New "NICU" Book

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants - Ann Brashares

Internet Review: A pair of jeans purchased at a thrift store is the unlikely bond that keeps four best friends emotionally connected during the first summer that they spend physically apart. This clever (if initially hokey-sounding) premise sets the course for four intertwined, compelling coming-of-age stories. Carmen doesn't think much of the pants she buys for $3.49, until she and her pals discover their magical quality. The jeans which fit each girl perfectly despite their very different body types serve as a surrogate friend for Tibby, Carmen, Lena and Bridget as they wrestle with new issues of first love, jealousy, fear and sadness in the months before their junior year of high school. Each girl has a turn with the pants, then sends them on to the next person in the rotation; by summer's end, when the friends are reunited, the jeans will be the symbol of what the girls have experienced. Goethals sounds every bit the teenager here, but her sometimes halting reading never quite captures the crackle of Brashares's writing style. In Goethals's command, the author's snappy asides and retorts occasionally sound cumbersome rather than humorous or biting, as they were intended. Many teen girls will likely take these shortcomings in stride and get lost in a story that speaks to them.

And now for a return to childhood (aka "the good ol' days")!

Current "NICU" Book

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

Internet Review: The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: little changes can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or "tipping point" is reached, changing the world. Gladwell's thesis that ideas, products, messages and behaviors "spread just like viruses do" remains a metaphor as he follows the growth of "word-of-mouth epidemics" triggered with the help of three pivotal types. These are Connectors, sociable personalities who bring people together; Mavens, who like to pass along knowledge; and Salesmen, adept at persuading the unenlightened. (Paul Revere, for example, was a Maven and a Connector). Gladwell's applications of his "tipping point" concept to current phenomena--such as the drop in violent crime in New York, the rebirth of Hush Puppies suede shoes as a suburban mall favorite, teenage suicide patterns and the efficiency of small work units--may arouse controversy. For example, many parents may be alarmed at his advice on drugs: since teenagers' experimentation with drugs, including cocaine, seldom leads to hardcore use, he contends, "We have to stop fighting this kind of experimentation. We have to accept it and even embrace it." While it offers a smorgasbord of intriguing snippets summarizing research on topics such as conversational patterns, infants' crib talk, judging other people's character, cheating habits in schoolchildren, memory sharing among families or couples, and the dehumanizing effects of prisons, this volume betrays its roots as a series of articles for the New Yorker, where Gladwell is a staff writer: his trendy material feels bloated and insubstantial in book form.

For a little deeper read, this might be a good one. We'll see what Ma thinks when she's done, but so far, she's really enjoying it.

Current "Home" Book

Adventures of a Psychic - Sylvia Browne and Antoinette May

Internet Review: Adventures of a Psychic might not be the next Indiana Jones sequel, but the "adventures" in the title is appropriate, since Sylvia Browne never stops amazing us with her channeling, psychic visions, healing, and even ghost stories. Coauthor Antoinette May's biographical talents are first rate, however her third person point of view tends to distance the reader from Browne's story. May compensates for this minor shortcoming by expertly weaving Browne's psychic talents with her personal life, from childhood to grandmotherhood, and grounding the supernatural parts of Adventures of a Psychic in the same sort of mundane problems we are all prone to run into. While reading this book, you may stare with an open mouth at glimpses of a world beyond death, and at the same time discover that we all possess a limitless potential, even if we are not gifted with psychic ability.

Ma will report back when she has finished reading. If you're about to start vacation and you're planning on spending some time reading or laying around doing nothing, consider picking up this read.