The things around us help make up our daily lives. They shape it, color it, contain it, enable it. And this is why it can get weird to start to have complicated relationships with our things. I mostly experience this with books. I’m a perpetual minimizer — I will donate or throw away anything that…More
Category Archives: Books
Why I stopped donating to Compassion, International
Last month I stopped donating to Compassion, International. For a little preamble, I work for a nonprofit. I feel passionately about the value of nonprofit organizations, about the work nonprofit folks do for their communities and the world, and I am committed to making a good career out of nonprofit work as long as I…More
Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
I haven’t really reviewed a book in a while! I figured it was time. And of course I am choosing a book that is so widely beloved right now that I feel a little like I’m raining on the parade by criticizing it. But I feel strongly enough about my experience with the novel that…More
Habits, anxiety, existential crises (overly dramatic? never)
I’m reading slowly through James Clear’s Atomic Habits. Side note (I know, I know, I’ve not really even written enough to justify this as a “side” note, but whatevs): I’ve written about this before, which means I’ve been practicing this whole “reading slowly” thing and I’m delighted to say that it’s becoming more habitual (coincidental,…More
How I am forgiving myself
As I was thinking through a particularly painful, fraught interpersonal issue the other day (the one that sparked my post on emotions and needs), I found myself getting fairly amped up and frustrated at myself for having let the situation go on as long as I did. Why didn’t I see it all earlier?! Why…More
What I read to fall asleep
Earlier this year I was in a real reading rut. I was tired of Plato, but I really needed to read Plato to keep up with my coursework. Reading anything superfluous made me feel guilty for not reading Plato so I ended up not reading anything at all. The thing that saved my reading life…More
Life update: just call me the exhausted bookish swimming Philosophy Master
I think I passed out and woke up four weeks later. It’s been a full couple of weeks, even though not terribly busy; my brain and body have just been full to capacity with the few things in life I’ve been dealing with. Sometimes a few things feel like a hundred. And since Chris and…More
Is science inevitable? Are the arts miraculous?
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan I recently finished reading A Canticle for Leibowitz, which is one of the best post- (and pre!) apocalyptical novels I’ve read in a long time. I feel and think many things about it, but one of the things that it made me continue to think…More
Cognitive load and the morning sweat sesh
My first “read” book of 2021 was Dan Ariely’s The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. It’s awesome. And terrifying, if you are someone who is earnestly trying to strive for honesty and believes honesty to be a bedrock of the moral life. (I still question just how far to take the goodness of honesty, but I’ll…More
Final thoughts on philosophical theology
I kind of can’t believe I did it. I can’t believe I carefully read and blogged my way through the Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology. I’m so, so glad I did and am so, so glad it’s over! (Side note – I feel like lots of my accomplishments fall into this category – I feel…More
