A household with eight people, four of whom have full-time jobs outside the home, living under one roof requires a certain level of coordination. Enter the family meeting, a weekly mandatory gathering implemented by my wise parents to facilitate scheduling, meal planning, and — most importantly — bitter complaints. Just because we legal adults have jobs and pay rent does not mean we’re exempt from helping out with dinner. Nor does the fact that we all generally enjoy one another’s company mean that we get along perfectly (thus the bitter complaints). Never ones to do anything halfway, my brother and I decided these meetings needed more formality and planned to introduce Robert’s Rules. Though we’d both used variations of these rules, which cover the proper proceedings for running a meeting, in college, I remembered reading a full account of them in a delightful book from my childhood: The Daring Book for Girls. Once I pulled it off the shelf, however, what was supposed to be a quick refresher on meeting etiquette and proper motion procedures turned into a trip down memory lane.
Published in 2007, The Daring Book for Girls, by Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz, is packed with fascinating and practical information for any and every girl. Buchanan and Peskowitz tell readers immediately that, yes, the book was directly inspired by Conn and Hal Iggulden’s book, The Dangerous Book for Boys (which, I’m reliably informed by my brother, is much more interesting than my selection).
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