Identical Strangers – Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein

At 33, Elyse Schein learned she had an identical twin who she had never met. She meets the twin and they set out to learn about their past and why they were separated by the adoption agency. In the process, they become friends with each other. Written in the voices of both Elyse and Paula, I found them sometimes grating, but their story is incredible. I can’t conceive of the heartlessness that would lead mental health professionals to separate twins “for research purposes” and then lie to them for 35 years. It is shocking that these women (and the other separated twins) are still denied access to the records of the study in which they were unwitting subjects.

Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited
Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
2007
Available from Amazon

Getting Things Done – David Allen

My favorite book for organizing your paper/information life. His central idea is keeping information in your head distracts you and makes you less efficient. You need to have a system that you can trust to capturing all the information you need to remember. Great ideas about how to process all the information coming in, manage to-do lists (for starters, you need more than one), track information associated with particular calendar dates. I was pretty organized to start with, but this has made my life much better. The method has been adopted by various online geeks, who refer to it as GTD, so there is tons of ancillary information and discussion at places like 43folders.com.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen
2002
Available from Amazon

Code Version 2.0 – Lawrence Lessig

Dense, interesting and informative. The Internet and cyberspace allow ever larger portions of our lives to be controlled by computer code. Lessig asks how law should respond to the new control and lack of controls made possible by code. If computer searches can be made totally burdenless, does the Fourth Amendment still prevent them? How should we regulate privacy? How should we regulate intellectual property? Does it matter that private companies (rather than the government) are controlling many of these areas? And what are our options as citizens for affecting the way the legal situation develops? This last topic is especially interesting as it clearly informs Lessig’s decision to turn his attention from questions of electronic law to questions of systematic corruption in the political system.

Make sure to get Version 2.0 of this book, released in 2006, rather than the original entitled Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace and published 1999.

Code Version 2.0
Lawrence Lessig
2006
Available from Amazon

The Yiddish Policeman's Union - Michael Chabon

A murder mystery set in a world where after World War II Jews settled in Alaska rather than Israel.

The Yiddish Policeman's Union
Michael Chabon
2007
Available from Amazon

The Mere Mortal's Guide to Fine Dining - Colleen Rush

A suprisingly fun read with everything you need to know about how to eat in extremely fancy restaurants. It has a great chapter on wine - finally I can read a wine label.

The Mere Mortal's Guide to Fine Dining: From Salad Forks to Sommeliers, How to Eat and Drink in Style Without Fear of Faux Pas
Colleen Rush
2006
Available from Amazon

Flu - Gina Kolata

In 1918, the flu (the flu!) killed between 20 and 100 million people worldwide, but most people have never heard of it. This book covers what that plague was like, the possibility of it happening again, and flu research up to today.

Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic
Gina Kolata
2001
Available from Amazon

Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They'd Ask) - Justin Richardson and Mark Schuster

If you have kids, ages 0 to 18, you should read this book.

Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They'd Ask): The Secrets to Surviving Your Child's Sexual Development from Birth to the Teens
Justin Richardson and Mark Schuster
2004
Available from Amazon