Reading Mindfully: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”

Reading Mindfully: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”

Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” appeared in the New Yorker in 1978 and later went on to become one of the most anthologized short stories of all time. Brief and powerful, “Girl” reads as a “how-to” list for living relayed from mother to daughter in a mere 650 words.

As you read, consider: Do the expectations of parents or family members help or hinder you? Or both?

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Weekend Reading: April 2017

Weekend Reading: April 2017

Happy Friday! We’ve scoured the web for thought-provoking articles and essays for you to enjoy over the weekend.

In the Paris Review, Benjamin Ehrlich writes about neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal and his early and fervent predilection for reading fiction. Cajal’s father earned a medical degree after a “grueling life” as the son of peasant farmers. He later despised all literary culture, allowing only medical books in the house. Cajal, however, had other ideas. How did reading fiction shape the mind of “the father of modern neuroscience”?

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Reading Mindfully: George Saunders’ “Puppy”

Reading Mindfully: George Saunders’ “Puppy”

By turns hilarious and heart-breaking, George Saunders’ short stories satirize the absurdities of every-day life and humanize even the strangest of characters. His story “Puppy” appears in his collection Tenth of December, winner of the 2013 Story Prize and a finalist for a National Book Award. In classic Saunders style, “Puppy” portrays a single situation – the purchase of a puppy – from the perspectives of multiple characters. As you read, think about the power of first impressions. What spurs us to judge others?

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Embracing the Interrogative: Vulnerability and the Power of Unanswered Questions

Embracing the Interrogative: Vulnerability and the Power of Unanswered Questions

The interrogative is a dying form – not only of grammatical expression but of life. At a time when efficiency and productivity seem the driving forces of culture, it makes sense that emphasis should lie on the generation of answers rather than the formulation of questions. Answers, after all, mean closure – answers grant one permission to put one thing to rest and move on to the next, and that seems the very definition of progress. Questions, on the other hand, are messy, imprecise things that tend toward the propagation of their own kind, leading ad-infinitum to heaven knows where.

How do we get a group of strangers during a Books@Work session- many of whom do not consider themselves “readers” and for whom being in a room with an English professor evokes unpleasant classroom memories – to embrace their vulnerabilities and enter into an interrogative mindset?

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Reading Mindfully: James Joyce’s “Eveline”

Reading Mindfully: James Joyce’s “Eveline”

James Joyce is one of the most celebrated and influential writers of the 20th century. Born in 1882 in Dublin, his novels are known for their stream-of-consciousness prose and experimental style. His early short story volume Dubliners is a more straightforward read. Published in 1914, the powerful collection depicts Irish middle class life through the eyes of Dublin’s residents, including young Eveline Hill. His short story “Eveline” is a musing on home and family. How does our definition of home evolve throughout our lives?

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Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

At first glance, Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette might not seem like it would merit four weeks of discussion. The novel has a bright cover, featuring a sunglasses-bedecked woman and blurbs from the New York Times and young adult author John Green. “Divinely funny” and “A moving, smart page turner . . . the funniest novel I’ve read in years,” these two sources respectively proclaim. A “funny” story told from the perspective of a fifteen-year old girl, Where’d You Go, Bernadette seems like it is more appropriate for a day at the beach than a law firm’s meeting space or a college course.

And yet, the novel is much more than a coming-of-age comedy. What can popular literature teach us about self-reflection and connection with others?

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Weekend Reading: January 2017

Weekend Reading: January 2017

Writing for the Harvard Business Review Amber Lee Williams addresses why it’s important to speak up when we witness instances of bias in the workplace: “Failure to acknowledge and address bias or offensive behavior validates the conduct and may create an impression that the behavior is acceptable, and even to be expected, in the workplace. Moreover, normalizing offensive conduct in this subtle manner tends to have a chilling effect on other potential dissenters, and communicates to those who are offended, regardless of whether they are targets of the behavior, that their perspectives and voices are not valued.”

Williams offers advice for how to speak up most effectively, and emphasizes that we should “create the opportunity for dialogue.” How do you foster dialogue at work?

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Reading Mindfully: Isaac Asimov’s “Youth”

Reading Mindfully: Isaac Asimov’s “Youth”

By all counts prolific, Isaac Asimov wrote or edited over 500 books in his lifetime, and he is best known for his science fiction. “Youth” first appeared in the May 1952 issue of Space Science Fiction. Although known for such works as the Robot series and Foundation series which are concerned with humans in an advanced scientific future, “Youth” is a rare Asimov story dealing with alien characters. What does this story show about the power of perspective?

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Reading Mindfully: Willa Cather’s “A Wagner Matinee”

Reading Mindfully: Willa Cather’s “A Wagner Matinee”

Willa Cather’s “A Wagner Matinee” was among her first published stories, appearing in Everybody’s Magazine in 1904, and then in her first short story collection, The Troll Garden. An iconic American author of short stories and novels, Cather was born in Virginia and moved to a Nebraskan homestead when she was 10 years old. Her writing often dwells on life in the western United States, as well the role of art in the world. How does “A Wagner Matinee” help us consider the relationship between the work we do and our souls?

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