What We’re Reading – December 2020

As this year comes to a close, it’s clear that the challenges of 2020 won’t simply disappear in the new year. But we’re tired. Everyone is tired. So we’re going into the end of this year remembering what hope and happiness looks like, so we can make the next year a better one. 

This is what we’re reading—

Turkeys in Snow

April 2020
The White Review

After Edward Hirsch

1 min

The Kingdom That Failed

August 13, 2020
The New Yorker

“To see a splendid kingdom fade away is far sadder than seeing a second-rate republic collapse.” 

12 min

How I Came to Love My Quarantine Reading Project

November 1, 2020
The Atlantic

What started out as a self-imposed quarantine challenge—to read through all of Proust’s work—turned into something else entirely. 

14 min

Periwinkle, the Color of Poison, Modernism, and Dusk

August 2020
The Paris Review

“Periwinkle” first appeared in English in the 1920s, but some variation of the color existed for long before then. Author Katy Kelleher tracks periwinkle through nature and history—both of the color, and of her own family. 

15 min

Ararat

1992
Poetry by Louise Glück

A portrait of a family told in verse, Ararat tells the story of a daughter’s rebellion against her parents’ inability to express their emotions. 

72 pages

The Glossary of Happiness

May 12, 2016
The New Yorker

Every culture has a different concept of what happiness is, and many languages from those cultures have terms to describe it that have no direct English translation. The Positive Lexicography Project tries to catalogue those terms. 

5 min

Breasts and Eggs

April 2020
Novel by Mieko Kawakami 

A story of the journeys of three different women, Breasts and Eggs digs deep into what it means to be a woman in today’s world, and how women confront the expectations the world has for them. 

448 pages

The Body Keeps the Score

September 8, 2015
Nonfiction by  Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD 

In this collection of research done by trauma specialists around the world, Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk explores the physical effects trauma can have on the body—but also how people can rebuild their relationships and their lives. 

464 pages

The Architecture of Happiness

April 8, 2008
Nonfiction by Alain De Botton

We’ve spent more time in our homes this year than perhaps any other time in our lives. What connection does our physical space have to our mental wellbeing? The Architecture of Happiness makes the argument that the buildings we spend time in does matter to mental health. 

288 pages