Conversations with Authors - Lori Gottlieb & Dr. Rick Hanson

Sunday, May 17th • 7:00pm EST/4:00pm PST

Lori Gottlieb & Dr. Rick Hanson

From Lori

A huge thanks to all who joined our conversation Sunday!

I'm so grateful to all of you and to Rick Hanson and Book Passage for making this happen. I teared up when I saw Elaine sitting in the bookstore, one of my favorites, because it reminded me of the joy I get from independent booksellers, and I always enjoy the opportunity to explore the human condition with fellow therapist and writer Rick Hanson.

One of the reasons I wrote Maybe You Should Talk To Someone is that I believe in the power of story—and especially in the power of seeing ourselves through the lens of other people's stories. So while we muddle our way through this challenging time, here are some books I recommend that I hope you'll find helpful in a variety of ways.

• The Gift of Therapy by Irvin Yalom
  • Often considered to be "the Oliver Sacks of psychiatry," Yalom, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford, has been revolutionary in bringing his patients' stories to life in the pages of his books. Ostensibly a guide to therapy, The Gift of Therapy is actually a moving, incisive, and unforgettable portrait of our shared humanity that helps us re-examine our own stories and our capacity for growth and change.  
• We Learn Nothing by Tim Kreider
  • Despite the title, Kreider's hilarious, candid, and wholly original essays—on everything from what makes a family to why we fall in love with people we don't even like—teach us a great deal about the big questions we all ask ourselves—and offers a new way to think about them.
• It's Okay To Laugh (Cryng is Cool Too) by Nora McInerny
  • If you're human, you'll experience loss. For Nora McInerny, it happened when she was in her twenties and in love with her future husband who was diagnosed with brain cancer. If this sounds depressing, her memoir is anything but. It's heartbreaking, sure—but it's also raw, funny, moving, and one of the most enlightening stories of the paradoxes of grief—and what it means not to move on, but to move forward.
• 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do by Amy Morin
  • Based on her viral blog post read by 30 million people, 13 Things is Amy Morin's brilliant guide to become more resilient by not getting in our own ways. Morin, a psychotherapist, shares her own experience using these techniques when tragedy struck three times in just as many years, and shows us how to break self-defeating patterns that hold us back in all aspects of our lives.
• Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
  • Based on her wildly popular blog, Brosh brings us a searingly funny, poignant, and thought-provoking look into her emotional struggles while making them relatable to everyone. A Bill Gates book pick, this graphic memoir entertains and informs, reducing stigma and holding up a mirror to all of us, then topping it off with a huge dose of hope.

From Rick

It was such a pleasure to talk with Lori Gottlieb, and with such a gracious host as Elaine Petrocelli. I hope our conversation was helpful to everyone who had a chance to hear it.

If you’d like additional resources related to coping with stress and developing resilient well-being, including several guided meditations, please see rickhanson.net/bookpassage/.

Lately I’ve been reflecting on the importance of honoring that inner sense in each of us of an underlying calm strength and warm heart—and the value, even when things are at their worst (and especially when they are at their worst) of moxie, courageous compassion, and inner peace. Both Lori’s Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and my own Neurodharma speak to this.

If I could offer two others, they would be John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

With many good wishes,
—Lori and Rick
 

Below, please find links to purchase all of the books recommended by Lori and Rick, as well as a selection of their own books.