Kerri's pick
 
 
Book of the week

I’m greeting the new year with an old book – well, not old but a book that came out in January 2023 and changed the way I see the world.

In fact, I think about this book all the time.

It’s Dacher Keltner’s “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.”

Keltner is a shaggy-haired, perpetually smiling psychologist at Berkeley and he says awe works wonders on our bodies: calms our heart rates, soothes our nervous systems – even regulates our guts.

Best of all, you don’t need some $400 aromatherapy from Goop or a trip to the Grand Canyon to grab it.

Walk your neighborhood and look up at the swaying treetops. Let your eyes linger on the bright face of a child. Spend time with someone who inspires you. Be open to the unknown.

— Kerri Miller | MPR News
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This week on The Thread
The inside story of the government’s search for alien life
Are you convinced the U.S. government knows more than it will reveal about UFOs? After doing a deep dive into the history, journalist Garrett Graff is too. But he doesn’t think the cover-up is a necessarily hiding alien life.

“There are two obvious cloaks of secrecy that surrounds the government cover-up of its understanding of what UFOs and UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) are today,” Graff tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas.
Ask a Bookseller: 'The Half-White Album'
Let’s start off the new year with a debut book that defies genre. John Hoffsis of Treasure House Books and Gifts in Old Town Albuquerque, N.M., recommends “The Half-White Album” by local author and musician Cynthia J. Sylvester.

The book is a collection of short stories, flash fiction and poetry, but it’s music that ties the story together. Each of the sections are song titles, and the story follows a fictitious cover band, The Covers.
'Lunar New Year Love Story' celebrates true love, honors immigrant struggles
This YA graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham attains epic dimensions in capturing the complex, bittersweet journeys of its characters.
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