Category: Nonfiction

The Wisdom of the Shire by Noble Smith

The Wisdom of the Shire

This book had me utterly charmed at the dedication, which is a hint at all the goodness that lies ahead. There is no way to put the book down after reading that gem.

Much of the wisdom presented is common to 21st-century denizens with any civic conscientiousness and environmental awareness — reuse, recycle, eat local, make nice with your own personal Gollum — but presented through the lens of Hobbitness, the message has a freshness and appeal that is hard to resist. Do not, however, think for a minute that the Hobbit angle is simply a gimmick. Smith is a deep thinker with keen intellect, a big, generous heart, and a wicked knowledge of The Lord of the Rings. He has captured the essence of Tolkien’s lands and characters and seamlessly relates them to life in our stressed, hurried, consumer world. Each and every chapter gave me something to enjoy, to take away and ponder, to apply to my own life. From the big (challenge corporate and governmental corruption) to the simple (get more sleep!), Smith’s suggestions are inspired and inspiring.

The Wisdom of the Shire will be enjoyed not only by devoted Tolkien fans, but also by anyone with a passing familiarity with the books or films.

The Down and Dirty Guide to Camping with Kids: How to Plan Memorable Family Adventures and Connect Kids to Nature by Helen Olsson

Down and Dirty Guide

Much like the image-cluttered cover and the super-long title, this book is absolutely PACKED with information about camping with kids!  I used to go [tent] camping every summer before becoming a mom, but I have been an absolute wimp about trying it with kids.  My husband and I have been talking about finally going this summer — with our 8- and 3-year-old children — and then I saw this book on display.  I took it as a sign!  I will admit that I didn’t have the patience to read through everything, but I found the packing lists, “smart tip” boxes, and lists of potential activities to be priceless.  Granted, I haven’t put any of this into practice yet… But I can’t imagine that any failures I might experience would be the fault of this author!

Secrets of an Organized Mom by Barbara Reich

Secrets of an Organized Mom

When I saw this book on display among the new books of the Parenting section, I swear I heard it call my name!  Though I have OCD and clutter has always been able to cause me undue anxiety, my house has never been completely organized.  Many of my friends seem to think that it is well organized, and maybe it is pretty good compared to some other houses, but I know there is still a lot of room for improvement.  Being a working mom, I rarely have enough time to do more than get by from one week to the next.  After all, keeping a house organized while staying on top of the billion or so other things a mom needs to do is not an easy feat!  I often say that I practice “subsistence living” — I am not falling behind, but I only seem to get the bare minimum accomplished.  I would love to feel like I am actually making headway on the clutter [i.e. getting rid of it] instead of barely getting by, though, so I figured I would read this book and give her methods a try.

The first chapter lays out Reich’s ground rules, and subsequent chapters help you tackle specific areas of the house.  I like that you can apply her four-step method and her “Ten Commandments of Organizing” to pretty much any room/organizational challenge.  And, while she does talk about children’s areas and children’s stuff, this book could work just as well for people without children if they simply skip the parts that don’t apply.  The practical advice paired with a “tough love” attitude made me give it a try… and seeing the end result in my 8-year-old son’s room sealed the deal!  He is happy that he has more room to play and that he can find all of his toys, and I’m thrilled that the “place for everything” structure empowers him to clean it all up when he’s done. Almost one week later, his room still looks like it belongs in Better Homes and Gardens.  🙂

I absolutely love this book!  So much, in fact, that I just ordered a copy of my own — to reference in the future and maybe even to lend to friends/family who want to check it out.

Regine’s Book: A Teen Girl’s Last Words by Regine Stokke

Regine's Book

I couldn’t possibly do any better than the publisher’s book description, so I am copying it verbatim:  Regine’s blog about living with Leukemia gained a huge following, and eventually became this book. She writes openly about emotional and physical aspects of her 15-month struggle to recover, and explains how her disease impacts her life. In the course of her illness, Regine has photography exhibits, goes to concerts, enjoys her friends & family, and advocates for registering as a blood and bone marrow donor. She was a typical teenager with an amazing will to live; and the lessons she learned have relevance for all of us. She died at home on December 3, 2009 with her family and cat by her side.  This book actually reminded me quite a bit of Jenny Downham’s book Before I Die, aside from the sad fact, of course, that Regine’s story wasn’t fiction.

Reading this book has helped me to better understand what many cancer patients go through, and it has also helped me to put some annoying bits of my own life into perspective.  Is is the end of the world if I get stuck in traffic on the way to work?  No one will die if I get to the library five minutes late.  Is it the end of the world if I forget a coupon and accidentally pay an extra dollar or two for my groceries?  Hardly.  Poor Regine really did get some “end of the world” news — as a teenager, no less — and still managed to stay extremely positive.  Even after reading her blog/book, I can’t wrap my brain around how she was able to muster up the will to carry on and to hope for a cure when every indication was that her condition was beyond hope.  Though her life was short, she lived as fully as possible and gave her life purpose.  She did a lot to raise money and awareness for cancer treatments like bone marrow transplants — and she inspired me to go to marrow.org to add myself to the national bone marrow registry.  (You can register yourself, too, if you’re a healthy adult between the ages 0f 18 & 44!)

Home Front Girl: A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America by Joan Wehlen Morrison, edited by Susan Signe Morrison

Home Front Girl

When it comes to World War II, there is historical fiction aplenty.  Many authors have done intense research to create rich stories of things that could have happened in that time, but there is nothing like a primary document to help readers appreciate exactly how people felt and what they actually went through.  I’m guessing that is exactly why the Diary of Anne Frank resonated with me when I read it in middle school.  Anne was a real girl, she was about my age [13], and she had actually lived through the things I was reading about.  As I read Anne’s record of her time spent in that tiny apartment, hiding from the Nazis and hoping to make it out alive, I gained a new appreciation for the simple things in life.  Until I read her diary, I took it for granted that I had enough food to eat, was able to spend time with my friends, and could open a window for extra light and fresh air whenever I felt like it.

Joan Whelen Morrison’s diary is both similar to and completely different from Anne Frank’s diary.  It’s different, obviously, because Joan lived in America and didn’t live in fear of being found and killed by the Nazis; her location afforded her a great many freedoms Anne was denied.  Joan’s diary is extremely similar, though, because she was also a teenage girl whose writing not only chronicled her daily life and the events unfolding around her but also revealed some incredible insights about life.  Joan’s diary gives readers a peek into the life of a typical [American] teenage girl who lived during the time of the Great Depression and leading up to World War II.  The tone of her diary ranges from light and funny entries about school and boys to more serious, with topics like the explosion of the Hindenburg and the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  People who enjoy reading and learning about this time in history won’t want to miss Home Front Girl.

If You Give a Mom a Martini: 100 Ways to Find 10 Blissful Minutes for Yourself by Julie Klappas and Lyss Stern

If You Give a Mom a Martini

I stumbled upon this book by accident when I was looking up If You Give a Moose a Muffin for a library patron, and I couldn’t help but wonder, “Where have you been all my [mommy] life?!?”  Sure, I love my kids… but I need a little break from them every once in a while!  The authors of this book, along with some of their celebrity friends, have put together a list of 100 ways to find and/or enjoy a spare 10 minutes.  Pure genius.  Since I am a soccer mom, I think I may have laughed a little too hard at the “Get Your Kicks” suggestion of kicking a soccer ball deep into the woods and relaxing on the bench while your child goes to retrieve it!  Other suggestions include treating yourself to a beautiful single flower for your bedside table and boxing on your Wii while listening to the Rocky soundtrack.  The best part is that when you’re done with the book, you can always head to the “Your Stories” section of the If You Give a Mom a Martini website to peruse suggestions left by other readers! [edit 4/4/2019: This website is no longer available.]

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Team of Rivals

If you have seen Steven Spielberg’s new movie, Lincoln, you may be hungering for more information about the president that many historians consider America’s greatest leader.  The fight for ratification of the 13th Amendment, perhaps Lincoln’s most important accomplishment, is but one of the topics of the book.  Lincoln’s uncanny ability to understand and work with a wide array of  officials, both in Congress and in his own Cabinet, is documented in dazzling detail and reader-friendly history.  The book, published in 2005, documents Lincoln’s successful presidential campaign, his efforts to achieve victory for the Union in the Civil War, and his struggle to give the war a lasting legacy through the permanent emancipation of slaves.  Additionally, in Lincoln’s efforts we see the beginning of the modern presidency and politics. This is a “must” read for anyone who can’t get enough about politics and Civil War history and the role of each in shaping our nation.

Plastic-Free by Beth Terry

It was a photograph that started author Beth Terry on her journey towards living a plastic-free life.  The sight of an albatross who had mistakenly eaten pieces of plastic – bottle caps, small toys, even a piece of a toothbrush – made her confront the reality that the consumer habits of humans have gotten out of control, and that this albatross was only one of the many creatures on land and sea who suffer from our habit of using and throwing out more plastic every year.  Terry started to notice how much plastic she was using, from shampoo bottles to candy wrappers, and decided to dramatically change her plastic consumption by seeking non-plastic alternatives and kept track of her progress in a blog.

Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Habit and You Can Too is the result of that blog and Terry’s experiences reducing plastic use.  She acknowledges that it is virtually impossible to be completely plastic-free; there is plastic in our carpets, our electronics, and our cars that we cannot escape.  However, there are other areas of our lives in which we can strive to skip unnecessary plastic waste to decrease the amount of plastic that gets thrown away each year and will never decompose.  This book does not seek to make anyone feel guilty about their consumer habits, but rather provides endless suggestions for ways to lessen plastic consumption and includes resources for non-plastic toys, dishware, to-go containers, vegetable bags, cleaning products, and more.  Plastic-Free is positive and encouraging, and will certainly inspire anyone to try to live life a bit more plastic-free.

Making Rounds with Oscar : the Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat by David Dosa

  • Dosa, a geriatrician working at a nursing home, at first scoffs upon hearing that Oscar, the resident cat, knows when a patient at the nursing home is going to die.  Then he starts observing that the cat unerringly heads to the room of a dying patient and stays there, providing company and comfort to both patient and family members.  However long the passing takes, Oscar stays.  Dr. Dosa begins to gather information from families of patients who have died at the nursing home, and eventually he becomes a true believer.  It is clear that Oscar somehow knows when death is near, and he won’t let anyone in his nursing home die alone.  A touching, true story about an amazing cat.

     

Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way by Mayim Bialik, PhD

I have been hearing much more about Attachment Parenting [AP] in recent months, so I decided to check out a book that several people told me about.  Many people will recognize Mayim Bialik as the actress who played “Blossom” [on Blossom] as an adolescent and who now plays “Amy Farrah Fowler” [on Big Bang Theory].  What a lot of people may not know, though, is that Bialik also has a PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA.  Based on her background in neuroscience, she and her husband decided that the AP style of parenting was the best possible way to raise their children — and, now, Bialik has become a spokeswoman of sorts for AP.

My son and daughter are 7 years old and 2.5 years old, respectively, so I knew a lot of the book — the information about birth, the postpartum period, and staying sane through infancy, for example — would not necessarily help me anymore.  Still, I knew the basic premise of AP would work as a guide for parenting children of any age.  Some of the topics I most enjoyed reading about — probably because they were most applicable to me now — were how to let kids be kids, how to use “gentle discipline,” and how parents can balance taking care of their children with being attentive to their own needs.  The best part of this book?  The fact that Bialik avoids being preachy and acknowledges that different methods work for different families.  How refreshing to read a parenting book that didn’t make me feel like a bad mom!

The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir by Gaby Rodriguez with Jenna Glatzer

When I first heard about Gaby Rodriguez, I just knew she would get a book deal and that I would purchase her book for my library.  I was impressed that she not only chose to fake a pregnancy for her senior project but that she managed to pull it off until the scheduled reveal at the end of her “second trimester.”  Even more impressive than her skill at pulling off this elaborate ruse, though, was her reason for doing this project.  Gaby grew up in a community where teen pregnancy was very common.  In fact, her own mother and seven older siblings had all become parents as teens.  Gaby decided to pretend to “live down to” people’s expectations to raise awareness of the way our culture reacts to teen pregnancy and treats the parents-to-be.  In order to get the most accurate results from this experiment, Gaby had to keep her project secret from all but a few people in her life.  The only people who knew the truth were her mother, her boyfriend, one of her best friends [who would report back about the reactions of teachers and students], one sister [who would report back about the reactions of family members], and some school administrators who had to approve the project.

It was amazing [albeit disheartening] to read about how quickly people changed their opinions of Gaby.  While she was still in the top 5% of her class, and she still belonged to two leadership organizations, many people automatically assumed her life was ruined as soon as they heard she was pregnant.  Based on all of the negative attention her boyfriend, Jorge, received, Gaby also came to understand why so many teen dads take off.  Being physically able to run away from a situation that everyone assures you will “ruin your life” certainly sounds like an understandable response to me.  This book is a good way to get a conversation started about how we, as a society, can do better to prevent teen pregnancy and also how we can better support teen parents so they provide themselves and their children with a better life — and hopefully help their own children break the cycle of teen pregnancy.

The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha

The subtitle gives quite a good idea of the types of things you’re going to find in this book — Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things — but there are just WAY too many awesome things for a simple summary to reveal just how awesome this book is.  Entries range from a few sentences to a few pages, and there are a lot of photos to illustrate the awesome topics at hand.  I loved that the author had such a positive outlook and that he found beauty in so many simple things.  I also loved that the entries were short enough that I could grab this book and read a bit even when I knew I would soon be interrupted — like in the doctor’s office waiting room, while waiting for dinner to finish baking, and when my kids were playing in the bath just to name a few.  Some of my favorites include finding extra fries in the bottom of the bag, illegal naps, and getting gas right before the price goes up (which actually happened to me about 2 days before I read that entry!).  Not quite sold on this book yet?  Try checking out his blog — http://1000awesomethings.com

The Great Divorce : A nineteeth-century mother’s extraordinary fight against her husband, the Shakers, and her times by Ilyon Woo

In the early 1800s a woman had few rights.  If she married, she didn’t own property.  If she separated from her husband, she usually didn’t have custody of her children.  Eunice Chapman, a small woman, enlisted the support of New York State legislators to get custody of her children after her husband joined the Shakers at the Watervliet site.  This true story reads like fiction.  It is balanced and enlightening.

Other People’s Rejection Letters, edited by Bill Shapiro

Rejection letters are never fun . . . unless they are written to someone else!  This rejection collection includes letters by and to famous and not-so-famous people, ranging from the amusing to the disturbing.  While many names have been redacted to protect the innocent, the Postscript section at the end of the book sheds light on some of the recipients, including background on the letters and how the people moved on after the rejection.

King of the Mild Frontier: an Ill-advised Autobiography by Chris Crutcher

Chris Crutcher often writes about dysfunction, and he does so well with it because he writes what he knows.  He didn’t have a terrible childhood per se, but he had major anger-management issues, an alcoholic mother, and a hard-working father who tried to keep up appearances no matter what — not to mention a trickster of an older brother who got Chris into a whole lot more trouble than he would have managed on his own.  As an adult, Crutcher worked as a child and family therapist, and he did his best to help other people work past their anger to fix the messes they’d made of their lives.  I liked hearing how the young Chris was already fond of speaking his mind and speaking out against injustice, and I really appreciated learning about some of the real-life people he had worked with who affected him so much that he incorporated their stories in his novels.

This autobiography was often hilarious, but sometimes brought me to tears.  Between the candid writing style and the fact that Crutcher narrated the audiobook himself, I sometimes felt like he was sitting in the passenger seat and telling me his stories in person.  The only thing I didn’t like was that it was over so quickly!  Still, I can appreciate the fact that this book will be an easier sell to reluctant readers for this very reason.  If you’ve read any of Crutcher’s books, you’ll surely recognize the people who’ve inspired him.  And if you haven’t yet read his books, this autobiography will surely entice you!