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How donating a kidney fixed my jump shot
Originally published in major publications, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, these relatable essays about everyday life sparkle with humor, pathos, and optimism. Sollisch doesn't waste a word—or a moment of your time—getting to the point. He pokes and prods every experience until it yields a surprising insight. What's really behind people's obsessions with bucket lists? How did Boomers, who had the best parents, ruin parenting forever? Why do men have to unlearn just about everything they know to become good fathers? Why is there an Encyclopedia of Jews in sports? What's with guys still asking fathers for permission to marry their daughters?
Whether he's explaining how he lost his two-year old son at the mall or revealing the real reason he donated a kidney, Sollisch is a master storyteller and a keen observer of the small truths that make us human. There are odes to basketball, grocery shopping, monogamy, rants against air travel, the death of the family dinner, and bad writing that will have you nodding your head.
Sollisch's voice is distinct and familiar—like someone you meet at a party and instantly feel like you've known forever. Some readers may have heard his voice on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, where he was a commentator reading his own essays for several years.
Whether he's explaining how he lost his two-year old son at the mall or revealing the real reason he donated a kidney, Sollisch is a master storyteller and a keen observer of the small truths that make us human. There are odes to basketball, grocery shopping, monogamy, rants against air travel, the death of the family dinner, and bad writing that will have you nodding your head.
Sollisch's voice is distinct and familiar—like someone you meet at a party and instantly feel like you've known forever. Some readers may have heard his voice on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, where he was a commentator reading his own essays for several years.
178 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 23, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 19, 2025
Reading Sollisch’s work, you’ll feel like you have serendipitously met someone in a coffee shop who turned out to be a rare and gifted conversationalist, the kind who sees the extraordinary in the ordinary, someone you'll hope to run into again.
Sollisch has been a writer for a long time. He’s read his work on the radio. He’s been published in newspapers and online. He has taught writing at the college level. Read his essay entitled, “The Power of the Word,” and you’ll wish he’d been your teacher.
In “My First Fatherless Father’s Day,” you’ll swear you were there when he told his father he didn’t want to play high school football anymore. Read his father’s response and you’ll wish his dad had been yours.
His voice is a fresh combination of poignant southern storyteller with pundit punch. You will laugh, sigh, swallow hard, and even cry as you read what represents 33 years of writing as a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a step-father, an athlete, a writer, and as a guy who at 67 is still friends with his college roommates.
Sollisch is the Executive Creative Director at an advertising agency, a job that insists on brevity. But the 73 short essays in, “How Donating a Kidney Fixed My Jumpshot,” never lose the depth of his life’s most profound moments. In, “My Children, My Roomates,” he writes, “I had just started to master the whole parenting thing around the time my kids left for college.” In, “I Want to be a Millenial When I Retire,” Sollisch remembers how he worried that his 30-year old middle child, a singer-songwriter at the time, might never qualify for a bank loan. Transcending the numeric preoccupation that typically measures professional achievement, Sollisch realizes, “Our universal language for success is an impoverished one; maybe we need an expression that captures the level of success you’ve achieved when you do exactly what you love every day.”
In, “The Particular Joy of Being a Grandparent,” he compares parenting his own children - “Only when you have everything to lose, do you have everything,” - to becoming a grandfather. Sans the constant work and worry of imagined hazards, he holds his first granddaughter and writes of a feeling “that stopped my brain, that put all plans on hold, that rendered me dumb.” He calls it rapture.
There are intentional echoes throughout the stories. They ring true as he chronicles his life. They resonate with familiarity for anyone who has grown up over and over again, milestone by milestone. Sollisch sees each one as a light refracted in a prism, and he captures their repeating patterns with captivating verbal clarity.
By donating an organ, Sollisch saved a life. Read his book, and you’ll feel like you lived his life with him.
Sollisch has been a writer for a long time. He’s read his work on the radio. He’s been published in newspapers and online. He has taught writing at the college level. Read his essay entitled, “The Power of the Word,” and you’ll wish he’d been your teacher.
In “My First Fatherless Father’s Day,” you’ll swear you were there when he told his father he didn’t want to play high school football anymore. Read his father’s response and you’ll wish his dad had been yours.
His voice is a fresh combination of poignant southern storyteller with pundit punch. You will laugh, sigh, swallow hard, and even cry as you read what represents 33 years of writing as a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a step-father, an athlete, a writer, and as a guy who at 67 is still friends with his college roommates.
Sollisch is the Executive Creative Director at an advertising agency, a job that insists on brevity. But the 73 short essays in, “How Donating a Kidney Fixed My Jumpshot,” never lose the depth of his life’s most profound moments. In, “My Children, My Roomates,” he writes, “I had just started to master the whole parenting thing around the time my kids left for college.” In, “I Want to be a Millenial When I Retire,” Sollisch remembers how he worried that his 30-year old middle child, a singer-songwriter at the time, might never qualify for a bank loan. Transcending the numeric preoccupation that typically measures professional achievement, Sollisch realizes, “Our universal language for success is an impoverished one; maybe we need an expression that captures the level of success you’ve achieved when you do exactly what you love every day.”
In, “The Particular Joy of Being a Grandparent,” he compares parenting his own children - “Only when you have everything to lose, do you have everything,” - to becoming a grandfather. Sans the constant work and worry of imagined hazards, he holds his first granddaughter and writes of a feeling “that stopped my brain, that put all plans on hold, that rendered me dumb.” He calls it rapture.
There are intentional echoes throughout the stories. They ring true as he chronicles his life. They resonate with familiarity for anyone who has grown up over and over again, milestone by milestone. Sollisch sees each one as a light refracted in a prism, and he captures their repeating patterns with captivating verbal clarity.
By donating an organ, Sollisch saved a life. Read his book, and you’ll feel like you lived his life with him.
May 18, 2025
Witty, easy, wise
What a delightful read: one essay after another, full of wisdom and laughs, plumbing the depths (divorce, fatherhood, and several deaths, including the unbothered contemplation of his own) and skimming the shallows (his hilarious dismissal of tiny houses, his insatiable hunger as a teenager; and another food one -- related? -- his curious habit of grocery shopping every day, literally).
The editors who published this work in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and more were onto something, and have given their readers a treat over the years. Sollisch is like a Jewish Calvin Trillin from Cleveland, a land grant Philip Roth. Now you can gorge, all in one place.
Oh, and the kidney/jump shot thing? True story. Just like the one about figuring out how to get the 400-pound tree from his driveway into the ground unassisted. And that time he vowed to the guidance counselor that he'd give a tame graduation speech but at the last minute decided to pull his radical cri de coeur from his pocket and let it rip. And ... and ... and ...
What a delightful read: one essay after another, full of wisdom and laughs, plumbing the depths (divorce, fatherhood, and several deaths, including the unbothered contemplation of his own) and skimming the shallows (his hilarious dismissal of tiny houses, his insatiable hunger as a teenager; and another food one -- related? -- his curious habit of grocery shopping every day, literally).
The editors who published this work in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and more were onto something, and have given their readers a treat over the years. Sollisch is like a Jewish Calvin Trillin from Cleveland, a land grant Philip Roth. Now you can gorge, all in one place.
Oh, and the kidney/jump shot thing? True story. Just like the one about figuring out how to get the 400-pound tree from his driveway into the ground unassisted. And that time he vowed to the guidance counselor that he'd give a tame graduation speech but at the last minute decided to pull his radical cri de coeur from his pocket and let it rip. And ... and ... and ...
May 21, 2025
Who knew that essays as wise, evocative and funny as these are really like potato chips? I mean it. Ten minutes into turning the first page, I said, “Okay, just one more” and, before I knew it, I’d read half the book.
Jim Sollisch tells us "Writing is the process of figuring out what you know, not the process of recording what you already know." And that is what he does so well, taking us down the path of his discoveries, some hilarious, some self-revelatory, almost always surprising. And, just to keep things interesting, he hands us an improbable pairing of ideas and we’re hooked. Yom Kippur and editing. Dinner parties and peace treaties. Popsicle sticks and independence. Of course, jump shots and donating your kidney. And, probably my favorite piece in the book, "Living in the Land of Crocuses," which, for me, is really about being truly alive.
Deft wit, big-hearted enthusiasm, and compassionate insight shine through in every one of the jewels on these pages. I’m giving this lovely book to every father I know. - Sarah Stone
Jim Sollisch tells us "Writing is the process of figuring out what you know, not the process of recording what you already know." And that is what he does so well, taking us down the path of his discoveries, some hilarious, some self-revelatory, almost always surprising. And, just to keep things interesting, he hands us an improbable pairing of ideas and we’re hooked. Yom Kippur and editing. Dinner parties and peace treaties. Popsicle sticks and independence. Of course, jump shots and donating your kidney. And, probably my favorite piece in the book, "Living in the Land of Crocuses," which, for me, is really about being truly alive.
Deft wit, big-hearted enthusiasm, and compassionate insight shine through in every one of the jewels on these pages. I’m giving this lovely book to every father I know. - Sarah Stone
May 10, 2025
This engaging book of short essays is just delightful. Published previously in many noted newspapers and magazines over the decades over many years, the book captures the experience of marrying, having and raising children, being a stepparent, divorcing, remarrying, integrating stepchildren into one real family, making life decisions (yes, like donating a kidney). The writing is quick and conversational. By sharing his own vulnerability and foibles the author opens the reader to her own flawed but wonderful life stories. The writer’s voice is captivating, at the same time very personal and universal. He captures the zeitgeist of Boomer’s lives with pathos and with a humor that draws one in, opens (and sometimes breaks) the heart and leaves the reader with a satisfied smile. This warm, very human book should satisfy anyone who has raised a family in decades of tumult and has survived to face the next life challenge. I loved this book!
May 13, 2025
I laughed and cried my way through this wonderful collection of essays. Jim’s casual observations quickly become poignant, and his personal observations quickly become profound. I couldn’t recommend this more!
May 19, 2025
A wonderful mix of humor, hot takes and family. Loved every article. 10/10 would recommend
May 19, 2025
While reading every essay, there were so many times I said out loud "yes!". Sollisch's stories are all so relatable and insightful. They make me smile.
November 25, 2025
These essays are both poignant and profound. Mr. Sollisch has interesting insights into life and relationships. His words of wisdom will stay with me for a very long time.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews