Etty Hillesum: A Life Transformed by Patrick Woodhouse
The more I read about Etty Hillesum, the more in awe I am of her. This book deepened my understanding of what shaped her spiritual awakening—and I still don’t have the words to do it justice. There’s so much I want to say about it, and about Etty, but at the moment it would just come out as word vomit. (Case in point: the other day I asked Courtney to come to my office and she assumed I wanted to read her another Etty passage.) So for now, I’m holding back until I can write about it properly. Suffice it to say: this book is brilliant. (Also, the section on Etty in Enduring Lives: Living Portraits of Women and Faith in Action by Carol Lee Flinders is worth the price of the whole book.)
So Gay For You by Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig
I love a good memoir, and after reading a sample of this one on Amazon, and laughing out loud, I bought it on the spot. It opens with Leisha Hailey recalling the moment she first heard about a new TV show that would eventually become The L Word:
“I was at a barbecue in the Hollywood Hills talking to an ex of one of my exes (in keeping with gay tradition) when she mentioned the lesbian pilot. “Oh, did they finally find Amelia Earhart?” I asked. She chuckled, which made no sense to me, since I was genuinely invested in the aviator’s whereabouts.”
I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of one of my all-time favorite memoirs, High School.
On Solitude by Montaigne
I love the way Montaigne writes. (He is the inventor of the modern essay, after all.) He follows his curiosity wherever it leads, flowing from one thought to the next like he’s having a conversation with himself. But what really makes this worth reading is the wisdom inside. It’s like eavesdropping on someone who’s thinking things through in real time—and stumbling on truths that still hold up centuries later.
Still Writing by Dani Shapiro
I loved this book. It’s full of writing wisdom, yes, but more importantly, it’s full of encouragement. One idea that especially stuck with me was about lowering the stakes: a writer friend of Shapiro’s set out to write a short, bad book. That was the goal. No pressure, no perfection. Just a short, bad book. It ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize.
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman & A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy
No matter how many times I read these books—at this point, it’s probably five or six times each—I always discover something new. When I first read The Daily Stoic in 2016, it felt like a launching pad for the rest of my life. Nine years later, I’m still learning from it. It’s written in a page-a-day format, and this year Courtney and I have been reading a page aloud together each night after dinner. A Calendar of Wisdom has been life-changing, too. I picked it up for the first time in 2019, and now I read a page each night before bed. Somehow, the insights still land as if I’m hearing them for the first time.