Karen Rinaldi

Discover how the freedom of sucking at something can help you build resilience, embrace imperfection, and find joy in the pursuit rather than the goal. What if the secret to resilience and joy is the one thing we’ve been taught to avoid? When was the last time you tried something new? Something that won’t make you more productive, make you more money, or check anything off your to-do list? Something you’re really, really bad at, but that brought you joy? Odds are, not recently. As a sh*tty surfer and all-around-imperfect human Karen Rinaldi explains in this eye-opening book, we live in a time of aspirational psychoses. We humblebrag about how hard we work and we prioritize productivity over play. Even kids don’t play for the sake of playing they’re building blocks to build the ideal college application. But we’re all being had. We’re told to be the best or nothing at all. We’re trapped in an epic and farcical quest for perfection. We judge others on stuff we can’t even begin to master, and it’s all making us more anxious and depressed than ever. Worse, we’re not improving on what really matters. This book provides the antidote. (It’s Great to) Suck at Something reveals that the key to a richer, more fulfilling life is finding something to suck at. Drawing on her personal experience sucking at surfing (a sport she’s dedicated nearly two decades of her life to doing without ever coming close to getting good at it) along with philosophy, literature, and the latest science, Rinaldi explores sucking as a lost art we must reclaim for our health and our sanity and helps us find the way to our own riotous suck-ability. She draws from sources as diverse as Anthony Bourdain and surfing luminary Jaimal Yogis, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Jean-Paul Sartre, among many others, and explains the marvelous things that happen to our mammalian brains when we try something new, all to discover what she’s learned it is great to suck at something. Sucking at something rewires our brain in positive ways, helps us cultivate grit, and inspires us to find joy in the process, without obsessing about the destination. Ultimately, it gives you freedom : the freedom to suck without caring is revelatory. Coupling honest, hilarious storytelling with unexpected insights, (It’s Great to) Suck at Something is an invitation to embrace our shortcomings as the very best of who we are and to open ourselves up to adventure, where we may not find what we thought we were looking for, but something way more important.

Four New York City women push the boundaries of convention to live life according to their own rules. The novel that inspired the acclaimed Rebecca Miller film Maggie's Plan, starring Julianne Moore, Ethan Hawke, and Greta Gerwig. New Yorkers Isabel, Anna, Beth, and Maggie aren’t afraid of having it all. And they satisfying careers, children they love, adoring men, and one another. So what could possibly go wrong?But trouble begins one morning when Beth arrives at the headquarters of Red Hot Mama—her sexy lingerie line for pregnant women—to find morally enraged protesters congregating outside. While Beth and her publicist Maggie are invigorated by the press, CFO Anna, already overwhelmed by work and home commitments, starts to lose it. And when one of the protesters shows more sinister intents, they are all forced to take action.Love lives are no less Anna’s sister Isabel is married and pregnant but craving the affections of an old, unconsummated flame. Maggie, whose husband left his previous wife for her, has decided she’d like to send him back. Her play matchmaker between her husband and his ex-. And Beth must contend with the impending death of her closeted ex-husband, the father of her adored daughter.These fierce friends take on the world with tenacity, astuteness, and laughter and aren’t afraid to live life on their own terms. A smart, insightful, incendiary read, The End of Men challenges the boundaries set by our world and, more importantly, those that we impose on ourselves.