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This Is the Door by Darcey Steinke The Body, Pain, and Faith

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What's it about? This Is the Door (2025) is an exploration of physical pain and what it reveals about the human condition. Drawing on personal experience, neuroscience, philosophy, and spiritual tradition, it examines how suffering reshapes identity, empathy, and the way we move through the world. It argues that pain – however unwanted – can open us to a deeper understanding of our own bodies, our connections to others, and the fragility and wonder of being alive. Pain is one of the most universal human experiences, and one of the least understood. It lives in the body but reaches far beyond it, touching memory, identity, fear, and even faith. Yet most of us face it alone, without the language or framework to make sense of what it’s doing to us. But This Is the Door isn’t a book about eliminating pain. It’s about what pain can reveal. Drawing on the lives of philosophers, artists, saints, and ordinary people in moments of suffering, Darcey Steinke explores how pain can strip away...
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The Art of Conscious Conversations by Chuck Wisner Transforming How We Talk, Listen, and Interact

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What's it about? The Art of Conscious Conversations (2022) examines how the conversations you have daily determine the quality of your relationships and your success. It identifies four distinct conversation types – storytelling, collaborative, creative, and commitment – each serving a different purpose and requiring specific skills to manage effectively. By recognizing the stories and mental habits that derail, it shows how you can transform autopilot patterns toward authentic connection and meaningful results. It’s a cold, snowy morning. Chuck Wisner, an architect, arrives at a damp, unfinished first-floor space. Together with a cofacilitator, he’s there to lead a construction meeting between the owner’s representative, the contractor, and the contractor’s son. Tension surfaces almost immediately. The representative questions whether the work completed justifies the contractor’s $150,000 payment request. But the contractor needs the full amount to keep his subcontractors on the...
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Once Upon a Stranger by Gillian Sandstrom The Science of How Small Talk Can Add Up to a Big Life

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What's it about? Once Upon a Stranger (2026) makes the case that brief, low-stakes exchanges with strangers are an antidote to the loneliness epidemic of modern life. Drawing on original research and personal anecdotes, it shows how even the smallest moments of connection –⁠ with a barista, a fellow commuter, a stranger in an elevator –⁠ can generate joy, curiosity, and a deeper sense of belonging. Narrated by…. You’re standing in line at a coffee shop. The person in front of you is wearing a t-shirt from a city you once visited. You notice it, feel a small flicker of curiosity –⁠ and then look back down at your phone. Sound familiar? Most of us have been there. And most of us have decided, without really thinking about it, that talking to that stranger just isn’t worth it. They probably don’t want to be bothered. It’ll be awkward. What would you even say? Better to keep to yourself. But what if that instinct is wrong –⁠ and what if it’s costing you more than you realize? Gillian...
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Getting to Zero by Jayson Gaddis How to Work Through Conflict in Your High-Stakes Relationships

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What's it about? Getting to Zero (2021) is a guide to dealing with conflict in intimate, high-stakes relationships – those with your family, good friends, and partners. It describes a process for “getting to zero” by achieving resolution and closure after conflict. What does the word conflict mean to you? For many, it conjures up visions of violence, political discord, and war. But these are extreme forms of conflict. What about conflict in your close relationships? People often try to get by without resolving conflict in their interpersonal relationships. But there are times when conflict can be just what you need – conflict could save your marriage, for example, or help rekindle an important relationship. In these lessons, you’ll learn how to “get back to zero” after a conflict – that is, get to the point where the conflict is resolved and you have the level of connection you desire. The advice in these lessons isn’t intended to resolve trauma or abusive relationships. For tho...
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The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius A look into the triumphs and tragedies of the Roman Empire's first twelve emperors

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What's it about? The Twelve Caesars (121 CE) is one of the most colorful biographical works ever written. By turns opinionated, sensational, and dramatic, it documents the lives of the men who wielded absolute power in Rome after its transformation from a republic into an empire in 27 BCE. A one-time private secretary to one of those emperors, Hadrian, Suetonius was intimately familiar with court life. In the Twelve Caesars, he uses that knowledge to shed light on the highs and lows of the empire’s early years, as well as on the virtues and all-too-human failings of its supposedly divine rulers. Stretching from the north of England to the Sahara desert, from Portugal to the middle east, the Roman Empire was one of the biggest empires in history. And at the heart of this huge empire sat one man ruling over everything: the emperor. Rome’s emperors could be good, bad, kind, cruel, sensible or unhinged. In these lessons, we’ll look at Rome first’s emperors through the eyes of the ...
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