Liza Achilles - Seeking wisdom through books and elsewhere.
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Home
Bio
Publications
Services
Events
The I.O.
Contact
Liza Achilles - Seeking wisdom through books and elsewhere.

Seeking wisdom through books and elsewhere.

  • Home
  • Bio
  • Publications
  • Services
  • Events
  • The I.O.
  • Contact
castle in Spain
Book Previews

What’s the Wisdom of Don Quixote?

February 17, 2021 by Liza Achilles No Comments
Don Quixote is one of the greatest masterpieces of Western literature. But what does that mean, exactly? What’s great about this book? What wisdom does it have to offer? That’s what I’d like to briefly answer in this blog post. For a fuller answer?—you’ll have to read the book yourself. Don Quixote satirizes melodramatic books (and people who take such...
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Reading time: 6 min
riding a horse in front of the sun
Book Previews

Three Don Quixote Translations: Spanish to English

February 12, 2021 by Liza Achilles 4 Comments
Let’s take, as a sample, the first sentence of chapter IV of the first part of Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. This great and classic novel was written and published in the early 1600s in Spanish. Part I was published first. Ten years later, part II was published. The two parts are now together known as Don Quixote and...
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Reading time: 9 min
windmills in Consuegra Spain
Book Previews

Don Quixote: What’s the Best Translation?

February 10, 2021 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
I have read the masterpiece Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, twice in my life. The two experiences were quite different. This was in large part due to the fact that I read two very different translations of the book. Don Quixote Reading #1: Bargain-Bin Translation The first time, I was in my early 30s. I had picked up the...
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Reading time: 4 min
small room in winter as woman drinks hot beverage on a bed in a tiny house
Book Previews

The Psychological Effects of Living in a Small Space

February 3, 2021 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
What’s it like to have your world confined to a small space? I think most of us know, having lived through the past year. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I read the book Solitary, by Albert Woodfox, out of curiosity as to whether there were any lessons to be learned in looking at the pandemic experience through...
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Reading time: 10 min
man silhouetted against sky
Book Previews

Quotes About Courage and Fear

January 29, 2021 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
Albert Woodfox is famous for the horribly unfortunate distinction of having survived solitary confinement for four decades. That meant 23 hours a day locked in a tiny cell, 6 by 9 feet. During his time outside of the cell, sometimes he was allowed a shower, to go outside, to buy something from the commissary, to talk with other prisoners, or...
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Reading time: 5 min
looking through bars into a prison cell
Book Previews

How to Survive Solitary Confinement

January 27, 2021 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
I was feeling frustrated by pandemic isolation when, surfing around on my phone, I stumbled across a book called Solitary, by Albert Woodfox. This book has nothing to do with pandemic isolation. It has everything to do with actual solitary confinement: actual lockdown in a tiny prison cell, with few privileges and many indignities. But the title of the book...
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Reading time: 5 min
three black women in white walking out of the ocean
Book Previews

All of the Real People

January 22, 2021 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
Bernardine Evaristo is one of the smartest writers out there today. Here I am, writing the third of three previews of her Booker-prize-winning novel, Girl, Woman, Other, and I’m noticing that the first two previews were more about larger themes than the book itself. That’s because this book has a multitude of big themes! This is a book that prompts...
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Reading time: 5 min
Converse Chuck Taylor All Star sneaker shoe
Book Previews

The Comfort of Your Clothing

January 20, 2021 by Liza Achilles No Comments
I got into a minor Facebook spat with a friend. I had posted an image of Kamala Harris wearing the Converse sneakers she has become famous for wearing. And I wrote that I was excited about this clothing choice by a woman at the top levels of government. My friend objected. She said, why are people commenting on a female...
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Reading time: 3 min
man and woman figure skating
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How to Compliment a Woman

January 15, 2021 by Liza Achilles 8 Comments
Last year, I was swiping through a dating site, when I came upon a shocking image. No, it wasn’t an image of that. Dating sites don’t allow such things, silly! It was something equally offensive, though—but for some reason perfectly allowable. Tucked amidst a nice-looking man’s selfies and stats was a cream-hued image with a faux-fancy border around the following...
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Reading time: 8 min
bird flying over ocean with setting sun and pier
Book Previews

What’s Wrong With Doubt and Cynicism?

December 23, 2020 by Liza Achilles 6 Comments
Doubt and cynicism are very, very popular. Doubt and cynicism are very, very cool. Who’s cooler than the rebel without a cause? Who’s cooler than the person who believes in absolutely nothing—not religion, not family, not school, not government, not occupation, not friendship, not art, not hope, not love? Who sits in the corner with some sort of mood-enhancing drink...
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Reading time: 9 min
popcorn
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When Life Pops Like Popcorn

December 11, 2020 by Liza Achilles No Comments
Jay Michaelson is surely a contender for the most interesting and accomplished person alive. His areas of expertise are so wide-ranging that one wonders how they can occur in a single human being. He is an attorney who also has a PhD in religion. His areas of expertise include Judaism, Buddhism, law, politics, meditation, and mysticism. He has been a...
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Reading time: 5 min
hand reaching up toward crescent moon
Book Previews

The Finger Pointing at the Moon

December 9, 2020 by Liza Achilles No Comments
The other day, I attended a Meetup group on Zoom. It was one of those groups that has a policy of respecting the anonymity of all who participate. We were told that what was said in the Zoom group should stay in the Zoom group. Fine. I won’t share with you exactly what happened. (So painful as a blogger! lol)...
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Reading time: 4 min
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  • Book Previews (181)
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  • News & Events (36)
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Books previewed

Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Solitary Albert Woodfox
Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo
Enlightenment by Trial and Error Jay Michaelson
Death in Her Hands Ottessa Moshfegh
The Cooking Gene Michael W. Twitty
The First Bad Man Miranda July
Upheaval Jared Diamond
A Journal of the Plague Year Daniel Defoe
Creatures Crissy Van Meter
Indelicacy Amina Cain
Say What You Mean Oren Jay Sofer
Habits of a Happy Brain Loretta Graziano Breuning
Bad Behavior, This Is Pleasure Mary Gaitskill
The Brother Gardeners Andrea Wulf
Severance Ling Ma
How to Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi
The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose
Why I Write George Orwell
The Woman Destroyed Simone de Beauvoir
Educated Tara Westover
The Gift Hafiz
The Collected Schizophrenias Esmé Weijun Wang
Your Duck Is My Duck Deborah Eisenberg
Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari
Milkman Anna Burns
Under the Banner of Heaven Jon Krakauer
Waiting for Bojangles Olivier Bourdeaut
A Mind Unraveled Kurt Eichenwald
Eugénie Grandet Honoré de Balzac
The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
The Bookshop Penelope Fitzgerald
Digital Minimalism Cal Newport
The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt
Dare to Lead Brené Brown
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
Almost Everything Anne Lamott
Born to Run Christopher McDougall, Bruce Springsteen
The Ladies’ Paradise Émile Zola
The World Beyond Your Head Matthew B. Crawford
All the Birds, Singing Evie Wyld
Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston
Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury
JavaScript & jQuery Jon Duckett
Home Fire Kamila Shamsie
The Weather Detective Peter Wohlleben
Play It As It Lays Joan Didion
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson
Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata
Perfect Me Heather Widdows
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace Patty Yumi Cottrell
Why Buddhism Is True Robert Wright
What Is Real? Adam Becker
Kudos Rachel Cusk
The Days of Abandonment Elena Ferrante
F*cked Corinne Fisher & Krystyna Hutchinson
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Alan Lightman
Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf

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