Back with nose in book...

Seems it has been ages since I've had the time or energy (?) to get into a book, but recently I was sick, spent a large part of a day in bed, and I have had a nose in a book of some kind ever since! Yihar! Doesn't leave me with the same feeling of wasted time that I get when I sit in front of the telly.

1) Spook Country - William Gibson
While I always find William Gibson writes well and about interesting, different subjects, this novel lost me a bit. The art scene in this novel involves geo-hacking - where people hack into coordinates on GPS's and put in things that aren't there, but if you are wearing a helmet (virtual reality style?), you can see their artwork - eg an image of River Phoenix's body lying on the spot where he actually died. This was written in his frequently used style with 3-4 converging storylines, written in turns in different chapters. There were bits where the writing just got bogged down, I felt, where the author described in detail things that I just couldn't picture, so I ended up skimming through paragraphs.
But still, Gibson's writing was noticably superior and easier to read than the book I had been reading prior to this. If you are thinking of reading a Gibson novel, I'd try "Pattern Recognition" (his last novel) instead.
3 out of 5 stars

2) Raising Boys - Steve Biddulph
While I never take these books too literally, and this has slighly dumbed-down case studies just like many self-help/pop psychology books, this book provides food for thought. Discusses stages of boyhood, importance of role models (parents or other, female or male), testosterone levels and how they fluctuate throughout childhood and its effect amongst other things. Good for helping me to think from my son's perspective, and it may just be a book I drag out again when he approaches teenagerhood...

3) Also read "T is for Trespass". Easy to read, and good to get through on a single rainy day - nuff said.

Like books? Wants to help kids help kids read?

Become a student2student Mentor Supervisor

The Smith Family's student2student program is aimed at increasing students reading skills. It matches students from Years 3 to 8 who are behind in their reading skills with older student mentors from a different school who have high literacy skills and have been trained to support the reading development of others. Since student mentors do not have the skills of a teacher, we are aiming to create a network of (adult) mentor supervisors who can support and encourage these student mentors. Each mentor supervisor is assigned to approximately 10 student mentors and supports them through fortnightly phone calls for the 18 week program duration between May and September. From October/November 2008 we will be starting our recruitment for Mentor Supervisor volunteers for the 2009 programs, so if you are interested please contact Warunee Nuij on Tel. 02 9895 1205 or warunee.nuij@thesmithfamily.com.au during this time.

NSW, Australia