Adult

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.

Let’s get this straight: I’m an avid Dodger fan. But I cannot resist great baseball stories, and Horwitz knows how to spin a good yarn. The longtime PR director for the New York Mets shares his reflections throughout four dynamic and unpredictable decades in baseball. I breezed through this book and hopes he writes four more!  

A collection of 75 recipes from Grandmothers in eight eastern African countries. Delight as they welcome you into their kitchens to share flavorful recipes and stories of family, love and tradition in this transporting cookbook-meets-travelogue, a great start to the new year.

Here, the FUBU founder and star of ABC’s Shark Tank shows that, far from being a liability, broke can actually be your greatest competitive advantage as an entrepreneur. Why? Because starting a business from broke forces you to think more creatively. It forces you to use your resources more efficiently. It forces you to connect with your customers more authentically, and market your ideas more imaginatively. It forces you to be true to yourself, stay laser focused on your goals, and come up with those innovative solutions required to make a meaningful mark. Inspiring read.