A few months ago, I was on a Radiolab binge at work when one of my favorite guests showed up to be interviewed. Neuroscientist Oliver Sacks, author of scientific classics like The Man Who Mistook his Wife as a Hat was a Radiolab staple. His enthusiasm for science and discovery shined through in his interviews, whether he was talking about his love for the Periodic Table of Elements or the strange neurological cases he’d come across in his career. But from the start, this interview […]
Freedom is Only the Beginning
Once upon a time, in a far-off land, I was kidnapped by a gang of fearless yet terrified young men with so much impossible hope beating inside their bodies it burned their very skin and strengthened their will right through their bones. They held me captive for thirteen days. They wanted to break me. It was not personal. I was not broken. This is what I tell myself. I know it’s a little early in the year, but I can’t see how An Untamed State […]
Not as transformative as its predecessor, but beautiful nonetheless
About a year ago, I picked up a stunning book that quickly became my go-to book recommendation. Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead was about an elderly, dying pastor. Desperate to leave something of himself behind to his young son, Reverend John Ames composed letter after letter to the boy, talking about his life, his insecurities, his love of family, his faith in God, and his unshakable belief that the world was a beautiful gift. Astonishingly written, Gilead was a meditation on what it meant […]
A Self-Indulgent Mess
What an utter waste of time. Tom McCarthy is fast becoming the Kate Winslet of the literary world-so much of his work is exceptional, so now they nominate him based on the assumption that this book is good too (Yeah, Winslet, I’m coming for you. Nice accent in Steve Jobs) I picked up McCarthy’s Satin Island because it was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. There’s only been a few times where I profoundly disliked a book that received that honor, but this is […]