Sockwell Book Club: Winter Reads

A roundup of our favorite books from around the office.

Written by: Sarah Bailey, Marketing Director at Sockwell

The recent polar vortex was a not-so-friendly reminder that winter weekends are best spent indoors, cozied up by the fire with a great book and a pair of merino wool socks. Throw in a hot cup of tea or glass of bourbon and you have everything you need for a relaxing evening.

The Sockwell team has quite a few book worms, so I’ve rounded up the team’s latest book recommendations, ranging from literary fiction to science-backed and new age non-fiction.

What Alice Forgot

By Liane Moriarty  

“After flying through Big Little Lies by the same author, I can’t wait to get started! This book is the story of a girl who is visited by her younger self and gets a chance for a do-over. What could be better than cozying up with a captivating book, my sweet yorkie Mack and a pair of Sockwell Plush relaxed fit socks?”

-Megan Goodman, Customer Service Manager 

Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child.

So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. 

Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over.

Everybody Lies

by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

“This is a great read to find out how big data from the internet can tell more about what people really want than most well-designed studies by sociologists and psychologists. I’ve been reading this book curled up by the fire with a good glass of wine in cozy pair of Sockwell Canyons.”

-Thomas Lee, Partner 

In this groundbreaking work, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a Harvard-trained economist, former Google data scientist, and New York Times writer, argues that much of what we thought about people has been dead wrong. The reason?  People lie, to friends, lovers, doctors, surveys—and themselves.

However, we no longer need to rely on what people tell us. New data from the internet—the traces of information that billions of people leave on Google, social media, dating, and even pornography sites—finally reveals the truth. By analyzing this digital goldmine, we can now learn what people really think, what they really want, and what they really do… 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

By Agatha Christie

“As the ‘creator of the modern murder mystery,’ Agatha Christie has intrigued me for a few years now.  Recently, I have been working my way through her Poirot mysteries.  I appreciate the balance of witty humor in these mysteries, and in this specific story, I love being transported back to the sitting room of a manor house in a small English village.   The perfect evening includes a pot of tea, my favorite Softie socks, and an Agatha Christie!”

-Emily Yann, National Sales Manager

Known for its startling reveal, this is the book that changed Agatha Christie’s career. 

Roger Ackroyd was a man who knew too much. He knew the woman he loved had poisoned her first husband. He knew someone was blackmailing her – and now he knew she had taken her own life with a drug overdose. Soon the evening post would let him know who the mystery blackmailer was. But Ackroyd was dead before he’d finished reading it – stabbed through the neck where he sat in the study.

The Road to Character

By David Brooks

“In this book, David Brooks looks into some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders. He explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character.  I picked this book after reading Grit by Angela Duckworth (another great book) as it was on her list of recommended reading.  I tend to pick up this book and read it by the fire place with a glass of bourbon and pair of Sockwell Easy Does It socks.”

-Brandon Slaven, Production Manager

With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives. Responding to what he calls the culture of the Big Me, which emphasizes external success, Brooks challenges us, and himself, to rebalance the scales between our “résumé virtues”—achieving wealth, fame, and status—and our “eulogy virtues,” those that exist at the core of our being: kindness, bravery, honesty, or faithfulness, focusing on what kind of relationships we have formed.

A Place for Us

by Fatima Farheen Mirza

“I saw this book trending on Instagram and immediately put it in the queue for my winter reading list. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking, and significant novel of our time that begs for binge reading on a cold winter afternoon! This one is hard to put down, so I like to curl up on the couch with the dogs and read for hours in my well-loved Sockwell Winterlust socks.”

-Sarah Bailey, Marketing Director

A Place for Us takes us back to the beginning of this family’s life: from the bonds that bring them together, to the differences that pull them apart. All the joy and struggle of family life is here, from Rafiq and Layla’s own arrival in America from India, to the years in which their children -- each in their own way -- tread between two cultures, seeking to find their place in the world, as well as a path home.

A Place for Us is a book for our times: an astonishingly tender-hearted novel of identity and belonging, and a resonant portrait of what it means to be an American family today. It announces Fatima Farheen Mirza as a major new literary talent.

Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers

By Leonard Koren

“I love investing my reading time into something enriching. This short little book attempts to convey the quintessential Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi, a philosophy about the beauty of imperfection that is not easily captured in words but leaves me feeling peaceful at the heart every time I read it. The Big Easy is my favorite sock to pair with this book; it’s soft and comfortable yet not too heavy—it’s very Wabi-Sabi.”

-Mercedes Marchand, VP of Design

Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional…

Admittedly, the beauty of wabi-sabi is not to everyone’s liking. But I believe it is in everyone’s interest to prevent wabi-sabi from disappearing altogether. Diversity of the cultural ecology is a desirable state of affairs, especially in opposition to the accelerating trend toward the uniform digitalization of all sensory experience, wherein an electronic “reader” stands between experience and observation, and all manifestation is encoded identically...

http://www.leonardkoren.com/lkwa.html

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” – C.S. Lewis

 

What are you reading? Tag us on Instagram or use hashtag #Sockwell while reading your favorite book and wearing a pair of Sockwell socks for a chance to be featured on our page!