An Open Book: August 2024 Reads

Another month has arrived, so it's time to link up with An Open Book to share what I've been reading. August was a fantastic month of festivity (we attended a Catholic family conference, celebrated a bunch of birthdays and our wedding anniversary, and baked delicious treats) and it was a fascinating reading month. For some reason, other than one children's graphic novel, I only read nonfiction books! Some were excellent, some were tedious, but they all were really, really interesting. 

(A segment of the nonfiction books comprises the beginning of my crash-coarse in mathematics. I'll probably make a blog post about this at some point, but in short: I want to help cultivate a beautiful, holistic view of mathematics in our family's homeschooling life, so I'm beginning my own preparation by reading and thinking and diving into the world of math.)

Let's dive in! 

Bad Therapy: Why the kids aren't growing up, by Abigail Shrier

I really loved Shrier's book on the transgender movement, and I was intrigued to pick up this insightful and thought-provoking discussion. Shrier begins the book by stating that there are some people who definitely need therapy and psychiatric care in various forms. However, she also observes that there are many, many people (especially young children) who don't have grave psychiatric issues but are being handled diagnoses right and left. Drawing from research, interviews, and studies, Shrier dives into this second group of people--the over-diagnosed children--and observes the effects of our societal push to treat all young kids as if they've undergone trauma and/or are dealing with a variety of mental disorders. This book was very interesting and I enjoyed it, but I did take some of it with a grain of salt. Shrier goes on some rants against Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score, and while she provided research and data to support her arguments, I've also read that book and thought it seemed pretty well-researched and convincing. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book and found a lot of good points for reflection in here. I'm grateful that I read this book, and I recommend it; even with parts that I wasn't totally sold on, I found it helpful to consider Shrier's points and I can continue to research and ponder those aspects. 

Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters, by Erica Komisar

Komisar is a psychoanalyst who, throughout the course of this book, argues that the near-constant presence of a child's mother is vastly important and irreplaceable in the first three years of that child's life. Komisar talks about the importance of working through your own "mommy issues" so that you can mother from a place of peace, which I thought was a very good and important point. She provides tips about how mothers who are not physically present (moms who work office jobs) can try to be there for their young children, like switching to part-time work. She also walks through important points to consider when figuring out childcare, like nannies vs. daycare. I appreciated a lot of this book, but there were a few shortcomings that struck me. First, after talking at length about the necessity of being physically present as much as possible, the author does concede that "moms need breaks, so definitely make sure you go for a walk or out with friends or paint your nails." Yet, she didn't provide many ideas on how to make this happen, or talk about just how important it is, in our isolated society, for moms to refresh themselves. I also think she should have brought this point up earlier in the book. She also brought up some choices that I don't agree with. For example, this book is very secular and the author talks about her work with many same-sex couples. She then provides advice for male couples, talking about how "one of them needs to be the mother." Yet, she never once goes through the research (which is readily available through CanaVox) about how children have greater chances of success when raised by their biological father and mother. Also, it was interesting to see just how different this book was from Shrier's; this book talked a lot more about trauma and went into Freud's theories. Yet, both this and Shrier's book point--in agreement--to the disturbing trend that the United States has of medicating very young children instead of addressing environmental factors. It was very interesting. Although I didn't agree with parts of this book, and found some areas of it redundant, I'm still glad I read it-though I didn't like it as much as Shrier's book. 

The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the unnamed evil of our times, by Jean-Charles Nault, O.S.B., foreword by Marc Cardinal Oullet 

I'm so glad that I finally got around to reading this book, it was AMAZING. The author walks through the early Christian monastics (Evagrius, Cassian) and explores how the conversations around acedia developed in the West. He also ponders ways that temptations to acedia are present in the lives of monks, priests, single people, and married couples. I felt very called out by this book, and it was so, so good to read and reflect on. I highly recommend it!!!

Proof! How the World Became Geometrical, by Amir Alexander

I picked this book up from the library and was really excited, initially; the author explores Florence during the Rennaissance and the ways in which geometry played a prominent role. The author then moved the discussion to geometrical gardens (think: Versailles) and how rulers would utilize them as symbols of power and status. Although the author took a few brief jaunts into the wild political environment of Europe (making me realize that, as insane as American politics feels at times, it's not nearly as chaotic as it could be!!), he mostly focused on gardens for a large portion of this book. It was interesting (though some of his conclusions seemed like a little bit of a stretch) but...I felt misled by the subtitle of this book. Since this volume didn't cover Byzantine or Islamic architectural at all, and focused on gardens in the west, I think a more appropriate subtitle would have been "How geometric gardens changed the political landscape of the West" or something like that. It was interesting, but not necessarily a book I'd reread in a hurry. 

Enlightening Symbols: A Short History of Mathematical Notation and Its Hidden Powers, by Joseph Mazur

In this interesting book, Mazur probes worldwide history to explore how different cultures have composed math problems, written numbers, and developed symbols to assist them in the mathematical process. There was a ton of fascinating history, and the first 1/2 or 2/3 of this book had me completely engrossed. When the author started talking about i, I got a little lost--I haven't encountered i since sophomore or junior year of high school--but it was still fairly interesting. In the final chapter or two, the author drifted off into rambles about psychology and dreams, and while some people may really love those chapters, it threw me for a loop. After I finished the book, I decided that I really loved the first half, but didn't get much out of the second half. 

The King of Infinite Space: Euclid and his Elements, by David Berlinski

Berlinski explores Euclid in this short--but weighty--book, beginning with the historical setting in which Euclid lived and worked. Berlinski then offers a primer of sorts on Euclid's Elements, by offering a very basic overview of axioms, theorems, and proofs. Then, he scrutinizes some of Euclid's claims, showing places where he believes Euclid left holes in the arguments or made certain assumptions. Despite its small size, this book was not a quick read, and a lot of the mathematical nitpicking went over my head. I was confused, though, about what the author was trying to say about Euclid; when the book began, he mentioned how esteemed Euclid is, but then he spent most of the book dwelling on various criticisms that have been made of Euclid. However, I still enjoyed reading it, and think it gave me a nice background on Euclid.

The Golden Ratio: The Divine Beauty of Mathematics, by Gary Meisner

This gorgeous book is undoubtedly my favorite book on math that I picked up in August! With beautiful photographs and illustrations, the book offers a basic overview into the Golden Ratio, Euclid, Fibonacci, and various figures in the history of math. Meisner then dives into a variety of ways that he believes the Golden Ratio is expressed in art and architecture, nature, and the human body. At times, this book seemed like an advertisement for the author's software (which superimposes a Golden Ratio rectangle over a photograph or piece of art), but it was absolutely fascinating and mind blowing to see some of the examples that he came up with in the book. At the conclusion, Meisner mentions that some people will refute every single thing that he says in the book and say that he made Golden Ratio connections where they don't exist, so he encourages the reader to look at the evidence and draw his own conclusions; I thought it was neat that he said that. I really loved reading this, and my young kids enjoyed paging through it as well. 

On a parental note of things you may want to address with some kids: there are a few paintings in here with nudes (Vitruvius Man, the Birth of Venus, sections of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, and a couple small paintings of a naked lady done by a 19th century painter, if I recall correctly). Also, in an initial section of geometry, the author includes a diagram of a five-pointed star and refers to it repeatedly as a "pentagram." This is the correct geometric designation (as far as I know), but since "pentagrams" are often associated with witchcraft and Satanism, this may need to be addressed with some kids. Also, although the author talks about chapels and Christianity and includes many examples of sacred artwork, this is a secular book. 

Legend of the Yearling, by Roan Black (The Guardians of Horsa Book 1)

Completely different from any of the other books I read, I started the Guardians of Horsa series! A relative told me about this and described it as a combination of Avatar: The Last Airbender and My Little Pony. I think that's a pretty apt description. This story follows four nations/herds of horses that revolve around the elements of fire, earth, water, and air. The herds do not intermingle or communicate with each other peacefully, until one day, when the elders recognize that a prophecy is occurring. The four herds gather and select one young horse from each herd to work together as a group and find a yearling who will, basically, bring balance and harmony to the world. I thought this story was really fun, although the artwork wasn't quite as detailed as I would have liked. It's also very light on the text, so even though the book is over a hundred pages long, it's a very quick read. I still enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series! (and my kids loved it! There's a little bit of clever wordplay humor and silliness and they liked the different characters)

Thanks for joining me this month! If you have any recommendations, please drop them in the comments. I'm currently halfway through yet another nonfiction book, but then I think I'll give myself a bit of a break and dive into some fiction :)