The Book Blawg

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

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

Curly Girl, by Lorraine Massey and Deborah Chiel.

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

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.

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.

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

Introductory post.
First Birthday.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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:
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".

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.