Non-Fiction

Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull. “I highly recommend this business book.  Written by a founder at Pixar, Catmull provides some great insight about encouraging risk-taking and collaboration in any type of organization.  It is clear to me that the success of Pixar isn't because of a few innovative animators, but an entire organization working with the same vision.”

Dancing Fish and Amonites: a Memoir by Penelope Lively. "Reflections on memories, aging, and the things that give meaning to our lives.  Lovely!"

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown. “What I love about Brene Brown is her sense of humor. No, I love her insight. Wait, maybe what I love is how she tells a story. Gah! I guess I love all of it! In this book, Brown uses her research into vulnerability and shame to help people move beyond fear toward authentic and purposeful action. It’s inspiring, and hopeful yet eminently doable. A great book." Another contributor writes: “I belong to the holy church of all things Brene. Her books should be required for all parents, teachers and employers. Only Brene could make shame research riveting. Trust me, read this book. I pass it out like potato chips.”

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundlandby Jim DeFede.  On 9/11, when the United States shut down its airspace, many planes were forced to land in Canada, including in Gander.  The town is tiny – only about 10,000 people – but the airport is massive, a vestige of WWII when it was a refueling site for transatlantic flights.  The story of the hospitality the quirky people of Gander showed their nearly 7,000 displaced visitors makes for wonderful, heartwarming reading. Because the book is a series of stories about various passengers, it is also evocative of the reactions on that horrible day.

Dead End Gene Pool: A Memoir by Wendy Burden. “A hilarious account of what it is like to grow up at the tail end of a once great fortune written by a descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Lots of description of wretched clueless excess by people who have no idea that they are completely irrelevant.”

Dead People Suck: A Guide for Survivors of the Newly Departed by Laurie Kilmartin. "One of Conan’s writers, Laurie Kilmartin is a pointed storyteller who writes about her father’s death, as well as the grieving process before, during, and after.  It’s funny throughout (she’s the author of the first “Shitty Moms” book), but the kicker is when she writes about what she really wanted to include in her dad’s obituary, but couldn’t."

Dead Wake by Eric Larsen. “The story of the final voyage of the passenger liner The Lusitania and the confluence of events that lead to its sinking at the start of WW1.  Chapters alternate between the stories of the passengers and crew and the unfolding political situation as the US and President Wilson sought to avoid involvement in the European conflict.  A perfect balance between a novel and an historical account of the early days of WW1.” …..From Amazon:  “On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas. Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.It is a story that many of us think we know but don’t, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.”

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz. "A very different and much richer Julia Child biography than the Julie and Julia Project of several years ago. Dearie presents Julia as the complex, intelligent, energetic woman she was but also delves into the relationships and personal challenges that strongly influenced her choices throughout her life. In addition, it is an interesting case study of an incredibly successful business born out of a passion, but striking all the right notes in skill, luck and timing."

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan "An interesting read about what we eat/food/health in America." Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.

Do the Work by Stephen Pressfield.  This is a short book that packs a whallop.  Do you need motivation to complete a project (particularly a creative endeavor)?  This is the book for you.  Pressfield helps you understand what is holding you back and will motivate you to finish.  It is not your typical self-help book.  It's brilliant.