12 Fascinating Friday Reads

Welcome to 2012! I’ve got some fun things planned for the year, so bear with me while I figure out the best way to accomplish them. But tell me, please, what would YOU like to see in 2012 from ReadHeavily?

I invite you to join me on Twitter, Facebook, and/or Google+. Until then, here are 12 Fascinating Friday Reads:

1. The Right Mindset for Success. An interview with Carol Dweck, professor at Stanford University and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
2. The Science Behind the Smile. An Interview with Daniel Gilbert, widely known for his 2006 best seller, Stumbling on Happiness.
3. 8th Fire: Discovering Aboriginal literature. Waubgeshig Rice discusses the importance Aboriginal literature had in shaping his own identity as a youth and some of the authors that have truly influenced him.
4. Actor Stanley Tucci Sets Out to Find the Best Wines for Under $15.
5. Clippers’ 30-year climb to relevance.
6. Retire Here, Not There: South Dakota. South Dakota’s cost of living is nearly 11% lower than the national average. The median home price is just $116,900 and there is no state income tax. And residents and experts say cheap doesn’t compromise beauty.
7. Can a Makeover Save the Twinkie? Ashton Warren, the pastry chef at Restaurant Marc Forgione in Manhattan reimagines the Twinkie, a snack most likely to survive a nuclear attack.
8. The 160 Billion Dollar Bezzle. Why do private investors act like a bunch of baboons on a banana hunt in a warehouse full of inflatable bananas?
9. Fighting the Last War. Why the Mexican Drug War is failing (and what’s Columbia’s got to do with it).
10. New Storage Device Is Very Small, at 12 Atoms. Researchers at I.B.M. have stored and retrieved digital 1s and 0s from an array of just 12 atoms.
11. Movie Industry Is Making Money from Technologies It Claimed Would KILL Profits. This year the movie industry made $30 billion (1/3 in the U.S.) from box-office revenue. But the total movie industry revenue was $87 billion. Where did the other $57 billion come from?
12. Violin Concerto Mov. 1.