Essays and Opinion

This is a set of linked essays ostensibly about loving New York City and then leaving it, but really about growing into adulthood and learning to be comfortable in your own skin. Choi's writing is funny and insightful, and the book is a lot of fun to read.

This is the story of a woman who buys a cabin in the woods for some peace and quiet... and then neighbors arrive. In short, it is the story of the destruction of one woman's paradise, slightly exaggerated for creative effect and told in a tongue-in-cheek style. The result is a short book that is fun to read, but makes some solid points about our relationship with nature and rural spaces, and how we can sometimes destroy the thing we say we love about a place.

This short ebook is a collection of six Ask Polly columns, along with a short introduction. If you like Ask Polly columns, you'll probably like this book. If you've never read one, this book is a good introduction. I enjoyed the columns, but what I really appreciated in this book was the way the columns were selected to look at the various types of problems/worries in our lives. In doing so, they help you examine your own approach to these sorts of crises, and maybe think a little bit more deeply about what really matters in your life.

This is a very short book about New Year's resolutions: it is the length of a short story. It is also really funny, and Irby's honesty about her resolutions and why she failed to keep them might give you a thought or two about our tendency to make resolutions and then immediately break them.

I don't know what made me decide to download this book, but I'm glad I did. It is an insightful exploration of illness, faith, and what it means to really be well. The tone is gentle and humble and one of honest reflection. It does not read like a lecture, but like a conversation with a really thoughtful friend. I am not a religious person, and I probably never will be, but the discussion of faith in this book really spoke to me, and gave me more understanding of the role faith can play in people's lives.

This book introduces you to the world of Hindi films, commonly called "Bollywood" films. The historical and artistic information is interspersed with stories from the author's own journey to Hindi film fandom. The conversational tone and the personal stories make this a fun, engaging read. If you, like me, have never really considered Hindi films, this book will show you that they are more than flashy dance sequences and sappy love stories.

This short ebook is part family history, part memoir, and part travel narrative. Bonnie Rough explores her Estonian heritage and Estonia, and produces a very readable story of personal growth and discovery, and coming to terms with our whole selves.

This is a thought-provoking look at the arbitrary nature of political borders, and the human toll they create. It does not delve into the policy implications of changing our current system, but instead makes a moral argument that we cannot ignore the suffering the system is causing. It is not a book that intends to give answers. It instead forces us to grapple with the morality of our current system, and encourages us to think about what other systems might be possible.

This well-written book is part personal essay about dealing with a relative's Alzheimer's disease, part summary of recent research about how Alzheimer's patients experience the world, and part reporting on a new type of care home in the Netherlands. These parts combine to produce a thoughtful and thought-provoking examination of how we can best help Alzheimer's patients.

This book is part travelogue and part an examination of what "independent travel" has become and what that means for the individuals travelling and the communities they visit. The travel stories are wonderfully engaging and the wider arguments about travel are thought-provoking and well-presented.

Starting with the story of Varian Fry and his often overlooked work rescuing European intellectuals from the Nazis, this book leads the reader through a fascinating meditation on the motivations of rescuers, the morality of their decisions, and the limits of gratitude.

This is an interesting and thought-provoking look at the economics of information, which, the author argues, doesn't want to be free so much as it wants to be shared. Producing and distributing information is most decidedly not free, and this book looks at the conflict between the fact that information is more valuable when it is shared, but will not be produced if the people who create it are not adequately compensated.

A short look at the question of why people travel, particularly in a time when we have more options for making connections remotely than ever. Written by a travel writer who has clearly thought quite a bit about what travel brings to his life, this book does not provide a definitive answer to the question but does provide some good insights, delivered in an engaging style.

Part memoir and part advice for writers, this book was an interesting and inspiring read. Even people who are not aiming to be professional authors are likely to find some useful ideas and advice.

This is a light-hearted but interesting look at why we care so much about beer, with a mix of history, brewing technique, and ruminating on the role beer plays (and has played) in different cultures.

This eBook has two parts. The first is a history of the Attica prison riot of 1971 and its immediate aftermath, told from the viewpoint of one of the men who was brought in to try to negotiate a peaceful ending to the standoff. It is a personal history, but will give the reader an overview of the broader events. The second is an essay discussing what we can learn from that history, and an argument that we should apply what we learn to reform our current prison system.

This book is both a look at what has gone wrong with United States politics and a call to action to fix it. Lessig traces our political deadlock to the corrosive effects of money in politics, and argues persuasively that the tools of the 21st century gives us, the citizens, the power to fix the problem, if only we'd recognize our power and act on it.