What We Are Reading Today: ‘A New Earth’ - Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

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Updated 05 August 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘A New Earth’ - Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

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Author: Eckhart Tolle

“A New Earth” by German writer Eckhart Tolle is a transformative work published originally in 2005 before it was selected in 2008 for Oprah’s Book Club and was featured in a series of weekly webinars with Tolle and Winfrey.

Tolle, a spiritual teacher and bestselling author of several books such as “The Power of Now” and “Stillness Speaks,” writes that most of the struggle people go through is not an outcome of external factors but a result of what is happening inside the mind.

The self-help book invites readers to reflect on and understand their egos. By bringing awareness to human nature and ego’s impact on behavior, the author encourages readers to shift their thoughts from the negative thinking that might be clouding their experience of living in the present moment.

Tolle stresses the importance of recognizing ego, as opposed to the actual self, as a mental pattern constructed through habits rather than facts or realistic ideas of one’s true personality.

In doing so, people will be able to have a flexible mindset, allow growth, and start aligning their actions with core values and inner wisdom, Tolle notes.

The author also talks about the negative feelings that some people might experience during the process of personal development and challenges them to accept themselves regardless, even when faced with complicated emotions.

“A New Earth” is a great choice for readers who search for deep insights, wish to let go of old habits that do not serve them, and embrace a more fulfilling way of thinking.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Living Matter’ by Alex J. Levine

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Living Matter’ by Alex J. Levine
Updated 13 April 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Living Matter’ by Alex J. Levine

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Living Matter’ by Alex J. Levine

The frontiers of physics can seem impossibly remote — located in the invisible quantum realm or the farthest reaches of the cosmos. But one of physics’ most exciting frontiers lies much closer than we realize: within our own bodies and other living organisms, which display astonishingly intricate structural patterns and dynamic processes that we don’t yet understand.

In “Living Matter,” leading biophysicist Alex Levine explains why unraveling the mysteries of life may ultimately demand a new physics — one that takes full account of the fundamental differences between living and nonliving matter.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Games for Your Mind’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Games for Your Mind’
Updated 12 April 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Games for Your Mind’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Games for Your Mind’

Author: Jason Rosenhouse

Logic puzzles were first introduced to the public by Lewis Carroll in the late 19th century and have been popular ever since.

Games like Sudoku and Mastermind are fun and engrossing recreational activities, but they also share deep foundations in mathematical logic and are worthy of serious intellectual inquiry. 

“Games for Your Mind” explores the history and future of logic puzzles while enabling you to test your skill against a variety of puzzles yourself.


What We Are Reading Today: The Thinking Machine

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Updated 11 April 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: The Thinking Machine

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  • It explores Huang’s leadership style—described as single-minded and relentless—and his ability to defy Wall Street skepticism to push a radical computing vision, making him one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in Silicon Valley

Author: Stephen Witt

“The Thinking Machine” is the story of how Nvidia evolved to supplying hundred-million-dollar supercomputers.
It is a biography that dives into the rise of Nvidia and its CEO, Jensen Huang, focusing on their pivotal role in the AI revolution.
The book highlights Huang’s bold vision, particularly his early bet on AI over a decade ago, which transformed Nvidia from a maker of video game components into a powerhouse supplying massive supercomputers for AI applications like hyper-realistic avatars, autonomous robots, and self-driving cars.
It explores Huang’s leadership style—described as single-minded and relentless—and his ability to defy Wall Street skepticism to push a radical computing vision, making him one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in Silicon Valley.
Through unprecedented access to Huang, his friends, his investors, and his employees, Stephen Witt documents for the first time the company’s epic rise and its single-minded and ferocious leader, now one of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures.

Witt is an American journalist and author known for his narrative-driven, deeply reported works on technology, culture, and innovation.

Witt’s style is noted for its clarity, wit, and ability to make dense topics accessible without sacrificing depth.

 

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Evolution of Imperfection’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Evolution of Imperfection’
Updated 10 April 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Evolution of Imperfection’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Evolution of Imperfection’

Author: Laurence D. Hurst

If we start with the presumption that evolution is a constantly improving process, some aspects of our evolution just do not make sense. We have a high rate of genetic diseases, for example, and much of our DNA seems to be pointless.

In “The Evolution of Imperfection,” Laurence Hurst explores our apparently rotten genetic luck.

Hurst, a leading authority on evolution and genetics, argues that our evolutionary imperfections proceed directly from two features: the difficulties of pregnancy and the fact that historically there are relatively few of us.

In pregnancy, natural selection can favor chromosomes that kill embryos in species (including ours) that continuously receive resources from the mother. Most fertilized eggs don’t make it, and incompatibilities between the fetus and mother can lead to lethal disorders of pregnancy.

The historically small population size enhances the role of chance, which in turn leads to both accumulation of unnecessary DNA and more mutation.


REVIEW: Kuwaiti Palestinian author looks at women and disability in a transformative, speculative memoir

REVIEW: Kuwaiti Palestinian author looks at women and disability in a transformative, speculative memoir
Updated 10 April 2025
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REVIEW: Kuwaiti Palestinian author looks at women and disability in a transformative, speculative memoir

REVIEW: Kuwaiti Palestinian author looks at women and disability in a transformative, speculative memoir

JEDDAH: Kuwaiti Palestinian writer Shahd Alshammari’s new speculative memoir “Confetti and Ashes” is a bold departure from her previous work “Head Above Water,” which was longlisted for the Barbellion Prize in 2022.

Alshammari’s layered meditation on the disabled body as both a site of loss as well as endurance is propelled forward by sharp observations and a quiet brilliance that had me turning pages well into the night.

Her first memoir, “Head Above Water,” offered an unflinching look at navigating multiple sclerosis as an Arab woman teaching literature in Kuwait. Her latest, however, ventures into a realm where memory and personal narrative intersect with poetry, imagination, and otherworldly presences.

The voices of ghosts and Zari, her qareen — the jinn-companion assigned to each person in Islamic belief — transform Alshammari’s personal narrative. It becomes a dialogue, a captivating dance between the seen and unseen worlds.

This inclusion shakes up the conventional memoir structure to broaden the scope beyond Western frameworks of storytelling. It also offers readers a visceral look at the ways living with disability and chronic illness can disrupt and reshape an individual’s perspective and worldview.

The dreamlike and omniscient voice of the qareen also mirrors the disorientation and internal struggles that come with living with chronic illness and disability.

Alshammari astutely draws parallels between the disabled body and the female body in the social and cultural context of Kuwait. In a world of able-bodied norms, she reflects on their intersecting experiences of marginalization, scrutiny, and resistance.  

She rejects predictable storytelling, and not just in her writing, but also in life. Her body rebels, yet she defies societal stigmas — including concerns voiced from other women with MS.

She explores holistic wellness practices and eventually takes up squash, expanding her social circle and pushing her limits to build her mental and physical endurance.

In capturing her dual journeys of illness and wellness, the author invites readers to reflect on the disabled body not as a burden, but as a site of poetic possibility.

In “Confetti and Ashes,” Alshammari presents a profound reclamation of the self and cements herself as a vital voice in reimagining the female disabled experience.