All the books I recommended in 2019 (including my own book, whee!) 

All the videos I recommended in 2019 (everything from documentaries to weird AI)

(Coming next week: all of the social media accounts.) Is there anything you think I should be checking out this year? Just hit reply to LMK.

There is no doubt that AA has helped countless people and has been invaluable to many people who want to quit drinking.

But it is not for everyone.

"The values baked into its founding continue to shape the way the organization works, and it still has too many echoes for my liking of the ways women are expected to blame themselves, follow instructions and fall into line in a patriarchal society."

I found this article to be extremely interesting, and I see a lot of echoes between this and the way that traditional Buddhist and mindfulness paths tell people to silence their voices and trust other people above ourselves. For people who have mostly been safe and the center of attention, okay. For those who are generally not protected or listened to by society, we need a different approach.

OpEd in the NYT: The Patriarchy of Alcoholics Anonymous

Ruth Reichl is a fantastic writer who happens to write about food (she was once the chief restaurant critic at the New York Times, where she was lauded for her work in calling out sexism and classism in fine dining experiences). Her latest book Save Me The Plums is about her time as editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine. If you have never read anything by her, you are in for a real treat! I'm devouring it.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned the fantastic new Toni Morrison documentary The Pieces I Am. Since I watched it, I've been reading her first novel, The Bluest Eye, which was published in 1970 but feels as fresh and relevant as anything I've read in a long time. She's an artist of the highest order.

Work In Progress is a charming show about "a 45-year-old self-identified fat, queer dyke" that is full of sweetness, heartache, and lol-worthy moments as she tries to find enough reasons to live past when her almond allotment runs out. It's sweet, really.

And: you might already know that Ram Dass passed, just a week after I returned from Hawaii, where I was on retreat with him. He was an enormously influential and deeply beautiful human and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to sit in meditation with him. A documentary about his relationship to his impending death, Becoming Nobody, is available on DVD now, and you can also stream a short (31 minute) documentary on Netflix, called Ram Dass, Going Home.

Thanks for everything you did for all of us, Baba. You were an inspiration in life and in dying. 💓

Quick reminder that I'll be teaching about Compassion and Contemplation in Adreanna Limbach's free 31 Days of Devotion online class this month. You can sign up here to learn from me and six other teachers right here.

And, this week I was on the Daily Authors podcast talking about, well, writing. :)