Human behavior
Three fascinating non-fiction books about how people think and act (sort of).
I’m not a big non-fiction reader! So when I find a non-fiction book I love, you can bet you are all going to hear about it.
But listen, you know what you almost heard about? An entire EELS issue about the Beatles, since their “last new” song came out yesterday. Apologies to my work pal Michelle Cheng, who had to deal with me chirping intensely about it all week as we worked on that story about how they used AI in that track. Michelle, you are so patient. I cannot imagine the sighs you sighed every time your Slack chimed at you. Thank you for humoring me.
If you do want some Beatles content to read though that won’t pleasantly bore you with every possible fact that there could possibly be to know about their early lives (that one is Tune In by Mark Lewisohn), may I make the unlikely recommendation of James Patterson’s The Last Days of John Lennon? I know! James Patterson! Who knew!
Anyway, enough Lennonizing. Into the human brain.
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💰 Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: or, How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails
Yanis Varoufakis, Jacob Moe (Translator), 2013
I work in business journalism, but that doesn’t mean I like to sit around and read giant tomes about money. Obviously, I like to sit around and think about John Lennon and Poldark and weird novels. Like I said last time, people contain multitudes! Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister and writer of several books, gets it. In fact, his whole theory is that most economists are kind of making it up as they go along. The premise of this not-very-long and extremely accessible book is that he’s explaining to his teenage daughter the answer to one prompt: Why is there so much inequality in the world? Or, to come at that sideways, why do certain people have money and certain others don’t?
His answer revolves around the idea that the economy is based not on numbers but on how people think—with a little geography, politics, and circumstance thrown in. And it is fascinating. I promise you will understand a lot more about things that have happened, are happening, and will happen.
Recommended to: Those who often feel at sea about this kind of thing and feel that they always will be. And you can read this in just a few days—the audiobook was something like five hours long and continually mentions Star Trek. Ross! Did you hear me! Star Trek!
Want to see what books I’ve recommended in the past? Guess what—I’ve created a handy spreadsheet with all sorts of helpful info to help you choose your next read, and if you’re an EELS subscriber, I’ll give you access to it. It’s free, it’s easy, maybe it’ll help!
✏️ Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County
Kristen Green, 2015
It’s been years since I’ve read this, so forgive me if my memory is not as crystal clear as, say, John Lennon’s voice on the new Beatles track “Now and Then” (have you heard of it?). But this is the story of a white journalist who realized that her beloved parents were extremely involved in the creation of a notorious segregation academy—that she then attended—Farmville, Virginia.
It’s a gripping informative read written by a talented journalist about Barbara Johns and every heroic thing that happened alongside every horrible thing during and after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. But it’s also an extremely personal narrative about trying to understand the motivations behind the troubling actions of people you love.
Plus, what a dang good title.
Recommended to: Those who want to learn a lot.. and get through Thanksgiving in one piece.
🐟 Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
Lulu Miller, 2020
My friend Anna emailed me a couple weeks ago asking if I’d read this book! “Anna!” I said. “HOW DID YOU KNOW!” Because I’d already planned this issue out and this book was in it! I don’t believe in signs, but I pretended I did and made her do a bonus recommendation (see below).
This book is about how, within taxonomy, “fish” is considered by some biologists to be kind of a not real category, since a lot of other kinds of animals are traced back to fish. I think I’m getting that right. And Miller applies this kind of thinking to a lot of other things—in other words, humans love to label, but nature isn’t as neat and tidy as we want it to be. Life isn’t as neat and tidy as we want it to be!
There’s some really ugly eugenics history in here that I had no idea about, but am glad to be aware of. Much of the book, though, is very beautiful, including the author's own story of how her own labels dropped away the more she researched. As John Lennon says in the song “Mind Games,” “we’re playing those mind games together.” But then in “Hold On,” he also randomly growls “COOKIE” so… who knows.
Recommended to: Those who want the scales to fall from their eyes, and to also wonder why Stanford University is still called Stanford University?
And now, a bonus recommendation
💡 The Illuminated — Anindita Ghose, 2023
“The central characters are a mother and daughter, and although there are a lot of interesting storylines, including about Indian politics, colonialism, patriarchy, and academia, what resonated most to me was the story of evolution of these two women’s identities. How to reorient and evolve your identity when you choose a new path, or when life’s circumstances makes that decision for you. Especially when our relationships with others have come to define us, what happens when we end or lose those relationships? I think this book would be enjoyable for many audiences but if you’re experiencing a life change, such as a divorce (ahem), I would particularly recommend it.”
Recommended by: Aforementioned clairvoyant Anna. The last three books she loved were The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Sag Harbor, and Washington Black.
That was the twenty-seventh EELS! I would be just so grateful if you’d share widely with your networks! As always, send any and all questions, feedback, and shouted book recommendations by hitting reply.
📚 Susan