Hi Friends,
In a year of profound strides towards a healthier, happier world—as well as one of turmoil, conflict, and uncertainty— we are profoundly grateful for all of you: the authors, readers, editors, agents, and publishers we have had the honor of working with and learning from. You always remain our greatest teachers. In that spirit, we’d like to share ten essential lessons we’ve learned this year that we’ll be carrying into 2023.
1. We Cannot Climb the Mountain Alone
Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, the first Peruvian woman to summit Everest and the first openly gay woman to summit the seven major mountains of the world, inspired us with her critically-acclaimed debut memoir, In The Shadow of the Mountain. Her epic tale of nature and learning, trauma and resilience—from years of sexual abuse by a family friend in Lima to her eventual immigration to the U.S., from the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley to trekking the world’s biggest mountain—revealed a fundamental truth: in order to heal, we all have our own mountains to climb. And none of us can make the journey by ourselves.
2. To Heal Crime, We Need to Prioritize Mental Health
In his debut memoir, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer, a front-line doctor with an amazing true story about a shocking crime and a mysterious illness, forever changed our notions of how we punish and how we heal. In The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight For Justice, as described in one of the most listened to episodes of This American Life, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer found that time and again, he came up against a prison system that cared little about the mental health of its inmates—despite more than a third of them suffering from mental illness.
3. You’re Only as Old as You Think
Becca Levy’s groundbreaking science in Breaking The Age Code taught us that what we think about aging has an effect on our genes, our quality of life as we age, and even our life span (by nearly 8 years!). Her book not only taught us how to combat these, but put an unalterable awareness of the ways our society holds up ageist structures in our day to day lives.
4. Social Justice is Not Only Timeless, it’s Ageless
Ray Hinton’s story of wrongful incarceration on Death Row shows all of us that you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy. We adapted his inspiring tale for young readers, and now, with critical race theory being challenged on a national scale, it’s more crucial than ever for books like The Sun Does Shine to teach kids about the systems in which we all work and live. We were so honored to help bring his story to young people.
5. Love is Made up of Small Things Often
John and Julie Gottman taught us that with just a few small changes, we can fundamentally transform our relationships for the better. In their instant New York Times bestseller, The Love Prescription: Seven Days to More Intimacy, Connection, and Joy. they distill their decades of research into a bite-size, seven-day action plan that showed us there is a formula for a good relationship—and anyone can follow it!
6. Sleep is About What Happens When You’re Awake
From setting our internal clock, to learning how to wind down, to the recipe for a better morning, The Sleep Prescription by Dr. Aric Prather helped us to finally find wonderful sleep—and a lifelong way for even the most restless of sleepers among us to work with our natural cycles and rhythms and find the best rest.
7. Joy is Everywhere
Teaching our kids about their connection to the natural world has never been more important, and the “visual gem” (Publisher’s Weekly) of A Journey Under The Sea helped us to do just that. As a best-in-class photographic picture book for little ones, all about the wonders of the sea, we saw how impactful it was on young learners hoping to protect the incredible biodiversity of our oceans.
8. The Ocean Has the Power to Heal Generations
Teaching our kids about their connection to the natural world has never been more important, and the “visual gem” (Publisher’s Weekly) of A Journey Under The Sea helped us to do just that. As a best-in-class photographic picture book for little ones, all about the wonders of the sea, we saw how impactful it was on young learners hoping to protect the incredible biodiversity of our oceans.
9. A Spoonful of Stress Actually Helps You Stress Less
A very exciting upcoming book (Dec. 27th!), The Stress Prescription by New York Times-bestselling author Dr. Elissa Epel is the final installment in The Seven Days Series, and distills decades of Dr. Epel’s research on stress into a practical yet transformative seven-day plan of science-based techniques. This book helped us to “stress better”—by training our minds and bodies to shift towards a flexible, beneficial stress response that can actually enhance health. She also taught us how to develop a more robust mindset, build the resources we need to turn stress into strength, and fill our days with more joy, connection, and ease.
10. We Are Better Together
This was such a year of big moments— from relearning what it is to be in a post-pandemic society (and the after effects on our work lives), to economic uncertainty, war in Ukraine, and midterm elections—and through it all, many of these books helped us to find moments of calm and joy, and it was our sincere hope they may have provided welcome reprieve for you, too. Our motto has long been: Genius is a collaborative process. This year we recognized all the more how much we need one another to navigate our increasingly connected world. We don’t know how we would have gotten through the year without you. Thank you.
In celebration of the season, we are making donations in your honor to the Equal Justice Initiative, The Second Harvest Food Bank, The Haywood Burns Institute, The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, The Anti-Recidivism Coalition, Protect the Sacred, and The Tibetan Children’s Village.
The Idea Architects team takes a real break December 17th through the end of the year and is offline. We look forward to sharing another year of creativity, connection, and change in 2023.
Warmly,
Rachel, Bella, Sarah, Ty, Janelle, Jordan, Mark, Doug, Alyssa, and everyone at Idea Architects
