I went visit friends for New Year’s Eve, and this book came up in conversation, and my friends had a copy of it. I ended up reading a bit of it, then reading a bit more, then probably staying up too late and reading the whole thing. The book is based on the Enneagram, and …

The Together Leader Early on in my teaching experience, someone referred me to The Together Teacher, which was an online course to teach teachers how to be organized. As a new teacher, it was helpful, even if I didn’t follow every single step of it. I’m in a new role at my school now, and …

Getting Things Done I first heard of this book when I was in design school. I remember a classmate telling me that there was a whole following of “Getting Things Done” and I remember thinking that seemed like an unusual thing to be interested in, then forgetting about it for the next eight years or …

Thrive Get enough sleep and take a break once in a while! That’s my 11 word summary of Thrive. Arianna Huffington writes about the wakeup call she received in the form of her collapsing from lack of sleep and exhaustion. She writes about the importance of sleep and meditation, and creates a vision of how …

The Beekeeper’s Lament In August, I went to a friend’s house, and their roommate had bees. I got started asking questions because that is generally how I handle conversations with new people and then I became a bit obsessed with beekeeping. I want to get bees and keep them in my yard and get local …

Going into Town I read all of this while standing in a comic book store in Ann Arbor, and it was a quick, personal read – it made me want to read more graphic novels. The Way I Used To Be I really liked this book – it reminded me a lot of “Speak” but …

Miss Penigrine’s Home for Peculiar Children I’ve been meaning to read this book for about ten years. It was a really entertaining book, and had strong world building without crossing the line into being too magical or too nonsensical. Yes, there was sci-fi/fantasy, but those elements had rules and the book was still rooted in …

From Here to Eternity I loved loved loved The Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, so it only makes sense that I would love Caitlin Doughty’s second book, From Here to Eternity. In it, she details death rituals from around the world. The book made me question the way that the death rituals I grew up …

Linchpin My friend Devon lent this book to me a while back. Also, to be honest, I did not finish this book until today, May 4. This was a really worthwhile read – it’s nonfiction, and it’s about the way that ordinary employees can go above and beyond in their positions and do innovative things …

Be Here Now This book was all about the benefits of meditation, and the sell it well – I really believe that there are tangible benefits to meditating. And then, at the end of the book, they say about how it’s a bad idea to try and start meditating on your own and how you …