Real quick: Tammi and I are still selling our forty day email course The Mantra Project: 40 Days of Sobriety, at a discount, for $11. The price will be $33 on January 2nd, if you’re looking for support in making a change in January, this is a great complement. An email delivered daily to give you an affirmation to work with.
Incredible list! I added all the missing elements to my wishlist – thank you so much – I really appreciate this! I finished the year off with 'Caliban And The Witch', which was utterly mind-blowing, and am starting the New Year with 'The Myth of Normal' and Pema's latest. Wishing you the best! ❤️✨
Thank you for all of your work on Recovering this year Holly, and for compiling this list, it reminded me of some of the great books I've read these past 12 months that you recommended, including The Myth of Normal and I'm Glad My Mom Died. I now have many more that I want to start! I'm also pleased that you mentioned The Copenhagen Trilogy - I devoured that one a few years back and feel it's a seriously underrated book.
And to anyone who's thinking about doing The Mantra Project, I did it a couple of months back and got a lot out of it.
Wishing you, Holly, and everyone else here a happy and healthy 2023.
Great list Holly, thanks for this. The best books I read between April 2021 and the end of 2022 are
bell hooks—The Will To Change
Rachel Kushner—The Hard Crowd
Rebecca Solnit—Recollections of My Nonexistence
Leslie Jamison—The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath
Dorothy Carrington's book about Corsica called Granite Island
Melissa Febos—Body Work
Carl Erik Fisher—The Urge
Brian Broome—Punch Me Up To The Gods
Grayson Perry—The Descent of Man
Kim Stanley Robinson—The High Sierra: A Love Story
Maia Szalavitz—Unbroken Brain
It's hard to pick just one, but looking back at that list, my overall favorite read is probably KSR's book about the Sierra, because of my own love the the mountains, the depth of personal experience that he manages to transmit so beautifully, and also for the fascinating insight into a totally different side of this very successful novelist and science fiction writer. All of these books have had a lasting and present impact on me. hooks' book of course was written quite some time ago, and even Grayson Perry's book isn't brand new, but both shed new light on gender, masculinity, and love.
I loved Last Call by Elon Green, a true-crime book about a serial killer targeting gay men in 1980s/90s NYC. He really did the work of talking to the people who loved these men and painting complete portraits of who they were, vs. the focus on the killer that so many true-crime stories lean toward.
Saving the Modern Soul: Therapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help
I am going to be 60 in March. I was in therapy every single week from 19-49. AA and Alanon did more for me than 25 years of therapy. I was over medicated (in my view because I had excellent insurance) and it was not until I chewed my arm off from the shackle of my co-dependent relationship with the therapist and got in recovery (and off Prescribed medicines:
Ambien, Risperidone, Depakote and whatever cocktail of the antidepressant of the year) and started WALKING and meditating every single day did I get my life back. I was brainwashed into thinking I was sick. My identity was created to make me believe I was “depressed”. I was not depressed...I was grieving. The medical/psych INDUSTRY in America is whacked. I am sober now since 2000 and am happily married and happy to say off any and all medications and mood altering substances.
I totally agree with your caution about psychedelics NOT being the cure for everything that ailes us. I also agree with scientists at major medical institutions. We need more research to establish SAFETY and efficacy guidelines.
A leading neurobiologist who is terminally ill has left money to establish a research center to do just that.
Yes! Thank you for this, Holly! I love seeing Norman Fischer here. Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up is on regular rotation for me. I likely discovered him through you a couple years back.
I'm pretty sure I also discovered May Sarton's Journal of a Solitude through this newsletter; it was my most recent read and felt extremely familiar.
Where the Crawdads Sing was my surprise hit of the year (all the more so since I rarely read fiction unless it's by Ursula K. Le Guin, who is magic in my eyes). I didn't expect Crawdads to feel so immediately resonant; I figured it was more of a "trendy, pop-culture" read. Maybe so, but I couldn't put it down and it still haunts me.
Fantastic list!
I want to be the woman in the bookstore who gave you Emily SJM books. What an angel. Station 11 is one I give friends all the time.
Incredible list! I added all the missing elements to my wishlist – thank you so much – I really appreciate this! I finished the year off with 'Caliban And The Witch', which was utterly mind-blowing, and am starting the New Year with 'The Myth of Normal' and Pema's latest. Wishing you the best! ❤️✨
Holly I know it took a ton of time to develop this post. Thank you so much. It’s something I’ll come back to again and again!
Run by Ann Patchett. Thank you Holly xoo
Great list, thanks! I am THRILLED to find out you'll be talking to Angela Chan, can't wait to listen to that podcast!!
Oh this list is amazing and now I want to read all of them! Top of my list in the last yearish was Tarana Burke’s Unbound.
Thank you for all of your work on Recovering this year Holly, and for compiling this list, it reminded me of some of the great books I've read these past 12 months that you recommended, including The Myth of Normal and I'm Glad My Mom Died. I now have many more that I want to start! I'm also pleased that you mentioned The Copenhagen Trilogy - I devoured that one a few years back and feel it's a seriously underrated book.
And to anyone who's thinking about doing The Mantra Project, I did it a couple of months back and got a lot out of it.
Wishing you, Holly, and everyone else here a happy and healthy 2023.
Such a great list. I've sat reading through it and spending money buying books I can't really afford. I find myself feeling elated as a result.
I love this, thank you :-)
Brain fog kept me from reading book-length material until just recently, and Prairie Fires was the first book that has resonated with me.
Great list Holly, thanks for this. The best books I read between April 2021 and the end of 2022 are
bell hooks—The Will To Change
Rachel Kushner—The Hard Crowd
Rebecca Solnit—Recollections of My Nonexistence
Leslie Jamison—The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath
Dorothy Carrington's book about Corsica called Granite Island
Melissa Febos—Body Work
Carl Erik Fisher—The Urge
Brian Broome—Punch Me Up To The Gods
Grayson Perry—The Descent of Man
Kim Stanley Robinson—The High Sierra: A Love Story
Maia Szalavitz—Unbroken Brain
It's hard to pick just one, but looking back at that list, my overall favorite read is probably KSR's book about the Sierra, because of my own love the the mountains, the depth of personal experience that he manages to transmit so beautifully, and also for the fascinating insight into a totally different side of this very successful novelist and science fiction writer. All of these books have had a lasting and present impact on me. hooks' book of course was written quite some time ago, and even Grayson Perry's book isn't brand new, but both shed new light on gender, masculinity, and love.
I loved Last Call by Elon Green, a true-crime book about a serial killer targeting gay men in 1980s/90s NYC. He really did the work of talking to the people who loved these men and painting complete portraits of who they were, vs. the focus on the killer that so many true-crime stories lean toward.
With regard to:
Saving the Modern Soul: Therapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help
I am going to be 60 in March. I was in therapy every single week from 19-49. AA and Alanon did more for me than 25 years of therapy. I was over medicated (in my view because I had excellent insurance) and it was not until I chewed my arm off from the shackle of my co-dependent relationship with the therapist and got in recovery (and off Prescribed medicines:
Ambien, Risperidone, Depakote and whatever cocktail of the antidepressant of the year) and started WALKING and meditating every single day did I get my life back. I was brainwashed into thinking I was sick. My identity was created to make me believe I was “depressed”. I was not depressed...I was grieving. The medical/psych INDUSTRY in America is whacked. I am sober now since 2000 and am happily married and happy to say off any and all medications and mood altering substances.
Hi
I totally agree with your caution about psychedelics NOT being the cure for everything that ailes us. I also agree with scientists at major medical institutions. We need more research to establish SAFETY and efficacy guidelines.
A leading neurobiologist who is terminally ill has left money to establish a research center to do just that.
Yes! Thank you for this, Holly! I love seeing Norman Fischer here. Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up is on regular rotation for me. I likely discovered him through you a couple years back.
I'm pretty sure I also discovered May Sarton's Journal of a Solitude through this newsletter; it was my most recent read and felt extremely familiar.
Where the Crawdads Sing was my surprise hit of the year (all the more so since I rarely read fiction unless it's by Ursula K. Le Guin, who is magic in my eyes). I didn't expect Crawdads to feel so immediately resonant; I figured it was more of a "trendy, pop-culture" read. Maybe so, but I couldn't put it down and it still haunts me.