Books, essays, podcast episodes, and more that I think are worth your time, plus recent cultural news that I’m paying attention to in the month of December…
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. I started and finished this book over the break, and I loved it. Somehow I missed out on John Green’s massively successful novel The Fault in Our Stars way back when, but I heard him on The Daily and was intrigued. This book sounded very serious to me, but it is actually a series of essays about seemingly random topics about what it means to be human and to populate this earth with our human-made things. Things like Diet Dr. Pepper and experiences like watching Halley’s Comet and eating famous hot dogs in Iceland. It’s filled with interesting fun facts, laugh out loud moments, and, despite the many ways humans have brought destruction to planet Earth, this book is also filled with hope.
Think Again by Adam Grant. I read Think Again, also prompted by a podcast (in this case, Grant’s series of conversations with Brené Brown about her latest book, Strong Ground). Think Again has a great premise—that we need to be flexible in our thinking and willing to consider changing our minds. And it is filled with ways to make sure we—and those around us—are prepared for acts of rethinking. My family got to hear me sharing insights and stories from both books throughout the Thanksgiving week!
This is Happiness by Niall Williams. For anyone who loves Wendell Berry or Elizabeth Strout, this is another lovely study of the intersecting lives of people in a small town, though this one is set in Ireland.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I mentioned last week that I missed this blockbuster bestseller when it first came out, but I’m glad I read it 10 years late. It is short and sweet and sad without being sentimental. On the surface, it’s about teenagers who both have cancer and who fall in love. On a deeper level, this is also a book about how we love each other by paying attention to one another. It’s really about love in all its forms—the distorted attempts to love each other and the most true and deep and perhaps lasting connections.
NYT: Pay Attention to How You Pay Attention. After reading The Fault in Our Stars, I was thinking about attention as a way to show love to one another. I was also thinking about how I want to show that type of love, and yet I’m also frequently pulled toward all the shiny notifications on my phone instead of the human beings in my household. Ezra Klein has an essay about how the social media algorithms don’t show us what we say we want; they show us what they decide we want based on what grabs our attention without us ever saying what we want at all. They play to the least thoughtful parts of who we are. As Klein writes:
“Attention is sometimes an act. But it is first an instinct. This is why even the most basic attempt at mindfulness — watching 10 breaths go by, without your attention wandering — requires such concentration. Algorithmic media companies exploit the difference between our attentional instincts and aspirations. In so doing, they make it harder for us to become who we might wish to be.”
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