Non-Fiction

Still Foolin’ ‘Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going and Where Are My Keys?

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

TW noticed Billy Crystal’s Still Foolin’ ‘Em was on some award or best of list, for the audio version and decided that she wanted to listen to the book.

So. I reserved it.

I’m not a huge Billy Crystal fan. He’s ok but I am just as likely to find him unfunny as I am to find him funny. I’ve only seen a few of his movies. I liked him on Soap. I’m not in his age demographic. I’m not Jewish. I’m not from New York (though I do love New York.) I’m not a big baseball fan. Or a boxing fan, (though I do love Ali.)

And that’s pretty much how I felt about this audio book. I laughed out loud in some parts. I rolled my eyes at others. I growled audibly in a few places. It was absolutely worth listening to and I’m betting others will like this book a lot more than I did — and I definitely didn’t hate it.

If you like this, you’ll probably like the book:

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Three YA Non-Fiction from the Cybils Shortlist

2014, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

First, the one I liked the least — Breakfast on Mars. I actually liked it a lot, there are some great essays in this book. But, as examples of great essays for kids who have to write essays — I’m not so sure. They’re too good. Though as I type this, my problem might be that I really thought this book was focused at middle grade, not YA readers (because it’s middle grade kids that could really use the proper foundation for writing an essay.)

Next, The President Has Been Shot was good. Very cleanly written. No extraneous emotions for flowy words to try and push emotion. You either feel emotional while reading this book or you don’t. That’s a good thing. But, that also makes it a little dry and for kids a dry non-fiction book is very close to feeling like a text book. The photos were excellent. The diagrams were excellent. Very good book.

My favorite of the three, Imprisoned. There are not enough books about the Japanese internment during WW2 for people of any age but especially for kids. So — five stars! I loved the photos. I loved the clean writing. I did not love the complete absence of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. We just skipped right over that little fact and went straight to the release and aftermath. If you’re telling the hard, bad stuff then why skip that? Otherwise — excellent book. Everyone should read it (and more about this horrible period in our history.)

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The Bintel Brief

2014, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I wonder how The Bintel Brief made its way into my library bag. I don’t think it’s been on the shelf long enough to be an impulse choice, since the damn non-fictions are still upstairs… except, hmm. Now that I think about it, maybe that is where I got it. I wonder how that happened… in the past, graphic novels have always been in a section of the non-fiction (whether they were non-fiction or not… and this is assuredly non-fiction. I bet it was miss-shelved.) Whatevs.

I really enjoyed it.

The art was good. The stories selected were good. I liked everything about this. I am also tempted to track down some more about The Bintel Brief advice column. It’s super-interesting to me.

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3 Non-Fiction

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

Sassymonkey talked about One Skillet, Two Plates so I checked it out. It’s a nice cookbook. A lot of good recipes, nothing super hard or weird. I wish there were more photos. I like photos.

Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable, Nesting Skills was mentioned on a blog I read so I thought I’d grab it. Totally loved it. Very zine-like. I can see a few of my kids really liking this book, (She recommends looking for help/info at Punk Houses, hahaha.) There wasn’t anything new or unusual about the ideas (tinctures, teas, infusions, cleaning, beauty products, first aid) I just liked the voice of the writer.

I reserved Hoosier Mama Book of Pie months ago (like September of last year). And I do mean MONTHS ago. It finally arrived at which point I decided I must have all the pie. Immediately. I don’t even really like pie all that much (except pumpkin) because I don’t really like pie crust. I also finally realized that when RJ talks about the pie shop her father has been going to, she’s been talking about the Hoosier Mama pie shop. (For some reason she says “Who’s Your Mama” not “Hoosier Mama”. lol) Must have all the pie. Seriously. Also… mmmm, Chess Pie. I don’t, however, want to make pie — no matter how interesting or good the recipes sounded.

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Three Just For Fun Non-fiction

2014, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I wasn’t feeling in the mood to start anything on my shelves, last night — not even the new Christopher Moore book — so I decided to flip through all of the non-fiction books I’ve picked up over the last few weeks. That was a good choice. I had some nice light reading and thoroughly enjoyed my reading time (even though I didn’t love all of the books I read.)

First, Jay Shafer’s DIY Book of Backyard Sheds and Tiny Houses. Ho hum. It was mostly a sales pitch for his line of tiny houses. The back section of the book was filled with things like “how to fell a tree” and “how to raise a wall”, which was nice enough. Ho hum.

Creative Ideas to Organize Your Home was not so much about organizing your home as it was about making things with the “junk” you have lying around and pretending like those things will help you organize more junk. I wasn’t interested in anything in the book and I like that sort of thing. Blah.

Remodelista reminded me why I like the Remodelista website. I read every word. I loved all of the houses. No, not much of it would ever apply to my life but I did find myself with a new appreciation for subway tile, (TW does not agree. She does want pretty cloth-covered extension cords, though. And, I really want a 70s gaming table.)

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The Boy on the Wooden Box

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

From the Cybils shortlist, The Boy on the Wooden Box is the story of Leon Leyson, one of the Jews on Schindler’s List. It was an ok book — not great but if you’re a middle school kid or even a high schooler who doesn’t know anything about Schindler, this would be a good easy book to dive into. Though it was more about Lesyon and his family than Schindler, of course.

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Organized Simplicity

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

Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Simple Living was on my Kindle app. No idea how it got there. Or when. Tsh is a blogger, you might have seen The Art of Simple before, so it’s possible I bought it just because she’s a blogger. I do that. I buy a lot of bloggers’ books on Kindle and then forget about them until I need a Kindle book to read.

Which is how I started reading this book. I was actually in the process of doing some de-cluttering in the laundry/stockpile room when I started reading this. It moves really quickly, particularly since there are some sections that are just not ME.

It’s not a bad book, though I found the end a little long — that’s the clean/de-clutter section. Since you pretty much do all of the same things from room to room, did we really need quite so much repeat there? Seems like it would have been more efficient to lay out the process and then provide a schedule for all of the rooms and then add info that’s specific to each room. Whatevs.

I didn’t love the book. Didn’t hate the book. I do really want to get up and do some de-cluttering right now because OMG we have so much stuff, lol.

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Rocket Girl

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

It took me a darn week to read Rocket Girl because it just wasn’t compelling enough to keep me reading when I was so tired each night. It was also disappointing because so much of the narrative was fiction — because Mary Sherman Morgan kept so many secrets.

Super interesting story, too bad her son didn’t try to sort all of this out before she died. I’m glad I read it, I just wish there had been more meat to the story.

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Maddie On Things

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

I have a love/hate with Maddie On Things. Lord knows I love me a coonhound (hah) and I love people taking road trips and taking photos in unusual places while on road trips. And when people take photos of their coonhound in unusual places on road trips, I’m pretty happy.

Except I did not like many of the things Maddie was standing on. Or the weather she was standing on those things in.

It was cold. And uncomfortable.

And just because your dog can do something doesn’t really mean she should.

So — love/hate. Love/hate.

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