Have you ever read a book with no paragraph breaks, the entire 289 pages consisting of one extremely long paragraph? If you take my advice, you are about to. Dead Souls is the title of a famous nineteenth-century Russian novel by Nikolai Gogol, but that’s not the Dead Souls I’m writing about today. The Dead Souls I’m writing about today...
After David Foster Wallace’s untimely death, a partially completed manuscript was discovered in his office. His editor undertook the difficult task of sifting through the mess of scattered pages and notes and assembling them into the unfinished novel The Pale King. The editor had to decide what to leave in and what to leave out, how to edit the pages...
Katherine E. Standefer had a problem. A device implanted in her heart was giving her massive shocks when it wasn’t supposed to. She was due for heart surgery, but she didn’t have health insurance. She was forced to give up the life she had loved as a rugged outdoorswoman, due to a genetic heart condition. But her main problem, above...
Of all of Sally Rooney’s novels, her first novel, Conversations With Friends, is the nearest and dearest to my heart. It’s a beautiful story with a surprising conclusion and lots of heartbreak in between. The protagonist is a young college student. This passage, from early in the novel, reveals her life situation in an unusual way: “When I got back...
Here is one of my favorite passages from Normal People, Sally Rooney’s second novel: “When he talks to Marianne he had a sense of total privacy between them. He could tell her anything about himself, even weird things, and she would never repeat them, he knows that. Being alone with her is like opening a door away from normal life...
It’s hard not to notice that the pace of media has been increasing over our lifetimes. Does anyone out there remember when the news came at certain designated times of day, and could not be accessed at any other time? TV news had certain timeslots. Newspapers came out one a day, or once a week. Internet was not a thing....
OMG, OMG, OMG. Everyone is talking about the Irish novelist Sally Rooney, . . . and now so am I. I got caught in her web and could not stop reading. I read all three of her novels in a tear, and I loved each one to pieces. Reading Sally Rooney makes me feel like a girl again, eagerly clutching...
When I think of ballet, I think of fit people performing incredible feats of strength and flexibility. For instance, I think of people doing the splits, walking on their toes, and spinning around and around. I also think of grace, exactness, and delicacy. I generally do not think of this: “At the end of Opus Jazz I get tossed off...
I was deeply disturbed by one theme that ran throughout the memoir Swan Dive, by Georgina Pazcoguin. I was so disturbed that I had to talk it over with a friend just to get my bearings; and I debated whether or not to feature the book on this blog at all. Ultimately I decided to feature the book because (1)...
She’s a dancer, and, by definition, she moves. All day. Every day. She’s a classically trained and highly experienced ballerina who auditions for the musical CATS . . . and gets the part. She’s that good of a dancer: she’s versatile enough to dance at the highest levels in many different styles. And then, the performers of CATS are required...
Do you ever have the creepy sensation that things aren’t what they seem? I have had that feeling regularly in my life. I don’t know if others do, hence my question to you, reader. That wasn’t just rhetorical. I really want to know. Often over the course of my life, I have had this sensation upon waking up from a...
Life is hard. It can be disappointing, stressful, constrictive. But most of us find solace in some little habit or activity, to sustain us through the dark times, and lift us up during the good times. I don’t condone smoking; as we all know, it is terrible for one’s health. But the protagonist of the novel A Passage North, by...
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize—a prize I deeply respect—is a book of great beauty, absolutely Proustian in language. A Passage North, by Anuk Arudpragasam, did not win (the winner was announced here), but is a powerful read that I recommend to all who love psychologically deep, beautifully crafted language. The novel is packed with extremely long sentences that wind in...
Despite being published almost 70 years ago, Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis, feels as modern and relevant as anything published today. I was astounded by the perfection of this novel. It is a comical work, and it had me laughing aloud all the way through. It also contains many deep wisdoms, some of which I am sharing on this blog....
One of the most profound sentences in the great 1953 novel Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis, seems so simple as to be unworthy of stating. And yet it is, after all, eminently worthy of stating. Here it is: “It was one more argument to support his theory that nice things are nicer than nasty ones.” The protagonist of the novel,...
Luck! We all want it, but no one knows how to get it. Even those who have it don’t know how they got it. And those who had it once don’t know how to find it again. Oh, to be lucky! One of my favorite novels in the whole world, which I was lucky enough to discover recently, is about...
Some of us can socialize all day long without tiring (extroverts), while others of us reach a socialization limit and thereafter need down time (introverts). In his book Projections, Karl Deisseroth discusses how the extroversion-introversion scale might relate to the autism spectrum, positing that those on the spectrum may experience something similar to extreme introversion. The neuroscientific explanation he gives...
Sometimes the ability to stay up for multiple days and nights in a row, joyfully performing a highly specific and demanding task, is beneficial. One chapter of the book Projections, by Karl Deisseroth, focuses on bipolar. As usual, Deisseroth tells the story of one patient who suffers from the disorder, alongside his own story as a psychologist, as well as...
I often think about the maxim that the most interesting findings occur at the intersections of fields. I recently discovered a book that lands at the intersection of literature, psychiatry, and neuroscience. It was a fabulous read. I discovered this book in a tiny, one-paragraph blurb in the New Yorker; the book wasn’t even featured in an article. But it...
But the heart of the novel The Indian Lawyer, by James Welch, is not the prisoner Jack Harwood. It is, of course, the Indian lawyer, Sylvester Yellow Calf. Reading about his life is powerfully interesting and thrilling and sad, a human drama you won’t want to miss. The predicament Yellow Calf faces is strongly existent, long before Harwood steps into...
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Books previewed
Dead Souls Sam Riviere
The Pale King David Foster Wallace
Lightning Flowers Katherine E. Standefer
Beautiful World, Where Are You / Normal People / Conversations With Friends Sally Rooney
Swan Dive Georgina Pazcoguin
A Passage North Anuk Arudpragasam
Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
Projections Karl Deisseroth
The Indian Lawyer James Welch
Atomic Habits James Clear
The History of Philosophy A. C. Grayling
Dusk, Night, Dawn Anne Lamott
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
Nothing to See Here Kevin Wilson
Change Damon Centola
Homeland Elegies Ayad Akhtar
Becoming Attached Robert Karen
Piranesi Susanna Clarke
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
The Pale King David Foster Wallace
Lightning Flowers Katherine E. Standefer
Beautiful World, Where Are You / Normal People / Conversations With Friends Sally Rooney
Swan Dive Georgina Pazcoguin
A Passage North Anuk Arudpragasam
Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
Projections Karl Deisseroth
The Indian Lawyer James Welch
Atomic Habits James Clear
The History of Philosophy A. C. Grayling
Dusk, Night, Dawn Anne Lamott
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
Nothing to See Here Kevin Wilson
Change Damon Centola
Homeland Elegies Ayad Akhtar
Becoming Attached Robert Karen
Piranesi Susanna Clarke
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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