Self Time

This mommy doesn't only read books, but scours the web for articles on parenting daily. Check out this gem I found today that reminds mommies to take time for themselves; a lesson I've surely been struggling with lately.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-redrick/mom-selfcare-is-nonnegoti_b_1171034.html

Book Club: November/December Edition

Holidays are crazy and everyone knows it. Forgive my blogging lag, but baby boy takes up much more of my time now that he's sitting up on his own and experimenting with baby food. I missed posting about November's book club selection, so you'll find two reviews below.

In November our book club read The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose. I first heard of this author from and NPR interview she did last January. What struck me the most about her was the story she told about how every bookstore she went to she'd find her books shelved in the Romance section and how each time she sees that she has to convince the store owner that her novels are not Romance at all and belong in a different location in the store. I'd wanted to read one of her books since then to see what they are then if not romance, so I pushed rather heavily for my book club to select this one to read.

The Reincarnationist is the first novel of a series about, you guessed it, reincarnation. Specifically, the ability of certain people to remember their own past lives and how it affects their current life. This novel is the story of a man who's past lives involved hiding or trying to discover the memory stones; stones that legend has it are able to allow the holder to access the memories of their past lives. As with the search for any mystical artifact; deception, threats and murder pervade the unraveling of this mystery.

Members of my book club likened this book to The Davinci Code. They were pretty split on their opinions, with half liking it and half not being able to even finish for not liking it. I find myself torn about my opinion of this book as well. It is by no means poorly written and it does have enough excitement in it to keep me going. But I feel that I was more drawn to the scenes from past lives and that I wished we'd spent more time there, as well as more time exploring how the past lives affect the characters current life. I was uninterested in the search for the stones.

Actual Product: Tea Rex

Perhaps I was a Tea Rex in a past life! Overall, an ok book. I may one day decide I am interested enough to read the next novel in the series, but not for some time. I do recommend this to anyone who loved The Davinci Code, since those in my book club who liked this book like that one as well.

My December meeting was yesterday and we managed to actually talk about the book selection a little between enjoying the party snacks and giving prizes away. I ended up pushing for the selection of this month's book as well, but not because I was gungho on the book itself, rather I thought a shorter holiday selection might be a welcome reprieve from the longer more intense books we tend to select.

A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg is a light little tale that extols the virtues of small town communities. Healing was a central theme of this book as the main character must move south to a warmer climate to extend his life, which is threatened by emphasema. But it is not only physical ailments that take their toll on Oswald Campbell. An orphan named after a can of soup, he has no one in his life except for a kind ex-wife. He lives off of government pension and only gets out to attend AA meetings. Moving to Lost River gives Oswald the opportunity to be a part of a close community of people which heals his ailments and his soul.

This book was a perfect pick for my club this month. It was uplifting, slightly whimsical without being called magical realism, and really put you in the holiday spirit. I actually feel a little bad that I didn't care for this book. However, I am not very sentimental. So I recognize that there is nothing wrong with this book, it's just not for me.



Redbird Tea Cup!!

A good light Christmas read. Short enough that you can probably find the time to read it around the Christmas rush. Recommended to those of you who need a break from novels who think that to be good you must be depressing.

Baby Read: Baby Learn and Play

So here's a book that probably says a lot about how well I handled children before I had one of my own. Baby Play and Learn by Penny Warner was first published in 1999 and has gone through a few editions since then. It is simply what it says it is, games and activities you can use to play with your baby and get them to learn in the process. The sections are broken down by age groups, birth to 3 months, 3 to 6 months and so on; and each section contains age appropriate activities. Some activities will be familiar, such as Pat-a-Cake or This Little Piggy; others would never have occurred to me, such as putting stickers on my face and letting baby look at them.

But why would you need a book to play with your child? Shouldn't this come naturally to you? Not in my case. I grew up as an only child (I have a sister now, but she's five) and I didn't really have much exposure to babies. As you can imagine, the result is someone who is rather awkward with kids. Therefore books like this one really help out a mom like me who may look at her baby some days and think, what do I do with you? Most of the games are easy with only a few supplies needed for some of the more elaborate ones. I would suggest to the authors to include links to youtube videos to give examples of the tunes for the songs they suggest, some of them I'd never heard of.

Book Club: October Edition

My book club has really pushed my boundaries this month. I generally like my fiction to be stories that take me away and let me forget about the real world and all of the problems in it. This month's novel, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, firmly plants me in real world problems that people must deal with every day.

Too sad to be witty right now

The story focuses on Alice, a tenured professor at Harvard with doctorates in the study of psychology and language. One day, Alice can't remember the word for something during a lecture. The next she finds herself momentarily lost less than a mile from home. What follows is a heartbreaking spiral as Alice is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and rapidly begins to lose her memories and ability to function. Equally heartbreaking is the effect Alice's disease has on her family, the sadness as she no longer recognizes her own children, and the difficult decisions that must be made concerning her care.

This novel is very well written and will give the reader a very good insight into what patients and family members go through when one is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I'll compare this one to Flowers for Algernon, in that the point of view is entirely from the person with the affliction and not always trustworthy. The most difficult passages for me were not the ones where Alice couldn't remember things, but the one's where Alice's husband John seemed to be withdrawing from the situation by working too much. It's difficult for me not to resent him for working so much during the few months she had left mentally and for any of the moments that Alice was able to perceive how painful it was for him to watch her deteriorate. Conversely, I suspect no one could be able to handle perfectly watching their loved one slowly lose themselves. The only other point I'll bring up about this novel is that it is a good picture of how a well off educated family who loves each other handles Alzheimer's, as heartbreaking as this is, I suspect a novel about a patient who doesn't much close family or financial resources to help cope with it could just kill me.

Tea is feeling blue today.

Book Club novels I get to read at work, since the club is part of my duties. This particular novel I had to read while shut away in my back office because I could not stop crying and often had to pause to recompose myself. So if tearjerkers are your cup of tea, this one's for you.

Mommy Read: Reamde

Oh yeah, it's 1,042 pages

Dads may enjoy this novel by Neal Stephenson as well. Reamde is the name of a computer virus that mostly exploits the players of an online MMO called T'Rain. When the files of a member of the Russian maffia are infected and held hostage, Peter and Zula are kidnapped and taken to China to help track down the hacker who created the virus so that the Russian can kill him. Things don't go as planned and Zula ends up in an even bigger snake pit than before. Neal Stephenson takes his readers on a global chase that keeps readers on the edge of their seat and makes you wonder what could possibly happen next?

Stephenson's book is much more than just a high speed thriller, though it does that part very well. Reamde takes the reader on a tour of the culture of MMO's and how the economics of such games work. Personally I get dizzy from watching a video game for more than 10 minutes, so as you can imagine MMO's (which stands for Massively Multiplayer Online for those of you who've been wondering) are not my cup of tea at all. But I am fascinated that there are people who can make these types of games their entire life; playing for hours and hours straight, sinking money into digital items that don't exist in the real world, befriending people you will likely never meet. For a funny look at MMO's and the people who play them, check out a web series called The Guild. It's really funny because most of it rings true.


You're so funny Felicia Day!

 The other feature of Neal Stephenson's book that struck me is the sense that we now live in a global society. I'll be the first to admit that I'm usually stuck in my own little corner of America and don't really pay attention to what goes on across the state border, let alone on other continents. But Reamde makes you stop to think about how what goes on in one nation can and will affect others. A terrorist is thwarted in a suicide bombing attempt in China, but the thing that thwarted him gives him access to a plane and the United States. This book makes me want to raise my son to pay attention to the affairs of other nations and to have the skills he needs to survive in dangerous situations. The only drawback for me is that I feel that there should have been a more extensive epilogue. It was quite jarring to go from action action action to brief 'how they ended up scene' to end of book.

Too manly for tea. This book is coffee, black.

I really enjoyed this book, but I fully recognize that the amount of guns and gun descriptions in this book raises the testosterone to deadly levels for some women. Also, at 1,042 pages, the length is sure to scare off many people. But this book is quite a thrill ride and well worth the read.

PS If you end up liking this book, check out Anathem by the same author. I liked Anathem even more!