Books

Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 2 (Marvel Essentials)

by Stan Lee  
rating:
list price: $16.99 USD
Amazon price: $11.55 USD

Amazon Review:Peter Parker's chosen profession is a series of unrelenting tests -- but through all his trials, Spider-Man remains steadfast in his determination to use his gifts for the benefit of all. Featuring appearances by the Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter and Dr. Strange! Collects Amazing Spider-Man #21-43, and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2, 3.

Josephine's Review:

I. Love. Spider-Man.--read more

Save Energy Save Money

by The Family Handyman  
rating:
list price: $17.95 USD
Amazon price: $13.46 USD

JJ's Review:

Where the last review of a Reader's Digest home repair book, 1001 Do-It-Yourself Hints and Tips, fell short, this one comes through in spades.--read more

The Cats in Krasinski Square

by Karen Hesse  
rating:
list price: $16.95 USD
Amazon price: $11.53 USD

Amazon Review:

Anhata's Review:

A powerful book about the triumph of human spirit and ingenuity during one of the most desperate times humans have ever faced.--read more

1001 Do-It-Yourself Hints and Tips: Tricks, Shortcuts, How-tos, and Other Great Ideas for Inside, Ou

by Reader's Digest Editors  
rating:
list price: $19.95 USD
Amazon price: $13.57 USD

JJ's Review:

I luuurv me some home improvement books! No, seriously. They are fun to peruse through while eating gluten free fish and chips on the couch. They are the perfect reading while in the bathroom--reading about repairing a toilet while...yeah, it makes sense, actually.

The problem I have with this book is that it is very very very brief.

Oh, sure, the tips are valid, but they are also kinda dumb for the better than average home-owner, and far UNDER-detailed for the less than average homeowner.

Example #1: if your tub is dripping, you might as well go outside, drink a cup of coffee and wait for the repairman you called just a few minutes ago. Why would you sit outside with a big cuppa joe after getting all dressed up in your fancy dancy short-wasted plumbers pants? Cuz it's not in the book.

Need to replace an outlet? This is your book. Need to replace your attic vents? Read the book, then call a repairman...the instructions here are so light that they are in danger of wafting off with the loose bits of insulation you are sure to cut out of your roof.

Overall, get this book. No, seriously, and then leave it behind the toilet for that light reading. Inspiring it is, but don't plan on anchoring a "This Old House" crew after your morning sojourn.

The Daring Book for Girls

by Andrea J. Buchanan  Miriam Peskowitz  
rating:
list price: $24.95 USD
Amazon price: $14.97 USD

Amazon Review:

The Daring Book for Girls is the manual for everything that girls need to know—and that doesn't mean sewing buttonholes! Whether it's female heroes in history, secret note-passing skills, science projects, friendship bracelets, double dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the eternal mystery of what boys are thinking, this book has it all. But it's not just a guide to giggling at sleepovers—although that's included, of course! Whether readers consider themselves tomboys, girly-girls, or a little bit of both, this book is every girl's invitation to adventure.

Lynn's Review:

See Lynn's full review here. (Short version: IT'S FABULOUS!!!)

Gaia Girls Way of Water (Gaia Girls)

by Lee Welles  
rating:
list price: $12.95 USD
Amazon price: $10.36 USD

Amazon Review:Miho's backyard had always been the sea. The creatures within it were an endless source of fascination. But when the sea steals away her small family, she finds herself the ward of an uncle she has never met and submerged in a world she has never known: Japan. From the city of Nagoya to the seaside town of Goza, Miho struggles to fit in and navigate the language, the culture and her own grief. It is in Goza that she discovers her surprising family history and finds new teachers. She is befriended by an old man who becomes her Sensei and teaches her Sho-do, The Way of the Brush. And it is there she meets Gaia, the living entity of the Earth. Gaia grants her amazing powers to connect with the “minds in the water” and Miho is given access and understanding to all the world's oceans. Will she be able to use her powers to help balance the traditions of the past with the demands of the present? Can she overcome her outsider status to help others understand The Way of Water?

Josephine's Review:

Her parents dead, Miho, a japanise-american girl, gos to
japan, to live with her Ojisan. She feels like a gaijin, in the midel of japan. Then she meets Gaia.....

The Hand-Sculpted House: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage (The Real Goo

by Ianto Evans  Michael G. Smith  Linda Smiley  
rating:
list price: $35.00 USD
Amazon price: $23.10 USD

Amazon Review:Are you ready for the Cob Cottage? This is a building method so old and so simple that it has been all but forgotten in the rush to synthetics. A cob cottage,cobb, however, might be the ultimate expression of ecological design, a structure so attuned to its surroundings that its creators refer to it as "an ecstatic house."
The authors build a house the way others create a natural garden. They use the oldest, most available materials imaginable—earth, clay, sand, straw, and water—and blend them to redefine the future (and past) of building. Cob (the word comes from an Old English root, meaning "lump") is a mixture of non-toxic, recyclable, and often free materials. Building with cob requires no forms, no cement, and no machinery of any kind. Builders actually sculpt their structures by hand.
Building with earth is nothing new to America; the oldest structures on the continent were built with adobe bricks. Adobe, however, has been geographically limited to the Southwest. The limits of cob are defined only by the builder's imagination.
Cob offers answers regarding our role in Nature, family and society, about why we feel the ways that we do, about what's missing in our lives. Cob comes as a revelation, a key to a saner world.
Cob has been a traditional building process for millennia in Europe, even in rainy and windy climates like the British Isles, where many cob buildings still serve as family homes after hundreds of years. The technique is newly arrived to the Americas, and, as with so many social trends, the early adopters are in the Pacific Northwest.
Cob houses (or cottages, since they are always efficiently small by American construction standards) are not only compatible with their surroundings, they ARE their surroundings, literally rising up from the earth. They are full of light, energy-efficient, and cozy, with curved walls and built-in, whimsical touches. They are delightful. They are ecstatic.

JJ's Review:

See JJ's full review here

Money for Nothing: One Man's Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions

by Edward Ugel  
rating:
list price: $24.95 USD
Amazon price: $16.47 USD

Amazon Review:In his wry and funny memoir, Edward Ugel tells the story of America's addiction to the lottery from an astonishing angle.

At age twenty-six, Ed found himself broke, knee-deep in gambling debt, and moving back into his parents' basement. It all changed, however, when he serendipitously landed a job as a salesman for The Firm--a company that offered up-front cash to lottery winners in exchange for their prize money, often paid in agonizingly small annual payments, some lasting up to twenty-five years. For the better part of the ensuing decade, Ed spent his time closing deals with lottery winners, making a lucrative and legitimate--if sometimes not-so-nice--living by taking advantage of their weaknesses . . . weaknesses he knew all too well.

Ed met hundreds of lottery winners and saw up-close the often hilarious, sometime sad outcome when great wealth is dropped on ordinary people. Once lottery winners realized their "dream-come-true" multimillion jackpots were not all that they were cracked up to be, Ed would knock on their door, offering them the cash they wanted-and often desperately need. This cash sometimes came at a high price, but winners were rarely in a position to walk the other way. As Ed learned, few of them had the financial savvy to keep up with the lottery-winner lifestyle. In fact, some just wanted their old lives back.

A charmingly neurotic gambler, Ed traveled deep into the heart of the country where he discovered the American Dream looks a lot like a day at the casino. And Ed knows casinos. In fact, his own taste for gambling gave him a unique insight into lottery winners: he intimately understood their mindset, making it that much easier to relate to them. And like lottery winners, Ed struggled to find balance in his own life as his increasing success earned him a bigger and bigger salary. Even as he relished his accomplishments, he grappled with the question: "If you are good at something that is bad for some people, does that make you a bad person?"

Ed Ugel takes the readers inside the captivating world of lottery winners and shows us how lotteries and gambling have become deeply inscribed in every aspect of American life shaping our image of success and good fortune. Money for Nothing is a witty, wise, and often outrageously funny account of high expectations and easy money.

JJ's Review:

Read JJ's full review here.

Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life

by Jim Lindberg  
rating:
list price: $24.95 USD
Amazon price: $16.47 USD

Amazon Review:

Jim Lindberg is a punk rock dad. When he drives his kids to school in the morning, they only listen to the Ramones, the Clash or the Descendents. This is family time; the girls can listen to Brittney and Justin on their own time. He goes to all the soccer games, dance rehearsals and piano recitals like all the other dads, but when he feels the need, he also goes to punk shows and runs into the slam pit and comes home bruised and beaten, but somehow feeling strangely better. While the other dad's dye their hair brown to cover the gray, Jim occasionally dyes his blue or green. He makes his daughters lunches, kisses their boo–boos and tucks them in at night, and then goes in the garage and plays Black Flag and Minor Threat songs at criminal volume. He pays his taxes, votes in all presidential and gubernatorial elections, serves jury duty, and reserves the right to believe that the head of the P.T.A is possible in on a massive Right Wing Conspiracy.

JJ's Review:

See JJ's full review here.

American College of Emergency Physicians First Aid Manual, Secondedition (American College of Emerge

by DK Publishing  
rating:
list price: $15.00 USD
Amazon price: $10.20 USD

Amazon Review:The American College of Emergency Physicians has created an essential and comprehensive first aid manual with treatments and techniques explained, step-by-step and illustrated with hundreds of photographs to show how to perform them correctly. Featuring important life-saving procedures, including rescue breathing, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, treatment for a blocked airway, and other life-threatening situations, the book also provides detailed anatomical information and offers treatments for people of any age in any situation.

Lynn's Review:

This first aid manual stands head and shoulders above the rest for one reason: It's really, realy well illustrated. And when it comes to first aid, pictures make the difference.--read more

Rosemary Gladstar's Family Herbal: A Guide to Living Life with Energy, Health, and Vitality

by Rosemary Gladstar  
rating:
list price: $24.95 USD
Amazon price: $16.47 USD

Amazon Review:Considered the mother of modern herbalism in North America, Rosemary Gladstar has inspired an entire generation of herbalists and has been a driving force in herbal education. Now everyone can share in her wisdom and enthusiasm with this practical yet evocative compendium. It offers easy-to-understand information for achieving optimal health, as well as tried-and-true advice for feeling positive and energetic - naturally. Gladstar offers intensely personal and uplifting insights into her own life and the lives of her mentors and friends, giving readers a cross-generational guide to living life with true and boundless enthusiasm. Her herbal recipes address everyday ailments, ease stress and anxiety, and promote radiant beauty within and without while nurturing longevity and well-being throughout the life cycle. An herbal apothecary at the end of the book provides an A-to-Z guide to herbs and their healing uses, along with safety precautions, dosage information, and guidelines for when to seek traditional medical help.

Lynn's Review:

The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual

by James Green  
rating:
list price: $22.95 USD
Amazon price: $15.61 USD

Lynn's Review:

Comprehensive but not confusing, James Green's book teaches you the use of herbs as medicine, and how to preserve and prepare them.--read more

Victorian Lace Today

by Jane Sowerby  
rating:
list price: $29.95 USD
Amazon price: $19.77 USD

Amazon Review:

Lynn's Review:

My one word review:

SQUEAL!!!!

More in-depth:--read more

Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much - Revised edition

by Anne Wilson Schaef  
rating:
list price: $12.95 USD
Amazon price: $11.01 USD

Amazon Review:

A fully revised and updated edition complete with a new foreword by the author of the best–selling meditation book for women that the New York Times says ನould be put at the top of the stack'.

Lynn's Review:

Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes

by Kyle Cassidy  
list price: $30.00 USD
Amazon price: $16.20 USD

Amazon Review:

In 2004 after a fractious election in which the gun argument played a significant part, photo-journalist Kyle Cassidy hit the road to learn why so many people owned so many guns. His search for answers took him on a journey that extended over two years and 15,000 miles. Ultimately, more than a hundred gun owners opened their doors and their lives to him, answering the single question he asked: "why". The result is a collection of striking and thought provoking photographs.

Few issues generate as much debate as firearms. Without taking a pro or con stance, Armed America shows the faces of American gun owners and gives voice to each individual "why"... without ancillary comment, editorializing, or judgment. These "everyman" portraits reveal people from different backgrounds, living in various locations, with one common connection. "I tried to remove 'gun owner' from my mind as much as possible when making the actual photograph," says Cassidy. "I would go into someone's house and immediately start thinking 'how can I capture this person or this family fairly?" While it would be very easy for any photographer to pose a man with a military weapon in a stern and menacing way, light it dramatically and come away with a shocking photograph, Cassidy chose another more accurate and startling route. "I would ask myself 'What's this guy like every day? How do his friends and family see him?' He's a guy who owns a parakeet, or two cats, or a poodle, he's got two kids -- he doesn't frown all day long because he's got a gun." This riveting collection of over 100 photographs will capture every reader's attention and voyeuristic intrigue -- whatever their stance on gun control.

JJ's Review:

Please see this full review for more.

Moleskine Small Ruled Notebook

by
list price: $17.99 USD
Amazon price: $9.99 USD

Amazon Review:This long-standing tradition was continued by writer-traveller Bruce Chatwin who used to buy his moleskines at an old Paris stationery shop in Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie where he would always stock up before embarking on one of his journeys. Over the years he had developed a veritable ritual. Before using them he would in fact number the pages, writing on the inside his name and at least two addresses across the world, and a message promising a reward for anyone finding and returning the notebook in case of it being lost. He even suggested this method to his friend Luis Sepulveda, when he gave him a precious moleskine as a present for a journey they were planning to undertake together in Patagonia. And there was no doubt as to how precious it was, given that at the time even the last moleskine manufacturer, a small family-run firm of Tours, had discontinued production in 1986. 'Le vrai moleskine n'est plus' was the short and curt statement of the owner of the stationery shop where Chatwin had ordered one hundred before leaving for Australia. Despite having literally swept up all the Moleskines he could find, they were not enough. Now, the moleskine is back again. This silent and discreet keeper of an extraordinary tradition, which has been missing for years, has set out again on its journey. A witness to contemporary nomadism, it can once again pass from one pocket to another to continue the adventure. The sequel still waits to be written and its blank pages are ready to tell the story.

Lynn's Review:

The 24-Hour Pharmacist: Advice, Options, and Amazing Cures from America's Most Trusted Pharmacist

by Suzy Cohen  
rating:
list price: $14.95 USD
Amazon price: $10.17 USD

Amazon Review:

From the unique perspective of a credentialed pharmacist who is equally comfortable offering advice on pharmaceutical drugs and natural remedies, THE 24–HOUR PHARMACIST is an entertaining guide to the prevention and treatment of common and unusual health conditions.

Addressing each area of the body, the book provides insight into and detailed solutions for primary health concerns. Cohen culls the most relevant info from her encyclopedic store of knowledge of both traditional medicine and alternative treatments.

Priding herself as a pharmacist who "thinks outside the pill," Cohen believes that medication should be the last resort, taken only after more natural options have been used. While she is not against drugs, she argues that they are often misused. As a result, a section of the book is devoted to providing detailed information on drugs and drug interactions with a particular emphasis on side effects and how they can be ameliorated by supplements or avoided by alternative therapy.

With a smart, funny, authoritative voice, THE 24–HOUR PHARMACIST provides effective solutions to the most frequently asked health questions and sheds light on the most urgent of health concerns, making it a book that not only satisfies curiosity but also a health manual that offers essential, lifesaving information.

Lynn's Review:

See the full review here.

Gaia Girls Enter the Earth (Gaia Girls)

by Lee Welles  
rating:
list price: $12.95 USD
Amazon price: $10.36 USD

Amazon Review:Elizabeth Angier was happy to be at the end of the school year. She thought her summer on the family farm would be full of work and play with her best friend, Rachel, and her other best friend, her dog, Maizey. However, Elizabeth didn't anticipate the Harmony Farms Corporation moving to her town. Her world starts to crumble as her best friend moves away and her parents whisper of farmers selling their land and the effects this factory farm operation could have on them.

When she thinks things can't get much worse, she meets the most unusual creature, Gaia, the living entity of the Earth. Strange things begin to happen to her, around her, and through her!

Elizabeth discovers that with these new powers comes responsibility. A dire mistake makes Elizabeth wonder if meeting Gaia has been a blessing or a curse. Will Elizabeth have the strength to fight a large corporation?

Or will her upstate New York home be spoiled by profit driven pork production that fouls the air, land, and water?

Josephine's Review:

This story centers on Elizabeth, a girl a little like me. She definitely was surprised when Gaia, a spirit shaped like an otter, entered her life.--read more

Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation

by Stephen Harrod Buhner  
rating:
list price: $19.95 USD
Amazon price: $13.57 USD

Amazon Review:This is the first comprehensive book ever written on the sacred aspects of indigenous, historical psychotropic and herbal healing beers of the world.

Anhata's Review:

The best resource for making Mead, Spruce Beer, or any kind of home-made hooch I've found.--read more