BROOKLYN WRITERS PRESS AUTHOR
MATTHEW CAMPOBASSO
Author Matthew Campobasso blends stoic philosophy, therapy, modern behavioral science, and the lived experience of leading legal teams through real-world pressure. He teaches that detachment is not indifference; it's competence. It's not lowering your standards; it's lowering your self-destruction. His writing aims to help lawyers—and anyone who thinks like one—reclaim a sense of agency, calm, and humanity in a profession that rarely pauses to breathe.
Connect with Matthew
When he's not working or writing, Matt is a dad trying to keep up with three incredible kids—Luca, Gemma, and Bella. His interests run wide: Stoicism, film, music, meditation, and whatever else helps him make sense of the chaos. Above all, Matt is a work in progress.
—BROOKLYN WRITERS PRESS
THE AUTHOR'S BOOKSHELF
At the Brooklyn Writers Press, we invite our authors to share the books
they treasure most. This gives readers a glimpse into each author's personal
bookshelf, along with the inspiration behind the books we publish.
PROJECT HAIL MARY
by Andy Weir
"I love that Ryland Grace saves the world not by controlling every variable but by improvising, trusting a stranger, and letting the solution emerge one experiment at a time. It's the most joyful argument I know that the best outcomes arrive when you loosen your grip and let unlikely partners surprise you, which is exactly the spirit I wanted running through this book."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
UPSTREAM
The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen
by Dan Heath
"Dan Heath reframed how I see problems, showing me that so much of our frantic controlling is just downstream firefighting that better conditions upstream would have quietly prevented. It taught me that letting go isn't passivity; it's trusting the systems and people around you enough that constant intervention becomes unnecessary."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
THE MOUNTAIN IS YOU
Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery
by Brianna Wiest
"Brianna Wiest gave me language for how often the thing standing in my way is my own need to control and protect myself. Her insight that self-sabotage is really fear wearing a disguise shaped my belief that letting go is, more than anything, about releasing the grip we keep on ourselves."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
THE CREATIVE ACT
A Way of Being
by Rick Rubin
"Rick Rubin writes about creativity as something you receive rather than force, and reading it felt like permission to stop white-knuckling my own work. His idea that the artist's real job is to get out of the way and trust what wants to come through is, in many ways, the whole case for letting go applied to making things."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
RANGE
Why Generalists Triumph In A Specialized World
by David Epstein
"David Epstein makes the case that the people who thrive in an uncertain world are often the ones who wandered, sampled widely, and refused to lock in too early. As someone who spent years worrying I hadn't committed hard enough to a single path, Range helped me let go of the myth that rigid focus and early specialization are the only roads to a meaningful life."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
THE CHECKLIST MANIFESTO
How to Get Things Right
by Atul Gawande
"Atul Gawande showed me that something as humble as a checklist can carry the mental load we usually try to shoulder through sheer vigilance and worry. I love that it's really a book about trust. About building systems good enough that you can finally set down the fear of forgetting — which is exactly the kind of freedom I wanted to write toward."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
THANK YOU FOR BEING LATE
An Optimist's Guide to Thriving In the Age of Acceleration
by Thomas L. Friedman
"Thomas Friedman argues that in an age of dizzying acceleration, the most radical act is to pause, and to be late, to reflect, to stop pretending we can keep pace with everything at once. That permission to quit sprinting after a control I'll never actually have deeply informed the calmer, slower posture I advocate throughout these pages."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
BORN A CRIME
Stories from A South African Childhood
by Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah's story of surviving a childhood he couldn't possibly control. Through wit, adaptability, and his mother's fierce love. It moved me more than almost any memoir I've read. It's living proof that we don't get to script our circumstances, only how gracefully we respond to them, a truth I return to again and again in my own writing."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
MONEYBALL
The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
by Michael Lewis
"Michael Lewis tells the story of people brave enough to let go of a century of baseball orthodoxy and trust what the evidence actually showed them. I love it as a reminder that clinging to "how it's always been done" is its own quiet form of control, and that real progress often begins the moment we release it."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR
by Paul Kalanithi
"Paul Kalanithi's meditation on facing death while still fully living is the most profound argument for letting go that I have ever read. It reminded me that we are never truly in control of the one thing we most want to be (our time) and that grace lies entirely in how we hold that truth, a perspective that quietly anchors this entire book."
As an Amazon Associate, Brooklyn Writers Press may earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support our work honoring the work of writers we respect.
