The only effect I ardently long to produce by my writings, is that those who read them should be better able to imagine and to feel the pains and the joys of those who differ from them in everything but the broad fact of being struggling, erring human creatures. —George Eliot

Last week was rough, dear reader. And that’s saying something in the midst of a very rough year. Is 2020 over yet? This year has been heavy on shouting and light on listening. Cue last night’s debate. Things are at a fever pitch and I’ve got the family email, laced in all-caps and chock-fulla venom, to prove it. While it made me ache for a gentle brother gone too soon and a father who wore his compassion in his eyes, I didn’t take the personal attack personally. I recognized it as just another symptom of a far greater problem: an alarming lack of tolerance and empathy.

I’m not a hopeless person, but lately those silver-linings I’m good at spotting are proving harder to find. 2020 seems to be the perfect storm. Quarantine led to isolation which led to more people spending more time on social media. Which is rarely, if ever, a good thing. Don’t believe me? Watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix and then we’ll chat. That got me thinking: could the answer be as simple as getting everyone to read more? Not more editorials or conspiracy theories. Not more books selling an agenda or the latest tell-all. I’m talking stories here. The kind that let us see the world from another’s point of view by climbing in their skin and walking around a while. When in doubt, channel Atticus.

Here’s a roundup of recent reads that have helped me tune out the noise from both sides and focus on what really matters: people and their stories. Please know this isn’t a list of books to persuade readers to one side or the other of the political spectrum, it’s simply a hope of putting human faces to the issues that polarize us. In the words of Brené Brown, “people are hard to hate close up.”

Posted by Rachel