Adult

Need a laugh? I’ve always enjoyed Seth Rogen as an actor, and this collection of short essays literally had me in tears. The perfect antidote to a tough day.

During the 1960s and ‘70s, Polaroid was the coolest technology company on earth. Like Apple, it was an innovation machine that cranked out one must-have product after another. Led by its own visionary genius founder, Edwin Land, Polaroid grew from a 1937 garage start-up into a billion-dollar pop-culture phenomenon. This book tells the remarkable tale of Land’s one-of-a-kind invention-from Polaroid’s first instant camera to hit the market in 1948, to its meteoric rise in popularity and adoption by artists such as Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, and Chuck Close, to the company’s dramatic decline into bankruptcy in the late '90s and its unlikely resurrection in the digital age. Both an inspiring tale of American ingenuity and a cautionary business tale about the perils of companies that lose their creative edge.

What you don't know about yourself can hurt you and your relationships. Witty and filled with stories, this book – while exploring one’s connections with Christian spirituality – is more about becoming wiser and more compassionate with others. We could all use a little bit more of that, no?

I have Kirk Kirkwood to thank for this recommendation. A wonderful collection of eight short stories from memories of youth, meditations on music, and an ardent love of baseball – to dreamlike scenarios and invented jazz albums. Together, these stories challenge the boundaries between our minds and the exterior world. Occasionally, a narrator may or may not be Murakami himself. Is it memoir or fiction? The reader decides.

With the pandemic starting to subside (let’s pray it’s over!), it looks like families can finally start going out again. This light-hearted “trip down memory lane” chronicles the informal history of the family road trip with hysterical and painstaking accuracy.

Nearly thirty years ago, while Claire and her brother slept upstairs, a brutal crime was committed in their grand London home. The next morning, her father's car was found abandoned, with bloodstains on the front seat. The first lord accused of murder in more than a century, he has been missing ever since. Now a doctor living under an assumed name, Claire learns the police may have found him, and her carefully calibrated existence begins to fracture.

Subtitled “The Illustrated Guide to Improving Business Deals and Family Meals,” this takes its place in my growing library of great reads by Duke behavioral economics professor Ariely. Along with illustrator Matt R. Trower, they present a playful graphic novel guide to better decision-making, based on Ariely’s groundbreaking research in behavioral economics, neuroscience and psychology.

In this comic adventure through the loneliness epidemic, a middle-aged everyman looks around one day and realizes that he seems to have misplaced his friends, inspiring him to set out on a hilarious and ultimately moving quest to revive old tribes and build new ones, in his own ridiculous way.

I devour leadership books, and what made this one stand out was Germain’s intriguing look at those “maverick” leaders who are willfully independent. My copy has a ton of dog-earred pages.

Had to grab this one, especially with the recent Arctic freeze. In a day and age when so many put politics ahead of science, it is nice to know that some people are paying attention and fighting for solutions based on facts. That’s what readers do.

While training for the New York City Marathon, Murakami decided to keep a journal of his progress. The result is a memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid recollections and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer. Fascinating rand inspiring read!

I like books that make me smile. The cover of this book sold me. When actor Leslie Jordan learned he had “gone viral,” he had no idea what that meant or how much his life was about to change. The popular “Instagram celebrity” shares a collection of quirky and sassy essays in this enteraining read.

Had to pick this one up, as it intrigued me. Harvard’s top astronomer lays out his controversial theory that our solar system was recently visited by advanced alien technology from a distant star.

With millions unemployed because of the pandemic, it seems a lot of us could use a bit of comic relief. Oshry is one of these “social media influencers” that my kids seem to talk about, and what I enjoyed most about this book was its honesty. Oshry is always husting, and she has learned a lot of hard lessons. Through it all, her humility stands out.

On DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name, Cornejo Villavicencio embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants – and to find the hidden key to her own. A well-deserved National Book Award finalist.