Mind, Body & Spirit Recommendations from our 2020 Winter Newsletter

There is a healthy way to be angry at Trump and white supremacy. In this profound and helpful book, a queer Black Buddhist teacher wrestles with his own rage. He teaches us how spiritual practice and vigilant activism can be interwoven. He does not teach us to bypass anger, but instead to use it as a tool. This is the book on social justice and mindfulness we have been waiting for. I cannot recommend it highly enough. — Jason 

The term “emotion scientist” may sound made up, but it’s a real and important job in the mental health field. Brackett has held that title for more than 25 years and has given us a book to share what he’s learned over the past two-and-a-half decades. Childhood is a pivotal time for our development, and Brackett has developed RULER, a system that teaches the skills of emotional intelligence, setting children and adults up for healthier relationships to their own emotions and those of others. — MJ

Adam Kirsch surveys themes of alienation in the Old World, assimilation in America, and newfound nationhood in Israel, bringing to light, or profoundly illuminating, some of the great works of Jewish literature. He ends with a selection of Judaism’s formative religious responses to the 20th century, from philosophical to feminist. His fascinating and enjoyably readable prose made me want to read, or reread, almost every one. I believe I will.  — Dave

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, The Undying is unapologetic, unflinching, and unsentimental. Boyer’s diagnosis of triple- negative breast cancer propels her into the sphere of the “sick,” and her thrift shop mom aesthetic becomes infused with platinum-rich chemotherapy treatments, an oncological lexicon, and ritualistic obedience to a capitalist healthcare system. Written in her acclaimed essay-style prose, Boyle torches the idea of a “pink ribbon for the cure” and rejects the notion that her illness can be quantified by analytics and mortality calculators. The Undying is a dissection of the relentless rhetoric of “fighting” cancer: as Boyer shows, personal determination alone cannot separate “survivors” from “lost battles.” Austere and deeply personal, The Undying unravels the subtle intricacies of living with illness as she weaves her own intimate narrative of an exhaustive pursuit of undying. — Charlotte