Staff Picks Book Reviews
Porchlight is a company filled with voracious readers—talented, creative individuals who know books, and who excel at moving them. Whenever we can, we like to do that by telling you about the books we’re reading.
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Blog / Staff Picks
The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times
Book Review by Emily Porter
Throughout this uplifting text, Jane Goodall takes us on her life’s journey. We see her living through wars, grieving a departed partner, and even meet a young Jane who was unsure of herself. Yet, hope was always around the corner—as it is today.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day
Book Review by Dylan Schleicher
If you've been experiencing an inability to pay attention, you're not alone. Even if you don't feel it, you're probably still plagued by it. Amishi Jha knows why, and how to help.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol
Book Review by Gabbi Cisneros
Girly Drinks by Mallory O’Meara is enlightening and encouraging of inclusivity for drinking cultures across the world.
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Blog / Staff Picks
When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky
Book Review by Emily Porter
When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky is a noteworthy story about the souls of animals, friendships that surprise us, and spirits that linger behind on stolen land.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Play Nice But Win: A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader
Book Review by Dylan Schleicher
The story Michael Dell tells of taking his billion dollar company private is the recurring one in his new book. But the reasons for why he did it run through the entire backstory of his life, which he also shares, bouncing back and forth between the two in every other chapter, delivering a quick and compelling read.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Alien Nation: 36 True Tales of Immigration
Book Review by Gabbi Cisneros
Sofija Stefanovic has brought people together to hear immigrants’ stories at Joe’s Pub in New York City four times a year since 2017, and when the pandemic put a pause on live shows, she adapted thirty-six of her favorites into a book.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Worlds in Shadow: Submerged Lands in Science, Memory and Myth
Book Review by Emily Porter
Patrick Nunn packs many different stories of the submerged—some familiar, others mostly unknown—into this engrossing book of the lands, memories, and people who once were lost to the depths of the oceans.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Right Within: How to Heal from Racial Trauma in the Workplace
Book Review by Gabbi Cisneros
While workplaces are still struggling to figure out how to incorporate and support diversity, Harts has advice for those who are figuring out how to cope with racial trauma inside and outside of work.
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Blog / Staff Picks
How to Be Sad: Everything I've Learned About Getting Happier by Being Sad
Book Review by Dylan Schleicher
Happiness is, to some extent, a choice we get to make. Sadness is not. But it can be instructive in both our private and public lives. It should be a catalyst for change, but only if we get comfortable feeling and experiencing it openly and fully. Helen Russell offers us a good guide.
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Blog / Staff Picks
The Hunt for Mount Everest
Book Review by Gabbi Cisneros
This year marked the 100th anniversary of the first expedition that found a successful route to the base of Mount Everest, and this release is a timely, well-researched book that recounts the Westerners’ 70 year quest to climbing the world’s highest mountain.
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