Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art
This book is for kids and young adults to help them be alert to and wise about advertising. I just completed it with my 8th grader, because her writing assignment was to write an ad, and she thought she hadn’t much experience with ads since we don’t watch TV. This book was excellent at instigating … Read more
After reading with my daughter The Girl of the Limberlost (click here) and loving it, I resolved to read more by Gene Straton Porter, but haven’t until now. This author, who died in a car crash in 1924 before The Keeper of the Bees was printed, wrote ten novels that have sold more than ten … Read more
Today I had the privilege of hearing Anna Lappe speak. She is the author of Diet for a Hot Planet. (I bought –and got signed– her book today but haven’t read it yet). Her mother, Frances Moore Lappe, is the author of Diet for a Small Planet, which over 30 years ago was instrumental in … Read more
I enjoyed this novel whose theme is domestic violence as much as one could on the topic. It begins rather innocuously, but is a real page turner by the end. Nicholas Sparks does a fairly good job getting inside the heads of both husband and wife while clearly contrasting it as well with a healthier, … Read more
I read this book, which is currently on the New York Times bestseller’s list, partly because it was described as modeled after Sense and Sensibility, partly because it takes place in Westport which is near here, and largely because I needed something light to read. It fell apart for me as a Sense and Sensibility … Read more
As a New York Times bestseller, with over a million copies in print, the cover of this novel says it is a story of human triumph. Just read the back cover below and you can see why I read it! But after reading it, I don’t recommend it, even though it is exceptionally well written … Read more
My oldest sister recommended this novel to me and it was compelling enough to keep me up way too late, finishing the second half of it in one sitting. I am torn between giving it four stars (because so much bad stuff happens I’d never condone) and five (because it is a plausible, honest, and … Read more
Okay, ignoring the stupid title, I really liked this book and give it five stars. I renewed it three times from the library – wangling one more than allowable as I was loath to give it up. It is about how and why to get processed foods out of your life and actually enjoy what … Read more
I’m so glad blog reader Clare recommended this book to me multiple times! Thank you! I really enjoyed this touching novel and give it five stars. It is a story told of Seattle’s International district, bouncing between the 1940‘s and the 1980‘s, from the perspective of a Chinese boy both at the age of twelve … Read more
This is a book more people should read. I give it five stars. My oldest daughter read it in high school and ended up attending one of the 40 schools featured here. Her school, St. John’s (click here), which I had not heard of before, is already an enormous blessing even though she’s only half … Read more
I really liked this book and give it five stars. I applaud her simple, no nonsense style and straight forward, practical approach. There are so many books on clearing clutter and getting organized that miss many of the important underlying issues that need to be addressed. This book hits on those and deals with them … Read more
I checked out this book from my library’s new book shelf and am very glad I did. Besides highlighting the usual suspects as so many books do, this one features artists I had not heard of, that I now want to find out more about. The book does a good job summing up the trends … Read more
Considering what this book could have been, I found it disappointing, and only give it three stars. Maya Angelou is an amazing woman and you do glean from this memoir what she was up against, and that her personal struggles made her strong. This book was written to the daughter she never had (all of … Read more
More than 6 billion dollars worth of art is stolen each year. This book is the remarkable memoir of an undercover FBI investigator who tracked down lots of it, but not as much as he wanted to. Art theft is not as difficult as trying to sell the works after stolen. Even when one bides … Read more
My daughter is studying the life of Andrew Carnegie right now. This amazingly successful “man of steel” immigrated from Scotland at 13 and started working as a bobbin boy for 12 hours a day six days a week making $1.20 a week. Ten years later was making $400 a month working 9 to 5 as … Read more
This book took me forever to complete. Even though there were some great aspects, it was about twice too long. I give it only 3 stars. The near future techie stuff was interesting but the storyline was not compelling enough to sustain it. Cory Doctorow should stick to blogging about and predicting the future of … Read more
This is a wonderful book of how to make delicious food to dehydrate in your drier to be reconstituted and reheated for camping. This approach will not only be less expensive for our (fast approaching) camping trip out west, but quicker and easier while there, while definitely more delicious than store bought options. Many of … Read more