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!

Mommy Read: Sarah Addison Allen

I read through two of Sarah Addison Allen's books in early September: The Peach Keeper and The Girl Who Chased the Moon. I'll be perfectly honest, I picked them up because the covers are whimsical.

It is coming on the 50 year anniversary of the Women's Society Club and Paxton Osgood is determined to hold the gala celebration at the Blue Ridge Madame, Walls of Water's oldest grand home. The renovation is almost complete and Paxton's brother Colin, a landscape architect, has come home to put on the finishing touches. Willa Jackson watches the restoration from afar. The Blue Ridge Madame once belonged to her family, long before she was born, but was lost when the family hit financial ruin. Still she can't help but be drawn to the grand house. During the removal of a 50 year old peach tree, the skeletal remains of a man are found, with a few personal items. The discovery of this skeleton brings Willa and Paxton together to protect their grandmothers from incrimination and leads to the discovery of why the Women's Society Club was originally founded.

After her mother dies, Emily goes to live with her grandfather in her mother's hometown. There she discovers that her mother is universally despised for being the cause of a young man's suicide years ago. Unable to reconcile this story with the mother she knew, Emily tries to get the story out of the few townspeople who will talk to her. Julia is counting the days until her late father's debt is paid off and she can leave this town once more. Spurring her desire to leave is a man named Sawyer, whose actions toward her in her youth make it impossible for her to yield to his insistence that she go out with him now.

I'd describe these books as slightly heavier than chick lit with enough magical realism thrown in to make the novels feel whimsical but not ridiculous. These are not my usual fare, but I do enjoy this type of book from time to time, especially if I've been reading heavier fiction like Neal Stephenson or a long sci-fi series. Both of these novels are set in small towns and the mentalities that come with it. The Peach Keeper particularly struck a chord with me as Willa describes what it's like to feel like as an outsider in a small town even though you've lived there your whole life, which is something I definitely identify with; then conversely Paxton cannot understand what is so horrible about her hometown that every one she's grown up with is so eager to leave it behind, which I sometimes understand because not everything about living in a small town was horrible.

Whimsical Tea!

I enjoyed these books and I'd recommend them to anyone who needs a bit of light reading to clear their mind. Sarah Addison Allen has two other novels that I havent' gotten to yet, but I'll definitely pick them up next time I find myself bogged down by my reading list.

Baby Read: It's a Book

This is the first picture book I bought for my little man when I was pregnant for him. I ran across it as I was going through the new picture books purchased by the library that month. The story features a jackass who keeps pestering a monkey about what that thing in his hand is (a book, obviously) and his assumption that it must be some kind of electronic device. Of course the monkey replies that no, it's a book.

It's a Book by Lane Smith calls attention to the fact that our children have so many more options when it comes to entertainment. Kids don't have to rely on just print books and toys, there's now iPhones, iPads, tablets, ereaders, laptops and a plethora of other devices and media competing for their attention. I'm in no way technophobic, but I can appreciate the exasperation of the monkey in this book. Getting this for the little one will give me an opportunity to talk to him about different kinds of media and the advantages and disadvantages of each type. Below is a book trailer for the book, but it essentially has all the text of the book. Enjoy!

Mommy Read: The Night Circus

This cover inspired
my blog design.

I couldn't tell you exactly what prompted me to push Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus to the front of my 'to read' queue, but I'm so glad I did. This novel leisurely tells the story of two young people pitted against each other in a test of magical stamina. The playing field is the circus, which always shows up unannounced and only opens from dusk to dawn. As the contest advances over the years, the young magicians fall for each other, only to discover that the only way to win their contest is to outlive the other.

The real magic in this book is in the descriptions Morgenstern writes. One almost has the sense of actually walking around the circus and visiting the cloud tent, where circus goers can actually walk on clouds; or visiting the ice garden, where the ice never melts no matter the temperature. Each tent at the circus transforms from a strategic move in a game neither understands, to a wondrous love letter created from one to the other.

My cup of tea!

The pacing of this novel feels like taking a walk in the park on a cool autumn day. As such, I won't recommend this to those of you who like action packed, complicated plot lined novels. I will recommend this to people who like: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Baz Luhrmann movies (Moulin Rouge, Romeo+Juliet, Strictly Ballroom), and Big Fish.

Book Club: September Edition

First an introduction. I run the Book Club at my local library. It meets once a month and is open to anyone who wants to attend. Books are chosen by the members two months in advance (in September we picked November's book) and no matter how much I wish it, book selection is not solely my choice. The result of that is books I would not normally choose for myself. Sometimes I love them (The Help by Kathryn Stockett, despite the recent craze, actually is good), and sometimes I can't stand them, but can still see how they would appeal to some people.



It's a pretty cover at least.
Kinda.



Which brings us to September's Book Club selection:

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Set in Dublin, Dr. Clara Casey is tapped to build a Heart Clinic using an existing building and limited resources. What follows is a story about the community of friends and the far reaching positive effects created by the clinic's staff and its patients.

While the idea of this novel is a good one, the weaving of a bunch of small stories into an overall community story doesn't work for me here. It didn't really for my book club either. Their major complaint of this book was that there were far too many characters to follow and that by the time you finished one person's story, you'd forgotten the previous ones. While keeping up with the characters was a challenge, I found that overall the stories in the book weren't really believable. Normally that wouldn't be a problem in a fiction book, however it seemed as though that that was something the author was going for. Also with her writing she tended to flat out tell me things about a character when I wish she'd just shown me through the characters words and actions.

Is this your cup of tea?

Obviously this book was not my cup of tea to begin with, so I won't over criticize an author for choosing to write about subjects that don't really interest me. And I will recommend this book for those of you who need a feel good novel about a community looking after each other and the stories of the diverse lives of the people in the community.