturing the attention of newspapers and radio call-in shows and conspiracy theorists we get this full mirroring of all kinds of societal flaws and kinks reflected back to us.
7. The Lottery and Other Storiesby Shirley Jackson. Do you remember Franklin The Turtle? Those kids books sold 60 million copies and have become staples in our house. I interviewed the author Paulette Bourgeois for a recent chapter of 3 Books. I admit I was totally expecting her three most formative books to be children’s books. She wrote Franklin! So, you know, what animals inspired her? Cat In The Hat, for sure. Maybe Pat The Bunny. But no! She surprised me by picking the first horror on The Top 1000. Stephen King says Shirley Jackson was a huge influence and even dedicated a book to her. The namesake story The Lottery was also The New Yorker story to get the most letters… ever. Want to read it right now? Here you go.
8.The Honeybeeby Kirsten Hall. Want a hypnotic and rhyming picture book that will entrance your kids and likely teach you a few things about bees, too? I’ve got just the thing.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
It’s been cold November rain in Toronto where we all walk around shiver-singing Guns N’ Roses.
But I’m writing this from sunny Costa Rica just before I give a speech. This is my fifty-third speech of the year and I’ve met many of you that way. Btw, if you’re near Toronto, a local town is reading The Book of Awesometogether so I’ve got a public event coming up. Hope to see some of you there.
Also, everyone’s putting out Christmas gift guides and most of them make me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit. I read one this morning recommending I buy artisanal glass gummy bears and $250 goop eye cream.
So … I wrote my own.
It’s called “10 Unconventional Gifts-ukah To Give This Christmas-ukah” and I hope you like it. With a few big writing projects in the tank I’m getting back into my writing rhythm so I’ll start sending more new pieces out soon.
And now, ze books,
Neil
–
1. Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded Worldby Michael Harris. If loneliness is like “alone and sad” then solitude is like “alone and happy.” Michael Harris peels back the layers of this incredibly subtle life skill to show us why it’s crucial to master, what gets in the way, and how we can reorient ourselves in the distraction machine. I needed this book. I loved this book. And both halves of my brain were scratched because Michael’s a captivating writer with an arty flick-of-the-wrist style who also knows how to navigate the world of research and science. (For a sample of his writing check out this great piece he wrote in The Globe & Mail called I Have Forgotten How To Read.)
2. It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hanson. Do you remember that old Woody Allen joke from Annie Hall? “Those who can’t do, teach, and those who can’t teach, teach gym.” Now, my dad and my wife are teachers, so I don’t agree with that, but I like that he was trying to shine a little light on the gap between “doer” and “sayer.” Because most sayers are not doers… and most doers are not sayers. Jason Fried is both. He’s CEO of Basecamp, an active and popular business with twenty straight years of profits, and he’s a captivatingly counterintuitive thinker and writer. I recommended his book Reworklast year. And this book follows in those footsteps – lambasting the “warrior mentality” of 100-hour-work-weeks of the world in favor of a refreshingly fulsome view of the whole person. Do you want to hang out with Jason and me? If so, sign up right here. I reached out to him and he’s agreed to do a private online webinar / Q&A just for readers of my book club. I’ve never done this before so it’s an experiment to see if it makes sense to try this with other authors.
3. The Red Balloon byAlbert Lamorisse. One of the most soulful conversations I’d had so far on my podcast 3 Books was with Mitchell Kaplan, a real life bookselling Yoda, who founded and runs the independent chain of eight Books and Books bookstores in Florida. (Including one in Key West run by Judy Blume!) I asked Mitchell: “If you could delete it from your brain, which book would you most want to read again for the first time?” And he said this book. I said I knew it… but then I bought it and realized I didn’t. A 1950s picture book based on a film that's loaded with TLC. (I guess that’s why it’s still selling seventy years later.) Beautifully shot black-and-white images of a bullied loner schoolboy who befriends a giant red balloon. The striking images and weaving storyline make it unlike any children’s book I’ve read. The balloon gets him in trouble at school! His mom throws it out! The bullies stone it! And what happens in the surprise ending? Well, if I told you that I’d be robbing you of discovering why Mitchell picked it to answer my question.
4. Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jonny Sun. Who else has the Hamilton soundtrack blaring at home? Talk about a gift to the world. When artists blow up the way Lin-Manuel did I always find their little side projects fascinating. Often it’s a bomb, occasionally it’s a hit, but either way it’s worth applauding because it means the artist doesn’t care about the shoebox the world is stuffing them into. Well, turns out long before Hamilton premiered, Lin-Manuel was opening and closing his writing days with little bits of Twitter poetry, and this book collects the best batch of them and pairs them with the crazy Canadian polymath Jonny Sun’s smooth n’ curvy drawings. An inspiring combo. Here’s what I wrote about the book on Twitter.
5. In The Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff. At 2:20am EST on December 7th we will have our next new moon. Zero slivers of moon in the sky for the darkest dark possible between moon phases. And that’s the exact minute I’ll be releasing Chapter 18 of 3 Books with the incomparable, incorrigible, indefatigable David Sedaris. I was lucky enough to spend a couple hours with David in the back of his limo between his hotel, media hits, and live bookstore reading. And one thing we talked about was this book. David calls Tobias Wolff the greatest living American short story writer. Me, I’d never heard of him. And yet here it is: the only book of short stories I have ever read from cover to cover. They’re that good. Every tale swerves you into some dramatic family scene that’s full of surprise and hits you in the gut. A bit artsier and less commercial than the (also incredible) Alice Munro.
6. Is This Guy For Real?: The Unbelievable Andy Kaufmanby Box Brown. A couple years ago I got up in this soapbox and went on and on about Tetris by Box Brown. I then went back and read his Andre the Giantand found myself slightly less transfixed. Sadly, I was even less transfixed by this newest one. It could just be me not caring too much about Andy Kaufman, maybe. Why mention it then? Because, honestly, everybody should read Tetris and I just wanted to talk about Tetris again. Here's an interview with Box Brown about it.
7. 1990 Kenyon Commencement Speech by Bill Watterson, author of Calvin and Hobbes. Sometimes the Internet serves you up a delicious gem. And this commencement speech by the notoriously media-shy Bill Watterson is a gem. He gives a great life lesson on the power and importance of self-learning and talks about why ads use corporate money to smear artistic incentives. I don't have (and never will have) any ads, sponsors, or interruptions on 3 Books, 1000 Awesome Things, The Institute for Global Happiness, Neil.blog, or any other project I do. Yes, it's a lot of lost profit potential. But, it also means I get to write, say, and do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want, forever. So Watterson's take, in the form of career and life advice, was balm for my soul.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
I’m excited because after sending you monthly book recommendations for two years it’s finally the first month I get to say “I have a new book!”
How To Get Back Upis out on Audible now and then comes out in print next year. I tried giving it an objective review in the list of book recos below.
As always, happy reading,
Neil
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1. How To Get Back Up: A Memoir of Failure and Resilienceby Neil Pasricha. What happened to the awesome guy? A few years ago Neil was yapping about illegal naps and wrong-colored foods. I could get behind that! Who couldn’t? The books sold like crazy. But just when we were readying ourselves for The Book of Awesome 4, the guy does a bizarre heel turn, throws on a suit, and comes out with The Happiness Equation. A business book originally written as a letter to his unborn son on living a happy life. I missed the awesome things but guess I saw the connection. But … what exactly is this new book? That’s the puzzle. It seems like a cross between memoir and self-help and I’m not quite sure if Pasricha straddles that chasm or falls into it. I’ll say this: If you liked the first few minutes of his TED Talk (his parent’s immigrant story, his divorce, his personal life) then you’ll like this as he goes wider, deeper, and more personal here. It feels like a 3:00am driveway conversation with an old friend. But the real surprise is all the research and models folded into these stories. Contracts! Small ponds! Batching! Untouchable Days! Sometimes I feel like that dude just needs to chill. Newsflash! You don’t need a robotic system to maximize every waking minute! Not every failure results in a shiny gold nugget of wisdom! But then, other times, I feel like he gets how short life is and the game he’s really playing is just helping us all make them count.
2. Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Onesby James Clear. I was listening to the episode of The Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard Podcast with Seth Meyers when he said, and excuse my French, but “I have such a boner for hard workers.” It hit a nerve with me. Chapter 2 of The Happiness Equationis all about valuing intrinsic motivators over extrinsic ones, valuing inputs over outputs. Well, hard work is the ultimate input. And James Clear has been working hard for years. He writes these epic articles on his blog, publishes them for free, and has created an entire community around them. Atomic Habits feels like the grand culmination of those years of hard work. No surprise it instantly debuted on the New York Times bestseller list last week. I always say “Systems beat goals” and if you’re looking to inject your life with some new systems to help get things done… this is a great place to start.
3. Cherry A Novel by Nico Walker. This novel is a bat out of hell. Nico Walker is a US veteran who did a stint in Iraq, came back with PTSD, developed a heroin habit, and is currently in jail serving an 11-year term for robbing banks. He wrote the novel Cherry in prison. He’s still in prison now. What’s the novel about? Oh, you know, an unnamed narrator, who goes to war as a teen, returns traumatized, becomes addicted to heroin, and starts robbing banks. Nico Walker says he is using royalties from this instant bestseller (with movie rights purchased for a million dollars) to pay back the banks he robbed. It is harrowing, captivating, and gripping. But, fair warning: This book really feels like you’re in the brain of a traumatized vet who develops a drug addiction. You go through the traumas with him. All the newspaper headlines and scientific proclamations are stripped away. It’s not a “what's happening” story as much as a “how it happens.” Some reviews call this book the first real tale from the front lines of the opioid epidemic. It’s a scary place. But you probably won’t be able to put it down.
4. Gladiator: A Podcast by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team. “I saw it twice … in theaters.” Ever use that phrase? It means you were so obsessed with a movie you saw it twice! In theaters! You paid like thirty bucks to see it. I do that maybe once a year. Spotlight was my “I saw it twice in theaters” movie a few years ago. I loved it so much I took notice when the Boston Globe’s investigative journalism Spotlight team just dropped a new podcast called Gladiator. Also, I love NFL football. And the podcast is all about Aaron Hernandez, the New England Patriot’s tight end who was convicted of murder and took his own life in jail. There are a lot of bigger questions swirling in the pond of this great show. Highly recommended.
5.Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman. Judy Blume suffers no fools. I found this out the hard way when I flew down to her Key West bookstore to interview her for 3 Books. I told her I was starting to read my young son middle-grade books and I’m exaggerating a bit but she said something along the lines of “Oh, you’re robbing him of his childhood!” I'm not going to lie. I felt bad. But maybe she’s right. She is Judy Blume! But I can’t help it. I love reading books with my son. Any books! Thrilling books. Thrilling and scary aren’t the same. To me the ageist notion that books should be cordoned off to “2-5 year olds” or “4-8 year olds” is tired. Let’s all just read what we want. And what I want to read, on my own, then with my son, is this wonderfully fantastical tale of why a father was late bringing milk home for his kids at breakfast. He takes them on an engrossing, time-travelling plot, with plenty of aliens, swashbuckling pirates, and time-travelling dinosaurs to keep it hopping. A wonderful book.
6. Paris Spleenby Charles Boudelaire. What’s your relationship with poetry? Are you an abstainer? Never tried! Never will! Are you a dabbler? I like me a good long classic poem (like, say, this or this). Or are you an aficionado? Now, I was an abstainer for a long time. Poetry? No. No thanks. Not for me. But I’ve slowly grown into a dabbler. And this is a great book to dabble in because the poems go somewhere. They aren’t too, you know, too artsy fartsy. Poems in The New Yorker, I’m not going to lie, are way over my head. These are almost mini little stories sometimes. Here is one of my favorites from the book – it’s called Get Drunk.
7. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? A Novel by Maria Semple. Maria Semple is a former writer for Arrested Development, Ellen, and Mad About You and she’s put together an incredible novel in a unique way – as the form of Bernadette’s 15-year-old daughter solving the riddle of her mother’s disappearance by collecting newspaper clippings, stolen emails, and schools newsletters. All of which are laid out in chronological order. The comedy acrobatics are incredible as every plot twist and turn is in service of a perfectly solved Rubik’s Cube by the end. A real masterwork and definitely the funniest novel I’ve read all year.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
How's your reading going? September can be a bit of a log jam. Hope you're into something good and, if you're not, remember... quit more to read more. Ditch the brick and start something else. Thanks so much for all the recos you've been sending my way and for the love on the 3 Books podcast. (Even Chris Anderson blew some digital kisses.) Right now the most popular chapter is Chapter 3 with Seth Godin if you'd like a good place to start.
Neil
PS. I've been getting this question at speeches lately: Can spending money make me happier? On what? I made a video with my take.
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1. The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brainsby Robert H. Lustig. Do you feel a little bit out of control of what you’re doing these days? I’m starting to feel that way. Like I used to blame myself when I spun into an Internet rabbit hole or endless game of email whack-a-mole. I blamed myself for that! After all, I did it. But then I read the fantastic Irresistible by Adam Alter last year and suddenly became wise to the fish hooks tech companies were planting in my brain. So now I live largely in Airplane Mode, my phone is in black and white, and, most importantly, I didn’t use it at all (since my wife hid it from me at my request) for at least half the summer. Now I find myself writing articles every other month about cell phone addiction. So it’s no wonder I picked up Robert Lustig’s book to feed my growing wariness of our screen-surrounded world. And he did not disappoint! Lustig drops the hammer on corporate America with his campaign to unmask the neurobiological manipulation that’s going on here. Did the book swerve a bit too deep into science? Did it come back to a few big targets over and over? For sure. But his thesis is pretty sound. Think of it this way. If pleasure is “this feels good, I want more” and happiness is “this feels good, I don’t need more” then he shows why we’ve tilted too deeply into pleasure… and maps a decent way out.
2. Fifty Sneakers That Changed The Worldby Design Museum. Do you ever hear people say they zoned out watching junky TV last night? I sort of picture them oozing into the couch, drool dripping off their chin, as they stare into the screen for hours. Then they go to bed feeling a little bit less proud of themselves. Well, I want to bring back the phrase junky reading. You’re reading! But junky. But after you’re done flipping through a random book about fifty sneakers that changed the world you go to bed … and you don’t feel quite as bad about yourself.
3. Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beachesby John Hodgman. I used to write for the weekly campus comedy newspaper back at college. I remember I submitted a piece one week and the editor said “This is a hilarious article which I’ll never print.” I didn’t get it. And then he said. “You’re being funny without a point. All the sentences are funny but never add up to anything. You need to start with a thesis. Use the laughs to make the point.” And I sort of feel the same way about this incredibly hilarious but ultimately pointless book of comedy essays. I love comedy writing but more recently I’d recommend Calypso by David Sedaris (more funny, still thoughtful) or Both Flesh And Not by David Foster Wallace (more thoughtful, still funny) instead. (PS. Very excited to report that David Sedaris is a future guest on 3 Books!)
4. The World According to Mister Rogersby Fred Rogers. Leslie and I absolutely loved the Mister Rogers documentary. Have you seen it? Go see it! Here’s the trailer. But don’t do what I did and immediately go to the bookstore afterwards to buy this not-very-good book. I was thirsty for more Mister Rogers gems but the book is kinda sloppily put together, filled with clichés that feel straight off 70s-era bumper stickers, and just doesn’t have the heart and soul of his personality. The "why" behind Mister Rogers isn't here and so we end up with a fairly plain jane book of quotes.
5. This Book is a Planetariumby Kelli Anderson. Have you ever bought a kids book for yourself? And your kids have no interest in it at all because they’re too young or told old for it? That’s what happened here. I spent fifty bucks (wtf!) on this pop-up book that actually, physically turns into a speaker, perpetual calendar, and little mini-guitar that you can actually strum and play. The book is about the power of paper and a surreal and mind-blowing look at what you can do with a book. (Not recommended in audio!)
6. There, Thereby Tommy Orange. A searing contemporary portrait of how American Indians are living in the US today all told in a soap opera format with a dozen twisted storylines and backgrounds. I had a few qualms with the ending but loved it overall. It’s raw, angry, and powerful right below the skin. Perfect for book clubs or for those (like me) who really knew nothing about indigenous Americans beyond a few mostly inaccurate storylines through history books.
7. Katerinaby James Frey. I’m in a James Frey mood these days. I just recommended Bright Shiny Morninga month ago. I can’t get enough of his pulsing rat-a-tat-tat way of writing and feel like the quickness of his storytelling completely energizes and motivates me to write, too. If you liked A Million Little Piecesthis is almost the prequel. It’s in the novel category but follows what feel like all true storylines about his journey into writing, the beginnings of addiction, and a wild love story with an unforgettable finish.
8. It’s OK To Feel Things Deeplyby Carissa Potter. Stressed out? Try this one. A little hug to yourself or a friend.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
It’s that time of the year again when everyone says it’s that time of the year again. Usually topped with something like “Can you believe it’s September? How did that happen?” Well, it happened! And I believe it. Don’t you? Time is the most reliable thing we got. Sure, maybe it’s just a grand ruse we made up to simpify everything, but if we can’t believe in time… we’re in trouble. It’s finite. It’s fleeting. And we only have around 30,000 days total.
So it's on us to make sure we read the best books we can from the tiny number we’ll ever be able to read. I hope this monthly reading club helps with that. As George R.R. Martin wrote: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… the man who never reads lives only one.”
Neil
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1. The Bonfire of the Vanitiesby Tom Wolfe. What’s the biggest movie you’ve never seen? My wife’s never seen Star Wars. For me it’s Back to the Future. Huge movie! Never seen it. Why do I mention it? Well, because I like to call any huge book I’ve never read one of my “Back to the Future Books.” I’d put Catch 22 and The Count of Monte Cristo and, yes, The Bonfire of the Vanities in there. I’ve heard about Bonfire forever! Never read it until this month. And when I finally opened this gripping, breathless, searing portrait of rising inequalities between the highest highs and lowest lows of Manhattan in the 1980s I was just left wondering: “Why did it take me so long?” Highly, highly recommended. A fantastic novel. (Sidenote: Here's The New York Times obituary for Tom Wolfe who died earlier this year.)
2. Bedtime FM Storytime Podcast. Not a book! A podcast. We’ve become addicted to this one with our kids. Huge slew of age-appropriate stories to get you through a long car ride or rainy afternoon.
3. If On A Winter’s Night A Travelerby Italo Calvino. This novel was written in Italian almost forty years ago and somehow keeps bumping into me today. A friend bought it for me over a decade ago. An upcoming guest on 3 Books chose it as one of his three most formative books. And everything all added up for me to finally tackle it. And it is an incredible hook. The book is written in the second person (like a Choose Your Own Adventure or Mohsin Hamid’s excellent How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia) where “you” are the key character. Unlike those other second-person books, though, you aren’t parading through jungles or Pakistani slums. You are the you sitting on the couch reading the book “If on a winter’s night a traveler.” Bit meta? Yeah, and that’s just the starting point. The book has all kinds of mirrored hallways that you keep bumping into. I threw it on my bedside table in frustration a few times and skipped forward to read the last chapter, then the second last chapter, before coming back to where I was and moving forward from there. I also skipped the middle fifty pages. I "ate" this book more than read it but, like we say in our values, "Quit more to read more."
5. Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One Of The World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myselfby Rich Roll. When people ask me for podcast recommendations I always recommend The Rich Roll Podcast. Why? Because Rich oozes an articulate wisdom that scratches carefully yet urgently at what really matters in life. I honestly don’t normally go for the “how I changed my life” memoirs as I often find them contrived and sorta syrupy. “You can rise out of the slums with one leg to conquer Kilimanjaro, too!” No. I can’t. And I don’t want to. Yet somehow Rich’s story about hitting rock bottom with severe alcoholism, zapped athletic potential, and a failed marriage hit me hard. It’s a wonderful tale told with Rich’s brilliant voice loud and center channel the whole time. I can’t say I disagreed with where the book ends up going near the end (into the world of super healthy living and veganism) but I just wasn’t ready for it yet.
6. Why Birds Matterby Jonathan Franzen. I’ve talked about my new love of bird watching a few times on this email list. We spotted a hawk in our backyard a few weeks ago and I spent hours looking up the species in bird books and telling everyone about it. So it was gratifying to stumble upon this January 2018 National Geographic cover story written by the wonder Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections, Freedom) that somehow articulated everything I love about birds. Link goes to complete article. A beautiful read. PS. Did you know Audobon and National Geographic declared 2018 “The Year of the Bird” because it’s the 100-year-anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act?)
7. Bright Shiny Morningby James Frey. It feels so liberating to give a huge shoulder shrug to what anybody thinks or thinks they think about James Frey (“Didn’t he scam Oprah?”, “Wasn’t his memoir fake?”) and just dive deeper into his phenomenal books. The writing is jagged, raw, and incredibly fast-paced and whenever you put the book down it feels like you just stepped off a roller coaster. After reading this incredible novel – which offers a birds-eye view of contemporary Los Angeles with zooms into all its cracks and fissures – I did feel like going back and understanding what really happened with all the hub bub surrounding A Million Little Piecesand this Vanity Fair article was the most thorough overview of the entire thing. Great way to get closer to that wild publishing phenomenon for those interested.
8. Hyperfocusby Chris Bailey. I first met Chris in a hotel lobby in Ottawa a few years back. It was a bustling five-star hotel with business-people in powersuits urgently walking by with briefcases in every direction and yet there was Chris wearing super casual clothes lying down with his feet up (with his feet up!) on one of the fancy leather couches… leafing through a book like he was on a basement futon. I immediately loved how confident and comfortable he was in his own skin. The man has been on a mission for years (since his popular blog and first book The Productivity Project came out) to squeeze the most juice from the lemon of life. And his new book Hyperfocus: How To Be More Productive In A World of Distraction is an elegant continuation on this trendline.
9. The Secret Lives of Colourby Kassia St. Clair. Did you know blue used to be for girls and pink was for boys? Me neither! But it wasn’t that long ago. Less than a hundred years. Red was for kings, warriors, and cardinals. So pink was the “little king.” And blue? Color of the Virgin Mary for a couple thousand years. And! Did you know orange (the color) is actually named after, hundreds of years after, orange (the fruit)? They used to call it “red-yellow” before that. Ever wondered about the origin of fuscia, electric blue, or sepia? Well, our Enlightened Bathroom Reading Series continues with this gem. Each of the seventy-five colours highlighted (literally) in this book tells a little story of how its life leads us to its place in the world today. Masterful!
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
Thank you.
I don’t say that often enough!
But honestly, thanks for reading this Reading Club. The world of email is so full of junk. I hate it. And yet it’s where our group gets to slam the windows shut, lock up the doors, and just chat about books once a month. I always look forward to it and reply with your thoughts, feedback, and book suggestions anytime.
TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speakingby Chris Anderson. Pop quiz! Who runs the most impressive thought leadership collective in the universe? What do you think? CEO of Google? Dean of some fancy school? No way. I don't trust those guys. Chris Anderson gets my vote. TED is non-profit. Every talk is free. And as CEO he takes no salary. TED is spreading like a beautifully expanding ink drop into classrooms, companies, and minds around the world. I think it’s how I first learned who Brené Brown or Susan Cain or Simon Sinek or Steven Pinker even were – never mind what they do. So I love Chris Anderson. I trust him. And his understanding of how to deliver a great speech shines through this book. It can be a bit painful to read as (if you’re like me) you’ll keep going “Ooh, right, I shouldn’t do that.” or “Oh no, I need to completely rewrite that.” But I think ultimately it’s important to remember the panning for gold metaphor. Sift, sift, sift, find a couple nuggets, get out of town. This is a brass-tacks guidebook for anyone who needs to give a great speech. I’ll shelve this next to Dale Carnegie’s fantastic How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking which gets a little deeper into hooking and pulling in audiences.
I'm Just A Personby Tig Notaro. Tig Notaro spent nine days after her double-breast cancer diagnosis writing and then delivering a standup comedy routine all about cancer. And then it went viral. This memoir takes a big step back and chronicles the worst year of her life – a severe illness, her mother’s freak accident death, a breakup, and then the big C – with refreshing grace and perspective. The engine in this book gets faster as it goes and by the end we’re wrestling with huge questions in the deep end of the pool. How do you really live every day like it’s your last? Tig offers perspective through pain.
The History Of Love: A Novelby Nicole Krauss. A few weeks ago I gave a speech and, afterwards, an older lady walked up to me, smiled deeply with wet eyes, and handed me a tiny slip of paper. I opened it. All it said was “The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.” I looked up at her and she simply said “Read it” and then walked away. Then a few days later I saw the book mentioned again on Mitch Albom’s "Mitch's Picks". Turns out I needed those two pushes because I found the first two-thirds of the book totally frustrating. It’s written in that 3D jigsaw puzzle. Did you like movies like Traffic or 21 Grams? If so, you’ll like this book. Me, I’m lost the whole time. But I promise it does eventually deliver a massive payoff that makes it all worth it. Reading this book feels like setting up a hundred dominos in a dark room. Getting to the end feels like finally turning the lights on and knocking them all over. Beautiful.
Jerusalem: Chronicles From The Holy City by Guy Delisle. Have you been to Jerusalem? I haven’t. Who knows if I’ll make it. But that’s why I’m becoming addicted to these photo-journalism graphic novels from Guy Delisle. I enjoyed Pyongyang because I felt like I was a French animator working in North Korea. And now I’m a French graphic novelist spending a year with his wife working in the West Bank for Doctors without Borders while I’m taking care of my two kids in Jerusalem. A foot-on-the-ground view of a city with endless cultural questions and challenges along the way. But … it really is just one guy’s view. And that guy is Guy. So you need to enjoy hanging out with him. Being him. And you need enjoy skipping big-picture for minutiae of the day to day. I admit I found myself craving more zoom-out history and background like I found in graphic novels like Tetris by Box Brown.
Things Organized Neatly by Austin Radcliffe. This book is just super well-curated pictures of things (wait for it) organized neatly. A football team’s helmets and pads before the big game. A pile of fruit peels all fitting together. Are you one of those people who likes peeling the orange in one shot and then sort of wrapping it back up into a hollow orange? Then you’ll love this book. (Sidenote: Since I have a blog called 1000 Awesome Things and Austin has a blog called Things Organized Neatly I have a weird dream about starting a little mutant lovechild.)
Cookies: Bite-size Life Lessonsby Amy Krouse Rosenthal. My wife Leslie has a knack for picking out incredible children’s books. You know what the “most clicked on” book I recommended in this book club was for all of 2017? (Yes, I looked.) Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. She tipped me onto that. And now this gem! This book pulls off an astounding feat. Every page shows a child in the process of making chocolate chip cookies together with a little behavior definition that sort of sneaks in. Some examples from the book: “Cooperate means how about you add the chips while I stir?”, “Patient means waiting and waiting for the cookies to be done”, “Modest means you don’t run around telling everyone you make the best cookies even if you know it’s true”, “Respect means offering the very first cookie to your grandmother.” I loved this book.
Zen in the Art of Writingby Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury is an egotistical blowhard. Ray Bradbury is an insightful genius. Those two thoughts kept ping-ponging in my brain while reading this book of essays about writing and creativity. I found I needed to stick my hands out and peel through the sticky film of his ego – the full-page photo of him petting a cat in front of a bookshelf, the essay on how amazing his memory is proven by how vividly he recalls his own birth, or his easy-as-pie word association technique for writing a short story a day – to get to the gold. And there is real gold. “Zest. Gusto.” These are the first two words of the book and these essays are filled with it. “The Joy of Writing” felt like minty balm as he talks about finding pleasure in writing instead of feeding off the pain. And I loved the essay on “feeding your muse” which is chock full of ideas getting unstuck and keeping things loose. I have no idea if he really was an egotistical blowhard but I do know the two pages of notes I took from this book make for some insightful genius that will last a long time.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
I'm not going to start by saying "Spring, spring, it's a wonderful thing" like I did last month as I triggered a wave of Australians pointing out my hemispherical bigotry. Sorry, Aussies.
I will say a big thanks to those who’ve taken a risk to check out my podcast 3 Books (Apple, Android, Spotify). It's so hard to start listening to podcasts. The apps aren't great. That purple "Podcasts" button on the iPhone is almost always hidden in some random folder. But some upcoming guests include David Sedaris, Mitch Albom, and possibly the world’s greatest Uber driver with a 4.99 rating and 5000 rides. I'm loving it -- and feels so relieving doing something without ads in this screaming-from-screens world. So far the most popular show is Chapter 3 with Seth Godin if you want a starting point!
And now onto the books,
Neil
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Behold The Dreamers: A Novelby Imbolo Mbue. A fast-paced gritty story of Cameroonian immigrants trying to make it in New York during the financial crisis. Wealth disparity, global migration, and our flattening world of bumps and bruises are all peeled open and parsed through in sweaty detail. I sometimes wanted a bit more from the characters but it’s really an impressive page-turner (and debut novel!) that fits together without easy answers. Jende gets a job as a chauffeur for a Lehman Brothers exec and gets slowly swirled into the whirlpool of tension and drama of his family life – which affects everything. Even Oprah gave her stamp of approval to this one.
Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On And Never Willby Judith Schalansky. Do you ever want to run away from it all? Forget living on Mars with Elon Musk. Why not visit Christmas Island or the Scattered Islands way off the coast of Madagascar? I love this book because it tells stories of all those tiny remote islands I've rubbed fingers over on globes while briefly wondering … what is going on there? Every island has a beautiful map, a timeline of civilization, and a story related to our connection to it. Add to our Enlightened Bathroom Reading series. And special props for best sub-headline I've seen in a while.
This Is A Bookby Demetri Martin. Do you remember my love affair with Demetri Martin from earlier this year? It’s still going. But now I’ve sadly finished all his books. I meant to savor this one but couldn’t stop. It’s such a bummer hitting the end of someone’s career output and then just sort of spinning your thumbs waiting for more. Does this happen to you? Who are you waiting for more from? I talk about this exact feeling on an upcoming chapter of 3 Books when Dave Barry tells me that his favorite novelist Charles Portis only wrote five books so he’s stuck rereading them again and again. Well, this book is absurdist essay comedy at its best. There’s an essay titled “Honors and Awards (for Which I Would Qualify)” that includes “Top 40 People Under 40 Who Live In My Apartment Building” and “Best Screenplay That Is Still Just In Someone’s Head.” I like the essay called “Frustrating Uses of Etc.” which opens with the line “I’m looking forward to our date. Why don’t you pick me up at my parents’ house. Here’s how you get there: Take Route 95 North, after you go through the second toll, get into the left lane, etc.”
Tao Te Chingby Lao Tzu. James Frey finds solace in the Tao Te Ching in his incredible memoir A Million Little Pieces. A lot of the little poems or words of wisdom resonated with me from that book so I looked for a copy. What’s the biggest problem finding a “book” written over 2500 years ago? Picking a translation. The used bookstore near my house had about a dozen. I kept opening and looking for one where I could make sense of what I was reading and finally settled on a translation by David Hinton. I love reading a few of these before bed at night. Sometimes they rattle around my brain, sometimes I feel like I’m lost in a zen koan (shoutout to end-of-podcasters), and sometimes I feel like I pull something beautiful from them. Here’s a sample: “7. There’s a reason heaven and earth go on enduring forever / their life isn’t their own / so their life goes on forever. / Hence, in putting himself last / the sage puts himself first, / and in giving himself up / he preserves himself. / If you aren’t free of yourself / how will you ever become yourself?”
Will you please be quiet, please? Storiesby Raymond Carver. If the world feels too full of words for you and you crave short stories that get right to it – try this one. Efficiency. Economy! Saying more with less. Have you heard that famous quote attributed to everyone from Blaise Pascal to Mark Twain: “Sorry my letter was so long. I didn’t have time to make it short.” (Actual history of the quote here.) If you’ve ever slaved away at a tweet – reading and re-reading, writing and re-writing – just to get it to fit into the tiny little box, then you know what I’m talking about. Why do I mention all this? Because this group of short stories has to be the most efficient writing I’ve ever read. Hemingway is an airbag next to this guy. Some of the stories are two or three pages and yet pack deep emotional intensity.
Enlightenment Now: The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker. I have never read a Steven Pinker book before and the man intimidates the hell out of me. His Wikipedia profile almost sounds fake in its endless list of accolades and accomplishments. And check out the hair: dude’s bringing back the Ludwig van for real! So far this year no book kept me up later at night than Enlightenment Now. A few nights in a row I watched the clock click past 3:00am as the optimistic part of my brain couldn’t stop chewing on the endlessly delicious nuggets of comfort the book kept delivering in its piece-by-piece deconstruction of how, you know what? Life is actually really damn good. We’re living longer, we’re healthier, we’re safer. And the stories and research underpinning these truths are told in a beautifully readable way. The guy is tap-dancing on a stage just daring you to poke a hole in his arguments. Now, when you take on a topic this big (“The whole world is great!”) you’re bound to get buried in criticism, too. There’s a lot out there. But I think that means it’s touching a deep and real nerve. (Heck, The Book of Awesome was blamed for destroying language in my home country’s largest paper!) I trust the Bill Gates blurb on the cover more: “My new favorite book of all time”, he says. I’m with Bill. This one is a gem.
I Love My Purseby Belle Demont. My toenails are painted red right now. Why? My little boys wanted me to paint mine with them. So I did. Then we read this beautiful picture book about a boy named Charlie who loves carrying around his grandmother’s red purse. At first everyone challenges him! But, then, they realize they don’t need to always conform to social or gender norms, either. Heartwarming and beautiful.
Calypsoby David Sedaris. Years ago I waited till around 1am in the basement of an old theater in downtown Toronto to meet David Sedaris. I was by myself. My phone died. I was thirsty. By the time I got near the front I hated David Sedaris. I loved his books but where did he get the nerve to make me wait four hours to get my book signed? Who did he think he was? Space Mountain? But then I got to the front. And he sat there calmly. And it was clear I could lead the conversation. So I did! I asked him about my favorite essays in Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day and something like five or ten minutes later he wrote “Neil, I am so happy you’re alive” in my book. Now that’s a book signing! Patience, connection, intimacy. I’ve tried to adopt the same approach and feel it's the most beautiful part of the writing world. As for David Sedaris, I haven’t loved his latest books as much but was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy of Calypso before it comes out this Tuesday. (I’m interviewing him for 3 Books!) Calypso may take the position of Best Sedaris Book Ever. Slower, darker, and – wait for it – it has an arc! All the hilarious essays sort of weave together to give a sharp portrait of middle age with everything that entails. A father in his 90s. Losing a sibling. Everything sounding loud in airports. Easily the funniest book I have read all year. I highly recommend it.
Forest Bathingby Dr. Qing Li. A stunningly beautiful book about the Japanese art and science of shinrin-yoku or the life-changing magic of walking in the woods. As Dr. Li says “Indoors, we tend to use only two senses, our eyes and our ears. Outdoors is where we can smell the flowers, taste the fresh air, look at the changing colors of the trees, hear the birds singing and feel the breeze on our skin. And when we open up our sense, we begin to connect to the natural world.” Great photos throughout. This belongs in every dentist, accountant, and occupational therapist waiting room.
Best. State. Ever: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland by Dave Barry. I grew up reading Dave Barry’s syndicated humor column. Together with newspaper comic strips and MAD Magazines it was one of the rare little geysers of comedy in my life. (I love this little online treasure trove of his 2008 US election and convention coverage.) Best. State. Ever is a hilarious driving tour history of Florida’s many oddities. And, before you ask, Dave Barry is also an upcoming guest on 3 Books. I flew down to meet him in his hometown Books & Books bookstore in Coral Gables which is an absolutely mesmerizing place complete with giant outdoor magazine stand, publisher-themed rooms, and the best damn chicken salad you’re gonna find in a bookstore. Can't wait to share the conversation soon.
A Little History of The Worldby E.H. Gombrich. Do you have a curious 12 year old in your life? Buy them this book. (Same if you have the brain of a curious 12 year old yourself.) Back in 1935 E.H. Gombrich wrote this book in German. It took him six weeks and the audience was a friend's young daughter. And that tone and style is still there in the English translation which didn’t appear until seventy years later. Covers everything from The Stone Age to the atomic bomb. This is like a Wait Buy Why blog post written a hundred years ago.
The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings To Raise Self-Reliant Childrenby Wendy Mogel. I love the title of this book and her other book for raising teens which is called The Blessing of a B Minus. In the opening she discusses how she found her Jewish roots and then studied Jewish parenting books thousands of years old. The original sub-title for this book was “Using Jewish Teachings To Raise Self-Reliant Children” but it’s been updated to "timeless." The content isn’t revolutionary! But if the title intrigues you then the book serves as a generous and warm-hearted guidebook to getting there.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
A big swelling thank you to those who’ve taken a chance to check out 3 Books with Neil Pasricha (iTunes / Stitcher / Google Play). You guys shot it into the Top 100 podcasts in the world and I’m pumped to share Chapter 3 on the full moon this weekend. (Want to know who my next guest is? He's the only author I've reviewed three books by in this book club...)
Lincoln In The Bardoby George Saunders. What would you do in this situation? You’re a little kid. You’re at your grandma’s house. You and your cousins are upstairs in the attic. Somebody pulls a dusty, old board game off the top shelf. Nobody has seen it before. Nobody has played it before. One person pulls off the box cover and everyone notices two things immediately. First, there are no instructions. They are missing! And the second is that the board game looks very interesting and complicated – there are parts and pieces and drawings like you’ve never seen! And a few common elements like a board and timer. It’s clear that if you and your cousins want to play it’s going to take a lot of patience to figure out the game. But it also looks like the investment may really pay off in how fun the game looks. So, the big question: do you play? Or would you put it back on the shelf? Lincoln in the Bardo felt like that boardgame to me. I ended up playing. And it was ultimately worth the massive investment in figuring out the rules. What’s it about? A tiny piece of truth forms of the underpinning. On the day President Abraham Lincoln’s 11-year-old son Willie Lincoln died of typhoid, Abe was reported in newspapers to have visited the tomb on horseback multiple times over the night just to pick up and hold his son’s body. The “bardo” is the term for spirits caught between our existence and the afterlife and this book is – wait for it – told from the perspective of the invisible cacophony of ghost voices stuck yelling at each other from the bardo in that crypt. It is magical and mystical and wild and wonderful and the beauty rises and rises and rises as you keep going. Spellbinding.
Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothingby Judy Blume. Do you reread the books you grew up with? I heard Gretchen Rubin (an upcoming 3 Books guest!) say she re-visits and re-reads those books during stressful times. I liked that and pulled out my torn and tattered copy of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I was a bit surprised the book completely holds up. Fudge is still a loveable monster who eats his brother’s turtle. A classic.
Understand Rap: Explanations of Confusing Rap Lyrics That You & Your Grandma Can Understandby William Buckholz. Exactly what it says on the tin. A small book with sharp design that uses a stilted emotionless translation for rap lyrics. “I got rubber band banks in my pocket” from “Whatever You Like” by TI. What? “I carry such large amounts of cash that a wallet would quickly wear out as it would be stretched beyond capacity … the money clip is pushed beyond its mechanical limits as well. Therefore, a large rubber band will be employed, as it can expand with increased capacity.” Ha! Want another? “I was strapped wit’ gats when you were cuddlin’ a cabbage patch.” from Forgot About Dre by Dr. Dre. “When you were still a child and had no concerns other than playing with dolls in the comfort and safety of your home, I was carrying guns to defend myself in my dangerous urban neighborhood.” Not sure if this one makes our Enlightened Bathroom Reading series but it’s close.
One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovichby Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. One day in the life of an ordinary prisoner of a Soviet forced labor camp in the 1950s. Dark, hypnotic, fascinating read which was one of the first inside accounts published of the Stalin regime. It ultimately led to the author getting exiled from the country and, on the plus side, winning the Pulitzer Prize.
Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligenceby Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb. In my final year of my undergrad business degree a fresh young professor stepped into our classroom to teach the big capstone strategy course. We eyed the guy with suspicion. He looked about a year older than us. But he won us over in a flash – dancing around the room, cold-calling randomly, and speaking with an articulate passion for strategy and business. He was a “zoom out” professor in the best sense. His name was Ajay Agrawal and this month his first book came out. It’s a doozy and I swallowed it in one big gulp. Do you feel like you don’t know enough about AI? I do. I mean, I read the great Wait But Why article by Tim Urban (another upcoming 3 Books guest!) but … what next? Well, what’s next is this book. Published by Harvard Business Review Press, it’s an excellent primer on the business and commercial implications.
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamedby Jon Ronson. Did you ever listen to Serial? I only caught a couple episodes but Ronson’s writing style reminds me of the show. You hear his voice from above as he experiences something, goes on a journey to dig in, and then tries to make sense of it all. This book explores the history of public shaming and the reemergence of it on a mass scale with the Internet. I’m not quite sure how Ronson managed to score interviews with people like Jonah Lehrer who became aplagiarism castaway and Justine Sacco who sent a bad joke out to 170 followers on Twitter before getting on an 11-hour flight… and then landed to discover she’d been fired and had become the #1 trending topic on Twitter while she was on the plane. A great exploration of shaming history and wades confidently into the complex emotional issues surrounding how we think about power to the people.
Herding Catsby Sarah Andersen. I love Sarah Andersen. And not just because of this incredible cartoon about books which you absolutely should go check out right now. She’s the cartoonist behind Sarah’s Scribbles which addresses anxiety, social awkwardness, mental health, millennialism, and becoming an adult.
Whenby Dan Pink. I had a chance to spend a morning with Dan last year when we were onstage back to back at an event together. I was nervous. He’s the legendary business icon with books like A Whole New Mind and Drive. Then he proceeds to go onstage and talk about how he’s not sure about stacking up to “that awesome guy.” Yeah, right. Cue a wizard-like performance as he held the room in the palm of his hand with a combo of stage presence, big laughs, and sharp insights. True business theater. His new book offers an antidote to the tidal wave of “how to” books with perhaps the first-ever “when to.” As always from him, great research and insights.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. Here it is! Maybe the best ever book on writing. I found this a lot stronger than Bird by Birdwhich provoked minor anxiety in me with its endless list of writing stresses. King shares his mental models for writing, demystifies the process, and speaks in a snappy manner about how to actually do it. The first half of the book is his optional memoir (still lots of fun) and the second half is the part on writing. What’s in the middle? An incredible little five-page interstitial called “What Writing Is” which blew my mind. A professor at Southeastern University must have felt the same way as he posted those same five pages here. A great gift for anyone who writes or wants to write more or better.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
I spent a few hours trying to write a big long argument trying to convince you to download my new podcast.
Then I realized that’s not why I’m doing it.
I’m reading the 1000 most formative books of 333 inspiring people in order to become a better person … and if it helps others to join our conversation, then that's terrific, but I want to do it either way.
The podcast is called 3 Books and in each episode I'll uncover and discuss the three most formative books of an inspiring individual.
I hope you like Chapter 1 of the show and I'll let you know when the next one's ready.
Thanks for reading,
Neil
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The Hate U Giveby Angie Thomas. I remember reading a blurb by David Sedaris on the back of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Geniusby Dave Eggers which said “The force and energy of this book could power a train.” I feel like that applies here. The force and energy of this book could power a train. Starr is black. And sixteen. And living in the projects while attending a glitzy private school across town. When she witnesses a police officer kill her unarmed friend she becomes the central figure in a local case that gains national attention. I loved the inner introspection of Starr… wrestling between emotions, relationships, worlds, and finding her voice. There are all kinds of braided themes around adolescence, family values, standing up for what you believe in, and just being a kid at the same time. Feels like the most timely young adult book in years.
The Easter Egg by Jan Brett. My wife Leslie is incredible at picking out children’s books for holidays. You may remember Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatchwhich has to be the best Valentine’s Day book of all time for kids. Well, The Easter Egg is our current “high bar” for Easter. While everybody is competing to make the best Easter Egg to capture the Easter Bunny’s attention, only Hoppi tends to the fallen robin’s egg in the forest, keeping it warm, and protecting it on the ground. When the Easter Bunny shows up all the animals learn (you guessed it) a valuable lesson.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck. Check out this scenario borrowed from Page 8 of this book: “One day, you go to a class that is really important to you and that you like a lot. The professor returns the midterm papers to the class. You got a C+. You’re very disappointed. That evening on the way back to your home, you find that you’ve gotten a parking ticket. Being really frustrated, you call your best friend to share your experience but are sort of brushed off.” According to Carol Dweck, if you have a fixed mindset you’d think “I’m a total failure” or “I feel like a reject.” And if you have a growth mindset, you’d think “I need to try harder in class, be more careful when parking the car, and wonder if my friend had a bad day.” She points out it was a midterm... not a final. A parking ticket... not a major infraction. Sort of brushed off... versus dumped or yelled at or anything. Hmmm. HMMMM. I found this interesting because ... I was totally in the first camp. This incredibly readable book helped me understand how to develop a growth mindset across all spectrums of life from business to parenting. I've already started speaking to my children differently. And myself too, frankly. I can’t recommend it enough.
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy. Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a rare cancer at nine years old and had a series of surgeries which ultimately removed nearly half her jaw. This book is a haunting memoir on image and beauty seen through the eyes of a young girl growing into a young woman. Lucy wrote this book when she was thirty-two and sadly died at age thirty-nine. Despite the heaviness of the subject the writing is really soft and somewhat beautiful to read. A great book for perspective.
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobeby C. S. Lewis. When I was a kid my cousins were obsessed with The Chronicles of Narnia. Child protagonists battling evil in lost worlds. Makes sense. I read this to my three year old and only censored a few of the bloodiest battles. He was completely gripped by it … although I probably should have censored how rude the siblings were speaking to each other instead.
Linchpin by Seth Godin. Over the past couple years I have shared my love of Seth Godin books like The DipandWhat To Do When It’s Your Turn. He has a remarkably tight and fast-paced way of writing mini-chapters that fill you up with energy to take action really quickly. The sub-headline of the book is “Are you indispensable?” and he teaches and inspires you to create work that is both beautiful and necessary. A fantastic read if you’re stuck in a rut or finding yourself endlessly rat-racing but yearning to do more.
Search Inside Yourself by Chade-Meng Tan. Meng was an early Google employee who had eight years of climbing the ladder as a software engineer before transitioning to the human resources side of the business. He got the strange job-title of Google’s “Jolly Good Fellow” and created and popularized an internal course on meditation called Search Inside Yourself. This book is all about accessibility. It’s written in really simple language and you just nod and nod and nod until you realize you’ve bought in to everything he’s saying.
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. Do you ever walk by the tabloids and sort of stare at the children of celebrities pasted on the covers? I find the idea of someone like Suri Cruise or Shiloh Pitt even being well-known a bit sickening. They’re just kids! Born onto our spinning planet by parents who happened to be famous. I wonder and maybe worry what their lives must feel like on the inside of all that press and publicity. I picked up this book casually just because – just because I’d heard of it, just because I knew Carrie Fisher from Princess Leia, just because it looked interesting. I had no idea Carrie Fisher was a Shiloh Pitt! Born to Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, or the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of the late 50s, she tells a rollickingly, radically self-aware story of the absurdist upbringing she had inside a world of Hollywood elite… while struggling with bipolar disorder and addiction. Fascinating, absorbing, and hilarious. I’m not sure I’ll be able to see her in Star Wars ever the same again.
Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
I didn’t devour books this month. They devoured me. Partly because I’m gearing up for my new podcast all about books. You'll see some teases on Facebook and I'm excited to share more with you guys soon. And if you’d like to see some new writing from me check out this or this.
Happy reading,
Neil
–
The Sympathizerby Viet Thanh Nguyen. What do you call that moment when you’re jussssssst about to quit a book and half-looking for a reason to keep going? You’re in the quicksand. You’re on page 36 and you want to chuck it but your arms are frantically flailing for jungle vines. Looking for some reason to keep going. Well, thank goodness I found a jungle vine just as I was about to quit this debut novel about Vietnamese refugees coming to America after the Vietnam War. The vine was this New York Times Op-Ed called “Our Vietnam War Never Ended” by the author. Go read it! So much emotion and anger and pain. And it made me understand what was below the surface of this absurdist, urgent, and tragic tale. Once the curtains of The Sympathizer are pulled back it opens into one of the sharpest, funniest, and most epic literary masterpieces I have read. My "East of Eden" for 2018 so far. And I guess I'm not alone since it has the most book trophies I've ever seen slapped inside a cover including Pulitzer Prize, Carnegie Medal, NYT Top 100 Notable Books, the Edgar Award, and a finalist for the PEN / Faulkner.
Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigueby Ryan Holiday. I always tell people Ryan Holiday is the hardest working writer I know. He’s 30 years old with a half dozen bestsellers under his belt already. And his pace seems to be quickening. How does he do it? Well, here’s a story. Last year he was in Toronto and showed up late to our dinner plans because he was writing. After dinner our group walked down the street to grab ice cream. He was already calling an Uber. “Writing quota,” he said. “Gotta hit my wordcount.” That’s how. Pure prioritization and dedication to the craft. Conspiracy is about a whole lot of things I care nothing about in my head and yet I somehow couldn’t put it down. Gripping saga of how a giant online media site irked billionaire Peter Thiel by outing him as gay and then the resulting decade-long conspiracy plot he put together to eventually bankrupt them. Told in hypnotic play-by-play with insider access to all the key players. Ryan Holiday is a writer to keep watching and I recommend his monthly book list as well.
The Chrysalidsby John Wyndham. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi epic which takes place in… Newfoundland! Can’t say that about many books. A group of telepathic kids are forced to hide their genetic mutation from the intolerant community they live in. I read this book as a kid and it was just as resonant today.
Improving Ourselves To Deathby Alexandra Schwartz. Little interlude from books. This hilarious New Yorker piece felt like a breath of fresh air.
Why We Get Fat … And What To Do About Itby Gary Taubes. I can’t believe I’m saying this but this book actually delivers. My cynical sunglasses are deeply shaded on the entire health and fitness section of the bookstore. What type of oil am I supposed to gargle this week again? Not my bag. But this book was written by an editor for Science magazine and it’s a fairly dense summary of the past century in nutrition science – complete with how everything fell off the rails after World War II resulting in such blasphemy as national food guides recommending 6-12 grain servings a day. Ultimately, it’s all about insulin and a complete shattering of the “calories-in-calories-out” ethos. I’ve suddenly become the guy picking around his mashed potatoes and chomping turkey sticks and olives for snacks. Sure, you have to live, but something about this book gets under your skin. Highly recommend it.
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Hypnotic autobiographical description of growing up in rural Wisconsin in the late 1800s. From shooting panthers to smoking meat in hollow tree trunks to playing catch with pig bladders. There is no plot. There is no crisis. There’s just 238 pages in 18-point font of vivid memories weaved into a captivating tableau that makes you feel like you’re living another life. Truly masterful escapism and the first book in the famous “Little House” series. Originally written in 1937 and still perfect for 12-year-old girls and 38-year-old men the world over!
If It’s Not Funny It’s Artby Demetri Martin. Do you remember how last month I went on a rant about how I was obsessed with Demetri Martin? Well, I still am! Here are one, two, three, four, five more of his cartoons if you’re still not convinced. (PS for the nerds: If you’re addicted to the “View Image” button in Google Image Search like I am, and noticed Google just silently removed it, then try the “View Image” Plugin for Chrome or Firefox which I’m using and loving.)
Man’s Search For Meaningby Viktor E. Frankl. Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who narrated his own journey through the Nazi death camps of World War II. He loses his parents, brothers, and pregnant wife, and yet somehow finds that we can’t avoid suffering but can always choose how to cope with it. Three big teachings: life is not a quest for pleasure but for meaning, you always control your reaction in any situation, and his famous quote that “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Haunting. I feel like I’ll keep this on my shelf forever to add context and humility whenever I face a massive struggle or challenge.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklinby Benjamin Franklin. Dude was an author, printer, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, activist, statesman, and diplomat. Killer LinkedIn profile. He wrote this autobiography over the last twenty years of his life (from about 1770 – 1790) though it wasn’t published until 1818 by his grandson. Apparently, this is the first American book taken seriously by the European intelligentsia and it’s easy to see why. It's the OG self-help book with part “story of my life” twisted together with key principles, virtues, and strategies for constantly getting better with the limited time we’ve got. I originally read this book ten years ago in a Business History and it was fun to revisit.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegasby Hunter S. Thompson. I learned a new phrase. Roman à clef. Have you heard of it? I was confused because the back of this book labels the book “non-fiction / journalism” and online it’s most often described as a novel. But then I was turned onto this new phrase. A roman à clef! A French term for a novel… with a key. About real life but overlaid with fiction. Similar to gonzo journalism, I suppose, which is described as journalism in first-person without claims of objectivity. Either way, this is a completely gripping, hallucination-filled drug trip written in a foot-on-the-gas style that I found almost too frenzied to even take in.
Their Eyes Were Watching Godby Zora Neale Hurston. Zora Neale was born in Alabama in 1891 and her saga of a Southern black woman’s journey to independence was published in 1937. Born from a rape and raised by her grandmother who was a slave it’s an incredibly epic tale of her life which (I promise) ultimately rewards you at the end. Three things about this fascinating book: One, it was a lost book, meaning completely out of print and forgotten for years, until an essay about the author appeared in 1972 and raised interest again. Makes you wonder how many gems are out there waiting to be rediscovered. Two, it’s written exactly as people spoke. I’m not sure if the right word is a patois or a pidgin maybe (help me out here) but a sample phrase from the book is “They’s jes lak uh pack uh hawgs, when dey see uh full trough.” The whole book is written like that. And lastly, if the books sounds remotely interesting to you, give it a few chapters to get into the rhythm and let your brain fall into reading the words. At least that’s how long it took for me. If you loved books such as A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, I feel like you’ll love this too.
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 January.
The holiday hangover is over and if you’re looking to push yourself to read more books in 2018 start with this article I wrote last year. It’s been flying around online a lot this month which I take as a great sign a lot of folks are doubling down on reading. As George R.R. Martin wrote “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
Enjoy this month’s books!
Neil
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The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Moneyby Ron Lieber. Do you know how most kids get allowance after they do chores? That’s how it worked in my house growing up. Well, this book says bollocks to that. New York Times “Your Money” columnist Ron Lieber points out when we tie money with chores we’re attempting parenting jujitsu by teaching kids “hard work” and “money management” values at the same time. But he points out kids learn hard work lots of places -- school projects, team sports, summer jobs. And they learn money management -- pretty much nowhere. So he suggests giving children three big glass jars labeled “Save”, “Spend”, and “Give” and then simply giving them their age in dollars each week and letting them have free reign on where the money goes and how they spend it. There are “advanced settings” like paying interest on the Save jar, but that’s the general idea. We loved it and started it at our house. Sure enough, it’s provoking great conversations, teaching money skills early, and importantly, retaining the intrinsic motivation of doing jobs around the house. The book offers a lot more ideas but that was the big highlight. A great read.
Point Your Face At This by Demetri Martin. For people who loved the intelligent absurdity of The Far Sidecartoons … this is for you! Demetri Martin is a stand-up comedian and former correspondent for The Daily Show. It is really hard to explain the genius of this book so instead I’m going to give you one, two, three, four, five examples of the cartoons. I couldn't stop laughing.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. I remember reading an interview with Diablo Cody after Juno, the first ever movie she wrote, was nominated for Best Picture. “How you gonna top that?” she was asked. And I loved her answer which I’m totally paraphrasing. “I’m not,” she said. “And that Best Picture nomination relieves me of the obligation of ever doing so. Now I can just write whatever I want.” I love the idea and I’ve held onto it whenever someone asks how I’m going to top The Book of Awesome. I think that’s partly why I was fascinated with Manhattan Beach. Jennifer Egan’s last book A Visit From the Goon Squadwon The Pulitzer Prize and a slew of other awards. I read it last year and loved it. So this is her encore! And taken from that lens it’s probably a disappointment. Less creative plotlines, less original style, a lot more paint-by-numbers historical fiction about a woman working in the Brooklyn Naval Yard becoming the first ever female deep sea diver while getting involved in a lot of relationships and temptations of the age. It’s good. But it’s no Goon Squad. But if you forget the last book and just take this as a little trip into a time and place most of us will never otherwise know… then it’s a journey still well worth looking out the windows for.
Hard Timesby Charles Dickens. The last Charles Dickens books I read were for high school projects so it felt good reading this one without making a presentation to a roomful of sixteen-year-olds at the end. Hard Timesis a deep rail against our left-brained desires for hard facts, science backing, and that itchy part of our brains that always wants to “see the numbers.” The book is getting close to 200 years old yet it felt fresh and timely. Maybe more so! What’s up with obsessing about facts? Fancy beats facts sometimes and when we think of our best moments… falling in love, holding our kids, getting a hug for going out of our way… well, those things don’t add up to anything in Excel. I loved this book but would rank it behind Great Expectationswhich I still feel resonating with me twenty years later.
Atlas Obscuraby Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morten. When my friends Chris, Ty, and I went on our cross-country road-trip after graduation ten years ago, we took great delight in finding obscure little landmarks way off the beaten path. The tiny Eiffel Tower in Paris, Texas, for instance, a giant pair of fiberglass feet, or a pile of spray-painted Cadillacs buried “nose first” in a cow-field by some crazy helium tycoon. If Chris was alive and we could somehow do that road trip today, I know we’d stash Atlas Obscura in the glove compartment. My friend Frank Warren of PostSecret sent me this treasure trove and it's such a joy flipping through it. The only question I have about the book is that I wonder if it somehow reduces the sheer pleasure of finding one of these gems on your own. In a way, I feel like maybe we are cataloguing and indexing everything except the thrill and joy of discovery in the first place.
Little People, Big Dreams: Amelia Earheartby Ma Isabel Sanchez Vigara. Have you heard of this Children's Series Little People, Big Dreams? Beautiful picture books sharing the life story of an inspiring woman like Rosa Parks, Marie Curie, or Maya Angelou. I saw a great display of them at Type Books in Toronto and have been loving this story of Amelia Earheart
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. Have you by chance heard of this book? I’m guessing yes given it’s been on top of bestseller lists for two years. I remember when it first came out booksellers I spoke to saying the f-bomb was attracting folks. Later I heard them say it was really tapping into the emerging counter-anxiety trend of not giving a f*ck. (Also popularized in the book and TED Talk by Sarah Knight called “The Magic of Not Giving a F*ck.) But now that I’ve read it I can say… no, it’s the book itself. Gold life advice shared in a disarming, accessible way by a new master. There’s less “new news” here but some pretty epic distillations of concepts like the value of failure and the importance of boundaries.
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Hey everyone,
Ho, ho, ho! Beginning to feel a lot like that time of the year.
If you’d like to gift a signed copy of one of my books, just reply with your name, address, and which book, and I’ll drop a signed bookplate in the mail for you. Totally free. Anywhere in the world. I always enjoy signing and sending them.
Let's get right to the books!
Neil
1. Braving The Wildernessby Brené Brown. How does she do it? How does Brené Brown take such a complex and amorphous concept like belonging and distill it into gripping stories tied around a crystalized, easy-to-remember framework? Before I read this book I had no idea belonging was even an issue. By the end I felt like it’s the central issue of our time. I felt touched and committed to making changes in my life right away. I heard Brené speak last month and said her “tribe of mentors” includes Shonda Rimes, JK Rowling, and Ken Burns. It shows. The stories are remarkable. And this is truly a powerful and quick read I can’t recommend enough. The four takeaways are simple to understand but hard to practice. At least for me. “People are hard to hate close up. Move in.”, “Speak truth to bullshit. Be civil.”, “Hold hands. With strangers.”, and “Strong back. Soft front. Wild heart.” I have a crush on her in case you couldn’t tell.
2.How Proust Can Change Your Lifeby Alain De Botton. First, I should explain how I stumbled upon it. My friend Mike has been talking about great videos he’s watched on The School of LifeYouTube Channel. I dug into it a bit and discovered the channel (and the related institution) were founded by Alain De Botton, a Swiss author and philosopher. I picked up this book and was really blown away. First off, I’ve read zero Proust. Who’s Proust? You got me. Now some of you will know he wrote the early 20th century magnum opus In Search of Lost Time. That beast clocks in at over 4000 pages. Yeah, 4000 pages! Thing makes Infinite Jestlook like a People magazine. And Proust wrote that book from age 38 until his death at age 51. It wasn’t even edited and released until after he died. It’s so massive I just am probably not getting around to that. But since his work is considered so masterful this much smaller book doubles as both a biography of Proust and a sort of arrow-stabbing insight into the heart of his writing, all brought into beautifully accessible wisdom under headings like “How to go on a vacation”, “How to be a good friend”, and “How to express your emotions.” A wonderfully written book I plan to reread again and again.
3.Baking with Kafkaby Tom Gauld. Tom Gauld draws and writes a weekly “cultural cartoon” in The Guardian. They’re super literary and seemingly written exclusively for book lovers, authors, and librarians. I guess that’s to say I really loved them. If you laugh at the examples here, here, here, and here, you’ll love this book.
4. The Rose That Grew From Concreteby Tupac Shakur. A collection of handwritten poetry Tupac wrote in his late teens and early 20s. (His tragic murder happened at age 25.) Sort of a pre-Milk and HoneyMilk and Honey, if I can call it that. I can’t explain why I picked this up but I felt moved in the way good poetry can sort of pick you up and drop you off somewhere else.
5. Pogue’s Basics: Life: Essential Tips And Shortcuts No One Bothers To Tell Youby David Pogue. Did you read Life’s Little Instruction Bookwhen you were younger? We always had it lying on the coffee table. I still remember some of the advice. Always overtip the breakfast waitress. Know how to change a spare tire. I was excited about David Pogue’s book because I thought it was going to be like that. And some of it was. Freeze clothes to get off chewing gum. Put nail polish on keys to tell them apart. Press K to pause YouTube videos. There’s even a little writeup on our old friend The Gas Arrow. But the problem is those entries have, you know, entire paragraphs explaining them when they could just be headlines. (I know! How hypocritical of me!) But they’re also wedged between meatier and more editorialized “tips” like “How not to raise an annoying dog” and even “How to be happy.” I feel like this book could have been much better edited. He has a lot of wisdom but it’s buried inside and it’s a lot of work mining it out. My wait continues for a better Life’s Little Instruction Book.
6. Mrs. Fletcherby Tom Perrotta. Did you know the movie Electionwas based on a book? I didn’t until I came across it in a remainder bin at one of my favorite downtown bookstores. I did the whole “Well, I’ve already seen that movie, so what else has this guy written?” and found this book which came out this past summer. It’s a strange book. I can’t say I loved it. But I will say it pulled me along. It’s about a 50-something who drops her son off to his freshman year at college and then develops a pornography addiction. It’s explicit but not crude and while the themes of consent and sexuality feel very fresh I felt, on the whole, that the characters were a bit thinly drawn. (As a sidenote, this book has a strange “review breakdown” on Amazon with a somewhat even split across stars. So it may not pass the Tomatometer but you could love it!)
7. The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on The Art of Livingby Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. Is there a harder working writer out there than Ryan Holiday? If so, I haven’t met that person. I do know Ryan and get a chance to see up close how hard he works at his craft. It’s inspiring. He’s 30 years old and has written six bestselling books … in the last four years. And now comes this beautiful journal. He explains a Stoic concept each week and then opens each day with a related question like “Which of my possessions own me?”, “What bad habit did I curb today?” or “Am I doing deep work?” My only qualm was the calendar structure felt a bit too strict with all the dates labeled through the year. But that’s a small quibble with what is a truly powerful tool for personal growth. As a reminder, I based this monthly book recommendation on Ryan’s email which you can sign up for here.
8. What I Learned Losing A Million Dollarsby Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan. The premise of the book is that there are a million ways to make a million dollars but a few specific and preventable ways to avoid losing a million. I skimmed the first third of the book which is really a biography of the author and how he managed to sink a ton of money as a banker. The book then gets into the psychological fallacies that cause big losses. One example is overvaluing wagers involving a low probability of high gains and undervaluing wagers involving a high probability of low gains. Another is the Monte Carlo fallacy that after a run of successes, a failure is mathematically inevitable and vice versa. Decent book but unfortunately like many business books, it could have been five pages instead of a hundred and fifty.
9. Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatchby Eileen Spinelli. I may have found it! This could be the most beautiful children’s book of all time. Move over, Love You Forever. We have a new winner in town. Well, thirty year old winner. A tear-inducing story of a lonely old man who receives a giant box of chocolates from a secret admirer which helps him become a loving citizen, friend, and neighbor. When it turns out the box was delivered to the wrong address, he quickly returns to his glum and depressed state. But the people he began loving haven’t forgotten all the love he showed them and the book closes with them lifting him back up. For ages 5-8 or, you know, anyone who wants to cry happy tears while putting their kid to bed.
10. Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna. This is a like a Shel Silverstein book of poems for millennial creatives battling all the mental anxieties that come with living online. I thought it was hilarious. And more than a few poems hit home pretty hard. There is wisdom behind the LOLs. In her poem Match she writes “sometimes you need to pick yourself up, / brush yourself off, / take a good, hard look in the mirror / and ask yourself / “would i swipe right?” In Fair she writes “life isn’t fair / but it’s unfair to everyone / so that’s fair i guess”. The longer poems are more reflective but I couldn’t fit them in here. If you like Deep Thoughtsby Jack Handey or Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Broschthis is a must-read.
Also, as we get closer to Christmas, if you’d like give a signed copy of one of my books, just reply with your name, address, and which book, and I’ll drop a signed bookplate in the mail for you. Totally free. Anywhere in the world. I always enjoy signing and sending them.
Thanks and happy reading,
Neil
1. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hookedby Adam Alter. Take my phone! Lock it up! Keep it away from me! Do you do this? I do. Most evenings. Most weekends. Not because I’m some enlightened being who likes living in the forest with my kids. I do it because I’m addicted to my phone and having someone hide it from me is my only defense. One of the endless fascinating studies Adam Alter includes in this book shows that people have difficulty showing empathy and forming friendships when a random cell phone not owned by either person is lying on the table between them. The test group, who were able to form friendships and connection, had a pad of paper and a pen between them. The hits keep coming in this important and timely book which doubles as a history of addiction and video games, too. Highly recommended!
2.Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adultby Bruce Handy. I’ve been reading a lot of kids books lately. Burning through huge stacks on repeat with my three and one year old. I can recite Goodnight Moonfrom memory. So this decidedly adult look at kids books came at a great moment. Bruce Handy is a Vanity Fair writer with a flair for wordplay and dancing sentences. Sometimes he’s a bit hoity-toity but he’s able to take us on a journey behind the pages, themes, and people underlying all the biggest children’s classics from Peter Rabbitto The Cat In The Hat. They all seemingly have their own jarring Rosebud-in-Citizen-Kane type storylines too such as Margaret Wise Brown’s death at age 42 from doing a can-can in a hospital.
3.This Is How You Lose Herby Junot Díaz. Do you remember when movies like Pulp Fiction and Trafficand 21 Grams first started coming out? There was this big rush on scrapbooked storylines with endless minor characters and sub-sub-sub plotlines threaded together. This was terrible for me because I was one of those people who struggled to remember characters from The Wizard of Oz. “Who’s that guy made out of tin again?” I was always lost. Well, this book feels like one of those movies. And I got completely lost in it. Yet the chapters that connected with me did so deeply. It’s a mostly first person coming-of-age story of a vulgar, streetwise, 20-something Dominican guy set on the tableau of a dysfunctional family, dying brother, and lots of back and forths to the States. Whew! It’s a mouthful. Snappy writing that keeps you hooked. Sample from Page 1: “See, many months ago, when Magda was still my girl, when I didn’t have to be careful about almost anything, I cheated on her with this chick who had tons of eighties freestyle hair. Didn’t tell Magda about it, either. You know how it is. A smell bone like that, better off buried in the backyard of your life. Magda only found out because homegirl wrote her a letter.”
4. Reworkby Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Strong opinions, super short chapters, extremely visceral prose. My kind of book! (Reminds me a bit of Steal Like An Artist in that sense, which I shared a couple months back.) The book is a collection of the 100-plus new era business principles the authors used to build a giant online company with less than a dozen employees spread around the world. The black cover and propaganda style of the book’s design hints at the subversive and counterintuitive nature of the advice. Samples include: ASAP is poison, Underdo the competition, Meetings are toxic, Fire the workaholics, and Planning is guessing. I liked it because it didn’t feel the need, like so many books, to rely on endless research studies, and instead was just really clear short logical essays reminiscent of Derek Sivers or Paul Graham. Fits into that non-existent “Wisdom” category between Business and Self-Help.
5. The Moth Presents… All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing The Unknown. Our Englightened Toilet Reading series is getting better and better. Do you listen to The Moth podcast? It’s perfect for long late-night car rides. Picture your closest friends going around the red-and-white checkered tablecloth sharing their best true stories over late night chicken wings. That’s The Moth. There’s one from the woman who became David Bowie’s hair stylist. From an African child soldier asked to go to a paintball birthday party with his new classmates in New York. From an Indian guy standing at his white prom date’s door and being told by her parents they don’t want him in their family photos. And a few from celebs like Louis CK and Tig Nataro. The stories are gripping, insightful, addictive, and most of them end without any smarm or Full House-stylegroup laughs … but rather with an honest emotional candid of what life felt like, for that person, at that time. Hard not to laugh or cry along with them.
6. How Did That Get In My Lunchbox: The Story of Foodby Chris Butterworth. I feel like the nature of awe is so much better represented in kid’s books today than when I grew up with books like You Are Stardust helping give children existential crises at younger and younger ages. This book takes a child’s lunch and works backwards up the supply chain to show how every ingredient got there. I loved everything about the book except the fact they did a big toestep around any mention of meat. I have a sequel idea, though. It’s called: “What’s really in that Summer Sausage?”
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Hey everyone,
Hope you’re enjoying the September swing. It’s been a wild month of traveling for me and I managed to get a few books in beyond the distractions of airport magazine racks and incessantly blaring TVs. I also wrote a piece for HBR this month on mandatory vacation and a piece for Fast Company on the family contract I have with my wife.
Here are this month’s recommendations,
Neil
1. The Diving Bell and the Butterflyby Jean-Dominique Bauby. This is a first-person memoir written by the French Editor of Elle after he had a stroke and woke up twenty days later with locked-in syndrome. He had no way to communicate with the outside world … except through blinking one eye. Blinking one eye! He wrote this entire book with that single blinking eye (and a helpful nurse who held up an alphabet card for him) and then died two days after the book came out. I had seen the fantastic movie version years ago but when I came across this book in a bookstore I realized I … didn’t even realize it was a book. Vivid, heartbreaking, life-affirming notes on par with books like Mortality by Christopher Hitchens or The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida.
2.Did You Ever Have A Familyby Bill Clegg. Do you remember The Babysitter’s Club books? Uh, of course I personally do not! I mean, okay. You got me. I used to read them off my sister’s bookshelf when I was a kid. And maybe I even looked forward to The Super Specials. Those were the ones where Kristy, Mary-Anne, and the gang went on a beach trip and each chapter was written from a different perspective. Kristy on Chapter 1. Mary-Anne on Chapter 2. Claudia on Chapter 3. Why am I taking this trip down memory lane? Because that’s the same format followed by this slow, thrilling, mysterious novel by Bill Clegg. A house containing a bride-to-be, groom-to-be, and members of their family blows up before Chapter 1 begins and the rest of the book is a tense, slow unpeeling of the onion leading to that event. This is a “slow me down” book if you’re feeling too pumped up or fast-paced. A thoughtful, quiet, relaxing read.
3.A Million Little Piecesby James Frey. What have you heard about this book? For me it was vague cloudy puzzle-pieces of a deceitful memoir about drug abuse capped by a televised Oprah smackdown. Then I picked up the book from a Little Free Library in my neighborhood. And I couldn’t stop reading. It was the fastest 430 pages I have ever read. The fastest paced book I have ever read. The fastest paced writing I can even imagine with all punctuation, line breaks, and visual resting spots completely stripped out. A gripping and gory story of six weeks recovering from drug abuse in a rehab clinic. This book wins the Best Escapism prize this month.
4. The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoirby Thi Bui. I’ve been using the term “graphic novel” for a long time. But novel implies fiction. So it doesn't really work for a lot of my faves like Maus or Persepolis. That’s why I like the description on the front of this book so much. “Illustrated memoir.” Yes, that’s totally it. A real life story told in vivid pictures. Thi Bui’s parents are Vietnamese refugees to America and she shares their story and her own in with unflinching honesty that illuminates the history of Vietnam, the Vietnam war, and the immigrant experience. A bit of a zig-zagging plot but a truly beautiful work.
5. Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Daysby Chris Guillebeau. One day when I was just starting at Walmart, I noticed a car parked in the employee lot with big stickers pasted down the side advertising wedding DJ services. I met the wedding DJ in a meeting a few weeks later. He was a middle manager who played Rump Shaker in the Toronto suburbs on Friday nights for extra cash. At the time I remember thinking this guy was gonna get fired. Cheating on his job! Then my blog and books took off and I became the side hustle guy at work … for seven years. I wish I had a book like this back then. Chris Guillebeau is a good friend and a fantastic writer who shares a clear, tactical approach to getting those idle wantrepreneur thoughts we all have actually up and off the ground.
6. The Four Tendenciesby Gretchen Rubin. This book is Gretchen Rubin’s latest and I think it’s her best book in my view. I got an advanced copy a week before it came out and I opened it up and couldn’t put it down. She’s created a fascinating 2x2 matrix of four tendencies based on how well we follow obligations – to ourselves and others. Follow neither? You’re a rebel. Follow both? You’re an obliger. Follow yourself but question others? You’re a questioner. (That’s me!) Follow others but not yourself? You’re an upholder. Here’s a video from Gretchen’s Instagram that I made for her describing me reading the book.
7. How Civilization Started: Was It Ever A Good Idea? I loved this New Yorker article which is sort of a summarizing review of a few new dense, insightful, academic books about … spoiler alert… how civilization started. Builds off ideas I’d first heard in Sapiens about how settling down into communities was actually a raw deal for our happy nomad predecessors.
8. Animals of a Bygone Era: An Illustrated Compendium by Maja Safstrom. I have a new entry in our “Enlightened Toilet Reading” series. This book. It’s just page after page of gorgeous pen-and-ink drawings and descriptions of animals that are extinct and, importantly, are not dinosaurs! I knew a few of them like wooly mammoths and giant moas but the book is a fascinating glimpse into a ton of extinct animals who aren’t featured as three-inch rubber figurines in your kid’s bathtub. We miss you, walrus whale, horned gopher, and giant Siberian unicorn. My only qualm is I wanted way more details than I was getting here. It’s a fun flipper and a great little gifty book.
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Hey everyone,
It’s finally here! Two-Minute Mornings is available everywhere this week. It’s gone from an exercise written on a blank cue card kept in my front pants pocket for years into an actual hardcover journal. Essentially it’s a simple tool to prime your brain for positivity by filling out three science-backed prompts each morning:
1. Ready Player Oneby Ernest Cline. Do you remember the feeling of playing Super Mario 3 for the first time? Running through levels feeling overwhelmed and delighted by the smorgasbord of enemies, power-ups, and challenges endlessly scrolling onto the screen. This book gave me that exact feeling and the cover blurb says it best: “Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.” Wild, totally gripping page-turner about a dystopian future with everyone racing through an online treasure hunt packed with 80’s references. I loved it. Sidenote: Steven Spielberg is directing the movie version but don’t send me any trailers! I’m seeing how long I can last without seeing a single image from it. May be tough. Stop reading my emails, Google Ads. (Btw, shoutout to the person I saw on the street the other day wearing an “I liked the book better” T-shirt.)
2.American Pastoralby Philip Roth. If Ready Player One is all plot then this one is all character. What would you do if your straight-laced teenage daughter suddenly killed someone with a homemade bomb and then took off? That setup is made incredibly realistic and explored into almost extreme depths of psychological tension in this Pulitzer Prize winner. Dark, eerie, addictive from start to finish. I felt like my brain gained a new level of awareness as I was reading this book.
3.We Are All Weird: The Rise of Tribes and the End of Normalby Seth Godin. I love Seth Godin and trumpeted What To Do When It’s Your Turn and The Dipover the past few months. But I got less out of this one. The thesis is there is no more mass market and everything is fragmenting into ever more granular sub-cultures. If you already buy that, then this book colors that in. But, I feel like books like The Long Tail hit the nail on the head harder.
4. Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations With Today’s Top Comedy Writersby Mike Sacks. This is the ugly cousin to Judd Apatow’s Sick in the Head. Apatow’s book features can’t miss interviews from people like Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Steve Martin. This book goes the other way and interviews hilarious people you’ve never heard of who write for late-night sketch shows and sitcoms. Felt like it was written only for other people breaking into those industries. He includes great pieces like advice from all-star literary agent Byrd Leavell on getting your work noticed and Conan writer Todd Levin sharing the writing package that got him hired. A bit too micro-focused for me but there are gems like an inspiring essay by Juno writer Diablo Cody. I wanted to be a comedy writer in my early 20s and wish I’d had resources like this around.
5. Wonderby R.J. Palacio. I love books that take place over one school year. Book opens in September, big climax around Christmas, and nicely finishes up just before summer break. I love reliving that roller coaster school calendar feeling from when I was a kid. This book follows that pattern and didn’t disappoint. Auggie is a ten-year-old with a rare facial abnormality who is entering school for the first time. The author pulls a Jaws-like stunt by never quite revealing what he looks like until much later. Sure, bit saccharine, bit over-the-top, but unpredictable enough, with unique storytelling angles, to create a beautiful and funny read I’m already excited to share with my kids in a few years. I may or may not have cried at the end.
6. Steal Like An Artistby Austin Kleon. I mentioned a couple times that Austin Kleon’s weekly email served as an inspiration behind this newsletter. He’s one of my favorite people to follow online and this book is a classic that liberates your inner creative while blasting away mental traps we fall into like “I’m stealing this idea.” Austin shows how all art steals and remixes and follows that tip up with nine other suggestions like: Don’t wait to know who you are to get started, Write the book you want to read, and Creativity is subtraction. I had the book before off people’s bookshelves and while cruising the Urban Outfitters table but I finally got my own copy and this time read it slowly while making notes. I ingested it fully. Breathed it in and out. A fantastic book.
7. Emerald City (and other stories)by Jennifer Egan. Hi, my name is Neil Pasricha, and I’m an early-bibliography-aholic. I did it again this month. I loved Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit From The Goon Squad so much I picked up her early short stories. Sure, there were a couple gems, but most of it was a slow exploration of mood or just a pile of beautiful sentences stacked on top of each other like a crispy onion ring tower at Outback. Delicious, gluttonous, little nutritional content. I have to stop always trying to chase authors I love back into their early short stories. It’s a world of pain.
8. Where The Sidewalk Endsby Shel Silverstein. My wife Leslie’s tattered old copy of this book of poems and drawings has Plinko-d down to my son’s bookshelf complete with calligraphic Christmas, 1989 inscription in the front cover and a little note beside the poem she read at her cousin’s baby ceremony. We’ve been reading it on repeat with my three-year old and it feels like a real gift to the world. A really beautiful work of art. Let me close this month with the poem she read from the book called LISTEN TO THE MUSTN’TS:
