Book Review: Inventing Ourselves

Mid-morning, I got into bed ready to embark on a long and unproductive journey of browsing through my phone. Luckily, for me, the charger was not plugged in properly and I saw a mere 24% battery life smirking at it me. Well, I plugged it back in and picked up a book from my bedside pile. This was one I had read before but it is such a storehouse of knowledge that you can read it again, and again.

I bought Inventing Ourselves by Sarah-Jayne Blackmore to prepare as a parent for the crucial stages of my 10-year old son’s adolescent development. But, its more than a parenting book – it’s a scientific book and even a self-help book for it helps to understand your own life when you were a teenager. Inner child therapy is an important part of healing and I think this book provides information that can help in that exercise. The most important lesson is that teenage is the life phase of developing self-worth and obviously family has an impact on this milestone.

Scientifically, it gives significant information that all parents should know, example: schizophrenia is a genetic, developmental disorder that manifests between ages of 18-25; or the psychology of risk-taking; or that the mean age for substance abuse is around 25 years. I am reading this book a second time and marking stuff. It’s insightful and educative, a reference book and yet a story of the teenage brain

This is one of those books you need both as an ebook and a bedside copy. If you are interested in the functioning of the brain and the social influences on our mental growth and well-being, I recommend this as a great weekend read. It is lucid, succinct, and informational.

Author: Aneesha Shewani

I am just ME … a soul streaming across constellations, over eons of turbulent changes and tranquil noises, perturbed by the visions that engulf me and ruffled by the oft complacence that challenges the change. Yet, I must travel further across the galaxies, in search of the ultimate metamorphosis. Until then, I sojourn in this life, engrossed in my earthly callings of a wife, mother, professional, writer, dreamer, and seeker. On this blog you will find a spectrum of fiction, poetry, reviews, thoughts, snippets, inspiration, experiences, voices, concerns, excerpts, and everything that the soul has gathered in her fold, over years of reading, searching, finding, losing, and discovering. I regularly indulge in various creative pursuits, like crochet, experimental cooking, reading, and writing, and I hold a managerial/editorial role in a financial services organization with a global footprint. For a long time, social media hijacked my personal writing space, as I was sharing more on Facebook and writing Tweet-sized poetry on Twitter. Social media is instant but temporary gratification. Ultimately, a writer needs their own space, and personal blogging provides that space. I had started a blog more than a decade ago but all things need to be infused with new life, emerge in a new avatar, and so it is with my new blog space. Let your love and encouragement pour into Blue Pen Strokes. Check out Aneesha Shewani (@felinemusings)  View all posts by Aneesha Shewani