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I am a hyper-curious person, and curiosity is an important value in my life … as well as an important impact of museums. But curiosity isn't limited to museums, and can be hard to sustain through adulthood. By sharing some of my curious paths through reading, I'm hoping to reinforce how important wide-ranging curiosity is to our practice and spark new conversations that may seem unrelated to museums, but deeply matter to how we do our work. After all, as museums we cover a variety of topics. Our curiosity should also be as omnivorous! To that end, here's a new installment of some of my wide-ranging reads (mostly non-fiction) I hope to hear recommendations from you!    Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America, by Jennifer L. Anderson
The older I get, the more I feel I have head-slap moments. Reading Mahogany was one. Of course it was crop made possible by enslaved labor. Of course it was clear-cut to enable sugar plantations. And of course the harvesting of mahogany has significant environmental repercussions. I was blinded by the amazingly beautiful wood and the furniture and objects it makes possible. Now, I am looking at the handful of mahogany pieces I have, as well as those in museum collections, with new eyes. The Revenge of Analog, by David Sax Over the past 20 years, our society has seemed to promote that digital is the future, and analog options are for dinosaurs or luddites. Yet we all live in an analog world. David Sax investigates a hypothesis that analog is often superior, and explores when it is, how, and why. This is, by no means, a rejection of digital progress, but instead an embracing of a hybrid existence that values and supports how we can make choices for our very human lives. It was interesting reading this book, which is grounded in a pre-pandemic world, and then look at the digital experiment we all participated in during the pandemic. If anything, the pandemic made Sax's case as humans sought (and missed) human contact and IRL experiences. Indeed, the 2021 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers found that fewer than half of regular museum-goers (our most avid fans) participated in virtual content from museums during the pandemic … but they are anxious to return to our IRL experiences, objects, plants, animals, and spaces. I also had to chuckle at Sax's observation that the people pushing digital technology the most are Baby Boomers who are afraid of appearing out-of-step with young adults. Guess what museum-goer demographic participated in virtual content from museums the most during the pandemic? Adults over 60. Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, by Patrick Phillips This one hit close to home for me, as it explores the racial violence of Forsyth County, Georgia in 1912, when it went sundown, as well as the ongoing "whites only" nature of the county that existed into the 1990s. I grew up about 20 miles away from Forsyth County, and I remember Hosea Williams leading protests there in the late 80s. This chilling book lays out the racial terror that wasn't uncommon in America at that time, and how it continues, even today, to affect this community. I found it difficult to read, yet one of the most important books I've read lately. I'm sending my sister a copy. Have a suggestion for my reading list? Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com. I am a hyper-curious person, and curiosity is an important value in my life … as well as an important impact of museums. But curiosity isn't limited to museums, and can be hard to sustain through adulthood. By sharing some of my curious paths through reading, I'm hoping to reinforce how important wide-ranging curiosity is to our practice and spark new conversations that may seem unrelated to museums, but deeply matter to how we do our work. After all, as museums we cover a variety of topics. Our curiosity should also be as omnivorous! To that end, here's a new installment of some of my wide-ranging reads (mostly non-fiction) I hope to hear recommendations from you!    Visionary Women, by Andrea Barnet. The 20th century saw radical change, and four women were crucial in helping us rethink how we used chemicals, thought about our cities, viewed animals, and considered what we ate. A collection of mini-biographies of Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters, this book helped me think about how these women were radical in their time, yet deeply influenced mainstream behavior today. May their influence continue. (BTW, this book was well-written, making it an effortless read as well.) Born in the USA: Birth, Commemoration, and American Public Memory, ed. By Seth C. Bruggeman This volume, published in 2012, feels a bit quaint as it didn't imagine the extreme nationalism that the election of 2016 gave voice to. Reading this in 2020, it also felt like a constant talking about everything but the elephant in the room, the elephant being that historic birthplaces were often founded to honor white men and as a fearful reaction to a diversifying America. The introduction did acknowledge this, "… each one was born of the fear that its story about the past might be eclipsed by a competing narrative," there was an essay about the W.E.B. DuBois birthplace, and the conclusion addresses gender. But overall what a lost opportunity to think more critically about why so many of these places are preserved as museums. I wish that writers in this book had been brave enough to address this directly. A Generation of Sociopaths: How The Baby Boomers Betrayed America, by Bruce Cannon Gibney. It is so tempting to blame the ills of American society on a single generation. Wouldn't it be nice and convenient (especially if one is, say, a Gen Xer like the author … and me)? Tons of data is thrown at this primary thesis, but the central premise fails to convince because there are external factors that come into play and because it is dangerous to lump a single generation together in this (condemnatory) way. Additionally, while there are many ills we can blame on the Boomers, it is an open question if another generation, given the same circumstances, would behave differently. So read it for the provocation, consider the merits critically, and remember: people are idiosyncratic and everyone (and every generation) is going to respond to their environment and situation differently. Learning and progress are not linear. And we all have to take responsibility and roll up our sleeves to solve our problems. (I also noted that the author extols younger generations for all the good they do … such as the unmitigated good of social media. Yeah, you read that right. The author also was an early funder of Facebook, so he may be a bit biased. And clueless.) Have a suggestion for my reading list? Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com. I am a hyper-curious person, and curiosity is an important value in my life … as well as an important impact of museums. But curiosity isn't limited to museums, and can be hard to sustain through adulthood. By sharing some of my curious paths through reading, I'm hoping to reinforce how important wide-ranging curiosity is to our practice and spark new conversations that may seem unrelated to museums, but deeply matter to how we do our work. After all, as museums we cover a variety of topics. Our curiosity should also be as omnivorous! To that end, here's a new installment of some of my wide-ranging reads (mostly non-fiction) I hope to hear recommendations from you!    Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England, by Jared Hardesty.
For most people, including many history museum-goers, slavery = the South. But slavery thrived in New England, and this book frames the expanse and depth to which it took and how New Englanders profited mightily from it. I found this book to be an easy-to-read survey of a complicated and challenging topic … and illustrates how much more there is to learn from the past, especially when it comes to topics some would prefer to ignore. Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Fraud, by Peter Charles Hoffer The first half of the book is deeply appreciated for laying out the history of American history. That is, what historians of the past were trying to accomplish, what their standards were, and why the white celebratory history they recorded was so deliberate and purposeful. Of course, that has become the canon for many, making it an obstacle to having more people accept a more inclusive history that is also more fraught (in that it lays out how white Europeans were not always the benevolent masters of those they enslaved, for just one example). Understanding this history of American history is extremely helpful for understanding the viewpoints of many of our visitors, as well as what is at stake for those visitors when a more inclusive history is shared. If we can't navigate their fear, our work is much harder. (Second half of book explores case studies of historians who have broken ethical rules; interesting, but not why I picked it up.) The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey I loved this novel so much, as it hit me just right as a mind-opening book to another country and its culture, religions, human rights, and past. Perveen Mistry is a female lawyer in 1920 Bombay, restricted by her gender, yet finding a pathway to assist women in need of help. There's mystery, there's unfairness, and there is hope. I loved stretching my worldview and empathy. It was a delight to read and I can't wait to read the sequel. Additional note: Perveen's experiences also give us a different view of quarantining that is downright horrifying. If you read it, you'll see exactly what I mean. Have a suggestion for my reading list? Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com.  Why I picked it up: My research keeps showing that people who are curious have better overall outcomes in life. That is, taking in a breadth of information through informal learning appears to give people greater resources from which to draw, helping them in their educations, their careers, their family formation, and their health and well-being. When I heard about this book last year, I immediately put it on my to-read list as it seemed to have a similar finding … it just took me over a year to get to it.
Thesis of book: There is a lot of conventional wisdom that in order to be successful in the 21st century, you have to specialize and go deep in your area of expertise. But that may not be an accurate statement for most of us. In this book, Epstein suggests that if we commit early and deeply to one thing, we may not actually be playing to our own strengths, and while some will still (luckily) flourish, more won't. But if we have a chance to sample many things, during a period he calls the "sampling period," we can suss out what our own strengths are more effectively, focus later … and have years of experiences from which to draw as we go deep into our areas of expertise. And that cross-pollination matters. It makes for better inventors, innovators, and thinkers as they draw from their different experiences to enhance and create in their own work. In fact, going deep can make us blinkered if we don't balance it with some breadth … and our work can suffer. How this intersects with museum research/practice: Museums, being in the curiosity business, are perfectly positioned to give visitors breadth by introducing new topics, ideas, perspectives, and areas of interest. And that is how some museum-goers use museums, especially those that are eudaemonically curious: expanding their minds and making connections between things that seem disconnected (or, in other words, not being "cognitively entrenched"). But many museum-goers use museums differently, primarily for deepening knowledge in their interest areas. Some even resist content that takes them out of their comfort-zone and shares different worldviews. How, then, can museums be more deliberate about stretching people's interests to new areas, sparking curiosity and expanding worldviews? And how do we do this in ways that even the most resistant visitor welcomes? THAT is a big, tricky question (and one very much on my mind). Read or skip? In many ways, this is a typical journalistic take on a topic that, on the surface, appears confounding to most. If it pretty formulaic in that way: full of anecdotes and stories, reads easily, a bit repetitive, and refers to scholars as well as practitioners. It is not an academic read. So if you want an easy and enjoyable read on the subject, go for it. There wasn't much (or really anything) my research disagreed with. But if you are looking for new insights beyond this review, then peruse the book's bibliography and go deep (and broad) as desired. Or email me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com and ask for my running notes. Full citation: Epstein, David. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. New York: Riverhead Books, 2019. Have a suggestion for my reading list? Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com.  Why I picked it up: My work has helped me understand how vital curiosity is to individual life outcomes, from the practical (employment, etc.) to the prosocial (tolerance, inclusive, understanding). Curiosity is also something that museums, as well as other sources of informal learning, are good at sparking and cultivating.
Study after study shows that visiting museums tends to be an "inherited" trait, with parents who visit museums tending to raise children who are also museum-goers. But is curiosity also "inherited?" We know that a curious childhood tends to lead to a curious adulthood, but public schooling doesn't always nurture curiosity. When that desire to learn is missing, learning is far more difficult. Additionally, curiosity is an expensive, resource-intensive thing to cultivate. How can we raise new generations of curious children if curiosity isn't actually nurtured for many (most?) children? This book examines the origins of curiosity in childhood, and I want to see where I find agreement as well as new ideas to consider and test. What you need to know:
My issue with the book: While I felt this was a solid introduction to curiosity in children, there was one big issue I had with it: there was no mention that curiosity isn't equitable. Engel didn't go into the social justice issues of curiosity at all, but falls into a common, but incorrect, assumption that curiosity is free and risk-free. It isn't. It takes a ton of resources to cultivate curiosity, and those resources (financial, time, energy, know-how, etc.) are not necessarily available in all, or even most, households. How do we, as a society, truly make curiosity free and accessible? Additionally, what happens when curiosity is misunderstood, shut down, or even punished, making it too risky to express? I've come across some references that suggest the ways African American children sometimes express curiosity are often misinterpreted by white teachers as troublesome or distracting, and the curiosity is thus shut down (or even punished). We should also consider what happens if the pursuit of curiosity by a child (or adult) of color is perceived as threatening to whites (it shouldn't be, but we don't live in an ideal world). In these cases, we have a serious equity issue. (Note - the idea that curiosity is too risky for some children is a newer consideration I am just beginning to learn about and I need to do my own literature review on it. *Head slap moment.*) Bottom line, she didn't acknowledge that the pursuit of curiosity is a privilege of the haves. Read or skip? If you are looking for an intro book on curiosity in children, this is a good choice, and there was general agreement with previous research on curiosity. Otherwise, no need to pick up. I personally did not find new ideas to consider or test (though this does not take away from it being a good primer.) Full citation: Engel, Susan. The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. Have a suggestion for my reading list? Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com. I am a hyper-curious person, and curiosity is an important value in my life … as well as an important impact of museums. But curiosity isn't limited to museums, and can be hard to sustain through adulthood. By sharing some of my curious paths through reading, I'm hoping to reinforce how important wide-ranging curiosity is to our practice and spark new conversations that may seem unrelated to museums, but deeply matter to how we do our work. After all, as museums we cover a variety of topics. Our curiosity should also be as omnivorous! To that end, here's a new installment of some of my wide-ranging reads (mostly non-fiction) I hope to hear recommendations from you!    Book Love, by Debbie Tung
Books. They are stacked all over my house. I read several at a time. My daughter has every indication of taking after me. And cartoonist Debbie Tung is our kindred spirit. This graphic book beautifully captures what it means to love books … and tea … and the smell of books … Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, by Lucy Mangan I was totally a bookworm as a kid (and still am). This memoir reminded me how intoxicating reading is to children … and cracked me up about the travails of being a bookish kid … because I totally related. If you read a lot as a kid, you'll find memories here as well as new books to discover. Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science, by Jeannine Atkins I picked this up for my daughter, but loved it for me. Three beautiful, long-form poems celebrating three girls who truly looked … at butterflies (Maria Merian), fossils (Mary Anning), and the heavens (Maria Mitchell). It is an evocative mixture of poetry, history, science, and girl-power … and three resilient girls who I hope will inspire my daughter. Have a suggestion for my reading list? Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com. I am a hyper-curious person, and curiosity is an important value in my life … as well as an important impact of museums. But curiosity isn't limited to museums, and can be hard to sustain through adulthood. By sharing some of my curious paths through reading, I'm hoping to reinforce how important wide-ranging curiosity is to our practice and spark new conversations that may seem unrelated to museums, but deeply matter to how we do our work. After all, as museums we cover a variety of topics. Our curiosity should also be as omnivorous! To that end, here's a new installment of some of my wide-ranging reads (mostly non-fiction). I hope to hear recommendations from you!    Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, by Nora Krug What does it mean to German home and family if you don't know what your grandparents did or thought during World War II? Nora Krug grapples with these questions, trying to piece together those lost years, lost because German families rarely spoke about their own actions during that war. What has been the legacy of silence, not knowing? What happens if the pieces start to come together, but cannot be entirely put together? I found this book heartbreaking and wonderful, thoughtful and devastating. And I couldn't help but think of our own family legacies in America, and what my own family may or may not have done throughout the past, especially when it comes to slavery, race, and the privileged legacy I have received as a middle-class white child. Recommended by Linda Norris and Laura Roberts, and I emphatically agree. This is a must-read. The Poet's Dog, by Patricia MacLachlan The fact that this is a book for elementary-age readers should not detract you for it. It is absolutely lovely, and I relished reading it to my two young children. It begins with a dog rescuing two children in a snowstorm, and taking them home to his cabin for the duration. While snowbound, the children learn the dog's story of life with his person, a poet. But the poet is conspicuously absent from the cabin … and, well, you have to read it to find out. Keep tissues handy. The Inner Life of Animals: Surprising Observations of a Hidden World, by Peter Wohlleben I've always had a bit of an intellectual crush on John Muir. Peter Wohlleben may be his 21st-century successor. This small volume explores the inner emotions of animals in playful yet serious ways (as Muir often did), having me consider the goat, the deer, and even the weevil in new, yet more empathetic ways. Yes, weevils. (Note: Wohlleben also wrote the popular The Hidden Life of Trees, which I also enjoyed … but the translation is smoother in Animals, making it a more pleasurable read.) Have a suggestion for my reading list? Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com. I read and skim a lot of reports. Some are reviewed here on The Curated Bookshelf. Some turn out to not be that relevant. And some have bits and pieces that are interesting, falling a bit in between. Pew Research Center produces a prodigious amount of high-quality reports, and here are snapshot review of three fairly recent ones that I found of enough interest to flag (two briefly, one at more length).    "Generation Z Looks a Lot Like Millennials on Key Social and Political Issues." Pew Research Center, January 2019. First, if you don't know who Generation Z is, it comprises a new generation ages 14 to 22 … the generation that comes after the Millennials. It is shaping up to be the most diverse and well-educated generation yet (until, of course, the generation that comes after them!). Overall, their attitudes are fairly similar to Millennials in that, compared to older generations, they tend to be more liberal … at least for now. As they grow fully into adulthood, attitudes can shift. What I think is most important to museums is that both non-Hispanic whites AND Gen Z Republicans specifically are more progressive on racial and ethnic issues and on climate change than their older counterparts, which I personally view with hope. "What Americans Know About Science." Pew Research Center, March 2019. Science, just like many things, is political. Climate change, vaccines, the age of Earth … whether one believes science is real or that theories are up for debate (thus clearly not understanding what science means by the word "theory"). As usual, Pew Research Center is unafraid to delve into political issues and looked at what Americans know about science, and then ran their filters and cross tabs to look for variations. Of interest to us is that science knowledge isn't steady. One would think that those with more education score better on a test of science knowledge (they do), but men outperform women, and whites score better than blacks and Hispanics … even after controlling for educational attainment. Meanwhile, political persuasion doesn't seem to matter when it comes to science knowledge, but it does come into play in terms of how people apply science to the world. If you are dealing with the public on science issues, you should read the full report. "Where Americans Find Meaning in Life." Pew Research Center, November 2018 We talk about how visitors find meaning in museums. But most people don't visit museums, and those that do are visiting a handful of times a year, not every week. So how do Americans find meaning in their day-to-day lives? And can that give us better insight to how they find meaning in museums? Unsurprisingly, family comes out tops for finding meaning in life. But of interest to museums is how activities and hobbies rank, as well as learning.   The learning finding makes a lot of sense, given my work that shows that somewhere around 5 - 10% of the population is highly curious and finds joy in learning … as well as the 10% or so of Americans who visit museums 3 or more times/year. While these two groups are not exactly the same, the point is there is likely a high degree of overlap and the sizes make sense.
As Pew points out, different groups of Americans finds meaning in different places. Educational attainment drove some key differences, as those with higher education were more likely to mention friends, good health, hobbies, travel, and most crucially, learning … things that those who are less socioeconomically privileged may not always have the resources to enjoy. There are important differences by other factors such as religion, race and ethnicity, and political persuasion. Some are more relevant to museums than others (though educational attainment seems to be the strongest factor for us). But bottom line, meaning is found in emotional attachments, whether family, religion, or friends, and in how we live our fullest lives. Museums can help with both. Have a suggestion for my reading list? Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com. I am a hyper-curious person, and curiosity is an important value in my life … as well as an important impact of museums. But curiosity isn't limited to museums, and can be hard to sustain through adulthood. By sharing some of my curious paths through reading, I'm hoping to reinforce how important wide-ranging curiosity is to our practice and spark new conversations that may seem unrelated to museums, but deeply matter to how we do our work. After all, as museums we cover a variety of topics. Our curiosity should also be as omnivorous! To that end, here's a new installment of some of my wide-ranging reads (mostly non-fiction) I hope to hear recommendations from you!    Treasure Palaces, edited by Maggie Fergusson
Twenty-four great writers, on museums. Pretty obvious must-read, I should think. These essays were originally published in Intelligent Life (now called 1834), a sister publication of The Economist. Includes meditations on connection, thought, objects, serendipity, sublimity, intimacy, and perception shifting (just to start). A lovely read. Book: My Autobiography, by John Agard Imagine if Book (yes, Book) could tell you its autobiography. From writing and clay tablets to ebooks (and everything in between), this book tells Book's story. Beautifully and cleverly written, learn why Book salutes Phoenicians, personally thanks Ts'ai Lun, and feels excited about "sitting on a passenger's lap and feeling my pages turned, and the pride rushing down my spine, as the steam engine puffed its way through the countryside of northern England" (train reading apparently a precursor of modern-day plane reading). If you love books, get Book! Technology in the Country House, by Marilyn Palmer and Ian West Confession: I love to geek out around old houses. I also realized, halfway through writing my master's thesis, that I was writing on the wrong topic. I should have done technological systems in 19th-century homes. So I LOVED this book. From plumbing to heating to central vacuum systems … it totally appeals to my interest in not only how people lived, but how they strove to make their homes more comfortable and efficient. And while this focuses on the grand country houses of the United Kingdom, it's not hard to extrapolate to how, say, electric lighting changed domestic spaces for people across the socio-economic spectrum. Have a suggestion for my reading list? Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com. I am a hyper-curious person, and curiosity is an important value in my life … as well as an important impact of museums. But curiosity isn't limited to museums, and can be hard to sustain through adulthood. By sharing some of my curious paths through reading, I'm hoping to reinforce how important wide-ranging curiosity is to our practice and spark new conversations that may seem unrelated to museums, but deeply matter to how we do our work. After all, as museums we cover a variety of topics. Our curiosity should also be as omnivorous! To that end, from time to time I'll share some of my wide-ranging reads, mostly non-fiction, and hope to hear recommendations from you.    King Sequoia: The Tree That Inspired a Nation, Created Our National Park System, and Changed the Way We Think About Nature, by William C. Tweed. While the title is a bit over the top, this was a quick and interesting read about how one type of tree has figured in our cultural history and ecological thinking. After all, majestic is an understatement when it comes to this tree. Depressing fact: way too many Sequoias were felled by timber companies, and when they fall, they shatter … making much of their wood largely useless for much besides things like grapevine stakes. Also, Sequoia the tree has nothing to do with Sequoyah the Cherokee. The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh, by Kathryn Aalto. If you love Pooh (or, in my case, Eeyore), grounding the antics of Piglet and company in the physical landscape and natural environment of the very-much-real Ashdown Forest brings even more meaning to the stories. I loved this book and how it juxtaposes the stories with the actual place. On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, by Alexandra Horowitz. My friend Rainey Tisdale uses this book in her work, and so I picked it up at her recommendation. The author takes eleven walks with experts in various disciplines, and then explores how much we miss (and how complex our environment is). From geology to bugs to dogs, it is a fascinating read that is relevant to anyone creating environments for people to experience ... or for those who are simply curious. |