Great Reads

The secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children. When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent." French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special. Yet, the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two or three months old while those of her American friends take a year or more. French kids eat well-rounded meals that are more likely to include braised leeks than chicken nuggets. And while her American friends spend their visits resolving spats between their kids, her French friends sip coffee while the kids play. Motherhood itself is a whole different experience in France. There's no role model, as there is in America, for the harried new mom with no life of her own. French mothers assume that even good parents aren't at the constant service of their children and that there's no need to feel guilty about this. They have an easy, calm authority with their kids that Druckerman can only envy. Of course, French parenting wouldn't be worth talking about if it produced robotic, joyless children. In fact, French kids are just as boisterous, curious, and creative as Americans. They're just far better behaved and more in command of themselves. While some American toddlers are getting Mandarin tutors and preliteracy training, French kids are- by design-toddling around and discovering the world at their own pace. With a notebook stashed in her diaper bag, Druckerman-a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal -sets out to learn the secrets to raising a society of good little sleepers, gourmet eaters, and reasonably relaxed parents. She discovers that French parents are extremely strict about some things and strikingly permissive about others. And she realizes that to be a different kind of parent, you don't just need a different parenting philosophy. You need a very different view of what a child actually is. While finding her own firm non , Druckerman discovers that children-including her own-are capable of feats she'd never imagined.

Cain, whose work on introversion has appeared in newspapers and magazines, questions the modern American business culture that overlooks the positive characteristics of introverts such as persistence, reflection, and sensitivity to others' feelings. She explains the neurobiology and psychology of temperament in plain language and compares Western culture, where the individual is most important, to Eastern culture, where the group is valued more highly than the individual. She offers advice for introverts on small talk, networking, and communicating with extroverts, and even shows how to pretend to be an extrovert when necessary. She also tells how to help an introverted child. Cain teaches negotiation skills. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Want to make a difference in your community, but don't know how -- or where -- to start? Here, volunteer organizer David Levinson offers a host of suggestions from volunteering time to donating money or items of value. He uses his personal experience to give advice on identifying what you have to offer, finding the best situation for you, and sticking to your commitment. Arguing that anyone can make worthwhile contributions regardless of time or circumstances, Levinson refers readers to volunteer resources while candidly addressing both the benefits and pitfalls of volunteering. "Thorough, engaging, and highly relevant" (Publishers Weekly), this guide will be invaluable if you're looking into volunteering.

It's February. How are those resolutions holding up? Hopefully you're still on top of them and making progress towards whatever your goals are, but if you find yourself falling off the wagon again (or can't quite remember if you made any resolutions), then perhaps you should check out This Year I Will... Introducing a clear, precise formula for planning, implementing, and maintaining change -- with inspirational stories, ingenious strategies, and motivational ideas to boot -- this book is designed to help you achieve success, regardless of what your goals might be. Whether they're New Year's goals or not, if you need help sticking with your resolutions, give this book a try.

If you read and appreciated Richard Carlson's Don't Sweat the Small Stuff as a way to minimize stress, the next logical step might be to work on making small changes to decrease the presence of annoyances in your life. Full of simple, practical advice for making small changes that add up to huge gains, this little book shows that it doesn't have to take a total overhaul to make a difference. Instead, Carlson reveals that little adjustments are often all that are necessary; choosing to adopt a happier attitude and learning how to say no are just two of the 39 recommendations he offers.

Known for bestselling books on improving relationships between family members, Harriet Lerner here presents one for individuals in long-term relationships. Outlining more than 100 practices for navigating challenges in coupledom, Lerner provides coverage of such age-old problems as lack of communication and incompatible sexual desires. She also addresses issues common to today's world, such as an individual's relationship with technology (is your partner infrequently parted from her phone? Does he obsessively play video games?). With each "rule" two pages long or less, these solutions are easy to read and easy to dip into.