The Energy Experience Monthly Book Club
We kicked off a new series in November 2025 and are now coming into our third book club pick. The book club pick for January is It’s Only Drowning by David Litt
Join The Energy Experience community for 60 minutes of celebration within the written word. This will be a facilitated time dedicated to connecting our hearts and minds with writing that heals, enlivens, and inspires. We will meet online (via Zoom) to connect and discuss. Pull a copy off your shelf, find it at the library, purchase it from one of your independent bookshops, borrow it from a friend (and invite them to join you!), grab your e-reader, or listen in . . . and then let’s gather.
Date
January 15, 2026
7:00–8:00 PM Eastern
Register
Tap the button below to register. You will receive the details for the call three days ahead of the gathering.
Cost
There is no charge to attend this gathering. In exchange, we ask you to donate what you are able on a sliding scale. Please consider how much you would typically pay to attend a facilitated, one-hour gathering like this—and then donate that to January’s featured nonprofit: the ACLU of New Jersey. David Litt serves on the Board of Trustees for this organization, and you can read the press release from January 16, 2025 here.
Dedication, Intention, and Housekeeping
You are welcome to click here to view/download the group’s dedication, intention, and housekeeping items.
From the author’s website:
David, the Yale-educated writer with a fear of sharks, and Matt, the daredevil electrician with a shed full of surfboards, had never been close. But as America’s crises piled up and David spiraled into existential dread, he noticed that his brother-in-law was thriving. He began to suspect Matt’s favorite hobby had something to do with it.
David started taking surf lessons. For months, he wiped out on waves the height of daffodils. Yet, after realizing that surfing could change him both in and out of the water, he set an audacious goal: riding a big wave in Hawaii. He searched for an expert he could trust to guide and protect him—and when he couldn’t find one, he asked Matt. Together, they set out on a journey that spanned coasts, and even continents, before taking them to Oahu’s famously dangerous North Shore.
It’s Only Drowning is a laugh-out-loud love letter to surfing—and so much more. It’s an ode to embarking on adventures at any age. It’s a blueprint for becoming braver at a time when it takes courage just to read the news. Most of all, it’s the story of an unlikely friendship, one that crosses the fault lines of education, ideology, and culture tearing so many of us apart.
“David’s book is not just a surfing memoir—it’s about the connections that keep us going.”
— Laird Hamilton, legendary big-wave surfer and author of Force of Nature
“David Litt has written a surfing memoir that’s about so much more than surfing. It’s an insightful, hilarious, surprisingly moving story about the nature of friendship and the search for common ground, and I loved it.”
— Judd Apatow, New York Times bestselling author of Sick in the Head
“So funny. So smart. If you’re a millennial panicking as you approach middle age, read this book!”
— Ilana Glazer, co-creator of Broad City
“It’s Only Drowning is captivating and engaging, witty and funny, and the deeper issues it raises—about living with uncertainty, the importance of stepping outside one’s comfort zone, and the value in spending time with those who see the world differently— stuck with me long after I put it down. This book is easy to read and hard to forget.”
— Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and New York Times bestselling author of In an Uncertain World
“It’s Only Drowning is delightful and an instant classic. David Litt has given us a coming-of-age story in the best sense—about a person, a passion, a friendship, and a moment in history. And the book is wickedly funny from beginning to end.”
— James Fallows, New York Times bestselling author of Our Towns
“I will be honest— I did not intend to read beyond the first chapter of this book. New Jersey? Surfing? Crazy brother-in-law? Come on! How wrong I was. One chapter led to the next which led to me setting my alarm for 5 a.m. so I could get up early and finish It’s Only Drowning, which is funny and wise and needed for our time on more levels than I can describe. Everybody should read this book which is, in the end, a treatise on humans and humanity.”
— Cynthia McFadden, Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist
The books and nonprofits we have celebrated and supported so far . . .
November 2025 — The Book of Joy (Ridgeline Language Arts)
December 2025 — Wild Chorus (The Center for Whale Research)
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”