The weather has been fun recently, hasn’t it? Books Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safan Foer was a quirky epistolary that captured the relationship between an American-Jewish tourist and the Ukrainian tour guide who was helping him discover/uncover his family roots. It was violent and vulgar and vulnerable. I enjoyed it immensely and can imagine Tarantino making it into a … More Get Lit – Best of April 2024
Hi friends! Books I’ve been on a reading rampage. Hello, Beautiful – Man can only see himself through the eyes of others. His goodness and his unworthiness only exist because of those around him. William Waters, the protagonist in Ann Napolitano’s novel Hello, Beautiful, is never truly seen—not by his parents, nor by Julia, his … More Get Lit – Best of March 2024
Let’s get lit! Books Seth Godin always impresses and his book This is Marketing is another game-changer. Godin asks probing questions and demands a reckoning of values. It’s not about the money, he argues. There’s a story behind everything. We have to figure out what story we are telling. And why. And who we are aligning ourselves … More Get Lit – Best of February 2024
In his book, This is Marketing, author and innovator Seth Godin writes, “When we find the empathy to say, ‘I’m sorry, this isn’t for you…’ then we also find the freedom to do work that matters,” (101). While some might try to discredit this statement as irrelevant for anyone other than marketers, I’d posit that … More Trade Schools: A Last Bastion of Hope
Books Haruki Murakami is a prolific writer of magical realism – which is not generally my thing. However, that did not stop me from devouring Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. Both were fantastic and included a myriad of musical references (Murakami owned a jazz club in Japan, so the soundtracks are an integral part of each story). I loved … More Get Lit – Best of January 2024
In her seminal treatise Reader, Come Home; The Reading Brain in a Digital World, writer and educator Maryann Wolf delineates the differences between book reading and screen reading. She describes “the perspective-taking dimension of deep reading,” and highlights the “capacity to be transported from whatever our present realities are to an internal place where we … More Walk a Mile in Her Shoes: Why Octavia Butler Matters in 2024
We are rocking out this month! Books Stephen Crane’s Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, is a collection of short stories that jumped right off the page. I love the way Crane captured characters through dialect/accent. Not all authors are able to pull this off so crisply (Twain does it well, and that’s certainly good company to … More Get Lit – Best of Decembrrr 2023
‘Tis the season for thanks. What are you grateful for? Books I read two fantastic books that are totally related, but not directly. Maryanne Wolf’s Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World probes the problems and complexities of our ever advancing technology and posits several points of hope for the future. She worries about … More Get Lit – Best of November 2023
The world is still turning and I hope all is well in yours. Books I read a great book this month. What makes it great is the action-oriented approach. The Tools by psychotherapists Phil Stutz and Barry Michels (with a website to support!) prescribes several strategies for the flounderers among us – those who want to do better and be … More Get Lit – Best of October 2023
Hello again! The weather in New York is getting crisp. I love it. It’s invigorating. Books This month I reread The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. It’s one of those works that I read every few years to remind myself of truths I know in my heart, but forgot in the course of the routine of life. The … More Get Lit – Best of September 2023
Find the balance. 