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Heavy on the pedagogical and professional. The psychological and the political. Woven in are memoirs and within those a bit of pop culture. Even if you are not naturally a fan of non-fiction, there might be something here for you. Nine books and not a clunker in the bunch.
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (2013)
Facebook Chief Operating Officer shares her observations about women in leadership and why there was an upswing in female leadership years ago, but still, men hold the majority of positions in leadership while women are attending college, law, business and graduate school in record numbers.
She is refreshingly respectful of women who choose to have families, herself being one of those women. She understands the burdens of a family with a stay-at-home-parent and does not disparage them or engage in the mommy wars. Sandberg simply looks at facts, data and research and states that without more women in leadership to make it the norm, there will not be more women in leadership in the future.
It's true, factually and anecdotally, that men are given more allowances for the same behaviors exhibited by women when women are condemned for them. If there were more women in leadership, this would have to shift. In fact, even when men want to accommodate women's needs, they don't always know what those needs are and often women will not speak up to make requests lest they be reprimanded for it.
Sandberg adeptly shares her experiences regarding mentorship, balancing home and career, her own missteps and misgivings and how she says in spite of her standing in the business world, she still feels guilt and questions herself, something men just don't do. Whether you want to climb the ladder professionally, in the volunteer world, make global change or are raising daughters OR sons this is a valuable read.
Instant Mom by Nia Vardalos (2013)
First, she achieved instant fame when her movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" became a blockbuster. The title is deceptive but after many failed attempts at in vitro fertilization, Vardalos became the eponymous 'instant mom' to a beautiful little girl through the foster care adoption system.
With honesty, sincerity and her signature humor, Vardalos shares a very personal story to get the word out about the little known fos-adopt system and how it blessed her with a daughter. In my mind, I read this book in Vardalos's voice. She was very candid, sharing that she knows the average person cannot spend what she did on fertility treatments and that she was horrified to discover celebrity perks when it came to private adoptions, ones of which she could not in conscience avail herself.
You get a bit of celeb memoir and more of her infertility/adoption experience. It's a readable account by a likable person. So, if you don't eat no meat, that's OK. She will get you lamb. And yes, windex is mentioned in the book.
The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession in Crisis by Steven J. Harper (2013)
Harper's thesis is that the legal profession is overridden with attorneys and up and coming lawyers. He says the fault lies with law school deans and big firms eager to sell their products (seats and positions), not being honest about the reality of the profession today.
In addition, prospective students heavily rely on US News Rankings of schools when the metrics used are questionable at best and unethical at worst.
Law firms, with only a small percentage of high paying positions open to top ranking students at the 'best' schools mislead regarding this fact. Studies show that lawyers are most dissatisfied with their career choice when they work for large firms where they are increasingly detached from their clients, less able to be on the partnership track because of the proliferation of competition for those spots and the newer two tier partnership tracks today, where fewer are made 'equity partners' which were the actual partners of yesteryear.
A Year Up: How a Pioneering Program Teaches Young Adults Real Skills for Real Jobs, With Real Success by Gerald Certavian (2012)
Written by founder of non-profit, Year Up, this book shares the challenges and triumphs of this once small Boston start-up which has now grown to teach skills to over one thousand students in nine American cities.
Chertavian's goal as a tech entrepreneur was to bridg the 'Opportunity Divide' and provide a way to help underprivileged youth gain skills to become marketable and climb out of poverty. From this grew Year Up, an intensive program that requires its participants to sign a contract and buy into the program. Lateness is penalized. Professional dress required. Internships are arranged with major corporations and mentorship is provided. Peer support is set up and the students become a tight knit community rooting for the success of one another. Guess what. It works.
Graduates of Year Up secure positions with Fortune 500 companies after they learn not only their technical skills but also the social and professional skills they need to succeed. Some leave to go on to traditional college programs that were only a dream a couple years before.
Students and staff of Year Up share their successes and failures in this book, not only inspirational to b sure, but also extremely informative about social mobility, nonprofits, philanthropy but most importantly that it's never too late.
Simpler: The Future of Government by Cass R. Sunstein (2013)
Are you a behavioral economics junkie? Did Freakonomics awaken a curiosity inside you that you never knew existed? Try Simpler!
President Obama's former 'regulatory czar' shares his insights about simplifying government but also how simplification lends itself to good business practices. How reducing decisions and simplifying labeling lengthened the life span, improved our health and saved time and money. How did the food pyramid become a plate and why? What changes were made to the FAFSA forms, appliance energy efficiency labels and mortgage applications?
This is a book about policy-making and the thought it involves. Smart government saves us time. Hours in fact. It saves money by using cost benefit analyses. Big corporations need small nudges. This is the future of government, says Sunstein, the man Glenn Beck called the 'most dangerous man in America.'
Square Peg: My Story and What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, and Out-of-the-Box Thinkers by L. Todd Rose with Katherine Ellison (2013)
Conventional wisdom says that if you're bright, you will sit still, do your work, work hard, get good grades, challenge yourself and go on to a prestigious college so you can be successful. For author, the intelligent Rose, it was more like, create havoc, marginalize yourself, don't do your homework, fail classes, frustrate your parents, drop out of high school, get your act together later and then become a Harvard professor. Not exactly every parent's dream, but is it their nightmare? Is it fair to treat all children the same and expect them to fit the institutional mold and doom them to a life of 'not good enough' and 'never amount to anything' if they do not take the road well-traveled?
This quick read gives us another way of looking at our children. Especially those who don't fit the prototype. Rose is now a researcher and professor of, what else, psychology and educational neuroscience. His hypothesis is that today's 'misfits' can be tomorrow's innovators because they learn and see the world differently. He knows this first hand. Any parent reading this surely feels for his parents whom each had different parenting styles which he fairly attributes to nurturing him at different times in his life, even though he knows how trying it was for them to parent him.
The book touches upon nature, nurture, bullying, social safety nets and more. Well worth a look if you have a child, work with children or have some intellectual curiosity and a few spare moments.
The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing Genius by Kristine Barnett (2013)
One day, Barnett's little toddler stops developing and actually regresses. She is faced with a devastating blow when she is given a diagnosis of autism. Enrolled in special services for preschool, she is told her will never read or tie his shoes and is there just to get basic social skills. Her instincts tell her otherwise and she pulls him out of the program against the advice of the 'experts' and her husband.
She embarks on a journey with her son Jake, that will change the outcome of their lives as well as the lives of many families with autistic children. Her premise is that no one should focus on what children cannot do. Focus on what they can do and run with that. She begins a program to help kids like Jake and Jake himself. She nurtures their gifts and talents and starts to see Jake thrive. He indeed is able to read, to read shockingly well, and Barnett discovers that his IQ is of genius level.
Her journey with Jake is not an easy one, especially since she runs a daycare, has two other sons, one of whom was ill, and money was a constant challenge. Over time, she pulled him out of elementary school, an environment that left him bored though he was mainstreamed. He was enrolled in college at the age of 11, a paid physics researcher at age 12.
This is not a book about curing autism, nor a book about what parents with autistic children are doing right or wrong. This is one mother's journey with her son and her outlook and attitudes, his story and how he thrived. Like myself, you won't agree with all of Barnett's decisions and choices, but there is no denying that she put everything she could into her son: faith, time and energy. And she did the same for the families in her community.
College (Un)Bound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students by Jeffrey J. Selingo (2013)
Selingo takes a critical look at American higher education and offers advice and alternatives for those embarking on this today. He says the debt incurred for a bachelor's degree from mediocre institutions is not a wise investment since the majority of students are led to schools by shiny marketing materials, campus amenities and emotion rather than academics and job prospects.
Other options are proffered such as online a la carte credits, community college as good value, Khan academy (education for education's sake), and looking to the future where credentials might be given for life experiences and competency rather than time spent in a lecture hall.
Whether these are realistic now or in the long run, it is food for thought as to whether our system of higher education is broken, how our tuition dollars are actually being spent and whether the extreme annual increases are as necessary as the institutions make it appear. They aren't, if you're talking about straight education. If you're talking about fancy dorms and bells and whistles, that's a different discussion.
Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (2013)
For anyone who watched The Mary Tyler Moore Show, first run or in reruns, and television of the era including All in the Family, Maude and M*A*S*H, this is a wonderfully engaging look at the making of the show, the cultural ramifications of it and the lives and struggles of the creators, producers and writers and not just some light tell-all book about its stars.
Mary Tyler Moore never set out to be a feminist role model and the feminists were displeased that she wasn't doing a tougher portrayal of the independent woman. She wanted to revitalize a career on the decline and with husband Grant Tinker created a show that would leave Laura Petrie in the past. No one realized how large Mary Richards would be in the annals of television history, with such a rich ensemble cast, launching the careers of writer/producers Brooks and Burns and many sought out female comedy writers, unheard of in the 1970s.
If you like reading about nostalgia, pop culture and hollywood, but not gossip, this is a stellar choice.
I read, therefore I am,
the lowercase b
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