Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Burned. Out.

Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen

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Best for: All of us, collectively, as a society, who are fed up with the expectations that we just work work work. In a nutshell: Author Petersen explores how the Millennial generation has been put into basically a really shit situation. Worth quoting: “This isn’t a personal problem. It’s a societal one — and it will not be cured by productivity apps, or a bullet journal, or face mask skin treatments, or overnight fucking oats.” “Just because middle-class parents decided that a certain style of […]

Incisive and Interesting Essays on Orthodox Jewish Childhood

Artifacts of Orthodox Jewish Childhood by Dainy Bernstein (editor)

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Artifacts of Orthodox Childhoods is a book of personal and critical essays that cover a historically under-researched topic. The book is inclusive of a wide range of viewpoints and backgrounds, and it benefits from the thought that went into the editing of the essays and the impulse to widen instead of narrow the people who contributed. I appreciated that this book didn’t retread the same familiar ground we see in the media of the triumphant escape from the backwards evil of Ultra-Orthodoxy. Instead, the collection gave […]

Why Are We Okay With Just Two Days Off?

Overtime: Why We Need a Shorter Working Week by Will Stronge & Kyle Lewis

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Best for: Workers. In a nutshell: Stronge and Lewis make a simple, elegant, and frankly pretty difficult to refute case for shortening the work week to four days or fewer. Worth quoting: “[B]eing able to relax, spend time with loved ones, pursue self-directed activity and have freedom from a boss are all essential parts of what it means to be human. Time is life after all.” Why I chose it: Verso books had a sale 😀 Review: When I really think about it, is is […]

Two books about the brain (kinda)

Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains by Helen Thomson

This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society by Kathleen McAuliffe

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I’ve had a couple of brain books sitting on my shelf for a little while, one (Unthinkable) courtesy of a local Little Free Library, and one (This Is Your Brain on Parasites) courtesy of my husband wanting to qualify for free shipping on an online order. I decided to do a “brain dump” in January, and while neither of these books exactly blew off my Bombas, both contained enough interesting information that I would recommend them if you’re in the mood for some light science. […]

We Need Each Other

The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence by The Care Collective

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Best for: Those interested in a new way to think about society and community. In a nutshell: The Care Collective makes the case for a re-framing of our priorities, putting care at the top, and organizing society around that. Worth quoting: “The inherently careless practice of ‘growing the economy’ has taken priority over ensuring the well-being of citizens.” “One of the great ironies surrounding care is that it is actually the rich who are most dependent on those they pay to service them in innumerable […]

Good advice to start the new year: Workers, unite! Take a break! Relax! Read a book!

In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell, with Bradley Trevor Greive

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Bertrand Russell is considered one of the finest academic minds of the 20th century. He was a true polymath who excelled in philosophy, mathematics, and logic. Born an aristocrat (an actual Earl, for heaven’s sake)  and educated at Cambridge, Russell nevertheless championed social causes such as pacifism and rights for homosexuals. In 1935, he published In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays, in which he argues for, among other things, a four-hour workday. The essay “In Praise of Idleness” is barely 5000 words long. However, […]



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