Gil Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 Th title of this may be off-putting but hear me out. The Boys are being tasked with 3 books a semester that they should read and develop their own take-aways for their own Adulthood. The books are meant to cover a range of soft-skills and ideas that I think many more adults need. Social Skills: How to Win Friends and Influence PeoplePersonal Growth: 7 Habits of Highly Effective PeopleFinancial Education: Rich Dad, Poor Dad Can you all please recommend more books for this project? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 I've got a short book sitting here for that purpose, " Wait, What?" by James E Ryan. I look forward to hearing other ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 I have not read any of these, but I believe the forum is responsible for them being in my Amazon list. LOL. Usually that is the case. 😃 How to Adult: Personal Finance for the Real World https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZVZKD2H/?coliid=I1EKOXDPEVRT3L&colid=231ENAT246CQ2&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it How to Survive Your Freshman Year: Fifth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/193351261X/?coliid=I2BJULHAZAU4TH&colid=231ENAT246CQ2&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143132547/?coliid=I27ZMOD08WH6WT&colid=231ENAT246CQ2&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it Life Skills 101: A Practical Guide to Leaving Home and Living on Your Own https://www.amazon.com/dp/0970133421/?coliid=I2BTZEC7VR08V3&colid=231ENAT246CQ2&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it The Useful Book: 201 Life Skills They Used to Teach in Home Ec and Shop https://www.amazon.com/dp/0761171738/?coliid=I3KDWUW7YCC3B4&colid=231ENAT246CQ2&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 I honestly think literature is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal. It's part of why I spent a year reading coming of age stories with my kids. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smfmommy Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 The Illustrated Art of Manliness Shop Class for Everyone Living with Less by Becker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royspeed Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, Gil said: The books are meant to cover a range of soft-skills and ideas that I think many more adults need. Social Skills: How to Win Friends and Influence People Just a note to add that for several years in a row I've used Dale Carnegie chapters to illustrate powerful essay-writing and, in particular, powerful use of anecdotes. My essay-writing students are always stunned that Carnegie's writing, which can feel quite dated (1936), has such direct relevance to their own lives and growth. 3 hours ago, Farrar said: I honestly think literature is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal. It's part of why I spent a year reading coming of age stories with my kids. I second Farrar's comment about literature. I would add that in my experience with teaching adolescents, the contributions of literature to their "Intro to Adulthood" extends well beyond the works traditionally thought of as coming-of-age stories. To illustrate, I agree with something William Deresiewicz has written in his book A Jane Austen Education — here he's writing about Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth [Bennet] was all of twenty, and her mistakes were errors of youth — the mistakes, precisely, of a person who has never made mistakes, or at least, who has never been forced to acknowledge them. Beneath the polished wit that she flashed at the world like a suit of armor, Elizabeth was still scarcely more than a girl. "If I were determined to get a rich husband, or any husband": that was the statement, not of someone who knew what she wanted from life, but of someone who hadn't even started to figure it out. When she had her epiphany — "[I've been] blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd" — she added a final count to her indictment: "Till this moment I never knew myself." Darcy's pride and Elizabeth's prejudice, his prejudice and her pride: these may have set the plot in motion, but by putting me [the reader] through Elizabeth's experiences — by having her make mistakes and learn from them — what the novel was really showing me was how to grow up... [emphasis mine] Another illustration of literature as "Intro to Adulthood": In my course Novels by Women, after we completed reading Kate Chopin's The Awakening, one of my students declared Chopin's novel a sort of twist on the traditional bildungsroman (her word). Her explanation: At the beginning of the novel, the major character, is already approaching middle age and living the life of settled marriage, yet Chopin shows how Edna's unhappiness with her married life is entirely traceable to her stunted development in adolescence. The novel, in other words, looks backward through Edna's moral, psychological, and social development as an adolescent and pinpoints the experiences that caused her to stop growing. My students' observations sometimes blow me away. Edited May 28, 2022 by royspeed spelling error 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 5 hours ago, Farrar said: I honestly think literature is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal. It's part of why I spent a year reading coming of age stories with my kids. Any recommendations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted May 28, 2022 Author Share Posted May 28, 2022 (edited) 5 hours ago, Farrar said: I honestly think literature is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal. It's part of why I spent a year reading coming of age stories with my kids. Literature is a wonderful tool for many, but it's not the best tool for us. I'm not interested in using literature for this purpose and am only looking to use books that are more in the vein of the books already mentioned. 8 minutes ago, mathnerd said: Any recommendations? Please spin off a seperate thread for recommendations for literature to cover this topic. I don't want this topic derailed with literature recommendations because that doesn't fit what I'm looking for here. Edited May 28, 2022 by Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 6 minutes ago, mathnerd said: Any recommendations? I like reading the classics like Roy Speed is recommending through that lens. But also, I find that many of the classic "coming of age" books hold up just fine like... Catcher in the Rye A Separate Peace A Tree Grows in Brooklyn I Capture the Castle But also, I think lots of YA books also work really well. I had great discussion with students in class or with my own kids about some of these... The Poet X Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe I'm Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Two Boys Kissing The Hate U Give Looking for Alaska But it just depends. There are good coming of age books for all kinds of things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 2 minutes ago, Gil said: Literature is a wonderful tool for many, but it's not the best tool for us. I'm not interested in using literature for this purpose and am only looking to use books that are more in the vein of the books already mentioned. Please spin off a seperate thread for recommendations for literature to cover this topic. I don't want this topic derailed with literature recommendations because that doesn't fit what I'm looking for here. Oh, you responded as I was typing. Sometimes you can't control threads. It's the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 1 hour ago, Gil said: Literature is a wonderful tool for many, but it's not the best tool for us. I'm not interested in using literature for this purpose and am only looking to use books that are more in the vein of the books already mentioned. Please spin off a seperate thread for recommendations for literature to cover this topic. I don't want this topic derailed with literature recommendations because that doesn't fit what I'm looking for here. Sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 1 hour ago, Farrar said: I like reading the classics like Roy Speed is recommending through that lens. But also, I find that many of the classic "coming of age" books hold up just fine like... Catcher in the Rye A Separate Peace A Tree Grows in Brooklyn I Capture the Castle But also, I think lots of YA books also work really well. I had great discussion with students in class or with my own kids about some of these... The Poet X Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe I'm Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Two Boys Kissing The Hate U Give Looking for Alaska But it just depends. There are good coming of age books for all kinds of things. Thanks! Will move it to another thread as per OP. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malam Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 (edited) For social skills, also check out What Every body is Saying, Talking with Strangers, Influence by Cialdini, Never Eat Lunch Alone, The Four Agreements, and Practical Influence by Teppo Holmqvist. For Personal Growth, check out an ACT workbook for teens, Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins, Principles by Ray Dalio and Tim Ferris' two books where he interviews successful people. If the stuff within Tony Robbins' book interests you, don't buy his expensive programs but instead look into NLP as that's where he got his personal transformation stuff from. For financial growth, see this youtube video and the Bogleheads recommended reading: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Book_recommendations_and_reviews and books on sales like To Sell is Human or The Richest Man in Babylon Edited May 29, 2022 by Malam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted May 29, 2022 Share Posted May 29, 2022 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. If they like that, the sequel Lila is even better. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted May 29, 2022 Share Posted May 29, 2022 Deep Work by Cal Newport. It is about *choosing* how to spend time focused vs fragmented. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted May 29, 2022 Share Posted May 29, 2022 (edited) Atomic Habits by James Clear is also very good. For social skills/personal growth: I thought it was just me (but it isn't). Making the Journey from 'What will People Think?' to I am Enough. By Brene Brown. Edited May 29, 2022 by lewelma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusyMom5 Posted May 30, 2022 Share Posted May 30, 2022 Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley https://www.amazon.com/Learning-How-Learn-Spending-Studying/dp/0143132547/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=NS5TWCV66G70&keywords=barbara+oakley+learning+how+to+learn&qid=1653915890&sprefix=barbara+oakkey%2Caps%2C1257&sr=8-1 This one is especially good if you have a kid with a LD like ADHD, APD, etc. But also just good for everyone! Also good shorter novel- The Outsiders- written by a teen, fairly simple, but easy to build on and discuss those topics you are interested in. How to Read Literature Like A Professor For Kids- highly recommend! If you don't want to read a lot of novels, its also good for movie discussions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted May 30, 2022 Share Posted May 30, 2022 (edited) For worldview expansion/intersectional empathy... "The Person You Mean to Be" Chugh Edited May 30, 2022 by Sneezyone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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