Non-Fiction

Three Non-Fiction Art Books

1 Comment / 2014, Art, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I’m so bad at reading over the holidays so I made sure to have some easy flip through art books on hand and I’m extra glad I did because I was feeling a little reading withdrawal by the time Christmas was over but family was still here to hang out with.

The one I loved, loved, loved was The Art of Whimsical Lettering. Have you noticed I generally like any books about lettering? I’ve noticed. I’m taking that as a sign that I should spend more time playing with lettering in 2015.

Next was Mixed-Media Self Portraits and it was interesting. I liked it. I might check it out again in a few months and try some of the projects.

Least favorite, Wise Craft. It’s divided into seasons and I found maybe one project for each season that I was interested in. The rest was pretty ho-hum. I did really love her zombie Barbies. JMP and I will do this some day.

Three Non-Fiction Art Books Read More »

7 Non-Fiction Children’s Books from the Cybils

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I think this means I’ve wrapped up my Cybils shortlist challenge but I should double check…

Locomotive was pretty good. Not great but not bad. Lots of technical info about steam engines.

Look Up! Backyard Bird Watching In Your Own Backyard was awesome. I loved it.

How Big Were Dinosaurs was a little boring — I’ve read quite a few that are better than this one.

Barbed Wire Baseball was excellent. Interesting person that a lot of kids will never have heard of. Nice illustrations.

Volcano Rising was ok, not great. Unless you have a kid really into volcanoes or a kid who has never thought about volcanoes at all.

The Boy Who Loved Math was pretty good, though oddly enough I felt like I’d already read it. Which is weird but there you go. Is there another children’s book about Paul Erdos? That would seem odd but of course it must be possible. The whole Paul didn’t know how to take care of himself and everyone helped him — that part, seemed awfully familiar. Even the illustrations of him trying to butter bread — very familiar. Anyway — it was good. I liked it.

Anubis Speaks was… I’m torn. I was bored, which is saying something since the stories shouldn’t have been boring. I think this one could have been better. Should have been better. It just wasn’t and I wanted it to be.

7 Non-Fiction Children’s Books from the Cybils Read More »

A Couple of Sketchbooks for Doodlers

2014, Art, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

20 Ways to Draw a Cat and 44 Other Awesome Animals and 20 Ways to Draw a Tree and 44 Other Nifty Things From Nature are fun books. I just wish I’d had more time to play with them before they had to go back to the library. The whole series looks pretty cool. I might have to check one out every month and really make myself take time to doodle. That would be fun, wouldn’t it?

A Couple of Sketchbooks for Doodlers Read More »

Moon Cleveland

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Daily Dose, Family Funk, Kid Talk, Non-Fiction, Travel Log /

Here I am playing catch up with books — so out of order, let’s go with Moon Cleveland. RJ flipped through the book while she was home on mid-term break and picked out a bunch of places she thought she might like to check out while we were visiting for parents’ weekend.

I went through it after her and then planned our itinerary around her choices — and mine.

Saturday
– West Side Market was fantastic. Unplanned dash into Koffie Cafe — TW is still raving about her coffee.
– A visit to the A Christmas Story house/museum and that was awesome. Even if they over-booked their 12:15 tour and we had to wait in the cold for an extra half hour. Heh.
– Melt Bar and Grilled for lunch was a-freaking-mazing. Vegan chicken wings were excellent. All of our sandwiches were fabulous. I’m so glad I noticed they had vegan offerings because RJ was in heaven with her pierogie grilled cheese.
– Next, we headed to Cleveland Heights and wandered around the shops on Coventry Village. A used bookstore and Big Fun Toys were both big fun.
– We ran over to Eton something or other (a frou frou mall) for the Vegan Sweet Tooth and RJ was very pleased with her vegan baked good.
– A stop in Target for dorm supplies (and junk) rounded out a very full day.

Sunday
– The Root Cafe for breakfast — my huevos rancheros were good, RJ’s friend joined us and her egg & goat cheese sandwich looked excellent. RJ was very pleased with her vegan scramble.
– The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame visit was more fun than I expected. TW was the one who really wanted to go there but I definitely enjoyed it.
– The Free Stamp was on my list but A had to be back to Oberlin by 2 so we didn’t have time to walk over to see it. Luckily, we drove right past it on the way back so that was a lucky break!

All in all, a good trip. Oh, the Moon guide was fine. Not exceptional but it did the trick.

Moon Cleveland Read More »

Two Pre-#Readathon Non-Fiction

2014, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Oops. I forgot I didn’t blog the two books I read the night before the #readathon… probably because neither were all that great.

Beautiful Mess was full of pretty pictures and I kind of like their X 9 ways pages. It was very much like their blog so if you read their blog and like it, well — you won’t find anything new but you’ll probably like the book well enough.

101 Kids Activities That Are The Bestest, Funnest Ever. Did we really have to have Bestest in the title? I hate that word which might have colored my feelings about the book. Also, I’m kind of jaded when it comes to books of this type. It’s hard to find new ideas or new ways to present old ideas. This isn’t a bad book (except for the title) and if you don’t have a lot of these types of books, it wouldn’t be a bad one to have. It’s just not the best book in the world. Ho hum.

Two Pre-#Readathon Non-Fiction Read More »

4 Art/Craft Books from #readathon 2014

2014, Art, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Let’s see… in the order in which I read them:

Washi Tape: 101 Ideas… If you’ve never really hear of Washi Tape, used Washi Tape, seen Pinterest ideas for Washi Tape, or have very little imagination — this is the book for you. Super basic, nothing new. Pretty photos, though.

Washi Wonderful is a much better choice for those who have used Washi in the past and want some new ideas or newish ideas that further trigger your imagination.

Just Paint It was a nice book — lots of ideas to try and great photos. I’d be tempted to buy this one…

Making Handmade Marks was disappointing. I didn’t love the tool ideas and I loved the actual pages done with the tool ideas even less. Nothing really inspired me and that’s unusual.

4 Art/Craft Books from #readathon 2014 Read More »

Plain Simple Useful

2014, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Yep, this is me still playing catch up. Plain Simple Useful is what happens when I wander aimlessly through the new non-fiction shelves waiting for TW.

A home decor book. Conran Style — which, if you know who Conran is, tells you everything you need to know.

Love/hate, love/hate.

And, with that — I think I’m caught up. I know you’re thrilled.

Plain Simple Useful Read More »

All About Homesteading

2014, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I’m playing catch up with the non-fictions now. Homesteading. A lot of books about homesteading. Some were good. Some weren’t. Let’s start with the one I didn’t finish.

Rural Renaissance — dry as I don’t even know. I won’t say burnt toast because I effing like burnt toast, (I know. I’m weird. Blame my mother.) I couldn’t finish it. There are not enough reading hours in one lifetime for me to have wanted to finish it. TW tried to warn me, she didn’t finish it either, but I didn’t listen. I should have listened. I wasted half an evening on that.

The Practical Homestead — Hoo boy. This book could scare you off the idea of homesteading, lol. So much to think about. And it’s all very serious. And they do warn you off of trying x,y & z quite a lot. At first glance, the layouts for various farm sizes seem cool but then you realize it’s really not what you personally are interested in. Unless you win the lottery or come into some inheritance because no, all we really want is a kitchen garden, some fruit trees, some chickens and a big ass yard for the damn dogs. Cool book. I might read it again in a couple of years. Seriously.

The Weekend Homesteader was interesting. I liked the way it was laid out — a few assignments each month. Cool way to start slow and keep encouraging people to make small changes and take on small projects.

Back to Basics: Traditional Kitchen Wisdom was a pretty cool book. I skimmed a lot because I don’t particularly need to digest all of that kitchen wisdom at once. It’s a good book to just have on the shelf.

I believe this is the last of the homesteading books. I hope. I kind of also hope I don’t read anymore of these for at least a year. I’m homesteaded out.

All About Homesteading Read More »

The Big Tiny

2014, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I’m fascinated by tiny houses and the people who live in them. I’d like a tiny house except I wouldn’t because gah, tiny! I enjoyed The Big Tiny and I was all the sad there at the end. Sniff.

Maybe we could build a tiny house and let people come and stay in it and we could stay in it occasionally, but we aren’t carrying any damn dogs up to the loft to sleep. That’s just nuts.

The Big Tiny Read More »