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Sarah Spain's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Sarah Spain recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Sarah Spain's favorite book recommendations of all time.

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A riveting account of life as a closeted professional athlete from gay NFL player O’Callaghan, against the backdrop of depression, opioid addiction, and the threat of suicide.

The latest from Akashic’s Edge of Sports imprint, curated by Dave Zirin.

Ryan O’Callaghan’s plan was always to play football and then, when his career was over, kill himself. Growing up in a politically conservative corner of California, the not-so-subtle messages he heard as a young man from his family and from TV and film routinely equated being gay with disease and death. Letting people in on...
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Recommended by Sarah Spain, and 1 others.

Sarah Spain@darreguin1 thank you. the book is really great - powerful stuff. (Source)

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Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly in a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Jia writes about the cultural prisms that have shaped her: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the American scammer as millennial hero; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the mandate that everything, including our bodies, should always be getting more... more

Lydia PolgreenThis book is amazing and you should read it. https://t.co/pcbmYUR4QP (Source)

Maryanne Hobbs⁦@jiatolentino⁩ hello Jia :) finding your perspectives in the new book fascinating and so resonant.. thank you 🌹 m/a..x https://t.co/BoNzB1BuDf (Source)

Yashar Ali. @jiatolentino’s fabulous book is one of President Obama’s favorite books of 2019 https://t.co/QHzZsHl2rF (Source)

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3

Stillness Is the Key

In The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, bestselling author Ryan Holiday made ancient wisdom wildly popular with a new generation of leaders in sports, politics, and technology. In his new book, Stillness Is the Key, Holiday draws on timeless Stoic and Buddhist philosophy to show why slowing down is the secret weapon for those charging ahead.

All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness...
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Angela DuckworthRyan Holiday is among the most psychologically wise writers I know. I'm a fan of all of his work, including this new gem, Stillness is the Key. If you struggle—as I do—to find your center in the increasingly noisy and frenetic world we live in, then this book is for you. (Source)

Robert GreeneIn the world today the dangers are many—most notably, the endless distractions and petty battles that make us act without purpose or direction. In this book, through his masterful synthesis of Eastern and Western philosophy, Ryan Holiday teaches us all how to maintain our focus and presence of mind amid the sometimes overwhelming conflicts and troubles of 21st-century life (Source)

Mark MansonIn this age of manufactured outrage and constant distraction, the ability to choose a focused inner stillness is arguably more important than ever before. Ryan Holiday’s book revives ancient wisdom that calls for a quiet life in a noisy and restless world. (Source)

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