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You Just Can’t Help It! (nonfiction)

Oct14

From the “oohh!” to the “ewww!!!” on Fun Friday, we’re taking an off-beat (but very well-researched) look at curious and confusing aspects of human behavior.

If you’ve ever wondered whether birth order really makes a difference in how people behave as adults or how colors affect our moods, you’ll love perusing this lively book from Canadian author Szpirglas, whose previous titles include Gross Universe (more ewww) and They Did What?! (more oohh).

You’ll understand yourself, your friends, and your family better after learning that You Just Can’t Help It, plus some fun animal behavior facts and unusual scientific research studies, too.

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Book info: You Just Can’t Help It! Your Guide to the Wild and Wacky World of Human Behavior / Jeff Szpirglas; illustrated by Josh Holinaty. Maple Tree Press, 2011. [author’s info] [publisher’s site]

Recommendation: Ingredients of human tears? Ten million shades of color? Birth order and cattle egrets? Dive into the world of senses, emotions, communication, and human interaction.

Human behavior can be accurately predicted in some areas – body language of liars, organization of army ants, gesturing while talking – while it’s variable in others – most annoying sound or what makes someone laugh.

Find answers to puzzlers like “why can’t you tickle yourself?” and “why do stores play music?” while you learn about your senses. Learn how to detect fake happiness and true fear, as well as the one hand gesture that means the same thing in almost every culture (and it’s not the one you’d expect).

What facial muscle helps your nose avoid stinky stuff? Why do we use “um” and “uh” and “like” when we speak? Why do crowded elevators make us nervous? And what about that whole birth order thing, anyway?

Canadian author Szpirglas helps you understand more about why you, your friends, your pets, and other creatures act the way that they do with this funny and factual book of wacky information and cool experiments. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Insanewiches, by Adrian Fiorino (book review) – super sandwiches, creative cooking fun

Aug26

Fun Friday and ready to make your lunchbox the envy of everyone at the table with Insanewiches, an amazing album of edible art that you can make at home.

Wildly inventive sandwich artist Fiorino brings us clear instructions on how to design and construct A+ sandwiches from teeny Cutecumber ‘Wich to gigantic Quadruple Down. Grab your edible ink markers and amaze your lunch buddies with your own Insanewich.

Equipment and tools needed? Cataloged.
Best breadstuffs for intricate cut-out shapes? Listed.
Hunger-inducing color photos for each Insanewich? Absolutely!

If anyone can make a better sandwich than the Cordless Mousewich with USB Cheesestick or popular Rubik’s Cubewich, it’ll be Fiorino!
Be sure to check the Insanewiches blog for new recipes, contests, and other funny stuff.
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Book info: Insanewiches / Adrian Fiorino. St. Martins Griffin, 2011 [author’s website] [publisher website] [book trailer] [Review copy and cover image courtesy of publisher]

My Book Talk: If the sandwiches in your life are boring, square, or blah, you need Insanewiches! No ho-hum PBJs in this collection of yummy toteables created for breakfast, party time, dessert, and even lunchboxes.

Try breakfast on a stick with Pancake Popwiches or open wide, wide, wider for the amazingly tall morning stack-up entitled The Breakfast Club (sandwich artist Fiorino advises that you eat no more than these per day – it’s that big!).

Take a “Don’t Eat Like a Bird” sandwich featuring a two-tone bread birdhouse shape in your lunchbox or assemble a sad, sad Flatbread Fred with delectable vegetable eyes and nose for a quick lunch at home.

Get adventurous with an East Meets Westdog (sushi + hotdog!) or the Cold Cut Cage Match (complete with wrestling arena on top!). King Me with the ham and cheese checkerboard, try to lift the Sumo Sandwich, or go all out with a Crazy Canuck Sandwich – dinner will never be the same again… Satisfy your sweet tooth with a dessert-worthy Banana Splitwich, a clever Coffee ‘n’ Cakewich, or The Curious Carrot Cake Sandwich.

With 101 ideas for amazing, crazy Insanewiches to choose from, you’ll always have the tastiest plate in town, plus well-explained food-assembly techniques for making your own sandwich dreams a reality.

50 Jobs in 50 States, by Daniel Seddiqui (book review) – 1 year to find perfect job

Aug19

Months of fruitless job-searching left USC grad Daniel exhausted and his parents unhappy that he’d had to move back home. But he decided to act on a seemingly wild idea to work in each of the 50 states, meeting their people as he tried out one of the jobs unique to each place. This Fun Friday feature is an autobiography that roves across America, in search of more than just a job.

You’ll want to read for yourself how he persevered in his dream, rising above his parents’ disapproval, the logistics of finding the right job in the right area during the right time, and the immense difficulties of funding travel all over the USA. Yes, Daniel wanted to do this challenge on his own terms, not bound to a corporate sponsor‘s restrictions on which jobs he could try or how many times he had to tout their product in his blog.

Along the way, he met more supportive people than naysayers, tried his hand at skills that he never knew existed, and learned more about himself than he ever imagined.

Coal miner? Did it. Amish woodworker? Satisfying work. Baseball scout? Lots of dreams and talent out there – like our roving pal, who shares the high points and lowest lows of his adventure with us, in a conversational way. I guess “Inspirational” should be Daniel’s new middle name!
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Book info: Fifty jobs in 50 states / Daniel Seddiqui. Berrett-Koehler, 2011 [author’s website] [publisher website] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: After many interviews yield no job, Daniel decides to hit the road and work his way across the USA – one iconic job in each state – to find out what he truly wants to do with his life.

You’d think that good grades in college and a great resume would guarantee a job after graduation, but that’s not always true. But instead of giving into despair and taking a minimum-wage job, Daniel turns his back on the months-long, frustrating search for a position in economics and hatches the idea of traveling the United States to discover where he should really be and what career would use his talents best.

It took four months to set up his first short-term job and even longer to scrape together some funding to travel. His parents thought he was wasting his time; his on-again-off-again girlfriend thought he was crazy – Daniel knew that he had to do this to find his way in the work-world.

Rodeo announcer in South Dakota, corn farmer in Nebraska, landscape architect in New Mexico – he met helpful people, learned new skills, faced trials and setbacks. Meatpacker in Kansas winter (frozen fingers), bartender in New Orleans during Mardi Gras (lotsa kinds of crazy), peanut sheller in Georgia (allergic reaction) – Daniel never gave up.

Sharing his adventures through the media and his own blog, this young guy from California inspired many folks facing challenges and job losses to keep on trying. Enjoy this talking-to-your-buddy autobiographical travelogue through all 50 states as you root for Daniel to find his niche and to find someone to share his journey through life. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (non-fiction)

Jul23

Shhh… another Sneak-In Saturday. This book zoomed and leaped onto award and bestseller lists before I could get it here, but you really must read it.

The idea of “informed medical consent” was rather different sixty years ago, as were medical research techniques.

Henrietta Lacks thought that she was only being treated for cervical cancer.
She had no idea that doctors had taken cell samples for later use.
And the rest is medical history…
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Book info: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks / Rebecca Skloot. Random House, 2010 (hardback), 2011 (paperback) [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: When Henrietta Lacks was treated for cancer in the “colored” ward of the hospital in 1951, doctors took cell samples for research without telling her. In the laboratory, those cells became the first self-sustaining (“immortal”) human cells, enabling countless experiments with medicines and therapies.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital researchers shared those HeLa cells with other scientists, who used them to develop vaccines against polio, catalog the effects of radiation on humans, and make advances toward in vitro fertilization and gene mapping. Eventually, HeLa cells were grown in medical factories, becoming a multimillion dollar industry as researchers worldwide used them.

Yet Henrietta’s family didn’t know that her cells were being used for anything; they could only grieve at her death, as she left behind a large African American family, moved not so long before from their small tobacco farm in Virginia to work in Baltimore for better wages.

More than 20 years after HeLa began growing in the lab, Henrietta’s children learned that some part of their mother was still alive. Poorly educated, they thought perhaps that scientists could bring their mother back to life or that the HeLa cells sent on lunar missions meant that she was now living on the Moon. After those first, confusing interviews in the 1970s, the Lacks family refused to talk to any reporters or researchers.

Finally in the late 1990s, the writer of this book and Henrietta’s youngest daughter began investigating the family’s history and the amazing tale of how HeLa cells enabled so many discoveries in medicine and science.

Did her family ever receive any benefit from Henrietta’s cells? No. Can her descendants afford health insurance today? No. Have the laws changed so that patients have more control over what their cells and tissues are used for? Yes, but…

A fascinating science detective tale threaded with questions of medical ethics and wrapped up in family history, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks reminds us of the human side of scientific advancement – an award-winning story, well-told.

(One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

At Home With Handmade Books, by Erin Zamrzla (book review) – how-to do something new

Jul22

Craving a new journal in your favorite colors? Easy.
Need an itsy-bitsy notebook to slip a secret pocket? Simple.
Want to use that single unique sheet of patterned paper in a special way? Can do!

With this Fun Friday find, you can make your very own books from a wide range of materials.
Go green as you use old postcards as covers for a travel journal!
Be ready for a new school year with fabulous keepsake-gathering book featuring ziptop bags as pages.
Make all your holiday gifts with your own two hands, the paper and cover stock that you find, and some very simple tools.

Erin gives very understandable step-by-step instructions for each binding method, and you’re sure to go beyond her examples to create one-of-a-kind books that you’ll be proud to show off, share, or even sell. Of course, some will be so special that you’ll just hide them away so you can enjoy them all by yourself.

Your local independent bookstore would love to order this for you if not in stock. And ask for it at your local library so they know it’s a book that their patrons would use again and again.
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Book info: At Home With Handmade Books: 28 Extraordinary Bookbinding Projects Made from Ordinary and Repurposed Materials / Erin Zamrzla. Shambhala Publications, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [Video one and two – make a tag notebook!] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: Recycle everyday materials into amazing personalized books as you create a Pillowcase Dream Journal or a Peek-a-Book with these clear instructions and step-by-step photos. Turn a favorite bookmark into an accordion book with space to write notes or make your travel pix into a fanfolded Travel Photo Album. Charming flutter books include a Sketch/Jot Journal, just right-sized for your jeans pocket.

Learn simple four-hole binding to make a Cut, Keep, Collage Storage Book with ziptop plastic bag pages for corralling photos and ticket stubs or use a sponge as the cover of your favorite Cleaning Hints Book. Take the outside cover of an old children’s book and rebind it with journal pages inside – ultimate recycling! The Yamato binding technique is preferred for the perfumed “Sweet Secrets Sachet Book,” while Ledger binding transforms leftover papers into a “Recycle Bin Memo Pad.”

Zamzrla explains tools, techniques, and papers as she guides you through each project and makes suggestions for variations and tweaks. Learn how to make these 28 handmade books, and you’ll always have great ideas for gifts and beautiful journals at your fingertips! (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Fun Friday!

Jul1

Welcome to Funny Friday, kicking off a long holiday weekend in the USA and the Ultimate Blog Challenge (31 posts in 31 days!) all in one fell swoop!

Sneak peak at titles rumored to be on board for future Fun Fridays: The Red Blazer Girls in The Ring of Rocamadour and also The Vanishing Violin, crafty fun At Home With Handmade Books, and a little undead versus living battle in graphic novel Ghostopolis.

Be sure that you’ve asked your local library or indie bookstore for these recent BooksYALove fun favorites (click title for full recommendation):

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity, by Dave Roman – school in space, dinosaur racing, spies = a graphic novel series with a great future!

I Love Him to Pieces (My Boyfriend is a Monster #1), by Evonne Tsang; art by Janina Gorrissen – Baseball, egg-babies, flirting, and a zombie plague! This graphic novel is set in St. Petersburg (be careful on your way to the beach this weekend!) and is first in a series.

Smile, by Raina Telgemeier – yes, you can live through braces, junior high, and high school to come out smiling on the other side! Autobiographical graphic novel with heart.

Cinderella: Ninja Warrior, by Maureen McGowan – choose-your-own-adventure meets fairy tale in this kicking twist on the classic (ninjas! magic! secrets! the worst evil stepmother ever!); first in series.

Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis – mix the straightlaced traditions of Regency England with some irrepressible magic and you’ll find Kat in the middle of it, trying to ‘save’ her siblings from their unhappy futures. Spunky Kat also has to deal with a stick-tight magic mirror, a too-proper stepmother, and a daring bandit on the woods road…

Fish, by Gregory Mone – Pirates, treasure-hunters stealing from pirates, maps and puzzles, and a pirate-to-be who refuses to fight anyone! Such a cast of characters, such a prize – if they can keep it!

Have a fun Friday, and happy reading!
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The Haunting of Charles Dickens, by Lewis Buzbee (book review) – mystery in London, Dickens on the case

May18

book cover of The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee published by Feiwel and Friends Did you remember to celebrate Biographers Day on May 16th (our Guest Post Day)? In the hands of a skilled biographer, an average life becomes a nuanced tapestry worth noting, and an extraordinary life shows all its colors. But what of the fictionalized biography?

I remember being surprised as a child that the “Little House on the Prairie” books were in Fiction, because they were about real people who really did live in the Big Woods and on the Prairie, where you can visit a replica of Laura’s cabin today. By choice, Laura and daughter Rose used selected elements of the Ingalls’ and Wilders’ lives as they crafted the Little House books, as this NPR program notes, recreating conversations from decades earlier and omitting events for better story flow.

We have to trust that writers of fictionalized biographies will stick to the major facts of their subjects’ lives (like early baseball book Mudball, by Matt Tavares), or else tell us that we’ll be traveling off the path of real history and far into the woods of speculation (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, anyone?).

I think that Lewis Buzbee indeed warns us fairly that The Haunting of Charles Dickens uses just one bit of the writer’s life and runs through the alleys of London with it, as Dickens helps the Pickel family of printers solve a mystery. A fun book, with enough of the real Dickens in it that older readers will grasp how the wretched backstreet life that he witnesses becomes the heart of his books, but not so much literary insider talk that younger mystery fans will find it distracting.

On second thought, let’s just enjoy this book in honor of International Old Friends, New Friends Week, shall we?
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Book info: The Haunting of Charles Dickens / by Lewis Buzbee, illustrated by Greg Ruth. Fiewel & Friends (Macmillan), 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer ]

Buzbee also wrote Steinbeck’s Ghost, another literary mystery for middle graders which received good reviews and would be a great read for Steinbeck fans of any age. Watch for his upcoming lit-mystery, Mark Twain and the Mysterious Stranger.

My Book Talk: Meg is frantic when her big brother Orion disappears from their family’s London printshop. Has he been captured by a press-gang to work on the new railway or sail away on a trading ship? Six months gone, with no word at all!

And he’d taken the last section of Great Expectations with him as well! Their good friend Charles Dickens had Meg gasping and laughing and worrying about Pip through the earlier parts of his book, but she never got to finish the story and she can’t stop worrying about Orion, even if he is 15 and old enough to take care of himself.

When she spots a strange green glow on a nearby rooftop, Meg asks Mr. Dickens to help her investigate. They find a spiritualist medium at work, using tricks to get money from sorrowful families who want to communicate with their dead loved ones. When actual ghosts come out to meet the pair on the rooftop later, they give clues about Orion’s disappearance.

Racing through the dim alleys, into London’s dangerous underworld of petty thieves and master criminals, Meg and Mr. Dickens follow Orion’s trail as they interpret signs and signals that point to a greater and more dangerous plot.

New antiques, tunnels to nowhere, a trip abroad without leaving London – can they find Orion before he disappears forever? Can Meg and Mr. Dickens stop the danger that threatens the whole city and still keep the famous writer’s name out of it? (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Smile, by Raina Telgemeier (book review) – braces, school, yikes!

May13

book cover of Smile by Raina Telegemeier published by ScholasticBraces!
Junior high!
More braces!
High school!

I’ll bet that Raina felt like lots of her days as a teen were Friday the thirteenths, as this autobiographical graphic novel shows. I’ve met her at conferences, and she’s funny and cool and excited about new projects.

And her husband, Dave Roman, is a cartoonist/author, too! He proposed to her using a webcomic!
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Book info: Smile / by Raina Telgemeier. Graphix (Scholastic), 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Book Talk: A graphic novel about friends, family, boys, girls, and major dental drama! Autobiography in comic style – with braces! When Raina knocks out her 2 front teeth in sixth grade, getting braces doesn’t seem so bad. But her teeth won’t reset right, so it’s on to root canal surgery and a retainer with false front teeth and headgear to wear at night! Getting her ears pierced for her birthday makes things a little better; having a bratty little sister who teases her… well, Amara’s always like that.

Seventh grade gets interesting, with cute boys and the big San Francisco earthquake of 1989 and more dental surgery (braces and headgear – again!). Raina wonders why some friends don’t stay friendly and why some boys aren’t friendly enough. She decides to try out for the basketball team in eighth grade (teeth-moving still in progress), enjoys being a Girl Scout camp counselor in the summer, and worries about going to high school.

So what will life in high school be like, with new friends and old friends, new classes and old heartaches, and her still in braces? Raina illustrates her own story with humor and style, as we walk with her through junior high and high school, with the next orthodontist’s appointment always on her mom’s calendar. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy  and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Little Green Dresses, by Tina Sparkles (book review) – re-fashion clothes your way

May11

book cover of Little Green Dresses by Tina Sparkles published by Taunton PressTransform a thrift store find into haute couture with this well-designed book of clothing transformation techniques and pattern-starters.

Austin sewing wiz Tina Sparkles has turned her popular Stitch Lab classes into a book filled with easy-to-follow lessons about selecting garments and fabrics for repurposing, how to measure and create patterns, basic sewing techniques, and clever finishing touches for your one-of-a-kind outfit. (Cashmere hoodie! Suit-jacket skirt!)

Little Green Dresses  gives you 50 potential ways to reuse and recycle as you practice your sewing skills to “go green” with your own unique style.

Book info: Little Green Dresses / by Tina Sparkles. Taunton Press, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Recommendation: Create your own one-of-a-kind fashions from old garments and vintage fabrics using the techniques and patterns shared by Tina Sparkles and her fashion-designer friends. Tina notes that over 17 million pounds of clothing are thrown in the trash in the United States each year, so she challenges creative gals to rescue the fabric from discards to make new-again tops, skirts, dresses, shorts, rompers, and even coats.

Learn how to make patterns, using your own personal measurements, so that each design can be custom-fitted to you. All sewing techniques are clearly explained, from making a casing for elastic to clipping seam allowances to installing a zipper.

Each design includes what pattern-making experience you need (1= straight lines only, 4= major adjustments) and the sewing skills necessary (1= sew a straight seam, 2= facings and buttonholes, 3= zippers, invisible hems). The easiest designs are first in each chapter so you can gain more skills as you make cute clothes.

If you can sew a straight seam using a sewing machine, then you can turn a silky long robe into a slinky Rectangle Tie Shrug or an Ultra Mini-Skirt (easy designs). With more experience, two large men’s sweaters become a Cashmere Hoodie and a suit coat is transformed into a Suit Skirt (complete with the suit coat buttons on the front) in skill level 2 designs.

More advanced projects see sheer curtains made into a stunning tunic, t-shirt sheets fashioned into no-side-seam leggings, and an old corduroy blanket revived as a coat.

Use the ideas and techniques in this book to change up the look of clothes in your closet, the too-large items from the vintage store, or fabric finds from swap meets and garage sales as you go green and get creative. Fashionistas – start your sewing machines!! (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Why do we read, anyway?

May6

So, why? Why do we read fiction, specifically?

It’s easy to talk about all the reasons that we read informational texts – we need to know how to do something or where to get something or how we got to where we are now.

But fiction fills a different role in our lives. Sometimes we read fiction to affirm our own worldview, selecting authors and titles that we know that we’ll be comfortable with. Series and novels with predictable plots can be soothing, a stable place to escape for a while from an unpredictable real world.

Other times, we’re reading fiction that races in completely the opposite direction, taking us into the life of someone so unlike us that we simply must leave behind a preconception or two so that we can dive into their story as it carries us along. Or we’re suddenly in a place whose rules don’t correspond to what we understand as normal, regular, and routine.

You’ll probably find more of the latter than the former recommended on this blog. After all, don’t the bestsellers usually appeal to the masses? Oh, sometimes a novel from one of the BigName publishers will wander onto this list, but not because it satisfies the majority viewpoint, I promise!

And back to why we read fiction – research reported in Psychological Science notes that “When we read, we psychologically become part of the community described in the narrative—be they wizards or vampires. That mechanism satisfies the deeply human, evolutionarily crucial, need for belonging.” (Becoming a Vampire). (Hat tip to Barking Up the Wrong Tree)

So whether you read for information or escape or belonging, let’s get beyond the bestsellers to the really good stuff, shall we?
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