What We Are Reading Today: Normal Family

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Updated 31 July 2022
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What We Are Reading Today: Normal Family

  • The first-time memoirist recounts a dramatically different family revelation from DNA testing

Author: Chrysta Bilton

This is a memoir about chaos, addiction and two little girls brought up in an unconventional household.
Normal Family is a beautifully written memoir by Chrysta Bilton, who has finally come to terms with the unconventional and sometimes chaotic upbringing that she experienced.
It is an extraordinary account of growing up in a dysfunctional family, and the far-reaching effects of prejudice and trauma.
The first-time memoirist recounts a dramatically different family revelation from DNA testing.
“Bringing us into the fold of a deeply dysfunctional yet fiercely loving clan that is anything but ‘normal,’ this emotional roller coaster of a memoir will make you cry, laugh, and rethink the meaning of family,” said a review on goodreads.com.
It’s her astonishing childhood which really grips readers from the beginning.
Bilton “impeccably takes us on her journey of self-discovery, writing in such a way that you feel like you are living her life along with her,” said the review.
The memoir underscore the need for people to learn the truths about their biological families.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘A Natural History of Shells’ by Geerat Vermeij

Updated 03 May 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘A Natural History of Shells’ by Geerat Vermeij

Geerat Vermeij wrote this “celebration of shells” to share his enthusiasm for these supremely elegant creations and what they can teach us about nature.

Most popular books on shells emphasize the identification of species, but Vermeij uses shells as a way to explore major ideas in biology.

How are shells built? How do they work? And how did they evolve?

With lucidity and charm, the MacArthur-winning evolutionary biologist reveals how shells give us insights into the lives of animals today and in the distant geological past.


What We Are Reading Today: The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs 

Updated 02 May 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs 

Author: Gregory S. Paul

The bestselling “Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs” remains the must-have book for anyone who loves dinosaurs, from amateur enthusiasts to professional paleontologists. Now extensively revised and expanded, this dazzlingly illustrated large-format edition features nearly 100 new dinosaur species and hundreds of new and updated illustrations, bringing readers up to the minute on the latest discoveries and research that are radically transforming what we know about dinosaurs and their world.


What We Are Reading Today: The Virtue Proposition by Sig Berg

Updated 01 May 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: The Virtue Proposition by Sig Berg

Sig Berg, founder of the Severn Leadership Group, explains what’s missing from traditional leadership, with its emphasis on the rules and rituals of boardrooms and C-suites, and from iconoclastic leadership, which urges you to move fast and break things.

Neither of these embrace virtues, and neither has, nor ever will, deliver consistent superior results.

There is a courageous third way: virtuous leadership.

This book speaks to men and women who witness the absence of virtues and know they can do better, says a review published on goodreads.com.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Stellar English’

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Updated 30 April 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Stellar English’

Author: FRANK L. CIOFFI

“Stellar English” lays out the fundamentals of effective writing, from word choice and punctuation to parts of speech and common errors.

Frank Cioffi emphasizes how formal written English—though only a sub-dialect of the language—enables writers to reach a wide and heterogenous audience.

Cioffi’s many example sentences illustrating grammatical principles tilt in an otherworldly direction, making up a science fiction story involving alien invasion.

 


What We Are Reading Today: A Deadly Indifference

Updated 29 April 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: A Deadly Indifference

Author: Marshall Jevons

Harvard professor Henry Spearman—an ingenious amateur sleuth who uses economics to size up every situation—is sent by an American entrepreneur to Cambridge, England.

Spearman’s mission is to scout out the purchase of the most famous house in economic science: Balliol Croft, the former home of Professor Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes’s teacher and the font of modern economic theory.

After a shocking murder, Spearman realizes that his own life is in danger as he finds himself face-to-face with the most diabolical killer in his career.