http://www.stuartwoods.com/html/pastbooks.html

I’m going to spend many hours this summer carpooling the kids to swim team, writing camp and the like and hanging out while they participate. I would love to have a good book handy for the time periods I can catch a few pages!

I also read ‘Grand Theft Childhood’ by researchers Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson of Harvard Medical School. It is an excellent read – especially for all of us parents of tweens to teens who are fans of video games and other potentially violent media. It is the most objective look at violence in media I have read, with some interesting conclusions that go well beyond the simple-minded ‘will playing Halo turn my child into a serial killer?’ Highly recommended!

I hunted it down as an adult and re-read it, and I was shocked to find that it was just as good and haunting as I remembered. As far as I know, this is the only book Ms. Dutton ever wrote, and if you can get your hands on a copy, I think it will affect anyone who reads it.

http://www.amazon.com/Thorpe-Mary-Dutton/dp/B000CB1AS8

Nancy Kress – Beggars in Spain (first of a trilogy)

Issac Asimov – anything from the Foundation books and Benford – Bear – Brin – “The Killer Bs” added to the Foundation stories and Roger McBride Allen’s Caliban stories add a sort of side trilogy to Foundation stories

that’s just a few off the top of my head.

The book was amazing and held me from the opening sentence: “Everything in this book is fiction, except for the parts that aren’t.” How can you not love that sentence?!

As a tech lover it’s always interesting to read papers by futurologists and see exactly where they think we’re headed. Michael Crichton always heavily researches his stuff and is a very entertaining author.

Recently I saw a blog post about a technology which is exactly the type of thing covered by this book. Google “Flogos” and you’ll see that we’re on the way to the future described by Crichton.

Well, the last non-fiction book I read all the way through was by Tim Kimmel – Raising Kids Who Turn Out Right. Good book on parenting. Currently going through his “Raising Truly Great Kids” (or something like that – always get the titles a little confused). Still, he has a great philosophy on parenting to raise kids who are great, not due to money/fame/power, but because they truly love other people. He focuses on integrity and character even when that’s hard to maintain.

For non-fiction, I’ve read through several Terry Pratchett stories recently, “Wintersmith”, “Thud”, “Night Watch” just being a few of them. If you don’t know who Terry Pratchett is, just do a search. The chances are pretty good that if you read this site, you’ll enjoy Terry’s works. Fantasy with a comedy twist to it, but well worth it. Not slapstick comedy, but sometimes the comedy that has you reading and realizing well into the book that there has been a running gag going since the beginning. Other times it flat out pokes fun at life/culture as we know it. His works have never failed to entertain me.

With my daughter – just finished an old “Happy Hollisters” book by Jerry West and some “Cam Jansen” books. She likes those. I’m kind of surprised by the Hollister books as those are relatively little-known from the 1940′s. Still, they’re not a bad kids series. They show their age at times with the way culture and speech have moved on, but are still decent enough for kids.

Last summer I brought his book Honeymoon with me on vacation. It’s a great murder mystery where the action literally starts in chapter one. There’s no tedious build up to get right into the action.

I’ve seen this book on closeout in Barnes & Noble — and recommend it highly.

Vivian Stringer is the coach of the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team. This is the team which suffered certain disparaging remarks from Don Imus. I feel there are great life lessons to learn from winning coaches. Successful coaches that can motivate a team to win and win big usually have great insight into perseverance and overcoming adversity.

I found the hard work ethic that Vivian Stringer witnessed by her father and which she inherited, a valuable lesson that many people can benefit from today. I was inspired by the godly way she handled the entire Imus situation with dignity and class.