Julia's Reviews

If Guillebeau’s bestseller The $100 Startup was the guide on how to work for yourself, here’s a manifesto on making work meaningful. Even if your dream isn’t to launch a startup or break a record, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with a brain-draining, crazy-making job. Born For This is intelligent encouragement toward figuring out what kind of work matches your skills, interests, and lifestyle needs—and gives you fulfillment and a steady paycheck.  —Julia

Robert Peace was a bold, brilliant young man who fought to overcome the vicious social injustice and racism that still underlies American life. With commanding honesty and depth, Hobbs—who was Peace’s close friend—traces Peace’s unique and tough childhood in Newark, his accomplishments, his murder. An illuminating account of struggle and a brutal reality-check about poverty, class, and “The American Dream” that many of us don’t want to acknowledge. —Julia

Give yourself plenty of time when you open this fierce, heartfelt portrait of a broken family; it reads quickly and you won’t want to put it down. When Amy and her children flee their abusive patriarch, the path to finding new lives is desolate. The three voices weave together to express the struggles of self-reinvention after trauma, being gay in the rural West, and understanding the threads of the past. —Julia

With every new book, it seems, Karen Joy Fowler's creative brilliance and mastery of language shines brighter, hits harder, and enchants deeper. This collection of stories, both mystical and astute, defies categorization—fairytales retold, parables made modern, dark and sinister legends confounded—but holds together beautifully. --Julia

In this collection of loosely connected stories, things are as fragmented and disorienting as the narrator’s substance-muddled mind. Yet the touches of transcendence in the midst of violence, overdoses, car crashes and robbery render the mess with gruesome beauty. As usual, Johnson draws a world both smoldering and radiant with brutal glory.  --Julia

Oh, the weird, wonderful world of Miranda July. The First Bad Man is that brilliant kind of book that has a reader looking back, two-thirds of the way through, laughing, "How did she gets us here?" Cheryl Glickman, an un-special mostly-work-from-home forty-something with an overactive inner dialogue, takes in the the daughter of her bosses. Clee, an aggressive bomb-shell blond with terrible hygiene bullies Cheryl until their relationship turns into an eye-opening, transformative experiment that only Miranda July could tenderly produce. Compact, no wasted words, and truly funny. July prods our most sensitive notions about what it feels like to be an average weirdo in nowhere special. We become these characters--we already are these characters--with all their surreal interactions and pathetic insecurities and glorious fantasies.

This much-awarded poet presents a fresh but familiarly electrifying collection that shines with wise humor and hard-hitting commentary—and beauty of syntax that unfailing turns a key in my heart. He is my poetry hero not only because he got his MFA and teaches at my alma mater, but because he is as brilliant as they come.

The author of Shop Class as Soulcraft returns with a philosophical examination of how we perceive and interact with the world. In a culture that largely engineers our experiences—every surface, moment between YouTube videos, every bus passing by bombards our mental space—silence is a luxury good and autonomy is valued over interaction. By looking at skilled professions that require complete attention, Crawford’s manifesto argues for reclaiming mindfulness and engagement with the outside world as a means of achieving highest human potential. 

Big Magic is a sweeping manifesto heralding the power of inspiration and intuition, of creativity's force in human hearts and mind. Elizabeth Gilbert's wit and wisdom is so unpretentious, so unique to her, so relatable yet inspirational, that--in a sea of how-to and "fix your life" shticks--Big Magic is beyond refreshing. The Creative Living of which Gilbert writes isn't exclusive to professional artists--or even "artists" at all. Are you interested in becoming more receptive to the inspired, un-jaded side of yourself? Open Big Magic. Are you an artist interested in cutting out your (obnoxious, by the way) "tortured artist" act and creating your work joyfully? Open Big Magic. Gilbert is realistic about her convictions, and candid about her failings and doubts; her delightful personality shines so brightly in this marvelously meaningful book.

What if we could harness the best qualities we use when we play games to make the real world a better place? Renowned game designer Jane McGonigal wondered that after a severe concussion led her to depression. She created SuperBetter, a web game that saved her life. This research-packed book traces the science behind how games can help us improve memory, mood, resilience, and compassion—even minimize physical pain and protect against posttraumatic stress disorder.