Category Archives: Health and wellness
Unwinding Anxiety
Judson Brewer says anxiety is a habit, a learned behavior. In Unwinding Anxiety he presents a helpful framework for dealing with anxiety centered on hacking your brain’s reward system to reduce or eliminate it. Continue reading
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again
Do you have trouble focusing these days? Are you getting interrupted by so many notifications, beeps and pings that you can’t concentrate on anything? Are you reaching for your phone every two minutes to check for the latest updates, likes … Continue reading
Life Is Hard
Life is Hard is about living well in the face of hardship and suffering.
Part personal essay, part history of philosophy and part philosophical reasoning, it’s essentially an examination of Pandora’s Box with chapters on sickness, grief, loneliness, failure and other ills, and a final chapter on hope. Continue reading
Younger Next Year
The authors of Younger Next Year boldly claim you can turn back your biological clock. By following their suggestions, a person in their sixties or seventies can be fitter and healthier than they were in their fifties. The book is … Continue reading
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
While bedridden and convalescing from a long and mysterious illness, author Elisabeth Tova Bailey adopts a snail. A visiting friend brings her some potted violets and, living among them, a common forest snail. Bailey is barely able to sit up … Continue reading
COVID Year 2
A year ago, I posted a reflection on working from home during the first year of the pandemic. A lot has happened in the second year. Back then, I was waiting for my turn to get the COVID vaccine. I … Continue reading
Poe for Your Problems
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most creative and influential American writers of all time. He wrote 70 short stories, published three volumes of poetry, a full length novel plus numerous essays and letters. He invented the detective story. … Continue reading
Dying of Whiteness
There are two main ideas in Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland: Right-wing policies implemented by Republican administrations attract supporters because they align with a fundamental desire of many white voters to preserve … Continue reading
Invisible Women
I strongly recommend Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men to half the people of the world – the male half. Women may not need to read this book as much because they are, unfortunately, living it. … Continue reading
Unsolicited Feedback 