Non-Fiction

Priceless Memories

2009, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I don’t really love Bob Barker, though maybe I did when I was a kid and got to stay home from school sick and watch Price is Right. I only barely remember Truth or Consequences. Now that he’s no longer the host of Price is Right, it seems kind of sad. Not like I’m old, exactly, just like the end of a very very long era.

So yea, when I saw Priceless Memories on the library shelf, I didn’t pick it up. I went home and reserved it in large print because I thought TW’s mom might also like to read it. She did. TW enjoyed it too.

I didn’t find the book well written, as autobiographies of stars often are – it was redundant and not super well written. But I did definitely enjoy the flashbacks and the looks into Barker’s life, from Barker’s point of view. I just with Dorothy Jo had written a book before she died. Now that would have been a book to read.

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Four more Cybils

4 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

Of the four Cybils I read yesterday, there was only one that was a yawn. Fabulous Fishes, a nonfiction picture book, was just a wee bit boring – especially when you look at the other books in the category. It’s not a bad book, nice photos, nice rhymes but that’s just not enough in this category. I’m not a Nic Bishop fan but even his Frogs book was better. His photos just rock. I wouldn’t have chosen it to win the category but I do understand why others would have selected it.

Moving into middle grade fiction, I loved Shooting the Moon. Maybe it’s the military brat in me. Or the mom of military brats. But I just loved the book. If pushed, I’d say this was my favorite in that category.

Last, Sweethearts, from the YA fiction category. Another good book. A problem book that is just a little different from other problem books. A teen girl who recreates herself, never feels quite right in her new skin and then has to face the past. Really nicely written without a clear, clean, happy ending.

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Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Non-Fiction /

Milk was a total impulse pick from the new nonfiction arrivals at the library. I saw it placed on top of the nonfiction shelves as we made our way to the check out counter and grabbed it.

TW made fun of me.

Because I do not like milk. Except in my quad grande nonfat caramel macchiato.

She’s right. I don’t. But, I thought it might be interesting to read. It was. It also made me glad that I do not like milk. Also glad that I have not bought into the organic milk fad. I would like to try water buffalo milk, though. (By the way, the recipes and the “milk chemistry experiments” were really interesting. The book was worth picking up, just to read through those.)

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Two more Cybils

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I thought I’d finished with the picture books category but apparently not – I’ve still got some non-fiction books to go through and that’s good because the two I read yesterday are fantastic.

First, Wangari’s Trees of Peace – excellent drawings, simple story of a complex problem without overly frightening young children when speaking about the violence against Wangari.

Next, a book I will have to buy – several times over. My children are huge Wanda Gag fans. OK scratch that, they are huge Millions of Cats fans. The three older ones can probably tell the story word for word with just a wee bit of prompting. The three younger ones, probably can’t but have definitely heard “Hundreds of cats. Thousands of Cats. Millions and billions and trillions of cats.” over and over again.

Loved Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Lived to Draw. Loved the story, loved the art.

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Charlatan!

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I reserved Charlatan at the library because @honeybeast told us about it in the BlogHer Book Club group and it sounded interesting.

Interesting does not even begin to describe the book or the life of JR Brinkley. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of him before. Crazy!

It made me a little queasy at first, all of that goat gonad surgery and stuff but once I settled in… it didn’t bother me at all. Actually, I think it was the goat ovary surgery that troubled me in the beginning, heh.

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Skinny Bitch

2009, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction /

I really could have and probably have sworn that I’d read Skinny Bitch shortly after it was published. But awhile back during a Chatter-fest of book review posts, @elisac led me to realize that I had not read it at all.

I was pretty troubled by this. A popular diet book that I have not read? Impossible.

So, I reserved it.

And now I’ve read it.

I did not enjoy it. In fact, I growled my way through it.

I’m not a vegan. I’m not anti vegan, either. And this book would not ever inspire me to become a vegan, for any reason at all.

There’s some good nutritional info lurking in this book but it’s twisted up in not so good info.

There’s some good food industry and food politics info but it’s twisted up in propaganda.

There are about two lines of information about how making smart food choices will help you be healthier but that’s twisted up in all of the profanity and all of the offensive and stereotypical commentary.

I’m glad I read it but I didn’t enjoy even a second of it.

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2 books – I’m behind on blogging

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Non-Fiction /

I’m behind on everything. I’m also up at 10:30pm and have decided that I can’t do what I got up to do so I might as well catch up on the books before another three days go by and I’ve got to blog six books instead of two.

First, The Dead Beat. I saw this mentioned in a forum thread on the BlogHer Book Club group and reserved it at the library. I liked it but it wasn’t compelling. It wasn’t drop dead funny, either. So I kept putting it down rather than reading it straight through.

I’ll tell you what it did cause though – it caused me to spend a ton of time reading the obits of the little local paper. They were fabulous! It also has caused me to consider reading the Chicago Trib’s obits. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I have no free time for obit fixations.

(By the way, you should definitely join the BlogHer Book Club group – it’s fun! Really.)

Next, I read Infinity in the palm of her hand because A) I got it for TW and she seemed to enjoy it B) I got it for me because it is a creation story and I am a sucker for a good creation story.

This one didn’t let me down. Nice Adam & Eve story. I liked it a lot.

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Mighty Queens of Freeville

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

I am not an Ann Landers fan, I much prefer Dear Abby, so when Landers died and Ask Amy took her place, I really didn’t pay any attention. What led me to read The Mighty Queens of Freeville is simply…. I liked the title. I don’t even think I realized it was about Ask Amy until I got it home and TW started to read it.

TW didn’t really like the book very much. So, I didn’t know what to expect. I really started reading it because it was short and I was trying to decide what I wanted to read and couldn’t make the decision.

By the second chapter, I was hooked and didn’t want to put it down. I don’t know why TW didn’t love it… I certainly did. I’m almost tempted to read the Trib just to read her column. Almost. I mean it arrives in the driveway, you’d think I could take two minutes to find her column, right?

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2 more Cybils

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

I finished Duel! a few days ago but didn’t feel like blogging it by itself. It’s ok but boring. In fact, I cannot figure out how you can make a duel between Burr and Hamilton boring – but after reading this… well it’s possible. Yes indeedy.

And then there was graphic novel Three Shadows. Oy. Liz read this and she really liked it. I had high hopes. And then I read it and OY! She liked this? I mean I get why a 10 year old would like a story about a father who turns into a Golem but… man… this thing was deep. And depressing. And drawn in dark dark colors, not pretty at all. And not really a happy ending, in the sense that 10 year olds generally understand happy endings.

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3 more Cybils

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Poetry /

Astronaut Handbook was cute, nicely drawn but not my cup of tea, really.

Honeybee was pretty good, better than I expected. I preferred the prose to the poetry but even some of the poetry drew me in. Young poetry and prose readers won’t be turned off by this, though in some places it reads a little older than I expected.

Ain’t Nothing But a Man was excellent. Maybe it’s just because I liked John Henry as a kid and so was already drawn to the story or maybe because it was just really interesting? I don’t know, but this is another one I’d like to own. (The information about how to be a Historian, in the back, was also excellent.) If I was a Cybils judge, I’d be sorely tempted to vote this one as the winner. (I know, I haven’t read the others yet but… still, this is going to be tough to beat.)

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