Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Books about childhood are generally of the self-help or memoir variety. But in The Philosophical Baby, psychologist Alison Gopnik writes about new scientific research and philosophical thinking that is helping answer the question, ‘What is it like to be a baby?’ Gopnik argues that babies are the research and development department of the human species. Then, Nathan Rabin’s memoir begins, “I’ve wasted far too much time fantasizing about my funeral.” Rabin is a head writer for The Onion’s AV Club. But during his childhood, he was abandoned by his mother and placed in a mental hospital. Rabin adapted to trauma with humor, and lives on to tell his stories in The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture.