Neil's Monthly Book Club is my oldest and most popular email newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Hey everyone,
I’m excited to share a lot of books this month. But before I do, I wanted to let you know I'm releasing a brand new journal this summer called Two Minute Mornings. It details the exact, two-minute process I start my day with every day. I write down something I want to let go of, a few gratitudes, and then three specific things I’m going to focus on each day.
And now onto the books.
Neil
1. The Human Stainby Philip Roth. This was my first ever Philip Roth book and it was mesmerizing, mysterious, and magical. Takes place in 1998 where Coleman Silk stars as an impressive college professor booted from his community after wrongly labeled a racist. Turns out he has an even deeper secret and Roth unveils this at just the right time, in just the right way. I won’t ruin the surprise but it makes the rest of the book fascinating. Broadened my understanding of race in more than a few ways. The way he weaves and layers long biographical stories reminds me of books like East of Eden or The Corrections. Now I have to figure out which of his books to read next.
2.Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Lifeby Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. I wrote a lot about ikigai in The Happiness Equation which is perhaps why Hector Garcia mailed me a copy of his new book. I was surprised it was originally written in Spanish but maybe the whole world is clamoring for the next big Japanese trend after The Joy of Tidying Up. The book triangulates and expands elements of Dan Buettner’s famous Blue Zones studies and TED Talk into a well-researched, wide-ranging, well-organized handbook with everything from sharing Okinawan antioxidant rich food to lessons on practicing qigong.
3.The Royal Tenenbaumsby Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. When I was eighteen I fell in love with the movie Being John Malkovich and went on a binge to collect as much Malkovich merchandise as possible. This was early Internet so you couldn’t just buy weird things online. I sawed a poster off the wall of a dusty video rental shop (with permission), bought some unnecessary $30 album of music from HMV special orders, and, most importantly, bought the screenplay. It was a fascinating look behind the film with an introduction from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman himself as well as scenes written differently (or cut completely) from the film. I learned a lot about neat, crisp, compact writing and enjoyed the experience so much that when I saw The Royal Tenenbaumsscreenplay in a record store I bought it right away. The confidence, detail, and texture in the movie is on full display in this dense and descriptive screenplay. (Ain’t no skimmer here.) It’s a bit rigid and stilted though because I suppose so much of the heart and soul (and music) of the film… comes in the film. Still, a fun read.
4. The Happiness Track: How To Apply The Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Successby Emma Seppälä. This is the only book I’ve ever read by someone with two umlauts in their name. Seriously though, a few weeks after Emma and I met over Twitter, I picked up her book in an airport before getting on a plane. I read it on the flight and it’s a nice overview of the world of positive psychology research. I think I’ve read too much on the subject already so not a ton of new info but, like with most books, there were a few gold nuggets. Also, how impressive is it that she’s the Director of Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research? I imagine that’s a department full of good people. And lots of fresh flowers. And bean bag chairs. And homemade shortbread on top of all the filing cabinets.
5. The Canadaland Guide to Canadaby Jesse Brown. It’s Canada’s 150th birthday this year so the country is full of flags on family home front doors and plastic bags at the grocery store. Yet it’s somehow a strange birthday to celebrate. I couldn’t put my finger on why until I read this biting, funny, satirical look at Canada’s history and culture. This is pretty much exactly Jon Stewart’s America: The Book … for Canada. If the picture of Drake cuddling a moose on the cover makes you smile then the smart, incisive writing inside will make you laugh out loud. My only qualm is that sometimes the humor gets nasty or downright cruel but he toes the fine line between satire and slapstick so beautifully in the rest of the book that I can’t really complain. Super fearless, pulling no punches, eating sacred cow burgers, and keeping every Canadian institute squarely in his bullseye, this is a must read for any current (or future) Canadian.
6. Andre The Giantby Box Brown. Remember how last month I was trumpeting the virtues of Tetris by Box Brown? Well, this is the graphic novel he wrote a couple years before that one and I honestly found it a lot less developed. Less story, less detail, less intrigue, less closure. When you’re tracing the history of very large man born in rural France in 1946 there’s probably a lot of missing pieces. I was really into wrestling as a kid so this was a nice way to color in some lines. But while I’d recommend it for wrestling fans, it doesn’t quite make a crossover hit.
7. Is the Gig Economy Workingby Nathan Heller. Do you remember how last month I was kicking the legs out from under that future of work book? Turns out I was waiting for this New Yorker piece. Less “Where are we going?” than “What does it all mean?”, this impressively detailed article opens up a slew of questions about how the emerging gig economies will work in the future and, more interestingly, the philosophy, values, and trends underpinning these tectonic shifts.
8. You Are Stardustby Elin Kelsey. A beautiful picture book that reads like something Neil Degrasse Tyson would tell your kids if he was over babysitting. The opening lines over the first few pages are: “You are stardust. Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded long before you were born. You started life as a single cell. So did all other creatures on Planet Earth. Like fish deep in the ocean, you called salt water home. You swam inside the salty sea of your mother’s womb. Salt still flows through your veins, your sweat, and your tears. The sea within you is as salty as the ocean. The water swirling in your glass once filled the puddles where dinosaurs drank.” It is beautifully head-trippy, relaxing, meditative little before bedtime book.
