My Most Recent Reads - June, 2014

Overall, June was a great month for reading though I didn't complete any physical books.  I read 32 books in total and that's not that bad, bringing my year's total up to 146 for 2014.  I'll take it!  I was pretty busy with lots of projects and working through several different anthologies, so that's to be expected.  But I still found some great reads this month that I'm talking about here.


It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by Danah Boyd


Image book cover: It's Complicated The Social Lives of Networked Teens by Danah Boyd from http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/download-a-free-copy-of-danah-boyds-book-its-complicated-the-social-lives-of-networked-teens.html
Last month, I talked about iRules as an essential text for any parent or anyone who works with youth and looks to mentor them with social media.  Well, Boyd's book is a counterpart iRules.  Where iRules provides a first-hand account that explores how a parent can navigate challenging conversations with youth, Boyd's text provides a much wider and research-oriented context from teens' points of view about what they are doing and why.   Boyd does well in swimming through the misinformation, the fear-speak, and the generational differences to help understand what is really going on.  It's a solid read for anyone who wants to better understand that our youth are not lost and destined fro disaster.  By the way, you can find this book for free (legally!) at this website!



A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger

Image book cover: A More Beautiful Question-The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger from http://amorebeautifulquestion.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/3DCover2AMoreBeautifulQuestionShadow.png
It's not about knowing the answers, it's about being able to ask questions.  That's the message of Berger's text and he provides a great range of ideas about how to get to asking great questions.  I appreciate this book a lot, especially since I have as a tag line on my emails, "I wish I had all the answers; better yet, I wish I knew all the questions to ask."  This book helped with thinking about questions to ask but also about ways of encouraging questions in teaching and learning that could produce solid outcomes for students.  It's a versatile book that provides a lot of different ways to think about asking questions for learning, for working, and for living.




Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress by Becky Pettit 

Image book cover: Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress by Becky Pettit from https://www.russellsage.org/publications/invisible-men
The book is a fascinating look at the element of incarceration among African Americans (particularly male) and how because of demographics gathering such as the census and polling work, has left a wide gap about the nature of racial progress over the last 60 years.  The result is a stark difference in perception between what is reported to have occurred in terms of racial progress and how things really are.  Pettit traces connects these changes to the rise of the prison industrial complex and its explosion since the 1970s and 1980s.  The disproportionate amount of African Americans in prison has left them unaccounted in a variety of other data for different reasons and thus, hide the actual disparities.  The result is political action and choices that do not necessarily make up for the continued problems created through historically institutional racism.    

For other best picks over the last year, check out previous monthly reviews:


AUDIOBOOKS
  • Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet by Julian Assange et al
  • A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger
  • Foucault: A Very Short Introduction by Gary Gutting
  • The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson
  • It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by Danah Boyd
  • The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
  • Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds by Carmine Gallo 
  • Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress by Pettit Becky
  • Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed by Alexis Ohanian
  • Magnificent Vibration by Rick Springfield
  • The Sound Book: The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World by Trevor Cox


GRAPHIC NOVELS

  • Star Wars:  Twilight by John Ostrander
  • Star Wars:  Outlander by John Ostrander
  • The Victories Volume 2: Transhuman by Michael Avon Oeming, 
  • Star Wars: Emissaries to Malastare by Timothy Truman
  • Last Stand on Jabiim (Star Wars: Clone Wars, #3) by Haden Blackman
  • Victories and Sacrifices (Star Wars: Clone Wars, #2) by Haden Blackman
  • Marvel Knights: X-Men: Haunted by Brahm Revel
  • Pretty Deadly, Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick
  • Osamu Tezuka: The Mysterious Underground Men by Osamu Tezuka
  • Star Wars: Dark Times, Vol. 7: A Spark Remains by Randy Stradley
  • Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin by Tim Siedell
  • Invincible Volume 19: The War at Home by Robert Kirkman
  • Batman, Vol. 4: Zero Year - Secret City by Scott Snyder
  • Aquaman, Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis by Geoff Johns
  • X-Men, Vol. 2: Muertas by Brian Wood
  • Justice League, Vol. 4: The Grid by Geoff Johns
  • Star Wars: Legacy II, Vol. 1: Prisoner of the Floating World by Corinna Sara Bechko
  • Swamp Thing, Vol. 3: Rotworld: The Green Kingdom by Scott Snyder
  • Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery by Kurtis Wiebe
  • Star Wars, Volume 2: From the Ruins of Alderaan by Brian Wood
  • Garth Ennis' Red Team Volume 1 by Garth Ennis
  • Todd, the Ugliest Kid on Earth Vol. 1 by Ken Kristensen
  • Berserk, Vol. 01 by Kentaro 



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