Writing might seem like an impossible challenge. Perhaps you assume that writing comes naturally to all successful authors, and you wonder why your writer’s block feels so insurmountable. In this book review, author Anne Lamott shares her accessible (and often funny) wisdom for getting your ideas onto paper. By taking your writing project one step …
Writer Mary Roach has traveled the world in search of strange and interesting things to write about, and now she explores a topic we often cover with a mental sheet: the experiences of dead bodies. In this book review of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, you’ll learn about the all-important contributions cadavers have …
The idea that you can improve your life by not caring as much is certainly counterintuitive. But the subtle art is to direct your cares toward the things that genuinely matter most. By developing the tools of self-awareness and determining good, practical values, you’ll learn to care more about the right things and stop caring …
A few years ago, several dozen prominent neurologists and academics began receiving a similar package in the mail: a beautifully printed book with a note. The message to the recipients advised them that they’d been selected to crack a mysterious code, but no one knew where the packages had originated from. “The Psychopath Test” is …
Marriage Be Hard (2022) offers advice on how to effectively communicate important topics with your partner. Chronicling the ups and downs of the authors’ own marriage, it shows how to form loving, lasting relationships. Content Summary Introduction: A guide to communicating effectively with your partner Expectations can spell trouble Communicating sexual desires Fulfilling marital roles …
Live Wire (2022) is a compilation of humorous essays by actor and talk show host Kelly Ripa. She opens up about her 30 years in showbiz and shares the challenges and joys of getting ahead in a male-dominated industry while raising a family.
If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal (2022) takes a playful yet profoundly meaningful look at what makes humans so different from the other animals on the planet. In doing so, it makes a strong case for why the human mind may be dangerously unsuccessful from an evolutionary standpoint.
Science writer Mary Roach made a name for herself by examining the hidden, the unappreciated and the forbiddingly unappetizing. For this report, she embedded herself in obscure US Army research labs to learn seemingly mundane yet potentially lifesaving particulars of military science. Roach grants readers an overview of – and appreciation for – the enormous …
You Do You (2017) is part broadside against the enforcers of silly norms and part invitation to rethink our relationships with ourselves. Packed with no-nonsense truth-telling, these summaries suggest that whatever you’ve been told to the contrary, there’s nothing wrong with being you – warts and all. In fact, Sarah Knight argues, embracing your true …
Help Me! (2018) is a record of one woman’s mission to fix her life through self-help books, from the day she finally said “enough” to the thrilling highs and abysmal lows. These summaries share the money, life, and relationship lessons she uncovered – and how they impacted her.