The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies by Westbury

THE OXFORD GUIDE TO SCANDAL AND LIES by Kate Westbury is a wonderful historical and cozy mystery debut set in the early 1950s.  The main characters are very different from each other: Ginevra Bishop (estranged daughter of a viscount and former debutante, trying to find purpose) and Sidney Braithwaite (former soldier, recovering from wartime emotional trauma) although they are both students at Oxford. It is at the university that they witness the death of a beloved librarian and are recruited by the security services (Rook is their handler) to investigate further. The handful of suspects (both professors and students) provides multiple scenarios for the dual to unravel, all while fighting a romantic attraction.  Westbury’s THE OXFORD GUIDE TO SCANDAL AND LIES was a LibraryReads selection, a September 2026 Indie Next Pick and received a starred review form BookPage (“The chemistry is delightful, the setting is academia personified and the story itself encourages propulsive page-turning―a heck of a debut novel indeed”). Enjoy!

Breathing Under Water by Jacqueline Friedland

BREATHING UNDER WATER by Jacqueline Friedland received a starred review from Booklist and Kirkus called it “a touching novel about unexpected connections and found family.”  It is the first book in a while to really grab my attention, and I can readily see book groups finding so much to discuss. Chapter narration alternates between Berry Selinger and McKenna Jamison, two caring women from different generations with a host of issues to face. Berry is an assistant principal hoping for a promotion and trying to balance her career with supporting her sixteen-year-old son, Leo, who is autistic. McKenna is a scholarship college student who relies on her coach and swim team as her grandmother’s dementia worsens. Readers will be surprised by the workplace sabotage, marital strife, anger management issues, and homelessness which also feature in the plot. Yes, it is a lot for either one to handle and the stories intersect when McKenna begins teaching Leo to swim. He really is the pivotal character and obviously dear to Friedland who says her own mother taught her that “every child deserves to be seen, to be challenged, and most of all, to be respected and understood.” BREATHING UNDER WATER is about perseverance, self-reflection, and acceptance, as Berry says, “I don't see the trials and tribulations only as hardships. I can now see the ways they've led to profound growth, making us stronger, more resilient, and ready for whatever comes next.” 

How to Rule the World by Theo Baker

HOW TO RULE THE WORLD by Theo Baker is a fascinating memoir about his time as a Stanford undergrad and his reporting about hubris and allegations of research misconduct tied to then Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. It has certainly stirred some debate about elitism and Baker’s own privilege: see review and accompanying comments in The New York Times. I wonder how much of the negativity there is a result of what Anand Giridharadas, the reviewer, summarizes as how Baker “confronts his dreamland and concludes, painfully, that it is rotten, indifferent, built on lies, craving power for its own sake.” In any case, Baker’s account is well-written and well-substantiated and fact-checked. He describes not only the painful freshman journey to belong, but also the avarice and competition in the tech/finance and entrepreneurial world which Stanford feeds. HOW TO RULE THE WORLD received a starred review from Publishers Weekly (“incendiary account ... [and] ... a confident testament to the power of independent journalism from an author with a bright future”).

Baker’s reporting for The Stanford Daily won the George Polk Award. For a sense of his writing style, see this recent piece in The New York Times called “What A.I. Did to My College Class.”

I am Not a Robot by Joanna Stern

I AM NOT A ROBOT by Joanna Stern (former technology writer for The Wall Street Journal) is subtitled “My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything” and looks at a variety of areas (e.g., health, travel, communications) while using real world examples to showcase some potential benefits and downsides of AI. For example, Stern spent time with a very experienced radiologist and AI looking at mammogram and ultrasound images. It was fascinating to hear the health professional praise AI. In contrast, when she went to the dentist, AI was used as a crutch to justify recommending unnecessary and expensive procedures. Bill Gates told her, “The foundation of AI advances for healthcare are both in the discovery side and in the delivery side,” referring to being able to speed up innovation and to offer more and better explanations to patients. In fact, Stern interviewed “nearly two hundred people – from everyday users to some of the most powerful voices in this industry,” including  Steve Mann (the “father” of wearable computing), Sal Khan (educational technology leader), and Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft’s CEO) amongst others. She shares her thoughts in a variety formats, often essentially bullet pointing ideas as when she describes her experiences with a variety of wearables or her problems with relying on AI only to answer texts and emails (that was a very short experiment). Stern explores potential impacts on education through a visit to her alma mater, Union College in Schenectady, New York, finding that teachers and students share concerns about AI’s impact, especially on critical thinking skills. Stern’s writing style is distinctive, and Publishers Weekly acknowledges that, saying, “Stern’s balanced, clear-eyed assessments and crisp, funny prose (‘I was teetering on the edge of the AI-byss’) make this stand out among the growing crowd of books on AI.” Highly recommended.

Below is a 20 minute video interview dealing specifically with writing and researching I AM NOT A ROBOT, but if you are curious about Stern’s twelve years of tech reporting at The Wall Street Journal, check out a wider variety of videos.

How to Start by Jodi Kantor

HOW TO START by Jodi Kantor is subtitled “Discovering Your Life's Work” and is a slender (112 pages) text intended to offer informative reading for the 18- to 25-year-olds in your life. Kantor, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter for The New York Times, was asked to give the commencement speech at Columbia and that, in turn, inspired this text. She writes about developing craft (an often-slow accumulation of skill), identifying need, and the interplay between the two: “The craft she is learning will change and refine her assessment of that need. To meet that evolving vision, she will pursue higher forms of craft -- more skilled, new tools. Fresh needs will emerge, of the richness and strength of her craft will help her address the unexpected.” That may be a bit abstract for many 20-somethings, but they will likely benefit from Kantor’s acknowledgement of how universal their generation’s struggle is. HOW TO START is recommended by authors like Reid Hoffman (Superagency), Shonda Rimes (Year of Yes), and Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project) and this title also made me think of Tina Seelig’s What I Wish I Knew When I was 20 (she has a new book, What I Wish I Knew about Luck, forthcoming in June).

Jodi Kantor recently paired with Jennifer Breheny Wallace (Mattering) at a FAN session to discuss HOW TO START and the goals of financial stability, satisfaction (being connected to what one does), and contribution (how your career helps others). The recording will be available on the FAN (Family Action Network) website soon.

Bumblebee Season by Eileen Garvin

BUMBLEBEE SEASON by Eileen Garvin (Crow Talk) is the sequel to her debut novel The Music of Bees. She provides an update on the progress that wheelchair-bound Jake Stevenson is accomplishing with his bee hives and Queen of G Honey business located near the Hood River in Oregon. But there is much more to the story as Garvin introduces us to other characters. One is Abigail Elizabeth Plue, a young teaching assistant at the local university; she is interested in insects and nature, but she has difficulty with self-regulation and cooperating with others, resulting in a transfer to study bees. Flaco (“skinny”) is the nickname of Sebastian Santiago Luna Lopez; he’s only fourteen and has been sent North (entering the US without papers) by his mother to keep him away from the cartel in his hometown. Along with Jake, each is struggling with personal issues and rejection by a loved one, but Garvin unites them through a shared desire to protect the environment and a growing respect and care for each other. Belonging and community are key ideas in this book which she has dedicated to “anyone who’s ever longed for home.” BUMBLEBEE SEASON received a starred review from Booklist (“Undoubtedly inspired by her own experiences as an Oregon beekeeper, Garvin is a master at creating hive-like communities vibrating with characters readers will enthusiastically embrace.”).

Lucky by Design by Judd Kessler

LUCKY BY DESIGN by Judd Kessler is subtitled “The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want.” Kessler, Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, expounds upon his research about markets and scarce resources. Kessler spoke recently about his new book at a Family Action Network event. There, he explored ideas like getting a reservation at a popular restaurant or being admitted to an elite college. He indicated that it often serves one best to initially “settle for silver” to achieve a desirable outcome. Later, he stressed the importance of personal networking and signaling to the other side of a labor market or to a potential romantic partner that one is sincerely interested. Similar ideas are outlined in this text where, according to the author, “each chapter will provide guidance about how to play in certain types of markets and will arm you with a set of strategies to increase your chances of getting more of what you want from them.” In LUCKY BY DESIGN Kessler looks first at what he calls the three Es (having rules that are equitable, efficient, and easy). He then devotes chapters to different types of market rules: first come, first served; using a lottery; ranking preferences and so forth. While the findings are not especially surprising, this is an accessible text filled with multiple, everyday examples (like allocating household chores), often involving Kessler’s three children or the university academic environment with which he is most familiar. There is an excellent summary and an audio excerpt (read by the author) at the Next Big Idea Club website.

Paper Girl by Beth Macy

Geraldine Brooks (Horse and Memorial Days) says, “If you want to know why our nation is so divided read Beth Macy's PAPER GIRL.” This new text is subtitled “A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America.” As such, it is extremely relevant today and while being very informative, is also a difficult read emotionally. Best-selling and award-winning author Macy (Dopesick) returned to Urbana, Ohio where she grew up and attended high school in order to document the changes in the past forty years. Macy returns to familiar themes about drug addiction, decline of unions (“One in three full-time workers carried union cards when I was coming of age, but now that number is one in ten”), and the lack of local journalism. Readers will empathize with a promising student who is motivated to overcome a dysfunctional family situation, but who struggles to attend college on a scholarship which doesn’t cover transport, room or board. Macy is a gifted writer who shares information about her community and her family in a straightforward, insightful manner. She asks, for example, how communities lose faith in their schools; pointing out “the more divided our education levels, the more divided our nation.” There is so much to consider that I read this book over several months. Macy writes, “The more time I spent back in my hometown, the more I recognized the unprecedented forces that were actively turning the community I loved into a poorer, sicker, angrier, and less educated place.” Still, like Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett in Upswing, Macy is hopeful in this recent text (and in real life where she is running for Congress in the 2026 midterms). PAPER GIRL received a starred review from Publishers Weekly (“a welcome salve for a festering social wound. It’s a sobering journey into America’s splintered heartland”), is a Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is one of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2025. 

The Botanist's Assistant by Peggy Townsend

THE BOTANIST'S ASSISTANT by Peggy Townsend is a fun mystery in a university setting. The main character, Margaret Finch, is clearly neurodivergent so this is a bit reminiscent of The Maid or Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder. Initially, Margaret is so regimented that it is difficult to develop empathy, but it is wonderful to watch her grow (adopting a cat) and develop a sense trust with other people. She finds Professor Deaver (her boss whom she idolizes) dead and then struggles to convince school authorities that he has been poisoned. Her snooping is sometimes comical, but often effective, and whenever she thinks she clearly has a suspect identified, something happens to change that calculus. Deftly presenting interesting facts about botany and poisonous plants, THE BOTANIST'S ASSISTANT is an entertaining read with plenty of twists and surprises. Library Journal gave it a starred review while Publishers Weekly said, “sweet enough to charm cozy fans.”  Enjoy!!

Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent

GUILTY BY DEFINITION is the first novel offered by Susie Dent, a renowned British etymologist, and I originally requested a preview because of a recommendation from Ron Charles, the Washington Post book reviewer. Dent utilizes her expertise regarding words and their history to craft a tale full of clues which are puzzled over by a team of linguists who are working on dictionary definitions and are based in Oxford. It is from there that Charlie, the sister of one of them, went missing several years ago. To me, this is a story that starts slowly and gradually builds empathy with the main characters, Martha, Alex, Safi, and Simon. As the team investigates, readers learn some troubling background about Charlie, but the momentum grows and the quirky definitions add further highlights to a unique and, ultimately, engaging quest. Even commonplace activities are an educational opportunity in Dent’s capable hands: “Salary, salad, silt, sausage, salsa, sauce … the lexicon of salt whirred through her brain as she turned the stew down to a simmer.” Or, if you hate Sundays, consider “‘mubble-fubbles’ -- 17th century speak for a heavy, eve-of-something-unpleasant dose of the blues -- as proof that no sane person has ever liked them.” GUILTY BY DEFINITION received a starred review from Booklist and Library Journal recommends it for fans of The Dictionary of Lost Words and By Any Other Name. A Reading Group Guide and A Conversation with the Author are included. 

Dream School by Jeffrey Selingo

DREAM SCHOOL by Jeffrey Selingo (Who Gets In and Why) is the latest round in his writings about “Finding the College That's Right for You.” Here, Selingo leverages his decades long experience plus surveys with thousands of parents collected during two years of research; he once again stresses the benefit of looking beyond super selective schools. The book is divided into three main sections which outline often faulty assumptions, the “new admissions landscape,” and what to look for in a dream school. An appendix lists specific colleges (Hidden Values, Breakout Regionals, and Large Leaders), with a brief description and anecdotal standout factor for each. Learning about and choosing between schools is a difficult task, filled with emotion and incomplete information. Called a “refreshingly practical approach to choosing where to apply” by Lisa Damour, resources like Selingo’s offer a helpful perspective to both students and parents. DREAM SCHOOL received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was the subject of a recent Family Action Network session with Frank Bruni (scroll to bottom of that page for video).

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke

GUIDE ME HOME by Attica Locke is the third book in the Highway 59 series which began with award-winning Bluebird, Bluebird. No doubt it would have been better to have read the entire series in order, but this one (a selection for one of my book groups) was an engaging, quick read and worked fairly well as a stand-alone. The main character is Darren Mathews, a Black man in East Texas who has just resigned his role as a Texas Ranger. Locke fills in some of the backstory regarding Darren’s dysfunctional relationship with his mother and estrangement with the uncle who raised him. When a young Black girl, Sera Fuller, goes missing from a local college campus, Darren tries to find answers, leading to his harassment by the police force at a company town called Thornhill. As readers try to piece together the events surrounding her disappearance, they are also drawn into the shifting relationship between Darren and his mother. Darren also provides frequent commentary on the current political situation, for example: “He wondered what those kids marching for civil rights, marching against Vietnam, would have made of the country today. Wondered which wounded the soul more, living in a country that had never kept any of its promises or seeing America's capacity for good catch wind and fly for a while, only to come crashing back down.” GUIDE ME HOME is a story full of principle, heartache, and forgiveness. It received a starred review from Booklist (“exceptional writing, pivotal character evolution, and a baffling mystery”). 

The Politics of Gen Z and Polarized by Degrees

THE POLITICS OF GEN Z by Melissa Deckman describes “How the Youngest Voters Will Shape Our Democracy.” Deckman, political scientist and the CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, looks at voters born between 1997 and 2012 and their growing political participation. She cites interviews and research supporting the increasingly left-leaning activism of women and those concerned with LGBTQ rights; and also notes that young men in this age cohort tend to be more conservative. An entire chapter looks at “gendered spaces” in relation to issues like gun violence, climate change, and income inequality. Almost half of the book is devoted to an Index, Notes section and an extensive Methodological Appendix which includes data, statistics, and numerous graphs. Deckman’s text is an academic one that uses surveys, focus groups, and social science research to argue “the gendered political revolution is underway. Its roots are deep…” For an excellent overview and summary of her arguments, here is an interview with Deckman from PBS NewsHour:

 

In POLARIZED BY DEGREES, Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins have focused on “How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics.” Grossmann, Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University, and Hopkins, Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College, assert that “a growing ‘diploma divide’ has rapidly reversed the traditional relationship between education and partisanship, now separating degree-holding white Democrats from degree-lacking white Republicans.” They note that the combination of trends like increased educational attainment and a leftward shift in American cultural norms “has also left whites without a college degree - who maintain relatively traditionalist predispositions, hold increasingly precarious economic positions, and perceive themselves as vulnerable to downward social mobility - open to populist appeals that promote resentment of, and mobilization against, members of the cultural elite like professional journalists, educators, scientists, and intellectuals.” I have included that excerpt both for content and as an example of the often-verbose style. Numerous scholars and students (see the acknowledgements) provided feedback and input for this text; researchers interested in this topic will find much to explore in the many Notes and detailed Index which together comprise about a third of the text. Recent political discussions do feel as though we do not have shared experiences or speak a common language so I just had to add the blurb for POLARIZED BY DEGREES from The New York Times’ Thomas Edsall: “essential reading for everyone trying to figure out what the hell is going on in American politics.”

The Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal by Vohra

THE STICKY NOTE MANIFESTO OF AISHA AGARWAL by Ambika Vohra sets the perfect tone of what it feels like to be unsure of yourself in high school as you strive to complete AP classes, meet parental expectations, and somehow get the attention of a boy you like. Those goals are important to Aisha Agarwal, main character of this excellent, layered debut novel. Vohra says this was inspired by her own story and she evokes plenty of emotion while exploring fate (commenting on the butterfly effect and noting “God wills everything to happen for a reason”); class distinctions and privilege; race, immigration, assimilation, and compartmentalizing. There are insights on loneliness, romance, and family (“It's not easy untying the mental knots created by parents”), too. Aisha has a crush on her former neighbor and co-valedictorian, Brian. Helping her arrange a date with him and accomplish other items that appear as part of the sticky note manifesto are her best friend Marcy, and new friend, Quentin, a senior at another high school who is struggling with Math and the unexpected loss of his father. Aisha is – like many teens – pretty self-centered, but she grows throughout the story as she expands her experiences and shifts her attitude, finally asking, “What if all the stuff I wanted for so long isn't all that great?” At one point, Quentin remarks, “ultimately, people remember you for how you made them feel” and THE STICKY NOTE MANIFESTO OF AISHA AGARWAL is a feel good, coming of age story. Compared to Never Have I Ever, it would be fun to see on screen, too. Highly recommended.

Reunion by Elise Juska

REUNION by Elise Juska (The Blessings) focuses on three friends who are returning to Maine for their 25th college reunion which has been postponed for a year due to the COVID pandemic. Hope is the most level-headed, but she has struggled (“you can only do what you can do”) to meet the needs of her college age daughter, special needs son, and increasingly distant husband who faced the COVID challenges posed to a higher education administrator. Adam, a carefree spirit while in college, has become interested in environmental sciences and has two young boys, but his wife is sadly obsessed and afraid for the state of the physical world. Finally, there’s Polly who, as a single Mom, raised Jonah, a now 18-year-old troubled youth interested in nature and photography. Out of practice in social skills due to the recent lockdowns and having lost the closeness of their college years, Hope, Adam, and Polly find their relationship strained – especially when some long-ago secrets come to light. REUNION is an introspective reflection on what friendship means and the role of family. As Polly muses, “the past year had narrowed that knowledge to a fine point. Your child's happiness: the only thing that mattered and yet how little control over it any parent had.” Booklist says, “a delightful case for reconnecting with the people who knew you when you barely knew yourself.” 

Write Yourself In by Eric Tipler

WRITE YOURSELF IN by Eric Tipler is an excellent resource, self-described as “The Definitive Guide to Writing Successful College Admissions Essays.” It is written in a calm, accepting tone and contains a number of self-reflection and brainstorming exercises. All of that could contribute to reducing anxiety for certain students. Sample essays are included along with a discussion of when it is helpful to use ChatGPT (idea generation) and when not to use it. Also, there are sections written to parents and some directly to students. Tipler, a teacher, writing coach, and admissions consultant, focuses primarily on selective schools and comments in detail on essay prompts for many of them. I particularly liked his review of the top ten qualities that admissions committees value and the personal essay revision checklist. If you know a high school student who will be graduating in 2025 (or even 2026), this could (right now, for planning purposes) be a wonderful early graduation gift. WRITE YOURSELF IN will also be available as an audiobook which might be the preferred mode for certain students. Accompanying worksheets and exercises are available online. Highly recommended. 

Troubled by Rob Henderson

Subtitled “A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class,” TROUBLED by Rob Henderson describes his experiences in foster care, the military, Yale and Cambridge. In some ways, this text is reminiscent of 2016’s Hillbilly Elegy as both chronicle childhood instability (life with drug addicts and abandonment by parents) followed by military stints and time at Yale (in fact, Vance “blurbed” this new book). Henderson is quietly reflective and focuses a great deal on what he labels as “luxury beliefs.” He writes at length about differences in experiences and perspectives, noting, for example, “in one of my classes at Yale, I learned that eighteen out of the twenty students were raised by both of their birth parents. That stunned me, because none of the kids I knew growing up was raised by both of their parents.” Later, he comments, “I grew to understand that there were aspects of social class that can't be quantified or put on a resume” and “part of integrating into this community meant having a cursory knowledge of the latest op-eds and fashionable news items.” Henderson himself has written an essay with excerpts (“Only the affluent can afford to learn strange vocabulary. Ordinary people have real problems to worry about”) from TROUBLED for The Wall Street Journal. Given Henderson’s frustration, anger, and bitterness at “elites” and hypocrisy, it would be interesting to compare and contrast his conclusions with the analysis and commentary on White Rural Rage recently published in The New York Times.

Class by Stephanie Land

CLASS by Stephanie Land (Maid) is subtitled “A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education.” It's an eye-opening non-fiction work that describes the difficulties of attending college as a single mom. Land relates her own experiences while also exploring social justice issues like food and housing insecurity, pointing out: “The fight to make rent, eat, and find childcare was constant. I never got a break from it.” Her struggles and loneliness will elicit empathy from readers while also encouraging them to think about questions such as “Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture?” For a preview of her writing style, see the Op-Ed piece in The New York Times. There she weaves in statistics like “23 percent of undergraduate students and 12 percent of graduate students face food insecurity” while also relating a harrowing after school experience for her young daughter. CLASS received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and is a LibraryReads selection for November. Land says that she shares these stories in order to let people know their feelings are valid: that life does indeed feel impossible at times. If you are interested in hearing more, Land will be speaking at an upcoming Family Action Network event on November 13 at 7:00pm. Access is available via Zoom.

Leveling the Learning Curve

Just made available by Columbia University Press, LEVELING THE LEARNING CURVE by William B. Eimicke, Soulaymane Kachani, and Adam Stepan takes an in-depth look at “Creating a More Inclusive and Connected University.” These academicians provide an excellent overview at the very beginning and then each chapter lists references – EXCEPT chapter 7 which is supposed to be a TOOLKIT – there are no live links (that I could find) to the informational videos which the authors discuss. Since I only saw a preview, perhaps those details will be in the final version (or do the authors mean that these are tools which readers need to develop themselves?). As is, that section, potentially among the most useful and practical, is instead quite confusing and disappointing. In other parts of the book, the authors probe topics like the COVID moment in context, digital competencies, and networked learning. Given their credentials (Columbia University professors affiliated with Picker Center Digital Education Group) and experience working with others in the field, it is heartening that they DO have a generally positive attitude towards online teaching and learning. They make worthwhile suggestions (e.g., hire TAs in the summer so they can help plan a course and create digital support like improved course websites or “Universities’ hands-off approach to monitoring and regulating how (and if) instructors use their LMS should change”) and in general, the text raises important points. However, it seems more of a rationale for administrators to build support for online learning than a useful guide for practitioners.  

Erasing the Finish Line by Ana Homayoun

ERASING THE FINISH LINE by Ana Homayoun is subtitled “The New Blueprint for Success Beyond Grades and College Admission.” The only dispute I have with that is: is this really “new”? Homayoun points out the importance of developing a system, connections, perspective, and acceptance. She rightly stresses the importance and impact of executive functioning skills like organization, planning, and prioritizing, plus self-motivation (starting and completing tasks, meeting deadlines), adaptable thinking, and feeling comfortable with asking for help. These are all key life skills which we practice in high school again and again, particularly on a big, individual project like Junior Theme. Each chapter begins with an anecdote introducing a former student, like Nira, excited to be admitted to Notre Dame, who says, “the hardest part of college was learning to manage time and keep track of what I was responsible for and holding myself accountable when ... there was no one there to wake me up in the morning.” Good advice from a peer of sorts, and at one point Homayoun also includes several strategies to “help children [emphasis added; why choose that term?] develop multiple circles of connection.” Overall, however, her work is very text heavy and could benefit from more bullet points, checklists, and even sample exercises to further support the students she seeks to help. It seems likely that Homayoun has resisted this more directed guidance because she specifically says, “rather than doggedly pursuing the never-ending list of “must dos” and “should dos,” it's time for us to accept that there is not one “perfect” way to find success.” Yes, hard to argue with that; we have had Homayoun’s earlier work (That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week) in our collection and will likely be adding ERASING THE FINISH LINE, also. Approximately ten percent of the book is devoted to references and notes which will interest researchers and those curious readers wishing to learn more. Also worth considering: 6 Super Skills for Executive Functioning by Lara Honos-Webb.