I. Abigail Shrier is an author best known for her book Irreversible Damage, which argues that teenagers believe they have gender dysphoria due to peer influence and aren’t actually transgender. She recently published a book, Bad Therapy, about how the current culture around mental health is making teenagers more depressed. I agreed with much of the content in Bad Therapy, which made this a remarkable reading experience. I watched my opinions being filtered through someone who’s both stupid and evil.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time this week thinking about the Barbie movie trying to figure out what was wrong with it since it was such a hit, and the only critiques I found said it was “muddled” which I agreed with, I needed to know what the hell was the problem.  Why did the medium clash with the message? Don’t get me wrong—I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Issue #31 On Friday Albert Pujols hit his 699th and 700th career homeruns, making him only the fourth player to ever reach that milestone (Ruth, Aaron, Bonds). At age 42 and in his 22nd season in the big leagues, Prince Albert is feasting on left-handers at an impressive .354/.403/.752 clip with 13 HR in only 113 at-bats. (While only batting .208 against RHP, he does have 8 HR against them.)

My good friend, Jane Ann Smith, who also has six children and is about 10 years ahead of me in life’s journey, has given me lots of good advice over the years. As I began my empty nest years, I continued to watch her, ask questions and learn from her. A few years later when Susan Yates and I were writing our empty nest book, I e-mailed Jane Ann for her thoughts on what she was learning in the empty nest.

May might be almost finished, but you’ve still got time this Memorial weekend to begin reading one of Bethanne Patrick’s recommended new books. And this month, Patrick’s list is really scintillating - extending from fresh fiction by Claire Messud, Kaliane Bradley and Colm Toibin to new non-fictional books by George Stephanopoulos, Nina St. Pierre and Alan M. Taylor. So no excuses. Watch/listen to Patrick - the best read person in the world - and then beg, buy or steal one of her recommended new books.