📚 May 2025 Roundup

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First of all, thank you for being part of the Slightly Smarter community. Our very first Book Spotlight—it’s ugly and unrefined—was published in early May 2024, which means we’ve been at it for over a year. 160 books, 37 editions of Weekend Words, and over 50,000 subscribers prove that starting a new project is often the hardest part. If you’ve dreamed of launching a business, chasing a creative pursuit, or learning a new skill, there’s no time like now.

Going forward, we’ll be adding a Monthly Recap to our publishing mix. In May, we put a spotlight on 9 books and a few of the authors’ big ideas. Did you have a favorite?

Also, word of month is our favorite way to grow. If you’ve ever been inspired by one of our newsletters, please share Slightly Smarter with your friends or social followers.

— Andrew & Scott

In case you missed any books or want to revisit any of the big ideas, here’s your May 2025 recap:

What if ‘disruption’ is over-valued and over-celebrated?

In The Disruption Fallacy, Costas Papaikonomou delivers a battle-tested reality check on how innovation actually works.

The book is his rallying cry against Change for Change’s sake, against Disruption as the only path to progress.

Is your anxiety trying to tell you something?

In Beyond Anxiety, bestselling author and Harvard-trained sociologist Martha Beck offers a bold idea: anxiety isn’t just a problem to fix—it’s a clue to follow. Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, and personal transformation, Beck reveals how many of us live in ways that betray our deepest truths. The result? Anxiety spirals.

But there’s a way out. Beck introduces the creativity spiral, a powerful shift from fear to curiosity that leads to resilience, insight, and purpose. This book isn’t about coping—it’s about transforming.

Ever wish you could press pause before making a snap decision?

In Clear Thinking, Shane Parrish lays out a guide to turning those split-second reactions into deliberate choices—so you can finally get out of your own way.

How can you build your identity when the world tries to define you first?

In Constructing a Nervous System, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Margo Jefferson delivers a genre-defying blend of memoir, cultural criticism, and fierce self-examination.

This isn’t a linear life story—it’s an intellectual collage of thoughts, fragments, memories, and moments that shaped her identity as a Black woman, artist, and thinker navigating elite institutions, pop culture, and inherited expectations.

It’s personal, yes—but also a guide for how anyone can construct themselves more consciously, using both joy and pain as raw material.

Love, Loss, and the Recipe for Healing

From Scratch, Tembi Locke’s memoir, is equal parts love story, travelogue, and a recipe for finding your way home after heartbreak.

It all begins on a sun-drenched street in Florence, where Tembi, a young American actress, meets Saro, a charming Sicilian chef. Their instant connection defies distance, language, and even the disapproval of Saro’s traditional family.

But life, like any great meal, is layered. After building a beautiful life together in Los Angeles, adopting their daughter Zoela, and finally reconciling with Saro’s family, everything changes when Saro is diagnosed with cancer. Tembi becomes his caregiver, and after his death, she’s left to navigate the choppy waters of grief—while helping her daughter and herself find a new sense of belonging.

What if happiness isn’t about being liked, but about living authentically?

In The Courage to Be Disliked, Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga introduce Adlerian psychology through a five-night dialogue between a philosopher and a skeptical youth. Together, they explore how letting go of the need for approval can lead to true freedom and lasting happiness.

What if we could think in centuries instead of seconds?

In The Clock of the Long Now, Stewart Brand challenges us to expand our sense of time. He argues that modern society’s obsession with immediacy—fueled by quarterly earnings reports, election cycles, and fleeting trends—is holding us back from solving humanity’s biggest challenges.

The antidote? A mindset he calls “The Long Now,” where we think not just about today, but about the next 10,000 years.

Feeling disconnected in a hyperconnected world?

Over 200 years ago, Mary Shelley penned Frankenstein, a novel that delves deep into the human yearning for connection and the devastating effects of isolation. Today, in an era dominated by social media, her insights resonate more than ever.​

Victor Frankenstein's creation, often misunderstood and shunned, mirrors our modern experiences of online alienation. Despite the promise of digital platforms to bring us closer, many find themselves feeling more isolated, echoing the creature's lament:​

Shelley's narrative serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of genuine human connection and the perils of neglecting it.

Why do we yearn to return to where we began?

The Odyssey is more than a tale of sea monsters, sorceresses, and suitors—it’s the original blueprint for the hero’s journey.

At its heart is Odysseus, a man fighting to get back home not just to Ithaca, but to himself. Across ten years and a thousand detours, the epic explores timeless questions about identity, loyalty, resilience, and what it means to find your way in a world full of distraction and deception.

Whether you’re navigating modern work chaos or personal transformation, this ancient story has surprising wisdom for today.