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Ellen Galinsky, Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs: Things you can do to enhance a child’s ability to wait, interest in learning, etc. A mix of research plus some concrete suggestions for games and approaches to particular recurring problems. Never praise your kid for being smart, only for working hard! Etc. I feel like I’ve seen most of this stuff before, but it could make a good introduction, plus the author is very reassuring, not like some advice which suggests that if you didn’t do X prenatally and thereafter your child is doomed.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy: Free LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. Another pretty good summary of “what happened,” though you might need to remember Economics 101 to follow some of the discussion. Stiglitz takes a more global perspective, bringing in trade and development issues as he talks about what happened in the US and how the Obama administration didn’t go nearly far enough in the stimulus or in proposing regulations to deal with the corrupt system that got us here. It’s a familiar, blood-pressure-raising story: some banks are so big that, like planets, they distort the gravitational fields around them, meaning that fair and free competition is impossible, even more so when the government intervenes at their behest so that risk is socialized but reward privatized. Stiglitz has some proposals, and he tries to be optimistic, but it’s hard.
Jim Butcher, Changes: I’ll say! This was an enjoyable entry in the Harry Dresden series, in which Harry’s ex-lover and quasi-vampire Susan returns with a shocking secret that drags Harry into the politics of the Red Court, which is supposedly attempting a rapprochement with the White Council. Desperate for sufficient power, Harry makes a terrible deal which will surely play out in interesting ways. The book ends on a cliffhanger, or perhaps ends with Harry falling off a cliff.
Ted Naifeh, Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things: Courtney moves into her great-uncle's house with her social-climbing parents and tries to fit into her upscale neighborhood, but is thwarted by the presence of goblins, her own misanthropy, and also by her experiments with witchcraft. It's cute enough, but I wonder whether ending the stories (particularly Goblin Market/changeling and the one in which the wimpy kid tries to befriend Courtney) in ways that mock the stereotypical narrative of plucky kid overcoming great odds will get old fast. "Cranky kid fails to overcome great odds" needs variations too!
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy: Free LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. Another pretty good summary of “what happened,” though you might need to remember Economics 101 to follow some of the discussion. Stiglitz takes a more global perspective, bringing in trade and development issues as he talks about what happened in the US and how the Obama administration didn’t go nearly far enough in the stimulus or in proposing regulations to deal with the corrupt system that got us here. It’s a familiar, blood-pressure-raising story: some banks are so big that, like planets, they distort the gravitational fields around them, meaning that fair and free competition is impossible, even more so when the government intervenes at their behest so that risk is socialized but reward privatized. Stiglitz has some proposals, and he tries to be optimistic, but it’s hard.
Jim Butcher, Changes: I’ll say! This was an enjoyable entry in the Harry Dresden series, in which Harry’s ex-lover and quasi-vampire Susan returns with a shocking secret that drags Harry into the politics of the Red Court, which is supposedly attempting a rapprochement with the White Council. Desperate for sufficient power, Harry makes a terrible deal which will surely play out in interesting ways. The book ends on a cliffhanger, or perhaps ends with Harry falling off a cliff.
Ted Naifeh, Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things: Courtney moves into her great-uncle's house with her social-climbing parents and tries to fit into her upscale neighborhood, but is thwarted by the presence of goblins, her own misanthropy, and also by her experiments with witchcraft. It's cute enough, but I wonder whether ending the stories (particularly Goblin Market/changeling and the one in which the wimpy kid tries to befriend Courtney) in ways that mock the stereotypical narrative of plucky kid overcoming great odds will get old fast. "Cranky kid fails to overcome great odds" needs variations too!
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