Books n Things

I *think* I'm back in the swing of blogging again. I've missed the creative outlet (<--not sure how creative I am on here, but it feels like it) and the general sense on my end that I'm keeping up with my peeps, even if the comms are virtual.

BTW introverts ain't got no problem with virtual communication. :)

I'm back to the ol' summer tradition of riding my bike to work. I started it up and then had to take a week's pause because of the dental surgery. The thought of, how did she say it, "blowing out all the stitches" if my heart rate gets high was enough to make me enjoy riding in the air conditioned car on my commute. I should be up & at 'em soon and the goal is to ride three days a week.

Yesterday I met a friend for lunch in Cherry Creek and as I walked by this house I had to take a picture. Look at the fountain! There was one on the other side of the front steps, too, and the landscaping was so beautiful. I live in squalor. They would scoff at my potted plants.

I was on quite the reading streak before All The Summer Jobs started and before everything with Loo Loo Bean. I've got a variety of recommendations for you.

The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron

The Last Neanderthal is a novel that parallels the lives of two women. Girl is a neanderthal coming of age in a time when her species is (unbeknownst to her) dying out. Modern day archeologist, Rosamund, is tracking the find of her lifetime, the bones of two bodies that appear to be a neanderthal and the more modern homo sapien, together. But she is under a deadline because her baby will be due soon. Cameron juxtaposes the lives of two women who are, and yet are not, very different. I particularly appreciate the level of detail she uses when describing Girl's life and adventures; she taps into the human and also realistically portrays, for lack of a better word, the animal in her. I ended up getting some books that Cameron listed in her acknowledgements and will write about those soon. This book is not too science-y to read; the plot is intriguing and the two story lines will keep you flipping the pages. This is one that I will read again.

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

Not to sound like a sensationalist downer, but I thought this was a timely read. It seems like every day, multiple times a day in fact, the news is full of senseless violence. Politics, religion, ideology, nationalism, and prejudice are explainable phenomenons, though. How do we account for the fact that, according to statistics, one in every 25 people is devoid of a conscience altogether? These are people we interact with in a variety of capacities. These are people who affect our every day lives directly, apart from the news, apart from the political chaos. Stout has been a therapist for years in addition to teaching at Harvard. Her book lays out modern, typical examples of the sociopaths we are likely to see in our jobs, schools, and communities. Then she lays out tips for how to deal with them effectively. Again, not to sound like a sensationalist downer, but one of the reasons I decided to read this book is to help me keep some things in mind when dealing with my students. Not that I think they're sociopaths. Not that I think they're not, either.

Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall

OK, so this book is pretty science-y, but I recommend it if you're interested in how space exploration has become a part of our daily existence. Randall is a researcher who specializes in the study of dark matter, and her book helps the lay person, the non-scientist if you will, understand how what is not visible affects the world just as drastically as the things that are visible. I read this book a few months ago, so a lot of the details have been replaced with Milton knowledge, but I remember that it doesn't include as many details about dinosaurs as the title suggests. It's like 90% about dark matter, and 10% sprinkled in about the dinosaurs. But still, it was a good read. I'd also recommend this one for a friend or a kid in your life who is into space stuff.

More books to come! I'm in the middle of a loooooooong Michener novel with a couple of other books on the side.

And we're still getting to know this goofball.

Happy reading!