I read this for my Work, Women, and Family class.
The premise is that women who are mothers and work outside the home work a second shift when they get home from work in order to take care of their home and children.
The books tells the story of some couples who and how they navigate this second shift.
I found it an interesting read but it also made me a little angry and some of the men and some of them women too. But the idea of a second shift and how to more equally share the responsibility that comes with rising a family when both parents work sparked conversation and debate in my class. It also provided some really good food for thought.
(Finished February 27, 2015)
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir by Liz Prince
I was walking around at The Odyssey (independent bookstore across the street from campus). I saw the cover of this book and it jumped out at me.
Dakota has been going through a struggle with gender identity and we had been talking about the past year spent living as "he" but now feeling like that didn't fit so we were going back to calling her "she".
I saw the cover of Tomboy and it jumped out at me. So I picked up the book and read the inside front and back cover. This book felt custom made for my sweet kid. So I bought it and was so excited to get home.
Dakota read it first. Then she loaned it to our LUK worker Kathy (who we are so lucky to have) and now I have read it.
It's a graphic novel about Liz, who spent her life feeling like she was not "girly" and was more interested in things people were trying to tell her were for boys. She didn't like makeup, dresses, and the thought of needing a bra was horrific.
She much preferred her baseball cap, comfy men's t-shirts, baggy boys jeans, and ghostbuster toys.
It took her a very long time to feel comfortable in her own skin and realize that she was a she, just not by society's definition of what made someone a girl.
(finished March 17, 2015
Dakota has been going through a struggle with gender identity and we had been talking about the past year spent living as "he" but now feeling like that didn't fit so we were going back to calling her "she".
I saw the cover of Tomboy and it jumped out at me. So I picked up the book and read the inside front and back cover. This book felt custom made for my sweet kid. So I bought it and was so excited to get home.
Dakota read it first. Then she loaned it to our LUK worker Kathy (who we are so lucky to have) and now I have read it.
It's a graphic novel about Liz, who spent her life feeling like she was not "girly" and was more interested in things people were trying to tell her were for boys. She didn't like makeup, dresses, and the thought of needing a bra was horrific.
She much preferred her baseball cap, comfy men's t-shirts, baggy boys jeans, and ghostbuster toys.
It took her a very long time to feel comfortable in her own skin and realize that she was a she, just not by society's definition of what made someone a girl.
(finished March 17, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued by Ann Crittenden
This is the first book of the semester I had to read for my class The Psychology of Work, Women, and Family.
To say that the findings Ann Crittenden writes about made me angry would be an understatement. She was moved to write about the price paid by mothers and other caregivers when after leaving The New York Times she was asked if she "used to be Ann Crittenden."
Women, even those with degrees from prestigious schools, make less and move up the corporate ladder slower than their male and their childless female counterparts.
Caregiving, those who provide childcare for children that are not their own, and mothers who devote themselves full time to raising their children, are considered unskilled labor.
Stay at home mothers don't have any kind of protections if they get injured on the job, they don't get retirement benefits of their own from social security, and woe to them if they get divorced because the courts offer little or no protection.
Crittenden lays out facts and statistics, she speaks with real women and shares their stories.
While most of the studies she quotes were done in the very later 90's they are still very relevant. A very interesting even if frustrating read. I hope you feel moved to want to help make changes to the system. I am not sure how but I know I am on the look out for the opportunity.
(Finished February 7, 2015)
To say that the findings Ann Crittenden writes about made me angry would be an understatement. She was moved to write about the price paid by mothers and other caregivers when after leaving The New York Times she was asked if she "used to be Ann Crittenden."
Women, even those with degrees from prestigious schools, make less and move up the corporate ladder slower than their male and their childless female counterparts.
Caregiving, those who provide childcare for children that are not their own, and mothers who devote themselves full time to raising their children, are considered unskilled labor.
Stay at home mothers don't have any kind of protections if they get injured on the job, they don't get retirement benefits of their own from social security, and woe to them if they get divorced because the courts offer little or no protection.
Crittenden lays out facts and statistics, she speaks with real women and shares their stories.
While most of the studies she quotes were done in the very later 90's they are still very relevant. A very interesting even if frustrating read. I hope you feel moved to want to help make changes to the system. I am not sure how but I know I am on the look out for the opportunity.
(Finished February 7, 2015)
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris
I read a fair number of biographies and memoirs.
This was unlike any I have ever read!!
NPH gives his story in a clever way that shares some details about his life to date but also throws in some silly side trips into a fictionalized what if I made a different life choice way.
When I was young I read the choose your own adventures and that is the style he writes his book in. At different points you can choose to skip to different moments in his life or see what would happen if you had lead him down a different path. Maybe it would be death, maybe it would be flipping burgers...who knows...
What you end up with is a fun read that at the end of the day gives you some insight into the life of the fabulous NPH, his sweet husband David and their twins.
(Finished January 21, 2015)
This was unlike any I have ever read!!
NPH gives his story in a clever way that shares some details about his life to date but also throws in some silly side trips into a fictionalized what if I made a different life choice way.
When I was young I read the choose your own adventures and that is the style he writes his book in. At different points you can choose to skip to different moments in his life or see what would happen if you had lead him down a different path. Maybe it would be death, maybe it would be flipping burgers...who knows...
What you end up with is a fun read that at the end of the day gives you some insight into the life of the fabulous NPH, his sweet husband David and their twins.
(Finished January 21, 2015)
Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
This is Gaffigan's second book. If by some chance you've never heard of him, he is a stand up comedian who I like to call the food whisperer. A large part of his shtick is talkinh and whispering lovingly about food.
I really enjoyed his first book Dad Is Fat and so I had high expectations for this one.
It wasn't as funny. But it did have a good number of laughs. Mostly though I found it a little chuckle worthy but filled with jokes we all make in some form or another about food, restaurants, and eating.
I didn't laugh out loud the way I did when reading Dad Is Fat but maybe that wasn't the intent here. Maybe he was just being snarky and observational.
Not a bad read but not as good as I had hoped.
(Finished January 19, 2015)
I really enjoyed his first book Dad Is Fat and so I had high expectations for this one.
It wasn't as funny. But it did have a good number of laughs. Mostly though I found it a little chuckle worthy but filled with jokes we all make in some form or another about food, restaurants, and eating.
I didn't laugh out loud the way I did when reading Dad Is Fat but maybe that wasn't the intent here. Maybe he was just being snarky and observational.
Not a bad read but not as good as I had hoped.
(Finished January 19, 2015)
Saturday, January 17, 2015
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
This was the book pick for book club this month. I don't think I would have had it on my radar otherwise so thank you Kate.
We can all agree slavery was an awful part of US history. This story takes us inside life at a plantation through the story of Lavinia. She is a young Irish girl whose parents die on the ship over and so she ends up living on a plantation in Virginia.
Lavinia lives in the kitchen house with Belle. Belle is the daughter of the plantation owner but since her mother was a slave she is too. There is also Mama, Papa, Uncle Jacob, Ben, and twins Beattie and Fanny. They take in Lavinia as one of their own.
While there is hardship, cruelty, pain for the people who are the property of the Captain, there is also much love.
Lavinia is told that family is more than blood ties but it is over a number of years that she learns the true meaning of that statement.
A powerful story and a great book despite the ugliness it contains.
(Finished January 17, 2015)
We can all agree slavery was an awful part of US history. This story takes us inside life at a plantation through the story of Lavinia. She is a young Irish girl whose parents die on the ship over and so she ends up living on a plantation in Virginia.
Lavinia lives in the kitchen house with Belle. Belle is the daughter of the plantation owner but since her mother was a slave she is too. There is also Mama, Papa, Uncle Jacob, Ben, and twins Beattie and Fanny. They take in Lavinia as one of their own.
While there is hardship, cruelty, pain for the people who are the property of the Captain, there is also much love.
Lavinia is told that family is more than blood ties but it is over a number of years that she learns the true meaning of that statement.
A powerful story and a great book despite the ugliness it contains.
(Finished January 17, 2015)
Thursday, January 15, 2015
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart
This book reminded me a little of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. It has the same slow burn feel to it, there is mystery as to what happened to the main character's son, and the characters begin to grow on you. Harold Fry was better but this wasn't bad.
Set in the Tower of London the main story is the story of Beefeater Balthazar Jones and his wife Hebe. The cast of characters is rounded out by the rest of the inhabitants of the Tower community and Hebe's coworker at the London Underground Lost Items department.
The amazing list of things that get turned into the lost items department is one of the best parts of the read.
Balthazar and Hebe lost their young son Milo and the loss has put a dent into their deep and long lasting love.
The story of what loss can do to people is the backbone of this tale and while it unfolds the time spent with the rest of the characters runs from aggravating to charming.
The story of tower chaplain Septimus Drew is quite interesting.
I will admit that the while the facts about the history of the Tower of London was interesting, at times it felt like too much.
Overall a pretty good read, but it wasn't perfect.
(finished January 15, 2015)
Set in the Tower of London the main story is the story of Beefeater Balthazar Jones and his wife Hebe. The cast of characters is rounded out by the rest of the inhabitants of the Tower community and Hebe's coworker at the London Underground Lost Items department.
The amazing list of things that get turned into the lost items department is one of the best parts of the read.
Balthazar and Hebe lost their young son Milo and the loss has put a dent into their deep and long lasting love.
The story of what loss can do to people is the backbone of this tale and while it unfolds the time spent with the rest of the characters runs from aggravating to charming.
The story of tower chaplain Septimus Drew is quite interesting.
I will admit that the while the facts about the history of the Tower of London was interesting, at times it felt like too much.
Overall a pretty good read, but it wasn't perfect.
(finished January 15, 2015)
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