The Art of Spending Money
A thoughtful guide to spending in ways that deepen happiness, independence and the life you actually value.
“The best measure of wealth is what you have minus what you want.” On my nightstand
A sampling of what
I’m reading this summer
Seven recent books that have made me pause, think and underline—on money, AI, writing, public problem-solving, family and grief.
How to Think About AI
A clear framework for judging AI by its outcomes, risks and implications rather than by how closely it imitates people.
“These, then, are the four options: machines largely displace us; we unite with them; we coexist at a distance; or we shut them down.”
The Summer Book
An unsentimental, luminous novel about a grandmother and granddaughter sharing an island summer in the shadow of grief.
“There is nothing sentimental about this world. Like the weather, this world asks only to be acknowledged.”
More Than Words
A spirited defense of writing as an embodied human act—and a call to rethink what education should value in the AI era.
“Writing is an embodied act of thinking and feeling. Writing is communicating with intention.”
Abundance
A case for rebuilding America’s ability to produce the housing, infrastructure, energy and public goods its citizens need.
“The big government-small government divide is often more a matter of sentiment than substance.”
Songs for the Brokenhearted
A multigenerational Yemeni Israeli novel about forbidden love, family secrets, discrimination and the power of women’s voices.
“Sometimes, when he was feeling lonely in his own home, an outsider in his own family, he daydreamt about his father’s return.”
The Correspondent
An epistolary novel in which an aging woman uses letters to reckon with grief, regret, connection and forgiveness.
“I’ve always felt it is like a scream living inside me. It’s gotten a bit softer over time, but it’s never gone.”