ONE BOOK, ONE LINK

One link: Young Artists Find a Private Space, Only Without the Privacy

One Book: The Lost Night by Andrea Bartz

December 16, 2019

[Andrea gave us all custom signed book plates and submitted a video interview answering some of our questions. Very cool.]

We all have some loose memory of our early NYC days. - NP

I was on the way to a party once and we ended up at the wrong place. The whole apartment was covered with tin foil and lights. I think the guys were really into technology.” - KM

The protagonist was striving so hard to be liked. Kind of annoying. But I guess that was the point. I also wandered into the wrong party once. I walked in so confident. I looked in every room for my friends. Everyone was doing coke. I think I had a drink and then I left. - WC

What a magical time. To be lost in Brooklyn looking for a warehouse without an Instagram care in the world. - NP

October 2, 2019 One Book: The Power by Naomi Alderman

One link: Who is Alicia Vikander?

One book: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Tuesday June 11

Great book! - JR

I thought Tate did it. - KM (didn’t finish)

I would have bet anything it was the crawdaddies. - LT (didn’t read it)

The she wrote about the marsh, the writing was really deep and colorful. But the townspeople dialogue was a lot more simplistic. - NP

I was so impressed with Kya fending for herself and figuring shit out. - SM

(Reading old quote on the blog)

“Women marry a man hoping he’ll change. And men marry a woman hoping she never will.” - NP

James is pretending not to listen. - LT

Oh! I’m all over it! - James

MOVIE CASTING:

To play Kya: That girl from Gossip Girl who was poor like Dan. - LT Jessica Szohr? - JR Better: Zoe Kravitz! - JR Elizabeth Olsen? - NP Alicia Vikander - KM That’s perfect! - JR

To play elder Kya: Betty White - LT To play Chase: Billy Magnussen - NP Ian Somerholder - SM

To play Pearl: Blake Lively - LT

To play Tate: Tom Hanks - LT Dylan Sprouse - KM

To play elder Tate: Sam Elliot - LT

ONE LINK: Why Michelle Obama Chose Becoming as the Title of Her Upcoming Memoir

One Book: Becoming by Michelle Obama

Thursday May 2

It really surpassed my expectations. - NP

I also loved their relationship--Michele and Barack. - SM

I also love how he proposed to her! - LT

I honestly didn't know much education she had had and how long she actually worked in law and at all these other companies. - JR

It also showed how one simple turn can change your whole life. - WC

It's also interesting how she reminds us that even the super disadvantaged people she'd met along the way say they have actually had all the advantages. - WC

I loved this quote:

“Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.”

-NP

What did you all want to be when you grew up?

Elevator operator. - LT

A Rockette. And then an EMT. - JR

An interior designer. - KM

A dancer or a singer. - SM

Pediatrician or a marine biologist. - WC

Link: Kate Kisses Pete at a Hockey Game - Next to Alan!

One Book: Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Wednesday March 15

A little fluffy. I thought it would be more challenging. - JR

Yeah. It could have been 30 pages. - LT

Be default, you are already an essentialist as an entrepreneur. -NP (to LT)

We decided we’re not making any big decisions this year. - JR

One link: George Costanza’s Mantra

One book: The City and the City by China Miéville

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Maybe if you weren’t so busy doing Whole 30, you’d vibe able to finish the book. - LT to JR

Seemed like the author wrote the narrator in a way that made them seem like English was not their native language, but maybe that wasn’t necessary to get across the point. Reading out loud would have made it easier. - WC

Seems a little excessive. - LT

Good noodle challenge to understand the world he built, though. - NP

I think I was waiting for a bigger sci-fi twist of some sort. - JR

“Grostopically” was a made-up world for this world that I liked. - WC

In terms of how the whole structure worked, I liked “No one can admit it doesn’t work. So if you don’t admit it—it does.” - NP

To quote the great George Costanza, “Is not a lie if you believe it.” - LT

There was this made up drug in the beginning that says it has fiberglass shards in it to make sure the drug gets into the blood stream faster? And then I looked that up and found out that so does cigarettes. - WC

That’s dark. - JR

The Soundtrack to Your Winter Solstice Comes Courtesy of Trojan Man and His Sensual Tunes

HOLIDAY EDITION! + REVEAL OF THE OBOL CAMP BOOKS

While reading this book, at one point, I was sitting next to James in the best reading how sometimes people are just shitty and he said, “We were all shits in the 90s.” - LT I wasn’t really shitty until the 2000s. - SM

Actually, this broccoli is really good. - LT

Lenny was impressed by Stacy’s hearing aid. - NP

Where was her hearing aid? - LT In her ear. - WC

My dad always says, if you're not nervous, it's not important. - JR

The theme of this book is sondering. - WC

Trump took my squish away. - WC

Favorite quotes from the book that resonated:

Quote: “Trust your gut, because who is going to believe in a leader that doesn’t believe in herself. Forgive yourself for your missteps and oversteps and use your self-awareness to better yourself. Be grateful for the people who surround you that push you out of your comfort zone and help you grow, as a friend, leader, and creator.” - SM

Quote: “This isn’t a spotless life. There is much ahead, my immaculate peach.” - JR

Does this mean there will be an impeachment soon? - LT

Quote: “Don't surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn't true anymore.” - KM

Quote: “No is golden. No is the power the good witch wields.” - WC

Quote: “It was all unknown to me then...everything except the fact that I didn't have to know. That it was enough to trust that what I'd done was true....It was my life--like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me. How wild it was, to let it be.”  - Liz Rodgers

Quote: "I'll never know, and neither will you, of the life you don't choose. We'll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn't carry us. There's nothing to do but salute it from the shore." - NP

Quote: “Transformation doesn’t ask that you stop being you. It demands that you find a way back to the authenticity and strength that’s already inside of you. You only have to bloom.”  - SM

Quote: “God is not a granter of wishes. God is a ruthless bitch.” - JR

Quote: "If it is impossible for you to go on as you were before, so you must go on as you never have.” - JR

Quote: "You can't ride to the fair unless you get on the pony." - NP

James loves that quote, too! - LT

Are women more observational than men? - WC

I wanted to be the younger Alice. - WC

Me too!- NP

Same. - KM

I wanted to be the older one. - JR

She was just so naive when she was young. - JR

Everything was temporary. She was like the fun aunt. - KM

I think my younger self would be proud of me now. - KM

My younger self would be relieved. - JR

I would be so impressed with where I am now. - WC

It was a cool way to describe sensations of relapsing into a memory. They all came flooding back, mostly due to scents. - NP

I liked the mineral water versus champagne analogy: "She had always thought that exquisitely happy time at the beginning of her relationship was the ultimate, the feeling they'd always be trying to replicate...she realized she was wrong. That was like comparing sparkling mineral water to French champagne. Early love is exciting and exhilarating. It's light and bubbly. Anyone can love like that. But love after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you've hut each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you've seen the worst and the best—well, that sort of love is ineffable. It deserves its own word."  That really brought the book together for me. - JR

At first I liked it, but then I got annoyed because it didn't feel that deep. - SM

Same. - NP

She said she always had a slight distrust of busy people. And then she became one.- JR

Its really easy to rend a relationship and its really hard to stay together. - JR

One Link: McDonald's Gave Their Classic Chicken Sandwich An Update