30 Books for April: 365 Books a Year Challenge

So I made it successfully through April with 30 books.  Here's the Goodreads listing and details.  And with this month's books, that puts me at 128 books this year.  It's kind of awesome on its owns.

Here's the tally so far:

• March - 32 Books
• February - 33 Books
• January - 33 Books

Highlights of the month--there were actually a couple that I found quite rewarding and insightful.

My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture by Susan Blum

This should be required reading for any college-level instructor.  Blum's accessible yet complex discussion sheds light on the slippery slope of what academic dishonesty consists of, how and why students are likely to commit it, and the challenges in addressing it.  But more than anything, Blum vividly depicts the complexity of college culture that plays a central role in the development of cheating.

Infinite Progress: How the Internet and Technology Will End Ignorance, Disease, Poverty, Hunger, and War by Byron Reese

It's relieving to see a text that celebrates what technology has done and has the potential to do.  I don't know if I find the entirety of Reese's writing to be possible as he bypasses and largely ignores the environmental issues that seem to impede our changes of attaining a nearly utopian future, but I applaud his argument in so far as it connected the dots in how technology can reasonable diminish a great deal of harms to human existence.

The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath by Nicco Mele

I am limited in discussing this book in great detail as I'm reviewing the audiobook for a publication.  That being said, it resonated much with Byron Reese's Infinite Progress in the ways it identifies the possibilities and opportunities technologies affords us--though with a more developed thread of the challenges it provides for us as well.

50 Digital Ideas You Really Need to Know by Tom  Chatfield

Chatfield's book is a purely distilled text of the major ideas and elements of digital media one would need to know or might want a bit more clarity on.  Chatfield lays out clear yet sufficiently complex ideas so that this feels less like a "Just for Dummies" book and more like an adult introduction.  This works well because for neophyte and professional alike, there is apt to be plenty to learn (or just better contextualize).  Again, one of those texts that should be an essential for any digital native or immigrant.

Challenging Casanova: Beyond the stereotype of the promiscuous young male by Andrew Smiler

Boys don't have to be "boys" but we sure want them to think so.  Overall, I appreciate Smiler's effort to delegitimize male culture that emphasizes and trains men to be "Casanovas" (promiscuous and disregardful of women).  He hits upon several points that correspond to my own experience while also leading down some roads I had not thought of.  There are some places here he comes up short (e.g. he argues that the male as "player" only really began to be celebrated in the 1960s and beyond--but ignores characters like Costello who was a player regularly celebrated within the Abbott and Costello show).

Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word) by Thea Hillman

Hillman's exploration of her own challenges and sense-making as an intersex person is an excellent work for anyone better trying to understand intersex.  Filled with memoiric chapters, poetry, and other personal writing, the book crafts a nuance understanding of the battles one faces when the dominant culture has denied you space and personhood.

Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon

I plan to write more about Bazelon's book in another post on bullying, so I'll refrain from saying too much here.  However, it is a solid text that talks about bullying in some rather important and potent ways.  Bazelon moves beyond the simplistic victim and bully paradigm to get at the roots and complex issues that bullying represents.

Again, my physical reading wasn't high but I anticipated April to be a hard month in terms of physical reading, given everything going on.   I started the month off pretty strong but staggered in the last 10 days as my schedule got busy with the end of semester and getting ready for my trip.  However, this has set me up to have a strong early May of books, which will be good, considering how much of May will be occupied with travelling.  May could be the first month that I fall behind since I will be travelling for 3 weeks and am not likely to be as prodigious.

Here's the month's breakdown of books, audiobooks, and graphic novels:

BOOKS

• The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories Robert Chambers
• My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture by Susan Blum 

AUDIOBOOKS 

• Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reel 
• The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath by Nicco Mele 
• Challenging Casanova: Beyond the stereotype of the promiscuous young male by Andrew Smiler
• A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play by Vivian Gussin Paley
• Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley
• Laughter Therapy: A Comedy Collection for the Chronically Serious by NPR
• 50 Digital Ideas You Really Need to Know by Tom  Chatfield
• Infinite Progress: How the Internet and Technology Will End Ignorance, Disease, Poverty, Hunger, and War by Byron Reese
• Intersex by Thea Hillman
• The Turncoat: Renegades of the Revolution by Donna Thorland
• Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon
• Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures by Virginia Morell

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• The Unwritten, Vol. 7: The Wound by Mike Carey
• Red Lanterns, Vol. 1: Blood and Rage by Peter Milligan
• Red Lanterns, Vol. 2: The Death of the Red Lanterns by Peter Milligan
• Angel and Faith: Family Reunion by Christos Gage
• Alivs Rex: Book 1 by Kevin Grevioux 
• North Wind by David Digilio
• Worlds' Finest, Vol. 1: The Lost Daughters of Earth 2 by Paul Levitz
• Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight by Kelly DeConnick
• Avengers vs. X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis 
• Avengers vs. X-Men: Consequences by Kieron Gillen
• Batman, Vol. 2: The City of Owls by Scott Snyder
• Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life As A Weapon by Matt Fraction
• Justice League International, Vol. 2: Breakdown by Dan Jurgens
• Rock Bottom by Joe Casey
• Avengers: The Origin by Joe Casey
• The Massive, Vol. 1: Black Pacific by Brian Wood

---

Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts!. You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.