Two from Kelly

Thanks to Kelly McCoy Williams for a couple of good reads this week.

One is on prejudices about e-mail senders; these prejudices disappear over the phone. The implications are especially pronounced for women and minorities.

E-mail interviewers who thought the sender was Asian considered her social
skills to be poor, while those who believed the sender was black considered her
social skills to be excellent. In stark contrast, the difference in perceived
sociability almost completely disappeared when interviewer and target had talked
on the phone.

Read the full article at Christian Science Monitor.

Additionally, Kelly beat my oldest brother in alerting me to the top 25 books of the past quarter-century. I told my brother I was offended by two Don DeLillo’s, though my brother was offended that works from 1980 counted as from the past 25 years. That’s right, book critics – rules are rules. None of this reading between the lines junk. For more:

• Read Kelly’s blog for the Toni Morrison controversy.
• Read The NY Times for the full list, including at least two books not by Philip Roth.
• Read Philip Roth’s The Counterlife. It’s that good, and as a bonus, it messes with your head. Let me know what you think.