June Reads 2024

I had to re-read Stolen Focus, by Johann Hari. I couldn’t resist after digesting The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. I recommend them both to you as they address one of the most pressing issues of our time when it comes to mental health and mental fitness more broadly.

Both are shocking in their early stages as the authors paint the picture historically and in real time. Haidt’s book especially is a deep dive into the big data evidence of what has happened to our young people’s well being since 2010. I urge every parent and school teacher to read this book. As adults there is a serious call to collective action. That we be conscious and activated about what kind of world we want to live in. One where we feel like we belong and one where we have the skills to connect and build community, to nourish each other’s spirits.

Two fabulous Australian writers injected hope and a laugh in the months reading. Ideas to Save Your Life by Michael McGirr is a serious look at philosophers through the ages brough to real life, current application and made easy to read as McGirr peppered the landscape with moments that made me laugh out loud at the absurdity of life and of human interaction.

Bright Shining. How Grace Changes Everything  by Julia Baird continues the joy of her previous book Phosphorescence. I want to live in the world Julia describes where people are in awe of each other’s humanity, where people are kind as their default and by choice, and where hard things are not avoided, rather met collectively, holding hands and feeling each other’s grace.

What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Japanese writer Michiko Aoyama is a gift of subtlety. She describes five lives, all in transition of some sort or another, opening from one state of unknowing to the new state of learning.  A gentle, poetic read that I have found myself reflecting on often. A lovely counterbalance to the challenges of reducing human connection and lack of attention to what is good and right in the world.