To make things better, to achieve the things you want to achieve, to push through and past obstacles, you have to do something. You cannot be inactive. You will die. Complacency is death; it is the opposite of life; it is what keeps us stuck in situations that make us unhappy.

Sometimes, as I spent hours painting red dots around a plate, I couldn’t tell if Robuchon was a genius or a madman. The answer, of course, was both.

Nobody wants to hear about what you like. There’s nothing less funny than hearing about the stuff you have fun doing. Fun isn’t funny. Comedy is pain. It’s struggle.

Reading was my first addiction. When I tell people this today, they laugh and nod as if they understand, as if they too are part of a secret book-addict society whose greatest crime is staying up late, a flashlight under the covers, compulsively reading page after page.

There is one indisputable way to identify a cult, one characteristic they all share. It is the notion that anyone who does not agree with the group’s beliefs or choices, who expresses concerns, who simply dares to ask questions, is deemed “unsafe.”

The Coast Salish people think trees have personhood too. They teach that the forest is made of many nations living side by side in peace, each contributing to this earth.

Life is unfair, and sometimes it helps to irrationally blame someone for it.

I always find more answers in a forest than in my own hot attic of a mind.

Something about today feels so full of hope.

NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING, SO DO WHAT YOU WANT.

There was no way I was waking up every morning to face myself.

No dark fate determines the future. We do. Each day and each moment, we are able to create and re-create our lives and the very quality of human life on our planet. This is the power we wield.

Despite the mind-numbingly stupid things Glover and the Jackass crew get up to, Steve-O is a smart guy. Now, he’s healthy and sober, and this book is an exercise in learning from your mistakes, self-improvement, and growth. Throughout the book, Steve-O talks about his addictions (several), his career (varied), and how he’s had a roller coaster of a life.

My bookish friends, Noah and Leslie, decided to compete for "Best Book" each month. This month, Noah and Leslie submitted “Non-fiction by BIPOC author” for July.

“Cults are not usually filled with people who can take a joke.” and “The first rule in a cult is that you don’t criticize the cult.” are just two of the fantastic quotes you’ll find in this book about what it’s like working at a tech start-up. In the six years since publication, I can say, not much has changed.

There’s no shortage of ways to share books around gift-giving occasions. If you want something for a specific type of reader in your life, here are my favorites.

I don’t actively seek out memoirs. But Dave Grohl has always seemed like a genuinely awesome guy, and his music makes its way onto every playlist I’ve ever made. A good bit of Dave Grohl’s music makes up the soundtrack to my life – so naturally, I wanted to learn about his.

There are so many ways to begin your self-development journey. In addition to hiring a coach (hi!), it’s never too late to read and discover yourself through books. These are my favorites in my journey so far and I hope they help you.