The Riff

The Books*

I. This is Strategy: Make Better Plans by Seth Godin. A sister book to This is Marketing, This is Strategy helps you see what you can’t see but then once you see it you can no longer un-see it.

II. The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry that Brought Birth Control to America by Stephanie Gorton.

III. Farm Girl: A Memoir by Megan Baxter

IV. Valley So Low: One Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in the Wake of America’s Great Coal Catastrophe by Jared Sullivan. I’m just getting into this, and if you liked A Civil Action, you’ll dig this.

The Other Stuff

V. I was on a podcast saying the word “just” every other word. Very kind of Ariel and Liz to have me on their show.

VI. Legendary axe-wielder Zakk Wylde on why guitarists should embrace their own sound … a lesson for any writer.

VII. Embedded in just about everything I do these days focuses on the analog, on slowness. I, for one, favor (and this is my coinage, hooray for me) “slow journalism.” Cal Newport has a new book callled … Slow Productivity. And this wonderful profile of Rivendell’s Grant Petersen by Anna Wiener is all about “the art of taking it slow.” I’m sensing a trend.

VIII. Katie Ward reflects on Hilary Mantel’s and seven things she taught Katie about writing.

IX. An oldie, but a goodie, this from Roy Peter Clark reviewing John McPhee’s Draft No. 4 for Poynter.

X. Lilly Dancyger’s first piece for The New York Times talks about the struggle to maintain connection with friends without alcohol. I go for long bouts of not drinking; I journal about it constantly, and I DREAD telling a friend (rare as they are) that I’m not drinking at the moment. I have to gird myself for getting made fun of. I already deal with a mountain of shit for not eating animals or their animal-based products. Point being, it shouldn’t be so hard to not drink in this fucking country. (I had two beers this past weekend.)

XI. Robert Caro finally allowed his tome The Power Broker to be formatted as an ebook. “With everything in the world today, speed is supposed to be a desirable thing,” he said. “I happen to think there’s something good about going slow.”

*: I don’t use affiliate links, so you know I don’t make a penny off any recommendations. You may think me a fool, and you wouldn’t be the first.