The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy

The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy by Nicholas Lemann

Two-third of this book covers the rise of the ETS and the SAT under Henry Chauncey. The final third focuses on the battle over affirmative action in California and Molly Munger. The two are somewhat tied together to show a history of meritocracy, though it was quite jumbled. In the first case, the test seemed like the ideal progressive tool that could provide opportunity for all. Rather than the "old boys network", schools would be able to admit those based on academic ability. Later, affirmative action is a tool used to ensure people that previously were left out had opportunity. Both cases fell victim to unforeseen circumstances. The tests ended up being very coachable. Instead of being a pure test of aptitude, the test was something that was heavily influenced by social class and time spent preparing. Affirmative action in college admissions came out of this. Certain minority groups were admitted with lower SAT scores. Alas, the SAT scores still did a good job of predicting success and these lower-scored admits often took longer to graduate or were more likely to drop out. Others were left out of learning and education opportunities due to affirmative action. 

Can we really have a pure meritocracy? What is the best way to offer opportunities in society? Can the playing field really be leveled in a way that improves situations for all? There are a lot of questions. This book will not answer them. It will provide plenty of insights into the politics behind the changes that have come about.

I Like Bugs

I Like Bugs by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by G. Brian Karas, afterward by Leonard S. Marcus

A kid mentions all the ways that he likes bugs. It is s simple story that enables fun illustrations.

Giraffes Can't Dance

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees

Giraffe can't dance. All the other animals can seem to do fancy dances, but not giraffe. Then he finally gets inspired talking to cricket and dances up a storm. It has some fun animal dancing humor.

Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies

Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies - Updated Edition by Charles Perrow

Increasingly complex systems are increasingly susceptible to cascading risks. The book goes through many detailed examples.The first one is a contrived example from regular life. A man has many small issues happen that cause him to miss a meeting at work. Any of the items alone would not be a problem. However, they all built on top of each other to create a catastrophe. Bigger catastrophes were detailed, such as three mile island nuclear disaster. Many things had to fail together to cause the meltdown. Some of the safety and redundancies helped contribute to the problem.

After an incident occurs, there is usually a desire to assign blame. However, in today's world, it is difficult to assign single blame. Many of the actions that lead to the disaster would not normally be a problem. However, they became an issue when everything was linked together. In the afterward the author is thankful that society has become more willing to acknowledge these system issues rather than continue to try to assign individual blame. (Alas, there is a still a strong legal incentive to assign blame.)

Today's society is increasingly susceptible to system issues. Redundancies are eliminated from systems in the name of efficiency. That works great when things are functioning normally. However, it also means small things can cascade out of control quickly and bring down entire systems. Attempts to make systems more "safe" can sometimes be the source of failures. A warning that fires too often may be ignored. Automatic safety responses could lead to damage to different systems.  Areas such as nuclear power and genetic engineering have power to destroy society if systems break down. How do we protect the world? This book is extremely detailed in the exploration of the problem. It does not pose any simple solutions to a problem that eludes them. 

Who Is Jesus?

Who Is Jesus? (Little Blessings) by Kathleen Bostrom (Author), Elena Kucharik (Illustrator)

The first half of this verse book has a child ask questions about Jesus's life. The second half has responses that seem to come from Jesus. (Only it is not immediately clear that he is the one answering.) There are some toddler-style pictures to go with it. The text seemed to go over the head of the target audience.

Froggy Plays Soccer

Froggy Plays Soccer by Jonathan London (Author), Frank Remkiewicz (Illustrator)

Froggy has the big championship game. He tries to remember not use his hands but he forgets when the goalie is out of commission. Luckily he redeems himself by scoring the winning goal. It is the typical froggy book.

D.W., Go to Your Room!

D.W., Go to Your Room! by Marc Brown

D.W. gets in a little fight with her baby sister and gets sent to her room for 10 minutes. The time seems interminable, and she imagines all the cruelty involved in her punishment and what she can do. Finally, her baby sister is sent up to play with her and she enjoys it. The premise does seem like an overreaction - she simply grabbed a block from baby sister. In spite of this, it is a relatable story.

Clifford's First School Day

Clifford's First School Day by Norman Bridwell

Clifford is now a big dog, but he was once a little puppy. This book is a "reminiscence" of the day that little Clifford went with Emily Elizabeth to school. He got into a lot of trouble, most of it by accident. It is mostly standard-issue mischief.

Touch and Feel Baby Animals

Touch and Feel Baby Animals by DK (Dorling Kindersley Limited)

This board book as things to touch that feel like baby animals. There are cute animal pictures. How close are the feelings to "real" animal feels?

A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning

A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

Some kids have inherited a large fortune. However, they are stuck having Count Olaf as their guardian. He wants their money. He plans to marry the girl to claim the fortune and hatches a plan to do it (by means of acting a play.) However, he is somewhat foiled by the fact that she signed with a left hand. (Their guardian can authorize an under age marriage.)  Alas, the kids are still not able to have a guardian they like. There are weird things that happen in not so good ways. The book is not a horror book, but there are pretty weird things going on.

Round the Garden

Round the Garden by Omri Glaser, illustrated by Byron Glaser and Sandra Higashi

This is a simple story of the natural cycles. A tear waters the ground that produces an oven and makes the farmer cry. The text is simple and the illustrations stylish. There is a little note that the drawings were drawn with a mouse on the computer. In 1999, that may have been novel.

Mice Are Nice (Step-Into-Reading, Step 2)

Mice Are Nice (Step-Into-Reading, Step 2) by Charles Ghigna and Jon Goodell 

There are many types of pets you can get, but mice are the best. This book uses rhymes to show the problems with other bets and why mice are best. The rhyming style works well, and the book is fun enough to enjoy with easy words.

The Ramona Quimby Audio Collection

The Ramona Quimby Audio Collection by Beverly Cleary (illustrations by Tracy Dockray )

This is an audiobook collection of the Ramona books. She starts out as a preschooler and ends up in fourth grade. She is rambunctious and cares a lot about how people feel about her. However, she often reads people incorrectly. The books were written over a period of 44 years, with each book seemingly set in an idyllic version of those days - generally in anonymous Portland area.

Beezus and Ramona (1955)

This is the most distinct book in the Ramona series. It is more from the view of the other characters than Ramona herself. Ramona is always getting into trouble. She wants big construction equipment. She invites all of her preschool friends over for a party - without telling anyone else. She is just a big pain. However, mother and her sister had similar issues when they were young.

Ramona the Pest (1968)

Now the series is more from Ramona's point of view. She is in kindergarten. It is interesting that back then it was perfectly normal for kindergarteners to walk to school themselves.

Ramona the Brave (1975)

Now she is approaching first grade. Some kids call his sister a name and Ramona defends her - offending her sister. Ramona does other "brave" things.

Ramona and Her Father (1977)

Her father loses his job. Money is tight. He also smokes at home. Ramona and his sister work to get him to stop smoking. In the end, he gets a job at a supermarket. I was wondering what the smoking thread would be like. Looks like it was new enough to identify smoking as "bad". (Newbery honor book)

Ramona and Her Mother (1979)

Dad has a job he doesn't like. Mom still works her job. There is a fight with mom and dad over pancakes. Mom helps with some sewing. Beeezus wants a haircut from a beauty salon, but it ends up bad. There are other random episodes.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1981)

Romona has a degree of unintentional mischief. She cracks an egg on her head - only to find it is a raw egg. She throws up all over the school. She feels her teacher does not like her. However, it is all a misunderstanding. She is gradually growing up. 

Ramona Forever (1984)

Things start to change. Howie's uncle visits. He later becomes engaged to Ramona's aunt. Ramona's mom is pregnant. Ramona will now have to deal with being a big sister. Ramona and her sister also take care of burying the cat. Dad has teaching jobs far away. However, he decides to take a grocery store manager job instead so they can stay close.

Ramona's World (1999)

Ramona is now in fourth grade. She has a baby sister. She gets a new friend. While playing, she falls through the floor into the downstairs ceiling (and gets stuck there, only to be rescued.) She is old enough to cat sit - and even watch her baby sister for a bit. The world has moved on to be more modern. The author has done a nice trick of moving the life of the characters forward a year at a time, while keeping the setting "modern" as it moves a decade ahead.

Happy Halloween, Biscuit!

Happy Halloween, Biscuit!: A Halloween Lift-the-Flap Book for Kids by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Pat Schories

The dog Biscuit does ruckus around the time of Halloween. Most of the pages show "normal" scenes with a flap to lift to see what Biscuit is up to. It is easy to forget what is happening in the book. At least the book is short and can be read with or without the flips.

Homo Zapiens

Homo Zapiens by Victor Pelevin

After Soviet Communism fell, Russia fell into a capitalistic free-for-all. Homo Zapiens explores this world from the view of a few participants. It feels like a Russian version of Generation X. The rules of the capitalistic came are still being worked out. People try to make money, but the end result of success is often involvement of the mob and death. People get so much money that showing consumption is the point. Drugs may be smoked in currency just to show how much money somebody has. 

In a capitalist world, you need to use marketing to get your message out and make sales. Making ridiculous ads may make you well known, but not respected. Serious ones may give a degree of success, but no memory. The goal is to get some balance. However, some of the characters just go for the most ridiculous ones they can, because they can.

The end of the book drifts off into more randomness. It is as if the book itself trips on a mixture of capitalism and drugs.

The Berenstain Bears Catch the Bus

The Berenstain Bears Catch the Bus: A Tell the Time Story (Step into Reading, Step 2) by Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain

The bears' alarm goes off at 7 am. They sleep through it. The school bus driver gets up and starts driving the bus. A few minutes before 8, mom wakes up the bears and they rush to catch the bus at 8. This is an easy reader book that is good for a read, but gets old fast.  The rhyming and rhythm are a bit forced and not quite consistent.

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything by James Gleick

Faster details how everything is moving faster and faster. Jobs, communications, entertainment, meals, and just about every aspect of people's lives moves at a more hectic pace. What was seen as a great technological innovation of yesterday is already slow and outdated today. This is inadvertently drilled home by the examples given in this 25 year old book. There are complaints about the time required to download a web page and the time needed to wait for a computer to boot up. How quaint! Now the only annoyance is when a phone takes two tries to unlock. Common internet speeds are a few orders of magnitude faster than what they were a quarter century ago. Yet, the complexity of websites has also increased - thus only giving us a small fraction of the speed increase. Advertisers have continued to find ways to suck our time and distract us from what we are looking for. The 500 cable channels are no longer a problem - instead there are a multitude of streaming services vying for out attention - from Youtube and Netflix down to every small studio. 

With so many demands for our attention we seek many "time savers". We have appliances that help us wash and dry out clothes. We have food delivered to our house. We hire people to do things we can't do on our own. However, what do we do with all the time we "save"? Mostly just watch screens. Lovely accomplishments. Is there much advantage to "faster"?

Ten Secrets for Achieving a Successful Celestial Marriage

Ten Secrets for Achieving a Successful Celestial Marriage by Laura Nielson Denke

In this book, Laura presents the ten secrets of a successful marriage to a youngish couple and we get to observe. The style helps bring the narrative. We are not just presented with advice to follow, but see the process of the couple taking it in. Sometimes it is easy to follow the advice. Other times it is much more challenging. We see their real-world challenges as well as the stories of others who have faced struggles related to the points being discussed. 

The target audience is members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that have been married in the temple for eternity. Some of the "secrets" are very specific for the audience. Other "secrets" are more general. There are numerous references to general marriage experts such as John Gottman as well as religious leaders. 

Marriage is a two-party institution. Both most work together for success. Trying to change the other person is an exercise in futility. However, changing the way you behave can bring about some success, even if the other person is not fully engaged. If both are living the "platinum" rule, there is the highest chance of success.

It is also interesting to see details from the life of the author and understand how it relates. The book was written in the late 1990s, so some parts of it do show their time. (It was interesting to read about them receiving something by fax!) It is interesting how the world has changed in 25 years, though the principles of a successful partnership remain similar.

Thief of Souls: Star Shards Chronicles, Book 2

The kids impacted by the star shards want to use their powers to do good, but they find out that is hard. They try to "undo" harm that they have done and realize patterns to help others. One heals others. He ends up getting followers, including some that harm people so they can get healed. There are episodes where they go into a casino and win a lot of money and then donate it to charity. In the process they remove the glass from a shark tank, yet the water stays. Only at the end do they discover that a traveling companion has been manipulating them to do harm to assist in the harvesting of souls.

Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

Matt Ridley is very strongly pro-science, yet is not afraid to ruffle feathers or bump against orthodox views. Although Genome is over two decades old, he picked a writing approach that makes it still worthwhile. He takes us on a "tour" of the human genome, going chromosome by chromosome.. For each one, he picks something that is relevant. It may be a disease that is associated with it. It may be a well known gene associated with a specific location such as Huntington's disease. Or it may be looking at a location where researchers thought they found something interesting. The history is still interesting even as many things have changed since the book was written.