Literary Likings

I have a few new favorite things these days.

NurtureShock
by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

If you are a parent, I highly, highly recommend you read this book. I read it as an e-book but am considering buying a hard copy so that I can flip through it at will as I develop questions and want to re-read certain chapters. The book challenges a lot of accepted parenting norms - like why it's actually better to praise your child's effort at something than tell them they're smart and exactly what happens to kids who are told often that they're smart. The chapter on why we should discuss race with young children was truly fascinating and informative and the chapter on language development is probably the first one I'll re-read a couple of times. I really cannot recommend this book enough.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

After my friend Kate mentioned her library the other day, I realized I had forgotten about the library. I was sitting around wishing I had the money to buy this book when I could just borrow it from the library. It isn't the sort of book I'd want to immediately keep and re-read over and over, so it made for a perfect library book.

It is a YA (young adult) book, so I had to go into the YA section at the library to get it, which was a real trip down memory lane. When I was in middle school, I used to hang out there all the time and just read... and read... and read some more.

The reason I was interested in this book is because it's being made into a film starring Emma Watson (Hermione from the Harry Potter films) and Nina Dobrev (Elena/Katherine from the Vampire Diaries television show). It's a film I knew I'd want to see, so I wanted to read the book first (I always prefer to read the book before seeing a film). The film promises to be quite good - not only because the cast is fantastic, but also because the book's author wrote the screenplay AND is directing the film.

If I were a high school freshman or sophomore English teacher, I would definitely use this book in my class - possibly even for 7th and 8th grade honors English classes. It's a real page-turner, too. I picked it up at the library yesterday morning and finished it last night - and I worked a full day yesterday! Like I said, it's YA fiction, so it's an easy read, but it's a truly compelling story with interesting characters. I highly recommend it.

Currently reading: The English American, by Alison Larkin

The plot of The English American is that Pippa is a young British woman who has always known that she was adopted, but also finds out that she's from the American South by birth. That's all I needed to read to add this book to my "to read" list when it came out - and now it's mine! (Okay, from the library.) I'm only 30 pages in but I already adore it.

I've also got some new (to me) non-book literary likings:

Ezra Pound Cake

Is that not the best literary nerd baking blog name ever? I've heard the name of the blog a few times here and there over the past year or so but I never took the time to really check it out. I recently did and I lurve love love it. The author is Rebecca Crump, which is even a simply awesome name to have as a baking enthusiast. "Rebecca Crump" sounds like a character in a novel about a British baking blogger, right? She's not British, though - she lives in the Midwest and has an English degree. She worked as a writer for ten years before deciding to switch gears and become a baker. I mean, really, it's a novel waiting to happen, right? Her autobiography would read like a wonderful novel I'd love to read on vacation.

To boot, her recipes and photos are fabulous. I recently made her "No Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies" and they are delish. I look forward to trying many more of her recipes.

What Would a Nerd Wear

This is a style blog I recently came across through someone else's blogroll. The title of it immediately caught my eye (as I like to fashion myself a nerd) and quickly browsing it, I loved it immediately. She calls her list of what she's wearing in each photo her "Works Cited" (love it!!), is studying British Literature in a grad program in the Midwest and talks about teaching and grad work and basically everything I adore. I definitely envy this blog a lot - I wish I was in a grad program in the Midwest, teaching undergrads and style blogging.

Is it weird that I feel like if I got together with the writers of Ezra Pound Cake and What Would a Nerd Wear, we'd have a ton to talk about? Okay, they'd talk a lot and I would try to learn, learn, learn from them. I think that means they're awesome bloggers. When your writing on a website makes ordinary people want to hang out with you and talk about what you love to do, you're doing something right (imho).

So that's what I'm into these days. I find it funny that there's a clear literary thread running through all of it. It feels very right, right now. Ever stumble on a theme in your life and think, "Yes. Yes, that's totally fitting right now for how I feel"?