Greetings, friends! Books This month I finished the book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. This episode in history was new to me, and the book captured the time period and its complexities in a thrilling narrative. As Italy was in the throes of turmoil, slowly breaking from papal rule and coming under greater European influence (read: enlightenment), … More Get Lit – Best of November 2025
Goodness and greetings, friends. Books I once had a professor who witnessed the death of a language. He attended the funeral of a tribal elder, the last one who spoke the native tongue. The idea of losing something as profound as language still haunts me. And so, I have a great appreciation for Hebrew, a … More Get Lit – Best of May 2024
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
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
The world is going crazy. I hope you’re ending the month with grace. Books Oliver Sacks was a brilliant neurologist who wrote several books about the curious conditions of his patients. In An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales he dives into blindness, perception, and other life changing cases. One man was, “in a sense, preternaturally sensitive—but … More Get Lit – Best of August 2023
Jeepers creepers (and crawlies and slithers)! Books I went to the Reptile Expo this month. Snakes, geckos, scorpions, spiders, and a whole lot of other creatures. It was so cool to see the magnificent diversity that exists on the planet. At the same time, I wonder about mass breeding and keeping these animals in cages with price tags(!). It doesn’t … More Get Lit – Best of June 2023
Find the balance. 