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Kerri Miller picks four favorites |
The Thread's Must-Read |
| “Option B" by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant Buy this bok When we scheduled The Thread Live event with Sheryl Sandberg, I anticipated an intimate, poignant and ultimately hopeful conversation. Her new book, written with Wharton School psychologist Adam Grant, is about the sudden death of Sandberg’s husband, Dave. It explores how she made sense of that loss to herself and to their young children, and what she learned about what seems like a depthless grief. Sandberg writes about eventually going back to work as COO of Facebook: “I needed cry breaks… I took them on the side of the road in my car...at work...at board meetings.” "Option B," she tells us, is how you make the most of your life when tragedy and sorrow collide with your plans and dreams. What I didn’t expect was how Sandberg and Grant’s book would be a generous guidepost in my own life when I needed it most. A good friend of mine is enduring the kind of loss that turns a life into before and after. She describes it as a “dark, unimaginable abyss.” I’ve had enough on-air conversations about loss and grief to know that my friend needs space and time and steady strength from me. But I’ve privately anguished over how to be present for her as her grief evolves. Sandberg reminds me that I’ll need to talk openly and unflinchingly with my friend about the person who died, even if we’ll both cry as we do it. “I’ve watched adults flinch,” Sandberg writes, “as if it’s too painful for them to be reminded.” She also confides that the only way to keep living with a loss like hers and like my friend’s is through resilience. Friends, she says, can be an essential part of that. “Collective resilience requires more than just shared hope,” she says. “It is also fueled by shared experiences, shared narratives and shared power.” My conversation with Sandberg is available online at The Thread. -K.M. |
| This Week on The Thread |
| Four suspenseful thrillers for summer Dive into four well-plotted thrillers that will keep you hooked as the temperature rises. More |
| "Miss Burma" is based on a truth stranger than fiction "Miss Burma" by Charmaine Craig Buy this book When Charmaine Craig set out to tell her mother's story, she found a beauty queen who became a warrior. More |
| In new novel, "Ove" author takes on hockey-town culture "Bear Town" by Fredrik Backman Buy this book "Beartown" ponders "the things that we let successful people get away with, just because they are important to us." More |
| Tracy K. Smith named new U.S. poet laureate The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet says she plans to use her new role to meet people who don't read poetry ... yet, anyway. She believes poetry can be a resource for people in fraught or isolating times. More |
| On Southern cooking: "People of color didn't get the respect they earned" "The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South" by John T. Edge Buy this book In his new book, John T. Edge writes that food plays a central role in Southern identity, but that African-American and immigrant cooks have often been left out of the stories the South tells about itself. More |
| A new novel goes to the mat — and wins "Stephen Florida" by Gabe Habash Buy this book Gabe Habash's audacious coming-of-age novel follows a charismatic, troubled, sometimes repellent college wrestler who comes close to the edge of madness after an injury derails his final season. More |
| H.P. Lovecraft's monster is wrapping family game night up in tentacles A century after the horror writer created Cthulhu, board game creators and players have resurrected the deep-sea monster and brought it into pop culture. Why is this beast making a comeback? More |
| Madeleine Albright's next book warns of fascism's dangers Albright's new book is a warning that democratic governments are "fragile" and the United States under President Donald Trump is enduring its own crisis. More |
| The stories behind 12 different bullet wounds "The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley" by Hannah Tinti Buy this book In this coming-of-age novel, a father reveals his secrets to his daughter, one scar at a time. More |
| What makes a good whodunit? "Magpie Murders" by Anthony Horowitz Buy this book Anthony Horowitz's latest novel is a whodunit about whodunits. He says, "I wanted it to be ... a sort of a treatise on the whole genre of murder mystery writing." More |
| For one Saudi woman, "Daring To Drive" was an act of civil disobedience "Daring to Drive" by Manal al-Sharif Buy this book In 2011, Manal al-Sharif filmed herself driving in a country where women are banned from getting behind the wheel. Driving, she says, is "a way to emancipate women. It gives them so much liberty." More |
| A summer read for people who hate the light "Last Kid Left" by Rosecrans Baldwin Buy this book Rosecrans Baldwin's new novel probably shouldn't have come out in summer: It's got the trappings of a beach read — a shore town, tourists, a murder — but it strays into some very dark territory. More |
| Learn to sniff like a dog and experience the world in a new way "Being a Dog" by Alexandra Horowitz Buy this book We humans think we don't have a very good sense of smell. But psychologist Alexandra Horowitz says dogs can show us how to train our noses so they give us a window into a secret world. More |
| By turns funny, shocking and heartbreaking "So Much Blue" by Percival Everett Buy this book Percival Everett's new novel follows a painter who's deeply ambivalent about his apparently idyllic life and digs into the moments in his past that shaped him. More |
| A crackling tale of spies and suspense "The Alice Network" by Kate Quinn Buy this book Set in 1947, Kate Quinn's novel follows two indomitable women, a math whiz and a retired spy, in a truly fabulous car as they pursue a quest through war-torn Europe in search of a missing relative. More |
| The Dallas police chief on overcoming racial division "Called to Rise" by David Brown Buy this book Last year, Dallas Police Chief David Brown was the face of leadership after a gunman killed five police officers during a protest. He has since retired from the force and written a book about his life. More |
| Prog rock gets some respect "The Show That Never Ends" by David Weigel Buy this book David Weigel is primarily a political reporter, but in "The Show that Never Ends" he spins his love of prog rock into a detailed, affectionate history of a genre that's never completely gone away. More |
| Dusting off some overlooked cinematic treasures "Opening Wednesday" by Charles Taylor Buy this book Charles Taylor's new book collects his writings about cult classics of the 1970s — films like "Two-Lane Blacktop," "Vanishing Point" and "Foxy Brown" — and what they say about the culture of that era. More |
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