Books that altered my brain chemistry...
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Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is easy and filling. This week we’re diving into one of my favorite topics—books. And, since most of us will be spending at least a little time scouring the internet for gifts today, I thought I’d share some books you may consider gifting this holiday season.
In keeping with the founding spirit of this newsletter, I’m going to walk you through books that I simply cannot stop thinking about. There are good, great, excellent books that I love that won’t make this list. These are the ones that left a trail of curiosity and altered thinking in their wakes. Some I’ve read recently, others I can’t wait to revisit years later—all are worth picking up for yourself or someone you love.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
I had an existential crisis for about two weeks after reading this book. Even now on particularly nihilistic days I may find myself muttering something along the lines of “money is a social construct” “the nation state is just a story we tell ourselves.” The fact of the matter is, the history of humankind doesn’t feel brief but as any good historian will tell you, in the grand scheme of how long we’ve been walking around on two legs, it absolutely is! And, for the little glimmer of time that us bipedal animals have been running things we’ve woven some pretty complex, fantastical, and not-always-beneficial tales: religion! the corporation as human proxy! paper that gives you status!
Harari’s book is a thoughtful look at how Homo Sapiens conquered other humanoid species and the dramatic events that shaped our rise to dominance as well as how the organizing principles of our society came to be. Harari’s tone is narrative which some history purists have balked at but for me it made this book wonderfully readable and well-paced. I think and talk about it often and I cannot recommend it enough if you’re at all curious about how our species managed to become the most powerful on Earth and how we’ve shaped our culture into what it is now. There are lessons about the past and the future to be had here, along with some deep and probing questions about what the legacy we’re leaving says about us as a species.
The Female Brain by Louann Brizedine, M.D.
This is another book I both quote and recommend often—particularly to women and especially to women who have daughters. (Shout out to my friend Chelsea who first brought it to my attention!) Louann Brizedine is a Yale-educated neuropsychiatrist who discovered during her education that almost all the clinical data she was studying as a medical student was based on the neurology, psychology, and neurobiology of men (shock!). Knowing there were deep and important differences between the sexes in these three areas, she established the first clinic in the country to study women’s brain chemistry exclusively. The result is this incredibly digestible but rich exploration of what makes women different and special.
Brizedine takes the reader through the phases of a woman’s life explaining the changes to her brain chemistry that may alter her behavior, cognition, and body. She lays out women's unique ability to communicate, our intrinsic tribalism, how that comes into play throughout our lives, and so much more. This book gave me a better sense of what I have control over in my thinking and behavior and how my brain chemistry can play a role in the way I experience the world. It also gave me a better understanding of the ways women relate socially and the roller coaster we’re all on when it comes to our hormones and aging. For all the heft of the subject matter the book is incredibly approachable and left me thinking about it years after reading it.
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia
Confession: I am not quite done with this book. But I had to include it because it belongs on this list even if I have 100 pages left. Is this book longer than it needs to be? Yes. Is there so much dense medical explanation that I had to take breaks? For sure. BUT have I already begun changing my habits because of it? A resounding YES. Peter Attia is a doctor and longevity enthusiast. His life story is absolutely wild, and I highly recommend listening to the Armchair Expert podcast episode where he discusses his background because this man has lived about 11 lives so far. All that to say, he is brilliant.
What I think is ultra important about is this book is what it’s not. It’s not a diet book. It’s not a promise that he can help you live to 100. It’s not a book that pushes supplements or herbs or any “top secret” path to living longer. This book is SCIENCE. It’s an ultra deep dive into what Attia calls “The Four Horsemen”—the four diseases that, in the end, kill almost everyone: cancer, neurodegenerative disease (Alzheimer’s), type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Not only does Attia take a detailed stroll through each of the Horsemen, laying out what is happening in your body, how it starts long before modern medicine will catch it, and what’s wrong with our current approach to managing it, he also works to explain how we can change our habits now to work toward the ultimate goal—a longer health span (the years we are physically able and cognitively sharp).
I have, unfortunately, a couple family members facing one of the Horsemen as I write this and during recent hospital visits I’ve found that I’m hearing things Attia has written about and connecting the dots. I’m more attuned to prevention and what I need to start doing now to fight my own genetic predisposition to certain of these diseases. I love this book because, again, it’s science all the way down. Attia’s opinions are cautiously given throughout the book and he often notes when he is uncertain or when something he is hypothesizing is not yet fully proven. This book has changed the way I look at disease, the power I have to prevent it, and the goal I have for my later decades. And, as I mentioned it’s changing the way I live now.
From simply reading this I have:
- Dramatically increased my protein intake
- Begun lifting heavier weights
- Starting doing three zone 2 workouts every week (four per week is the long term goal)
- Begun trying to improve my VO2 Max
And I’ll likely add to this list. This book is dense but even if you take it in shifts it’s SO worth the time invested.
An American in Provence: Art, Life, and Photography by Jamie Beck
Something you’ll notice even before you read any of Jamie Beck’s essays in this book is how breathtakingly beautiful the images are. If you’re unfamiliar with Beck, I can’t recommend enough that you follow her on Instagram. She’s a Provence-based photographer and former NYC cool girl who threw away what most would consider a highly enviable and exclusive lifestyle stateside for a quiet, art-centered existence in France (a lifestyle I might say is even more enviable). I met Beck once at an event for a denim brand back in 2011 when I was working as a fashion editor. She was quiet and chic and already gaining fame for having invented the cinemagraph with her husband, Kevin Burg. I have followed her on social ever since, but my interest truly cemented itself during the pandemic when, seemingly on an inspiration bender, Beck created some of the most spellbinding and compelling photographs I’d seen, ever.
Beck’s eye for beauty cannot be denied. She’s lives an impossibly gorgeous life and while that can sometimes feel artificial when experienced through the internet, I find Beck endlessly fascinating and somehow not irritating. I picked up her book to get lost in her photography, not realizing it was full of essays she’d written about here transition from life in NYC to the life she lives now in Provence. Her writing style is rich, nuanced, and poetic—just like her art. Her words seem to somehow float across the page and she’s as masterful at forming a picture through her words as she is through her camera lens.
What I took away from her book was awe and admiration. It sounds hyperbolic but I see Beck as someone who has unending bravery. I have seen the life she lived in NYC up close. I have seen how people strive for it, in a hungry, desperate way that the city manufactures. Reading the tale of someone who had it and left it was thrilling and I’ve thought about it so much since. Beck is someone who, I believe, did an ultra rare thing—to imagine life can be utterly and completely different than what it is and to then go out and make that vision real. As I read this book I was both transfixed and jealous. I can’t recommend it enough.
One of my great passions in life is caring for new mothers. I am a certified lactation counselor and I’ve been through 50 hours of doula training. Nothing makes my heart soar like helping a mother navigate those first hard months of motherhood and find her inner confidence and an unbreakable connection with her child. When I was going through my certification program and doula training we had a required reading list and this book was on it. It completely changed the way I see motherhood, mothers themselves, and the postpartum period. It gave me a new level of understanding of the type of care that every woman deserves and—in the United States—so rarely gets.
If I had to guess, I’d say this is the book most of us would be least likely to pick up but I wish it were required reading. Mothers and their quiet, often thankless work are truly the backbone of our society and offering them true support and empathy would mean a better world for all our children. At the very least if you have a new mother in your life, you’re soon to be a new mother, you’re soon to be a new father, or you’re entering into birth or lactation work, I implore you to read this.
I want to give honorable mention to another incredible book detailing similar subject matter, The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother this gorgeous book is like a warm hug for new mothers. The premise of the book is reviving the “lost art” of nourishing the new mother. It is filled to the brim with warm words and delicious recipes. I recommend it to every new mom and friend of a new mom.
That’s all for now friends. I hope your Thanksgiving is full of love, laughter, cocktails, tasty food, and relaxation. I am so very thankful to all of you for subscribing and reading. I hope you enjoyed this issue. I plan to do a volume 2 featuring fiction books. See you next week!
Still thinking about…
(a few things haunting me on the Internet—Black Friday Edition)
Stocking up on my favorite tinted moisturizer and mascara at Tower28
Snagged the cutest gift EVER for my daughter and nephew, a duffle bag with customizable patches from Becco Bags (30% for Black Friday)
Feeling tempted by way too many things on And Other Stories (25% the whole site for Black Friday)
Making a new wishlist for my house thanks to this new-to-me homewares site
Considering a treat-yo-self moment with these overpriced (but sooo pretty) candlesticks and this gorgeous serving platter from Salter House