From the Stacks to the Soul
A Memorial Day reading roundup filled with reflection, resonance, and really good books.
Happy Memorial Day. As we mark the unofficial start of summer, I hope today brings you both a moment of remembrance and rest—especially if your library is closed.
It’s not exactly a rest day for me, though. I’m writing from Aarhus, Denmark where I’m attending the Next Library Festival 2025. I’ll be speaking alongside two friends on Tuesday and will have more to share about that in next week’s newsletter.
But for now…
I’ve been thinking—can this really be a library newsletter if it doesn’t include a little reader’s advisory? I think not!
So today, I’m sharing four books that have stuck with me. These are the kinds of reads that made me pause, reflect, and sometimes even put the book down just to sit with what I’d just taken in. They came to me through the stacks, a Libby hold, or the quiet guidance of serendipity. I hope at least one finds its way to your shelf too.
And now, the books. (Sidenote: I’m only including four because five just feels too expected.)
1. The Pause Principle: How To Keep Your Cool In Tough Situations | Cynthia Kane
Cynthia Kane offers a powerful framework for navigating conflict with clarity and composure. She explains how, in tense conversations, our brain's limbic system perceives disagreement as a threat, triggering a reactive state that makes thoughtful responses nearly impossible. As she puts it, “Reactive you is running the show,” hijacking our ability to lead or listen effectively.
What I’ve found most valuable is how this book deepens my understanding of what’s happening not just in my own body during conflict, but also in others. Kane’s insight offers a much-needed reset—an invitation to respond rather than react.
She describes the pause as an intentional, active practice: a shift from chaos to calm, sympathetic to parasympathetic. “Think of it like subbing in a sports game,” she writes. “You’re taking out what isn’t working and bringing in what will.” Learning to relax—physically and emotionally—during heated moments is key. When we soften instead of tense, we create space to choose, guide, and connect.
This book is especially valuable for professionals in roles where communication under pressure is frequent or critical. In a work context, it’s ideal for:
Collaborative teams – especially in high-stress environments or fast-paced industries where misunderstanding can derail progress.
Leaders or managers who need to navigate high-stakes conversations, deliver feedback, or manage team dynamics without escalating tension.
Client-facing roles where staying calm and constructive in the face of frustration or confrontation is essential.
Anyone Working in a diverse or cross-cultural environment where communication styles vary and the potential for misinterpretation is high. As office teams grow more diverse, particularly across age and even personality types, having an awareness of the principles and strategies in this book will be of the upmost importance.
Ultimately, The Pause Principle is a practical guide for bringing mindfulness, emotional regulation, and intentionality into everyday interactions.
2. Loneliness Files: A Memoir in Essays | Athena Dixon
Athena Dixon—poet, essayist, and editor—first came onto my radar through The BreakBeat Poets series from Haymarket Books (which I also highly recommend). I only recently came across The Loneliness Files, but it immediately rose to the top of my reading list. Loneliness is a topic that continues to intrigue me—not just emotionally, but socially and structurally. While I’m most fascinated by how the built environment and societal and democratic norms shape our experience of it, Dixon’s work draws me in at the deeply personal level, where her voice resonates most.
She writes:
“I remember loneliness because it is pervasive. It has a way of wrapping itself around me until it hides what’s actually true. It squeezes tightly in my mind until what makes sense, what’s actually happened, is distorted. Sometimes the loneliness makes me forget the goodness and the connection of my life. I find ways to compartmentalize these experiences until it is easy to remember only what I want. I think alone is sexy. Mysterious in its heaviness. Alone seems like a choice. Loneliness doesn’t. This seems like I’ve been forgotten, passed over, discarded. It can feel like the world is way too bright—just an expanse of whiteness with nothing else in sight. It makes me feel singular and small.”
That distinction between alone and lonely has stayed with me. Dixon writes about forgotten lives, like those who died alone and unnoticed, and examines the paradox of living in a hyper-connected digital age while still feeling invisible. What I’m loving about this book is that it doesn’t try to solve loneliness. Rather, it makes you feel less alone in it.
3. The Pivot Year | Brianna Wiest
I had to wait eight weeks—yes, eight!—for this book to finally land in my Libby app. And since I only have it for a limited time, I’ve been making my way through multiple entries a day. But “Day 33” stopped me in my tracks. In it, Wiest writes:
“If you do not know what to do next, it usually isn’t because your next step is far out in the distance, but rather right in front of your feet. You are being asked to stop gazing outward and start looking inward. You are being called to rebuild yourself at this exact moment. If you do not know what to do next, it is not because you need to seek more answers, but rather, accept the ones you’ve already been given. If you do not know what to do next, it’s time to learn to be in the answered prayer that is this very day. It’s time to learn how to use what you already have, and be as you really are. It’s time to stop waiting for some future scenario to bring your dreams into the light, but to dig them out from beneath your fear and begin. Truly begin.”
I think we’ve all experienced seasons that leave us asking, What now?—whether it's graduating college, going through a breakup, grieving a loss, or facing an unexpected career pivot like a layoff. I’ve had a few of those moments myself. And in each one, Wiest’s invitation to look inward hits deeply. It’s a message I used to preach as a minister—but more importantly, it’s one I had to learn to live.
Every experience, relationship, and opportunity has uniquely positioned us to meet this moment with poise and determination.
These are the moments that push us to lean into hope, friendships, and faith.
These are the moments that help us look back and realize that, despite everything that came our way, we’re still standing.
These are the moments that feel like walking through “the valley of the shadow of death…” and yet, “thou art with me,” as it’s written.
For me, that “thou” is God. For others, it may be something or someone else.
Regardless of your spiritual perspective, I hope you find comfort, clarity, and wisdom in Brianna’s words.
4. Men We Reaped: A Memoir
Jesmyn Ward
I think I saved the most powerful for last.
Have you ever read a book that hit so deeply, you had to put it down just to breathe and reflect? That was Men We Reaped for me. Jesmyn Ward’s memoir moved me like no other.
In it, she recalls the lives and deaths of five young Black men—Roger Eric Daniels III, Demond Cook, Charles Joseph Martin, Ronald Wayne Lizana, and Joshua Adam Dedeaux—over a four-year span between 2000 and 2004. As someone who was also coming of age and in college during those years, her stories of leaving home for school, finding comfort in returning, and reconnecting with the friends you left behind felt incredibly familiar. Growing up in the South myself, her vivid accounts of the oppressive summer heat, tight-knit family bonds, and the awkwardness of switching from public to private education all rang true.
And so do the stories of the men she remembers—especially Ronald. Ward writes:
“I don’t know all Ronald’s demons. I don’t know the specifics of what Ronald ran from, what he felt he was outpacing when he talked about going to rehab or joining the military and if he self-medicated with cocaine so he could feel invincible and believe in a future. I don’t know what that debilitating darkness, that Nothing that pursued him, looked like, what shape his depression took. For me, it was a cellar in the woods, a wide, deep living grave. I know what it feels like. I know that sense of despair. I know that when he looked down at his copper hands and in the mirror, at his dark eyes and his freckles and his even mouth, that he thought it would be better if he were dead, because then all of it, every bit of it, would stop.”
Jesmyn Ward writes with rawness and brutal honesty. She gives voice and dignity to people who are so often flattened by stereotype—whether through narratives of violence, addiction, mental health struggles, or simply trying to survive.
This book reminded me that it’s through relationship—and storytelling—that we come to know the fullness of someone’s humanity.