Reading Archives - Page 2 of 25

Hidden Potential by Adam Grant

June 27, 2026 / Psychology, Reading

Hidden Potential is about the importance of character, persistence, and passion in how we learn, Hidden Potential is about the importance of character, persistence, and passion in how we learn, grow, and ultimately reach our goals. The book is a self-help guide masquerading as business science, using a predictable format. A framework is introduced in a self-contained chapter, then elements of that framework are covered in detail with stories that mostly support the thesis, research studies are cited, and a conclusion is reached before moving on to the next chapter. I keep expecting more innovation from how these books are written, but almost every one I’ve read follows this same blueprint. I wouldn’t complain if the advice in this one weren’t so basic and uninspired. Examples:

Make learning fun by turning study and practice into a game.
Take breaks from work so you don’t burn out.
You can improve if you have the passion for it.
etc.

In 240 pages, I don’t think I picked up a single new idea. I kept wondering why this wasn’t a ten-minute TED Talk. Still, the book is well-written, almost breezy, and Grant weaves in his own success story along the way, which was interesting. Maybe this would be more useful for someone just starting out. I’m jaded from having read so many books like this over my career. This one was a miss for me.

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

June 22, 2026 / Literary Fiction, Reading

This classic novel from Graham Greene explores the fine line between love and hate in post-war London. Short chapters and crisp writing make this book feel like a tight suspense novel, but one that surprises with its probing, deeply human themes: fate vs. individual responsibility, the problems with either atheism or blind faith, the angst of romantic longing, and the corrosiveness of jealousy.

I have never known a woman before or since so able to alter a whole mood by simply speaking on the telephone, and when she came into a room or put her hand on my side she created at once the absolute trust I lost with every separation.

This is one that raised questions that will stick with me for a long while.

…

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Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

June 14, 2026 / Literary Fiction, Reading

On the surface, this is a story about Ruth and Lucille, two young girls who are raised by a succession of relatives in an impoverished lakeside village in Idaho. The girls face a series of abandonments that create a tension throughout the book of when they might find themselves adrift and alone again.

Yet there are layers within layers in this one. This is a novel, yes, but also a ruminative memoir on grief, on loneliness, and on the power of memory to rekindle these losses again and again over time. I’ll be reading along and following the story, and in the middle of a paragraph, slip through a rift to find myself on a whole different level in the novel with deeply symbolic references, many of them Biblical, and all of them a lifetime away from Ruth’s first-person narrative. I might read a passage three or four times and not suss it at all. I understand the words, but not the meaning, at least on the intellectual level. But, at the same time, I do understand on a subconscious level. Like the best kind of poetry.

…

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My Ántonia by Willa Cather

June 6, 2026 / Literature, Reading

A literary classic set in rural Nebraska during the late 19th century. The book is narrated by Jim, an orphaned youth who comes to live with his grandparents just as a family of immigrants arrives to stake their claim to this new land of plenty. Cather’s descriptions of the Nebraska countryside are so rich and atmospheric, I felt a longing for a place I’ve never seen.

As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of winestains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running.

We follow the lives of these two families as they endure bitterly cold winters and lush summers. The American settlers are stoic, self-reliant, and often miserly. The immigrants are full of life, completely unprepared, and generous to a fault. The contrast between these two groups is a key theme that runs throughout the novel.

The story unfolds in episodic adventures, which felt a bit like something out of Little House on the Prairie. Most of the book centers on Jim’s relationship with Ántonia, four years his senior, and on whom the book is titled. In one way, this is a traditional coming-of-age story of friendship, romance, and small-town values. Yet, what made the novel special for me was its use of place and memory as anchors for happiness.

Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.

It’s hard to share more about the story without spoiling it. Ultimately, this is a love letter to a place and time that now exist only in memory — and in classic novels like this one.

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

June 1, 2026 / Reading, Travel

I thought I was getting a modern-day account of a shipwreck at sea. But instead, the author rehashes a fairly well-known account from the 1960s of a couple enduring the sinking of their sailboat after colliding with a whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The book focuses on the marriage between this English couple as they struggled to survive at sea and later under the pressure of media interest in their story. The husband is an introverted pessimist with asshole tendencies. The wife believes things happen for a reason and everything will work out if only they keep a positive attitude.

It is not so much the feats of endurance that keep people alive as the absence of surrender.

Elmhirst circles back so often to this idea that the couple’s ultimate survival hinged on a positive attitude, that I guess that’s the main point of the book. I’m sorry, but these sailors made so many errors in seamanship that it’s shocking they survived at all. The author admits in the afterward that she’s never stepped foot on a sailboat. She doesn’t know port from starboard, stem from stern. Who writes a survival at sea story without having sailed?

I am clearly not the target audience for this one.

The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad

May 31, 2026 / Reading, Uncategorized, Writing Guides

Suleika Jaouad is a true believer in the power of journaling. Here, she shares 100 mini-essays by notable writers and artists, with tailored journaling prompts after each. You read the short essay, then respond to the prompt in your journal. The prompts are organized into ten sections that plumb the depths of human experience. Jaouad introduces each section with perspectives from her own life, many sharing how her journal helped her navigate her battles with cancer.

Every morning for the past four months, I read one of these short essays and answered the journal prompt as I sipped my coffee. For some, I wrote a few paragraphs. For others, I carried on for two or three pages. Often, how I thought I would approach a prompt changed as I wrote in surprising ways. This is one of those special books that gives back what you put into it.

Any collection of one hundred essays is bound to have its share of duds. No exception here. There were a few that felt rushed, or pointless, or disconnected from the journaling prompt. And the included essays from Jaouad’s family and friends felt indulgent. But most found a ready pathway to my subconscious through the power of quiet reflection with pen and paper.

If you’re looking for a book to help you start a journal or reinvigorate an existing journaling practice, this is a great choice.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

May 24, 2026 / Horror, Reading

My multi-year quest to read the entire Stephen King catalog continues with this 2015 short-story collection. I listened to this one, which included a bonus story (Cookie Jar) not in the original print edition.

King shows his range of writing styles in this collection. There are straight-up horror stories, mysteries, a western, a creepy noir story, a sparse, depressing story that felt very much like a Raymond Carver story, and a short epic poem.

My favorite was UR, a novella featuring an e-reader that taps into books and news stories from millions of parallel universes. This is a must-read for any diehard Dark Tower fans.

In looking back over the twenty other stories, there were two really good ones (A Death and Summer Thunder), but the majority were just okay. King wrote introductions for most of the stories, which I often liked as much as the stories themselves. There were some terrific insights into how he approaches the craft of writing. Our generation’s greatest storyteller makes it look effortless, but, as he says in one introduction, “easy reading is the product of hard writing.”

I’ve now read all twelve short story/novella collections King has written (so far). For me, this one ranked near the bottom in terms of overall enjoyment. My top two recommendations in this category are Night Shift and You Like It Darker.

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

May 23, 2026 / ★★★★★, Memoir, Nature, Reading

Chloe Dalton, burned out from a hectic career as a crisis-management policy expert, leaves London to work remotely near her family in the English countryside. She stumbles upon a helpless baby hare and rescues it from certain death. Thus begins a story of how this woman raised a wild hare.

Underlying the wonderful and often humorous stories of coexisting with this wild animal, we watch an adrenaline-addicted professional find balance and peace through a connection with nature. Thoreau had Walden Pond; Dillard had Tinker Creek. Dalton makes a meditative study of a Buddha-like hare within a few acres of wild English countryside. Buried within her observations of the hare and its environment are subtle lessons: let go of any illusions of control; find the joy and serenity in the present moment; and understand that your place is within the natural world, not outside of it.

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The Good Life by Jay McInerney

May 14, 2026 / Literary Fiction, Reading

New York City may be the greatest city on earth, but it’s sure tough on marriages. That seems to be the theme that runs through The Good Life, book two of the Calloway saga. The Calloways are now in their forties, raising twins, and still struggling to keep up with the frenzied and moneyed lifestyle of Manhattan.

The novel is set just before and a few months after September 11, 2001. That terrorists could so dramatically disrupt New York, and could do so again at any moment, serves as a midlife crisis accelerator for Corinne and Luke, who meet as volunteers at Ground Zero. They form a special, once-in-a-lifetime bond and must balance their own desires with the needs of their families in a war-torn city.

I loved Brightness Falls, the predecessor to this one, which wrestled with such big themes that I felt it was one of the very best American novels of the past century. This one, with its modest scope and almost cliched theme, was merely good.

The First Forty-Nine Stories by Ernest Hemingway

May 6, 2026 / Literature, Reading

I’m slowly making my way through a reread of the Hemingway canon. I read many of these stories in college, but I’ve never read all of them straight through like this. This time, I read just one story a night, letting it sink in, and then ruminating over it in my journal the next morning.

These stories are, of course, pure Hemingway: short, punchy sentences; deep emotions tucked just below the surface; a palpable disdain for characters who aren’t manly enough, especially those who relinquish their masculinity to a woman’s charms. Such persistent misogyny felt wearisome by the end of forty-nine stories.

My favorites from the collection: The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Cat In the Rain, Fifty Grand, Hills Like White Elephants, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, and Fathers and Sons.

I’m sure there are stories here that would have alarmed readers when published, but the world has moved on since the first half of the 20th Century. I wonder how a modern-day Hemingway would shock readers today. I’m pretty sure Papa would have found a way.