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I posted yesterday about the Mother-Daughter Book Club  my daughter and I have been part of for the past four years.  Here are the books we read during the last two of them:

5th Grade

• Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech
• Worst Enemies/Best Friends (Beacon Street Girls, volume 1) by Annie Bryant
• Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
• Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
• The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
• Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

6th Grade

• Catherine Called Birdie by Karen Cushman
• The First Horse I See by Sally Keehn
• Hatchet Gary Paulsen
• Rachel’s Journal: the Story of a Pioneer Girl by Marissa Moss
• The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread by Kate Dicamillo
• The Doll People by Ann M. M. Martin, Laura Godwin, Brian Selznick, and Ann M. Martin
• Sahara Special by Esmé Raji Codell
• Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

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Related Posts:

Mother-Daughter Book Club List, Part 1
International Women’s Day: Toasting Pink

Smart, strong women read books.

This is the lesson I hope the daughters in our mother-daughter book club are learning.  We’ve just finished our 4th year together, and even though our daughters are growing taller than we are, we hope to continue.  We meet about once a month, and the girls take turns hosting and leading the discussion.  Moms help out by providing an activity and food. 

We’ve visited one author in her home and heard another one lecture about being a writer; we’ve marvelled over a local grandmother’s WWII rationing coupons while trying to bake without sugar; we’ve built tiny “Borrower” houses and been teased by our daughters when the books made us cry. 

These are the books we’ve read thus far.  You may recognize some old friends, but we discovered some really wonderful new ones, as well. 

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Creative Commons Photo, “Little Red”  by Flickr.com’s Aussie Patches, aka Ali J
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3rd Grade

• From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• Felicity (American Girls Collection Books) by assorted authors
• The Gadget Wars by Betsy Duffey
• The Magic Treehouse book #16. Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne
• Molly (American Girls Collection Books) by assorted authors
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Emmy by Connie Jordan Green

4th Grade

• Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson
• The other side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton
• Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

 - To see rest of list, click here -

Good news for “older employees:” According to MSN, there’s hope after all!

Apparently, there’s a huge job shortage looming just ahead as baby-boomers approach retirement, meaning that several industries will be particularly short-handed when it comes to the more experienced employees that they most want and need. Among the most promising of those industries are health care, business-to-business services, education, and services for the elderly.

What makes these particular jobs attractive to the seasoned employee is that they tend to be both lucrative and flexible; moreover, they call upon one’s existing expertise and experience, requiring at most only a minimal investment in school or retraining.

The key? Being open-minded. Also, just a little thing — we may have to wait until 2014.

One of the reasons I married a professor is that I never quite understood anything in college, and hoped he’d fix that.   I never understood, for instance, what an 18 year old person could possibly say about Shakespeare that hadn’t already been said, and much better, by several thousand other people. 

And I wish someone had explained a little more about historiography: how to think about history.  Who even knew that there was a “great man” theory?  For me, history was always just a bunch of trees.  I mean, I totally got what a thesis statement was.  And I totally got that “facts” didn’t mean much just by themselves.  But I never knew how to put them together, not really.  And I always knew I didn’t know.  Argh!

Even now,  I still find myself very confused by things that don’t seem to give anyone else a bit of pause. 

Maybe I should ask the professor’s mother for a refund?

I had a four-hour long interview yesterday, at the same place where I’d already had a 2-hour long interview the week before (which would have been even longer, had not my daughter’s school called…)   And I’m very confused. 

The only next-thing-to-do is make cookies. Obviously.  Even if it is practically the middle of the night.  And also to find the least complicated and yet most delicious recipe I can.  So, Tada!  Here it is, only three ingredients, and these are truly

The Best Peanut Butter Cookies Ever

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Mix.  Drop on greased sheet, do the criss-cross fork thing, and bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes.

If one insists on complicating even this, one can double the recipe.  Use crunchy instead of creamy.  Use only ¾ cup sugar.  Add a tsp of vanilla, or soda (both utterly unnecessary, I assure you)

((Next up:  How (not) to self-medicate with food!!))

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Related Posts:
How (not) to interview for a job (this story begins)
Nope (this story concludes)
Hanging in, and blonder too (reflection)

I promise not to mention Marilee Jones any more but this once.  I was very pleased today, however, to have been able to unearth an online copy of one of my all-time favorite essays by one of my all-time favorite essayists.  Here it is, from the October 2005 New Yorker Magazine: Getting in: the social logic of Ivy League admissions,  by Malcolm Gladwell. 

What is talent?  What REALLY makes people economically successful?  How much does “being smart” matter in business, let alone in the general scheme of things?  And who decides and unlocks the gates for us?

I’ve added some related links (see right) which you may be interested in reading, too, especially if you have children (as I do) heading to college soon.  Enjoy!

N.B.: Once today’s links have expired, you can always find them in my “del.icio.us” archive by clicking directly on the ”del.icio.us” links headline, or by clicking here. 

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Related Posts: 
MIT blew it
Marilee Jones joke
Hail Marilee, denied any grace

How to (Almost) get Marilee

Coming Out: I’m a closet academical