The Book Blawg

Super Mario Sunshine

2011-07-27T14:17:00.000-06:00

Super Mario Sunshine for Nintendo Gamecube.
by Chris, Age 10

For all you Mario and Gamecube fans this is for you. Super Mario Sunshine is a hard game, but is fun after you figure it out. Mario has been falsely accused of spreading pollution on Delfino Isle. The real culprit is a watery Mario. He is making the graffiti with his staff. I will call him "Dark Mario". You are helped by Fludd, a robot from Gadd Science Inc. F.L.U.D.D.is a flash-liquidizer-ultra-dousing-device. He (or she, it doesn't tell you.) has many nozzles. The nozzles are spray which you can spray you're opponent, hover which you can hover for a short time, rocket which you can go shooting 50-100ft. (can't tell estimation), and the boost which you can go faster when sliding. Mostly to attack you squirt water and pound them (Exception: Blooper Gooper, you pull his nose. Sorry it's in Japanese.) The main enemy varies between levels. First it's multi-colored blobs, then mini Blooper Goopers, then "acka quacks". This is a fun game but there must be a time when you say "This is too hard, I quit."

The Legend of Luke

2011-06-17T14:54:00.001-06:00

The Legend of Luke: A Tale from Redwall by Brian Jacques
By Chris, Age 10

This story is about two mice named Martin (who is a warrior) and Gonff;a hedge hog named Trimp;and a mole named Dinny.They set out to Martin's old home,the caves of his tribe, NW from Redwall abbey, their home.Redwall was founded by Abbess Germaine.They found the four survivors of the crash that went with Luke to defeat the stoat Vilu Daskar.Vilu Daskar killed most of Luke's tribe.He maned a ship called the Goreleech and sailed around taking slaves on his three-decker ship.Luke battled, took over a ship, and renamed it Sayna, after his wife, who was killed in the first attack.Martin learns as much as he could about his father then went back to Redwall taking the survivors, a hare named Beau and three mice named Vurg, Dulam, and Denno.I highly recommend this to anyone who likes the following, action, adventure, comedy,and tragedy. In all it's a adomedy :)

P.S. For more Redwall books go to the Redwall Wiki.

New Guest Blogger

2011-06-17T12:22:00.000-06:00

I have some exciting news. My son, Chris, who is 10, will be writing short reviews of some of his summer reading. Right now he is reading through the Redwall series by Brian Jacques and the Dragon Keepers Chronicles by Donita K. Paul, although I am letting him choose his writing topics. I also plan to format the posts only but not edit his writing, as much as it irks me to publish something with grammatical errors :).

Free Book Downloads

2011-05-13T12:41:00.000-06:00

Birth Wisdom: A Collection of Editorials from Midwifery Today Magazine by Jan Tritten (Volumes I and II) is available free from Smashwords.

A section of Dr. Sears’ L.E.A.N. Start guide is available here. We've used the traffic light eating concept in our own family, and it really seems to make sense to the boys.

Instilling Honor in Boys Through Literature

2011-04-27T10:29:00.000-06:00

Cindy, homeschooling mom of nine, has a list of literature (fiction, biographies, and poetry) on her blog which tends to instill honor in boys without moralizing:

Our goal is not to produce self-righteous prigs like our old friend Eustace Scrubbs before he met the dragon (See: The Voyage of Dawn Treader) but rather to motivate our sons by the examples of true heart change whether that heart change is in the real man Stonewall Jackson or the fictional mouse Reepicheep.

My boys have read a few of these already. How about yours?

Dreadfully Ever After

2011-03-22T12:11:00.001-06:00

Quirk Classics' new book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith debuts today. I'm only half-way through the book, but so far I do love it. Now, let me just say that I am not generally a fan of zombie movies or fiction. I very much like Jane Austen, though, and I find mash-ups really fun and, well, quirky.

The book is the sequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which I reviewed here) and the third in the series which includes the prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls. The story unfolds as the newlywed Darcy is bitten by an unmentionable which begins the process of zombification. Elizabeth is sent by Lady Catherine de Bourgh to London to obtain a highly-guarded cure for the zombie plague. However, as any Austen reader knows, Elizabeth and Lady Catherine are not on the best of terms, and the quest is hampered by lies, schemes, and ninjas, not to mention zombies.

Quirk Classics is having a give-away - just "like" the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After Facebook page to enter. And watch for my upcoming post on Austenesque - that is, novels written as sequels to, in the style of, or using the characters of, Jane Austen.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

Reading a Book A Week

2011-02-13T09:01:00.001-07:00

No, not me. Elysee over at Everything Barrett is reading a book a week in 2011 and blogging about it.

How about you? Have you made any reading-related New Year's resolutions? How's it going so far?

Mario Brothers Karamazov

2010-12-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

Quirk Classics recently held a contest in honor of Tolstoy's Centenial. The winners were announced yesterday and Mario Brothers Karamazov topped the list. My favorite was A Superhero of our Time (after Lermontov's A Hero of our Time).

If you haven't, you may wish to read my review of QC's Android Karenina.

Mini Shopaholic

2010-11-28T23:59:00.003-07:00

Mini Shopaholic: A Novel, by Sophie Kinsella.

I was first introduced to Sophie Kinsella's writting when I read The Undomestic Goddess, about a successful London attorney who flees the city for the country and accidentally takes a job as a housekeeper. I read and loved the novel (film version coming in 2011) because I identified with the main character. I enjoyed the first several books of the Shopaholic series for the opposite reason. Fashion-conscious, single, overspending - Becky Bloomwood is everything I am not. So as we move through the series and Becky becomes more like me - gets married, has a baby, and parents a two-year-old - I find her antics less and less charming and more annoying. Will this woman never learn?

Book Review

2010-08-18T17:49:00.000-06:00

Elita at Blacktating reviews The The Politics of Breastfeeding: When Breasts are Bad for Business by Gabrielle Palmer.

2010-06-26T00:01:00.007-06:00

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith.

I guess it's vampire week here at The Book Blawg.

Wow, I really enjoyed this book! That's saying a bit, because I generally avoid biographies and history. I know I should like them and they are good for me to read, but I prefer historical fiction if I want to learn about history.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, as the title suggests, re-imagines Lincolns life with vampires. As a young man, Lincoln learns that his mother and his grandfather were murdered by vampires. He then writes in his journal:

I hereby resolve to kill every vampire in America.

Soon after, he meets a "good" vampire named Henry who teaches Lincoln about the undead and trains him to fight. Lincoln continues his secret vampire-fighting career until a "Union" of bloodsuckers persuades him to concentrate on politics. There is, we learn, a war coming - a war essentially between two groups of vampires: those that choose to coexist with humans; and those who enjoy terrorizing and victimizing them. (If this setup doesn't sound vaguely familiar, you haven't read any vampire fiction in the last 35 years.) The United States, particularly the South, has become a haven for vampires because of their ability to feed on slaves with impunity, and for that purpose have allied themselves with the southern plantation owners and slave traders. This fact makes the institution of slavery even darker, if that is possible; and their plans are to enslave the whole population and therefore they must be stopped, at all costs.

The bulk of the novel is not about vampires, but is a pretty well-written and engaging biography of Lincoln. It's not hard to discern fact from fiction. This book was great up until the very end, which didn't seem consistent with what we had learned about Lincoln. But I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot of history at the same time. The photos are clever, as well.

2010-06-25T18:49:00.002-06:00

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer.

So, if you've read the Twilight series, you know that Bree is the newborn vampire who "surrenders" to the Cullens at the end of Eclipse and then is destroyed by the Volturi. This short novel is her story - sort of a "day-in-the-life" of the vampire army that Victoria creates. As Ms. Meyer writes in the introduction, "you know this: it doesn't end well for her. But at least you will know the whole story." And I'll tell you, not only do you learn about Bree, but there is a major new piece of information that is revealed in this book that was not in the book Eclipse, but I suspect will be included in Eclipse the movie which premiers next week, and it affects events in Breaking Dawn as well.

I found Meyer's writing in Bree Tanner to be a lot more like The Host than the other Twilight novels. Now I liked The Host, but not every Twilight fan does. Also, I've read criticisms that the book doesn't have chapters, and indeed that feature can be annoying unless you plan to read it all in one sitting. But it's short, so deal with it.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is available to read for free until July 5 at breetanner.com.

Breastfeeding Facts for Fathers

2010-06-19T23:48:00.003-06:00

Check out Molly Remer's book review of Breastfeeding Facts for Fathers at the Citizens for Midwifery blog.

Android Karenina, and a Quirk Classics give-away

2010-06-08T08:35:00.002-06:00

Android Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters.

Scroll down to find out how you can win one of 25 prize packages from Quirk Classics.

I'm sure I qualify as a hard-core Tolstoy geek. I've read War and Peace - twice - for fun (both times). Back in college, I took a Russian literature course on Tolstoy and wrote what were, I'm sure, pretentious essays on Sevastapol Stories and Anna Karenina. I translated one of Tolstoy's short stories from Russian to English. I have three copies of AK on my shelf; a cheap paperback, a Norton critical edition, and a two-volume set in Russian that I picked up at some Dom Knigi or other. I even acquired the nickname "Mrs. Tolstoy" for a while, based on the phonetic similarities between my first name and Tolsoty's initials and, of course, my love of 19th century Russian literature.

So when Quirk Classics announced a blog explosion for their latest offering, Android Karenina, I knew I had to be on board.

This book has got androids, aliens, and enough action to please any mash-up fan. The thing about mash-ups is you either love them or you hate them. If you are a purist, you don't want anyone messing with your Tolstoy or your Austen. So if that's you, just stay away from the genre altogether or you will get all upset, and that makes things unpleasant for the rest of us.

[Isn't this a cool photo of Tolstoy? It was taken in 1908, the only color photograph of the author.]
One thing that has always struck me as I have been reading so much Jane Austen lately (both the mashed and the un-mashed) is the social class distinctions of that time. The separation of the population into nobility, commoners, and clergy is a foreign concept to our modern egalitarian minds. We understand that one person may have more money than another, or a more powerful or prestigious job, but not that a person is somehow better merely by birth. In Tolstoy's day, the distinction was even more pronounced due to the existence of serfdom, which persisted in Russian for hundreds of years after it was abolished in Western Europe. Tolstoy made efforts, with limited success, to improve the lives of the peasants living on his estate, and it becomes an important theme in his writing. So the substitution of robots for servants in Android Karenina seems quite fitting, and represents the ultimate dehumanization of the serving class.

Like the previous Quirk Classics books (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters), this one contains discussion questions, such as:

7. In a crucial moment, Levin chooses his wife over Socrates, his beloved-companion robot. Are there any technological devices in your life that you love more than your spouse?

It seems that readers are going to find many of the themes in Android Karenina relevant to modern life. There's a reason they call it a CrackBerry, folks.

And now on to the give-away. To enter, visit Quirk Classics' Android Karenina contest page and leave a comment mentioning this blog (The Book Blawg). Quirk will be giving away 25 prize packages worth around $100 each, including 5 books, an Android Karenina poster, and more.

Thanks for joining me!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

Free Wonderful Book

2010-06-03T00:37:00.003-06:00

Ray Comfort, author (and friend of Kirk Cameron) has a new book out, and it's available free, either on request, by .pdf, or as an .mp3 audiobook: God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life: The Myth of the Modern Message.

2010-05-20T00:01:00.000-06:00

Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald.

This is sort of the anti-feminist manifesto. I found the book inspiring, but didn't really give me anything new. The back of the book says, "Do you wrestle with cultural messages that demean the homemaker's calling and exalt instead the emotionally androgynous power-woman?" Um, no, not really. I'm pretty secure in my role as a lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mom.

2010-05-19T11:04:00.002-06:00

The Autism Answer Book: More Than 300 of the Top Questions Parents Ask, by William Stillman.

The ADD & ADHD Answer Book: Professional Answers to 275 of the Top Questions Parents Ask, by Susan Ashley, Ph.D.

I found both these books to be too general to be of much use. In addition, they are written from a very mainstream perspective, and ignore or only briefly mention alternative therapies and even dietary changes which have been helpful to so many people.

Disclaimer: I received complimentary review copies of these books.

Sea Monsters!

2010-05-13T15:46:00.002-06:00

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters.

Jessie Kunhardt at Huffington Post summarizes the monster mash-up craze (" 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' Spin-Offs are Out of Control!").

I enjoyed Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, but not as much as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or its prequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls. I just couldn't get past the fact that no rational society, when faced with giant malevolent sea creatures, would willingly choose to live near the ocean, on islands, or in a giant undersea city. What, there's no place to live inland? Also, I love, love, love, the movie version of Sense and Sensibility - the one with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, and Hugh Grant. It's a rare instance of my liking a movie more than the book, and I don't like where the book deviates from the plot of the movie. You know, Alan Rickman is pretty hunky and I don't like him made ugly, whether by Austen's writing or by squid-like tentacles.

2010-05-12T00:01:00.000-06:00

The Milk-Free Kitchen: Living Well Without Dairy Products, by Beth Kidder.

I have been trying to eat dairy-free lately, due to my son's eczema, and I thought this book would help. However I was a bit disappointed when I looked for a dessert recipe - most involve substituting margarine for butter. First, I don't want to eat margarine, either. And second, if I did I wouldn't need a recipe book to make those substitutions.

2010-05-11T00:01:00.003-06:00

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, by Ree Drummond.

After reading quite a bit of buzz about The Pioneer Woman on my friends' blogs, I decided to check it out for myself. This book is beautiful to look at, fun to read, and full of meat-and-potatoes recipes (and a few others, too). A winner all around.

2010-05-10T00:01:00.000-06:00

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.

Wuthering Heights is supposed to be one of the classics of English literature, but after reading it, I can't see what all the fuss is about. All of the characters are immoral if not downright evil. In tragic fiction one often finds a hero/heroine with a fatal flaw, or a sympathetic villain. Heathcliff has been wronged, but he takes revenge on the guilty and the innocent alike. Cathy has few qualities that would make Heathcliff or Edgar Linton love her. It will be interesting to watch a movie version of the book, and see how these characters are portrayed.

Vegetable purees can not be copyrighted

2010-04-30T13:56:00.001-06:00

Says a New York federal appeals court (AP via law.com). Jessica Seinfeld was sued for trademark and copyright violations after her book, Deceptively Delicious (reviewed here) was published about the same time as Missy Chase Lapine's The Sneaky Chef. Both cookbooks involve sneaking vegetable purees into kid's foods. Lapine also sued Jessica's husband, commedian Jerry Seinfeld, for defamation based on comments he made on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Too Many Books - Too Little Shelf

2010-04-26T17:31:00.000-06:00

I have a stack of books on my desk. Some need to go back to the library; all are taking up space. Several of them deserve a whole review to themselves - but I don't have time to write them. So I'll just give you a summary. If you are interested in what I'm reading, leave a comment and maybe I'll give it a more in-depth treatment.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith. I think I liked this prequel even better than the original PPZ (which I reviewed here). While adding zombies to Austen's prose was, though delightful, unwieldy at best, this book is an entirely original piece of writing.

The It Factor: Be the One People Like, Listen to, and Remember by Mark Wiskup. Not what I was expecting, this book deals mainly with tweaking the way you talk and ask questions. Didn't do much for me.

The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton; completed By Marion Mainwaring. It's interesting reading this Regency-era book (published posthumously in unfinished form in 1938) alongside other Regency-era novels written over a century before, such as Pride and Prejudice.

The Telling (Seasons of Grace, Book 3) by Beverly Lewis - a satisfactory end to Lewis' latest three-book series.

Book Twitter

2010-04-11T16:52:00.001-06:00

Now I don't Tweet, or follow people on Twitter - I'm on information overload as it is - but I came across this list of the 50 Best Book People to Follow on Twitter. Looks good.

More along the same lines

2010-03-28T20:38:00.003-06:00

Since I last blogged about Jane Austen, I've read Emma (and watched the movie); watched Sense & Sensibility for about the tenth time; and read Austen's Northanger Abbey and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I also watched Becoming Jane, the fictional biography staring Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen.

Next up: Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I did consider reading Austen's books Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility, but I plan to read Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
and Mansfield Park and Mummies. After my recent Pride, Prejudice and Zombies experience, I learned that reading an original and its monster mash-up back-to-back can be a bit repetitive.

Not-So-Plain Jane

2010-03-15T12:20:00.000-06:00

Not everyone likes the Austen monster mash.

2010-03-06T20:07:00.004-07:00

Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys, by Lucinda Scala Quinn.

As the mom of four boys, I was of course highly interested in the subject matter of this book. On a daily basis, sometimes right after dinner, I hear cries of "mom, I'm still hungry!". And they're not even teenagers yet. I found the first part of this book, with discussion and ideas and cooking tips, quite interesting. However, the recipes aren't always kid-friendly. There are some basics here, like fried chicken and beef stew. But others would work great for a family that's a bit more "into" food than ours. Still worth checking out, though.

2010-03-05T00:01:00.001-07:00

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes, by by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein.

This is a fun book, short, easy to read. It gives a basic overview of philosophy, illustrated with a lot of really funny jokes.

Unsafe at Any Read

2010-03-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Interesting review of Ralph Nader's novel "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" by Newsweek's Seth Colter Walls.

Jane Austen

2010-03-03T01:01:00.001-07:00

I've been on a bit of a Jane Austen kick lately. It all started when one of my Facebook friends posted that she was watching Pride and Prejudice with her daughter - the one staring Keira Knightley. It is a movie that had been on my list for some time, so I decided to watch it and read the book as well.

Being the type of person who likes to thoroughly exhaust a genre or author before moving on, I decided not to stop at just one cinematic interpretation of the novel, but four. Bride and Prejudice is the Bollywood version staring, among others, Lost's Naveen Andrews (who knew he could dance?). It was a fun movie. Then Bridget Jones's Diary which borrows a plotline from Pride and Prejudice. I thought it was just ok; my husband didn't like it at all. Bridget Jones stars Colin Firth, who also played Mr. Darcy in the workmanlike 1996 BBC production of Austen's classic, which I watched as well.

I also started reading Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. When I picked up the book at the library, I was not at all surprised to learn that it was published by Quirk Classics, a division of Quirk Books. Quirk Classics is specializing in the literary mash-up, which aims to "enhance classic novels with pop culture phenomena." The tongue-in-cheek Reader's Discussion Guide at the end of the book explains:

10. Some scholars believe that the zombies were a last-minute addition to the novel, requested by the publisher in a shameless attempt to boost sales....Can you imagine what this novel might be like without the violent zombie mayhem?

Grahame-Smith has edited Austen's novel with a light hand, removing some extraneous detail and dialogue, and changing a word here or there to make the language more understandable to modern readers, but without essentially altering Austin's prose (except, of course, as needed for the addition of the zombie action). For instance, at the beginning of Chapter 37, I noted that Mr. Collins makes a "parting bow" rather than an "obeisance". Other changes may delight even die-hard Austen fans, such as the death of the obnoxious Mr. Collins; or the confrontation between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, which becomes a battle not only of words, but one involving swords and ninjas. In places, it's what Austen might have wanted to have written.

What to read next? There are so many options. I could read (or in some cases, re-read) the rest of Austen's novels - I've already finished Persuasion and started in on Emma. I could read one of the many Pride and Prejudice sequels and prequels on the market, but I'm still recovering from the disappointing Scarlett, the sequel to Gone With the Wind. Or I could wait for Dawn of the Dreadfuls, the prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, being released later this month. Perhaps Mansfield Park and Mummies? or Emma and the Werewolves? So many books, so little time...

ETA: Quirk Classics is giving away 50 Dawn of the Dreadfuls prize packs here.

New Template

2010-02-26T18:07:00.000-07:00

Like it? My last one (besides being a standard dull blogger template) was, I thought, hard to read. This one is simple and clean.

2010-01-15T21:28:00.003-07:00

Have a New Kid by Friday: How to Change Your Child's Attitude, Behavior & Character in 5 Days, by Kevin Leman.

As parenting books go, this one's pretty good. It is similar in approach to Jim Fay's Love and Logic approach - though Love and Logic seems better suited for younger children; Have a New Kid for older children and teens. Sometimes when reading this book, however, I felt like it was directed toward completely permissive parents with completely spoiled kids. The basic principle is something that any parent with two kids and half a brain has figured out - that sooner or later, your children are going to want something from you, or need you to do something for them. And if they haven't cleaned their room or taken out the trash, you need to make it their problem, not yours. No nagging required.

There is another book in the series, Have a New Husband by Friday, which I plan to read, though I'm wary of the application of child-raising techniques to the marital relationship. Is there going to be a book How to Have a New Wife by Friday? I'm not sure that one would go over so well.

2009-11-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin.

I almost stopped reading this book in the middle. I have better things to do with my time. Seriously, unless you are a huge Kathy Griffin fan, or are trying to catch up on your celebrity gossip, just skip it.

2009-11-30T00:03:00.002-07:00

Love Comes Softly, by Janet Oke.

I read this book years ago and decided to give it a re-read. I think I'll work through the whole series.

2009-11-23T00:31:00.004-07:00

Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) , Rebecca Housel (Editor), J. Jeremy Wisnewski (Editor), William Irwin (Series Editor).

This book is a collection of essays by different authors connecting the insanely popular Stephenie Meyer series with various schools of philosophical thought. It is part of the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, which includes titles such as Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy, 24 and Philosophy, and, naturally, Lost and Philosophy.

Frankly, I was a bit disappointed. Although there are a few sparkly gems among the essays, most either pose questions that are obvious and trite (i.e. "Do vampires have souls?" "Is Bella a feminist, or an antifeminist, heroine?") or try, like an undergraduate college paper, to apply deeper meaning where the author intended none. Students of philosophy will be bored by the lack of substance, while Twilight fans will be annoyed by writers who are less familiar with the books than they.

Books about motherhood that I read recently and didn't really care for

2009-05-10T22:34:00.003-06:00

The Mommy Club, by Sarah Bird. Although I liked the author's earlier books, Alamo House and The Boyfriend School when I read them many years ago, The Mommy Club just didn't click with me.

Mommywood, by Tori Spelling. Though I found her first book, sTORI Telling, rather interesting, she just lost me with this one. I got tired of hearing her complain about how she had to work to support her family; then, for example, throwing a memorial service for her dog, or and over-the-top first birthday party for her son. Her observations about "Mommywood" would be fascinating on their own; but as a story teller, she can't quite decide whether she wants to be a part of it or not.

Recent Reading

2009-04-28T19:09:00.001-06:00

Finished this week:

The Associate, by John Grisham.

Without Remorse, by Tom Clancy.

2009-04-11T23:01:00.001-06:00

Debt of Honor, by Tom Clancy

Executive Orders, by Tom Clancy

On September 11, 2001, after the initial shock had worn off, a few people (myself included) who were familiar with Clancy's Debt of Honor recalled the incident which occurs at the end of the book: A Japanese airline pilot, distraught and angry over relatives killed in a short-lived conflict between his country and the United States, crashes an empty Boeing 747 into the Capitol building during a Presidential address, killing the President and virtually all of the members of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Clancy's hero, Jack Ryan, who had just been confirmed as Vice President, narrowly escapes death and is immediately sworn in as President. Executive Orders picks up right where Debt of Honor leaves off, as a reluctant President Ryan handles both domestic and international crises while rebuilding the government as he and his family adjust to their new roles.

Prior to September 11, it had not occurred to most people that a passenger jet could be used as a weapon of mass murder. But to Tom Clancy it had.

While not exactly prophetic, many of the themes and plotlines of Debt of Honor (1994) and Executive Orders (1996) seem familiar to us. In Debt of Honor, we see in detail the unraveling of the U.S. economy (through an engineered attack on the markets, rather than as a result of sub-prime mortgages and toxic assets). Executive Orders contains a bioterrorism attack on the US, the assassination of the Iraqi dictator, the merger of Iraq and Iran into the United Islamic Republic, and a second Persian Gulf war - complete with embedded journalists. Although some of Clancy's cold war novels now seem a bit stale, these two still seem fresh, even nearly ten years after publication.

I've been reading through all the Jack Ryan novels, in plotline order, but at this point I plan to take a break and read Without Remorse and Rainbow Six, set in the same universe but staring John Clark as the main character. And get some non-fiction reading done.

2009-04-08T23:01:00.000-06:00

Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down, by Kaylene Johnson

As a biography, it's not great. It's a history of Sarah Palin's life, without the critical analysis that one would expect from a professional biographer. But I notice that the book is penned by a magazine writer and two-time book author, a resident of Wasilla, Alaska; and as such, it is an adequate biography. It only covers Sarah's life up to her swearing-in as Alaska governor.

2009-04-05T23:01:00.002-06:00

Paul of Dune, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

If you remember, I read through all fourteen then-existing Dune novels last year, plus Dreamer of Dune and The Road to Dune. Let me just say, Herbert & Anderson have come a long way since writing the mind-numbingly boring Legends of Dune trilogy. Paul of Dune is shorter, more concise, with a plot that moves along as it should. There also seemed to be some effort to address the factual inconsistencies (too numerous to mention) between the Frank Herbert Dune novels and the Herbert/Anderson Dune novels. (Basically, it's all Irulan's fault.) Looking forward to the rest of the Heroes of Dune novels.

2009-04-02T23:01:00.000-06:00

The Longing, by Beverly Lewis.

This is the third of three books in the "Courtship of Nellie Fisher" series, one of my favorite Beverly Lewis series. It did not have the element of mystery that was present in some of her previous novels, and I thought the ending was a bit abrupt. But it had a clear spiritual message and compelling characters.

Fathers at Birth

2009-03-31T23:01:00.000-06:00

Molly Remer of Citizens for Midwifery reviews Fathers at Birth by Rose St. John in: Fathers at Birth and More About Fathers at Birth. Some good links in those posts, too.

2009-03-31T11:41:00.000-06:00

The Sum of All Fears, by Tom Clancy.

I'm going to take a break in my quest to read through all the Jack Ryan novels. It's becoming tedious; I need some variety. Plus, I want to go back and read the John Clark novels, which often feature Jack Ryan in a cameo roll, and are set in the same "universe".

2009-03-07T09:56:00.002-07:00

The Host, by Stephenie Meyer.

I took a break in the middle of re-reading Meyer's Twilight saga to read her "other" novel, The Host. I liked it a lot better than I though I would. If you just really love teenage vampires, you might not enjoy this one so much. Likewise, if you are a hard-core sci-fi buff, it might just not be science fiction-y enough for you. But if you like Meyer's writing, there are plenty of similarities between The Host and Twilight; a young, vulnerable heroine with an old soul who is selfless to the point of self-sacrifice; a bizarre love triangle; and two groups of people - humans and aliens - who, though natural enemies, find a way to get past their prejudices, understand each other, and work together.

A Brief History of Children's Literature

2009-02-06T14:12:00.003-07:00

The May, 2008 edition of Veritas Press' Epistula contained a fascinating article, "A Brief History of Children’s Literature".

NaBloPoMo

2008-11-30T23:05:00.000-07:00

Blue Cotton Gown

2008-11-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

This looks interesting - The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir by Patricia Harman.

2008-11-24T22:23:00.004-07:00

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer.

No, it's not great literature and yes, it is that good.

Free book of childbirth stories

2008-11-20T22:59:00.001-07:00

Sheri Menelli is offering downloadable copies of her book Journey into Motherhood: Inspirational Stories of Natural Birth for free. Get your copy here.

2008-11-19T22:59:00.002-07:00

Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters, by Bill Tancer.

Bill Tancer loves data, and in his job he gets to work with a lot of it. He works for Hitwise, a company that analyzes online information, particularly search terms and online traffic. One of the examples that he gives in the book is that searches for prom dresses spikes in early January. He could come up with no explanation for this data, so he spoke with insiders in the prom dress industry, who were equally as clueless - they target their marketing for April and May, since most proms take place in late May. Finally, after sharing his data at a conference, a magazine publisher clued him in to the fact that teen magazines publish prom fashion issues in late December - a fact that, I'm sure, the prom dress industry needs to know.

While this book is in the same category as The Tipping Point or Freakonomics, it's not quite as good. Perhaps Mr. Tancer, being a data guy, is a bit more uncomfortable with "the big picture". But there is still a lot of great information here. I found the discussions of Web 2.0 and social networking particularly interesting.

Joe Hodnicki of the Law Librarian Blog writes a review here.

2008-11-13T23:01:00.001-07:00

Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?: An Easy Plan for Losing Weight and Living More, by Peter Walsh.

I listened to the audiobook of Walsh's It's All Too Much and loved it, so I was anxious to read his new book. It's really just the it's all too much philosophy applied to weight loss and food, with lots of Walsh's insights into human nature, as he has observed the connection between body clutter and "too much stuff" clutter.

Molly Reads

2008-11-08T23:01:00.000-07:00

Molly Reads reviews three books I own and have read (though not necessarily blogged about):

Childbirth Education: Practice, Research and Theory, by Francine H. Nichols and Sharron Smith Humenick. (review)

Milk, Money, and Madness: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding, by Naomi Baumslag, MD and Dia L. Michels. (review)

Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, by Jennifer Block. (review)

2008-11-05T23:01:00.002-07:00

Audition: A Memoir, by Barbara Walters.

This book is really interesting, not so much because Barbara Walters is that fascinating - in fact, her constant low self-esteem and indecisiveness gets to be a bit wearing on the reader - but because she knew so many important, famous, and infamous people. In fact, I would suggest this book to someone older than me, as her career spans decades which I know little about, having been too young to experience them firsthand, and too old for them to get much coverage in history class.

Great Expectiations

2008-11-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

Via Birth Pangs, a "laborious work of non-fiction" titled Great Expectations: Twenty-Four True Stories about Childbirth.

2008-10-18T12:16:00.002-06:00

How to Write a Children's Book and Get It Published, by Barbara Seuling.

So obviously this book is helpful if you want to write a children's book, but I also learned a lot about the history of children's literature and the publishing industry. There is also a helpful list in the Appendix of recommended children's books in each category which may be useful for parents.

Books I hope you never need to read

2008-10-14T23:01:00.002-06:00

In honor of National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day:

Death of a Dream: Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Newborn Loss, by Donna and Rodger Ewy.

This is a great book, aimed primarily at caregivers - doctors, nurses, family members, etc. It has details - written in easy-to-understand language, though - about the medical causes of miscarriage and stillbirth, including genetic factors, placental abnormalities, and so forth. Gives clear suggestions for support people as to what to say and how to act. This book would be helpful for parents, but I would most recommend it to doulas and nurses.

A Woman Doctor's Guide to Miscarriage: Essential Facts and Up-To-The Minute Information on Coping With Pregnancy Loss and Trying Again, by Lynn Friedman, MD and Irene Daria.

Goes into a lot of detail on the causes and prevention of miscarriage, particularly recurring miscarriage, with smaller chapters on grief and trying again. Has a neat section at the back of women's stories.

Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby by Deborah L. Davis.

Explores in detail the grief process and the emotions that parents may be going through. Focuses mostly on the emotional aspects with very little information about the physical process, and focuses primarily on stillbirth rather than miscarriage. Helpful for anyone, though.

Molly's Rosebush, by Janice Cohn and Gail Owens.

This is a really simply, touching book about miscarriage for children from the perspective of the older sister. It makes a great analogy that just as some seeds don't sprout, and some eggs don't hatch, some babies don't get to be born.

2008-10-03T15:11:00.003-06:00

Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich, by Robert Frank.

This is a very interesting and enjoyable read about really, really rich people and how they live. It stands in sharp contrast to The Millionaire Next Door, which characterizes the ordinary millionaire as buying used cars and drinking Budweiser.

Tom Clancy Books Read Recently

2008-10-01T12:51:00.000-06:00

As previously mentioned, I am reading through the Jack Ryan novels:

Red Rabbit

The Hunt for Red October

The Cardinal of the Kremlin

Clear and Present Danger

Managing Morning Sickness

2008-09-19T01:32:00.000-06:00

My HG-sister Diana of Birth at Home in Arizona writes a review of Managing Morning Sickness: A Survival Guide for Pregnant Women by Miriam Erick. While you are at it, check out her related blog, The Whining Puker.

2008-09-11T12:11:00.000-06:00

Your Pregnancy Recovery Guide, by Glade B. Curtis and Judith Schuler.

The best thing about this book is that - being a book only about the postpartum period - it is fairly comprehensive. It describes in detail what one should expect, both physically and emotionally, after giving birth. There is slightly more emphasis on the physical aspects, including exercise and nutrition, than the socio-psychological aspects. It answers a lot of questions that moms may have, such as which pregnancy changes will go away in time (linea nigra) and which may not (larger shoe size). It also contains information on baby care and returning to work.

This book was written using fairly simple language, without a whole lot of explanation or detail, so I can't really recommend it to moms who are well-educated or who have a lot of knowledge about birth already. There were also a couple of glaring errors in the "Feeding Your Baby" chapter (I hesitate to make disparaging comments about OBs writing about breastfeeding without the input of lactation professionals - perhaps it is a bit out of Dr. Curtis' scope of practice?). For instance:

It won't harm your baby if you cannot or choose not to breastfeed.

Patently untrue. While yes, formula feeding may be the best choice for some moms, it is not without risks, and it can harm babies. For instance, four babies in every thousand die because they are not breastfed. Formula fed babies are 10 times more likely to be hospitalized for a bacterial infection. And these statistics pertain to the US, not to developing countries without access to clean water.

When you decide to discontinue nursing, you can either taper off gradually or stop cold turkey. Each way has its advantages.

There's an advantage to quitting cold turkey? None that I know of. It's bad for mom and bad for baby. Oh, it takes less time. Hm.

So, while this book may be helpful for some moms, I can't recommend it without reservation.

2008-07-28T10:09:00.000-06:00

Patriot Games, by Tom Clancy.

I think I'm going to read through all of Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, in storyline order. Need something to get me through this long, hot summer.

Catch-up

2008-06-28T00:59:00.000-06:00

Read lately:

The Rookie Mom's Handbook: 250 Activities to Do with (and Without!) Your Baby, by Heather Flett and Whitney Moss - I love Quirk books; they are sturdy with such nice, thick pages - one enjoys the book even before reading a single word. The Rookie Mom's Handbook is a funny and handy guide to activities for the first year of life, organized by month. It's not going to make anyone's "must-have" parenting library list, but it would make a great baby shower or new mom gift. You can check out the authors' blog at www.rookiemoms.com.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell. Not as great as Gladwell's Tipping Point, but still has some mind-blowing conclusions:

There are lots of books that tackle broad themes, that analyze the world from great remove. This is not one of them. Blink is concerned with the very smallest components of our everyday lives - the content and origin of those instantaneous impressions and conclusions that spontaneously arise whenever we meet a new person or confront a complex situation or have to make a decision under conditions of stress. When it comes to the task of understanding ourselves and our world, I think we pay too much attention to those grand themes and too little to the particulars of those fleeting moments. But what would happen if we took our instincts seriously?

Sidetracked Home Executives: From Pigpen to Paradise, by Pam Young and Peggy Jones. - Written by sisters, this book (along with Suze Ormod's The Courage to Be Rich, and Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston) was one of the inspirations for The Fly Lady's system. I personally find the card file concept to be overwhelming, and not as thoroughly explained as could be, but I do use a tickler file for almost everything and heartily recommend it.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, by Alan Greenspan. I thoroughly enjoyed this book - as much as I read of it. At 544 pages, at a certain point I decided that it was just taking too long to read and I had other, more pressing things to do with my time. The first part of the book is an autobiography of Greenspan, but really it reads as a politico-economic history of the last fifty years. The second half of the book is a discussion of the current state of world economics. This book is fascinating, but not for everyone.

Gramatically Vague Headlines

2008-05-27T19:50:00.000-06:00

Please, somebody send this headline witter a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves:

Girlfriend Accused of Stabbing Man with Scissors

2008-04-30T20:32:00.000-06:00

sTORI Telling, by Tori Spelling.

Ok, I'm not a fan, but I checked it out because I can't resist a catchy title. Interesting (I read it in less than 24 hours), but not brilliant, much like Tori Spelling's acting.

2008-04-16T13:43:00.000-06:00

The Gatecrasher, by Madeleine Wickham.

I was a little disappointed when, while writing the review of "Remember Me?", I wikipedia'ed the author and found that Sophie Kinsella is actually a pseudonym, and the author has a whole other life writing more serious fiction as Madeleine Wickham (which may or may not be her real name either). One has a certain impression of one's authors, a little fantasy of a sweet young lady giving up her day job and plugging away at one slightly-autobiographical novel or so each year, and becoming a surprise success. Only to find out she has been writing longer and much more seriously all along. One does not like to have one's bubble burst.

Fans may be interested to know that The Gatecrasher will be re-released in May (with Kinsella's name prominently displayed on the cover - you see, the fame of the latter has overtaken that of the former). And Kinsella recently conducted a book reading in Second Life which is, I take it, the next Big Thing.

2008-04-03T11:49:00.000-06:00

Buck Up, Suck Up . . . and Come Back When You Foul Up: 12 Winning Secrets from the War Room, by James Carville and Paul Begala.

I had to read the title to this book three times before I "got it". It rhymes. Duh.

Anyway, in the authors' words:

This book won't change your life.

If you buy this book and read it, you will not make $1 million - at least not because you bought this book. This ain't the New Testament or the Tibetan Book of the Dead or the Talmud or the Koran... Here's what you'll get: good, sound advice on how to win. You'll get techniques and tactics that are battle-tested and proven in the white-hot crucible of politics."

I recently watched Primary Colors and The War Room back-to-back. Now that's a trip.

2008-03-31T23:05:00.000-06:00

Fresh Milk: The Secret Life of Breasts, by Fiona Giles.

From the back cover:

While countless breastfeeding guides crowd bookshelves, not one of them speaks to women with anything approaching bestselling author Fiona Giles's level of intimacy and vitality. In Fresh Milk, through a provocative collection of stories, memories, and personal accounts, Giles uncovers the myths and truths of the lactating breast.

2008-03-26T01:01:00.000-06:00

Remember Me?, by Sophie Kinsella.

I loved, loved, loved Sophie Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess, about a lawyer who is mistaken for a housekeeper. I enjoyed her Shopaholic series, but not as much - I wasn't as fond of her ditzy, no self-control, overspending heroine. I think that I like Kinsella's books because they are the right balance between business/career (Kinsella was a financial journalist before turning to witting) and romance (which, as a married woman, I've officially sworn off). Remember Me has got to be one of her best yet. Because of the heroine's amnesia, the story has a real element of mystery to it - how did her life change so much during the three years that she can't remember?

2008-03-25T01:49:00.000-06:00

Running with Scissors: A Memoir, by Augusten Burroughs.

Mr. Burroughs writes:

Some considered my brother to be a genius. And while it's true that he could program computers the size of deep freezers when he was twelve and had read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z the summer he turned fifteen...

Whoa. Hold on. I read his brother's book, Look Me in the Eye, and I don't remember anything about him reading Encyclopedia Britannica. I just read another book, The Know-it-all, about A. J. Jacobs' quest to read the EB in one year. So I've read two books by people who have read the Encyclopedia. Any other books out there about Encyclopedia readers that I should know about?

2008-03-24T21:01:00.000-06:00

Babies, breastfeeding, and bonding, by Ina May Gaskin.

Out of print and hard to come by (Amazon has only 1 copy available), this 1987 book by midwifery pioneer Ina May Gaskin is a treasure. I was amazed at how much useful and accurate information is in this book, written at a time when so much advice given to women about breastfeeding was just plain wrong. Try to find it at your local library or used-book store.

The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program

2008-03-14T19:43:00.000-06:00

This looks interesting: The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program: Follow Your Child's Natural Sleep Rhythms for Better Nights and Naps, by Polly Moore.

Dr. Moore was a sleep researcher who got pregnant and thought, "No problem, I'm an expert at sleep." Then her babies showed her who's boss. Her nursery became her sleep lab and she noticed something that wasn't talked about. 90-minute sleep/alertness cycles.

Book Review from ParentDish.

2008-03-13T00:59:00.000-06:00

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations, by Alex Harris and Brett Harris.

The authors of Do Hard Things have a novel approach to book marketing. They are asking readers to pledge to order a copy of their forthcoming book - a hardback non-fiction book for teens ("a genre that is about as popular with young people as foreign language math textbooks") - on March 25th. By doing so, they hope to have a one-day bump in their Amazon.com ratings which will spur additional book sales.

Alex and Brett Harris are the younger twin brothers of Joshua Harris of I Kissed Dating Goodbye fame, and the sons of homeschooling pioneers Gregg and Sono Harris, as well as older brothers to thirteen-year-old book blogger Isaac and Fearlessly Feminine's Sarah.

All this reminds me that in five and a half years, I become the mother of a teenage boy.

Hypnobirthing

2008-03-10T21:33:00.000-06:00

Metropolitan Mama posts a review of HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method: A natural approach to a safe, easier, more comfortable birthing:

Essentially, hypnobirthing stands on the premise that, "when fear is not present, pain is not present. Fear causes the arteries leading to the uterus to contract and become tense, creating pain. In the absence of fear, the muscles relax and become pliable, and the cervix is able to naturally thin and open as the body pulsates rhythmically and expels the baby with ease." This foundation is based in large part on the research and writings of Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, a physician and author of Childbirth Without Fear (first published in the mid-fifties). The Hypnobirthing movement officially came on the scene in 1989 and has been slowly growing in popularity since then.

Visit her blog before Mar. 16 to win a copy of the book.

Books I am Not Reading

2008-03-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Note: I wrote the following by hand over a year ago. List month seemed like a good time to post it.

I have a stack of eighteen books waiting to be read, all but two from the library. This does not include the three novels (one a 700-pager) on my night stand, nor the four books on Feng Shui and home design on the coffee table. I cannot possibly read even a portion of these in the six weeks (max) I am able to keep them checked out, so here I go to cull some out:

50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America, by Bill Novelli. Interesting, but not relevant to me right now.

Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas, by Tom Callahan. Why did I put this book on hold?

Buffettology: The Previously Unexplained Techniques That Have Made Warren Buffett The World's Most Famous Investor, by Mary Buffett.

You've GOT to Read This Book!: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life, by Jack Canfield & Gay Hendricks. No I don't!

The Great Physician's Rx for Health and Wellness, by Jordan Rubin. I would like to give this one a thorough reading, since I liked The Maker's Diet so much.

What Do You Do All Day?: A Novel, by Amy Scheibe. Mommy novel.

Faith and Politics: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together, by Senator John Danforth. My Mommy Brain is tired of politics.

Profiles in Courageous Manhood, by Edwin Louis Cole. I own this one, so it goes back on the shelf until some night when I am bored.

The ten books left can fit in one pile on the side table. Mission accomplished.

NaBloPoMo - Redux

2008-03-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

See my NaBloPoMo- related announcement on The Mommy Blawg.

2008-02-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger, 10 Pounds Lighter, 10 Times Better, by Charla Krupp.

Ok, so I'm not 40 yet, but I am starting to think about these things. What I liked about this book is that she separates her advice into "high-", "medium-" and "low-maintenance" levels, so that there is still hope for those of us who can't fly to New York for haircuts and spa treatments.

2008-02-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath & Dan Heath.

When I first picked up this book, it reminded me a lot of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I don't know if it was the trompe-l'œil duct tape on the front cover, or just the overall tone of the book. Then immediately after having that thought, I encounter this in the introduction:

We adopted the "what sticks" terminology from one of our favorite authors, Malcom Gladwell. In 2000, Gladwell wrote a brilliant book called The Tipping Point, which examined the forces that cause social phenomena to "tip", or make the leap from small groups to big groups, the way contagious diseases spread rapidly once they infect a certain critical mass of people... This book is a complement to The Tipping Point in the sense that we will identify the traits that make ideas sticky, a subject that was beyond the scope of Gladwell's book. Gladwell was interested in what makes social epidemics epidemic. Our interest is in how effective ideas are constructed - what makes some ideas stick and others disappear.

The authors identify six key qualities of a "sticky" idea. These are:

1. Simplicity
2. Unexpectedness
3. Concreteness
4. Credibility
5. Emotional
6. Stories

(or: SUCCESs - Simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional stories.)

This book is a must-read for anyone with a message. Anyone in marketing or advertising; anyone who teaches; anyone promoting a cause; anyone who wants to change the world.

2008-02-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's, by John Elder Robison.

This is a very interesting story of a man who did not know "what was wrong with him" until he was forty and read a description of Asperger's syndrome. Robinson is the brother of Augusten Burroughs, who wrote Running with Scissors: A Memoir, and at times Look Me in the Eye feels like half of a story.

More Books

2008-02-04T00:59:00.000-07:00

Add to the list of books on home staging and decorating:

Home Therapy: Fast, Easy, Affordable Makeovers, by Lauri Ward. By the author of Use What You Have, this book is something of a case study, without a whole lot of guidance. Lots of photos.

Building a Successful Home Staging Business: Proven Strategies from the Creator of Home Staging, by Barb Schwarz. This book has some useful information for anyone staging their own home, but it is more for the professional.

Dress Your House for Success: 5 Fast, Easy Steps to Selling Your House, Apartment, or Condo for the Highest Possible Price!, by Martha Webb and Sarah Parsons Zackheim. You wouldn't think that such a small book with no photos, only a few black and white illustrations, would be so helpful, but it really stands out from all the books I've read recently.

The Birth Book Blog

2008-02-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

Tina Cassidy, author of Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born, has a blog: The Birth Book Blog.

Molly Reads

2008-01-25T01:19:00.000-07:00

Just found Molly Reads, a book blog authored by a childbirth educator.

2008-01-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

Curly Girl, by Lorraine Massey and Deborah Chiel.

Hey, my hair has waves in it. Who knew?

2008-01-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

Don't Bet against Me!: Beating the Odds Against Breast Cancer and in Life, by Deanna Favre.

This book written by wife of Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre is a must-read for any Packer fan; but it's an interesting read even if you are not. Deanna talks a lot about her life before her diagnosis, and includes some helpful information about preventing and surviving breast cancer, even a glossary of breast cancer terms and a scripture guide.

Decorating & Staging Your Home

2008-01-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

Read and Reading:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Staging your Home to Sell, by Julie Dana and Marcia Layton Turner.

Organize It!: How to Declutter Every Nook and Cranny in and Outside Your Home, by Mervyn Kaufman.

Decorating on a Dime: Trade Secrets from a Style Maker, by Christy Ferer.

Home Makeovers That Sell: Quick And Easy Ways to Get the Highest Possible Price, by Sid Davis.

Home Staging: The Winning Way to Sell Your House for More Money, by Barb Schwarz.

Use What You Have Decorating : Transform Your Home in One Hour With Ten Simple Design Principles -- Using the Space You Have, the Things You Like, the Budget You Choose, by Lauri Ward.

The Book Blawg Turns Two!

2008-01-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was The Book Blawg's second anniversary. Two years old, and growing up.

Introductory post.
First Birthday.

2008-01-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, by Jessica Seinfeld.

There has been a lot of controversy about this book, written by wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld; and a similarly-themed book, The Sneaky Chef. I didn't actually try any of these recipes, but you can read all the comments on amazon.com if you want a comparison of how the meals stack up. However, I must say that I love the styling of this book. It has a 1950s-retro feel to it, strongly reminiscent of my favorite Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls. Looks nice, but I'm not rushing out to puree cauliflower anytime soon.

2008-01-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, by A.J. Jacobs.

Not as good as The Year of Living Biblically,but interesting nonetheless. Mr. Jacobs takes a whole year to read The Encyclopaedia Britannica from "a-ak" to "zywiec". He got the idea from his father, who tried once to read the encyclopedia but only got mid-way through the "B"s. By the way, Jacobs senior is a securities lawyer who, the author claims, holds the world's record for most footnotes in a legal article - 4,824.

2007-12-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, by A.J. Jacobs.

This is a book about... a man who tries to follow the bible as literally as possible for a whole year (ah, how I love descriptive titles). It is a really funny book and I enjoyed it a lot. There are no great theological insights here, although quite a lot of information, most of it accurate (this is a man who read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica in one year, and then wrote a book about it, The Know-It-All).

Jacobs has to first, read the bible and make a list of its rules; and then decide for himself how to interpret them. While he takes religious tradition into consideration, he is not bound by it. He also visits groups who take the bible literally, or at least claim to, such as the Amish, ultra-orthodox Jews, and snake-handling fundamentalists. I know I'm starting to sound like a sixth-grade book report, but my favorite part of the book was when Jacobs calls the headquarters of the Watchtower Society (Jehovah's Witnesses) and asks them to send someone to his house. At the end, he still claims to be an agnostic, but he has a greater understanding of the importance of faith and his own religious heritage.

2007-12-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff, by Peter Walsh [CD AUDIOBOOK].

I first heard about Peter Walsh from Oprah's website, where he is her "clutter and organizing guru". Our library doesn't have his book, but they do have the audiobook. Now, I don't usually listen to audiobooks, since as a stay-at-home mom I don't have much of a commute. But I found it a refreshing change from listening to the radio while cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. And the book was inspiring, too - I got rid of a lot of unnecessary kitchen clutter while listening to the book. This would be a great book to listen to on headphones while cleaning the house.

Peter Walsh's approach is part organizer, part therapist. He deals with the physical aspects of clutter, walking you through each room in your house, with a definite plan of attack. But he also deals with the emotional aspects of why we hang on to junk. He also pays special attention to the relationships in a family - between spouses or partners - and how decluttering your home can affect your family, both positively and negatively. And he emphasizes that we should teach our children to have limits, that they should not acquire more "stuff" than they have the space for in their lives. One of the best books I have read on this subject.

2007-12-13T01:41:00.000-07:00

The Family Manager, by Kathy Peel.

This book is full of helpful suggestions and strategies for running a household, given with a mom-as-manager attitude.

2007-12-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

The Parting (The Courtship of Nellie Fisher, Book 1), by Beverly Lewis.

I need to remind myself not to be so eager to read a newly-published book when it is part of a series. Book II will likely not be published until next fall, at which point I will have forgotten what happened in Book I and will re-read it.

Anyway, it's another winner from Beverly Lewis.

2007-11-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

The Potty Training Answer Book, by Karen Deerwester.

My two older boys were potty trained around the age of three - give or take a few months - using the Toilet Training in Less Than A Day method (works great as long as you don't actually expect it to take only one day). So imagine my surprise when, and the age of 19 months, my third son developed an intense interest in using the potty. He started out wanting to read Once Upon a Potty over, and over, and over, again; then when I got out the little potty seat, wanted to sit on it. Maybe it is the fact that he is the first child to wear cloth diapers in our family, but he has already made the mental connection between what he feels in his body and the pee pee coming out. He has limited bladder control, meaning he can wait just a few seconds, time enough to get to the potty and for me to get his diaper off. I wasn't quite prepared to do the full-scale training just yet, so I'm not pushing it hard at this point.

The Potty Training Answer Book really does answer practically every question one might have on the subject. It doesn't espouse any particular method, but does discuss different approaches to training (or "potty learning", as some prefer to call it). Therefore, it is a good companion to "method" books like Less Than A Day, or as a reference guide if you want to develop a "Personal Potty Plan". The most helpful parts of the book were the discussion on child temperaments, and how training approaches should be customized for each temperament; and the list of resources in the back such as books, videos, games, songs, websites, and products.

It's also the sort of book that you can read all the way through, or turn to a particular section. The beginning of each chapter lists all the "questions" answered in that chapter, which make the answers easy to find. On a completely coincidental note, the author, Karen Deerwester, is the parenting expert for Bluesuitmom.com, a website started by Maria T. Bailey whose book, Marketing to Moms, I just read and reviewed.

2007-11-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pene du Bois.

This was one of my favorite childhood books and, upon re-reading it, I find it is just as witty and interesting as I remembered. It tells the story of Professor William Waterman Sherman who, after spending forty years teaching arithmetic at a boys school in San Francisco, is more than ready for some alone time. He designs and builds a house balloon, and sets off across the Pacific Ocean, intending to spend a whole year completely alone and unavailable. Three weeks later, he is picked up in the Atlantic Ocean, clinging to the wreckage of a twenty-balloon platform. How he came to be in the wrong ocean, with too many balloons, wearing a dinner jacket and diamond cuff links, is a story he will only tell in the auditorium of the Western American Explorers' Club, of which he is an honorary member... and in the pages of this book, should you care to read it.

2007-11-03T17:34:00.000-06:00

Marketing to Moms: Getting Your Share of the Trillion-Dollar Market, by Maria T. Bailey.

The mother in the family controls 80 percent of all household spending - a staggering $1.6 trillion. Is your company doing enough to attract your share of this mom market?

The answer, for many businesses, is "no". This book explores the secrets of reaching moms, including utilizing traditional means such as radio, television, print advertising, direct mail and websites; special events; marketing to kids; public relations and customer service. It discusses the tricky job of marketing to certain categories of moms without alienating others (i.e. working vs. stay-at-home moms). One of the most overlooked ideas is that moms are also employees and business owners, and will tend to use products at home which serve them well at work.

While this book at times seems most relevant for medium-sized businesses which are implementing or refining their marketing strategy, there were many ideas for small business and large corporations. I took over four pages of notes for my home-based business. It's also and interesting read, full of examples and case studies.

National Blog Posting Month

2007-11-01T00:30:00.000-06:00

Angela at Breastfeeding 123 has issued a challenge to Breastfeeding and Mothering bloggers to participate with her in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). The idea is that you commit to write one blog post per day, for the entire month of November. Why do this? Cause, uh, you started a blog to make yourself write more often?

Anyhow, I'm in! If you haven't noticed, I am currently posting maybe every week or two. It's not that there's a lack of important things going which need to be blogged about, either. On the contrary; sometimes I feel overwhelmed by bad news and the amount of cruddy stuff still going on in the world.

I'm qualifying my participation by saying that since I have three blogs, I only plan to post to one of the three each day. Wish me luck!

2007-10-20T00:37:00.000-06:00

MORE THAN MANNERS! Raising Today's Kids to Have Kind Manners and Good Hearts, by Letitia Baldrige.

I guess I though this book was going to tell me how to teach my kids to use the correct fork or something. But it is more than manners; teaching children to be kind, developing courage, good character, and so forth. The author goes into such neglected topics as when to be polite to strangers and when to walk - or run - away; how to set ground rules for a blended family; what to say to someone who has suffered a loss. What I liked best about this book was that it gave not just the why of civilized behavior, but the how of teaching these character traits to children.

2007-10-20T00:06:00.000-06:00

Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert, by Brian Herbert

There are obvious advantages and disadvantages to a biography written by a close family member. On the one hand, Brian Herbert has detailed, personal knowledge of Frank Herbert's life. On the other hand, Brian Herbert has detailed, personal knowledge of Frank Herbert's life. Sometimes way, way too much detail. It's interesting, but not terribly objective.

2007-10-09T13:04:00.000-06:00

Bright From the Start: The Simple, Science-Backed Way to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind fromBirth to Age 3, by Jill Stamm, Ph.D.

I really didn't read this book, just skimmed it, but saw enough to recommend it. Stamm writes in the introduction:

What the science tells us is this:

1. What babies need is simpler than you might think.
2. But they need it more consistently and earlier than we often provide it.
3. My recommendations for early care are within every parent's ability to provide, regardless of your resources.
4. In face, they're as easy to learn as ABC. The cornerstones of what a bright, happy baby or toddler needs are Attention, Bonding, and Communication.

And moreover:

The data does not support the idea of brainy videos at six months, baby software at twelve months, and Chinese lessons at age two. Far from it. It turns out, a very young child's future success depends less on "academics" . . . than on such critical factors as whether your baby loves her babysitter, how often she hears bedtime stories, and how much time you spend on the cell phone or in front of the TV yourself.

A great book for new or expectant parents who may be confused by all the products and information out there on brain development. She discusses both the "why-to" as well as the "how-to".

2007-09-11T07:54:00.000-06:00

Sandworms of Dune, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

Well, ok.

First, I should congratulate myself for reading all fourteen Dune novels in less than a year. I don't know how many pages that was, but it was a lot. Of course, this is coming from someone who has read War and Peace twice so I guess it's not too surprising.

So Sandworms was good. It had a plot that moved along. It tied up loose ends and answered questions. I was a little disappointed in the ending - not how it ended, but how the ending was written. Sometimes, I get to the end of a book and get the distinct feeling that the author was just tired of writing it and wanted to finish it up. Or had a deadline. Some of John Grisham's later novels are like that - exciting plot, with the wrap-up coming as almost an afterthought. At the end of Sandworms, we learn the identity of the ultimate Kwisatz Haderach. I was a bit surprised, but so be it. But do you remember the scene in Dune when Paul drank the water of life and could see the paths of the future, and accessed his other memories? Or when Leto II took the sandtrout as his second skin and began his transformation into the worm? This scene, when Duncan Idaho becomes both man and machine, gave me no such feeling of awe. The writing gives me no idea what that must have been like, what impact it had on him or on others. We get facts, but no vision, no gravitas to the most important single moment in the Dune universe.

So I liked it. But it could have been better.

The Book Blawg

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Dreadfully Ever After

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Book Twitter

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A Brief History of Children's Literature

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Free book of childbirth stories

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NaBloPoMo - Redux

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National Blog Posting Month