June Reads

This summer I resolved to stop getting books from the library and read the books we own. I have a problem with book immediacy, where I have my own copies of a bunch of books I'm really excited to read, but then I always have a ton of books out from the library, which I have to read before they're due, and when I go to return them I see more library books that I want, and in the end I have all these books that I own but haven't read. This is post-Kondo-ing our books (I tried; I didn't do super well, but culled the library by about a third, maybe a little more.) So it had reached a point where I had about 100 owned and un-read books, so I made my summer no-library-books resolution, and here I am. As a preamble to this list, that was all totally unnecessary information.

Hamilton the Revolution - Lin-Manuel Miranda & Jeremy McCarter: If you, like me, are one of those dorky Hamilfans/Lin-Manuel Miranda enthusiasts, you should read this book. It’s a really fascinating look inside the making of the musical, and it’s downright inspiring on the pursuing-your-creative-passions front. Seeing Hamilton last summer ranks right up there in the best nights of my life. Really. It’s SO GOOD.

Small Wonder - Barbara Kingsolver: A gift from a dear friend, this book of essays covers basically all the things we should care about—family, faith, environment, home, food, humanity; you know, just all those crucial things that I often feel are falling to pieces. Kingsolver is wise and empathetic, and she does not back down from complex issues (actually just like the friend who gave it to me, MEL IS QUEEN.) It made me think A LOT and the writing is also delightful.

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline - George Saunders: Hilarious, dark, and SO WONDERFUL. Saunders is one of my all-time favorites; this is his first collection of short stories and it is 10000% worth the read. The Author’s Note at the end is worth the price of admission alone. He talks about how he figured out his own style and stopped trying to write like Hemingway; I was hanging on his every word.

Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott: Well, somehow I managed to get an MFA in Creative Writing without ever reading this, the bible of writing instruction. Finally got to it and it is AWESOME. If you are a writer or want to be a writer or any some such thing, read it now.

I Am America (And So Can You!) - Stephen Colbert: The company David works for did the design on this book (pre-David, of course), so we had a copy hanging around. I love Stephen Colbert; this was quintessential him.

The Whole-Brain Child - Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson: An excellent, easily digestible guide to kids’ brain development and practical parenting skills to help navigate intense emotions (your kids’ AND your own.) The focusing is on helping kids connect and develop different parts of their brain: left and right (to balance strong feelings with reason and logic); higher and lower (to learn how to make choices with empathy); and fragmented memories (to process fears and connect to stories.) The presentation of the concepts is super useful; there are cartoons of dialogue examples, breakdowns of key points by age, and a refrigerator sheet to keep everything close at hand. I’d really recommend it, especially for parents of toddlers to school-age kids.

Buddhism Plain & Simple - Steve Hagen: A good, simple guide to the philosophy of Buddhism (as the title promises).

What Should We Be Worried About? - ed. John Brockman: This is a collection of essays by experts of various stripes that attempt to answer the titular question. Super interesting, kind of a downer. I was telling my parents about something I read in this and they were like, “WHY ARE YOU READING THAT?” I’ll summarize for you: what we need to be worried about is old people. All our systems rely on people dying younger and quicker than they do. Also, if the Internet shuts down, we’re all screwed. So worry about those two things. And if you need more, read the book.