Book Report

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

 

Less by Andrew Sean Greer – A novel taking place in modern times. The protagonist is a semi-successful writer who is about to turn 50, his long-time sort-of partner has split with him and is marrying someone else, and so he decides to accept a number of invitations and travel around the world. This is one of those books where I kept kinda wanting to put it aside but always shrugged and decided to keep reading. The author is skillful, no doubt – and there was a good twist in the final three pages, but that was too little too late. Grade: 4

 

United by Cory Booker – Memoir by the US Senator (and former mayor of Newark). It’s easy to be cynical about memoirs by politicians. But I really like Booker and this is a great book. He truly is fueled by a passion for social justice. He spent years living in Newark’s rundown public housing – by choice, so he could learn about the people living there and their needs. He learned from the activists fighting to make their communities better despite poverty and racism, and was often dressed down by them and he shares the mistakes he made and what he learned. I loved hearing about how he approached social change and politics, and I was never bored. Grade: 7

 

Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke – I saw this book at the local indie bookstore and on impulse, I bought it. I read it in just a couple days and found myself dog-earring pages and repeating segments to myself. There’s so much in here to learn from. Like how we live in an era of almost unlimited access to high-reward stimuli. How a balance between pleasure and pain might be helpful to our brains. Tips on how we can better pursue contentedness and connectedness. I will be re-reading parts of this book many times. Grade: 8

 

Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby – What does one say about any of Samantha Irby’s four books? She is hilarious. She has been through shit. She can describe the most mundane stuff and make you either nod or laugh or copy paste it to your BFF (as I have done). You know? I think I should go back and re-read her earlier stuff too since she’s this good. Grade: 8

 

The Good Life by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz – Loved this book a lot. It is based on literally decades of research. Apparently some Harvard team did life-long interviews with men in the Boston area starting in the 1940s. They later expanded it (though their sample is largely white, as they admit). They check in with all the participants every two years to examine what makes a happy, healthy life. The answers won’t surprise anyone. Connections, working on relationships (friendships, family, romantic partner, etc), looking for meaningful work. This is one of those books that is both feel-good and useful. Extra shout-out to the authors for including some LGBTQ examples. Grade: 8

Only one work of fiction this time. I will aim to pick up fiction next.