BookStack Saturday
Almost every Saturday, I’ll post my BookStack for that week: the books I’m reading or have read during the previous 7 days. Sometimes, with commentary. Sometimes, without.
From the top, a small and delightful book sent to me by my friend Lila, Robert Deyber Miniatures is a collection of sixty handcrafted stone lithographs that identify with the Hudson River School of 19th century painters who showed us the sky with its great cloud formations. Deyber’s clouds, however present and 19th century they are, are background to a surrealism I find utterly delightful.
The Hard Conversations Book Club is reading Transgender Explained for Those Who Are Not by Joanne Herman, herself a transgender woman. I’ve just started this book for our conversation in a few weeks and will have more to say about it later.
I love Ron Carlson’s short stories, and they are often on my BookStack to re-read, particularly when I’m recuperating or traveling and need something good to read in bite-sized bits. The News of the World is one of my favorites of his collections.
Art & Fear is a perennial favorite. I’ve read it many times, and this week read it again, along with Ted Orland’s newest book, The View from the Studio Door. If you are a creative, you owe it to yourself to read these two short books.
I’m always interested in change and as part of that interest, I’m actively investigating what makes a habit a habit. I found Making Habits, Breaking Habits by Jeremy Dean at the local library and am appreciating his scientific approach about brain science–and because Felix has Autism and lacks executive function, I am finding it ever the more interesting.
The Body Keeps the Score is still on my nightstand (hey, it’s a big book) and I am making my way through it, pencil in hand. The writing is clear, compelling, and I am finding many moment of recognition in this book. I will keep going.
The Patient’s Playbook: How to Save Your Life and the Lives of Those You Love by Leslie D. Michelson is an excellent primer on how to engage in the field of health care from a consumer’s perspective. It touches on how to find the best primary care physician, to how to prepare for appointments, to Emergency Room 101. I’m finding this an invaluable resource and wish I had read it years ago, or – at the very least – four weeks ago.
