» Our final Summer 2009 reading update includes some last minute suggestions for those who want to extend their summer, and a bonus preview of an unprecedented fall reading season.
For Adults:
USA Today: President's reading list a hefty one
The Witchita Eagle: Corporate America's summer reading
NPR: Cold Cases: Icy Books Offer Relief From The Heat
Guardian: 2009 First Book Award Longlist
Reflector.com: North Carolina fiction provides good summer reading
Massachusetts Historical Society: John Quincy Adams' Shipboard Reading List: August. Who knew JQA has a Twitter account?
World Tea News: Tea Books
Culture Industry: Reading List for creative writers
Talking Union: Summer reading suggestions
Extremely Graphic: Back to Work/End of Summer Reading
Pastor Brett: Professor Grant Horner's Bible Reading System
Think Laugh Weep Worship: Fall 2009 Reading List
Children and Young Adults:
Lemondrop: Your Back-to-School Reading List
GreenBeanTeenQueen: My Children's Lit Reading List Lots of suggestions from a Tween and Teen librarian
Bonus:
NPR: Fall Books Readers Will Be Buzzing About
NY Observer: Hey, Look at All These Novels to Read!
I have never seen another year like this. I can hardly bear to think about fall's books, it's like looking bare-eyed into the sun. -- Sarah McNally, owner of the popular Soho bookstore McNally Jackson.
(thanks, Molly!)
[ 09.14.09 ]
» Read Clive Thompson's fascinating new article on social contagion - whether your behavior affects your friends' (and friend's friends) happiness, weight, and health, and how that might work.
[ 09.15.09 ]
» A technique for Kitchener Stitch (grafting) using only knitting needles.
[ 09.25.09 ]
» Award winning author Kim Stanley Robinson says the Booker Prize is discriminating against science fiction authors. He has a list of the authors who should have won, too.
"When it came to literature, [Virginia Woolf] had no prejudices. She read widely and her judgment was superb. And so I am confident that if she were reading today, she would be reading science fiction along with everything else. And she would still be 'greatly interested, and elated too' - because British science fiction is now in a golden age... [B]ut there are no Woolfs on [the Booker Prize] juries, and so they judge in ignorance and give their awards to what usually turn out to be historical novels." - Kim Stanley Robinson
[ 09.29.09 ]
» Neuroscience professor Lise Eliot confirms what I've suspected for years: gender-biased behavior is the result of physical differences shaped by environmental factors.
When it comes to toy preference, you see some of the biggest differences in the ways parents respond when their kid picks up the "wrong" toy -- especially when a boy picks up a girl toy. Children internalize that. They know darn well what mom and dad think about the toy they're playing with. There is an initial biological bias toward these different toys, but then it's very strongly reinforced socially. Studies show peers have a shaping influence. Certainly by age 3, children will pick the socially appropriate toy.
Instead of this ideal of raising a gender-neutral child, shouldn't parents be focused on raising children who have equally positive attitudes toward "maleness" and "femaleness"?
[ 09.30.09 ]
