Light Reading

I haven't been reading much in the past few months, but it seems as if the library requests I have made have all come in at once. A story on NPR caught my interest a few months ago about Bringing Up Bebe (add accent marks) and it finally came in--just as I have found some time to settle down and read. 

Though I'm only about a third of the way through it, I am finding this great reading. One reason is that it's in an easy conversational style. Another is that I agree with the French ideal of parenting. Why should having kids ruin your life and the experience of all people around you?? 

The book starts with limits around getting the baby to sleep through the night, teaching young children the concept of waiting, and treating infants like "tiny little humans" capable of learning. 

One thing it points out is that French aren't interested in comparing and competing like Americans. I remember sitting with some young mothers soon after my first baby was born and listening to them compare percentile rankings of their babies, as if these rankings were important. So what if your kid is so fat he's in the top percentile for weight? He won't be able to roll over until he's 3 years old! 

I'm surprised that this book is even interesting, because I am well through the times of raising and training children. But it is an interesting look at the way people in our culture view parenting and children on an anthropological level. 

I am past halfway through Jane Austen Made Me Do It, a collection of short stories inspired by Austen's writings. Every story is really different: some are extensions of the familiar stories, some are twists or turns from the stories, some are ghost stories set in modern times, etc. I am not that fond of Jane Austen's tales, nor am I generally into short stories, but these have been rather fun. I actually ordered a copy for someone's birthday later this year.

The House at Sugar Beach is less light, and I'm not exactly reading it. I am listening to it in the car. It is the autobiographical work of Helene Cooper, who grew up in Liberia. I never knew freed slaves from the United States had the opportunity to settle in Liberia in the 1820s and beyond, but they did. This woman grew up wealth and status in that country in the 1960s and '70s as a descendant of the freed slaves, only to have to move to the U.S. as a result of violence and extreme political unrest in Liberia. Her story is moving and enlightening. 

Are you reading anything interesting?