May Musings
Paper verses Screen, Bookish Home Inspo, and Father's Day Ideas
Reading On Paper vs. Screen
I stumbled across an article comparing the differences between reading on paper versus screens. Apparently, all things are not equal. Studies found that both elementary and college students retain information better when reading on paper. Another study compared paper versus electronic standardized test outcomes and found that scores were lower with the electronic tests. Why is paper be better than screen? Some differences can be ascribed to the physical properties of books and paper: we are holding it with our hands, we can see how far along in a text things occur. But even beyond this, Naomi Baron, a linguist researcher, found that people approach reading online with a more casual attitude - reading faster and more superficially (called the shallowing hypothesis) This is important to recognize, not just for kids in school, but for us. So often we complain about our inability to remember things or our short attention span. Maybe taking the time to read things more carefully on paper can make a difference. I know that when I am following a recipe, I will print it out so I can follow the directions on paper. Does this make you rethink your approach to reading and learning?
Bookish Inspiration for Your Home
There is a great piece on the Cup of Jo Blog detailing writer Emma Straub’s beautiful book-filled home. Straub is a terrific writer and co-owner of Books Are Magic Bookstore in NYC. She has a new book out called This Time Tomorrow that I am currently listening to and really enjoying. The whole interview in Cup Of Jo is filled with pictures of her home - I love all the books, kid art work, and fun colors!
Dad (or Grandpa, Uncle, Nephew, Husband, Son, Friend) Recommendations
I am thinking ahead to father’s day and graduations. I often try to push books into my husband's hands with little to no avail but in the last year Steve has read and enjoyed a bunch of books. These are not necessarily “guy” books, just great books that anyone can enjoy. Below are some of his recent favorites that make great gifts for anyone:
Looking for non-fiction? I can recommend Chasing The Thrill, Go Like Hell, The Battle of Britain, and Atomic Habits. Click on this link to buy any of these through Bookshop.org.
A New Old Discovery
LaVar Burton Reads is a podcast where LeVar reads a favorite short story each episode. Steve and I listened to “The Paper Menagerie” on a drive home the other night. This is the title story from Ken Liu’s book of short stories by the same name (recommended above). Beautiful but sad, this story is about a boy and his mother, about belonging and growing up. I also listened to a story about a haunted house that felt like a warm hug. I love how LeVar briefly shares his thoughts at the end of the reading and am excited to hear to more. It would make great listening on a car trip this summer. This is season 10, so to say I am behind the curve would not be an exaggeration. Mea Culpa and you are welcome.
May Book Reviews
Bob Goff is an all around wonderful human being who lives his life like it is an adventure. A lawyer by training, he spends much of his time helping people - like starting schools, making clean water available, and encouraging people to love others better. His first book Love Does is terrific. From the title of his newest book, Undistracted, I assumed that this would be about putting down our phones and living in the moment but it is about bigger things that distract us - like anger, regret, and not paying attention. He uses a lifetime of funny stories to illustrate his points about living life to the fullest. Goff makes the case against letting regrets, resentments and misunderstandings steal the joy from our lives. This would be great for a graduate this season.
Agatha of Little Neon is a quiet book about four nuns who have to start over when their diocese closes. They have been happy and full of purpose until now. Suddenly the sisters find themselves sent to a half-way house where they are charged with enforcing the rules and encouraging the residents to stay on the straight and narrow. Agatha is given the only job outside the home - teaching geometry at an all girls catholic school. This foray into the community challenges her and sows seeds of separation between herself and her sisters. This is a quiet book about being confronted with change and changing. It is compact and beautifully written. The author captures the details of daily life beautifully. When you take a vow of poverty, life looks very different. When you decide to love difficult people, life looks very different. When you challenge beliefs you always took for granted, life looks very different.
Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murder is a true crime novel about the murder of two women hikers that took place is the Shendandoah National Park in the 1996, and is truely scary. This book combines two topics I love to read about: true crime and wilderness settings. The author provides an in depth portrait of the young women, reviews the original investigation, and then embarks on her own investigation. Here is what made this book scary: there are many crimes in our National Parks that we are not aware of, law enforcement and staffing is scarce, and a lot of sketchy people hang out in our national parks. Miles ties in a few other horrific unsolved crimes in central Virginia and makes the case for a different suspect than the one the police zeroed in on but never charged. It doesn’t help that I live in Virginia. For better or worse, this book makes me look at camping in our National Parks in a more menacing way.
The Plot was a hot summer book last year. Jacob is a has-been writer teaching at a middling writing school when he hears the plot of an amazing story. After some time, when the book is never published and he finds out the student had died, Jacob decides to “borrow” the story and make it his own. It is everything he imagined. The book is a bestselling phenomenon bringing him fame, fortune, book tours, and another book deal. But then he begins to receive anonymous letters from someone who claims to know what he has done. Jake tries to figure out who is threatening his world and how to stop the person before everything falls apart. This book starts a bit slow but then speeds up. The author injects parts of the best-selling novel in the book. The Plot and Who is Maud Dixon? Both came out around the same time and are thrillers set in the publishing world, but they are differ in tone, setting, and feel. I liked The Plot but I loved Maud Dixon.