One of the books I admire is Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project. Its subtitle is Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. Like many of us, Rubin was interested in being as happy in life as possible, and while that has been a pursuit of human beings for centuries, she had the advantage of relatively recent research on what actually makes people happy . . .
Category: Books
The Rabbit Effect
I’ve noticed as I get older that kindness becomes more and more a priority for me. There was a time when I believed that there were certain circumstances that justified being less than kind — whether that meant scolding someone, or snarling at them, or even just rolling my eyes. But the excuses that I once believed justified being accusatory or rude no longer hold water for me . . .
How Much Do We Need To Be Protected From Each Other?
I listened to this week’s episode of On the Media this morning, the public radio program produced by WNYC in New York which is also available as a podcast. It included an interview with an economic historian, Rutger Bregman, who has just published a book called Humankind: A Hopeful History. In the book he argues that whereas people may not be precisely good, they are generally decent. This is, of course, the opposite of what rulers throughout history would have their subjects and citizens believe . . .
Becoming, by Michelle Obama
I just finished reading Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming. My friend Kaye gave it to me as a gift when it first came out, and I finally picked it up two weeks ago after it had been on the bestseller list for 75 weeks. I thought it would be…okay. It seemed like a book I should read, especially since it was a gift. But it was, in a word, wonderful . . .