Summary: Scott Galloway’s Notes on Being a Man is a memoir that explores the intersection between Galloway’s personal story and America’s current masculinity crisis. Galloway offers lessons from his life and career to provide young men with a set of values and practices that can help them mature and thrive. The book centers on what […]
Lionel Shriver’s A Better Life is a work of political fiction. The setting is New York City in 2023, where the local government has initiated the “Big Apple, Big Heart” program as a response to a massive number of migrants flooding into the city. This program recruits NYC homeowners to offer up spare rooms to […]
Brandon Sanderson’s Rhythm of War is the fourth book in his Stormlight Archive series. As the war between the humans and the forces of Odium rages, Sanderson’s worldbuilding continues to evolve, along with his deep and varied cast of characters. The result is a sprawling narrative that offers exciting new insights and developments, but that […]
Summary: David McKittrick and David McVea’s Making Sense of the Troubles is a chronological history of the conflict in Northern Ireland from 1921 to 2012. Taking a measured and neutral approach, McKittrick and McVea trace the origins, central dynamics, key events, and main figures of the troubles. Making Sense of the Troubles is a valuable […]
Despite liking a few of his stories over the years and enjoying his memoir On Writing, I’ve been a snob about Stephen King for pretty much my whole adult life. I saw him as a literary shock-jock who attracted millions of readers by appealing to the lowest common denominator. But when I decided to make […]
I recently had the pleasure of visiting a small bookstore with a new friend, and we decided to buy books for each other. His choice for me was Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I’ve been curious about this book for years but never developed sufficient interest to take it on […]
Steve Peters’s A Path Through the Jungle is a unique and valuable guide to self-understanding and self-regulation. The book is presented in seven “Stages,” each of which is comprised of “Units” that build on each other sequentially. The core set of ideas is what Peters calls the “Chimp Model,” summarized in this image from Unit […]
A few months ago, my father asked me if I’d heard of an author named Ocean Vuong. When I replied that I hadn’t, he said, with a slow smile and a twinkle in his eye: “I have discovered…beauty.” I knew immediately that I would need to investigate, both because I’d been hankering for some good […]
Summary: Scott Barry Kaufman’s Rise Above is about the perils of victim mindset and how we can avoid them. In Part One, Kaufman explores the dynamics of victim mindset, including how people get stuck ruminating about their pasts, how we indulge irrational emotions and cognitive distortions, and how we become overly concerned with self-esteem and […]
Spoiler Warning If you care about spoilers and have managed to avoid learning what happens in The Last of Us, Parts I or II––or in HBO’s TV adaptation––proceed with caution. What follows assumes total familiarity with the plot and does not avoid major spoilers. Introduction: Video Games and Moral Crimes I committed my first digital […]