Review: Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting

Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This book was imperfect, but I'm glad I read it. It's written by an American who marries a British man and has two babies while they live in Paris. She notices a lot of differences between how Americans treat babies and how the French treat babies, from pregnancy through toddler-hood. This book is an analysis of that set of observations.

At first, she points out a lot of appealing things that French babies do, like sleep through the night after 8 weeks, eat full meals out late in restaurants, play independently at parks and dinner parties. Some of the things she points out seem to make a lot of sense - like "The Pause" (how the French don't respond to babies right away, they wait a moment to see what the child will do), training them to eat just four times each day, and nearly universally sending them to state-run day cares. Pregnancy is handled with much less focus on worst-case situations, and more focus on general health.

However, I lost a bit of faith in the book when she contrasted the French attitude towards daycare to the American, saying that upper middle class Americans would never send their kids to daycare (surprise! we do.) It made me wonder what generalizations she was making about French society that were equally inaccurate. I was also strongly aware that while there is a simplicity in how French may not focus on any achievement-oriented activities for little kids (swim lessons are just about splashing, for example), they also live in a Socialist society which has different values from ours.

From a logistical point of view, I also disliked that the second half of the book was a restating of the first half, just in bite-sized tidbits numbered from 1-100. Finally, I didn't think that many of the things that the French do were things I was going to be able to execute myself in the US - for example, even if I wanted to put Sash on a 4x/day eating plan - what would I do about how she is fed in daycare or at birthday parties or even how we eat as American adults?

All that criticism aside, there were a few things I did pick up reading this - mostly that kids can be taught to wait a moment. Also that at Sash's age - 20 months - their being happy and comfortable at daycare, and learning how to socialize with other kids is what's important, nay, not just important, but critical.



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Review: Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This book was great fun. I think Gregg suggested it and I loved it.

The story takes place in the future, where the world is pretty close to post-apocalyptic. At the very least, it's dangerous with scarce resources and a breakdown of government. Most people, including the hero of the book Wade, spend most of their time in a virtual reality world, even attending school there. When the creator of the game dies, he leaves his fortune as a reward for a treasure hunt within the game. Both individuals like Wade and corporations race to win the game.

The book was fun because it was a race to win something, but also because it was a homage to 1980's video games and movies, references to which were all over the book. But it was not just pulp - parts of it reminded me of [b:Makers|6422238|Makers|Cory Doctorow|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408371819s/6422238.jpg|6611457] in its prescience and pessimistic view of all but a few people living in the future. And parts of it reminded me of [b:Ender's Game|375802|Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet, #1)|Orson Scott Card|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408303130s/375802.jpg|2422333] in its mixing of real world experiences with simulations.

Would love to see what else Cline can do.



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Review: Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father

Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father by Alysia Abbott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I heard Abbott on NPR (on The Moth I think) and decided I wanted to hear more of her story. Raised by a single gay father in San Francisco in the 1980's, she was well-spoken and well-adjusted, and I thought her memoir would be interesting.

Abbott's childhood reminded me of that of [a:Jeannette Walls|3275|Jeannette Walls|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1188356528p2/3275.jpg], [a:Augusten Burroughs|3058|Augusten Burroughs|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1337222509p2/3058.jpg], or [a:Alexandra Fuller|13900|Alexandra Fuller|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1330629732p2/13900.jpg]. As they grew up, they though their lives were pretty normal, but reflecting as an adult, it is obvious that some very basic needs weren't being met. This is not to say that her father was neglectful - he was attentive and involved. But he was also involved in his own building of an identity as a newly-out gay man and figuring out how that fit with being a father.

What I came away from the book with was the feeling that she loved her father, and saw him not as the father of her childhood but as a human adult. Worth a read about a unique upbringing.



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Review: The Secret History

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I had tried to read [b:The Little Friend|775346|The Little Friend|Donna Tartt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327936589s/775346.jpg|1808852] many years ago and couldn't get into it, but when Tartt won the Pulitzer for [b:The Goldfinch|17333223|The Goldfinch|Donna Tartt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1378710146s/17333223.jpg|24065147], I wanted to give her another try. I ended up really enjoying this book.

The story follows six students who attend a small liberal arts college in Vermont. While one of them is from a middle-class family from rural California, the others are rich and raised with trust funds and prep school. What brings them together is an obscure Greek curriculum taught by an eccentric professor. Early in the book, you find out that one of them dies, and the rest of the book sets up the circumstances of his death. The book is told in first person from the less well-off student.

I don't remember a book that I've read recently that was so...taut emotionally. Even though I knew how the book would end - or at least what the defining event was - I was nervous for the characters as everything was happening. I also found many (if not all) of the characters extremely dislikable, but the book surprisingly compelling.

I'll give it a few months, then get into the Goldfinch.



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Review: Skeletons at the Feast

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Mom gave me this book last time I was in Florida - from the receipt inside, it looks like it was actually from Rochelle.

It was a gripping book - hard to put down but also terribly sad. I remember reading several books by Bohjalian, particularly [b:Midwives|5166|Midwives|Chris Bohjalian|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405281567s/5166.jpg|3221872] followed by a few others when that was popular, but I hadn't read him in at least a decade. I forgot how well he could tell a story and develop characters. Both of which - boy - he can.

This book is about several intersecting stories during WWII. One is about a few women in a concentration camp. One story line is about a Jewish man who survives WWII by pretending to be a German soldier. And the third story is about a German family who, when it becomes obvious that Germany is going to lose the war, begins to walk across the country in the hopes that the Scottish POW they have living with them will be their ticket to safety. I think it's the inclusion of the German family that makes this story unique among Holocaust literature I've read in the past.

One clever thing that Bohjalain does is contrast the trek that the German family is making with that of the women in the concentration camp. You're reading about the Germans, and how they are running out of food, then trading their jewelry for food, and being scared by the bombs and shooting. Then in the next chapter are unspeakable horrors at the camp and you remember that the Germans supported Hitler and don't actually have it so bad.

He does a lot of great character building - the young Jewish man, the POW, the daughter of the Jewish family, one woman at the camp - all of them are central characters, thoroughly described and developed.

I really enjoyed this and will be sure to put him back in my reading rotation soon.



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Review: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I've been enjoying the Outlander series for several years now, treating myself to a new book each time I go on vacation. For the Adirondacks this summer, I was up to #6. Coincidentally. Starz network chose this summer to air a miniseries adaptation of Outlander, so there was a lot of buzz about these books going on this summer.

This was definitely one of my favorites in the series. I thought it was really fascinating to see what was going on just when the Revolutionary War was starting. But was was really special about this book is that several long-running plot threads had some great payoffs - some of Jamie's family history, of Jocasta's relationships, of Lord John's story - many of them that have been building for so many books were resolved.

Unlike the last two books, which I liked but found a little long and far-fetched (yes, in the scope of a time traveler story, things can still be near- or far- fetched), this one kept my attention fully and I enjoyed every page. Can't wait until November when I embark on #7.



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Review: A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran

A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran by Shane Bauer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I think I heard about this book on NPR - in any case it is a shared memoir of three friends who were prisoners in Iran for several years. They begin by hiking in Iraq and either accidentally or carelessly end up crossing the border into Iran where they are captured and thrown in prison.

The book alternates in each of their voices telling the story. You can feel their struggles and their joys, and how they are alternatively feeling hopeful and hopeless. They capture the soul-dullingly boredom of prison, the agony of solitary confinement, and the confusing relationships they had with the guards. While they weren't tortured (and in fact were given sufficient food, clothing, and medical care), they were manipulated, tricked, and often played against each other. At times they were allowed to share rooms or free time, but other times they were isolated. The relationships they had with each other were complex and fragile.

Not just a political statement (although it is), this book is about surviving with little to no information. It is about friendship and love, and about persevering through the unimaginable as a team.



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Review: Townie: A Memoir

Townie: A Memoir by Andre Dubus III

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really liked this book. It is a memoir by an author whose books like [b:House of Sand and Fog|7944648|House of Sand and Fog|Andre Dubus III|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348794554s/7944648.jpg|932849] and [b:The Garden of Last Days|2079538|The Garden of Last Days|Andre Dubus III|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409436719s/2079538.jpg|2084812] riveted me in the past. He is such a great writer, and his telling of his real-life story is no less consuming.

Andre and his three siblings live in New England and when his parents get divorced, they end up with his mom. The five of them struggle in poverty in different towns like Haverhill and Newburyport while his father becomes a professor at a nearby college, seeing the children once a week and either ignoring or not noticing the conditions under which they are growing up.

As he gets older, he turns to anger, and violence, and also forges an unusual relationship with his father. We know the ending - that ultimately he grows into a highly successful novelist - but the book ends long before that happens. How he gets there and what his formative years are like is the real story. What I liked most about this book was the writing - Dubus was able to describe both time and place as well as emotions with great skill.



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Review: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was a really interesting memoir.

Sierra Leone is bookmarked in my head as an African country with atrocities that have been going on for decades. I have to admit, I sometimes confuse it with Sudan and Rwanda - but this book was a sad education on Sierra Leone itself through the eyes of Beah.

Beah is a young boy - not even a teen - when civil war erupts in SL. He and several of his friends end up on the run, their families killed, trying to figure out how to live in a war zone. It is unclear to the reader and probably the boys who is right and who is wrong in the conflict - there are rebels and a national army and they seem to blend into one military force.

Beah ends up recruited into the army at 13, drugged and manipulated, and becomes a soldier. It is only after several years that NGOs and the UN step in to rescue him and many other boys in his situation (on both sides of the conflict). It is a testament to his core as a person as well as help he receives along the way that he emerges from this trauma as an optimistic functioning human being.



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Review: The Silver Star

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book, by the author of [b:The Glass Castle|7445|The Glass Castle|Jeannette Walls|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400930557s/7445.jpg|2944133], was great. It follows the story of Bean and Liz, two sisters who go live with an eccentric uncle after their mother abandons them. It was hard not to draw comparisons between this novel and Walls' real childhood, where her parents were benignly neglectful, bordering on abusive with their childrearing style. In both cases, she (or in this case, the narrator, Bean) shies away from blaming her parents, rather, she is optimistic and ultimately perseveres.

This book was eminently readable. The narrator and her sister were very likable characters, strong little girls who tried their best to riddle out how to live in an adult world. The story and plot kept me interested, while the writing itself was easy to absorb and kept my interest.

I'll keep being interested in what Jeannette Walls writes.



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Review: Blowback

Blowback by Valerie Plame

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I really wanted to like this book. I had read Plame's [b:Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House|1815529|Fair Game My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House|Valerie Plame Wilson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327869499s/1815529.jpg|1815022] about her life as a CIA spy and figured this would be a really fun novel.

It barely qualifies as a good airport read crossed with a bad episode of Covert Affairs. The story followed spy Vanessa Pierson as she hunts down a known nuclear arms dealer who is otherwise impossible to find. She has assets, a secret boyfriend, and people who don't trust her in the CIA.

While I have a lot of respect for Plame in real life, her novel was not much more than pulp.



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Review: The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is probably the top business book that has been recommended to me since I joined a startup. Now that I have read it, I can understand why - it ought to be required reading for anyone coming from a big company into a fast-paced startup. I had many a "a-ha" moment reading this, like "Oh, that's why we are shipping a product that seems incomplete...it's on purpose!"

The concept of Lean Manufacturing grew out of the Toyota Production Systems innovations of the mid-20th century. This comprised the idea of constantly improving systems, measuring more important things, and driving organizational learning. In grad school, I remember learning about this, and about its influence on the software industry. Agile/scrum development seems to have its roots in Lean.

So all this forms the backdrop for the ideas in this book - that companies and projects in general can use a lot of the same concepts that have fundamentally improved Manufacturing and Software Development. There's a real focus on learning and structuring the product development process to increase the speed with which everyone learns. (And it is worth pointing out that like Innovator's Dilemma, this is relevant for innovative parts of big companies, not just startups.) Two items stuck with me the most:

1. Vanity Metrics - Ries argues strongly against using vanity metrics when evaluating a change to a product. He says that too often metrics are chosen that look like improvements when really they aren't, like number of downloads (without number of repeat customers) or number of repeat customers (without number of paying customers.) He says you really need to know what you are measuring and why.

2. Experiments - Ries gives several examples of how you want to run experiments about your product in real life with real customers. If your audience is big enough, A/B test actual features. Release great products without all their features to see if you have Andreesen's elusive product/market fit. Ask focus group customers the right questions, not question your existing assumptions.

It's his examples that I liked the most - they were perfectly relevant and constructive. He's delightfully honest about how hard it is to learn this way by sharing his experiences at his company IMVU. In any case, this is a MUST-READ for people interested in the model for success in technical innovation in the next decade. It's in my mental bookshelf next to "Innovator's Dilemma" "Good to Great" and "Crossing the Chasm."



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Review: The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was a really interesting book. I saw it at Trident Cafe and bought it on a whim.

The story is about a young author (Marcus) whose author mentor Harry Quebert is accused of murdering a young woman. Marcus, who is having difficulty writing the followup to his best-selling book, puts his life on hold to help Harry clear his name in a small town in New Hampshire.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a classic mystery - with Marcus, I was figuring out what happened, among a cast of quirky, colorful, odd characters. I kept being surprised by twists in the plot, and I kept wanting to know what would happen next. I liked how some of the story was told through a book Harry wrote, and some of the story was told through a book that Marcus wrote.

While I did find a few sections in the middle a little slow, overall this book kept my attention and I enjoyed it.



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Review: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Michael Lewis never, ever (ever) disappoints. And this book was no exception.

Released with little pre-press lead-up, this book starts with a detailed description of a fiberoptic cable being laid through the Alleghany Mountains. *Through*, not *around*, being the operative word - because going through the mountains reduces the computer latency between NY and Chicago by a couple of milliseconds, and this is how people make money.

Lewis looks into this dark, weird, shady part of the financial industry, called "high frequency trading" that basically exploits unnatural benefits like millisecond differences in who has information when. His narrative follows some guys at Royal Bank of Canada who figure out what is going on and set out to find a different way to more fairly operate a stock exchange. As usual with Lewis, the characters were well-developed and appealing to follow.

Though the book was heavily criticized by insiders as being everything from entirely untrue to being a sales pitch for this new exchange, I think it's a case where criticism is indicating concern on the part of the incumbents.

As a stockholder, I was horrified by this book. As a reader, I was enthralled.



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Review: Some Girls: My Life in a Harem

Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I first heard Jillian speak on an episode of The Moth, on NPR. Her story - that of being a theater school dropout who interviews with a "casting director" for what turns out to be a gig "entertaining" the younger brother of the Sultan of Brunei - caught my attention.

It was the People Magazine-reading part of me that thought this would be an appealing story, and it was satiated at that level of quality. This was a fun read, a quick read, but not a high quality Jeannette-Walls read. I liked reading about her time with the other women in Borneo, and I was fascinated by her relationship with the Sultan and his brother. And I'll admit, I was more than a little curious reading about a harem and its goings-on.

But I didn't find the book uplifting, or the author particularly likable. She comes across as victimized but really made a lot of choices at a lot of junctures to get her where she ended up. Her brief forays into her personal life growing up and as a young adult didn't change my mind about her either, and seemed kind of choppy in the narrative.



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