Some books I've read

Some good reflection exercises in here about identity and intentions when it comes to creating a space to practice yoga. Wish it had longer explanations and was slightly less preachy, but overall an informative, quick read.

Felt repetitive. Maybe once you've read one book like this, you've read them all?

David Hockney makes me excited that I have eyes.

I am stuck between cultural values aren't I.

Yum!

Things I like about Hockney's process: he often paints the same thing many times, he gets people to help him make super large scale things he couldn't make on his own, and he experiments with new technology in a way that feels super creative.

Enjoyed thoroughly.

The pages they were a-turning. Learnt some Irish words like "press" = cupboard. Follow-up note 7/31/25: "Press" comes from the older English term for a place for storing and pressing clothes, linens, etc. I wonder why Rooney kept this Irish usage of "press" when she flips to American English in some other cases (like saying "college" to mean "the place you go after secondary school" instead of the British/Irish "university".)

Pure candy.

NYT book reviews are always calling things 'poignant' but this one actually was! Probably one of the strongest uses of place in a novel that I've read in a while.

Hilarious especially in the last quarter.

Felt kind of scattered at times but overall a nice overview of yoga philosophy.

I like most things that resemble Ocean's Eleven. Refreshingly nuanced exploration of the immigrant family experience. I think it felt authentic because the story doesn't lean too heavily into trauma narratives like most in this genre do.

The pacing of the three "acts" works well for the most part: the opening third hooks you immediately with its clever premise, while the final act delivers the satisfying payoff you'd expect from a well-executed heist story. The middle section does lose some momentum, but not enough to derail the overall experience.

I'm excited to see how Netflix adapts this!

So funny, so full of great zingers both humorous and profound. The second half sped up the plot so quickly--very worth sticking to it! "It seems very American to expect grief to change something. Like a token you cash in. A formula. Grieve x amount, receive y amount of comfort. Work a day in the grief mines and get paid in tickets to the company store."

"Reynolds is claiming that the myth is true, that every mind has such a trigger built in; that for every person, there is a sentence that can reduce him to an idiot, a lunatic, a catatonic. And he is claiming he knows the one for me." This one snippet of an exchange between two superintelligent characters made me think about how even the most advanced beings can be vulnerable in unexpected ways.

This was honestly really long, but a good read if you don't know much about East Asia during the post-colonial period. Pretty inspiring when it comes to the idea of building a nation "from scratch".

A must-read if you have ever thought about owning things.

I loved this book through and through. Amazing prose and brilliant weaving of personal memoir with public health research. My favorite passage, on the Western cultural obsession with self-improvement and how it influences the way we view autoimmunity:

"What is new is that today, in our secular, individualistic nation, an amorphous illness is seen inevitably as an opportunity to uncover the authentic nature of the self and improve it, a project squarely in line with other obsessions of our neoliberal society. The focus on personal realization obscures the fact that it is not our selves that are wrong but the very structure of our society, with its failing support systems, its poor chemical regulation, its food deserts, its patchwork healthcare delivery."

This was very well-researched, both from academic literature on adjacent topics and from the author's personal experience organizing events, big and small.

On having an unabashed focus for your gathering: "This modesty is related to a desire not to seem like you care too much—a desire to project the appearance of being chill, cool, and relaxed about your gathering...modesty can also derive from the idea that people don't want to be imposed upon."

On being a benevolent and selfless host: "In gatherings, once your guests have chosen to come into your kingdom, they want to be governed—gently, respectfully, and well."

I held out on reading this one for years but I'm glad I finally gave it a chance. Key takeaways: Bloom agrees that everyone needs emotional support sometimes. Therapists and highly cognitively empathic people are more successful at being compassionate not because they're more empathic, but because they can understand others without allowing their own emotions distort others' suffering.

Non-linear plot was hard to follow but very beautiful. Read this one for book club because it was on Obama's summer reading list.

Bits about 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire were especially compelling. +1 for collective action, -1 for the state.

In a world that wants you to be an Elinor, be a Marianne.