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
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Incidental Musings

Facts and Myths About Concussions and Post-Concussion Syndrome

February 19, 2021 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
I want to share some facts and myths about concussions and post-concussion syndrome, just in case this information helps someone out there. From personal experience, I know that searching on the Internet for answers to concussion and post-concussion syndrome issues is a bit of a paradox. When I’m experiencing symptoms, I don’t feel well enough to search for such information...
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Reading time: 10 min
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Incidental Musings

My Gratitude Practice: An Update

February 5, 2021 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
I want to share how things are going with the gratitude practice my friend and I initiated a few weeks ago. Since research shows that cultivating gratitude can increase happiness, my friend and I started texting each other every night. In the texts, we would each list three things we were grateful for that day. (I wrote about the genesis...
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Reading time: 3 min
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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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Book Previews

How to Cure a Psychosomatic Disorder

November 9, 2020 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
Life feels incredibly hard. You have unexplained physical symptoms. You feel bad much of the time: fearful, ashamed, resigned, exhausted. Your unexplained physical symptoms are often debilitating, causing you to miss work and social events. You try to think positively, but your physical symptoms subtly and irrepressibly worsen your mood. You frantically try to get yourself back on track. Maybe...
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Reading time: 5 min
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Book Previews

We Are Here in the Unseen

January 24, 2020 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
In a previous blog post about Heather Rose’s astonishing novel The Museum of Modern Love, I wrote about how what seems commonplace can actually hold the deepest truth and wisdom. And then, in another post, I wrote about how pain inspires art, while engaging in art exposes one to pain. These two concepts are intertwined with a third concept vital...
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Reading time: 2 min
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Incidental Musings

Mind the Gap: British Slang in an American Mind

May 22, 2019 by Liza Achilles 6 Comments
Mind the gap! This I will do. Yes, sir; yes, ma’am! It would be a shame to drop a personal item between the platform and the train—or, God forbid, a body part. I am finding that the gaps here in London are more irregular than in Washington, D.C., and truly do require some minding. Sometimes the train is flush with...
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Reading time: 4 min
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Incidental Musings

Dreams. . . . An Update!

May 17, 2019 by Liza Achilles 10 Comments
Hello, fellow residents of our beautiful planet! I am writing this blog post from a cute Danish cafe in London. Here is a photo I took from my seat in the cafe. If you know me at least a bit, and if you look closely at the photo, you may be able to guess my favorite part of it. However,...
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Incidental Musings

Medical Mysteries (Part 3)

April 1, 2019 by Liza Achilles 9 Comments
I was stumped by yet another medical mystery. A prescription drug that helps me immensely also makes me tired. I have trouble waking up. I feel fairly alert in the morning, but I ache to nap all afternoon. And forget the evening—I’m ready for bed immediately after dinner. My doctor has been helping me experiment with different remedies for this...
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Incidental Musings

Dreams

January 25, 2019 by Liza Achilles 8 Comments
I am interested to know about your dreams. Tell me about your dreams. Did you dream last night? Can you recall a long, harrowing sequence of events? Or just a feeling you retained upon waking? Did you dream of specific people? People you see in your current life? People you knew in childhood? Have you had any particularly powerful dreams...
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Book Previews

Shopping Cart Wisdom

December 24, 2018 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
What do Immanuel Kant’s metaphysics and David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech at Kenyon College (known as the “This Is Water” speech) have in common? Both of these famous philosophies, according to Matthew B. Crawford in his book The World Beyond Your Head, are faulty—and for the same reason. It’s a bold claim. Crawford attempts to topple two towering figures of...
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Reading time: 4 min
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Book Previews

Do Not Touch the Sides

December 14, 2018 by Liza Achilles 4 Comments
Earlier in the chapter I quoted in my previous blog post, the protagonist says something that I found fascinating, sad, and immediately recognizable: “I don’t let my thoughts touch the sides as I take the crowbar out of the toolbox . . .” “I don’t let my thoughts touch the sides”: I get that; I have felt that way before....
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Reading time: 1 min
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Book Previews

Ghosts and Dolls

September 7, 2018 by Liza Achilles 4 Comments
I don’t often buy books without consulting online reviews or a friend. When I do, it feels like I have a delicious secret. Having confronted no direct evidence that another human had encountered the book Perfect Me by Heather Widdows, I felt like a voyager alone, making a profound discovery that I hoped to one day share with the folks...
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  • Book Previews (181)
  • Guest Posts (2)
  • Incidental Musings (82)
  • News & Events (36)
  • Tales (56)

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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