Books to Read in Your 20s

The Kite Runner

By Khaled Hosseini

As a Middle Eastern and North African Studies student, I have a great interest in books about what takes place in this area. I first read this book in high school and really enjoyed it because of its accurate language. If any of you is interested in reading this book and hasn't yet, I highly recommend it.

Fire fly Lane

By Kristin Hannah

This is my favorite book. It is a story about friendship, love and life lessons. The story covers the lives of two best friends, Tully and Kate, from childhood to adulthood. I learned so much about friendship and life. So, read Firefly Lane! You'll laugh, you'll cry, and then you'll share this book to your best friend.

Half the Sky

By Nicholas Kristof

For any person of any age, Half the Sky is a must-read. It describes the struggle of women and the most pressing human rights problems of our time: the common oppression of women and girls.

The Little Prince

By Antoine de Saint

This children's book is simple. It might seem like a wrong book to recommend to someone in their twenties,   but perhaps that's what makes it a good choice. It sings praises to exploration and shows the importance of making friends.

When I was about twelve，I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was winter，and on that night, the wind was really blowing hard．As my mom and I headed to the restaurant from our car, a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change (零钱). My mom right away asked where they lived. They pointed to an old car in a parking lot across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car．

My mom said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings. But she didn't come. Later, I found out she had gone home and put all the food in our cupboards into a few bags. Then, she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family．I wasn't there when that happened，but I can only imagine the joy it brought to those people．

A few days later , when I actually found out what she had done ,I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remember the face of that girl who had asked us for change. She was the same age as me, yet we looked so different．

Here I stood，dressed in almost new clothes，headed to eat in a restaurant and then came back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister. I remember thinking that the other girl didn't have any food to eat and she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people．

After painting this picture in my mind，I understood why my mom had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night, and how she taught me one of the best lessons I have ever learned．

Your house may have an effect on your figure. Experts say the way you design your home could play a role in whether you pack on the pounds or keep them off. You can make your environment work for you instead of against you. Here are some ways to turn your home into part of your diet plan.

Open the curtains and turn up the lights. Dark environments are more likely to encourage overeating, for people are often less self­conscious (难为情) when they’re in poorly lit places—and so more likely to eat lots of food. If your home doesn’t have enough window light, get more lamps and flood the place with brightness.

Mind the colors. Research suggests warm colors fuel our appetites. In one study, people who ate meals in a blue room consumed 33 percent less than those in a yellow or red room. Warm colors like yellow make food appear more appetizing, while cold colors make us feel less hungry. So when it’s time to repaint, go blue.

Don’t forget the clock—or the radio. People who eat slowly tend to consume about 70 fewer calories (卡路里) per meal than those who rush through their meals. Begin keeping track of the time, and try to make dinner last at least 30 minutes. And while you’re at it, actually sit down to eat. If you need some help slowing down, turn on relaxing music. It makes you less likely to rush through a meal.

Downsize the dishes. Big serving bowls and plates can easily make us fat. We eat about 22 percent more when using a 12­inch plate instead of a 10­inch plate. When we choose a large spoon over a smaller one, total intake (摄入) jumps by 14 percent. And we’ll pour about 30 percent more liquid into a short, wide glass than a tall, skinny glass.

As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.

In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.

In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”

According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.