Book Review: Tales from the Secret Annex

by Anne Frank

Tales from the Secret Annex is a collection of short stories and essays that Anne Frank wrote to pass her time while hiding from the Nazis. The essays are actually diary snippets her father had chosen not to publish with the rest of her diary entries.

The writing in the short stories is very much that of a thirteen-year-old girl, but below the simplistic sentence structure lies complex thoughts and an understanding of the world beyond her years. The stories are also quite imaginative.

The essays are where Anne really stands out. After all, her fame is based on the diary entries her father did publish. With topics like cheating in French class and arguments with and her thoughts on the Van Daams, her rebelliousness isn't quite up to today's standards, but I do find her honesty and writing style quite endearing.

I found The Sing of Inequity to be the most profound. In this page and a half essay, Anne challenges the prudishness of her compatriots in Amsterdam by writing:

"I don't think we're so very different from nature. And since we people are apart of nature, why should we be ashamed of the way nature has dressed us?"

Why not just be naked? What is wrong with the human form?

 In Happiness Anne states that:

"I had learned that most sadness comes from joy."
 

I don't think most adults have learned this concept, so to see it in the private writings of a 13 year old is astounding to me. It's almost as if the wisdom of a full like was granted to her before her untimely death.

This was an interesting read from a historical standpoint. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Anne Frank.

Book Review: Bossypants

 

By Tina Fey

To fulfill the humor portion of my 2012 reading challenge, I picked up Tina Fey's Bossypants. A collection of stories about growing up and growing into her role as boss and the many awkward stages along the way.

I love Tina Fey, and I expected to laugh out loud, cry and possibly pee my pants while reading this. But I didn't. It was still a really good book, though. Tina has a knack for writing and making herself relatable.

Tina comes off as very human in this book. She bounces from awkward and nervous to empowered in a natural, realistic way. I really hope this is the first of many books from her.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I highly recommend it to others to read.

Book Review: The Last Lecture

By Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow

 

With more than 15 million views and more than 64,000 likes on YouTube, Randy Pausch's last lecture continues to inspire people to achieve their dreams five years later.

 

 

When Randy stood on the Carnegie Mellon auditorium stage to give his lecture on achieving childhood dreams, he was trying to leave a legacy for his young children. No one, not even Randy or the audience, could have imagined just how lasting his legacy would be.

 

The Last Lecture was a series presented by Carnegie Mellon in which the speaker ponders his/her death. Although that wouldn't have been difficult for Randy, a computer science professor and virtual reality geek who was dying of pancreatic cancer, the university had decided to rename the series "Journeys" before offering Randy the slot.

 

 

In this small book, Randy strengthens that legacy by recounting his life, how he came to be on the stage that night, and the advice on living he gave to that lecture's overflowing audience. He wrote a little about death, dying with grace and living while dying.

Great advice and humor are sprinkled throughout the book and the lecture. Randy used the humor to grant levity and avoid pity. As he said during his lecture after proving that he was in great shape by doing push ups, if anyone wanted to pity him they could come on stage, do a push up, and then pity him. He was happy. It's all he knew how to be. He was a Tigger, not an Eeyore.

 

Randy with his family dressed as The Incredibles.

 

The book while short, is chock full of inspiration and provides many thought provoking points throughout. I highly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't read it yet.

 

Randy Pausch passed away July 25, 2008 at his home. He lived five months longer than the three to six months his doctor had given him. He was survived by his wife, Jai, and three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe. Representative of his legacy, his obituary was published in the New York Times.

 



Book Review: Bringing Up Bebe

By Pamela Druckerman

Druckerman's Bringing Up Bebe made a splash last winter before it had even hit the shelves at bookstores. The book stirred up controversy by promising to show American mothers just how much better French mothers do it. The book wasn't as anti-American as it was portrayed, but it was still a very entertaining read.

Druckerman's PR folks decided to pull out all the stops by casting their lot in with Amy Chua of Tiger Mother fame. Chua's advanced praise received the top spot on the back cover. (Spot two went to French Women Don't Get Fat author Mireille Guiliano.) If the two of them combined isn't enough, Chua "couldn't put Bringing up Bebe down" and "love[s] Pamela Druckerman's premise that parents of all cultures should be able to learn from one another." While true, it's laughable coming from someone whose notoriety is based on her disdain for Western mothers.

This book wasn't a how to to French parenting but a memoir of Druckerman's struggle to be a good mom and fit in with the French mothers who surrounded her.

Unsurprisingly, French babies are better eaters and sleepers than American babies. Dr. Michel Cohen, author of the New Basics and a French doctor transplanted in Tribeca, recommends that parents pause before responding to their crying newborns. He says this gives the infant a chance to self soothe and sets them up for successful sleep. In The Happiest Toddler on the Block, Dr. Harvey Karp makes the same recommendation to teach toddlers patience.

As far as eating is concerned, French infants eat four times a day by two to three months old. This schedule encourages good eating habits. As they age, French children are introduced to a world of wonderful foods, which they eat and enjoy. French mothers know they have to keep trying to get their kids to eat new foods.

I was fascinated by all the government-paid perks that French women get, incluidng perineal retraining and subsidized daycare. Thanks to that subsidized daycare, very few Parisenne women stay at home. Despite that, French women lag behind American women in some major regards including:

• a larger earnings gap between men and women,
• fewer women in the legislature and heading larger corporations, and
• French women spend 89% more time doing household work and caring for their children than men do.

According to Druckerman, an indication of rampant sexism in France is that post partum perineal retraining is often used to keep French husbands satisfied, not to help women. I do think the government benefits parents receive might help French mothers feel better about the discrepanices.

In the end, I can conclude that Chua was right, using tips from other cultures can be good for us as parents. I think that does neeed to go both ways; Western mothers aren't all overindulgent and sometimes we do say no to our children.

Do you have any thoughts on this book?

Book Discussion: Secrets of Six-Figure Women

 

By Barbara Stanny

As women we often discount ourselves. Most of us know is bad for us mentally and physically, but it's also bad for our careers. As modern women, careers are a large part of our lives if not ourselves. It's time we start to refocus on ourselves. Reading this book is a step in the right direction.

Secrets of Six-Figure Women is a quick, engaging read chock full of excellent advice. Stanny, whose father was a successful and recognized businessman, was a chronic underearner who set out to learn the secrets of successful women. What she learned was both surprising and expected.

For example, I was surprised to learn that many of the six-figure women didn't work unGodly hours. Many have taught themselves to focus and work as little as four hours a day, and they're even more successful than when they'd worked four hours by 8:00 a.m.



It takes focus to reach six figures.

While surprising, I'm fully in support of this. What's the point of making six-figures if you can't enjoy it? (This is a rhetorical question. Life is meant to be lived; not worked.)

It wasn't surprising at all that Stanny found belief in oneself, hard work, education, and talent to be the most important factors to her interviewees success. These are four marked characteristics that I would list for successful women.

Stanny also found that six-figure women have a profit motive (they expect to be well compensated), audacity (they often step outside their comfort zones), resilience, and encouragement. She also learned that the women were self aware, were non-attached, and had financial know how.

Stanny is quite quotable in this book. Her writing is strong and her insight deep. Her quotes are the type I'd want to embroider on a pillow, if I had the patience to embroider. Some of her most quotable lines include the following:

"[T]he moment we stop waiting and start acting, we have the opportunity to walk through a doorway to a richer, fuller, more abundant life." (page 73)

"Our state of mind shapes our way of life." (page 74)

"To really change your financial situation, you have to let go of that part of yourself that stands in the way of greater abundance." (page 117)

Of course you can't write a book about women succeeding in the workplace without addressing sexism. According to the women interviewed, there are two ways to handle sexism: 1) shake it off or 2) leave the organization.

Shaking it off would be a good idea for minor instances of sexism, the cases in which proving oneself will help eradicate a sexist culture or superior. But sometimes the culture is so bad that you just need to leave. I know it's sometimes hard to leave when we want to change the culture, but it's not always possible, especially when the culprit is an older man. Some people need to age out of the workforce before we can change negative corporate cultures.

Success sometimes requires adequately handling sexism.

This only addresses the cases when women have a choice to stay or leave. When a woman is forced out due to sexism, she has to do something about it.

Stanny ends with a little last minute advice:

"Claim your power. Value yourself, honor yourself, take all your desires to heart."

What do you think? Do you have any tips to help women achieve six-figure success? Do you agree with the two ways to handle sexism? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Book Review: SPOOK

By Mary Roach

This is the second book I’ve read by Mary Roach. My first foray into her writing was almost two years ago when I read Stiff. I thoroughly enjoyed Stiff, and I was excited to go on another research excursion with Roach. An excursion is really what these two books were right down to Roach traveling to various locations for work.

This book was not a disappointment at all. Roach applied her branch of research to science’s quest for answers regarding the afterlife, and I thoroughly enjoyed being along for the ride.

The book covers everything from reincarnations in India to how much a soul weights and séances and ectoplasm to medium research. AND (all caps are necessary to indicate my high level of excitement) she got to meet the real Allison DuBois! If you don’t know who this is, then I probably don’t like you but here’s a clue:

Allison DuBois with Allison Dubois

Roach is also funny. I’m not sure how she manages it when writing about science. It’s a miracle, I tell ya!

I highly recommend this book and Stiff (if you can stomach cadaver talk).