Tuesday reads.

January 8, 2013 in General
Tuesday reads Jan 8 2013

 

I just finished reading The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam, the story of her survival of the Cambodian sex trade and her work to end the sexual exploitation of girls and women. This is such a difficult topic–and one many of us don’t know about and don’t like to think about. This is important to know. And it happens in our own communities. Someone asked why I read such depressing books. I read to know. Because knowing is important.

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I read aloud to Tess for 30-40 minutes every night. We’ve finished Mockingbird and Anything But Typical so far this month and are now starting the third, Keeper.

Mockingbird and Anything But Typical feature kids with Asperger’s Syndrome as their main characters, which was interesting for Tess and opened up some great conversations for us. For example, in Mockingbird, Caitlyn’s counselor has a poster of human emotions in her office and Tess said that would really help her, too.

Mockingbird‘s Caitlyn is a girl whose brother has just been killed in a school shooting, so I wondered about the impact of that on Tess–but in her mind, that part of the story was secondary to Caitlyn’s journey through Asperger’s.

In Anything But Typical, the main character is a boy with Asperger’s who writes a lot, and Tess identified with him. Like Tess, he also finds it easier to have friends at a distance–like in an online writing group, for instance. I think it helped her process some of her feelings about social difficulties.

We just started Keeper and we both really like it so far-–more on it after we finish it.

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For my work, I’m re-reading one of my favorite books about change processes: Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed. Really, read this book if you are at all interested in systems change. And if the topic of change interests you, Change by Paul Watzlawick is a must.

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What are you reading?

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

5 comments to " Tuesday reads. "

  • Reply
    Katherine Langford
    January 8, 2013 AT 8:57PM

    The Conference of the Birds by Peter Sis

    Oh, it is just magical luscious! check out this NPR link!

    http://www.npr.org/2011/11/16/142396491/in-birds-sis-makes-a-dream-world-for-grown-ups

  • Reply
    vickie johnson
    January 8, 2013 AT 9:09PM

    I just finished reading “The Fiddler on Pantico Run: An African Warrior, His White Descendants, A Search For Family.” I got it for my boyfriend for Christmas (how convenient for me :), who is from South Sudan; the issue of race is something we talk about pretty frequently, especially because we (God willing) will be starting a family soon, so we’ll be raising a bi-racial child and feel that our histories are so important. The book, by journalist Joe Mozingo, is about his search to learn about his ancestors after someone suggests that his last name – which he’s always been told was Italian or Basque or Portugese – is similar to names from central Africa (Congo & Cameroon). The story of his distant relatives and ancestors is, of course, woven with colonial history and the history of slavery in the U.S., but it is also very much about the ways that we CREATE race with the stories we tell ourselves and others. I loved the book, except the part where he visited Kentucky and referred to Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey as bourbon! This Kentucky girl GASPED in horror!

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