Together with:

Mark Twain, the famous American author best known for "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He adopted the pen name "Mark Twain" during his time as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. "Mark twain" is a nautical term that means the water is two fathoms (12 feet) deep, indicating safe navigation for a steamboat. Twain's experiences as a riverboat pilot greatly influenced his writing and provided the backdrop for some of his most memorable stories.

📷️ Bookshelf Humble Brag

📝 Note

• Want to show off your library? Send us a picture to be featured in the Reading Journal.

• Looking to read some of our previous Journals? You can find them here.

📚️ Staff Pick of the Week

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek, in his insightful book, introduces the concept of infinite games, such as business or politics, contrasting them with finite games like football or chess which have clear endpoints. He proposes a framework for adopting an infinite mindset, essential for success in endless games. While finite victories provide momentary thrills, pursuing a noble cause provides enduring motivation and meaning. By working tirelessly towards a captivating vision of the future, despite its uncertain form, individuals find purpose. Leaders embodying this infinite mindset foster resilient, innovative, and inspiring organizations, steering us progressively into the future.

🎥 Reading Talk's

📈 Rising Quickly - Week of August 28, 2023

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Every day we make choices—about what to buy or eat, about financial investments or our children’s health and education, even about the causes we champion or the planet itself. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. Nudge is about how we make these choices and how we can make better ones. Using dozens of eye-opening examples and drawing on decades of behavioral science research, Nobel Prize winner Richard H. Thaler and Harvard Law School professor Cass R. Sunstein show that no choice is ever presented to us in a neutral way, and that we are all susceptible to biases that can lead us to make bad decisions. But by knowing how people think, we can use sensible “choice architecture” to nudge people toward the best decisions for ourselves, our families, and our society, without restricting our freedom of choice.

🪄Most Talked About Fiction - Week of August 28, 2023

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

⭐️ A message from Babbel

Feeling burnt out after the summer? A licensed therapist can help you feel inspired and motivated. 

Getting back into a routine after a summer filled with travel, family, and friend time can be hard. BetterHelp has over 32,000 licensed therapists to help you explore your emotions and navigate life’s challenges, so you can feel refreshed, recharged, and ready to soak up all the joys of the summer season.

Get 25% off

📚️ Most Talked About Non-Fiction - Week of August 28, 2023

The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees by Ben Mezrich

In "The Antisocial Network," Ben Mezrich unfolds the riveting tale of the GameStop short squeeze instigated by a community on subreddit WallStreetBets, which challenged Wall Street magnates and notably disrupted a prominent hedge fund, marking a significant moment in financial history. Over four intense days, financial heavyweights like Elon Musk and Gabe Plotkin found themselves grappling with a new, unpredictable market force. The saga spotlighted everyday individuals from WallStreetBets, and their collective action against Melvin Capital, an esteemed hedge fund, through rallying around the underdog, GameStop. This phenomenon morphed WallStreetBets from a meme-centric, casual forum into a serious platform for collective financial activism, capturing nationwide attention and sparking dialogues on market dynamics and the power of decentralized groups. Through captivating prose, Mezrich paints a dramatic narrative of this financial rollercoaster, highlighting a moment of potential paradigm shift in the financial sector.

🆕 New and Noteworthy

Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story by Max Marshall

A brilliant young investigative journalist traces a murder and a multi-million-dollar drug ring, leading to an unprecedented look at elite American fraternity life. When Max Marshall arrived on the campus of the College of Charleston in 2018, he hoped to investigate a small-time fraternity Xanax trafficking ring. Instead, he found a homicide, several student deaths, and millions of dollars circulating around the Deep South. He also opened up an elite world hidden to outsiders. Behind the pop culture cliches of “Greek life” lies one of the major breeding grounds of American 80 percent of Fortune 500 executives, 85 percent of Supreme Court justices, and all but four presidents since 1825 have been fraternity members. With unprecedented immersion, this book takes readers inside that bubble. Under the live oaks and Spanish moss of Travel + Leisure ’s “Most Beautiful Campus in America,” Marshall traces several “C of C” boys’ journeys from fraternity pledges to interstate drug traffickers. The result is a true-life story of hubris, status, money, drugs, and murder—one that lifts a curtain on an ecstatic and disturbing way of life. With expert pacing and a cool eye, he follows a never-ending party that continues after funerals and mass arrests. An addictive and haunting portrait of tomorrow’s American establishment, Among the Bros is nonfiction storytelling at its finest.

✍️ Quote of the Week

If you are interested in sponsoring The Reading Journal, you can learn more on our advertise page.