Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

I read this one after hearing about it from one of my fellow music teachers.  It is about a Chinese immigrant mother married to a Jewish dad and they have two daughters.  It is more of a memoir/recollection of how she tried to raise her girls to be less "American." In stereotypical Asian fashion, she decides to accept nothing less than perfect schoolwork and required them to practice piano (and eventually violin) for many hours a day.  She ends up butting heads with her youngest daughter's strong spirit and is challenged to change her ideas about how to raise her daughters. This was a particularly thoughtful read for me, since I've taught many Asian students who fit the stereotype. I also ended up feeling a little bad because I never practiced that hard or that much growing up, and I know I could have been better if I had. The author is extremely type A and the fact that she is wrote this book about how she is trying to be less controlling seems, ahhh, what's the word??? Controlling and attention-seeking? I don't know.  It really was a good short read and one that may leave you with more insight into the thoughts of mothers like her.