Back with more book recs!
This newsletter actually started with book reviews. I still believe there’s a demand for it. People want to read but, like picking out a restaurant in a new city, sometimes it’s hard to know where to go.
These are books that I have read or currently reading. Books I believe you’ll enjoy.
Also, you will notice that the comment section is open. Believe it or not, a lot of people subscribe to this newsletter. Feel free to write your own recommendations in the comment section. We want to hear from you!
Let’s do this!
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
By Casey Cep
Another one to add to your true crime wish list.
Furious Hours takes place in the 1960s/1970s American South — Alexander City, Alabama, to be exact. Death follows a traveling preacher named Reverend Willie Maxwell. It started with Maxwell’s wife, who was found beaten to death in her car. A few years later, authorities find Maxwell’s brother dead on the side of the road — alcohol poisoning. Shortly after, they find his second wife dead in her car! Wait, what’s going on here? No way, it’s a coincidence, right? Alabama didn’t think so, either. Rumors spread of conspiracy and voodooism—a racist allegation still popular in the 1970s.
The case goes to trial, and guess who’s sitting in the back of the courtroom taking notes. None other than the writer Harper Lee. This was a big deal because Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird 12 years prior. Everyone assumed she was done writing books. Yet she’s back in Alabama, about an hour away from her hometown, taking notes for her next book – once again about a convicted black man in the South. So what happened to the Reverend Maxwell? What happened to Harper’s book?
I’ve done my job. You’re gonna have to read it.
By Joan Didion
Oh gosh, I can’t recommend Joan Didion enough, and The Year of Magical Thinking may well be her masterpiece.
It's a quick read, but it’s the most delicate recollection of grief I’ve ever read. You will have to experience it for yourself, but I wanted to provide some context in case you’re new to Joan.
Before 2004, I think most people would say that Joan lived an easy, magical life. Maybe even entitled.
She comes from an upper-middle-class family in California. Talent came out of her ears. While at UC Berkeley, she won a college essay contest and landed a prestigious job at Vogue Magazine. She married John Dunne, a Princeton man and Time journalist. Together, they traveled the world, wrote novels, and adopted their daughter, Quintana.
She lived a lucky life.
I think that’s the point of this essay: how quickly things change. “They change in the instant.” She writes. “The ordinary instant.”
She shares her happiest memory in the book. She’s at her daughter’s wedding, and John gives the crowd a wonderful toast. Over the next two years, she would lose them both. She finds John dead at their kitchen table because of a heart attack. Quintana dies after a series of illnesses.
Joan is one of the greatest voices of her generation. She provided a unique observation of American culture and politics. Here’s what many consider her masterpiece, and it’s about loss.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
By James Clear
If you’re interested in habits, I actually wouldn’t start with this book. I’d actually start with The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Why? Because Atomic Habits is like Power of Habit part II.
Where Charles dives into the scientific formula behind habits (Cue, Craving, Response, Reward), Atomic Habits by James Clear teaches you how to use the formula to your advantage so you can improve your life.
James is the best. A great educator and a precise writer. I promise you will change your routine for the better after reading this.
Here’s a tool I really like. It’s called “Implementation Intention.” It’s his first law of behavior change, “Make it obvious.” You’re more likely to do something if you give the habit a time and a place. Think about it: when you say, I’m going to workout today, how often do you follow through? Now, write down I’m going to the gym to do 50 pushups at 6:30 am. Feels a little different, right?
Thank you for reading. OK, now let’s hear from you!
Hello Beautiful by Anna Napolitano!! Such an excellent, heartfelt, meaningful read!!
Woooo! Thanks Cal!