My wife is a librarian, so one of her great joys is finding new books to recommend to people. And she’s damned good at it. She reads widely and has developed a canny ability to internalize someone’s preferences and point them in the direction of something new that they will most likely enjoy. Usually her […]
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 […]
Besieged By Change I don’t think I’m alone in saying that 2025 made my head spin. In the many conversations I had about the state of the world this year, I found myself returning to this image of being caught in a “pincer move,” getting squeezed by the dual pressures of developments in AI and […]
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 […]
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: Fredrik Backman’s My Friends is a novel about the intersection between human connection and artistic inspiration. It begins with Louisa, a gritty and gifted young woman with a burning desire to visit a particular famous painting in an art gallery. Through a series of unexpected events, Louisa finds herself traveling with Ted, a man […]
Summary: Dorothy Baker’s Cassandra at the Wedding is a captivating work of 20th century fiction. The narrators are identical twins––Cassandra and Judith––who return home to their family’s ranch in California to celebrate Judith’s wedding. Most of the story is told from Cassandra’s point of view, revealing her fraught internal conflicts over what her sister’s imminent marriage means […]
Summary: Lisa Damour’s The Emotional Lives of Teenagers provides a handy crash course for parents and mental health professionals who are seeking to understand and support the teenagers in their lives. Drawing from her career in clinical psychology and contemporary research, Damour lays out the reasons why adolescence is a particularly challenging and special time in a young […]
Since they were released around the same time and are both very short, I decided to write just one review covering my thoughts on Magic Tides and Magic Claims. I’m going to assume that readers are already familiar with the basics of this series, so if that doesn’t apply to you, do yourself a favor and go […]