Bookpile

The End of Trauma: How the New Science of Resilience is Changing How We Think about PTSD, by George A. Bonanno (2021) / Long Island Compromise, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (2024) ||   Is trauma ubiquitous, or is the term over-used and therefore now becoming meaningless or even unhelpful? Is trauma something people mostly overcome or mostly have to carry with them forever? The novel and the non-fiction book Tash and Andrew look at in this episode seem to be making some very different claims on this, so the question kind of becomes: do you trust non-fiction or fiction to tell the truth more adequately? 

Assholes: A Theory, by Aaron James (2012) / Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen (2021) ||   With apologies for US spelling (they are both American books), and for language, Tash and Andrew consider assholery: who counts as an asshole, whether there are more assholes around than there used to be, and whether James’ theoretical account of the species maps onto the depth and complexity of Franzen’s characters (and possibly Franzen himself). 

Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, by Elizabeth Oldfield (2024) / Stone Yard Devotional, by Charlotte Wood (2023) ||   What kind of people are needed at the end of the world? That’s what Oldfield asks in her book about being a grown-up in a messed-up and confusing time (like all times?); and it’s what Wood is asking too, in her novel about a woman who withdraws from her life as an environmental activist to live in a convent in outback NSW. Andrew and Tash talk about the horrors of mouse plagues, and the horrors of living with other people; the characteristic vices of our time; and the exhaustion of caring about everything that’s wrong with the world. 

Feminism Against Progress, by Mary Harrington (2023) / The Power, by Naomi Alderman (2016) ||   Andrew and Tash rush in where wiser minds may fear to tread. They consider Mary Harrington’s argument that modern feminism isn’t really to the benefit of most women (and what would be), and compare their reactions to Naomi Alderman’s thought-experiment novel about what would happen if women became, practically overnight, physically the more powerful sex.

Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen (1999/2023) / Conversations with Friends, by Sally Rooney (2017) || In the inaugural episode of Bookpile, Tash and Andrew decide to have a conversation about … conversations. Well, about books about conversations.   Andrew’s non-fiction pick Difficult Conversations is one he uses and recommends all the time, and has been doing for years and years; Tash’s fiction pick Conversations with Friends is Sally Rooney’s first novel and definitely new territory for Andrew. In this episode, they discuss why Andrew has so many difficult conversations and Tash has so few, and whether the ending of Conversations with Friends is hopeful or tragic.