Books

This year I'm making a concerted effort to read books other than ones that relate to the raising of children. I've read a bunch of those, and I'm probably not done reading them, but I used to love reading all kinds of books, and I've missed it. I've been consumed with raising small children for the past almost 5 years, and prior to that, I was in grad school and only found time to read the books I was required to read (and often didn't actually have time to read all of those). So I'm reading again. I've never been a fast reader, but so far in 2008 I've read almost 4 books, and that's pretty good for me (I know plenty of you read 4 books a month, so my hat is off to you!).

I started a book club with a few friends and we read Freakonomics earlier this year. I found it interesting, especially with respect to my activism in reducing the rate of unnecessary cesareans. I also had a few moments of wondering if he really was asking the right questions (his thesis essentially is that if you ask the right questions, the numbers will tell you the real answers). The linking of Roe v. Wade to the lower crime rate was interesting, but his insistence on revealing the multiple ways in which crime is reduced made his argument for the abortion link less convincing.

I just finished Wicked, which I really enjoyed, but I'll leave a longer review of that for another day.

I am currently almost finished with Marsden Wagner's Born in the USA, which examines how babies are born in this country, but specifically details the ways in which the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists works as an old boy network to protect its members, sometimes at the peril of their patients. I love it. I'm borrowing it from a friend, but clearly I need at least one copy to mark up because so many passages really reflect my own experience and my own research. Clearly, something needs to change in this country to keep women and babies safe.

Finally, while picking out chapter books with Margaret at the library, I picked up one of Beverly Cleary's teen novels, Sister of the Bride. I was really only familiar with Cleary's Ramona series, which M and I have been reading together (I guess I could count those books too, huh?). It's pretty fluffy, but it really provides me with a look into what life looked like to teenagers in 1963. There's much talk of her sister's "practical" and "modern" notions about weddings, only to have them be turned on their head by the appearance of a family bridal heirloom. There is much discussion in the book of how young people get married "these days" and that has really opened my eyes. I just assumed everyone got married around age 18 because of sex, and only until the Pill did that change, but apparently the WWII generation put marriage off a bit longer than their kids did? My parents were married in 1968, and so much seems clearer now about it all, having read a book written from the eyes of a 16-year-old in 1963. Cleary really captures the feelings of married women at the beginning of the Second Wave in Feminism. Interestingly, much of the married women talk is so easy to relate to, as the wave of stay at home mothers grows (myself included). Seeing how much has changed and also how much has not changed is probably the most interesting part of this book for me. It's still very relevant in so many ways.