Drive by Daniel Pink

Last year, for the first time in many years, I won a prize at the library's summer reading program - and this was the book. A quick read, very good - it talks about what truly motivates us, what that means for business and education. It didn't surprise me, but only because I'd had an organizational behavior class several years before that talked about the same things. This is the book that pulls that information into popular literature.

Shortly after I read this, my sister sent me a link to a lecture on it here - a beautiful summary, very well done. Highly recommended.

The Curry Book by Nancie McDermott

If you're into expanding the flavors you try without purchasing expensive, exotic ingredients, spices are a great way to go. Spices naturally lend themselves to curries - hence this book on my shelf. This is the book that taught me to make my own curry powder (Indian) - the short or the long way; curry paste (Thai) - red, green, or yellow; some fabulous chutneys; and now-perennial favorites such as Tandoori-Style Chicken, Black-eyed pea and eggplant curry; and Thai curry - any kind. Also has recipes for chapatis and curried cashew chicken salad (possibly my favorite).

Nurtureshock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

This is another book that has changed the way I do things. In the first part (I forget if it's the first chapter or the introduction) we learn that the two reporters who wrote this are parents themselves; bewildered (as who isn't?) by the many, contrary pieces of parenting advice out there, they decided to spend some time finding out what the research out there really says. This book is the result.
Bedtime, praise, racism, lying, social success; ten chapters of well-written science--I don't think there was one I didn't learn something - and something valuable - from.
Probably read-aloud-able; certainly for adults (interesting and informative, but maybe not the most interesting subjects for children - then again, maybe very interesting for children). A book I think every future (or current) parent should read.

Born to Run:A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall

This book was recommended to me by the wonderful women of book club - their collective taste has proven repeatedly excellent in the past, so when several of them said they'd enjoyed this, I put it on hold at the library.
So now both I and my husband have read this, and it was well worth the time. The biomechanical chapter was probably my favorite (second or third from the end, I think) closely followed by the chapter on evolutionary arguments (immediately following). Basically, the book is a defense of the proposition that human beings are, literally, designed for running. Not speed, as in sprinting, but endurance - long distances. Really, really long distances. That running injuries come from oversupporting the arch of the foot, leading to the dual problem of weakened muscles (anyone remember when women were mistakenly told to wear girdles all the time, to support those overworked muscles?) and insufficient motion for the foot to do what it's designed to do - capture, spread, and re-release the energy of the impact when you land on it.
There's a bit of language that eliminates this from my read-aloud list, unless you're willing to edit on the fly, which is a pity, because otherwise the writing is clear, engaging, and informative- perfect for the pre-teen/early teen who is interested in the how as well as the why of running.

The Book of Mormon

I was thinking to start in on some books which have significantly changed my life for the better - and then I realized that I was about to ignore the longest-standing of books in that category, which for me would be the Book of Mormon.
My mother read the Book of Mormon when she was 18 or so, and over the course of a year discovered the positive effect it's teachings had in her life. She was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when she was 19. When she was 21, she met and married my dad.
So the influence of this book in my life started a long time ago. Because of it, I was taught from an early age to be kind, to be generous, to try to do good with the resources I have. That I am not here for my own pleasure, but for the eternal good of myself and those I come in contact with. That is a remarkable difference in attitude, and makes a great deal of difference in how I live.
Don't get me wrong - nobody (that I know) lives up to those ideals perfectly. But this book has another gift - and I will quote it here: "if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you." So it clarifies the truth found in the bible - that God will speak to his children, will not leave them directionless - and in doing so helps us to access that much more power to make the changes we all need to make in our lives.
It testifies of Christ with such clarity that I understand, in a way that is not always clear to me from the Bible, who he is and why I should want to be like him. And it gives simple, powerful ways to change my life to do so.