A short book report because I'm tired

I got home from the airport at 1am last night and by 10am I was up, had turned out horses, done stalls, and was in the saddle for my horse class. After a horse class and teaching a riding lesson, I ate some lunch then sat down on the couch to read a book for a bit because I was tired. I was so tired that I fell sound asleep for three hours. THREE. I don't usually nap and when I do it's usually under an hour. Three hour naps are extremely rare. I guess I was a little tired.

My mom is recovering well, though knee surgery is tough and not terribly enjoyable. I'm glad I could go out for a bit to help. She has a friend staying with her currently and then my sister-in-law will be heading out. I did a lot of reading while as I was there as we weren't exactly running around doing things. I finished a mystery, am partway through another mystery, and made a good dent in the three non-fiction books I took along. (Yes, I packed five books for a four day trip. One hates to run the risk of running out of books.)

First the mystery. It's called A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee. It's set in 1919 Calcutta, India at the end of the Raj. The detective is a former Scotland Yard inspector who has just arrived in India. It's a well written book and I enjoyed it immensely. I was doubly excited to discover afterwards that it is the first book of a series and there are four more books with the same characters. I love finding a new series! If you were in a need of a good mystery, check this one out.

I'm going to leave you with one quote from my non-fiction reading (don't worry, it's not long) because I'm still tired despite my three hour nap. And it's about brain development and play, so how could I not? This is from Mirroring People: The Science of Empathy and How We Connect With Others by Marco Iacoboni. It's pretty much about mirror neurons... their discovery and how they seem to work. Here's another reason why it is so vital that children are given ample opportunity to play:

"Another developmental psychologist, Carol Eckerman, has shown strong ties between imitation and verbal communication in children. When toddlers who do not know how to speak interact, they tend ot play imitation games. The more a toddler plays imitation games, the more the same child will be a fluent speaker a year or two later. Imitation seems like the prelude and the facilitator of verbal communication among young children." (p. 50)


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