Synopsis:
A practical how-to guide for greening your home.
Review:
I could have done without the celebrity endorsements in Healthy Child, Healthy World. I really don’t care what kind of diapers Brooke Shields uses or that Noah Wyle’s kids are vegetarians. I guess these are good selling points, but to me these sidebars were just a [...]

Popularity: 20% [?]

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Synopsis:
The personal is political, as feminist thinker Naomi Wolf uses her c-section as a springboard for the way in which the maternity care system in America infantilizes women.
Review:
There’s nothing in Misconceptions that hasn’t appeared in any number of other exposes of the state of maternal care in the US, such as Jennifer Block’s Pushed, which [...]

Popularity: 16% [?]

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Synopsis:
A full color introduction to the craft of crochet, with 30 patterns.
Review:
I am a dedicated knitter and have never really understood the appeal of crochet–until I started thumbing through the Chicks With Sticks: Guide to Crochet. The patterns are gorgeous and I found at least four things I want to make immediately. I’m [...]

Popularity: 16% [?]

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Synopsis:
Told their unborn child has birth defects that will likely lead to stillbirth, a couple decide to see the pregnancy through to term.
Review:
I am a sucker for stories like those found in The Shaming of the Strong. When I was pregnant with Superfast Baby I thought a lot about what I would do if [...]

Popularity: 26% [?]

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Synopsis:
The misadventures of a hapless twenty-something woman whose greatest fear is that she will die a virgin, and whose second greatest fear is that she’ll have sex before marriage.
Review:
I’ll let you know up front that there’s no way that I can be objective about Sexless in the City, because Anna Broadway met the woman who [...]

Popularity: 30% [?]

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Synopsis:
A cute, sassy “manual” for teen girls on how to make the most of their teen years without making Mom and Dad crazy.
Review:
How to Raise Your Parents definitely has the big sister tone down pat, and, for the most part, it doesn’t court too much controvery. I can see parents buying this book for [...]

Popularity: 18% [?]

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Synopsis:
A boy marked for termination and organ harvesting escapes into a world where he has no legal right to live.
Review:
I heard about Unwind from the Queens Library, in an email newsletter talking up good new young adult books. I’m so glad that I did, because it’s a dystopian thrill ride in the same vein [...]

Popularity: 34% [?]

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Synopsis:
How your birthday tells you who you are.
Review:
Charanavi is a Japanese book in translation and offers a fortune-telling system that relates your birthday to a type of animal. Based on my birthday, 11/4/1973, I am a “potential tanuki.” A tanuki is a sort of raccoon indigenous to Japan. Being a potential tanuki [...]

Popularity: 17% [?]

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Synopsis:
The world has moved on, thanks to climate change, a worldwide oil shortage, and population devastation from superbugs, and in one small corner of New York State, the world is being rebuilt by hand.
Review:
Anyone who spends much time with me will eventually learn that I am obsessed with The Long Emergency, one of World Made [...]

Popularity: 24% [?]

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This is a total PSA for 2 new photography books from Watson-Guptill. They publish great books on knitting & crafting that I adore reviewing, and they also send me review copies of photography books that my husband says are really awesome. I am not equipped to comment so this is just a shameless [...]

Popularity: 15% [?]

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