2011 in summation

This has been a year of many changes and challenges, and it's interesting to see how well my reading list has reflected that. The biggest change, of course, has been the birth of my son. This has been an upheaval in many ways, beyond the obvious of shifting my lifestyle to accommodate a new little dude.

In response to my new responsibilities, I've turned to the "experts."

• Raising A Secure Child by Zeynep Biringen


• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth


• Emotionally Intelligent Parenting by Maurice J. Elias, Steven E. Tobias, and Brian S. Friedlander


• How to have your second child first by Kerry Colburn and Rob Sorensen


• Baby Signs by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn

I also read books on more general parenting philosophies, and kid-related issues.

• NurtureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman


• What does it mean to be well educated? by Alfie Kohn


• Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy

And, of course, the obligatory "silly tell-all of parenting/pregnancy."

• Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy

One of the major new obstacles to reading has been my son's penchant for devouring books in the non-figurative sense. This has steered me in the direction of AudioBooks, which I'm not generally a great fan of.

I've taken a bit more of an interest in Non-Fiction this year than I generally do, especially pop-journalism. Since I've focused so much this year on my Bible blog and on volunteering for my local Atheist community, many of these have centred around religion/skepticism.

• The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs


• My Life As An Experiment by A.J. Jacobs


• The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson


• Flim-Flam by James Randi


• Godless by Dan Barker


• The Reasonableness of Faith and Other Addresses by W.S. Rainsford

I started watching the show Big Love in 2010 and took an interest in Mormon polygamy.

• Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer


• The 19th Wife by David Eershoff

After a bit of a slump in 2010, I made a point to read more classics and get back into the habit of reading books written around the Victorian era, which was, of course, the focus of my university degree.

• Flatland by Edwin Abbott


• Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy


• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne


• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

I continued to read through the series that I've enjoyed over the years.

• Gaius Ruso mystery #4: Caveat Emptor by Ruth Downie


• Earth's Children #4: The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel by Jean M. Auel

And last but not least, the unexpected gem I picked up off a shelf in someone else's home.

• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Opportunities to sit down and read have been limited, so I haven't felt like much of a reader in 2011. I've also always been a commute reader, so being on maternity leave for much of the year has further decreased my available time. Even so, making this list and realizing just how many entries there actually are has made me feel quite a bit better about myself.

I will be going back to work next year, although I don't know if my commute will return in quite the same form. On the other hand, as my son grows and discovers that there's more to books than flavour, there may be more of a call for reading - at least out loud. I suspect that my focus will be much more on picture books, although my goal is to read at least 25 "grown-up" books before the world ends in 2012.

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

Read: 23 December, 2011

For the last year, I have been working on a project to blog the Bible (and doing a terrible job of it for the last two months), so a book like The Year of Living Biblically struck a chord. Like A.J. Jacobs, I've also been trying to make sense of a book that is at once one of the founding pillars of my culture, and yet profoundly alien.

The Year of Living Biblically is, of course, a book of its genre: Stunt Journalism. Jacobs does kookie things like paint his door frames with lamb's blood (or, rather, with lamb pan drippings) and throws pebbles at adulterers. And like any book in this genre, he concludes with his insights and feel-good message.

But in the midst of this formulaicism, I did find food for thought. There was a lot of discussion about what it really means to take the Bible literally, and how to deal with the application of the rules in a cultural context that is so foreign to any the Bible's authors could have possibly envisioned.

One element I particularly enjoyed was Jacobs's insistence on turning the Bible into a Self Help manual. Even when called out on this by a member of his "religious advisory council," he goes right back to trying to draw life lessons!

One theme he kept coming back to is that everything happens for a reason. He explains early in the book that his wife believes this and part of his journey is coming to accept at least some version of this. Believing that there are reasons beyond chemical reactions and physical laws is, he declares, "certainly healthier." This profound and far-reaching statement is given as a throw-away line in the middle of a broader discussion, and it never receives the serious discussion it deserves. Is it, truly, healthier to believe something that makes us feel good about ourselves without any evidence for it to be actually true?

Prior to reading The Year of Living Biblically, I'd heard complaints that it trivialises religion and makes it look bad. It's all about legalism, and focuses on things like stoning adulterers rather than the broader moral teachings. But having now read the book, I haven't found this to be the case at all. Jacobs gives a fair acknowledgement to the legalism of the Old Testament. The bulk of the book, however, is a discussion of the moral teachings and about the applicability and relevance of the book as a whole in a modern, North American cultural setting. Overall, I found his treatment of the Bible to be extremely respectful; perhaps, even, too respectful at times.

Jacobs has a very readable writing style and he's generally quite good at finding the right balance between entertaining and provoking thought. I'd say it's an important read for those who consider themselves to be Jewish or Christian, because it initiates a very important discussion that I think Western society really needs to have about what it means to be Judeo-Christian and what the Bible's place should be in our culture.

Flatland by Edwin Abbott

Read: 30 November, 2011

A. Square, an inhabitant of the two-dimensional Flatland, is taken on a journey of Lineland, Spaceland, and Pointland, during which he learns to transcend many of his assumptions about the universe and the natural order.

There are two parts to the Flatland narrative. The first reads like your standard (albeit clever - clever enough to fool several contemporary reviewers) social commentary, while the second tries to illustrate the failings of perspective and how trapped we are in comprehending only our own and lower dimensions. But as with any excellent writer, the division is never quite so clear and the second part provides a very interesting lens for the first.

I knew going in that I would enjoy Flatland; I'd heard enough about it for that. I'm glad to say that I was not disappointed. This is an excellent and readable novel that is one part social commentary, one part math, and one part Crusoe adventure!

I highly recommend the Broadview edition of the text. As always, the notes, introduction, and additional materials are both interesting and informative.

The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins

Read: 10 October, 2009

The Greatest Show on Earth is a fantastic introduction to the theory of evolution. Although marketed towards adults, I think it's really more appropriate for a tween/early teen level, to provide a solid foundation in evolution.

The book is written in Dawkins' approachable language, and he explains difficult concepts in a very simple and easy to understand way. Illustrations are well chosen and well used to emphasise his points.

The only real downside is that the preface dwells a bit too long on the Creationism issue. While terribly satisfying for the True Believer, it would be a turn off for someone neutral or leaning towards Creationism and interested in learning more. It's a shame, although perhaps no more damaging that having the name Richard Dawkins printed on the cover.

Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell

Read: 26 February, 2010

I've always loved horror stories, and I fell in love with Elizabeth Gaskell in University. So when I saw that Penguin had a collection of Gaskell's Gothic short stories, I knew I had to buy it immediately.

And it did not disappoint!

Gothic Tales is a collection of stories ranging from "wonder stories" to horror. While not of the same calibre as her novels, these are none-the-less the products of a master storyteller.

I'd say that this collection is definitely a 'must have' for fans of Gaskell, Victorian literature, or the Gothic genre.

Knights Templar Mysteries #21: The Death Ship of Dartmouth by Michael Jecks

Read: August, 2009

Amidst political turmoil, a man has been found dead in the road and a ghost ship has been found at sea. Meanwhile, the rebel Roger Mortimer has been sending out spies, threatening civil war.

I read this rather quickly while on holidays and the details were quickly forgotten. But I do remember quite enjoying it, despite being a little disconcerted by all the rape (and there truly is a lot of rape!).

Death Ship is a solid mystery with strong characters, and the historical fiction aspect is well executed. The violence, particularly against women, is realistic without being gratuitous.

All in all, a well-written novel and an excellent addition to any historical mystery collection.

Baby Signs by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn

Read: 22 November, 2011

Much of what is terrible about the "terrible twos" come down to baby brains developing faster than their speech is able to communicate. The frustration of having ideas, needs, observations to communicate but no ability to do so leads to conflict.

Baby Signs proposes a solution. While speech may be difficult for very young children, a modified sign language may help smooth the transition into verbal fluency.

The book is fairly well written and it's a very quick read. It introduces the information at an appropriate pace and in a good order. The illustrations showing the signs themselves are clear and easy to understand. I especially liked that the dictionary at the back noted which signs were official ASL and which are designed specifically for this theory.

I don't know how to evaluate the theory itself, although I did notice a few small pink flags. For example, at one point, the authors recommend purchasing their video tapes, that should be watched by babies to help teach them. To reinforce the legitimacy of this, they mention the Baby Einstein videos, which have been fully debunked. In fact, all research that I've read says that videos are no good for teaching babies.

The theory seems worth trying to avoid frustration for simple and common issues, such as asking for more food, asking for a drink, or complaining about discomfort.

NurtureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

Read: 17 November, 2011

Common sense and instinct can tell us a lot of things. For example, it's good to praise our kids, it's good to leave the radio on because babies will learn language better the more words they hear,  and racial desegregation of schools will lead to less racism as kids grow up interacting with peers of different races.

Unfortunately, all of these are wrong.

"NurtureShock" is the feeling a new parent experiences when they discover that the Parental Instincts Fairy has missed their home. It turns out that while the instinct to protect our children is very real, the how of it is up to us to figure out.

NurtureShock is different from the other parenting books I've reviewed in that it isn't an instruction manual. Instead, it simply summarizes some of the recent science in child development. Although the science itself is very interesting and I positively devoured the book, the lack of practical application was frustrating. As a parent, I don't just want to know the science, I want to know how I can use it.

I think that NurtureShock would have done better if each chapter were divided in half. The first part would remain exactly as is, but the second part would provide examples to show how parents might apply the theory to their own parenting.

But that doesn't mean that NurtureShock isn't worth reading. Far from it, I think it should be required reading for every new parent because it fundamentally challenges so many of the assumptions we make about our kids and how they develop.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Read: 2005

I read I, Robot shortly after seeing the Will Smith movie. I liked the movie, but I had no specific plans to read the book until I was assigned it in my Science Fiction class.

The first thing that struck me is that the book is absolutely nothing like the movie (or perhaps that should be the other way around...). Other than the title and the presence of robots, the two could not be any more different.

The book is divided into a series of short stories, each taking place at a point in time along robots' "evolution" into sentience. Recurring characters tie these little vignettes together, so the reader gets a sense of growth and change.

I've also read Foundation and I found the similarities between it and I, Robot to be quite strong. In both cases, the narrative has a distant feel, like the reader is only allowed glimpses of the characters as they go about their lives. None of the stories in I, Robot are complete; they begin in the middle of people's lives and they end the same way, without the tidy encasing covers that we find in most books. This gives a sense of emotional detachment - the reader is allowed to watch but never to enter or to participate.

It's a strange style that I've only seen in Asimov stories. I've found it quite enjoyable, though perhaps only because of its rarity. It does add a sense of realism to the stories, making characters feel like entire people with rich lives that the reader isn't privy to outside of the constraints of the story.

I very much enjoyed I, Robot. I found it to be thought-provoking, interesting, entertaining, and well-written. The ethical issues raised are important as our technology becomes ever more powerful, so I would urge anyone and everyone to read this book.

No Man's Land by G.M. Ford

Read: 11 August, 2010

It's impossible to escape from Mesa Azul. But, like the majority of stories that open in an impossible-to-escape prison, this is the story of the one person who escaped from it. Well, the three people, actually. Timothy Driver takes fellow inmate Kehoe and author Frank Corso along with him.

I read this last year and had to hurry through it so I could return it before boarding a plane,  so my memory is woefully spotty. I do remember enjoying it, as I do most detective novels, although the fact that I remember very little is perhaps an indication that this one didn't have have that special humph to convince my brain that it was worth remembering.

The story is filled with quirky characters with backstories. I was particularly interested in the journalist who helped create an alternate world Amber Alert after her daughter was killed. The idea of grief mixed in with her desire for public attention was messy and interesting.

I'd say that this is a perfectly good mystery story for fans of that sort of thing.

Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs

Read: 8 August, 2010

I enjoy the show Bones, so I was quite happy to find one of the novels while visiting a friend's summer cottage.

I was struck by the many and profound differences between the show and the book. For one thing, novel Tempe Brennan has a daughter. She's also not the asocial, abrasive nerd we see in the TV series.

There isn't too much to say about Bare Bones. It was a fairly standard detective story, fantastic light reading while sitting out on a lake. The forensic anthropology aspect was interesting, as investigator gimmicks do tend to be. That the stories are written by someone who is actually in the field adds a certain verisimilitude to the story that lifts it above the standard fare.

Overall, I'd say it was an interesting story, solidly written, and perfect for any detective novel enthusiast to take on a plane.

The Ice Beneath You by Christian Bauman

Read: 2006

I had the pleasure of living in the same neighbourhood as the author for several years. He's a fantastic guy, despite his peculiar affinity for oversized dogs. He gave me a copy of The Ice Beneath You as a (requested) Christmas gift.

The book is divided into two alternating narratives from the life of Benjamin Jones. In one, he is travelling across the United States, drifting and self-destructive. In the other, he's a soldier posted in Somalia.

Throughout the story, it's plainly obvious that something happened in Somalia, although it's not revealed what it is until near the end. The suspense leading up to the big twist is beautifully executed, and the scene itself is very powerful.

The Ice Beneath You reminded me a bit of Catcher in the Rye, in the sense of aimless desperation conveyed. I found that it did a very good job at conveying the trauma felt by many veterans, and the lack of support available to them as they try to make sense of what they've lived through as they return to a society that is totally disconnected from the horrors of war.

I'm not often a fan of war books, nor of "modern" fiction, but I did enjoy this one. It's well written and interesting, and it conveys it's message with a reserved poignancy that is rarely successfully executed.

Flim-Flam by James Randi

Read: 20 October, 2011

I don't consider myself to be a Skeptic. I run with a lot of people in the skeptic community, and I do think of myself and generally skeptical, but I'm not a big-S Skeptic. I knew of James Randi, of course, but I was never terribly familiar with him or his work. So when the Centre for Inquiry managed to book him for a pan-Canada tour, I figured that I ought to read up on him a little bit before he hit Ottawa.

Because I was reading Flim-Flam around the same time that I saw Randi speak live, the parallels between the two were made quite evident. In both cases, there's an ostensible thesis, although the experience is much more of a series of vignettes from Randi's professional life.

The tone throughout the book is light and conversational, like Randi's telling an acquaintance about the work he does. He covers a number of psychics and supernatural phenomena, explaining the tricks. He personally exposed most of them, although some, such as the Cottingley fairies, are merely explained.

I found Flim-Flam to be an interesting read - enough so to inspire me to want to learn more about conjuring and mentalism. And while it was written in the early '80s, it really isn't at all dated. Recommended for anyone with an interest in the paranormal, or with skepticism in general.

[caption id="attachment_1215" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Your humble narrator meets the aptly-named Amazing Randi."][/caption]

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Read: 11 January, 2011

Much of what we think we know about pirates today actually comes from Stevenson's fictional narrative, Treasure Island. The plot is well-known: A pirate stays in an inn and, when the town is attacked by pirates, the proprietor's son, Jim Hawkins, is left in possession of a treasure map. I grew up watching the story told and retold in cartoons, plays, and even as a puppet show! So it was very interesting for me to read the original book.

I went in expecting it to be heavy on the Victorianities, a good story but rather wordy. What I found was a very pleasant surprise. Treasure Island is fast-paced and exciting, with adventure and suspense and humour. I couldn't read through fast enough and felt genuinely sad when the story ended.

I'm greatly looking forward to reading it again when my son graduates from his board books!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Read: 5 August, 2010

The Book Thief has many of the common elements of a World War II narrative. There are children trying to grow up, to learn, to form friendships against the backdrop of hate and cruelty. There's a Jew hiding in the basement. There's the inevitable violent end of the Nazi regime, followed by confusion and guilt. But this story is told from the perspective of Death as he encounters, again and again, a little girl by the name of Liesel Meminger.

I've noticed that books written for young adults seem to be, on average, so much better than books written for adults. They tend to be more imaginative, better written, and far more thought-provoking. The Book Thief is no exception.

Like most books written about World War II, there was no lack of horror. There were times when I had to read through tears. There were also times when I laughed out loud. I found the characters to be very compelling and I truly cared about what happened to them. The writing style was fantastic and the gimmick of having Death be the narrator, which could so easily have become absurd silliness, was actually well pulled off.

I highly recommend this book for the young adult crowd, and I think that us old fogeys would do well to read it too.

Empress by Shan Sa

Read: 20 July, 2010

Empress Wu tells the reader about her childhood in one of China's impoverished but still noble clans, growing up a concubine of the emperor, and finally of becoming empress herself. This is the story of a bird locked in a golden cage, of lavish surroundings that fail to mask captivity, of the boredom and murderous competition of a small city of women all fighting to win the gaze of a single man.

The novel's protagonist, Empress Wu (or Heavenlight), is a fairly complex character who is not always particularly likeable. She is in survival mode; even when she rules as empress, she must contend with assassination attempts and the ever present threat of failing health. This is a novel about a woman whose entire being is tied to the approval of men, and the suddenness with which fortunes can change through factors entirely out of her control.

Sa did an excellent job of painting the picture of a world that is at once rich and beautiful, yet brutal and cruel. I found it to be an interesting and well-written novel. It's an easy read, although not always a pleasant one. This is a great novel to read if you happen to come across it, though I wouldn't bother going too far out of your way to get it.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Read: 26 January, 2011

The Scarlet Letter is the classic story of a woman who dared to rebuke the mores of her Puritan society.What pop culture didn't tell me was that the novel actually starts with a rather lengthy chapter from the perspective of the narrator, living in "modern times" (mid-19th century), and complaining about life as a customs house clerk.

The first part was absolutely wonderful. It read like one of the Sketches by Boz narratives, as an exposé of a particular job in a particular place. The characters were vividly drawn amid the narrator's meandering thoughts and rants. It was everything I fell in love with about Victorian literature!

The more well-known portion of the story had a more standard Social Problem feel. A fallen woman wins over the reader and, perhaps, the novel's community by being a perfect angel of the hearth, a self-sacrificing and nearly Christ-like in her perfection. We've seen this before in novels like Ruth and Oliver Twist. But Hawthorne pulls a fast one and martyr's the male tango-dancer instead, allowing Hester to live and, presumably, to grow old.

I expected to have some trouble with this book. It's been a while since I've read anything from the Victorian period (at least that was aimed at an adult audience). But I found The Scarlet Letter to be extremely engrossing. I read the whole thing in just a few days and enjoyed it immensely.

As a little side note, I read this book while very obviously pregnant. It was rather titillating to be in public reading a book that is famously known for being about promiscuity resulting in pregnancy while actually pregnant!

Ice Land by Betsy Tobin

Read: 26 December, 2011

It's the end of the world. Christianity is growing in Iceland, threatening the power of the old gods, and the land itself seems to be in revolt. Meanwhile, two star-crossed lovers fight against the feud that divides their two families against a landscape that is both real and mythical.

There are two stories being told in Ice Land, that of Fulla and her growing love for Vili. Theirs is a Romeo and Juliet story, their families feuding, perpetually seeking revenge on each other in a never ending cycle. Meanwhile, we have Freya's quest for a magical necklace that has the power to end the apocalypse, preventing the destruction of the world.

I enjoyed the story, or at least I feel like I should have. Despite a fairly standard outline, Tobin does manage to take her two stories in a fairly unique direction. In particular, I enjoyed the way that she tried to mingle the real world with the world of mythology, making the one seem plausible and the other magical.

But maybe I just read the book at the wrong time. I found that I simply couldn't lose myself in the story and I rushed to finish towards the end. I do suspect that the problem was with me, though, since I can't think of anything that could have turned me off.

The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black

There are a few "medieval" cookbooks floating around, but this is the best I've seen so far. It's the kind of cookbook that you can actually sit down and read through.

The recipes are divided by era, social class, and function. There's a chapter on foods that were primarily associated with the cloister, for example, and a section for remedies. There are simple dishes with few ingredients that would be most appropriate for a side-dish or breakfast, and there are elaborate meals that belong more properly to a great feast.

Each recipe comes with a short introduction or with a contemporary passage describing the dish, followed by the ingredients list and instructions. Some license is taken with substitutions - sometimes multiple substitutions are indicated for choice - to deal with the fact that many of the ingredients are hard to find these days or no longer exist at all.

illustrations from contemporary sources are plentiful and printed in full colour, making this book a lovely source of medieval art as well.

I've tried a couple of the recipes over the years and enjoyed them. I'd love to throw a "Period Party" someday to really make use of this book.

What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? by Alfie Kohn

Read: 22 September, 2011

I don't think that anyone questions the idea that our public schools are, by and large, failing kids. It's also no secret that programs like No Child Left Behind that require mass standardized testing promote "teaching the test," often at the expense of real learning. But in this collection of essays, Alfie Kohn goes a step further and argues that even grades should be dumped as an assessment tool.

Kohn ranks the evilness of the various assessment methods, with standardized tests at the top, followed by ranking methods (such as class ranks and grading on a curve), and ending with the assignment of grades. But each, he says, causes kids to view learning as a chore to get through rather than something they might choose to do.

The book is a collection of essays, so each chapter is a discrete unit. That being said, they've clearly been edited so that they make sense together, with references to other chapters for more information. The whole is brought together with a well-written introduction that serves to unify the individual essays in support of a common thesis.

I found Kohn's book to be very interesting and well-written. It challenged a lot of my assumptions (such as the bunk-ness of grade inflation), and has left me thinking a great deal about education. Only the chapter discussing Maslow was on the weak side, and I'm not sure what it was supposed to contribute to the thesis of the book.

If I had to find a flaw, it would be that while the current system is heavily criticised, Kohn is very light on the alternatives. I think this is a fairly important failing because he's challenging so many concepts that we take for granted that he absolutely must provide us with alternatives.

I don't know how much I agree with Kohn yet. I think that his arguments were very compelling on first reading, but I need to mull them over a bit longer before I come to a conclusion. He's definitely given me food for thought, though, and done so in a vehicle that was a pleasure to read. On that basis alone, I highly recommend What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated for parents of school-aged kids and anyone involved in education, at any level, formal or otherwise.

Raising a Secure Child by Zeynep Biringen

Read: 13 September, 2011

Raising a Secure Child starts from the same Daniel Goleman research that informed Emotionally Intelligent Parenting. Since the two were so similar in many ways, I can't help but to review the former in light of the latter.

I complained that Emotionally Intelligent Parenting provided sample dialogues to illustrate their points that were clearly idealized and read like something from the Stepford Wives. It was almost creepy. Raising a Secure Child, while making much greater use of dialogues and sample situations, did a much better job. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this was one of the book's most positive features. Every major point was backed up with a short vignette of a family either doing it right or doing it wrong that helped me see what the point should (or shouldn't) look like in practice. I found these to be a huge help in visualizing how I might out the advice into practice.

While Emotionally Intelligent Parenting focused on always saying the right thing, the focus in Raising a Secure Child was much more on the non-verbal interactions between parent and child. In other words, really meaning it is seen as more valuable than always having the right script handy. This made a good deal more intuitive sense to me.

Both books had the same emphasis on being emotionally present for kids (although, again, I felt that Raising a Secure Child made the point in a way that felt more practically applicable), and both talked about the importance of structure and limit-setting.

Raising a Secure Child spent a good deal of time on helping me to analyse my own upbringing to help me see how that might affect how I interact with my son. While it's something I have thought about a lot, I still found it helpful to go through in a more methodical sort of way.

And while it isn't applicable to my family, I do think the sections on children with special needs and getting through a divorce could be very useful.

Both books covered the full range from baby to young adult. I think that both are worth reading, but Raising a Secure Child is by far the better of the two.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth

Read: 9 September, 2011

There's a trick to reading parenting books: Never read them reactively.

It's a rule I'm normally really good at following, but I broke it when I picked up Health Sleep Habits, Happy Child. To make a long story short, my son sleeps wonderfully at night but is a terrible day napper. This often leads to some horrific bouts of crankiness, so I looked up infant sleep books at my local library to see if I could find something to help.

The central advice of Healthy Sleep Habits is to have babies take regular naps (and he does emphasize the "regular"). Great! I agree! Now how do we accomplish this?

Well, that's where the book starts to fall apart. Weissbluth recommends a sleep routine that may include things like reading a bedtime story (which excites my son because books are OMGWTFAWESOME!!), a bath (which excites my son because water is OMGWTFAWESOME!!), a massage (which excites my son because physical contact is OMGWTFAWESOME!!), and a lullaby (which... Yeah, I think you get the point).

I realize that my son is a bit weird. The grandson of two professional track-and-fielders (one of whom held a world record for a year) and a professional mountain climbing instructor, he's predisposed to some rather heightened energy levels. Not only is he an unstoppable force, he's also hitting all of his physical milestones on the very early end of the spectrum.

So Weissbluth's advice doesn't seem to work for our family (and I refuse to even try the cry-it-out method that he says may help if the stable bedtime routine fails). Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a huge deal. I don't know any adults who need nipples in their mouths to fall asleep, so I can reasonably assume that TurboKid will eventually grow out of his sleep problems, like I did. I could just keep trying with the routine and that would be the end of it.

The problem with Weissbluth is that he peppers his book with comments like:

I think it possible that unhealthy sleep habits contribute to school-related problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities.

and:

Warning: If your child does not learn to sleep well, he may become an incurable adult insomniac, chronically disabled from sleepiness and dependent on sleeping pills.

These sorts of friendly reminders are helpfully printed apart from the text, presented in bold and segregated in little boxes, lest you fail to notice that you are irrevocably breaking your baby.

There were aspects of the book that I enjoyed, such as the breakdown of strategies by age. But these were so overshadowed by the fear-mongering that it's hard for me to write anything other than a negative review. It's bad enough that I'm dealing with a cranky baby and that I can't get the method to work. To add a level of desperation, to make my failure something that will turn my precious babe into a disabled drug user, is just cruel.

Bad, Weissbluth. Bad.

Emotionally Intelligent Parenting by Maurice J. Elias, Steven E. Tobias, and Brian S. Friedlander

Read: 26 August, 2011

Since my son is now moving from the "pooping lump" stage into the "destroyer of worlds" stage, I figured that it was about time I start reading some books to help me control this little monster. So apologies to anyone who isn't particularly interested in parenting books, but I've got a stack to get through. Then it'll be over for a while, I promise!

Emotionally Intelligent Parenting has very little fact in it. For the most part, it's just a discussion of strategies that the authors think are beneficial and how to execute them. I found it rather worrisome, however, that when facts were presented, they were incorrect. It started early, in the introduction by Daniel Goleman, when he says that parents today "have less free time to spend with [our children] than our own parents did with us." I'd say that's intuitively true, one of those common sense things, but it's factually false.

So that made me wonder about the advice given in the book, which, for the  most part, seemed intuitively true. Plus, there was something about the repeated advice to talk about feelings that doesn't sit too well with my old New England Protestant family upbringing!

A lot of the advice was centred around acronyms like FIG TESPN, which is supposed to remind you (and kids) of how to work through problems. It seems to me that this is needlessly complicated and of dubious worth - not to mention absurd to implement on a daily basis.

My final major complaint is that I really wasn't wowed by the dialogues in the book. These were usually there to illustrate how to put the ideas into practice. Thing is that it made the parents sound like robots and I'm pretty sure that any kids subjected to these kinds of speeches would interpret them as insincerity. And then, to illustrate how well the method supposedly works, the  dialogues invariably end with kids saying: "I never really thought about it like that [...] Can we talk later? I have to do my homework now." Yeah right.

That's not to say that the book was all bad, not by any means. There were some gems, such as the parenting Golden Rule to "do unto your children as you would have other people do unto your children." There was also a lot of emphasis on modelling, so making sure that you display the behaviour you want to see in your children. And the last bit that really resonated with me was the advice to focus on goals. For example, focus on specific behaviour that you want corrected and work on that, or think about whether punishment is really the most effective means of prompting change.

Overall, I'd say that this was an interesting read and I did get some ideas, but I found that most of it was not realistically implementable. It also lacked evidence to back the assertions made.

How To Have Your Second Child First by Kerry Colburn and Rob Sorensen

Read: 25 August, 2011

As a new parent, it seems that I'm always one step behind my son. Just as I've figured out how to deal with one of his quirks, he passes into a new phase and my awesome new strategy is no longer useful.

That's where How To Have Your Second Child First comes in. The idea is to have parents who've already been through the process 'spill the beans' so that first time parents can avoid making all the mistakes that first time parents always make. For example, how important is it to warm your baby's bottle? Does a household really need to be kept in total silence while the baby is sleeping? Does everything your baby might touch need to be sterilized?

The book is organized like a list of lessons, each with some explanation and quotes from 'experienced' parents. Like most of these books, it's a mix of really good advice and advice that may simply not fit your family. So I'll give the same speech I always give for parenting books: Have a read through and take away what makes sense for you, ignore the rest.

That being said, I do think that the book's underlying message is incredibly important. Don't sweat the small stuff, you won't break your baby.

My son is nearly six months old, so I definitely read this too late for it to be of much help. It would be far better as a baby shower gift, or a 2nd-3rd trimester library take-out. I do think it should be on every parent-to-be's reading list.

The Reasonableness of Faith and Other Addresses by W.S. Rainsford

Read: 13 August, 2011

I have the very good fortune of having been born into a family with solid ties to its history. So this summer, while attending my cousin's wedding in our family's old farmhouse, I picked up a collection of addresses written by W.S. Rainsford, published in 1902. I had to read carefully lest the book fall apart in my hands!

Keeping in mind that this is a collection of addresses and not essays or arguments, I nonetheless couldn't help but judge them as apologetics. Certainly, several of the addresses were clearly meant that way since they claimed to address certain theological issues.

The titular address, "The Reasonableness of Faith," perfectly illustrates my distaste for theologians. Rainsford sets out to prove that faith is perfectly reasonable. How does he do this? By redefining faith as "that which is not unreasonable." It's muddy thinking at its finest. Faith is defined solely by what it is not and never by what it is.

It's all the more a shame because Rainsford is clearly a good writer and a good thinker. He's just suffering from the brain-rot of theology.

It was interesting to see a book from 1902 accept evolution as a known scientific fact - something that many theologians (though by no means all) are still struggling with over a century later.

This made for lovely drizzly summer afternoon in the country reading, but it was vacuous. Beautiful prose and the occasional interesting observation are this book's only saving graces.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Read: 12 August, 2011

Robert Neville is alone, completely alone in a world overrun by vampires.He is alive, but he can't figure out why he bothers.

I enjoyed the recent movie with Will Smith - mostly because I read into it far more than any of its creators intended. When I talk about the movie with others, it's like we saw entirely different movies. Mine was a subtle commentary on racism, or perhaps our relationship with the mentally ill. My movie featured a brilliantly executed unreliable narrator and one of the best ironic endings I've ever seen. What other people saw was yet another mindless monster flick.

I Am Legend the novel is everything I saw into the movie, only better.

Neville is a fantastic character. He's going nuts, making stupid mistakes, and drinking himself silly. But it's never frustrating, and I never felt that I just wanted him to shut up and get on with things. That's because Matheson has perfect timing, he never allows Neville to wallow for too long.

The sense of isolation and loneliness is palpable. As I was reading, I could really feel Neville's despair. This makes the story creepy and even terrifying without ever resorting to monster-in-the-closet gimmicks. Quite the opposite - the vampires' inability to wake during the day give Neville the advantage. He can scavenge safely during the day and then simply wait out the night in his house-come-fortress. The vampires are never the source of terror, the loneliness is.

This was one of the best, most perfectly executed books that I've read in a very long time. I highly recommend it for any fans of science fiction, distopian fantasy, post-apocalyptic fiction, and horror fiction.

NOTE: The copy I was reading was a first printing and had a truly creepy portrait of a young Matheson emerging from the shadows on the back. Yikes!

Gil & Alys Cunningham Mystery #3: The Merchant's Mark by Pat McIntosh

Read: 10 December, 2010

Gil Cunningham is eagerly awaiting a shipment of books. But when the barrel that was supposed to contain literature turns out to have a human head floating in brine instead, he and his companions become enmeshed in yet another mystery.

Another great addition to the series!

There's a bit more supernatural stuff (a ghost this time), but it's still manageable in quantity.

I like that Gil's station changes between the books. Each book is an isolated mystery, of course, but the character development is continuous throughout the series. I've really enjoyed watching Gil's relationship with Alys grow and change - which it does in a delightfully realistic and sensible way - as well as their accumulation of companions - first a baby, then a dog. I look forward to reading the next books in the series!

The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson

Read: 7 July, 2011

I really want to categorize this book as fiction; and, in a sane world, I would. Unfortunately...

It begins in 1983,  when Major General Albert Stubblebine III (a truly Dickensian name), upon realizing that both his body and the wall are made up of atoms and that atoms are mostly made up of empty space, tries to walk through a wall.

Starting from Stubblebine's sore nose, Ronson takes the reader through a brief history of the US military's more insane moments. He lulled me into a sense of "oh, that happened in '70s, but it would never happen today" with stories of men staring at goats to make their hearts stop (and, when goats aren't available, the odd hamster would do) and a First Earth Battalion that could end conflict with their "sparkling eyes."

But then he gets into the 'War on Terror' and the horrific acts at Abu Ghraib.

The most difficult part of reading The Men Who Stare At Goats is to remember that this is only, as the subtitle says, about a "small group of men" who happen to be placed in some key positions. It isn't representative of the army as a whole. The problem is that each of these "highly placed" men have subordinates in a culture that does not tolerate dissent - even when the orders are quite obviously insane.

Throughout, Ronson remains very objective. He allows his subjects, and their beliefs, to speak for themselves. This is an amazing feat when writing a book about men who believe that they can walk through walls or stare goats to deaths.

The tone of the book seems somewhat rambly - jumping back and forth through time and skipping from subject to subject - but it all makes sense by the end, when the whole is tied together and the influence of Jim Channon's First Earth Battalion Operations Manual is made clear. And, really, this is the story of that book - of its history and its legacy.

Men Who Stare At Goats appears to be meticulously researched. Certainly, it comes through in Ronson's writing just how difficult certain people and facts were to find. And, although some of the connections he draws are speculative (or based on "wink wink" statements from his informants), he does make the case that it's all at least plausible if not factual. I found it to be a very interesting and thought-provoking read, even if my faith in humanity requires that I remain somewhat provisional in my trust of Ronson's depictions.

Assuming that it is all (or mostly) true, though, I'd be very interested in a follow up in coming years as to the effect of the book on military policies and strategies. Has Men Who Stare At Goats embarrassed the leadership sufficiently to cause a change? Will it spell the end of First Earth Battalion's influence? Or will it increase its popularity?

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Read: 8 June, 2009

When Fiver senses that a great danger is coming to the warren, only his brother and a few others believe him. Unable to convince the other rabbits, this small band leaves on a journey in search of safety that takes them through farmyards, across roads and rivers, and into warrens with very different cultures.

This is an absolutely fantastic book. The adventure story alone is well worth the read, but the amateur mythicist in me was especially impressed with the construction of an entire rabbit culture and religious system, language included. Especially impressive is how familiar and, yet, distinctly alien the rabbit culture is. This rarely felt like a book about people that happens to be set in a rabbit setting. Rather, this was a book about rabbits, only slightly anthropomorphism. The characters and their culture retain a great deal of what can only be called 'rabbitiness.'

Most books get at least one aspect right. Some get a few things right. When this happens, the book may be called masterful, or great. But Watership Down is one of the very few books that tempt me to use the word 'perfection.' This is a masterpiece and I think that anyone who hasn't read it yet is somewhat impoverished. There's something about it that just touches the Jungian collective subconscious. This is the hero with a thousand faces pulled off in a way that feels natural.

Though marketed as a children's book (although perhaps a little too gruesome/frightening for younger kids), Watership Down is a must read for adults as well.

Learning everything you need to know about a person by looking at their bookshelves

I always love going to people's houses for the first time, because there's just so much you can learn about a person by looking at their living environment. By the same token, I'm often a little shy to have people in my own home because it makes me feel vulnerable and exposed, like I'm letting them see a bit too much of my psyche.

One of the most revealing areas of the home is the bookshelf. Here are a few of my observations (to be taken with a grain of salt, of course - this is, as psychics say, for "entertainment purposes only"):

No books: None at all? Very rare, but I've seen it. Generally people who watch a whole lot of TV and don't have a whole lot of respect for intellectual pursuits (for example, they probably don't know how to play chess, or they may think that a post-secondary degree is something one gets to get ahead in their career rather than an end in itself).

No shelves, but a few books lying around: Books may be found by the couch or on the nightstand. There will almost certainly be at least one in the bathroom (although some people hide their bathroom books when company is coming over in an effort to convince people that they don't poop). These people fall into two categories, and you can generally tell the difference based on the type of books you find. Some are simply casual readers, similar to the no books people. Others are avid library-borrowers (either for ideological or for economic reasons). Either way, you will need to pay attention to the types of books you find to make a better diagnosis.

Reading material tends to be magazines: Magazines are obvious indicators of hobbies and interests. If you find magazines, you've struck gold. A "girly" mag like Cosmo tells you that your friend is either single or probably doesn't have a long-standing beau (or, if she does, chances are that they fight like cats and dogs). A home-decorating mag tells you that your friend is either about to start renovating, or is the kind of person who is never quite satisfied with life - leaping into pursuit of the next goal when the last one has barely been accomplished.

Reading material tends to be pulp: Pulp comes in a variety of forms, from detective novels, to spy novels, to romance, &etc. Pulp books may run in the 300+ pages, but they are very fast reads and offer no challenge. People who read pulp tend to feel that reading is something one should do, but they don't value it enough to put a lot of effort into it. Pulp readers may be career professionals with very little downtime available, for example.

Lots of classics, but no contemporary pieces that aren't on high school reading lists: There's a Dickens but no Gaskell, there's Frederick Douglass but no Equiano. Check the spines and you're likely to find them uncracked (or, if your friend is particularly fastidious about keeping up appearances, they are cracked too uniformly to have happened naturally by reading). These are the people who value intellectualism, but who aren't willing to put in the work to cultivate it in themselves. These people are probably insecure about their intelligence, so they surround themselves with the gaudy trappings of it. They may have read these books in high school, or at least the cliff notes, but they haven't opened them since. You'll make a very good impression if you comment admiringly at their collection, drawing attention to how smart they must be to have all these books.

Lots of classics and lots of pulp: A frequent mix, the standard high schooler's reading list and a bunch of junk food for the brain. See point above.

An indiscriminate mixture: I'm often given books by friends and family members who have typecast me as "the one who loves books" but don't know me (or books) well enough to figure out which ones I might like. I'll also sometimes accept second hand books in bulk from friends (or garage sale dealers) and sort through them once I get home. To get rid of undesirable excess (duplicates, abridgements, crap), I'll occasionally put ups ads and pass the books on to new homes. From time to time, I'll get offers for the whole lot. One such person told me, as she was picking up her boxes, that she "loves books." These are people who value books and reading, but who don't have the taste to discriminate between good reading and bad reading, and have no preferences of their own. These people are similar to those who own classics and pulp - they've identified reading as a desirable trait, and they want to convey that they are readers. As a redeeming feature, they at least they lack the pretentiousness of the classics-owners.

A wide variety, but with some common themes: This person is an avid reader who reads out of enjoyment rather than a sense that it is what one should do. This person has preferences, seeking out certain kinds of books over others. Unfortunately, if too eclectic, the variety found in their reading habits can probably also be found in their other pursuits. This person may have spent a year learning to play the piano before getting bored and picking up the violin (opting instead for the recorder shortly thereafter).

Overwhelmingly in one genre: There may be a little variety, but most of the books this person owns fall into a certain genre or category. For example, this person might have a few novels and a whole lot of books about astronomy. This person is focused, perhaps even obsessed. Unlike the fickle individual we saw above, this person sees things through. This is someone who played a single instrument all through grade school. If they started a post-secondary education, they probably finished it (or are currently). I hope that you share some interests because this relationship could get real boring real fast if not!

This isn't a precise science and there are several confounding factors. For example, when multiple people live in one home, it can be difficult to determine which books belong to which person, possibly leading to a misdiagnosis. I find that this is a bigger issue for roommates than it is for couples since couples (especially if they've been together for a long time) tend to gravitate towards each other in their personalities and interests. Gifts can also throw you off, as the person may be displaying a parent's tastes, for example, rather than their own.

So, what kind of reader are you?

Gil & Alys Cunningham Mystery #2: The Nicholas Feast by Pat McIntosh

Read: 3 December, 2010

Soon after the events in Harper's Quine, Gil Cunningham participates in his old university's Nicholas Feast. But during the day, a young student is found dead. Because of his success in catching the killer in Harper's Quine, Gil is asked to solve this murder as well. Joined by his love, Alys, and her father, he immerses himself in politics and espionage to find justice for a student no one seems to have liked.

I bought this book, along with the next two in the series, as soon as I had finished the first one, but I didn't read it for quite a while. In my silliness, I loved Harper's Quine so much that I was afraid of burning through the series too fast!

This was an excellent addition to the series! Once again, the mystery was interesting, and I love the relationship between Gil and Alys (not to mention Alys's father). I'm not a fan of the supernatural element (the titular Quine from the last novel seems to be psychic - although like most psychics, his pronouncements are vague enough to be of absolutely no use), but it's low-key enough that it can be easily ignored. Besides, the rest of the story more than makes up for it.

BlackBerry's PlayBook and Kobo - A Review

Not too long ago, I wrote a post about how resistant I am to the idea of eReading. Then fate decided to be funny and arranged for me to get a BlackBerry PlayBook for free (through work, long story). The PlayBook comes with Kobo, an eReader software.

I received it yesterday, so these are my impressions after only a couple hours of playing with it.

[caption id="attachment_1051" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The young prince plays with his future inheritance..."][/caption]

Availability of books

Kobo has the ability to sort its site so that it displays only free books. I'm pretty cheap, so that's what I went for straight away. There isn't a huge selection, but it's pretty good and will keep even a speedy reader occupied for a good amount of time. There are quite a few Star Wars books, and a reasonable selection of what looks to be either Christian books or pulp romances - it's hard to tell by the covers and titles.

But more interestingly, there's a fairly good collection of classics. I was able to find quite a few books that I've been wanting to read, so that was rather nice. If you want more, they have a fairly good selection of books for under $10.

Text presentation

One of the things that I complained about in my post about eReaders is that I remember books far better when they are in book format, as opposed to the types of pages that you get in a Word document, for example. Kobo does its best by giving the option of displaying books as double pages (or, if you prefer, as single pages). This gives something of a book-y feel, although they still haven't solved the issue of being able to feel, with your hands, how far into the book you are.

There are other ways that you can manipulate the display, such as changing the font style (serif or non), altering the brightness, or, best of all, changing the font size. As I get older and my eyes start to fail I think that this will be the best argument in favour of eReaders.

Page turner

They clearly tried to replicate the book experience. Turning the page involves actually turning the page - or, rather, tapping the screen in the direction that you would like to navigate. I like it better than scrolling, but it does feel a little gimmicky.

There's also a quick button back to the table of contents, so it's easy enough to jump from one section of the book to another. That being said, page numbers are gone, so referencing could be a problem.

Kobo automatically remembers your place in each book, so it's quite easy to pick up where you left off in a previous reading session.

Referencing

As I noted above, page numbers are missing. This is a pretty serious issue if you're the kind of person who likes to take notes while you read. It wouldn't be so bad if there were some kind of marginal notes feature, but there isn't that I could find.

The only option is what Kobo calls "dogears." By tapping the upper corner of the screen, you can "fold" the page to leave a place mark. These can then be searched in their own list to make navigation between your favourite passages a bit easier. It's something, but it really isn't enough for people like me who are in the habit of marking up books.

Battery life

One thing you don't have to worry about with paper books is how long the batteries will last. I haven't really pushed the boundaries, but I did keep it on for about two hours while writing this review and the battery icon showed only a sliver lost. I take that as a pretty good sign.

Conclusion

It seems nice to have, especially since the PlayBook can be used for a fairly wide range of things. For example, it has Word installed, so I transferred over my notes for my Bible reading project, which will make it a bit easier to work on while "on the go." There are also some apps available for free, and the PlayBook can be used to surf the internet. I'm definitely glad to have it and I think I'll get some use out of it.

But I got it for free. From my perspective, it would have to be pretty awful for me not to like it in at least some ways. But this model costs $700 in Canadian stores. At that price, it's definitely not worth buying just as an eReader, and I think it would be hard to justify even with all the other features factored in.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Read: 7 February, 2010

I took a course during my university career on Science Fiction and Fantasy, taught by a heavily accented Ukrainian woman with very little qualification in the subject other than personal interest. The class structure was very informal. We had a reading list, but the syllabus included notes for each book where watching the movie would be a suitable alternative. Dracula was one such book, although the syllabus stipulated that only one version would be acceptable.

This was the same year that I was taking Victorian Literature and Colonial Literature, both courses assigning full length novels on a bi-weekly basis. I read so much that I got eye-fatigue and had to wear glasses for the rest of the year. I read so much that one of the professors (the Victorian Lit one) apologized to my mother at graduation. If I could lessen me reading load by one book, all the better.

I'm glad that I took advantage of the movie option because  I was so harried by schoolwork at the time that I was reading far too superficially - skimming to intake just enough for the tests but not enough for enjoyment. So I was able to approach the book a few years later with a clean impression and all the time chance and nature give us.

I didn't realize from the movie or pop culture that the book is written entirely in letter, news articles, and diary entries. In the story, this style is explained when one of the main characters collects all the story's fragments from the other characters and compiles them chronologically (so that they can examine and compare what they know so far about the story's baddy). It's done wonderfully, adding a sense of realism to the story.

The epistolary style is rarely done well. With the more usual narrative style, characterization is easier to fudge. But when characters are given their own voices, it suddenly becomes much more obvious if the author fails to give them unique personalities - or, just as bad, tries to differentiate them with the use of cheap gimmicks. But Bram Stoker pulls it off perfectly, making Dracula the single best example of the multiple narrator style that I've ever seen.

I really can't emphasize how much I enjoyed this book. It's brilliantly written, the plot is interesting, the characters have depth, the suspense is maintained, and there's an actual ending (something of a rarity among those easily-distracted Victorians). Other than a few points of plot, it's really nothing like any of the pop culture we're all familiar with.

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life As An Experiment by A.J. Jacobs

Read: 28 June, 2011

I listened to the audio book version of this. I'm finding that my ability to hold books is being seriously hampered by Captain Wiggly's wild gesticulations. And it's only gotten worse now that he's started teething and requires holding at all times. So, at the recommendations of several friends, I'm giving the audio reading experience a try.

In The Guinea Pig Diaries, A.J. Jacobs conducts a number of experiments on himself. For a while, he tries to life according to George Washington's code of conduct, he tries to scrub his brain of all irrational thinking, he outsources much of his life, and he dabbles with radical honesty.

Since the book is episodic, with each experiment serving as a discreet section, I thought it might be best to give my thoughts on each separately.

What would George Washington Do

In this segment, Jacobs tries to incorporate George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior. In the process, he learns about the 'founding father' and learns a new respect for Washington.

I found the history of this piece to be very interesting, but it may have been the weakest of Jacobs's experiments in terms of its impact on his life. Keeping a straight face and adopting good posture isn't exactly revolutionary. Ha ha! See what I did there?

The Unitasker

After a failed multitasking attempt causes Jacobs to lose driving privileges, he decides to experiment with unitasking - focusing on a single task at a time. This section had quite a bit of relevance for me as I'm almost never doing fewer than at least two things at a time. Even while I'm playing with the baby, I'm generally reading a book or even getting dishes done at the same time!

The human brain can't multitask, says Jacobs. What we end up doing instead is simply switching back and forth between our tasks. This is inefficient because there's some "now where was I?" time between each switch. He argues that we're actually faster and more productive if we simply stop and focus on one thing at a time. From personal experience, I find that I get more enjoyment out of the task too, because it's actually "there" mentally. It wasn't a great chapter, but he made his point and I think I'm provisionally convinced.

I Think You're Fat

In this section, Jacobs gives radical honesty a try. The concept is that you must tell the truth, all the time. All the time. Lying by omission is also out. If you're a fan of gimmicky detective shows, you may have encountered the concept of radical honesty on Lie To Me (featuring Mr. Orange). Personally, my first exposure came when my brother-in-law started practising it.

Jacobs's experience seems fairly similar to what I've seen first hand. There are quite a few occasions where it serves everyone well. It gets uncomfortable topics out in the open, initiating a dialogue that can actually fix the inter-personal problem. It can also help achieve short-term goals by forcing you to ask for the things you want. But on the other hand, it can also cause quite a bit of negative feeling.

For the project, Jacobs meets with radical honesty's inventor, Dr. Brad Blanton. During his description, he mentions that Dr. Blanton has been married multiple times. This is shocking given Blanton's claim that radical honesty "leads to intimacy in relationships."

And that's my main observation of radical honesty - the disconnect between the claimed benefits and the reality of its practice. Jacobs also points out a psychological quirk that voicing thoughts solidifies them in our minds. So, feeling a little down in the dumps about your job today? Vent about it and your opinion of your job will actually become more negative overall, even on the good days.

That's why I'm much more in favour of a little thing I like to call radical positivism. Always say nice things until you train your brain to believe them. This doesn't exclude constructive criticism, by the way. It's merely a policy against whining.

240 Minutes of Fame

Jacobs happens to look a great deal like an actor I'd never heard of but who apparently had a little spot in the sun a couple years ago. When the actor decided not to attend one of these fancy Hollywood award ceremonies, Jacobs attended - letting people think that he was the actor.

He soon realized just how intoxicating fame can be, and how constant praise skews an individual's perception of reality. I quite enjoyed this section because it pointed out just how fallible we are and how quickly any one of us, no matter how nice, could turn into one of these tantruming celebrity monsters.

My Outsourced Life

This may have been the best section, if only for the entertainment value. Jacobs uses firms in India to outsource parts of his life. It starts out fairly normal, outsourcing research for his articles and other menial tasks. But then he starts pushing the boundaries, even outsourcing a fight with his wife.

The lesson for this section is a good one. He starts off with what I think is a fairly common perception in the West that the people we're outsourcing to are somewhat brutish. They're great for simple, mindless work like the call centre screen reading that passes for tech support. But he soon realizes that his virtual assistants are every bit as intelligent and creative as American workers - if not more so.

The Rationality Project

This project struck a chord with me because it's something that I've been working on for a few years now. In this project, Jacobs tries to eliminate as much irrational thinking from his brain as possible.

What he learns is rather similar to what I've learn, that simply being rational doesn't necessarily eliminate subjectivity, nor does it allow us to find "correct" answers. For example, he experiments with toothpaste - does the rational mind choose based on cavity protection or taste? Well, as one of his sources points out, 10 years without a cavity may be worse than 9 years without a cavity but spent enjoying a much more pleasant brushing experience. Even though the latter is the "wrong" choice based solely on the cavity protection metric, the actual answer is far more complex and involves subjective preference.

That's not to say that rationality is bunk. There are unquestionably "wrong" answers that we should make every effort to purge from our brains. But what Jacobs learns is that it's perfectly rational to be an emotional human being and that subjective experiences are legitimate.

My life as a beautiful woman

This section was an extremely close runner-up for entertainment value. For this project, Jacobs tries online dating on behalf of his very attractive nanny. What he finds is fairly expected, that saying "no" to forceful advances all day gets tiresome and that there are some really mean manipulative jerks out there.

To be fair, his experience as a beautiful woman is only online, so he's meeting a large collection of the scummiest individuals in high concentration without additional worries such as physical safety. As a result, his ability to really learn from the episode is somewhat stunted. But still, his writing style brings the adventure to life in a really funny way.

The truth about nakedness

[caption id="attachment_858" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Included for your edification"][/caption]

This is the deep feminist piece that "My life as a beautiful woman" couldn't be. Jacobs's job is to edit an article by actress Mary-Louise Parker on the experience of doing a naked photoshoot. Additionally, Parker is asked to illustrate her piece with a nude photo. But Parker, brilliantly, turns it around by only agreeing to write the article if Jacobs will also pose for a nude photo, which she gets to choose for the final print.

Jacobs isn't writing any kind of deep analysis, but the lesson of sexual objectification does get conveyed. He experiences the shame of being exposed, the loss of control of having someone else get to choose which picture makes the cut, the emphasis on status when his shoot isn't catered as nicely as Parker's, etc.

Whipped (a.k.a. the perfect spouse)

For this experiment, Jacobs vows to be the perfect spouse for one whole month, doing everything his wife (who is a saint!) says. As expected, he quickly learns to appreciate just how much she does for the household. As Jacobs puts it, she was doing chores that he didn't even know existed!

Though treated lightly, he brings attention to a very serious issue with our "post-feminist" society - that women are now working as much as men, but are still expected to come home and do the bulk of the housework and childcare. Not an issue in my household, thankfully, because my husband is every bit the feminist I am (and a fabulous cook to boot!).

Conclusion

I really enjoyed The Guinea Pig Diaries. As expected, this isn't an in-depth treatment of any of the subjects Jacobs covers, and the lessons he draws are, for the most part, fairly superficial. But what he does is provide a light, entertaining, and humorous introduction to a wide range of social and global issues. There's plenty of food for thought, served with a spoonful of sugar.

It works well for what it is.

Maigret et le marchand de vin by Georges Simenon

Read: 21 July, 2009

According to my dear ol' mum, bless her French book-reading heart, there's an entire series of Maigret detective novels. For my own part, I've only encountered this one, so I'll have to take her word for it. In this episode, the owner of a wine distribution company has been murdered and Jules Maigret is called in to investigate.

Le marchand de vin is rather different from many of the detective novels I usually read. For one thing, it's an actual detective novel - in that the person doing the investigating is a detective in the police force. This introduces a rather different dynamic than I'm accustomed to. My detectives are usually sucked in to a mystery, often reluctantly, and half the story is trying find some way to convince the authorities to serve justice. But here, Maigret has the benefit of the authorities being on his side, but he's also constrained by this. There are rules to follow, and tactics that are simply off-limits.

I enjoyed how dependent this novel was on conversation. The focus was very little on the discovery of clues, but rather on the interactions between Maigret and his various witnesses and suspects. The whole book reads more like a play than anything else. As a result, character development is emphasized, but also somewhat more subtle. We're rarely told what characters are feeling, but are left to guess based on their verbal responses. This is fairly common in French literature, but I read so little of it that it made for a refreshing change.

As far as the mystery itself goes, it's fairly run-of-the-mill. It's written from a local's perspective, so it doesn't have the charm of otherness that Daphne du Maurier's Don't Look Now had, for example. Maigret is not especially "quirky" like Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe. In other words, there's no gimmick to the story. It's just a plain detective story, albeit of a higher calibre than most. It's well worth the read for fans of the genre, if only for exposure to how good an ordinary detective without some extraordinary selling feature can be.

Gaius Ruso mystery #4: Caveat Emptor by Ruth Downie

Read: 22 June, 2011

A pregnant Iceni woman, a descendent of the fearsome Boudica, bursts into Britain's procurator's office claiming that her husband has been murdered and did not steal the tax money. Ruso, freshly back from Gaul and in need of work - any work - takes on the job of investigator. What he uncovers exposes the delicate peace between Rome and even the most "civilized" British tribes.

The Ruso series is written in a fairly straightforward and often humorous style. Ruso's (and occasionally Tilla's) commentary is injected into the narrative to give the series a sort of deadpan comedic element that is just so very British. But despite its similarity to other series, such as Ellis Peters's Cadfael, Caveat Emptor lacks much of the innocence. There is a hopelessness to the series, a reminder that justice is not always served and that desired outcomes are not always possible.

Caveat Emptor is similar enough to the rest of the series to satisfy the fan, while different enough to stand on its own merits. Downie has proven that she is not to be a "one hit wonder," and is more than capable of creating a sustainable series.

The mystery itself is good enough, but the best part of Downie's work is the characterisations. Main characters, like Ruso and Tilla (and even Valens) are complex and distinctive, likeable despite their many flaws. Side characters are similar enough to archetypes to be recognizable, but they provide a lovely illusion of unexplored depth.

This is another great addition to the series and I look forward to reading the next one!

The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris

Read: 22 October, 2010

The basic premise of The Moral Landscape is that the well-being of sentient creatures is the proper measuring stick to determine morality. He convincingly argues that defining morality simply as that which God likes or dislikes is absurd, in the same way as defining it based on the wishes of a king would be absurd. But on the other side of the debate, the idea that morality is a natural offshoot from our evolution as social animals, merely describes an 'is' and does not allow us to argue for or against the 'shoulds' we may encounter in our navigation of ethics. The well-being of creatures sufficiently aware to care about well-being is the only measure that makes any sense.

In the book, Harris anticipates and responds to a number of criticisms. The greatest of these is the question of whether well-being is even worth valuing in the first place - what makes this, above all others, the concept that ought to be at the centre of this debate? To answer this, Harris compares well-being to health. Why should we value health? None of us would think twice about calling someone insane who argues that health ought to be defined as weight as much as possible, so why do claim that there is no way to say whether a patriarchal system in which half the population is kept under constant bondage is any worse than a society in which genders are viewed as equal?

He also brings up the idea of neuroscience - that we will one day be able to scan people's brains to determine what truly contributes to well-being, and what people have merely been acculturated into thinking it does.

I've been surprised by how poor the book's reception has been among the atheist community. It seems that many have fallen into the trap Harris anticipated, arguing that there is no reason to value well-being above any other criteria. But for my own part, I'm convinced. Harris challenges his readers to think of any criteria that would be equally valuable in resolving ethical issues, and I've been unable to think of any. It seems as obvious to me that well-being is the only foundation that makes any sense at all. Once we accept this premise, it seems obvious to me that ethical questions could potentially be resolved with right or wrong answers.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Thanks for the recommendation, Kristin!

Read: 3 October, 2010

In a small Wisconsin town, Ralph Truitt, a wealthy business man, places an advert in the papers for a reliable wife. After carefully reviewing the applicants, he finally selects Catherine Land. Now he waits in the bitter cold for her train to arrive. But when she disembarks, Truitt sees that she looks nothing like her picture. And so begins a relationship fraught with deception.

This is a novel of bad and broken people trying to find hope in each other. It's a sad story, set in a bleak and unwelcoming landscape. It was difficult reading at times, with characters I couldn't help but like despite knowing that I shouldn't, doing things I know I should disapprove of.

The writing style was excellent, very accessible. It's always lovely to be able to focus on the story without having to worry about meandering sentences. The characterisations were excellent. I really felt as though I were getting to know Catherine and Ralph, as though they were real people with complex goals and emotions that exist independently of the author.

This is a fantastic book to read on a cold wintry day!

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Read: June, 2004

The devil has arrived in Moscow, and he's there to wreak havoc. Meanwhile, a writer obsesses over Pontius Pilate while a young woman obsesses over him.

I read Master and Margarita for a course I was taking in university, and it was one of my favourite books of the whole year. I found the obsession with Pontius Pilate to be rather contagious. I was taking another course on the New Testament, so I was able to get it out of my system by writing a rather lengthy essay on him.

This was all a couple years ago, so my memory of the book is a little hazy, but I remember finding it very funny and interesting, mixed in with that depressingly lethargic outlook on life, society, and government so common to Russian writing.