In listening to
Self Driven Child, two thoughts went through my mind: 1. This is the parenting style that I aspire too, and 2. The school district has tried to pick and choose some of these principles, leaving education as a muddled mess.
One of the authors comes from a test-prep background. Thus, a lot of the examples are of "highly achieving" students that are stressed beyond belief trying to get into dream schools. Thus time is spent emphasizing that parents should not force children into these routes. The child that has their parents manage all the details needed to get into the good college often ends up partying hard and then dropping out. Instead, children should be given more autonomy to make their choices. Advanced schooling may not be for everyone. (One chapter in the book is even devoted to anecdotes from people who have gone down non-standard paths.)
Successful parenting (and leadership in general) involves helping people to make good choices and carry them out effectively. If we force people to do something, they do not develop the skills to make the choices in the future. They may also build up resentment and fight against what we are doing. Instead, a parent should often be more like a consultant. They are there to help the child in the process, but not dictate every detail. (However, there still are general rules and regulations that must be put in place.)
Schools also have a knack for doing many things that are not in the best interest of students. The emphasis on testing leads to students being good test takers, not good learners. External rewards motivate initial compliance, but internal reward systems are needed for long term success. Too much homework often leads to tired students rather than more learning - especially when it is of the busy-work variety.
We want children to be productive, self-driven members of society. We need to treat them appropriately. Even those with learning disabilities and special needs can be self-motivated. It just requires different behaviors.
In the 1980s, corporate takovers and buyouts were all the rage. Wall Street could get filthy rich at the expense of actual companies. They also found ways to further enrich their wealth by illegally trading on advance private information. Den of Thieves covers the stories of some of this trading among the people that were actually caught. White collar criminals ended up serving time in prison and paying multi-million dollar fines. Long-lived brokerage houses that were caught up in the scandal vanished. And in the end, you are wondering how many other guilty parties escaped unscathed. The book makes insider trading appear similar to speeding on highways. It is illegal, but so rampant that nobody expects to get caught. Traders could employ all sorts of other schemes (of various legality) to manufacture money, much to the chagrin of taxpayers and shareholders. Have times really changed since then? 30 years later, wall street has changed, but still suffers from the greed complex outlined in the book.
This Faulkner audio collection includes a selection of short stories read by various narrators as well as some excerpts and a Nobel Acceptance speech read by Faulkner himself. The stories are told with a bit of a southern twang and are understandable. Faulkner's bits, however, might as well be in a different language. The thick, soft-spoken southern accent strains the ear to hear. The stories themselves typically spend a long time with people in a southern culture and then have a gothic twist (often at the ending.) For example, in "Rose for Emily", Emily is a recluse that has recently passed away. Only at the end of the story do we discover the dead body that was stored in a room. It is interesting to ponder that at the time of the writing of some stories that the Civil War was more recent than the Korean War is to us today. 
This new philosophical transaltion of Dao De Jing gives us a lot of commentary. Perhaps way too much commentary. The introduction greatly overshadows the actual content of the book. And the content of the book contains more commentary than actual text. Common themes emphasized are the power of the week over the mighty, pacifism, and importance of the role of women, anti-materialism and the importanace of ones place. These seem like very modern norms. Is this just a modern reading of Daoism, or is this an accurate judgement? I'm interested in exploring some of the original text in more detail - though without the weight of pre-built interpretations.
The Luzhin Defense is one of Nabakov's earlier novels, originally published in Russian in 1930 and not translated into English until 1964. The title character, Luzhin is an awkward, likely autistic man who is an excellent chess player. As a youth, he does not have friends, but develops a passion for chess after he has been introduced. He reaches grandmaster level and becomes engaged to a girl (much to her parent's chagrin.) However, during a high level tournament, he has a nervous breakdown. Chess appears to be the cause of his problems, and he must ween himself from it to be healthy again. He does, and soon makes a recovery. However, he later encounters people and events from his past, eventually having his mental health fade again. 
Shalimar the Clown starts out as boring romance, but gradually works its way into a well written story. The namesake Shalimar is a Kashmiri circus performer who see his livelihood fade away with the coming of television. To make matters worse, his fiance decides to go off to perform in the city. There she has an affair with an American diplomat and bears a child. He vows revenge, and seeks to destroy the fiance, the American and their illegitimate child. He is caught after murdering the diplomat, but escapes the prison using his tightrope walking skills and later tries to kill the daughter. The novel ends with the attempt (though it strongly implies that he is the one that dies.)
Hercules is one of those characters from Greek mythology that I have heard of frequently, but don't seem to know his history. Thus this Full Cast Audio production was a great treat. Hercules had the connection to the gods, but was raised as a mortal. He had strong morals and discovered his strength. Alas, when he would violate his own code, the results would be disastrous. In one case, he caved to drinking a toast with wine. This, alas, led him to cause great destruction. He tried to do what is best, but would often fall victim to the designs of those around him.
The author of "Story of Stuff" grew up in Seattle, worked at Greenpeace and now lives in Berkeley. That should quickly give you a feel for the political angle. She is, however, quick to criticize the single mindedness of many NGOS that are so focused on their single issue that they miss the systemic problems. She also criticizes the narrow focus of consumers. Americans consume a huge amount of "stuff". They think they are helping the environment by recycling, but they would help much more by not consuming so much in the first place. Spending more hours to buy more stuff does not make one happier. 
Player of Games follows the story of a game player from a "culture" who goes off to an empire. He is "tricked" by a drone into cheating at a game. The drone uses that as blackmail to entice him to help him as he goes to the empire. The culture wants him to go to the empire where a game is of prime importance. The emperor and high ranking officials are chosen based on how they play the game. He goes there as an alien and does well at the game. Others in the society try to convince him that he should leave rather than continue playing. However, he continues and eventually sees the downfall of the empire.
Narration of audiobooks is an art. A high quality narration can make the book so much better. The voice and tone of the narrator can change the feeling of the book. For "I Sing the Body Electric", the narration is grandfatherly. I found it hard to appreciate the stories. They focus on human conditions, occasionally with a science fiction hook. One story is about a highway bypassing a small town. Another (also in an edition of Martian Chronicles) deals with the last man on mars suffering from his own practical telephone jokes from a few decades earlier. There are also depression-era travelers who stay in a hotel with chickens that lay special eggs. There are some interesting explorations of the human condition, but it is hard to maintain interest.