Finished in 2017
There are 19 items here.
Braving the Wilderness
Author: Brené BrownFinished: 2017-12-24
Started: 2017-12-11
Status: Read
“Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong. You will always find it because you’ve made that your mission. Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because you’ve made that your goal. True belonging and self-worth are not goods; we don’t negotiate their value with the world. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you.”
The Gene
Author: Siddharth MukherjeeFinished: 2017-12-15
Started: 2017-11-24
Status: Read
Genetics and evolutionary biology might be the most deeply mysterious and strange field of study there is. I sort of resent that all this bizarre and profound discovery about the origins and mechanisms of life was going on while I was in school, but I learned nothing of it until I was an adult choosing books for myself.
The System of the World
Author: Neal StephensonFinished: 2017-12-10
Started: 2017-11-23
Status: Read
Thus concludes the Baroque Cycle. This was the last of his novels that I hadn’t read: an eight-volume, three-thousand-page opus that dominated my fiction consumption for a year and a half. Visiting the Metropolitan museum and the Tower of London while in the midst of it made the thing come alive. It’s good!
The All-or-Nothing Marriage
Author: Eli J FinkelFinished: 2017-11-24
Started: 2017-11-20
Status: Read
A survey of the history of the institution of marriage, and a study of what makes a modern marriage work. I appreciated the idea of keeping a “social portfolio” of people who can serve your various emotional needs rather than relying solely on your spouse. And the idea of temporarily descending the mountain of fulfillment during trying times, in order to just focus on surviving together is especially relevant right now!
Strangers in Their Own Land
Author: Arlie Russell HochschildFinished: 2017-11-18
Started: 2017-10-01
Status: Read
Guess what: Trump voters are human, and they operate according to genuine human emotions. A Berkeley professor explores first-hand how unrestrained pursuit of profit and indifference to human well-being has caused tragedy and despair in places like rural Louisiana, shaping the political opinions of families there.
The Gardener and the Carpenter
Author: Alison GopnikFinished: 2017-10-07
Started: 2017-10-03
Status: Read
Parents tend to want to shape their children to a blueprint, like a carpenter. But the best we can hope for is to give them a healthy environment to thrive in and grow their own way, like a gardener.
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
Author: Jon RonsonFinished: 2017-10-02
Started: 2017-09-26
Status: Read
Life 3.0
Author: Max TegmarkFinished: 2017-09-26
Started: 2017-09-08
Status: Read
This author remains one of my favorite science explainers, this time taking on our possible AI future, which might turn out to be the most consequential thing that has ever happened. I recommend pairing this book with a playthrough of Universal Paperclips.
On Tyranny — Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Author: Timothy SnyderFinished: 2017-07-23
Started: 2017-07-22
Status: Read
Believe Me — A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
Author: Eddie IzzardFinished: 2017-07-21
Started: 2017-06-26
Status: Read
An utterly charming memoir from a truly unique, inspiring, and unflappable soul. Izzard was boldly transgender before it was widely understood, before we had good language for it, certainly before it was cool. And he happens to be a delightful and vivid storyteller, besides. The audio version is positively encrusted with bonus impromptu jokes and digressions and footnotes on footnotes; don’t even consider the text version.
The Highly Sensitive Person
Author: Elaine N. AronFinished: 2017-06-04
Started: 2017-03-03
Status: Read
Dramatically helpful and satisfying. This book has given me introspective concepts and tools I wish I’d had all my life.
Quiet — The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Author: Susan CainFinished: 2017-05-03
Started: 2017-03-28
Status: Read
If you are an introvert or you love one, please read this book. We aren’t broken!
Odalisque
Author: Neal StephensonFinished: 2017-01-12; 2006-10-02
Started: 2016-12-03; 2006-09-18
Status: Read