Rabbit Hole #7: New Harper Lee novel and Whistling Vivaldi

Um, biggest news right now in the book world? Harper Lee has a new book coming out. Not only that, but the much-loved, seldom-seen writer's second novel is a sequel of sorts to To Kill a Mockingbird. When this news was announced on Tuesday, my Twitter feed pretty much looked like this:

gif courtesy of mashable.com

It's not every day a reclusive writer comes out with a new work, and even rarer that it's a sequel to one of the most beloved books of all time. (To be fair, she did write this work before Mockingbird, but it's still a sequel!)

This news isn't without controversy, however. There are people who are genuinely worried that Lee was tricked into publishing this book, given her declining health. There are others who are worried it won't live up to Mockingbird. As far as the first concern goes, I, for one, desperately hope the reports that Lee is happy about publishing Go, Set a Watchman are true. The thought that someone would exploit her for financial gain makes my stomach churn. The second concern also has merits: rarely to do sequels live up to the original work.

Hopefully, we'll have some clearer answers on the first concern soon. We'll have to wait until summer to answer that second question: Go, Set a Watchman comes out July 14.



In other news, I just finished Claude M. Steele's Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do. I don't normally read sociology books, unless they deal with women's issues, but this particular book was fascinating. Steele's claim is that stereotypes can affect us, even if we are not consciously aware of being stereotyped. Because our culture labels and groups everyone, we all have contingencies that are in the back of our minds and acting on our lives every day. Women are not smart at math and science, blacks aren't as intelligent as whites, whites aren't as athletic, men aren't sensitive--all of these contingencies can not only affect the interactions we have with each other, but our own performance in areas as well.

Whistling Vivaldi did bog down for me when Steele was describing the scientific methods he and his team used, but the examples/experiments he discusses as well as the implications for our society were intriguing. And as a teacher, trying minimizing the stereotype threats in my classroom as much as possible to help my students achieve is definitely something I will be focusing on. Well worth the read!