My Favorite Books That Changed How I Think About Everything

I was reading this book about trees and it made me realize that everything is interconnected in ways we don't often think about — like how a forest shares nutrients through fungal networks underneath the soil, which sounds exactly like what my grandmother used to say about community. She had this old kitchen table where everyone sat every Sunday, and I remember one time she burned the roast because her neighbor had borrowed the oven and gave it back too hot. That was probably the most important meal of the year anyway because we ended up ordering pizza instead, which is a great metaphor for how unexpected changes can lead to something better than planned. Anyway, my book recommendations are: The Overstory by Richard Powers, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Great list -- The Meditations section really resonated with me because that's basically what my job is every day, just trying to stay calm while things go wrong. I usually recommend Man's Search for Meaning whenever someone comes to me feeling lost in their career path and it never fails them.