The Lifecycle of Software Objects Review

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(More customer reviews)Everything else I've read by Ted Chiang has been a slam-dunk work of genius, where all the conceptual threads get tied up in some amazing way. This book is not like that, which is both good and bad. The conceptual stuff here isn't as unique as in his previous work - this territory has been mined, in various ways, going at least as far back as the Asimov robot novels. Nonetheless, Chiang gives an interesting spin on it. The strength of the book is that it sets up a scenario that feels much more real and grounded in human emotion and motivation than his other works have been - more so than most contemporary science fiction, for that matter. The problem is, we don't actually get the character development that the story cries out for. This is a story that, unlike his previous stories, doesn't actually fully work as a conceptual sketch, despite the rich possibilities hinted at. Maybe Chiang has outgrown the short story format, and for some reason hasn't elected to take the plunge into a true novel, which this could easily have been, and a great one at that. So let me throw out some unsolicited advice: Ted, quit your day job and go for it. If this is what your sketch of a novel looks like, I'm already sold on the real thing.

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The Anti-Romantic Child: A Story of Unexpected Joy Review

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(More customer reviews)Raised by an imaginative father and launched on motherhood with the poetry of Wordsworth in her heart, Priscilla Gilman longed to create for her own children the romantic vision of childhood she felt herself to have inhabited. But, as the title of her book indicates, her dream was not to be--at least, not in the terms she had perceived it. In the last decades of the twentieth century, research on learning disorders expanded almost exponentially, and with it came teaching methods and even special schools that could address these education needs. Yet, even so, for quite some time, the Gilmans could not find a school that would accept their son, Benjamin.
I read this book in the hope of understanding brilliant students with social phobias, and though the *The Anti-Romantic Child* turned out to be about a child with a rather different set of challenges, I came away from it awed by the power of unconditional and unrelenting love. A former English professor from Vassar, Gilman writes beautifully, allowing the reader to enter her own maelstrom of emotion at each stage of Benj's development--from the heights of reveling in the joy of an exceptionally precocious child to the depths of hearing that he is, as far as intelligence goes, not much more than a parrot, and then on to the lonely machete work in the jungle of the unknown in an effort to prove the pundits wrong. Though the emotions go up and down, however, the determined struggle to make her son capable of receiving and expressing love goes on apace.
As Gilman moves chronologically through Benj's life, she cites lines of verse from Wordsworth, whom she eventually realizes knew both the light and the dark of childhood. Without the Wordsworthean cushion, it is hard to see how Ms. Gilman could have dealt with everything that life hurled at her and her boy. And certainly Wordsworth provided a deep, deep well. Gilman shows anew that, though Benj responded to the world differently, he, too, came "trailing clouds of glory" at his birth.
I highly recommend this book to parents, families, and teachers of special children. They will, I believe, find rest in the knowledge that love can indeed work miracles.


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"Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity Review

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(More customer reviews)Dr. Tatum explains beautifully many previously undiscussed aspects of race relations in America. But she also goes beyond what IS to explain WHY it is. Her explaination of how each of us develop our own sense of racial and ethnic 'self' provides great food for thought. Tatum's background, area of expertise, experience and sensitivity combine to make her the perfect author of such a work. She gave me insight into my own long-held feelings of guilt about being a benificiary of white priviledge. Particularly poignant were stories of how she discussed racial issues with her own children as they were growing. Every chapter so intrigued me that I would like to read an entire book dedicated to each of the topics.
In a perfect world, this book would be required reading for all Americans and should be assigned to every high school student in this country. I don't remember the last time I was as moved by a book and I can't wait for her next one! Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr. Tatum! Each of us who is ready to take a look inside ourselves and be completely honest about our own biases needs to read this book! It will make us better Americans, better humans and better friends.

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