Reading - Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

I have had this book for probably 3 years, I am ashamed to admit. I finally picked it up this week, and I am so glad I did! I have always been interested this topic, but it's even more timely than I realized. Why do irrational ideas, with no basis in fact (like many promoted by certain political groups) take hold, while the truth languishes? I am going to find out! Actually, I've already read the 6 principles of sticky ideas in the introduction, but now I will steep myself in them and hopefully come out the other side with an understanding of how to be more persuasive with my ideas.

Have read: Broken Glass Park

Read and really liked Broken Glass Park. Read my review here.

Reading: The Help

Yes, finally, reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett, for book group. A best seller, 4+ stars on Amazon, starred review from Publisher's Weekly, so, probably not surprising that I am enjoying it. It's the engrossing story of a group of women from Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960's -- some of them young, white women and others their African-American maids. I'm only a quarter of the way through it, so I can't say how it will ultimately seem to me, but I am liking it SO much better than the last book I read.

Still reading

I'm still reading Dear Money, or rather, I'm reading it again. I got so frustrated with the poor little successful author who wanted to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous in New York I had to put it down. I care just barely enough about some of the characters (although not the author protagonist) to see it through. I think.

In the meantime, I read Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay, the one Dexter book I still had left. I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as the others. It could have been that I was distracted a lot while reading; I was visiting my mother and was repeatedly interrupted. But that's not really it. In Dexter in the Dark, Lindsay explains Dexter in an otherworldly fashion -- his suffering has called to him an evil spirit that drives him to kill.

Why, why, why? Why mess with Dexter-as-sociopath? He's much more interesting when he is merely human. Now we know that his evil acts actually stem from evil, as an entity separate from humanity, that has inhabited him. Most unsatisfactory. Perhaps I should seek out an author interview to see if he explains himself. Humph.