Sponsored by Simon & Schuster.
“Creates beautiful new words that we need but do not yet have.” —John Green. A truly original book in every sense of the word, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows poetically defines emotions that we all feel but don’t have the words to express, until now—from the creator of the popular online project of the same name. With a gorgeous package and beautifully illustrated throughout, this is the perfect gift for creatives, word nerds, and people everywhere.
Happiest of Fridays, nonfiction friends! I don’t know about you, but the last couple of weeks have kicked me in the behind. Some potent mixture of work projects, holiday celebrations, travel planning, pandemic anxiety, and early darkness has left me feeling like doing little more than eating carbs and going to bed super early.
It’s also got me thinking a lot about doing less and the ways in which we can all learn to cut ourselves some slack. It seems like that’s been a common theme for several years, resulting in many books on my TBR about this topic. Here are three on my list:
Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less by Tiffany Dufu
This memoir, targeted specifically at women, is a call to action to let go and do less. Tiffany Dufu, a self-described “poster child for doing it all,” writes about realizing how difficult it felt to pursue her career and personal goals after the birth of her first child. Eventually, she came to the realization that the only way to move forward was to let go – change expectations, reduce her to-dos, and get help from others. This is the most achievement-oriented of the books on my list, but I suspect it will resonate with many people.
Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price
Devon Price is another recovering overachiever. After finishing college and graduate school early, they were diagnosed with anemia and heart complications from overexertion. This prompted an exploration into the “laziness lie” – an idea that began with the Puritans and continues to this day. The book looks at how people today work more than ever but feel like we’re not doing enough and how digital tools have contributed to this feeling of overwork.
The Art of the Wasted Day by Patricia Hampl
This book is an exploration of leisure and an exploration of people who have found ways to disconnect from the demands of their lives to pursue lives of leisure in their own ways. In the book, Hampl goes off on pilgrimages to visit historical figures, as well as traces her own history and fascination with doing nothing and the things that letting go can bring. I loved this line from the description: “The real job of being human, Hampl finds, is getting lost in thought, something only leisure can provide.”
One Thing I Like
Although I’ve mentioned it in past newsletter editions, I want to give another call out to John Carreyrou’s new podcast Bad Blood: The Final Chapter. The 11 episodes, so far, have been a satisfying extension of the work he did writing about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos in Bad Blood. Each episode explores a new angle of the story, incorporating new reporting, additional audio sources, and testimony from the trial happening right now. It’s fascinating and highly recommended!
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
For more nonfiction reads, head over to the podcast service of your choice and download For Real, which I co-host with my dear friend Alice. If you have any questions/comments/book suggestions, you can find me on social media @kimthedork. Happy weekend!
