Welcome to Book Therapy Project
Book Therapy Project started as A Book Club in summer 2023. I had just read All The Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive and couldn’t (wouldn’t?) stop talking about it. I brought it up over wine with a good friend and former manager, talked over a jazz concert on the Hudson with my partner, and went on and on with another friend over beers.
It was that friend who said, “Why don’t you start a book club and invite people over to discuss this book?” I said yes immediately. I had never been part of a book club, let alone started one, but the suggestion seemed instantly perfect.
What started as a simple idea – to gather a few folks together to discuss ambition, guided by All The Gold Stars – grew exponentially. I began to read more books I wanted to discuss with others. I started seeking out non-fiction with divisive arguments.
I invited friends to my home to discuss Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, which prompted a long evening of spirited discussion about whether one could still listen to Michael Jackson without feeling guilty. Folks joined me for an intimate and vulnerable discussion of All About Love: New Visions. When the group read The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever, about a group of artists in the 1950s in downtown NYC, I made spaghetti for everyone, a nod to what was on the menu at their own gatherings.
Book Therapy Project is not just about books. It’s also not about therapy. (I love to run and I’d describe it as mindful meditation, but it cannot and should not take the place of proper therapy. Nor can books.) It’s about using books and the arguments offered by them to determine your own thinking. To discuss that thinking with others. To form your own opinions and allow your opinions to then be shaped again by new ideas. It’s about healthy, spirited debate with folks who may or not think or look or live like you. It’s about going home at the end of a gathering and feeling less alone in the world.
To join us for a future event, you may be personally invited by me, or you may be invited by someone who’s already joined. If those options are not available to you, the best way to learn about how to join is to subscribe to this newsletter and reply by email for more information.