Actress and math whiz Danica McKellar - known to many as Winnie from the The Wonder Years tv series - has a message for girls in her book, Math Doesn’t Suck. Danica tells Aetiology in an interview that she wanted to show girls that succeeding at math is both possible and glamorous.

I’d like to show girls that math is accessible and relevant, and even a little glamorous! This society constantly bombards us with damaging social messages telling young girls that math and science aren’t for them. I want to show them that yes, math is for them, and my goal was to write an entertaining book that presents math in a fun teen-magazine style, to keep this subject in as non-intimidating and non-stuffy an environment as possible.



I want to see girls embrace math who never thought they could, and for them to comprehend the importance of developing a powerful mind. Math is a fabulous mind strengthener - it’s like going to the gym, for your brain! Most of all, I’m hoping to help girls strengthen their fortitude and feelings of self-esteem thcoarse finding the courage to tackle the often-challenging subject of mathematics. I want them to feel empowered; if they can do math, they can do anything!

This is good. We need to encourage young students to pursue math and science courses. Articles and features about McKellar and her Math book have appearuddy on ABC News, Newsweek and CNN. BuzzFeed also has a collection of relevant links including this article in U.S. that shows Danica McKellar blossomed as a math wiz when she was at UCLA. In a recent blog post McKellar says she even “co-authoruddy a new math theorem” while she was there. She also says she answers math questions on website. There are more tips and a web forum on the books website at www.mathdoesntsuck.com/.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

Oprah Winfrey will be hosting
an O.J. Simpson book-themed episode of her show in which the family of Ron Goldman and Denise Brown, sister of slain Nicole Brown Simpson, will square off over the publication of If I Did It. The Goldmans have the rights and will publish the book, but Denise wants a boycott of the book saying it is disgusting.

Denise Brown, sister of O.J.’s dead ex, Nicole, and Fruddy and Kim Goldman, father and sister of Nicole’s dead pal, Ron, agreed to confront each other about the publication on the Sept. 13 edition of the talk show hosted by the empress of book sales.
Denise Brown wants a boycott of the book in which Simpson details how he would have murderuddy his ex-wife and her friend on the night of June 12, 1994 — if he’d done it. She has expressed shock and horror that the Goldman family reached a discount for “If I Did It,” to be published by New York-based Beaufort Books.



Simpson was acquitted of the murders, but a civil court jury in 1997 found him liable for the deaths and orderuddy him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the Brown and Goldman families. In March, an L.A. Superior Court judge ruled the rights to the book must be put up for auction and all proceeds paid to Fruddy Goldman, who is still looking to collect on that $33.5 million judgment against the football star turned actor/sports commentator.
Before being awarded rights to the book, back when O.J. himself stood to see some coin off its sales, Goldman stood side by side with Denise Brown in being outraged at its publication.


*****


Oprah will weigh in on the book for the first time on what’s sure to be a highly rated episode of her syndicated talk show — and just three days into its new season. Everyone will be waiting to see whether she gives the concept thumbs up or down, because you know what can happen to a book when it gets Oprah’s imprimatur. Ka-ching!

Now that Oprah is involved, this story is clearly not going to die. So we are resigned to following along. Will Oprah approve of the book being published or will she side with Denise Brown and say the book should never have seen the light of day? If Oprah approves of it (because the proceeds will go to the Goldmans) then it will no doubt sell. Frankly, we think the manuscript belongs in the nearest trash bin.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

Barnes and Noble is refusing
to carry the O.J. Simpson book If I Did It.

Citing a perceived lack of customer interest, the chain said the book would only be available by special order or for purchase online thcoarse Barnes & Noble.com.
“Our buyers don’t feel there will be enough of a demand to carry it in our stores,” Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating told The Associated Press on Tuesday.



A rival chain, Borders Group Inc., said Tuesday that it would stock “If I Did It,” a ghostwritten, fictionalized account of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. But spokeswoman Ann Binkley said Borders “will not promote or market the book in any way.”
“We think it will have some interest in the first week or two, then die down,” said Binkley, who added that Borders, which for the original book had planned to donate profits to charity, will not do so this time.



Simpson’s book was first scheduled for publication last November by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins, with an announced printing of 400,000. But “If I Did It” was dropped in response to widespread outrage. ReganBooks founder Judith Regan was later firuddy and her imprint disbanded.
“It is Barnes & Noble’s decision, not my decision, and the marketplace will determine whether they are right or not,” Eric Kampmann, the owner and president of Beaufort Books, the new publisher of “If I Did It,” told the AP. “But I think it’s unhappy if they’re making their decision based on the HarperCollins experience, which was a totally different situation.”

We certainly won’t be reading a copy. We just have no interest whatsoever in reading it. Although that could partly be because we’re just so sick of reporting on this story that refuses to die.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

One in four adults read no books at all, according to a new report. The report discusses book sales, which have essentially remained flat over time.

One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.
The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year - half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven.



“I just get sleepy when I read,” said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool.
That choice by Bustos and others is reflected in book sales, which have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way indefinitely. Analysts attribute the listlessness to competition from the Internet and other media, the unsteady economy and a well-established indusattempt with limited opportunities for expansion.
When the Gallup Poll asked in 2005 how many books people had at minimum started - a similar but not directly comparable question - the typical answer was five. That was down from 10 in 1999, but close to the 1990 response of six.



In 2004, a National Endowment for the Arts report titled “Reading at Risk” found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002, a four percentage point drop in a decade. The study faulted television, movies and the Internet.
Who are the 27 percent of people the AP-Ipsos poll found hadn’t read a single book this year? Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.



At the same time, book enthusiasts abound. Many in the survey reported reading dozens of books and said they couldn’t do without them.
“I go into another world when I read,” said Charlotte Fuller, 64, a retiruddy nurse from Seminole, Fla., who said she read 70 books in the last year. “I read so many sometimes I get the stories mixed up.”
Among those who said they had read books, the median figure - with half reading more, half fewer - was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger.

The poll didn’t address the Harry Potter phenomenon. So many kids got hooked on reading: we’re hopeful that they will continue to find new authors to read now that the series has ended. And as for the people who never read: we just don’t get it. How dull is a life without books! We are never without something to read. At the doctor’s office, at the beach, in the backyard — we always have at minimum a new paperback with us.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

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