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Monthly Archives: February 2008
Visibility by Sarah Neufeld
Synopsis: When introverted teen Natalie discovers that she has inherited her mother’s gift for invisibility, she’s caught between her desire to use her powers for good and her fears that her mother will find out. Review: Visibility was written when Sarah Neufeld was only 19, and it’s an impressive debut. She’s crafted a fresh take on the superhero origin story, thanks to her nuanced portrayal of Natalie, who is both brave and insecure and therefore utterly relatable. Natalie’s mother Jadyn is the only known invisible…
Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block
Synopsis: A muck-raking expose of what happens in labor and delivery wards across America. Review: Pushed upset me–so much so, that I considered not finishing the book. I have an innate mistrust of doctors and hospitals after some rough treatment I received during a miscarriage last year. where I was not informed of all my options and wound up in the ER with an infection. My quest to find a new care provider ultimately led me to choose home birth with a midwife for my…
Format (Booking Through Thursday)
All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why? I prefer trade edition paperbacks, for the most part, because I do a lot of my reading on the subway, and hardcovers get really heavy and unwieldy. They’re also better for reading in bed, especially when they have to rest on a pregnant belly! I also tend to prefer the way that trade paperbacks look, mainly…
3 New Parenting Books
Touchpoints: Birth to 3 : Your Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Development by T. Berry Brazelton A good resource for understanding infant and baby behavior and milestones. It’s a bit mainstream for my taste, in that Brazelton never wants you to forget that he is a pediatrician and he knows your baby best. I much prefer the Sears Baby Book, with its emphasis on developing a cue-based bond with your baby. For that reason, I took some issue with his recommendation to put a baby on…
Non Fiction Meme
I’m late getting to Gautami’s Non Fiction Meme. * a) What issues/topic interests you most in non-fiction, i.e, cooking, knitting, stitching, there are infinite topics that have nothing to do with novels? Books about food, books that explain scientific topics for general readers, biography, memoir, history, travelogues. I love reading books about my hobbies, particularly knitting and cooking. My library is filled with books of film history, criticism, and theory. I like some books on Christianity by authors like CS Lewis and Dan Allender. Lately…
Renegade’s Magic by Robin Hobb
Synopsis: Soldier Son Nevare’s adventures culminate in a battle within his divided self for mastery of his body in defiance of the magic. Review: When last we saw Nevare, he was grossly fat and resigned to a life on the outside. A Soldier Son of modest ambition, Nevare’s soul was cleft in two during a battle with the tree goddess Lisana. Now, in Renegade’s Magic, the trilogy’s conclusion, Nevare finds himself trapped, with his Speck alter-ego having taken control of his body in order to…
Super Stitches Crochet
Synopsis: A compendium of stitches and techniques for crochet. Review: As with Super Stitches Knitting, Super Stitches Crochet is packed full of gorgeous photos and easy-to-follow instructions. Any beginner could easily pick up this book and begin to crochet immediately. And expert crafters are sure to be smitten with all the possibilities presented by the stitch pattern dictionary. Personally, I much prefer knitting to crochet, though I learned to crochet first. It always makes my wrist ache, and I’ve never felt confident enough to do…
After the Honeymoon (Booking Through Thursday)
Here’s something for Valentine’s Day. Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back? In college and for a time afterwards, I was obsessed with Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. I must have read it at least 8 times. I read Eco’s other works, including his semiotics, and would have considered him a favorite author. A…
The Daring Book For Girls
Synopsis: A compendium of activities and fun facts for girls. Review: Jumprope rhymes, hand-clapping games, the rules of 4-square, and facts about famous female explorers are just a selection from the wonderfully random assortment of Things Girls Should Know. The Daring Book For Girls is a fun piece of nostalgia that I want to share with all the moms of girls I know. Reading through the book makes me sad that Superfast Baby has inherited a world so unlike the one I grew up in,…