Friday Reads & Recommends

Today was my last day at Parenting. If you would like to read my totally phoned-in last post, it is here!* Ta da! So some of you were asking about what's going on over there and this is what I know: they are "discontinuing" the blog. I actually emailed my editor last month to say I didn't want to renew my contract and she said they were going to get rid of the Parenting Post ANYWAY. So! I am under the impression they are going to focus on the parts of the website that get some traffic. Heh. If you first found me over there, if you ever left a comment, if you ever read a POST over at Parenting, I really appreciate it. I was never sure how they picked their writers or what, exactly, they liked about the garbage I spewed out every week, but I was grateful for the opportunity. It was, overall, a good experience, though I AM pretty happy to not have to do my weekly ohcrapwhatamIgoingtowritethisweek panic dance anymore. 

Christopher Buckley's thoughts were the best thing I read about the passing of Christopher Hitchens. 

"At first glance Veronica Mars and Pride and Prejudice have little in common" and yet...

This NYT piece about intelligence agencies failing to note the death of Kim Jong Il was a little... unnerving. Sort of. I don't know. Seems like this was a big thing to miss, yes?

This piece about Seattle's political kneejerk reactions and assumptions is for the locals. The writer was a Thorn In The Side of my favorite boss and I can't read anything he writes without wondering what Favorite Boss would think. Not sure what he'd think about this one, but I liked it (and agreed with most of it). 

Lure of Chinese Tuition Pushes Out Asian-Americans. This is mostly about the California system, but my alma mater makes an appearance!

Here I considered linking to a bunch of "how to make an image map with CSS" tutorials and decided you guys wouldn't be into that. 

Instead I will leave you with three articles from Businessweek, of all places. The first is Lego Is For Girls. SUPER INTERESTING, you guys. The second is about women CEOs and the men who run their homes and raise their children. The third: Three Types of People To Fire Immediately.

I haven't read any awesome books lately (a couple of NOT awesome ones)... I just started the new Charles Todd Inspector Rutledge novel, which is great except it is not saying ANYTHING about Meredith Channing or where she went (she is OBVS supposed to marry Inspector Rutledge!!!) And I am probably going to download John Green's new book as soon as I'm done with my frillionth English murder mystery. I forget what it's called. I know it's about teenagers with cancer. CAN I JUST READ A NOT-SAD YA NOVEL???

 

*thanks for your ideas on what to write for my last post. I went with the "what have I learned" which was as boring as it sounds. I LOVED the "how has it affected your marriage" idea but I would MUCH rather write about that HERE. Remind me to do that if I keep writing about baby sleep, okay? No one wants to hear about baby sleep. 

Comments

[Sonya aka Glam-O-Mommy]

I'm sad about the Parenting Post! It was one of the first things I read every day. I would be like, ooh today's Tuesday, so it's Erin! Today's Thursday, so it's Maggie! Obvs, I am a dork, but still, I really enjoyed reading all the different viewpoints. Anyhoo, that mystery you are reading sounds good. I love English murder mysteries, so I'm going to have to add yours to my Goodreads list and try to find some time to read!

[Krista]

I really liked your final post on Parenting. The parenting post is how I originally found your blog and I'm really sad they are dropping it.

I also love British murder mysteries. I don't think I would recommend depressing novels about teens with cancer to anyone, especially a sleep deprived new mom.

[Carrie]

Loved the article about Legos for girls! Having come from a family with only sisters, I am just now discovering a love of Legos since I'm a mom of boys. Over Christmas my parents and I had a big discussion of "why didn't you ever buy us legos when we were kids?" Because I think I would have liked them!

[Janey]

I, too, loved the Legos article. Maybe we haven't reached the "princess" stage yet, but Sara loves her red/blue/green legos. Also, her favorite Christmas gift was an airplain that you can put a car inside (from the Pixar Cars series). It came with a booklet of other toys you could purchase, but right on the cover it exclaimed "Boys Toys!". Well, I threw that away and almost cried. Why couldn't it have just said "Action Toys". I know the day is coming when my little girl will reject her car and train collections because other girls call them "boy toys", and it will crush me, but right now she uses her pink doll house as a garage and gass station!

[Beth]

I initially became a reader of your blog from your posts at Parenting. Parenting in fact, is how I started reading blogs at all. I'm happy for the role it's played for me!

[Jenna H.]

I found you on Parenting, and you were (and I guess still would be) my favorite of the mommy bloggers! Thanks for clearing up the mystery though, I was seriously starting to wonder what crazy thing Parenting was doing to make all the bloggers simultaneously jump ship!! I'm glad I get to still read your exploits- I appreciate the advice in advance (I have one baby and we're working on #2). One thing I would recommend for the lack of long baby naps is wearing her in a sling- worked wonders when mine was that age. Obvs you have to pick a safe one, but they'll nap in it for hours if you let them!!

[AliaAtreidesBr]

Too bad Parenting will not go on with the Parenting Post. I used to read it everyday - basically all I would read there.

However, it's a good thing that you and other of my favorite writers there have their own blogs. It's a pity, though, because I remember getting so many valuable ideas and words there.

Anyway, thanks for the links. I actually would have enjoyed the one about the image map, though. I'm going to google it now.

Great last post in Parenting, but I'll be waiting for the one about marriage. Bye!