Tag Archives: children
** Mothers and Others by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding is a learned expose of how the traditional view of one-on-one mothering is all wrong and raising children, humans or not, is usually undertaken as a cooperative exercise with fathers, extended … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
* Blue Nights by Joan Didion
I liked The Year of Magical Thinking and its melancholia, even it felt a little over the top for me. But Blue Nights seems barely written, just a collection of notes and musing without structure. There is the occasional hilarious … Continue reading
Filed under True story
** Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids by Bryan Caplan
I was looking forward to reading Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids because I think that raising children is an immensely rewarding experience (if you are a child of mine reading this: it’s because of your siblings, not you — … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
** Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is the sad, true story of an overbearing mother who dresses up her dictatorial, controlling, hateful ways under the banner of good Chinese education, while she fulminates against what she calls Western mothers whose … Continue reading
Filed under True story
The Evolution of Childhood by Melvin Konner
The Evolution of Childhood is an imposing tome that looks at childhood from the perspective of evolution, contrasting a number of so-called primitive cultures to identify common practices and differences. The first chapters are so theoretical, bristling with phylotypic stages … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
What I Thought I Knew by Alice Cohen
What I Thought I Knew is the tough memoir of a woman who finds out she is pregnant while undergoing her CAT scan (her doctor having somehow missed her five-month pregnancy!) and proceeds to first seek to abort the baby … Continue reading
Filed under True story
Say you are One of Them by Uwem Akpan
I thought that Oprah’s Book Club selections were supposed to be uplifting. This one is not. Say You’re One of Them is a collection of stories about African children that include starvation, selling of children, religious persecutions, throat cutting, and … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
By the author of The Glass Castle, Half Broke Horses is the story of her maternal grandmother, told as a novel for lack of detailed historical documents. It’s a wild story of a girl born in a dugout on the … Continue reading
Filed under True story
Manhood of Amateurs by Michael Chabon
Manhood for Amateurs is a collection of personal stories about the author’s children, parents, and personal experiences. Most are tone-perfect, especially the ones about his children. I liked the one where he bemoans the advent of complicated Lego kits that … Continue reading
Filed under True story
NurtureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman
My mother was a genius. And her mom as well. They knew that children function better with consistent sleep. They knew that empty praise makes kids suspicious, while heartfelt, suitably rare praise fills them with pride. They made it clear … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
