It feels both heavy and appropriate to start the year off reading one of the most existential books I've ever read: When Breath Becomes Air.
This book was all of it: beautiful, brilliant, simultaneously esoteric and grounding – about calling and purpose and the work that only he could do. The last few pages of my copy are wrinkled in spots where tears fell. Watch the Katie Couric interview with Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, here - I tear up without fail.
Book pairings: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.