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Hey everyone,
How you holding up?
Does it feel like your tank is draining just as this thing shifts into a higher gear? I can relate.
Want to take a breath together before chatting this month? Let's do it. Okay. Big breath in! Let your stomach push out and really fill your lungs as much as you can. And now hold for 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1. And now let it all back out... slowly.
I’ve started writing a brand new 1000 awesome things during the pandemic. I post them on Instagram or you can sign up here to get one at 12:01am each day over email.
I also released a live courageous coronavirus Q&A with questions like: “How do I manage my struggling teenager at home?” “How do I get through this by myself?”, “How do I manage the guilt of not being fully there for my child or my work?” The group was incredibly vulnerable so this is a very emotional offering. It’s here if you need it like I did. Here’s the link.
Let’s continue to let books be a safe space and salvation for us all right now. Please share this email and the links above with anyone you think it could benefit. As always, just hit 'reply' anytime and let me know your feedback.
And now pull up a chair (or toilet) and let's get into the books,
Neil
1. The Boy & The Bindiby Vivek Shraya. I was listening to an interview with Vivek the other day and the host asked which words she uses to identify herself. It was a long list! Artist, trans, queer, bi, person of color, brown. I first found Vivek when her book I’m Afraid of Menjumped out to me at a bookstore. I found it brave, challenging, and mind-expanding on a lot of levels and put it in this book club (and this Publisher’s Weekly article.) This children’s book is a beautiful rhyming story of a young boy who takes interest in his mom’s bindi. It’s an activist and gender creative book that doesn’t slip into the trappings of trying to argue gender norms but simply allows a young boy’s curiosity towards a traditionally female-sporting dot to ferment into love. Pairs well with I Love My Purse by Belle Demont. (PS. Vivek will be my guest on Chapter 53 of 3 Books on the Flower Moon next week.)
2. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I can’t recall a book this emotionally and racially charged since I read To Kill A Mockingbird when I was 15 years old. And I liked this one better. Toni Morrison died last summer at 88 after winning a Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, and slew of other awards. This is her very first book, published in 1970, and she didn’t become well known for a while afterwards. I loved imagining that when I read it. Her first book! Released without fanfare! It takes place in Northern Ohio in the years after the Great Depression and tells the story of a young black girl in an abusive family told from the view of another girl in her class. Some reviewers say the book could be triggering for people who have suffered physical abuse so I’ll leave you with that warning. (It has been banned a lot.) But if you are up for an enchanting book to set your mind firmly somewhere else and tell a briskly paced story with an unbelievably poetic voice … I highly recommend this. Oprah agrees, of course.
3. Boy Wonders by Cathal Kelly. Want to grow up poor and black in Northern Ohio in the 1930s? Read The Bluest Eye. Want to grow up in a family of Irish immigrants in the Toronto suburbs in the 70s and 80s? Read this one. With chapter titles like Star Wars, Porno, and Dungeons & Dragons, you know what you’re in for. Or maybe you don’t. Because every chapter has a deeper point of gritty wisdom below the surface and sometimes even a point below that. I should mention that Cathal Kelly is my favorite sports columnist. He writes for The Globe & Mail and his worldview is like a street smart philosopher who jabs with the fist and the tongue in equal measure. (Check out his obituary of Kobe Bryant to get a flavor.) If you’re a fan of funny, first-person narratives that seem about the mundane but eventually crescendo into gripping and nearly fantastical stories then you’ll love this book. Winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Canadian Humour. Perfect for fans of David Sedaris.
4. Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit & Wisdom of Charles T. Munger. Edited by Peter E. Kaufman. On one hand I sort of groaned when I flipped open this book. Seriously? The uber billionaire and longtime partner of Warren Buffet compiles a giant 500 page trophy to his accomplishments? But then I opened it and couldn’t stop flipping around. It’s chock full of wonderful commencement speeches, book recommendations, and mental models. It is one of the densest compendiums of wisdom you’ll find. If you’re even a bit intrigued on Charlie Munger, this is a good place to start before grabbing this book.
5. Two-Minute Morningsby Neil Pasricha. Yes, I'm using my own journal to get through this time. Mark Manson, my guest in Chapter 28 of 3 Books, wrote recently "From today until this is over, you have a new God, and his name is 'routine.'" I believe that and I think grounding and centering ourselves each morning right now is incredibly important. (Here's my take on it.)
6. Human Kind: Changing the world one small act at a timeby Brad Aronson. I remember my eleventh grade teacher Ms. King telling us, “Jolt Cola, the hypercaffeinated sugary cola, with the slogan 'all the sugar, twice the caffeine', got popular in response to the new sea of diet and sugar free colas.” The whiplash effect! The Book of Awesomegot popular partly because of the whiplash effect as it came out in a gloomy moment like this one. What are some coronavirus whiplashes? Well, one of them certainly appears to be kindness. Have you been watching Jon Krashinski’s SomeGoodNews? It’s wonderful. Brad Aronson’s book is smaller than Jon’s offering but in my mind it has a lot more utility. Human Kind is perfect for anyone feeling the weight of the world, itching to make a difference, and not sure which direction to baby step towards because the blankets of fog feel so thick. This book is a flashlight of well-written inspiring stories, simple lessons on kindness, and specific ways to help.
7. Deeper Thoughtsby Jack Handey. Do you remember Deep Thoughts from Saturday Night Live? Someone put together a playlist of 57 of them in case you feel like killing half an hour. Or! You could grab this book. He’s written many others, too. And, for the super treasure trove, check out Jack Handey’s Shouts&Murmurs archive in The New Yorker. (Yes, he’s a real person.)
8.I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib. On my book tour for You Are Awesomelast fall I spent three days in New York. I think I went to The Strand all three days. (PS. The Strand is shipping online!) I met bookseller and Floor Manager Sophia Nehlawi there who proudly showed me a table she’d set up featuring graphic novels by women. Wow, I miss going to bookstores. Where else can you find a curated display like that? I picked up this book from the table and it’s a fun autobiographical coming-of-age story from an Egyptian-Filipino first-generation millennial who grows up with her Catholic mom in suburban Los Angeles and spends summers with her Muslim dad in Egypt. I loved the little window into both cultures but found it on the lighter side overall although that may be because my body is still reverberating from the incredible layered complexity of Berlinlast month. I still can’t stop thinking about Berlin. You must read Berlin!
9. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Speaking of New York, my friend Brian took me to The Mysterious Bookshop. It’s the oldest mystery bookstore in the US. (Also taking online orders!) I walked in and said “I don’t know anything about mysteries. Gimme a gateway drug!” and the bookseller passed me this book. Really? I thought. Agatha Christie? Well, she’s sold two billion books for a reason. (Want to guess where she is on the all-time list of bestselling fiction authors? Okay, guess, then click here to find out.) After a slow start of about fifty pages of mood and landscape setting this book took off like a cork out of champagne. I stayed up late a few nights in a row and it left me breathless by the end. The gates are open.
10. Walking by Henry David Thoreau. I know I put this in my "25 of the best books to read during coronavirus" article, too. But I really feel we all need to reread this phenomenal essay written in 1862 to help us adjust and embrace some elements of social distancing. My latest medicine for feeling overwhelmed? The super long, super late night walk.
