Movie: RBG – Julie Cohen and Betsy West
Memoir: Negroland – Margo Jefferson
TV: Imposters – Paul Adelstein and Adam Brooks
Fiction: Magpie Murders – Anthony Horowitz
Ancient Inspiration:
“The work is quite feasible, and is the only thing in our power…. Let go of the past. We must only begin. Believe me and you will see.” – Epictetus, Discourses, 2.19.29-34
Fiction: The Talented Ribkins –– Ladee Hubbard
Workshop: Undoing Racism — The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
Parenting: Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jewish Mothers Do To Raise Successful, Creative, Empathetic and Independent Children — Marjorie Ingall
History: Operation Mincemeat — Ben Macintyre
TV: Capital — BBC via Acorn via Amazon
Ancient Inspiration:
“Difficulties are things that show what men are. For the future, in case of any difficulty, remember that God, like a gymnastic trainer, has pitted you against a rough antagonist. For what end? That you may be an Olympic conqueror; and this cannot be without toil. No man, in my opinion, has a more profitable difficulty on his hands than you have, provided you will but use it, as an athletic champion uses his antagonist.”
Epictetus, Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 24.
Coffins of Khnum-Nakht and Nakht-Ankh, photo courtesy of the Manchester Museum
DNA: 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummies were thought to be brothers. Genetics tells a different story — Ben Guarino, Washington Post
Non-Fiction: The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Woman and One Community Are Inspiring the World — Nadia Lopez and Rebecca Paley
Fiction: Improvement — Joan Silber
Productivity: The 12-Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Do in 12 Months — Brian Moran
Music: Blue Soul — Blue Mitchell Sextet
TV: Jessica Jones — Melissa Rosenberg
Podcast: The Good Fight — Yascha Mounck
Ancient Inspiration: “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
Meditations, 8.47 — Marcus Aurelius
Delight: A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food — David Downie
Non-Fiction: Women and Power: A Manifesto –– Mary Beard
Non-Fiction: So You Want to Talk About Race — Ijeoma Oluo
Strategy: How life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom— Garry Kasparov
TV: False Flag — Amit Cohen, Maria Feldman
Song: O Menina Dança –Novos Baianos
Not so ancient inspiration: A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. — Maya Angelou
Valerie Block 