Mother's Day gifts: 4 great e-readers for Mom

We know she tells you that she doesn’t need anything, that she already has everything she wants, but what your mom really wants this Mother’s Day is a shiny new e-reader. It’s the perfect tool to accompany her everywhere – on her commute to work, as she waits in the car for the kids, or simply in bed at night – a portable library to tantalize her imagination wherever she goes. And with so many new models and affordable options on the market today, now is the time to buy. Here are four good options to consider.

1. Apple’s iPad and iPad2

With a new $399 price point, Apple’s iPad2 is getting fresh attention from all quarters (Note: In some cases, the $399 WiFi iPads have sold out. If you’re looking for a lower price point, check out certified refurbished iPads on Apple’s website.) In a mostly positive review, Macword writes “..the iPad 2 is a triumph, an iPad that’s even more iPad than the original. And the original one was really good. The first iPad was a bolt from the blue, a device that defined an entire category, and a tough act to follow. The iPad 2 follows it with aplomb.”

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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