Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother - Amy Chua

Title: Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother
Author: Amy Chua
File Size (Pages): 1306 KB (195 pages)
Published: 2011
Challenges: 2012 Support Your Library
Genre: Non-fiction, Memoir
Edition: E-book
Source: Library

Description: An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother's exercising in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards - and the costs - of raising her daughters the Chinese way. (via Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: I read this book because I had heard quite about the book during the course of the last calendar year and thought it might be interesting to read.  And it was.   While I don't agree with Ms. Chua's manner in which she has raised her daughters, it clearly prove effective with one of her daughters, but not the younger one.  While she comes as harsh, she does realize that her style of parenting was starting to alienate her youngest daughter  And while I understand that this her story of parenting, I want to know her husband's point of view on her style and am curious to see how he was effected by this sort of parenting, as it seems that Jed, her husband, was clearly not involved a lot, at least from her point of view.  One of the most effective chapters was when she was starting to realize that her style of parenting was starting to really effect her relationship with her daughter Lulu and started to lay off a bit.  I think she could have used the best of the Chinese way and the best of the western way of parenting and not have to readjust her style, at least for one of them.

Bottom line: Its a fairly quick and easy read and something that could be finished within a weekend.  While I am not a parent, I can understand the challenges that parents face, but I can also understand one doesn't need to be heavy-handed to be an effective parent and also you need to understand that each child needs to be parent differently (what works well for one, may not for other children).

Rating: 3.5/5

Pages for 2012: 7136

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Title: The Scarlet Letter
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Pages: 288
Published: 2009 (Originally published 1850)
Challenges: 2012 Library Challenge, 2012 Support Your Library Challenge, Back to the Classics 2012, 2012 Where You Are Reading, 2012 A Classics Challenge
Genre: Classics
Edition: Paperback
Source: Library
Rating: 3.5/5

A passionate young woman, her cowardly lover, and her aging, vengeful husband are the central characters in this stark drama of the conflict between passion and convention in the harsh world of seventeenth-century Boston.

Tremendously moving and rich in psychological insight, this tragic novel of sin and redemption addresses our Puritan past. Depicting the struggle between mind and heart, Hawthorne fashioned a masterpiece of American fiction. (via Goodreads)


Thoughts: This was a book I had been wanting to read for quite sometime due to just the fact of the nature of what it dealt with and because its a book that is referred to in many ways.  I think expected something more than what I actually encountered.  While it was well-written, I did find it a bit mundane and sometimes a little dull and slow moving.  While I understand the point of the book, it just felt like there was something missing and I suppose it was because there was this hype that surrounded the book that it was something that I was expecting.  In otherwords, what I expected isn't what I got out of the book.  It is very well written and from that standpoint it was very good and I can clearly see why its considered to be classic, especially in terms of the American canon of American literature.  Hawthorne clearly makes his point that we as humans struggle between what we know is right and what we feel is right and how the two are constantly in conflict with one another.  I recommend the book, but only with the pretext that it isn't the salicous book that its sometimes made out to be.  


Now if I take out my expectations of the book, the book as a whole rates higher than what I gave it, probably closer to a four than a three.  Hawthorne's language does draw one into the story and when you find out what happens in the end (I am not going to spill the beans for those that still wish to read the book), you can see why Hawthorne paced the book the way he did.  What I am bit surprised about the book was that it was Hawthorne's first major piece that was written and was really his only well-known work, unlike Dickens who seemed to turn out well-known pieces on a regular basis (did some research on Hawthorne and he wrote other pieces of fiction, but nothing that I recognized).


Bottom line:  If you are looking for something that is rich in detail, both the psychologist and physical environment, it is worth the read.    He gets into a place that very few writers have been able to get into and presents something that is rich and poses to us the fact that we are constantly struggling between what we know is right in our heads and what we feel is right at the moment and the turmoil that it gives us.  An really good read, but don't go in with preconceived expectations of what the book is about.


Pages for 2012: 1920

2012 Library Challenge

Here are the rules:

About the Library Challenge 

Hosted by Jessica of Jessica’s Musings.

I think many of us who like to read would like to think we’re well acquainted with our local library… or at least, we’d like to be. I’ve recently started using my local library more. Probably more than I’ve done since I was a child and my mom would drag me there to work on school projects. The goal of the Library Challenge is simple: check out and read books from your local library. Find your library card, dust it off, and put it to use.

Where’s my local library?
You can search for a library in your area here.

Who can participate?
Anyone! Whether you have a blog or not, no matter what your age… you can participate in this challenge.

How does it work?
I know not everyone has the time to make multiple trips to the library each month, so the minimum goal for this challenge will be 12 books: one per month. The 12 main challenges will be required for the challenge completion. There will also be mini-challenges each month, relating in some way to the main challenge. The main challenge for the month will be posted on the 1st of the month. All mini-challenges will be posted on Sundays.

What will we be reading?
      Since everyone has different reading preferences, the main challenges will be general. The mini-challenges will get a bit more specific, but will still have a generalness to them. This way, even when you are being pushed a bit out of your comfort zone, you will still have final say over the book you end up reading. You will not be required to read anything that goes against your values or would make you blush.

Will we be reading Popular Fiction?
Yes. The popular fiction section is organized by Author’s last name.

Will we be reading Non-Fiction?
Yes. Books in this section are arranged by the Dewey Decimal System which is organized as follows:
000: General Knowledge
100: Psychology and Philosophy
200: Religions and Mythology
300: Social Sciences and Folklore
400: Languages and Grammar
500: Math and Science
600: Medicine and Technology
700: Arts and Recreation
800: Literature
900: Geography and History

General Rules
1) This challenge will run from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012 – this means for a book to qualify for this challenge you will have to start it on or after 1/1/12 and finish it before 12/31/12.
2) Books read for this challenge may be used to meet the requirements of any other reading challenges you are participating in.
3) You must complete the main monthly challenge. All mini-challenges are optional.
4) You may join the challenge at any time during the year.
5) It’s okay to read a book you’ve read before. Just make sure you are reading it again in 2012.

Rules for Bloggers
1) All General Rules (see above)
2) After signing up, please make a post on your blog telling people about the challenge and linking back to this blog.
3) Link back to this blog either in your blog roll or with a button (provided in the sidebar).
4) After reading a book that meets this challenge, create a post on your blog about the book. Come back to this blog and leave a link on that post’s Mr. Linky.

Rules for Non-Bloggers
1) All General Rules (see above)
2) Sign up in the comments section of the sign-up page.
3)After reading a book that meets this challenge, come back to this blog and tell us about the book in that post’s comments section.
That’s it! If you want to participate head over to the sign-up page!