Found this book the old fashioned way, browsing the library shelves to see what they might offer up and this little volume caught my attention. It's aFound this book the old fashioned way, browsing the library shelves to see what they might offer up and this little volume caught my attention. It's a collection of four illustrated essays that I read in an evening.
I felt like it started slowly but then caught fire. It left me needing to have the book, so I've ordered a copy to reread. Perhaps then the concepts will sink in. When I look back now just a week and a day later, I just remember the feeling of WOW. Can't wait to read it again....more
This books is a collection of recollected conversations and interactions between people of the global majority and Dutch interlocutors. It struck me iThis books is a collection of recollected conversations and interactions between people of the global majority and Dutch interlocutors. It struck me in the same way that Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine struck me; a reading experience that takes you deep into the experience of living in another person's skin.
You can read it in a day or even a couple hours. Each page is brief. Each interaction is brief. Sometimes it starts to feel repetitive. Sometimes you wonder if the topics will change.
As you read, remind yourself that there are people who are facing this every single day. They cannot put the book down. They cannot walk away. They cannot decide it's not for them.
This book belongs on bookshelves, but also in waiting rooms and classrooms throughout the Netherlands. It's time to have fewer conversations like this and a lot more about how to make sure these conversations are a thing of the past....more
Between the World and Me is about what it means to grow up and live in a Black male body in the United States and to then have a son who is about to embark on the same mortally dangerous journey. Because let’s be clear, to grow up Black and male in the United States is to be seen as a threat because you live and breathe.
I cannot overstate the emotional and physical complexity of the experience Coates describes or the fears he rightfully has for his son. Talking about bodies is uncomfortable and intimate, as it should be. But this is a necessary lesson if we want to understand the depth and breadth of systematic racism and how it impacts individual lives. We cannot understand the urgency of antiracism work if we do not fully understand what systematic racism does to individual lives.Â
Before I tell you about this book, a confession: I am suspicious of book hype. The more people get excited about a book, the more likely I am to pauseBefore I tell you about this book, a confession: I am suspicious of book hype. The more people get excited about a book, the more likely I am to pause or stay away from it. There is no logic in this behaviour and in this case it was definitely my loss. This book moved millions of women in 2020, a year when many of us were called on to do more hard things than ever before. I’m one of them. I adore Glennon and her wife Abby Wambach. I listened to Abby’s book WOLFPACK: How to Come Together, Unleash Our Power, and Change the GameWolf Pack in May 2020 and heartily recommend it. These two women represent female power rooted in honesty about yourself and your feelings. They lift others and share a wonder for life and each other that makes me smile. They also share the petty disagreements of married life on Instagram that help me feel remarkably seen. My favorite category is their “buy your own treats� debate.
This book opened me up and lifted me up. It spoke to me in a deeply personal way and gave me courage. It reminded me that I’m the expert on me the same way you’re the expert on you. It was hard to choose one choice quote for you, but here’s where I landed. It’s actually Glennon quoting someone she spoke to at an AA meeting because she isn’t just an honest writer she’s a good listener. It goes like this;
“Feeling all your feelings is hard, but that’s what they’re for. Feelings are for feeling. All of them. Even the hard ones.�
I recommend this book if you’re looking for courage and doubting yourself and your ability to carry yourself through. I recommend this book if you’re convinced that this “way� everyone thinks you should live by is messed up. Have a read. I think you’ll thank yourself. ...more
This book came into my inbox on a Bill Gates recommendation. Reading more nonfiction is an ongoing project for me and one thing that helps a lot is haThis book came into my inbox on a Bill Gates recommendation. Reading more nonfiction is an ongoing project for me and one thing that helps a lot is have reliable recommendations. I pay attention to Bill Gates because I like his relentless curiosity and the fact that he’s so articulate about why he recommends a particular book. He also recommends fiction, so maybe we’re working on opposite projects!
Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win WArs, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries is about the structures an organization needs to have in place in order to make both innovation and execution possible. The main case comes from World War II military innovation and cases carry through, perhaps somewhat predictably, to Apple in the 21st century. What’s interesting about Bahcall is his structural approach to a creative problem.
In some ways, this reminds me of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear because of the focus on the systems required to accomplish a goal. It’s along the same lines of all the people who write about writing and basically say that if you want to become a great writer, you’re just going to have to sit down and write. You’re going to have to sit down and write a lot.The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield has a similar message.
It is in some ways liberating to realize that there is no magic “creative genius� that some people have and others lack. Yes, there is creativity, but the difference between a creative person or organization and a person or organization that creates may be in the way they structure their lives (or organizations). That means it’s attainable. You can do it. I can do it.
Which is also where I found myself wishing for more. I am a me, not an organization and I was left wondering how I can apply the principles of Loonshots to my own work, which is both creative and requires me to create. If there’s a follow-up, that’s the questions I’d love Bahcall to answer next....more
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