January Books

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami

I LOVED Wind-up Bird Chronicles, both as a book and a piece of literature, and this was recommended by some as even better. I enjoyed it, and found it thought provoking, though not nearly to the degree that I like Wind-up Bird, which had a lot more depth and nuance to it. The plot was hard to engage with, although I was pretty taken by the second half and thoroughly enjoyed it, in spite of it being a distant second.

Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Not sure if I'm necessarily the ideal target audience for this, I do like to think of myself as pretty tolerant, pluralist, and interested in a lot of spiritual traditions. But I did feel like I learned a lot about religions I knew little about, their common overlaps, and I like how inspired he was by seeing pluralism in action in India, past and present. I also appreciated that he called out scientists and secular humanists to join the respectful dialog as well, encouraging mutual respect between religions and science.

Chronicles, vol. 1: Bob Dylan

I'm a Dylan fan- not a hyper-obsessed Dylan fan to be sure, but I enjoy and appreciate songwriting and creativity. This book though... I dont know, part of the problem may have been that I did the audiobook, which had an insufferable reader who would drop his g's and try to sound like Dylan, but even that aside the metaphors were flimsy and overdone- disappointing for such an amazing writer, and the tone so affectedly reeking of the most self-indulgent of Dylan's self-invention, and the narrative just so... boring, that it was hard to get into. Furthermore, and I don't know if I'm the first to make this observation about the book, but I think what I really was interested in was an biography of Robert Zimmerman, and what I got was an embroidered memoir of Bob Dylan.

White Teeth- Zadie Smith

Granted, this book was good, and had all the elements of a good book- intergenerational immigrant family drama, well drawn characters, humor and warmth, sophisticated ideas about race, gender, ethnicity, religion and identity with a subplot about genetic ethics that offers a modern take on these questions, and yet... I just couldnt get into it. As much as I liked it and appreciated the ideas, it felt like a bit of a chore to pick up, figure out which characters I was reading about, and push through a little further. It has all the elements of a good book, a great book even, but for my taste, not enough elements of a good read.

Beautiful Boy - David Sheff

I've been meaning to read this book for a while now, and keep putting it off. Its now been almost ten years sober for me, a young man who surely put my parents through hell when I was using, and a recent conversation with a devastated parent kind of pushed me toward finally reading this book, as shitty as it might make me feel. And yeah, I don't feel good thinking about times in my life, but it feels important, personally and professionally, to examine a little bit of the perspective of those who love someone who is an active addict. From the start of the book I was hooked. Sheff is a great writer, and his opening description of a relapse and moving from there toward the motivation to write before delving into the story of his son from birth on could have been a cheesy way to start, but turned out to be immensely powerful in really capturing the horror of watching someone turn into the golem that addiction makes them. It treads the standard addiction memoir ground, though again from a fresh perspective, and integrates science and stats in ways that feel helpful, not pedantic, all the while conveying the hopeless confusion and hellish ups and downs of living with someone in active addiction. Can't recommend this enough. Anyone with an interest in addiction, and certainly anyone in mental health should read this.

Tweak - Nic Sheff

The foil to "Beautiful Boy" this addiction memoir written by the meth-addicted son described in "Beautiful Boy." Well, it suffers from all the problems and perks of a good addiction memoir- addictive to read with some solid debauchery and despair followed by some really astute insights into addiction and recovery, with writing that was mediocre to poor, although the guy wrote the thing half when he was using and have when he was barely sober, and all when he was very very young, so given those constraints and complaints aside, its pretty impressive.

The Power of Less: Leo Babuata

The guy who does "Zen Habits" blog did this book about productivity and personal organization, that may well be the best book on that topic I've read. Simple, straightforward concrete advice about how to organize yourself, set and achieve goals, beat procrastination and be happier at work and home. I think a lot of the material in here isnt new, but is presented well and may well be going into my next book. Definitely recommend this book if you are looking for help organizing your life and getting things done!

The Four Agreements: Don Miguel Ruiz

Bizarre, circularly hypnotic writing style and some very odd metaphor choices in this quickie self-help book from the 90's. Damn I read a lot of these things, this one was recommended by a patient. Some solid ideas about being careful with how you speak, not taking anything personally, and the level of self-respect you have being parallel to how much you will tolerate in others, but overall didnt really speak to me. Interesting uses of Mesoamerican mythology to frame the ideas, I'm guessing this is sort of marketing toward Latinos or people with an interest in Native American traditions and ideas.

After the Ecstacy, The Laundry - Jack Kornfield

Silly title aside, this book is really amazing. Like, in my opinion, all of Jack Kornfield's books about Buddhism and spirituality. This one is based on conversations with spiritual leaders and their struggles with trying to be perfect and spiritual in the face of life in all its complexity and imperfection. Not that I'm a great spiritual leader, but as a therapist it can often feel tremendously difficult to tolerate people's projections on me that I am wise, knowledgable, or have my life together when I know my own perfections and can feel like a fraud. Chock full of wonderful quotes and anecdotes, folk tales from around the world, it was both inspiring and engaging.