Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wood AND Embrace Your Weird by Day

GOOD HABITS, BAD HABITS by Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California, Wendy Wood is all about “The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick.” Wood divides her work into three parts (How We Really Are, The Three Bases of Habit Formation, and Special Cases, Big Opportunities and the World Around Us). She writes in an accessible manner, opening with an anecdote about a cousin trying to lose weight, and then explains some of the obstacles to success, including the idea that “we act out of habit [approximately forty percent of the time] without having to make a decision to do so.” The second part of Wood’s text, which deals with context, repetition and reward, is really quite informative. For example, Wood discusses the decline in smoking in America, noting that knowledge of the dangers and willpower (desire to quit) were often not enough until regulations and environment (e.g., limited advertising, fewer vending machines and more non-smoking areas) became prevalent. However, I think I like best her short “useful story” at the book’s end which is titled “How to Stop Looking at your Phone So Often” – it provides a wonderful application of her ideas and was recently highlighted in The Los Angeles Times’ review of this book. Wood also includes extensive notes, a lengthy bibliography and an index, all of which may interest our Psych student researchers. GOOD HABITS, BAD HABITS received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was named one of “10 books to read in October” by The Washington Post.

EMBRACE YOUR WEIRD by professional actress Felicia Day was actually recommended recently by another member of the Library staff. In this “part guided journal, part workbook” Day encourages her readers to “Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity.”  Early on, she encourages readers to write “I am the greatest thing since Swiss cheese” over and over and to REALLY believe it.  She encourages her readers to let go of self-consciousness by keeping the process of working through the book private – and offers a quick exercise about adjectives and dancing to explain why. I think that Psych classes and advisories will find this book amusing and quirky, but also perceptive and helpful. There could be some really great prompts for journaling and introspection. Potentially, Creative Writers classes could also have fun and learn to “loosen-up” with this text. Day writes humorously and yet offers some serious suggestions to unlock our weird, creative voices, “combining the inventory we already have in our brains in new and interesting ways.” There is an entire chapter called Playtime! And another labeled Quests; as Day says, “What do you have to lose?”

Hope Rides Again by Andrew Shaffer and MacTrump by Doescher

Does it feel as though the news is indeed stranger than fiction? Or, are you like a friend of mine who says, "I just don’t read the news any more – can’t do it.” Either way, here are two very funny texts which will hopefully give you a smile and a bit of escape:

HOPE RIDES AGAIN by Andrew Shaffer is the second title in his satirical mystery series featuring fictionalized Obama and Biden. The first, best-seller Hope Never Dies, was a 2018 Goodreads Choice Award Finalist. This new whodunit is set in Chicago which makes for added fun as the two characters race around town and out on Lake Michigan. They encounter Rahm Emanuel, of course, and there’s also talk about Michelle’s meeting with Oprah.  Many of the adventures are definitely over the top as narrator Biden makes some crazy choices, opting, for example, to navigate the steam tunnels below the University of Chicago.  But Shaffer uses the madcap activity to frame some amusing witticisms: “The tunnel was lit with flickering emergency bulbs. This is where democracy dies, I thought. In darkness.” Here are a couple of other favorite observations: “He droned on. There wasn’t any way to get a word in when Barack Obama was in professor mode.” Or “I’d never been able to get a feel for the city.  I liked New York style pizza with thin crust; I liked my politics free of corruption. … we weren’t just up against criminals – we had a whole damned city to contend with. A city that didn’t put ketchup on hot dogs.” Recently reviewed in The Washington Post, HOPE RIDES AGAIN is a quick read and a welcome diversion. Enjoy!

 
MacTRUMP by Ian Doescher won’t be formally published until October first, but put it on your to be read list, especially if you appreciated his William Shakespeare’s Star Wars books, where Doescher used meter and verse to recreate the Star Wars saga as Elizabethan drama with titles like The Empire Striketh Back and The Jedi Doth Return.  In this new book, described by the publisher as a “tragicomic tale of ambition, greed, and ineptitude,” MacTrump has surprisingly succeeded to the throne and seeks to govern with advisors like Stephen Bannox, plus offspring Desdevanka, Donnison, and Erikson. He enters to acclaim (“A-thump! A-thump! A-thump! Here comes McTrump!”), but the streets of Washingtown are soon filled with protestors: “’Tis the daughters of the Fiefdoms pleading for the right./For the right!/Raise the flag and plant the standard, Wave the signal still!/Wave it still.” Like Shakespeare's own work, this parody contains pithy phrases, humorous allusions and appeals to universal emotions.  

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER by Linda Holmes is a fun LibraryReads selection for June.  The tale begins with a young woman who is in the process of leaving her husband when she learns he has died in a car crash.  Now, regarded by others as a grieving widow, she struggles to redefine her life and depends in large part on a platonic friendship with Andrew. He, in turn, has a childhood friend named Dean Tenney, an MLB pitcher facing a career ending case of the yips.  Looking to get away, Dean arrives in small town Maine and rents an apartment at Evvie (rhymes with Chevy) Drake’s house. Holmes describes the feeling: “that was when he had known what was next. Now, his only plans were dinner and bringing his duffel in from the truck. The part of the future that was in focus had shortened; the part that was just a wall of fog went on forever.” Fortunately, these two lonely and bruised people click and both the banter (including a hilarious story involving a baseball field cereal box race) and the emotional healing (from abuse and devastation) begins. EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER is a gentle story, an undemanding read about forgiving oneself and moving forward. Author Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent at NPR and her debut novel received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus.

We Regret to Inform You by Ariel Kaplan

I have some mixed opinions about the YA novel WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU by Ariel Kaplan. This is a story of Mischa Abramavicius, a scholarship student at a prep school, who has joined tons of clubs and worked hard for excellent grades and test scores, all to get into a selective college. Her friends accomplish that goal with surprising ease, but she receives rejection letters not only from her reach schools, but also from her local safety school. WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU certainly evokes a variety emotions and overachievers will find themselves in this novel, but may also have a hard time reading parts of it. I think the best fit is likely to be with Freshmen and Sophomores despite their distance from the college application process. My biggest disappointment was the absence of any really empathy from adults. Was Mischa so narrowly focused that she had failed to develop a supportive relationship with a teacher or club sponsor?  Just recently, The New York Times published an opinion piece about how important that is at the college level and we stress that for our students, too.

WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU has some funny moments, a light romance, and a fairly fast pace. The mystery aspect builds as some female STEM club members attempt to find out who has been altering transcripts. Readers will benefit from the reminders about how easily online accounts, include email, may be hacked and how little online privacy exists. In addition, Mischa and her friends, especially Nate, offer several wise observations as she tries to figure out who she really is:

“At any point in your life, you are two people.  There’s the Mischa you think you are, and then there’s the Mischa everyone else sees…. who gets you into college, or not. That’s the one who applies for jobs, and mortgages, and gets written about in the paper.”  or

“What would you have done differently? …. I would have had fun …. More fun, I guess. I wouldn’t have joined twenty clubs I don’t care about and studied very minute.” or

“You can see what all our struggles are worth.  They have exactly as much meaning as we give them, and not one bit more.”

WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU was given a starred review by Kirkus and by VOYA. I am also looking forward to reading Kaplan’s debut, Grendel’s Guide to Love and War, which received multiple starred reviews.