Reading life review: February

■ Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement (Robert J. Marzano)
Education. When combined, subject-specific vocabulary instruction and sustained silent reading (particularly SSR with a personal and in-depth focus) can develop the sort of background knowledge one needs -- for success in school, yes, but also for meaningful lifelong learning. While this text addresses classroom instruction, a seasoned tutor or home educator can easily adapt the ideas and techniques.

■ Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (John J. Medina)
Non-fiction. Easily understood and and implemented, most of the ideas here (e.g., forgo multitasking, rest well, exercise regularly, repeat material to remember it, etc.) are familiar but worth reviewing. Includes a DVD, but the additional material is also available at the author's website.

■ Stargirl (Jerry Spinelli)
YA fiction, audiobook. A reread, this time with the Misses. I loved the book when I first discovered it. This audiobook, read by the late John Ritter, made me fall in love all over again. Original, lovely, memorable. The Misses also give Stargirl an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

■ Little Bee (Chris Cleave)
Fiction. Beautifully written and (to lean on a cliché) haunting. The characters and their story have lingered in my thoughts so much longer than usual.

■ Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane)
Psychological thriller. Many readers solved the "mystery" by the novel's midpoint, and I did, too, but for several reasons (not the least of which was Lehane's well-styled dialogue), I wasn't that disappointed.

■ Empire (Orson Scott Card)
Science fiction. Blame the heat and chlorine fumes, I guess, because this poolside companion didn't seem nearly as awful as many people maintained. Yeah, there are implausible bits, and, no, it's not quite as compelling as Ender's Game, but I was hooked and entertained, and sometimes, that's all I demand from a book.

■ The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (Ken Robinson)
Non-fiction. Call me mercurial. How else can I explain why Brain Rules, which also covers familiar territory, gets my recommendation, and The Element does not? Perhaps it's this simple: A feature-length article would have been the appropriate length for Robinson's rehash. Nearly three hundred pages? Overkill.

■ The Sword and the Circle: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (Rosemary Sutcliff)
YA, classic. With the Misses. A competent retelling of the Arthurian legend.

■ The Gift of Dyslexia (Ronald D. Davis)
Education. A popular and widely recommended book on this subject, but I didn't find it as informative as others have.

■ Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us (Robert D. Hare)
Psychology. Like Martha Stout's The Sociopath Next Door, this bit of pop-psych is readable, fascinating, informative, and, yes, frightening.

■ Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization (Andrew Pudewa)
Poetry. The introduction to this resource can be found here.