The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

 

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

Curated by Eric Jorgenson

For weeks, it felt like all Vanessa talked about was Naval. Naval said this…Naval said that. Who in the heck is Naval?

She has spent hours listening to his podcasts, sent me screenshots of highlighted passages, and she and Chandler filled their evenings watching his YouTube interviews. Eventually, I caved…I bought The Almanack.

Self-help books aren’t usually my thing. Vanessa devours them; I tend to read ten pages at a time before they quietly migrate to my DNF pile. Still, I opted for a hard copy. I like the idea of being able to flip back to meaningful passages and the profound statements…if there are any, and the lines that spark an audible ah-ha.

I was immediately drawn to the simplicity of the cover. After weeks of hearing about Naval’s wisdom and insights, I was genuinely curious to dive in.

What stood out to me most is Naval’s holistic view of success. He doesn’t frame wealth as purely financial. Instead, he argues that true success requires building both material wealth and inner peace. The book centers on creating financial freedom through life skills, leverage, and long-term thinking…while equally emphasizing mindfulness, contentment, and clarity.

One of his core philosophies is that wealth and money are not the same. Money is how we transfer time and value; wealth is what works for you while you sleep. Equally compelling is his belief that happiness is a choice, and a skill. It isn’t simply the byproduct of financial achievement; it’s something that can be cultivated intentionally.

He also makes a strong case that judgment is the single most important skill in business and in life. Good judgment compounds. Each sound decision builds upon the last, creating exponential returns over time.

I appreciated learning that he’s a voracious reader. He speaks often about how reading can dramatically improve your life. On that point, I wholeheartedly agree.

One idea that truly resonated with me was his advice on major life decisions: marriage, career moves, relocating. His rule is simple: If you can’t decide, the answer is no. There’s clarity in that. And when faced with two equal options, choose the path that’s more painful in the short term. Growth rarely comes from the easy route.

I didn’t pick up this book searching for financial insight. I’ve always felt wealthy in the ways that matter most: friendships, relationships, enoughness (is that a word?). For me, the most compelling chapters were the ones on happiness.

Overall, the book isn’t groundbreaking. But as Vee and I often say…it’s common sense. The truth is, common sense isn’t always common. Exercise. Build wealth. Value your time. Be kind. The simplicity of the message is part of its strength.

I enjoyed it more than I expected, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for practical, grounded guidance on living a more intentional and fulfilling life.

 

The Only One Left

 

The Only One Left 

By Riley Sager

Hope’s End is a 36-room coastal gothic mansion perched on cliffs where the Atlantic crashes below…it is totally dramatic, eerie, and dripping with history.

Every character has their own take on the past, but the real story is Lenora Hope, now in her 70s, the sole survivor of a family murdered 54 years ago. Townspeople never believed her innocence, turning her into a living legend…or nightmare.  She was reduced to a creepy little song sung by everyone:

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life
“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

Enter Kit McDeere, reluctantly taking a job as Lenora’s caregiver. Lenora is paralyzed and mute from strokes, and Kit’s last patient died on her watch…so yeah, she’s desperate for work. Things get creepier when Kit learns the previous caregiver vanished without a trace.

Would you stay? She does.

Lenora finally decides to reveal her story via typewriter, slowly unraveling decades of mystery. The suspense is real, the twists are plenty…

But, let’s be honest: pretending to be an invalid for decades? Waiting decades for revenge on your sister…as a “prank”…mind blown. Some of the plot twists are equal parts thrilling and head-scratchingly absurd.

Despite the eyebrow-raising moments, I liked the gothic chills, dark secrets, and enough suspense that it kept me turning pages.

Just don’t ask me to explain Lenora’s life choices.

 

Theo of Golden

 

Theo of Golden

By Allen Levi

I’ll begin with the cover, because I love it. A single feather…simple, quiet, and beautiful. I collect feathers myself; I always pick them up when I see them. Years ago, someone once told me my spirit guide was a great Indian Chief who drops them for me. I’ve always loved the idea that feathers are left as symbols of growth, transition, freedom, and survival. While I’m not entirely sure what the feather represents for this book, I can’t help but see all of those meanings reflected in Theo’s journey.

The premise is simple. One spring, an elderly man named Theo arrives in the small Southern town of Golden. He is a man of mystery…wealthy, polished, originally from Portugal, and yet deeply private about his past.

Theo spends his days wandering around the town until he stumbles upon The Chalice, a local coffee shop. Lining the walls are nearly one hundred pencil portraits drawn by a local artist. Most customers pass them without a second glance. Theo does not. He stops. He studies them. Then he does something unexpected: he decides to buy them, one by one.

But he doesn’t keep them.

Instead, Theo tracks down the subjects of the portraits…ordinary townspeople who have no idea they’ve been drawn and gifts each person their image. What follows is a quiet ripple effect of kindness that transforms the town, and Theo himself, in ways that feel both intimate and earth-shattering.

I loved the concept…the generosity, the unexpected responses of the recipients, and the way the town slowly shifts. The novel feels like a study in human vulnerability. Through these stories, you come to realize that grief and joy are not opposites, but neighbors.

At times, the pacing felt a bit slow, and I think the story could have been shorter. Still, I truly appreciated the ending. You do eventually learn who Theo is, what brought him to Golden, and why he carried so many secrets, and that resolution made the journey worthwhile.

We could all learn something about how he lived…one focused on being curious, living humbly, listening intently…being generous.  If we did…perhaps we could change a town…or a stranger’s life…maybe a friend’s…or even our own.

The God of the Woods

 

The God of the Woods 

by Liz Moore

524 Pages of Mystery and Memories

I had no idea this book was 524 pages when I started.  My new Kindle didn’t make that obvious, and I’m still figuring out all its functions. Needless to say, it was a commitment and I stayed up way too late Saturday night in order to finish it.

The God of the Woods is a murder mystery wrapped in a rich family drama, set against the backdrop of a kids’ summer camp. And for me, that camp setting took me back. I grew up going to Camp Eberhart on Corey Lake in Michigan, where Vanessa and I met our best friend, Katie. Camp was magical, and my memories there remain some of the most treasured. Most recently living in Indiana, I’d spend summers at Katie’s family cottage on Corey Lake...one of my favorite places on earth. We’d just hang out, chat, watch sunsets, and take photos on the dock. (I have the exact same sunset photo multiple times a year…it’s a little inside joke.)

Now, Katie’s daughters go to Camp Eberhart, and we still embarrass them, paddling across the lake just to wave furiously while they ignore us. Some things never change.

Moore’s novel takes that nostalgic, slightly mischievous camp feeling and spins it into something much darker. The third rule of Camp Emerson? “When lost, sit down and yell.” I don’t remember the rules at Camp Eberhart back in the ‘70s, but Moore’s camps feel vivid, alive, and eerily authentic.

The story unfolds across two timelines, two mysteries, and a sprawling cast of characters, all wrapped in secrets that ripple across generations.

1961: Eight-year-old Peter “Bear” Van Laar IV disappears while hiking with his grandfather near the family’s Adirondack estate, Self-Reliance. Despite an extensive search, he is never found.

1975: At Camp Emerson, the girls in the cabin awaken to discover 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar, Bear’s younger sister, born after his disappearance, is missing from her bunk.

Are the Van Laars cursed? Or is this merely tragic coincidence? Multiple perspectives invite readers to explore different truths…or perhaps uncover that there is no single truth at all.

For me, the camp setting was a portal back to my own childhood…campfires, sing-alongs, sneaking around after dark, swimming, horseback riding, and spooky stories under the stars. Moore’s descriptions bring Camp Emerson to life in a way that feels both nostalgic and suspenseful.

At times, the book’s length and multitude of characters made it feel slow, but the payoff…the twists and revelations at the end, made it worth it.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
I was stunned by the Van Laars’ cover-up for Alice. They didn’t seem to like her, so why not let the police know it was an accident? Was it about reputation? A secret affair? And one final question: who led Tracy out of the woods? The book never reveals who…leaving one last mystery lingering.

Overall, I enjoyed the book.  It kept me up way past my typical bedtime…I liked the dual timeline, the mystery, the family secrets, the summer nostalgia and the eerie magic of the woods.

 

Heart the Lover

Heart the Lover 

by Lily King

I bought a Kindle. I’m not quite sure what I’m going through, but first Audible and now a Kindle...clearly something is happening. It showed up two days ago, and honestly, it’s adorable. Small, lightweight, and easy to use. I immediately set it up and downloaded Heart the Lover by Lily King.

It’s an easy, quick read, but one that stirred up memories of my college years, early adulthood, and the life decisions that shape who we become. Rather than focusing on one sweeping romance, the book traces the emotional terrain of relationships, friendships, ambitions, and regrets over the course of three decades. That long view is what makes the story feel so honest and resonant.

The storyline captures how people change...and how they don’t. The characters’ lives unfold in ways that feel natural and unforced, shaped by choices made in youth and the consequences that follow them into middle age. I especially loved how the novel moves through time, allowing us to see how relationships evolve, fracture, and sometimes reveal truths that were buried for years. There’s a quiet power in watching the truth emerge slowly and inevitably by the end.

While the book contains love, it isn’t a traditional love story. It’s more emotional than romantic, more reflective than idealized. Heart the Lover is about longing, honesty, and the complicated ways people hold onto the past while trying to move forward.

Sometimes you just need an easier read...something that helps you turn the pages. I really didn’t enjoy the last book I read, so I needed something that I did. I think my favorite part of this book was its realistic passage of time and life itself...the stuff that comes with living a life.

Stone Yard Devotional

 Stone Yard Devotional 

by Charlotte Wood

What did I just read?

Painful. Confusing. And honestly, not for me.

I’m not even sure how I came to reading it but I didn’t get it. I wanted to stop reading several times, but I kept going, mostly out of stubbornness and the hope that it might eventually get better.

My advice? Don’t even start.

I'll save you the time and do my best to provide a recap:  The book is a quiet, deeply contemplative novel centered on an unnamed woman who, in quick succession, divorces, loses her mother, quits her job with an endangered species organization, and finds herself at the beginning of the Covid shutdown. In response to all of this upheaval, she retreats to a remote religious community of cloistered nuns in rural Australia.

If you’re expecting tension, momentum, or even a compelling narrative…you won’t find it here.

Instead, the novel drifts…many times. There is a truly horrendous mouse plague that receives an extraordinary amount of attention…far more than I felt it deserved…and the graphic detail became distracting and gross rather than meaningful. There’s also the return of the bones of a nun murdered thirty years earlier, which causes disruption within the community, and the presence of a once-famous, scandal-tainted nun who attended high school with the narrator and endured a brutal, shame-filled upbringing.

All of this feeds into what the book is really doing: an introspective meditation on guilt, unresolved grief, forgiveness, and how, or whether, it’s possible to live meaningfully in the world after loss. On an intellectual level, I understand that this is what Wood is aiming for. On a reading level, I found it heavy, slow, and emotionally distant.

Ultimately, Stone Yard Devotional feels less like a novel and more like a prolonged meditation on life itself…on letting go, grieving, and the elusive nature of forgiveness. For some readers, that may be profound. For me, it was tedious and overwrought, with far too much time spent on mice and not enough on making me care.

If you like quiet, philosophical fiction and don’t mind ambiguity or discomfort, perhaps you will enjoy it. I just did not.

 

 

Wild Dark Shore

 

Wild Dark Shore 

by Charlotte McConaghy

Wild Dark Shore is easily landing on every book reviewer’s “Top Five Books of 2025” lists.

Unfortunately, it didn’t land on mine.

The premise did hook me in immediately: a family living in extreme isolation on a remote island near Antarctica, surrounded by seals, penguins, and the ocean. Supplies arrive by boat only twice a year. Honestly, that kind of remoteness fascinated me…while I was listening to it, I could imagine wanting to try living there.  To me, the island promises quiet, self-sufficiency, and a strange kind of freedom.

Climate change is forcing the island’s evacuation as the permafrost melts and systems fail. It’s eerie, cinematic, and genuinely fascinating.

After the death of his wife during childbirth, Dominic moves his three children to the island to take a job as lighthouse keeper. Once home to a bustling research station and a seed vault safeguarding the future of plant life, the island is being abandoned due to climate change.

First of all…Lighthouse Keeper? It immediately made me think of Winter Keeper (you remember from the book,The Wedding People)… the seed vault rang a bell, too. I follow a woman on Instagram who lives in Svalbard, Norway, near the Global Seed Vault….a real place where seeds are preserved to help humanity recover if global food systems fail.  Interesting how “keepers,” fictional or real, are all about protecting something worth saving.

Back to the book….a woman, Rowan, washes ashore. She is injured, bloodied, and barely alive. As the family nurses her back to health, she begins to sense that something is deeply wrong. Their stories don’t quite line up...she becomes suspicious.  Why do they whisper behind closed doors? Why has the radio been smashed? Why do they act like they have seen a ghost after finding out who she is?  Then Rowan discovers HER husband’s passport and laptop hidden beneath the floor of the tool shed. Bloodstains…once scrubbed clean…linger in the abandoned research facility. What happened here before she arrived? 

At times, throughout the book, it seems like the family is succumbing to madness…perhaps bred by isolation? 

My biggest struggle is with Dominic. He is a man who lets his daughter sleep on a sub-Antarctic beach because he doesn’t know how to talk to her. He’s also sleeping with, Rowan, the wife of a prisoner he’s keeping locked in a freezing underground vault. His ability to compartmentalize is… extraordinary…wouldn’t you say?   

What is this book filled with?  Grief, isolation, climate change, guilt, sacrifice, obsession, and the instinct to survive.

A few things I did like about the book…

I loved the wildness of nature.

My favorite part of the story.  The Wombats. 

“Wombats have a thing they do in fires. They take their families underground, into their burrows. They have tunnels under the earth, and they go down there to take shelter, but they don’t just take their families, they also take other animals down there. They save everyone they can. And then the mum and dad wombats stick their bums up into the entrances of the burrows to block the fire and the ash from coming down. And their bums get burned, and sometimes they die, but they protect the others.”

I loved that.  I didn’t know that.  Made me feel like they symbolized…a quiet survival, deep rootedness, and non-human endurance…a reminder that strength doesn’t have to be loud, fast, or visible to be real.

If the world was burning.  Where is your burrow? Who will you save?  Who will save you?

Another moment I genuinely loved was the scene with the whales washing ashore, and the collective effort to save them. Can you imagine witnessing that?  Being part of something so urgent and awe-filled, and then carrying that story with you for the rest of your life?

But then I’m brought back to not being able to recommend it because the romance between Dominic and Rowan…felt completely out of place. The characters barely knew each other, hardly spoke at first, and didn’t fully trust one another…go back up a few paragraphs…Dominic is hiding her husband…what kind of man is this? 

All of that said, I can absolutely see this becoming a compelling movie. The setting alone is cinematic: brutal winds, icy waters, storms rolling in over penguin-covered shores. The island feels like a character in its own right. 

Wild Dark Shore has all the ingredients of a haunting, unforgettable novel…I mean…movie.