Daphne Gordon

Dead Mom Walking brings humour to the hell of losing a parent

Rachel Matlow’s gut-busting memoir made me want to call my mom — ASAP

Dead Mom Walking forced me to face not just one, but several of my worst fears: losing my mom, being diagnosed with cancer, and leaving behind a grieving child when I die. But somehow, author Rachel Matlow had me laughing through almost every scene along the way to their effervescent mother’s death from cancer. (Matlow is genderqueer and uses the pronouns she/her and they/them.)

Honestly, it took me a couple of weeks to finish this book, despite the fact that it’s immediately unputdownable because of Matlow’s lively and conversational voice. I got three-quarters of the way in, laughing out loud at Matlow’s narration as well as their mother’s witty quips. But then I stalled.

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Daphne Gordon

Who doesn’t want to make Amazing Decisions?

Dan Ariely’s book helps explain why people usually do the right thing… and why they sometimes don’t

If the educational animated series Schoolhouse Rock mated with the academic field of Behavioural Economics, the two would have a baby named Amazing Decisions.

The author of this inventive book, Dan Ariely, is a professor of cognitive psychology at Duke University, where he founded the Center for Advanced Hindsight. The research he conducts there puts human beings in situations that test their decision-making, and he’s written several books to explain the results of his studies.

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Daphne Gordon

Digital Minimalism questions the productivity imperative

Cal Newport’s book about minimizing screen time convinced me to do less in the digital universe

Call me a convert.

I casually picked up Digital Minimalism, thinking, maybe, just maybe, I might possibly think about reducing my screen time next year. And thanks to Newport’s storytelling, fact-gathering and simple prose, I’m now a devoted digital minimalist.

As a computer science professor at Georgetown University, Newport is no luddite. He’s been experimenting with different ways to hack technology to improve productivity and study for years, as the author of Deep Work and a blogger at Study Hacks.

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