Kate Murphy is a journalist in Houston who writes frequently for The New York Times.

Anthony Bourdain is a chef, author and host of “No Reservations,” an Emmy-award-winning television show on the Travel Channel, which chronicles his culinary adventures.

READING I just finished Sarah Bakewell’s terrific “How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer.” It’s Montaigne’s essays presented in a casual and contemporary way that reminds you why he is still relevant after nearly 500 years. I went out and got a tattoo because of that book. The lettering is in Greek but the best translation is “I suspend judgment,” a credo that Montaigne related to personally.

I am still working on Joel Brinkley’s “Cambodia’s Curse.” Cambodia was one of the first places I visited abroad. I wasn’t prepared for the grim reality there. It struck me hard.