It’s been a while… again. Blogging has been a sporadic activity in recent years. Yet I’ve felt the tug to write again for some time. So here I am again, seeing what I can make of my blogging spaces. If you’re interested in my running adventures, pop over to my other blog for a recent post about my experience taking on one of the toughest 100 milers in the United States.
In recent years, my reading of books has picked up again, though 2023 had a dip. I have already read more than twice as many books in 2024 as I did last year. I’m trying something a little different here. Inspired by a favorite podcast and a couple of newsletters, I’m sharing the books I finished reading last month. The goal here isn’t deep analysis. I only want to share a few thoughts on what I’ve read. So without further ado…
September’s list
September was an unusually high month for books completed. In no particular order…
1. The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work by Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart
This book arose from a group of high-performing women feeling overwhelmed by the work they had committed to, eventually producing a line of research to better understand how they (and many other women) ended up in their state while simultaneously helping each other push back and rebalance their loads. The central premise is that women (as well as people of color, and especially women of color) take on a disproportionate level of non-promotable work. This moves beyond the “office housework” concept in which women take notes, fill coffee, and plan celebrations. It also includes activities that may be important, even critical, to the organization but that do not generate the “currency” that is recognized in promotion. In the academic setting where these authors work, this included things like curriculum design and IRB service whereas their promotion and tenure depended on research and publications.
Honestly, a lot in this book will come as little surprise to women who have worked professionally for any length of time. One thing I appreciate is how they highlight the impact of this type of work across different professions and how they debunk many of the assumptions about why women end up doing more of this work than men. Even though the authors are academics, they also provide very practical guidance on how to identify and evaluate the promotability of work, acknowledging that it will change across contexts (including career stage), and strategies to reduce the amount of non-promotable work you take on. I’m hoping to return to complete the exercises they outline at the end of each chapter to better understand how this might play out in my own role.
2. How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong
We have developed and internalized many social and cultural norms about what family and friendship is supposed to look like. In American society, at least, this is stereotypically rooted in the nuclear family and familial ties, with spouse/partner filling many roles. Mia Birdsong draws on different visions of family, friendship, and community that have been created, often by members of marginalized groups who were ostracized from or simply didn’t have access to the “traditional” structures that media, popular culture, and even government elevate.
This book (along with The Amen Effect by Sharon Brous, which I started in September) have me examining my spaces and thinking about how I show up and what my sense of family and community might look like. I have gained significant levels of privilege in my life, but the “traditional” family and friend structures that I grew up with don’t fit my life. I am married to a man, but there are no kids in our future. I’m still a few years out from turning 45, but both my parents are now dead, I live on the opposite side of the country as my remaining family, and those relationships have grown more and more distant over time. I don’t have conclusions at the moment. But I have some hope that we can imagine ways forward.
3. The Art of Living by Thich Nhat Han
I originally picked this up in April 2023, heading to a mindful running retreat in Nepal and Bhutan. When I returned, it was tucked into some spot out of sight—until I relocated it again a few months ago. It’s not a long read, but it’s one I’ve moved through slowly. I’ve found myself drawn to many tenets of Buddhism, expressed here and in other readings and listenings in recent years. This book delves deeply into the concept of interdependence, letting go, and the art of presence. Perhaps one of the most significant lessons I took was that “being present in the moment” does not mean releasing aspiration, but rather perhaps our rationale and attachment to aspiration.
4. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
My first Cal Newport read was A World Without Email in 2020. I quickly devoured Slow Productivity when it was released earlier this year. I’ve listened to his podcast Deep Questions for years, almost always taking away something meaningful. And I’ve heard Newport and others talk about Deep Work (both the book and the concept) for a while. But I hadn’t picked up the book until The Growth Equation Academy selected it for their book club, associated with the theme of humane productivity.
Yet I think I read this book at just the right time. I’ve been working on building habits and routines this year that will clear the way for a more sane, sustainable approach to intense work projects next year. I had been implementing some of Newport’s systems (learned from his podcast and other books). But the deep dive into Deep Work helped some ideas click into place. Similar to the first book on my September reading list, Newport balances an exploration of academic research with personal experience and practical strategies and tips for establishing a deep work practice. And in fact, as I read The No Club, I found myself thinking back to Deep Work principles.
I’m now working more intentionally on carving out time for deep work and understanding what demands that level of focus and how to best prepare myself and workspace for it. His Q&A for The Growth Equation Academy also has me thinking about how to encourage and support my team to integrate deep work practice into their routines.
5. The Political Determinants of Health by Daniel E. Dawes
More and more, people have been recognizing that developing new medical interventions is not enough to change health at a population level in the United States. Rather many issues are driven by social determinants of health, non-medical factors such as income, education, zip code, and health care access. This book pushes further, positioning political determinants including policies, systems, and politics as ‘determinants of the determinants’—i.e., that it is voting and the legislation passed that change or maintain the social determinants of health.
Daniel Dawes, a lawyer and professor, provides a brief history of health equity policies at the federal level, effectively going back to the founding of the United States. A centerpiece of the book is the development, passage, and preservation of the Affordable Care Act. Dawes offers incredible insights, having been at the forefront of this legislation. I think there are many excellent lessons here for folks interested in health policy. As someone who is not a policy maker or advocate, though, I think this text provides a critical reminder of the importance of voting and contacting elected officials in moving the needle on seemingly intractable problems in our society.
Ever on & on 