50 book challenge update

It's officially going badly. There is no way I am going to meet my mark unless you guys let me count The Belly Button Book, Goodnight Moon and others of the like.

 I have finished the Lucifer Effect by Dr. Phil Zimbardo.  That's the guy who created the Standford Prison Experiment (SPE).  Basically, he took average, normal, college kids and created a simulated prison setting. Half of the kids were designated as guards, the other half prisoners. By 6 days he had to close the experiment, due to abuse that the "guards" were inflicting on the "prisoners".  What he showed was that normal, average people will do evil things when the situation is such that allows for this type of behavior to flourish.  It's a real eye opener. I encourage everyone to read this book.  He discusses at length the SPE, which is worth the price of admission right there. He also looks into other groundbreaking social psychology experiments on the nature of evil, the prisoner abuses in Iraq and finally discusses heroism.  Importantly, he identifies ways of ensuring that we don't get caught in this trap of doing bad things. Now, you may think that you would never do anything horrible, but the whole point of the book is that normal, average (and let's face it, we're all average) people will do evil if the situation allows.  Forewarned is forearmed, again take a look.  http://www.lucifereffect.com/

A side note: in looniverisy, I took psych 100, and Dr. Phil Z was the author of our textbook. The text came with an instructional video, that our proff showed on our Friday afternoon lecture. Cause I am a nerdling, I went to the class, and watched the video, narrated by Dr. Z. Anyway, long story short, this guy has a certain way of talking, so from then on when I read the text I could "hear" his voice. cra-ZIE!

I also read a tacky summer read called Mistress in the Art of Death. Premise: it's the 1600s (ish... forget the exact date, but you get the picture) and someone is killing kids in Cambridge.  Woman pathologist is sent to look into the case.  Don't read it. The ending is the worst piece of crap I have stumbled on in a long time. Or if you want to read it, once they catch the bad guy, stop reading.  Trust me, everything works out in the end. Nope no deus ex machina here.... nope, look elsewhere for a  king coming forth to right wrongs, no tacked on pathetic -never-in-a-million-years-would-this-type-of-romance-happen-in-this-time-period romances, and definatly no overly dramatic rogue with a heart of gold and the strong willful women who love them endings.  Grrr.... 

What else. Bought a new car (Kia Rondo: v6: LOVE IT!!!) got a great price too.  Went my parent's cottage witht the family. Good, but stressful times. (time with family is no vacation).

Erica is doing mah-velous.  I wish she would babble a bit more. She's 6 months and doesn't do the da-da-da ma-ma-ma or ba-ba-ba thing yet. She did it for a while, but mastered the ba-ba-bas and never went on to any other consonant-vowel combos. Not too worried yet, but she's my first, so yeah I guess I worry a bit about everything.

Hope ya'll are having a fantastic summer!