Books, sleep
Jul. 25th, 2007 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaFull Tilt, Janet Evanovich and somebody or other, 2003? A very fast, not very good, sorta-thriller, minimal-romance. With hit men, crazed Vietnam vets, a gay hairdresser who gets hit on the head and turns into a macho redneck (barf), and no sex. Oh, and a talking car named Muffin. I managed to read this the day I had the crippling headache, which shows how little attention it took. From the Light Books shelf at work, natch.
Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing our daughters from marketers' schemes, Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown, 2007. An analysis of the messages being sold to girls from preschool to the teenage years, and guess what? They mostly aren't that good. Stereotypes, the sexualization of 6 year olds, the Dykes To Watch Out For problem (no films where female characters have good conversations that aren't about the male characters, with the exception of "girl fight" movies). I read this with interest, as I want to be aware of the mass market messages to my daughter but also raise a child who understands and can fit into our culture - i.e. I don't want to hide her away in the happy-clappy gender-neutral woods, but I don't want to her to be a Barbie-influenced math-phobic, either. This book is pitched a little low for me - I was pretty aware of the messages they identified, and could have done the analysis myself - and I wonder if they are underestimating girls and the sophistication with which they can parse marketing, even at a fairly early age. It was a little depressing, to have it all set out clearly. Anyway, a parenting issue to think about.
Father Knows Less Or: "Can I Cook My Sister?": One Dad's Quest to Answer His Son, Wendell Jamieson, 2007. This isn't out yet - I read an ARC from work. The questions asked by children and answered by various experts (some expert and some not - a policeman answers why cops like donuts, a dominatrix explains the physics of whip noises) are creative and interesting and I certainly learned stuff. The essays about the author's boyhood and his family were sort of boring, and as the book went on I skipped them and went straight to the questions.
Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby, Allyson Beatrice, 2007. 'Nuff said.
The sleeping thing is not going very well. Dillo goes down okay in the crib in the study, but is still waking up at the "usual" nursing times and wanting to be nursed most nights. One night he slept from bedtime until 12, nursed, and then slept until 4; one night mr. flea got him back to sleep at 10 or 11 and he wasn't up until 3, but, for example, last night I nursed him at 10 (whoops, too sleepy to remember I wasn't supposed to - we're trying to not nurse but every 4 hours -, find and wake mr. flea, and send him in), 1, mr. flea went to him when he cried at 4 but unsuccessfully and eventually brought him into our bed, where I nursed him. Gronk.
Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing our daughters from marketers' schemes, Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown, 2007. An analysis of the messages being sold to girls from preschool to the teenage years, and guess what? They mostly aren't that good. Stereotypes, the sexualization of 6 year olds, the Dykes To Watch Out For problem (no films where female characters have good conversations that aren't about the male characters, with the exception of "girl fight" movies). I read this with interest, as I want to be aware of the mass market messages to my daughter but also raise a child who understands and can fit into our culture - i.e. I don't want to hide her away in the happy-clappy gender-neutral woods, but I don't want to her to be a Barbie-influenced math-phobic, either. This book is pitched a little low for me - I was pretty aware of the messages they identified, and could have done the analysis myself - and I wonder if they are underestimating girls and the sophistication with which they can parse marketing, even at a fairly early age. It was a little depressing, to have it all set out clearly. Anyway, a parenting issue to think about.
Father Knows Less Or: "Can I Cook My Sister?": One Dad's Quest to Answer His Son, Wendell Jamieson, 2007. This isn't out yet - I read an ARC from work. The questions asked by children and answered by various experts (some expert and some not - a policeman answers why cops like donuts, a dominatrix explains the physics of whip noises) are creative and interesting and I certainly learned stuff. The essays about the author's boyhood and his family were sort of boring, and as the book went on I skipped them and went straight to the questions.
Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby, Allyson Beatrice, 2007. 'Nuff said.
The sleeping thing is not going very well. Dillo goes down okay in the crib in the study, but is still waking up at the "usual" nursing times and wanting to be nursed most nights. One night he slept from bedtime until 12, nursed, and then slept until 4; one night mr. flea got him back to sleep at 10 or 11 and he wasn't up until 3, but, for example, last night I nursed him at 10 (whoops, too sleepy to remember I wasn't supposed to - we're trying to not nurse but every 4 hours -, find and wake mr. flea, and send him in), 1, mr. flea went to him when he cried at 4 but unsuccessfully and eventually brought him into our bed, where I nursed him. Gronk.