Shane B Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Shane B

@tom_morganKCP David Whyte's "Bell and the Blackbird" is close to this head/heart struggle. Other poets who come to mind: Parker Palmer, collection Let Your Life Speak and another book based on that called Life Speak. Mary Oliver, whose often overlooked essays are as powerful as her poems

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Shane B

@thatroblennon Your question reminded me of this line in Andre Agassi's autobiography Open. https://t.co/00WIObKCEe

Shane B

I've read eight novels so far in 2022. (These, and Ben Lerner's 10:04 on Kindle.) I've been to 2016 UK, apartheid era South Africa, on holiday with rich writers in the French Riviera, 1800s Finland, Ireland in the dark '70s and boom-bust 2000s, New York and Seattle. https://t.co/5fDWJkh5Db

Shane B

@tom_morganKCP @cvaldary @MargaretAtwood Will add: Pema Chodron brings calm to everything. Mary Oliver's poetry is excellent but her essays ("Upstream") are a hidden joy. @DrShefali and @EstherPerel. Heard both speak at an event and they blew me away. Sanna Marin after how she responded to the bullcrap last week.

Shane B

@just_jerrybc @lexfridman "The Dead" by James Joyce is short (maybe 1-2 hours to read) and is often praised as the greatest short story in English. Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake are much more difficult. The Dead is a straightforward read. Every time I read it it speaks to me in a new way.

Shane B

@Ed_Wi11iam @jposhaughnessy @tommycollison Sebastian Barry is excellent and incredibly prolific. His A Long Long Way was a fantastic window into the complexity of being Irish (set in and around Easter 1916, when some Irish are rebelling against the British and many, many more are fighting with them in WW1)

Shane B

Got kids? Do you and them a favour. Read Julia Donaldson books together. Her books are energetic, poetic & layered with lifelong lessons. Ingenuity: The Gruffalo Teamwork: Room on the Broom How love endures: Stick Man Karma: The Highway Rat Perspective: A Squash and a Squeeze

Shane B

@JoyceCarolOates I remember really admiring Saturday by Ian McEwan (though it's a while since I read it...)

Shane B

The top tweet here and its hundreds of replies are taking me down a welcome black hole of poetry. This Bukowski poem was new to me. "what matters most is how well you walk through the fire" https://t.co/AV4FgeHhz4

Shane B

#18 "It was a house without kindness, never meant to be lived in, not a fit place for people or for love or for hope." – The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson