Required Reading: Friday, August 14, 2015

Required Reading: Friday, August 14, 2015

In our Required Reading this week, Ann discusses her struggles with meditation and mindfulness, and some tools that are currently working for her. Capria tells us about her recent 600+ mile motorcycle trip around Northern Michigan, which helped her think about some great literary journeys. Jessica, too, is thinking about journeys–in this case, the Great Migration. And then, how do stories shape our lives? How are bestsellers marketed? What separates human skills from machine skills?

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Beautiful Ideas: Shklovsky’s Theory of Prose

Beautiful Ideas: Shklovsky’s Theory of Prose

For Shklovsky, art extends life–by making the familiar unfamiliar, it invigorates our attention and in so doing ensures that even minor things make an impression on us. Who among us hasn’t driven or walked a familiar path, only to arrive at the destination with no memory of the trip? Art has the capacity to remind us of the curve in the road, even the sound of cars driving by.

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A Text at Work: Tristram Shandy

A Text at Work: Tristram Shandy

Tristram Shandy is preeminently concerned with the way storytelling conventions shape our self-perceptions and our perceptions of others, with the way narratives shape our lives. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Volume 6, Chapter XL, when Tristram attempts to sketch his story as he has told it thus far. Instead of the typical storyline we expect–shaped like an upside down ‘U’–Tristram gives us unusual loops and squiggles. Life isn’t neat and tidy–nor are the stories we tell about it. Laurence Sterne and Tristram Shandy recognize this.

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Reading Tales of Adventure With Children

Reading Tales of Adventure With Children

Participants tell us that one of the most magical aspects of Books@Work takes them well beyond the book – it’s the social interaction that comes from the discussion and the comparison of ideas and perspectives. For many of us, the closest experience we have to sharing the impact of a good book happens when we read to children. The wonder and awe occasioned by a particularly well-loved book leaves a lovely and lasting glow. I’ve been reflecting lately on the books I shared with my children that have left their mark – on them and on me.

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Required Reading: July 31, 2015

Required Reading: July 31, 2015

In this week’s Required Reading, Jessica tells us about the new anthology ‘Rust Belt Chic’ and Ann discusses ‘New American Stories,’ while Cecily cites a few articles on the health and brain benefits of walking. We share some of our favorite historic footage released by the AP, discuss a favorite television show, and share a fantastic recent article on the liberal arts in tech.

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Books at Work: Clémentine in the Kitchen

Books at Work: Clémentine in the Kitchen

Clémentine is demanding in her professionalism–she insists upon cooking good French cuisine with fresh ingredients. At the same time, her work ethic is dynamic and flexible. She transforms challenges into opportunities and overcomes the limitations set by American food practices in the 1940s.

It’s not all fun and escargots, however. The shadow of war looms as the family and Clémentine worry over loved ones left behind in France. But the artistry that typically goes into Clémentine’s cooking helps here, as well.

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Required Reading: Friday, July 22, 2015

Required Reading: Friday, July 22, 2015

“For years, Ann has been reading Robert McCrum’s series for Guardian Books, the 100 best novels written in English. He did an earlier list in 2003, available here, but has updated and modified his list more recently. Ann writes that “ What’s magical about his collection is less what he chooses than how much effort he goes into chronicling why a particular selection has made his list. Mixing current and classic, British, American and beyond, his series is a literary walk through a carefully curated library, complete with synopses, analyses and personal insights.”

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Through the Looking Glass: Wonderland at Work

Through the Looking Glass: Wonderland at Work

At Books@Work, we exhort people to leave their positions at the door and to enter the seminar space ready to engage as individuals. And it works. Like Alice and the Fawn, in that short hour, our participants openly enjoy each other’s company in ways the workplace does not normally occasion: free of hierarchy and preconceived ideas. But unlike Alice and the Fawn, as they return to the workplace and resume their “names” and roles, that powerful leveling experience lives on.

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Idolizing Atticus, Empathizing With Scout

Idolizing Atticus, Empathizing With Scout

I’m less interested in these questions, however, than I am in what these concerns demonstrate clearly to me: how effectively novels help us learn and empathize. Studies have shown that reading literature helps us practice empathizing with characters and then leads us to better, more empathetic practices in our daily lives. To Kill a Mockingbird takes this a step further, making empathy a crucial part of its message.

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Why We Still Love Alice

Why We Still Love Alice

What makes the adventures of a precocious Victorian child so long-lived? It’s certainly not the novel’s’ universalism–most of its jokes are highly-specific to Victorian politics and culture. It might be the book’s iconic imagery. Who can forget the hookah-smoking caterpillar? the flamingo-and-hedgehog croquet game?

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