Books I've Read in 2025

I loved this book through and through. Amazing prose and brilliant weaving of personal memoir with public health research. My favorite passage, on the Western cultural obsession with self-improvment and how it influences the way we view autoimmunity:

“What is new is that today, in our secular, individualistic nation, an amorphous illness is seen inevitably as an opportunity to uncover the authentic nature of the self and improve it, a project squarely in line with other obsessions of our neoliberal society. The focus on personal realization obscures the fact that it is not our selves that are wrong but the very structure of our society, with its failing support systems, its poor chemical regulation, its food deserts, its patchwork healthcare delivery. Autoimmunity is internalized by patients as an opportunity for the ultimate self-management project. But in fact it is a manifestation of a flawed collective project. If it is an indictment of anything, it is an indictment not of our personhood, instead of a consequence of our collective shortcomings as co-citizens of this place and time.”

This was very well-researched, both from academic literature on adjacent topics and from the author's personal experience organizing events, big and small. These are the two quotes that resonated with me most.

On having an unabashed focus for your gathering: "This modesty is related to a desire not to seem like you care too much—a desire to project the appearance of being chill, cool, and relaxed about your gathering...modesty can also derive from the idea that people don't want to be imposed upon. This hesitancy, which permeates many gatherings, doesn't consider that you may be doing your guests a favor by having a focus."

On being a benevolent and selfless host: "In gatherings, once your guests have chosen to come into your kingdom, they want to be governed—gently, respectfully, and well. When you fail to govern, you may be elevating how you want them to perceive you over how you want the gathering to go for them. Often, chill is you caring about you masquerading as you caring about them."

I held out on reading this one for years but I'm glad I finally gave it a chance. Key takeaways: Bloom agrees that everyone needs emotional support sometimes. Therapists and highly cognitively empathic people are more successful at being compassionate not because they're more empathic, but because they can understand others without allowing their own emotions distort others' suffering.

Non-linear plot was hard to follow but very beautiful. Read this one for book club because it was on Obama's summer reading list.

Bits about 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire were especially compelling. +1 for collective action, -1 for the state.

In a world that wants you to be an Elinor, be a Marianne.