Category Archives: Books

I’ve been reading a wonderful book called I Want to be Left Behind by Seattle-based nature writer, Brenda Peterson. It is coincidental that I’ve been reading this book during all of this hilarious talk of “Rapture” but it has proven to be uplifting and inspiring.

Peterson asks her Christian neighbor, “Why are you so … well, cheerful, about doomsday?” and I have to ask similar questions. Why do some people want the world to end so badly? Shouldn’t we try to prevent a “Rapture” or whatever you call it from happening? Shouldn’t we come up with solutions to our problems without demanding and threatening God’s vengeance? And what’s so damn awful about the earth? I just spent an amazing weekend in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and I can’t help but think that the earth is an amazing place as I witness otters eating shellfish off their bellies, huge golden eagles taking flight, or a harem of playful seals jumping in and out of the ocean. The earth is an awesome place if you ask me!

I love the optimistic message within I Want to be Left Behind. Peterson sees the world for its beauty, its continuity, and its potential. I wish we would all live our lives that way.

The website for the book lives here and its blog is here. There’s also a great post on the Huffington Post blog here. Check them out if you’re at all curious. They’re great.

“On the last day of the world
I would want to plant a tree.“
—W. S. Merwin, “Place”

I recently finished reading Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord, a French psychiatrist and author. It was one of the most fun and insightful books I’ve read in a while. The story follows Hector, a portrayal of Lelord himself, and his global search into finding what makes people happy. The book is a funny, and profoundly simple philosophical study of happiness. It is also a really quick read at 192 pages.

The biggest lesson I got from the book is that happiness is a balance of nature and nurture. We all have sociological factors that improve our general sense of happiness but most of it comes from our individual ability to be optimists.

I also enjoyed the little lessons and observations that Hector picked up along his travels. Here are a few of my favorites:
Lesson 1: Making comparisons can spoil your happiness.
Lesson 3: Many people see happiness only in their future.
Lesson 4: Many people think that happiness comes from having more power or more money.
Lesson 14: Happiness is to be loved for exactly who you are.
Lesson 16: Happiness is knowing how to celebrate.
Lesson 17: Happiness is caring about the happiness of those you love.
Lesson 18: Happiness is not attaching too much importance to what other people think.
Lesson 20: Happiness is a certain way of seeing things.

I loved this book. Its message is so simple and it is such a quick read. It motivated me to find ways to be happy in adversity and to look at people (including myself) in a more optimistic way. Check it out when you can!

I finished reading I’m Down, a hilarious memoir by Mishna Wolff. I had been trying to get into this other book but the I really felt the need to read something funny. I’m so glad I found I’m Down because it made me laugh so much, often out loud and on the bus.

Wolff was actually raised in Seattle and so it was great to be able to relate to the demography she wrote about. She grew up in an all-black community and hysterically recounts how she was never “down” enough to fit in. And when she was forced to go to an all-white school, she found herself “too black” to fit in. It’s a great coming-of-age book and like I said, it made me laugh really hard.

I’ve been recommending it to everyone.

I recently finished reading Fat Girl: A True Story, a really sad, occasionally funny, memoir by Judith Moore. Moore, who died in 2006, grew up in a home where her weight was always an issue. Rarely happy, she recalls her food-obsessed childhood and how her awful mother and grandmother would verbally and sometimes physically abuse her, telling her that she wasn’t worth anything. Remind you of Precious? Well it did me too. Moore’s salvation (sort of) was found in her flamboyant Uncle Carl, who bonded with her and never judged her, yet tragically never seemed to truly love her that much either.

This book packs a huge emotional punch. Ultimately, I was mostly saddened by the author’s current voice and how hopelessly numb to any form of love and affection she eventually became. Even after two marriages and two kids, she seemed eternally down on herself, rarely pointing out what brought her joy in her life. I guess that wasn’t her point.

On that note, I did like this book a lot, much in the same way I like sad movies. They’re hard to get through, but they always give me something to think about and to be grateful for.

While I’m on the topic of nature, I thought I’d recommend a book I picked up this week and even though I’m not finished reading it (it’s enormous) it has already renewed me with desire to be a more thoughtful human being. It’s called World Changing: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century.

It’s a beautiful book designed by the folks over at Sagmeister Inc. and edited by Alex Steffen. It’s a collection of a variety of green-themed articles such as “Creating Healthy Homes,” “The Hidden Vitality of Slums,” and “Creating Rural Sustainability in the Global South.”

Like I said, this book is HUGE, but will undoubtedly be one of my favorites for years to come. Check it out, yo.

I finally finished Never Let Me Go and I was actually very satisfied by the end. It was written by Kazuo Ishiguro, who also wrote The Remains of the Day, and Never Let Me Go unfolds similarly to that book. Sometimes it feels slow, but as you read, you realize you’ve come a long way in deeply relating to the characters and understanding the state of the world in which they live.

Never Let Me Go has a Sci-fi twist thrown into the mix, but I wouldn’t exactly describe this book as being science fiction. Rather, it is more of a gentle, literary study of humanity, ethics and existentialism. By the end of the book, without giving anything away, I was left reflecting about what I call meaningful, sacred, and humane.

If you’re looking for something to read, check this one out. It’s a good one.

Last night I finished reading Little Bee by Guardian columnist Chris Cleave. I read this book quicker than most because it hooked me from the moment it started. The cover and title may seem cute, but the story is actually serious and, at times, queasily intense.

The story is alternately narrated by the two central characters: Little Bee, a refugee from a small village in Nigeria, and Sarah O’Rourke, a magazine editor from Kingston upon Thames, England. Their lives cross paths in a violently strange and scary scenario on a sunny beach in Nigeria, where Sarah is vacationing with her husband, Andrew, and it changes their lives forever.

I really don’t want to give too much away, because this book chock-full of surprises. If you happen to be looking for a lovely/intense book to read, I highly recommend Little Bee. It’s gorge.