Book sixteen: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

I expected to find the techniques Ms. Chua employed while raising her children to be more off-putting. Was she tough? Yes. Did she push? Yes. Did it work for both her kids? Sort of. Her oldest daughter is a successful pianist. She'll probably go on to do a great many things. Her youngest daughter ended up quitting the violin to take up another interest. This was seemingly a disappointment until it's made apparent that the drive and motivation to do better that she learned from years of her mother's traditional Chinese, oft torturous-sounding parenting style followed her to the next activity. So, ultimately, what the girls learned is that hard work can bring about great rewards. And if you aren't getting those great rewards, you need to work harder.

It certainly helps that Ms. Chua and her husband are securely seated somewhere in the upper-middle class arena. They made sacrifices for sure, either not going on vacation or staying in shabbier motels when they did, etc. But overall, the girls benefitted greatly from not only having a mother who persisted but from being in a family with enough money to do the things they needed to do in order to succeed. From the sounds of it, two to four hour drives on the weekend to take the girls to one famous instructor and the next were quite common. And when they didn't travel that far, Ms. Chua was able to pay to have professionals come to the girls. This comment isn't made to take anything away from the girls. They are clearly talented and quite capable of achieving. I'm just saying it helps. For this reason, I found myself bristling every time Ms. Chua made her derogatory remarks about how children in the west are raised. I get the sense that if you have the right child, pick the right activity (instrument, art, sports, etc.), and spend enough time, that child can master the activity. It does make me want to see if there are any Suzuki Method piano instructors in the area. But I have a feeling if Hen does go music on me, he's more likely to end up as Tommy Lee than Mozart. The kid does like those drums.

16 down plus 36 and volume 1 of the Norton Anthology of English Literature to go.