I am a voracious reader and every week I come across either a book, online piece or website I want to share with others. I’ve decided to curate these gems and highlight them on Friday. I hope you find these faves as insightful as I do.
- I don’t necessarily agree that buying stuff equates to more happiness, but this essay in Fast Company offered some insight into the alternative perspective. Dinsa Sachan talks about it in “Scientific Proof That Buying Things Can Actually Lead to Happiness (Sometimes).”
- Ann Patchett is an author I adore and one of my absolute favorite books is Bel Canto. Patchett recently listed her picks for “The 75 Best Books of the Past 75 Years.” How many of these books have you read?
- I’ve always adored Roxane Gay’s work and her piece, “Alton Sterling and When Black Lives Stop Mattering” is an important and insightful essay. A brief excerpt: “It’s overwhelming to see what we are up against, to live in a world where too many people have their fingers on the triggers of guns aimed directly at black people. I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t know how to allow myself to feel grief and outrage while also thinking about change.”
- Melissa Ludtke shares her perspective on friendship in “Robbed of a Next Time:Lessons Learned From Loss.” She says, “Now as I lose friends more holes open up, ones I know I’ll never fill. What cemented those friendships can never be built. New ones form but they lack hardened memory.”
What were your favorite reads this week?
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
You always choose such in-depth reads. I like that. I needed Roxanne Gay’s piece. I always love Ann Patchett too.
Thanks, Tamara. I am glad you like the pieces I choose to highlight.
Thanks much for your Friday Favs, Rudri! Always enjoy “peeking in…”
I am reading very well-researched non-fiction book by Gretchen Rubin entitled Better than Before. She is the author and originator of the “happiness project” and offers some insightful thoughts on habit formation for a happier life. It is more than a general how-to-cook-book approach, offering strategic steps to consider. I am thoroughly enjoying it and your readers might also.
Have a super weekend! Trish
Thanks, Trish, for the recommendation. Gretchen Rubin is an author I love and I have read both of her books. Glad you are enjoying her work too. Have a good weekend.
My TBR list just got longer after perusing Ann Patchett’s favorite books!
Have you read her Kindle Single “The Getaway Car?” It’s a wonderful resource for writers.
Jackie,
I loved “The Getaway Car.” It is contained in her essay collection, “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.” Have you read the other essays?
I love Ann Patchett so I am off to check her list 🙂
Hope you enjoy her recommendations.