This was not the first book I read on the subject of infant potty training (also called elimination communication) but it is certainly the most in-depth resource I found. The idea is that instead of using diapers, you can learn what signals your baby gives when they need to eliminate, teach them a cue, and have them go in the toilet or a small pot. Infant Potty Training contains detailed explanations of the method, compares it with the more conventional toilet training (at toddler age), examines misconceptions about infant potty training, relates stories and testimonials from parents in the US and other countries who used this method, and includes a survey of toilet training methods (and attitudes) in different cultures, as well as an extensive reference guide for further information. By far the most useful part to me was the first section, which not only explains how to learn mutual communication with your infant about elimination needs, but also outlines how to teach an older infant, how to use the method in combination with diapers, how to involve other caregivers and handling the inevitable accidents and setbacks.
This charming story is of an outlaw family of thieves, living in a forest. Ronia, the key character doesn't realize at first that her family's means of living is morally wrong. She befriends a boy from an enemy group of robbers. Together they explore the forest, deliberately face their fears, and learn great lessons of love, trust and forgiveness. Full of strong emotions, very realistic characters, fantastic creatures and lots of adventure, Ronia, the Robber's Daughter was a really enjoyable read. In some ways it felt to me rather like a meeting of Peter Pan and Robin Hood. There's also a sense of the Romeo and Juliet story, because of the boy/girl friendship from rival, feuding families.
This one was rather disappointing. I picked it up randomly from The Book Thing several months ago. I read it to compare to Icebound Summer, since it describes different animal life of the northern region: red squirrel, arctic hare, arctic wolf, caribou, moose, lynx, etc. At first I enjoyed the writing more; the descriptions of the foreign, ice-clad landscape were easier for me to picture in my mind. (Despite the constant use of several Eskimo terms for "snow" which kept confusing me). Animals of the North concerns itself a lot with ecology and the upset humans have caused in Alaskan wildlife. Its information feels a bit outdated, sometimes preachy, and perhaps intended for a juvenile audience. After about 100 pages my interest really began to flag, and I just skimmed the last 70.
I like some of the music by Mana, and one of their songs "Cuando los Angeles Lloran" begins like this:
In going backwards through my book log, I'm now coming across all the titles I read about babies and pregnancy when my daughter was small. I know they're not of interest to everybody, so I'm going to try and intersperse them evenly with the fiction and other topics. I'm kind of hitting them in reverse order: potty training, weaning, breastfeeding, pregnancy. There's a few on other child-related subjects, like this one.
I was a little disappointed with this book, but I think that's just because for some reason I had the expectation that it would be like the previous Carrighar books I've read. Icebound Summer describes one season in the arctic, each chapter (which leads into the next one but doesn't necessarily overlap) focused on a particular animal. The vast, frozen landscape is a prominent feature against which seals, foxes, lemmings, whales, loons, terns, plover, walrus and men make their living. Other animals are secondary characters: gulls, orcas, caribou. Whereas in her previous books I felt like I was inside the mind of the animal, with this one I was more just an observer. My favorite chapter is one titled "The Brave Fawns" which features an illustration of a young caribou on the first page. I was expecting to read about the arctic deer, but instead it told of two Eskimo children who were left in camp while their parents went hunting. When the adults failed to return, the children were forced to attempt survival on their own.
I happen to really like the first cover featured here, but my old, rather worn copy actually looks like the one at left. I would give it a new face, except that the jacket flyleaf presents information I appreciated about the author, particularly that she spent several years in Alaska observing wildlife, accompanying Eskimos on seal and whale hunts, and traveling "more than four thousand miles in search of lemmings, for she felt that no book about arctic wildlife would be complete without authentic details concerning those legendary rodents." That helped stem my incredulity when I read her account of lemmings plunging into the sea, or a walrus that killed and ate seals. I looked it up: these things really do happen as she described. I never would have known.
In 1740, an Irish boy arrives in America, fleeing famine in his home country and pursuing revenge of his father's death. He makes friends with a black slave, who saves his life with some voodoo magic that grants him the gift of eternal life, as long as he never steps off of Manhattan Island. Forever tells the story of New York, covering some three hundred years of change, growth, revolution, etc. through the eyes of this one character. It is quite in-depth and detailed, yet gets tedious at times. The amount of attention given to different periods of New York felt rather unbalanced: two-thirds of the book covers the 17-1800's, leaving the 1900's and more current events (like 9-11) feeling rather tacked on at the end. And those were the parts I might have related to more, and been more interested in! Actually, my favorite part of the book was the beginning, when it was set in Ireland with the mythical stories and Celtic lore.
My next book giveaway is a hardbound copy of The Children's Ward, by Howard Weiner. Leave a comment to enter by tuesday 5/27 for a chance to win! This book is looking for an appreciative reader... could that be you?
I read this book out of pure curiosity after being told not to. Now I can't recall who warned me against reading it, or why they did so. In Embraced by the Light, Betty Eadie recounts a near-death experience she had when dying on a operating table, then being revived. Most of the book is about her experience visiting "heaven" and all the questions she had answered there, told in lots of details. I was rather surprised to find that a lot of concepts were very close to those taught in the LDS church, is she Mormon? The book is written in a very simplistic style, so it's a pretty quick read. There's a lot of internal contradictions, and although the main message seems to be one of acceptance and unconditional love, overall it came across as being rather cheesy and unbelievable. I rate it a "2" because at least I finished it, and at the time it made me think about some religious ideas. I remember discussing it some with A. But now I can't remember most of the details. It was pretty forgettable. I categorize it here under "Inspirational" books because well, that's the topic and I know lots of people have found it inspiring. But I didn't. Oh, and I really dislike the cover image. Something about it just makes me cringe.
This is one I picked up years ago purely on whim from a secondhand store, which has become one of the treasured books in my library. I've probably read it a dozen times, and enjoyed every one. Call It Sleep is a vividly painted experience of Jewish immigration in the early 1900's. It is told through the eyes of a child, David Schearl, who arrives from Austria-Hungary as a toddler with his parents. The book encompasses several years of David's childhood, as he navigates the streets and gangs of a poor New York neighborhood, the stifling cheder where he learns the Hebrew of his heritage, and the tumult of his family life (his father paranoid and violent, his mother meek and secretive). One of the great things about this novel is its use of language. Yiddish is the most fluid and pure language, (written as English in the book). David's awkwardness with English and the slang of the street kids are rendered phonetically. Then there are Hebrew and Polish phrases, languages David struggles to understand- Hebrew veiling the secrets of religion he yearns to own, Polish used by his parents to conceal information from his innocent ears. But David wants most of all to understand, to belong, to feel safe- and his quest soon brings him to a loss of innocence. I've never read another book that more eloquently depicts what it is like inside the mind of a child. Highly recommended.
Another book recommended by a family member- this time my husband. It's one I felt quite unsettled by, and at the end still unsure exactly what to make of it. It is well-written, interesting and hard to put down. Until you start to feel utterly disgusted. Geek Love is about a family of freaks, in a traveling circus. There is a boy with flippers instead of arms, an albino midget, a pair of siamese twins, etc. But their parents intentionally used drugs, chemicals and radiation during pregnancy in order to create a family of freaks. If that isn't horrifying enough, the manipulative, greedy and egoistic characters are pretty unpleasant, and there are lots of disturbing situations, including the building of cults, incest and intentional self-mutilation for attention. I really didn't understand most of this book and found most of the characters unlikeable. I only finished it because A. said what a great book it was, but I found I couldn't really agree with him. I'd like to know what others think of it, do let me know if you've read it as well.
When I began reading this book, I wasn't really enjoying it much. I disagreed with many of Masson's observations, was skeptical about his conclusions and a bit bored. But the more I read the more interesting it got, and by the end I'd decided it will definitely remain in my library. My husband picked the book up once, read a page at random, and began laughing. He really wants to read it himself now, too.
Whenever I start skimming a book instead of reading it, I know it's time to quit and find something better to read. This book just wasn't doing it for me after about eighty pages. I probably should have known better than to even try it, after reading several reviews that indicated people who really liked Nop's Trials didn't care for Nop's Hope. I felt kinda marginal about Nop's Trials to begin with. In Nop's Hope, the focus seems to be more on Penny's struggles than on the dogs. And it was the dogs' perspectives and descriptions of their work that I really enjoyed in the first novel. The story is told in the same dry, rather choppy fashion, which worked okay when I was half-distracted waiting at the motor vehicle office to get my new lisence, but failed to engage me in the quiet of my home. Time to move on again.
Dr. Charles Clements is a physician who in 1982 went to El Salvador to provide basic medical care for civilians in several rural communities. In his book Witness to War, Clements gives an insider's look of US oppression in El Salvador and other Central American countries, and what the lives and sufferings of the guerillas were like. I found it interesting to read about the rural lifestyles in El Salvador, and how severely affected the people were by lack of adequate health care, supplies or basic education. Dr. Clements worked hard to improve their situation, and the more involved he became with the local people, the more he questioned what American forces were doing in El Salvador, even though he tried to remain neutral to both sides. A very fascinating and inspiring book. What I like most about it is its portrait of the central american peoples, how they lived and survived in a time of warfare.
Like One Day on Beetle Rock, this charming nature novel tells of a day's events through the experiences of fourteen different animals. It is set in a marsh at Jackson Hole, Wyoming and based on hours the author spent watching the native wildlife. One Day at Teton Marsh features otters, trout, osprey, mosquitoes, scud, mink, a hare, merganser, moose, leech, frog, snail, trumpeter swan and beaver. I enjoyed this book more than Beetle Rock, because it features a storm, which introduces more drama than just the everyday survival habits of the animals, and because the intertwining of storylines At Teton Marsh is really well done. Not only do you see how each animal experiences the same event (the storm) but also how closely they relate to and influence each other, even without meaning to. It's fascinating. If you like reading about nature, I highly recommend this book. Now I really need to get my hands on Icebound Summer, which is a similar Carrighar book I haven't read yet. 
I can't remember how I came across this book, but I'm certainly glad I did. Mary O'Hara's books about a Wyoming horse ranch- My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead and Green Grass of Wyoming have long been favorites of mine. So I was thrilled to find this fourth volume. I thought it was a continuation of the Goose Bar Ranch story, but I was wrong. It's a semi-autobiographical novel based on O'Hara's diary. I was surprised to learn that long before writing novels, Mary O'Hara worked on screenplays for Hollywood, and composed music for the piano. Her descriptions of the Wyoming land and ranch life are pleasant, and the way she writes about music is simply wonderful. It's usually difficult for me to imagine hearing music by reading about it, but O'Hara's words bring the music vividly to my ears. Wyoming Summer traces the path she took from composer of music to writer of beloved novels. This book is a real jewel and one I hope I can add to my personal library someday.
I actually finished reading this book a day or two ago, but my house is still in such chaos from moving I didn't have a moment to sit down until now.