Michael Rossmann, a former editor of The Jesuit Post who’s now at Boston College, included Rest in his list of The Best of What I Read in 2017:

10) Darwin Was a Slacker and You Should Be Too, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Nautilus. I have always loved power naps. After this article – and Pang’s book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less – I no longer feel guilty about taking them. Pang’s work made a more positive difference on my life than anything else I read this year. The “deliberate rest” that Pang describes, especially when coupled with deep work, was a recipe for success when writing my thesis.

I’m not Catholic, but I regard this as high praise, as all the Jesuits I’ve met have been frighteningly well-read. (Granted, most of them were teachers and academics, so my sample is somewhat skewed in favor of heavy readers, but still…)

(And glad it helped you write your thesis, Michael!)

This turned out to be one of a number of end-of-2017 mentions of Rest that came across my radar. The Christmas season was a good time for book sales, and it’s also the kind of book that people read for new year inspiration.