All The Answers By Kate Messner Summary

1.) Overall main topic of this book connects between the issue of motherhood and feminism. One major key point I found while reading this book is the author, Amber Kinser explains the growth and progress of the role of mothers in the american society meaning how the roles have changed overtime. A major theme of Kinser’s book is that the public debates may focus on mothering, but the issues affect us all.  Cutting back on health care for women, on education, and on jobs for teachers, social workers and others in the service sector have their greatest impact on mothers, but they affect all of us. Motherhood becomes a symbol for how men and women, single and married, gay and straight, deal with the need for individual options and the need to act for the good of others.

The Graphic Novel, “What It Is”, by Lynda Barry expresses the idea of creativity in the perspective of the author. By gradually discussing her childhood experience, we were given her own reflection about how creativity is formed. However, it wasn’t a gentle and smooth road for Barry. A section of this book titled “Two Questions” deals with one of the many obstacles Barry had to face throughout her life. This section is useful for understanding the creative process.

¨There was a law against luke. Not him personally everyone like him, kids who were born after their parents already had two babies (pg 6)¨. Would you like a law against you? Among the hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix clearly shows that dictatorship is horrible. In this novel Luke is not allowed to leave the house or be seen. Luke leaves the house in cover and meets a girl the same as him she can't go anywhere so she tries to convince luke to rebel to be like regular people with her but he is to nervous. Luke shows the character traits of brave, jealousy and adventurous as he hides in the shadows.

Stephen Jay Gould analyses Paul Broca’s data of inferior women to superior men through the study of Craniometry in his piece, Women’s Brains. While Broca claims women are unintelligent when compared to men through thorough measurement of the brain; Gould realizes the accusations are false due to their combination of science to social correlation and beliefs. Gould argues that women are not inferior; they are only baring the brunt of unfair scientific research conducted to prove society beliefs. Even the most reliable scientific data and research is not valid within the study of social norms and accepted society stereotypes.

In The Meaning of Life, Richard Taylor argues that meaningless lives our lives that consist of a repetitive cycle of struggles that do not give us any purpose. Taylor describes a meaningful life as one that has a purpose, and is creative and unique to that specific person. Also, the meaningful life is lived in a good and just manner. In The Meanings of Lives, Susan Wolf argues lives that are not involved in an activity that brings positive value are meaningless lives. A person that has a meaningless life by the standards of Taylor can still have a life that is going well for them. Their well-being is not dependent on whether they have a meaningful life or not. Wolf believes that meaningfulness is an important factor in a person’s well-being. Well-being is present when a person’s is living a life that is going positive according to themselves. A person who lives a life that is meaningless as a result of being repetitive and pointless can still have a life that is going well for them.

In the introduction of the book, Levitt and Dubner use scenarios from history and everyday events that explain how in many of them, generally accepted beliefs, known as conventional wisdom, are wrong. For example, they mention a scenario in which crime rates in the 1990’s were expected to rise greatly; however, they dropped to its lowest level in 35 years. Due to conventional wisdom, people predicted the increase in crime rates, crime was deemed unstoppable.

The Red Book by Barbara Lehman is a wordless book which takes place in an urban snowy city. This book centers around a young boy and a young girl who are at different locations and long to meet each other. The young girl, one of the main characters, walked down the street on a snowy day and found a red book sticking out in the snow. The girl took the book with her to school when she began to look at it during class. The pictures illustrated views of an island, along with a young boy on the island, who happened to be the other main character.

I read Four by Veronica Roth and I finished all 285 pages. This book was about a man named Four who has to go through the faction system, the faction system is where you have to choose one job for the rest of his life, and has to decide what faction he will be part of for the rest of his life. The faction he decides is Dauntless. Dauntless will teach him to be mentally and physically tough throughout his life, and he eventually will become a leader of Dauntless.

Efficiency is not always the answer. David Owen explains that society is headed in the wrong direction, believing that to be greener we need to make our everyday lives more efficient when in reality we need to change our behavior. We as consumers want to be sustainable and take care of the Earth we live on while ironically expanding our collection of trinkets. Everything we believe in being efficient and green is misrepresented and to save the Earth the truth needs to be heard.

All Our Relations by Winona LaDuke describes the neglect and unfair hardships that Native American people have had to experience over time. LaDuke uses Aristotelian appeals such as logos and pathos to tell how the white man disparaged these people. She spoke of Gail Small, a Montana State University professor and a well-known advocate for Native peoples. The way LaDuke tells Small’s story is perhaps the most and persuasive of all.

“In 2009, 33 million people in the United States were second generation immigrants, representing 11% of the national population. The children of such immigrants in the U.S., also known as "second generation immigrants," experience a cultural conflict between that of their parents and that of mainstream U.S. society” (Wikipedia 1). Amy Tan the author of “Two Kinds”, and the young character in the story both are a second generation immigrants, who have struggled in their life with parents, about the culture they assimilating and their real culture.

After reading the chapter "Everything Worth Knowing" in Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse or A Year in the Classroom by Chris Haskell, I feel comfortable knowing I can embrace the future of teaching and create the learning environment I want for my students. And this is definitely a 180 degree turn from my formal education!

This is a wonderful monograph by Melissa Archer with a comprehensive study of the theme of “worship in the Apocalypse”. It illustrates various aspects of worship and the role of worship in the Apocalypse. The language of the book and different approaches to the theme are appreciated, because those are simple and clear to understand the theme.

Mark Twain once said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect)” (“Mark Twain Goodreads” 1). Katherine Watson, a new and very certain art history professor at an all girls’ college known as Wellesley, demonstrates the recurring theme of being in opposition against her society. Mrs. Watson is most interested in changing the lives of women and opening their minds to freedom. In the movie, Mona Lisa Smiles, Mrs. Watson provides her personal opinion to whether getting married or attending law school is further important, and also attempts to utilize her own teaching method, which was unacceptable at the strict school of Wellesley. Mrs. Watson soon discovers that the environment of Wellesley

In today’s reading I read about, the young boy said he had learned something that night from a raccoon bossing Jessie G. james- to animals, might is right, the young boy said he was the biggest, the oldest, he was going to tell them so. The boy Growled and Snarled and Hissed and Snorted. It worked. They understood and move away. Some looked back and their eyes glowed. The red eyes chilled me. Never had there been more real halloween night. And that’s what I read in today’s