The Resignation of Eve by Jim Henderson
I briefly mentioned this in an earlier post. Henderson is the producer of live events call “Off the Map” and the production company “Jim Henderson Presents.” You can read more about him here. In this book, Henderson investigates the current trend of women leaving the church and why. He interviews different women who have reacted differently to their dissatisfaction with church, usually the result of not being able to fully use their gifts. There are women who resign themselves to doing the limited roles they are offered in church, women who still attend church but have essentially “checked out,” women who have left church but serve God in some other capacity, and women who have left the faith altogether. He points out the urgency of stopping the trend as women make up more than half of the church population and do most of the grunt work. He sets the stage by asking people to envision what church would be like if all the women went on strike. In many cases, there would be no nursery workers, no children’s church, no children’s Sunday school, a skeletal choir, no secretarial work, etc.
Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty by Nancy Etcoff
Sometimes you go to the library or bookstore knowing exactly which book you want to read, or at least which topic you want to read about. And sometimes, as in the case of Survival, you stumble upon something that unexpectedly catches your eye. It looks at the biology that hard wires our brains to find certain traits attractive. The evolutionary reason for most of these is that they indicate health and/or fertility. It was interesting to read which things are universally attractive and which are culture specific. Some things I already knew like the waist to hip ratio that drives men wild because it suggests baby making. Other things were new like why blonds are attractive. Turns out it’s not their hair color, but the fact that blonds typically have lighter skin and the lighter the skin, the easier to see wrinkles, zits, or skin diseases. So snap judgments about a blond’s health are more reliable.
Architecture Explained by Neil Stevenson
I read this along with Great Buildings of the World by the editors of Time because another goal of this year was to learn some more about architecture. Both are good basic introductions to the subject. Stevenson’s is a DK book. DK is a publishing company known for its very visual books that cover almost any area of knowledge you’d want to dabble in from dance to mythology to international travel. Check out their website.
Something About America by Maria Testa
I love dollar stores. I can usually find some gem in their book aisle. That’s how I acquired this book of poetry. I’m not normally the sort of person who will buy a book of modern poetry, but this one caught my eye due to the subject matter. Rather than random poems, these tell the story of a girl who moves to America with her parents from Kosova. It shows the differences between the generations as they experience life in America, her father struggling more than she does to fit in. It also shows how they all must deal with nativist attitudes among some of their neighbors in Maine.
Check back for another book post soon.