This week I finished: The Choice: Embrace the Possible, by Dr. Edith Eger: At one point listening to this book, I started feeling choked up. Tears started welling up in my eyes. I asked myself, "When has a book made me cry?" "Has a book ever led me to cry?" I continued to ask myself. As the book continued, I started full-on bawling at the experience of the author, how she made her greatest struggles useful for herself, and how she is sharing them to help all of us use our struggles to reach the greatest pinnacles, to reach our potentials. Note: this is not a self-help book, though you can use it that way. When I talk about her struggles, they include being imprisoned…

This week I finished: Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others, by Adam Galinsky: Adam teaches leadership at Columbia Business School, where I learned there were classes in leadership and took them. In them, I learned that I could learn social and emotional skills. I eventually wrote a book on leadership, Leadership Step by Step, with a chapter called Inspire. I also recently met Adam in person at an event with a bunch of people from his department. How could I not read this book? Adam is a social psychologist. This book is engaging and compelling because it has a lot of stories, including many from his personal life, despite being mostly about research and how to act on it. He did a…

This week I finished: The Way Home: Tales From a Life Without Technology, by Mark Boyle: I learned of Mark Boyle probably years ago and I think watched his TEDx talk. Recently a guest suggested I connect with an Australian woman, Jo Nemeth, who is living with no money. I connected with Jo, which led to engaging conversations. Jo describes Mark as a hero, which prompted me to read this book. I also want to read his first book The Moneyless Man, but the library had this one first. I found this book engaging, enlightening, fun, and sometimes playful. It's been too long since I read Walden and Civil Disobedience, which rank among the most influential books I've read. This one is in their league.…

This week I finished: The Male Brain, by Louann Brizendine: I heard of Brizendine's first book The Female Brain, but the library had The Male Brain, so I got it instead. Reading it was satisfying, learning about differences between the male brain and what I hear more about, which is our commonalities. There seems to be a mainstream outrage that claims that the male brain and body are considered normal and women's are considered unusual, so not studied. I grew up with my parents having female-centered works like Ms. magazine and Our Bodies Ourselves, but no equivalent for males. Men's magazines in the 1970s meant pornography. Most of my life, focusing on gender meant "smashing the patriarchy," so it was refreshing to learn about specifically…