PT Bookshelf: Mother Tongue

Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants and The Origins of Language

By Dean Falk

When you watch a mother talk to her baby, you may be witnessing a dance that steered our ancestors to their first words over a million years ago. Drawing on an impressive array of data, from observations of chimpanzees to neuroimaging, Falk, an anthropologist, suggests that the mother-child relationship trained our ancestors for language, while also contributing to the development of music and art. Early hominin mothers would have soothed their babies with melodious, reassuring coos. Today, we hear the echoes of those sounds in motherese, the sing-song, exaggerated talk mothers use—universally, Falk contends—with infants. Initially imitating their mothers, the young then took the next step, developing a rudimentary vocabulary to signal their desires—just as a 1-year-old today learns to ask for milk. Falk's focus on mothers and children strays from predominant theories of language's origin, which emphasize male-dominated activities such as hunting and toolmaking. —Clayton Simmons

Problem Solving 101

By Ken Watanabe

Management consultant Watanabe left his firm to write this book for Japanese schoolchildren. It soon became a best seller among grown-ups. You can read the book in an hour—the charming narrative examples will keep you going—but don't dismiss it as a compilation of common sense. Even if logic trees and priority charts are familiar members of your problem-solving toolbox, you probably don't apply them frequently or rigorously enough; too often we become "Mr. Critic" or "Miss Dreamer" instead of planning solutions soberly. Keep the book handy; its greatest utility lies in Watanabe's gentle encouragement to make these tools a habit, not an alternative. —Matthew Hutson

The Unlikely Disciple

By Kevin Roose

A frank account of a liberal's undercover foray into the "Liberty Way," the book recounts Roose's semester at the Christian school founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Liberty University. Though he begins with every intention of remaining the objective observer, his immersion in Evangelicalism tiptoes ever closer to conversion. While Roose neglects to explore the role of Evangelicalism on the national stage, he produces an intimate narrative that reveals the complicated reality of student life at Liberty, where even faith is not a given. Roose's open-mindedness about believers makes room for common ground, building a sorely needed footbridge across the God Divide. —Courtney Hutchison