How to Live, Derek Sivers
Finished February 14, 2026. Rating 6/7
Derek Sivers presents 27 contradictory philosophies for living—be independent, depend on others, think long-term, live in the moment—arguing each with equal conviction to show that wisdom contains multitudes. The book works like an accidental personality test where your reactions to each contradiction reveal more about who you are than any single philosophy could prescribe.
A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers
Finished February 13, 2026. Rating 5/7
Becky Chambers weaves two parallel stories—an enslaved girl escaping to learn about the universe, and an AI transferred into a body learning what embodiment means—both navigating worlds they were never taught to understand. The dual narratives explore what it means to build an identity from scratch when your past denied you personhood.
Chambers captures something essential about emerging from abusive systems: the specific ignorance, the relearning of basics, the slow discovery that the world can be different than what you were told that—as a foster kid—I can find myself relating to. Her writing propels the plot forward while maintaining a meditative gentleness that makes trauma narratives bearable without diminishing their weight.
Intentional, Chris Bailey
Finished February 6, 2026. Rating 6/7
Chris Bailey argues that productivity failures stem from misalignment between goals and core values, offering a diagnostic framework of twelve fundamental values organized around whether you're oriented toward change or conservation, self or others. The hierarchy (values → priorities → goals → plans) works as both explanation for why certain goals feel like self-betrayal and as practical tool for building systems that move with your nature rather than against it.
Enheduana, Sophus Helle
Finished January 26, 2026. Rating 5/7
The world's first named author was a woman—a Mesopotamian high priestess whose poems were studied in scribal schools for centuries before being forgotten when her culture shifted toward male-dominated religion. Helle's translation and essays illuminate not just her poetry but also ancient ideas about images, existence, and personhood that reshape how we might read Genesis 1.
Slow Productivity, Cal Newport
Finished January 24, 2026. Rating 6/7
Newport offers an antidote to pseudoproductivity through three principles—do fewer things, work at a natural pace, obsess over quality—arguing that sustainable, meaningful work requires rejecting constant busyness. The advice is genuinely helpful even if it underestimates survivorship bias and overestimates how much agency most workers actually have.
Paul: A Biography, N. T. Wright
Finished January 12, 2026. Rating 6/7
Wright's biography rescues Paul from caricature and presents him as a relentless, brash church-planter who created radically egalitarian communities—and reading it made me feel less alone in wondering whether all my work is worth it.
Renewing the Christian Mind, Dallas Willard
Finished January 9, 2026. Rating 6/7
Willard's emphasis on transformation over transaction remains valuable, but his individualistic framework doesn't adequately address systemic evil or the political implications of the kingdom.
Among Others, Jo Walton
Finished December 28, 2025. Rating 5/7
A slow, journal-style coming-of-age story about a disabled Welsh teenager processing grief through science fiction and magic that resonated with my own experience of having a mentally ill mother and believing in magic as escape before learning to accept life and grow up.