Archive • Book Scraps • Buttondown

Favorite books of 2024

The Remarkable Life of the Skin: An Intimate Journey Across Our Largest Organ by Monty Lyman Read for: A finely calibrated mix of skin-related biology,...

Spring/Summer '24 Scraps

A few ideas clanging around from books I’ve read this year to date. Are we accidentally teaching kids to tantrum? Toddlerhood is a developmental period that...

Favorite books of 2023

Favorite books of 2023 How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue Read for: A tale that transcends continents and contexts; a multidimensional take on right and...

Unlearning parenting, part II

November 12, 2023

The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik, continued In part I of my review of The Gardener and the Carpenter, I covered Alison Gopnik’s summary of how...

Unlearning parenting

September 20, 2023

The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik, Part I Read for: A challenge to the idea of “parenting,” a case for being a parent in a mutual relationship,...

Traveling from Sympathy to Empathy on Addiction

September 6, 2023

Traveling from Sympathy to Empathy on Addiction This is part of an occasional series on exploring ways we can unlock decades of healthy lifespan. Read for:...

Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger, illustrated by Michael Hays Read for: A fun read-aloud book for kids; a funny glimpse into 1980s aesthetics; a surprisingly profound...

Let your life speak

Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer Read for: A career transition that's really a life or vocation transition; quieting external chatter about what you...

Favorite books of 2022

January 17, 2023

📖 The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul Read for: Permission to step away from your computer to do your best thinking, jostling your assumption that the...

Rewiring the brain for climate action

October 27, 2022

My climate doom mindset was cemented by David Quammen’s immersive book The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. He first explains...

Unlearning the stereotypes of pregnancy and parenthood

20% of the books I read in 2020 were on pregnancy, childbirth, or parenting. The first thing I learned was that labor and parenting are not the caricatured...

Books on perceiving time

“Time interacts with attention in funny ways” - Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being For many of us, 2020 was the year time moved differently. Our last...

“Something is terribly wrong”

Earlier this year, the world learned that Dr. Paul Farmer died unexpectedly in his sleep at age 62. Responses to his death have poured out from across the...

Recommendations

Habit-changers: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert SapolskyMindset by Carol DweckThe Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael...