Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Obviously, I cannot review Uncle Tom's Cabin; it's a literary classic that almost everyone had heard of. The best I can do is offer a few comments.

I decided to read UTC because I'd never done so before, and it seemed like something an educator should have read. In case you haven't had the chance, the basics of the plot are this; readers follow the paths of two slaves from a single plantation who are to be sold to make up the owner's debts; Eliza, who runs away with her son after hearing that he is to be sold, and Uncle Tom, who is in fact sold to a trader.

Because it was written approximately 120 years ago, the language and writing style are what we would consider now to be extremely flowery and overdone, but the story itself transcends the language. At the time Stowe was hailed as being extremely anti-slavery, and her work was used to narrate the horrors of the practice long after its writing. Of course, with the benefit of over a century of time passing, her writing makes it obvious that her concepts of black people were still incredibly racist (although obviously still far ahead of her time), but when read in context this does not overcome the importance of the work as a landmark statement against a trade that had been in place for two hundred years. Her work as an abolitionist stirred millions in the north to stand up and cry out, and infuriated the southern plantation owners. She is widely credited for bringing an understanding of the horrors of slavery to millions of people, and with providing crucial ammunition to the anti-slavery feelings of the country.

I'll be honest; at times, it was a slow read, and at almost 500 pages it took me quite awhile to get through it. Skimming some of the more flowery descriptions made the going easier. Regardless of the work it took to get through it - this is obviously not vacation reading - I would still recommend that anyone take the time to at least peruse the work and get the general feel for the story. It's an important part of American history in and of itself.

Review: The Family Man, by Elinor Lipman

Before you ask, no, this novel has *nothing* to do with the movie starring Nicolas Cage that came out several years ago.

Lipman's newest novel, The Family Man, is utterly delightful. I could not have enjoyed this book more. You don't even need to read the rest of the review, unless you really enjoy listening to me prattle on. Seriously, just go and get it.

OK, since you insist on reading more, I'll fill you in. Henry Archer is a long-divorced, recently-retired gay lawyer who lives alone in a lovely NYC townhouse. Due to his questionable decision to contact his ex-wife to express sympathy on the recent death of her husband, he becomes re-entangled in her life. When Denise drags him to her apartment, he sees a recent photo of the long-lost step-daughter that was stolen from him in the divorce and whose memory he spent years in therapy guiltily bemoaning; he recognizes her as the coat-check girl at the salon where he has his hair cut, but due to his long-held anger, he says nothing when Denise confides in him that she has no idea where the girl is, that she hasn't spoken to her since the funeral. Henry re-connects with the girl, who is (of course) a starving actress, and instantly the two bond over lunch. Within days he is caught up in her newest job - pretending to be the girlfriend of a strange young actor who needs to be 'seen'. Between somewhat reluctantly helping Denise with the odd legal entanglements of her late husband's will (her stepsons are trying to enforce a defunct pre-nup that cuts her out of her home and fortune entirely), trying to look after his newly-reacquainted step-daughter, and fielding phone calls from men who have gotten his number from Denise, Henry suddenly finds himself up to his ears in craziness. Predictable, yet delightful, hilarity ensues.

Anyone who reads my reviews regularly knows that I hate vapid, uselessly convoluted stories, so rest assured that Lipmans' novel is neither. She manages to write a lighthearted story while still giving the characters depth, and the plot moves along effortlessly. There are no contrived arguments, no ridiculous 'no one would EVER do that' moments. The choices the characters make are realistic, even if the circumstances are slightly inflated for fiction. Most importantly, all of them are very likable; even the over-the-top Denise is ultimately someone you wouldn't mind knowing. Also - and this is always a winner with me - the ending is lovely, AND there's a bit of an afterward so you know what happens to everyone and can imagine them going forward in your mind.

I enjoyed this story so much that I would be happy to read a sequel, if one were appropriate. It is the rarest of books - a work that's amusing, light, and yet simultaneously emotionally present. As it is, I will content myself with putting Lipman's other novels on my to-read list.

Rating: five stars. Witty, charming fiction that possesses style and lighthearted substance.

Review: Brain Rules, by John Medina

I picked up Brain Rules after a session in one of my education classes about new research into how people learn. I was interested in the topic, but didn't want to get a subscription to some neurological magazine, so I got on Amazon and looked through their selection before heading off to B&N with a short-list of what to look for.

Brain Rules won *by far* in the selection process. It's not at all "sciency" in the way that makes people like me either a) run screaming for the hills or b) start snoring. It's conversational, and split into mid-length sections which are again further split into topics. Examples of section topics include Wiring, Attention, Short- and Long-Term Memory, Sleep, Stress, Sensory Integration, and Gender. There are no illustrations, charts or graphs, except for the summary sections at the end of each chapter that helpfully remind you of the key points for each topic. It's got a Discovery Channel approach to science - fun, informative, and easily digestible. Each new section starts with a personal story (either Medina's or someone else's), and anecdotes are liberally sprinkled throughout, providing both examples and comic relief for complex ideas.

This style is right out of Rule #4: Attention - We Don't Pay Attention To Boring Things. Medina discusses the fact that audiences (classes, meeting attendees, etc) check out after ten minutes, and after that point you have to recapture them with another 'hook' or major point, using something that they can relate to personally, such as an amusing story or example. He applies this technique exceptionally well in the book; just as I started to drift away, get a little tired of brain information, he drew me back in with another tale, which was then followed with details about why the brain utilizes information more efficiently when it's encased in stories that the listener can become emotionally involved in, then he explained how the pathways and information storage work, and then suddenly I was back at the story again, seeing it all get tied together.

The other most interesting and applicable sections, for me, were sensory integration (if we learn something while smelling, say, roses, we will recall that same information at a much higher rate if roses are again present), vision (the brain will see what it thinks it should see, rather than what is actually there, and we will remember what we think we saw based on that subconscious judgment), and gender. I found this great nugget - women are much more genetically diverse than men, because the X chromosome has 1500 genes, whereas the Y has less than 100; therefore, women have 3000 chromosomes, and men have 1800. Since the X chromosome has the overwhelming majority of cognitive-development chromosomes, and women have two... you can take it from there. Medina isn't inferring that the female brain is better, just that the processing is completely different, and that's important from an instructional standpoint, but I got a lot of enjoyment out of it myself, anyway.

I have to recommend this book for parents, educators, and anyone who has a part in relaying any kind of information in a formalized way. Even if you are casually interested in how you might help your brain to age better, this would be a good read for you. It might make a good Xmas gift for a boss or teacher, too, since they're notoriously hard to buy for, because it's something applicable and different (ie not a mug or potpourri). I am not a huge scientific reader, but I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It was completely painless, and most of the time actually quite enjoyable.

Rating: five stars. Educational, jovial, mainstream presentation of otherwise potentially complex material