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Category Archives: Book Review
Do Parents Matter? Recommended reading for raising free kids
Fair warning: this book may shake any strong convictions you have about the right way to parent. The LeVines have studied parenting practices in cultures all over the world. One of my favorite examples is the Nso people of Cameroon … Continue reading
Posted in Achtung Baby, Book Review, parenting
Tagged children, cultural differences, freekids, helicopter parenting, parenting
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Mommy Laid an Egg! recommended reading for raising free kids
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole is a silly book that tells kids the basic facts of life, and yes, it includes some ridiculous illustrations. When my daughter was in first grade, her teacher read this book to her … Continue reading
Posted in Achtung Baby, Book Review, parenting
Tagged birds and bees, children, education, freekids, parenting, sex ed
3 Comments
Want to change our overparenting culture? Read Free Range Kids and Join Let Grow
This book is serious fun. Serious because no other book – and arguably no other personality – has done more to help loosen the lock-hold helicopter parenting has on our kids than Free Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy. Fun because … Continue reading
FREE TO LEARN: Recommended reading for raising free kids
An evolutionary psychologist Peter Gray argues that human children, like all mammals, learn best through play – and by play, Gray means without adult involvement. If adults are directing, coaching, even observing, it isn’t real play. Gray shows how our … Continue reading
Posted in Book Review, parenting
Tagged children, education, independence, peter gray, self-reliance
4 Comments
THE WAVE: recommended reading for raising free kids
Nearly all German teenagers read this book about how easy authoritarianism can take hold. Americans might want to read it too — because it happened here. The book is based on an experiment at a high school in Palo Alto, … Continue reading
Posted in Achtung Baby, and my super opinion, Book Review, Germany
Tagged authoritarian, die welle, holocaust, neveragain, the wave
4 Comments
Four great books for writers
In honor of my return to the blog, I’m putting a post for my fellow writers. Because that’s why I’ve been away. I’ve been writing the whole time, working on a new novel. I swear. Writers must read. It’s the … Continue reading
A believable dystopia: review of Feed
Feed by M.T. Anderson If you found the Hunger Games and Divergent far-fetched (and they are), Feed shows a dystopian novel that seems possible. In Feed, everyone is hooked up to a network that tracks their interests and purchases. It also allows them to … Continue reading
Posted in Book Review
Tagged cyberpunk, dystopia, Feed, future, M.T. Anderson, novel, scifi
2 Comments
Worth the tears: review of A Monster Calls
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness I don’t normally go for tear jerkers, but this one is well worth the crying. A Monster Calls is simply a stunning book. It doesn’t just aim for sadness; it tackles a difficult subject the death … Continue reading
Posted in Book Review
Tagged A monster calls, death, fantasy, grief, Patrick Ness, sad books, tear jerker, young adult
1 Comment
American Gods and the absent Jesus
American Gods by Neil Gaiman Another fantastic book by Neil Gaiman. This one is very dark. (Definitely not intended for a YA audience.) The subject matter is also huge: Jesus, just look at the title! American Gods . But that’s just the thing. There’s … Continue reading
Posted in Book Review
Tagged American Gods, book review, Christianity, criticism, fantasy, Neil Gaiman, religion
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Sara Zaske 
What parents can learn from the Westboro Baptist Church
Some thoughts on the value of obedience: I expected Unfollow, Megan Phelps-Roper’s memoir about leaving the extremist Westboro Baptist Church, to be a book of hope, an argument for the power of free speech, and in some ways it is. … Continue reading →