Woman Tribune » Books & Authors

Book Review: Put on Your Crown by Queen Latifah

Holly — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:00:12 +0000

Queen Latifah is a fabulously respected, savvy businesswoman. She is an Oscar-nominated actress, a Grammy winner, a Cover Girl, and a self-made entrepreneur. She has been an inspiration to many women and young girls throughout the years as she has proven time and again that you can become a successful woman without compromising yourself or your standards in order to fit into some magic mold society insists you must fit into.

Queen Latifah has been a positive role model when it comes to body image and body acceptance. That in itself was the reason why I was excited to read her newest book, Put on Your Crown. The book, she says, is “a wake-up call to empowerment”, written predominantly for young women after noticing the severe lack of self esteem held by young women, which she believes is an epidemic throughout the US. She wrote this book for those young women who need to know that as you learn and grow from the experiences of your past, you can use them to turn yourself into a strong, confident woman.

Put on Your Crown is not a typical self help book. It is not a book of pages upon pages of bullet points on how to miraculously find self confidence and start treating yourself like a queen. It is not written in a tone that screams “I’m a professional and I have all the answers, so listen to me and your life will become awesome!” While it could be classified as a self help book, the premise of Put on Your Crown has to do with moments in our lives that essentially make us who we are and how to take those moments and, regardless of how devastating or surreal, use them to better our lives and appreciate what we have in our lives.

Queen Latifah shares pivotal moments in her own life that fall under one of eight topics, which she has set up as chapters throughout her book. The moments range from the way her parents had treated her and her brother the same without leaving one of them left out, to the openness of her family and their unwavering support throughout her life, to finding out who her true friends were after she had become a celebrity, to the times she worked herself too hard and had burnt out when she was trying to launch her recording studio and then again when she had to appear for photographs and interviews, to becoming very wealthy and suddenly finding out she had gone completely broke, to going to see her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and to the sudden and tragic death of her brother. These moments, as well as many others that have shaped Queen Latifah into the woman she stands proud as today, are listed under the categories of success, beauty, money, love, fear, loss, strength and joy.

As she reflects on her past and the moments she has had in her life that have made her who she is today, she lends not only the stories of these moments to the reader, but also advice and compassion. Essentially, this should have been a great book for young women. The premise of the book is good, the morals of her stories are fantastic and she does touch upon very important topics, such as drugs, prostitution and violence breaking out everywhere in her hometown and telling her readers about her mother, who is also her best friend, who has always been a teacher and who has also committed herself to helping young people who were plagued by drugs and violence and has helped them. Realistically, I found this book to be filled with tiny, redeeming morsels among a book that, as a whole, I found dry, repetitive and boring. The hardcover edition of this book is small and at 197 pages where, if it were laid out in a standard 8×11″ book would make up even less pages, was pretty painful to get through. While I don’t have too much time to sit down and read a book to begin with, I could easily get through something of this size in a few days. Instead, Put on Your Crown took me a month to read and most of that time I spent staring at the book when I did have time to sit down with it, willing myself to pick it up and keep on reading.

I can definitely appreciate the tone of her book; it was not written by a psychologist or a trained professional, but straight from the source. Queen Latifah writes solely in her own voice, as you would imagine she would speak to someone who was talking to her in-person. While I typically enjoy what Queen Latifah has had to say in the past (not including her recent comment about how we need to stop “beating up” Chris Brown, of course), I think this book would have made a better blog–something a great deal shorter. I do not think that she had enough content to fill a book with, since I found her going back to the same stories, anecdotes and scenarios several times throughout the book and it got boring pretty fast.

Despite my boredom with Put on Your Crown, I was looking for something specific within its pages. I wanted her to elaborate more on body image and body acceptance. As a full-figured woman who has actually made a career for herself in Hollywood, she is widely seen as a role model for young women who has not given in to society’s need for thinness. Very early in the book she dedicated a section of her book to the topic, that topic being entitled Real Women Have Curves. She speaks about the pressure to lose weight that she felt throughout her career, frequently being told to lose weight by studio executives, but she had remained adamant on keeping her figure. As long as she was healthy, she liked her size. End of story. That is the Queen Latifah I was looking for. On the second-to-last page of her book, she erased that entire section on how much she liked the size she was and didn’t want to lose weight. In writing to her 19-year-old former-self, she writes, “Dana. Do you know who you are? Guess who you get to be! And guess what, you even get to lose weight!”

I’m sorry, but excuse me? Did I read that correctly? Wait, I went back and looked and yes, I did! For a woman who has solidified herself as a champion of body acceptance to end an entire book she has just written on that note is not only a letdown; it is absolutely devastating for any young woman who feels she is not pretty enough or thin enough and picked up this book thinking it would be something different.

Book Giveaway! Win a Copy of Foxy by Pam Grier [CLOSED]

Holly — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:24:43 +0000

This giveaway is now closed.

I recently had the opportunity to review the recently-published memoir, Foxy, by the ever-fabulous Pam Grier. Whether you know her from her roles in Coffy, Foxy Brown, Jackie Brown or Showtime’s The L Word, chances are, you have heard of Pam Grier and you have marveled at her ability to truly become the character she is portraying, either in film, television or even in theater.

Pam Grier didn’t come from a wealthy or already-famous family; she was raised in very modest surroundings in Colorado, her father was serving in the Air Force and she was moving around every two years at a time where segregation was at an all-time high. She had a dream to go to college and while trying to earn a living in California, where she had moved to attend UCLA film school and to become an actress. It is only because of her determination and extremely hard and merciless work that Pam Grier is the recognizable and admired woman she is today.

Now is your chance to get to know the Pam Grier you may have not known before and to get an intimate look inside her childhood, her upbringing and the road she traveled to move up within the entertainment industry. We have 5 copies of Foxy to give away thanks to the Hachette Book Group.

To win a copy of Foxy by Pam Grier, all you have to do is leave a comment telling us what movie or television show you loved seeing Pam Grier in. [REQUIRED]

Since Pam Grier has been appearing in film and television since the early 1970′s, this shouldn’t be too hard of a challenge and if you need some help jogging your memory, check out her entire portfolio on Internet Movie Database.

Additional Entries: [Leave a separate comment for each additional entry.]

Leave a comment telling us why you want to win a copy of Foxy.
Blog about this giveaway and about Foxy with a link back to this post and to our full book review.
Tweet about this giveaway. Feel free to use the following pre-written tweet or write your own and leave a comment with a link to your Twitter status.

Win a copy of Foxy by Pam Grier from @WomanTribune: http://tinyurl.com/2ecdloa 5 winners! ends 5/5

This giveaway ends Wednesday, May 5th at 11:59PM EST. This giveaway is open to all US and Canadian residents over the age of 18. The winners will be contacted by email and have 48 hours (2 days) to respond with their mailing address. If I don’t hear back from the winners within that time, another winner will be selected.

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Book Review: Foxy by Pam Grier

Holly — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:40:18 +0000

Pam Grier is known for a lot of things. She is known as a truly gifted, hard-working, dedicated and passionate actor. She is known for being at the forefront of the blaxploitation scene, for her role as Coffy, Foxy Brown and for Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, a role, it turns out, that Tarantino wrote specifically for her. She is also known as Kit Porter, the ex-alcoholic and known singer who turns her life around and truly re-discovers herself within a group of supporting and loving friends, who just so happen to be lesbians, in Showtime’s The L Word.

I knew Pam Grier mostly as Kit Porter, being much too young to have known her work as she was just a twinkle in a B-movie producer’s eye, but I was still thoroughly excited to get to know Pam Grier, the person and the actor, when I had the opportunity to review her newly-published memoir, Foxy: My Life in Three Acts. That in itself shows how Pam Grier transcends generations; her vast portfolio truly contains something for everyone, regardless of their age or their personal entertainment preferences.

Grier begins her memoir naturally, in the early years of her life–years 1949 to 1970. She grew up with her father serving in the Air Force, which allowed her family to see and experience everything this country, as well as other countries, had to offer, but at a time where people of color were forbidden to experience something as simple as public transportation. She recalled a specific experience when she lived in Columbus, Ohio at a time where segregation was at an all-time high and her family had been given a lovely place to live on base, but only because upon meeting her father, his superiors thought he was Caucasian, when he was really biracial. When they found out that her family were people of color, they promptly told her father that he would have to make other living arrangements off base. It was at this time, when Pam Grier was just five years old, where she realized that being a person of color came with many obstacles and she and her family ran into the racial wall throughout her childhood.

While Grier and her family moved every two years because of her father being active in the Air Force, she had always considered Colorado home, although she did spend some time in Wyoming on her family’s farm, which was also where she climbed onto her first horse and fell in love for a lifetime. While living with her Aunt Mennon, a compulsive, irresponsible and generally angry “wild child”, in the projects of Denver, Colorado with her mother, father and brother, as well as with her cousins, she was six years old when she was first raped by her three male cousins in the home when her mother was out and her aunt had left the children unattended. She was saved by the telephone repairman, who had come into the house and barged into the room when he had heard what was going on, after an appointment to fix the telephone wiring had not been cancelled. Grier never told a soul about what had happened to her, not fully comprehending what had happened. After being raped, she developed a stutter and consistently went out of her way to make herself unattractive to the boys, and to men as she grew older.

Her introverted behavior didn’t stop until she was much older and after losing her stutter, her introverted-self returned when she was raped again at eighteen years old, while out on one of her first dates with a family friend. Again, she didn’t tell anyone what had happened to her, this time, in fear of her family going out and killing her attacker and her need to keep peace within her family, as her parents divorced and she saw her mother struggling to complete her nursing degree.

After competing in and winning a beauty pageant, purely for the prize money she needed to fulfill her hopes of going to college to study film and to become an actress, Grier was offered the chance to move to Hollywood. She took the plunge and moved to California, quickly snatching up as many jobs as she could possibly work, as well as attend groups and meetings with UCLA students studying film on campus, although she was not a student.

While dating now basketball household name, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who when she met him was just named Lew, Grier landed her first acting job, a “B-movie”, The Big Doll House. After completing that movie, she was immediately hired by the same people behind the first movie, for her second, Women in Cages. It was also at this time when Lew, now Kareem, was consistently pressuring her into converting to Islam and to be an obedient wife he could take care of; but Grier never wanted anyone to take care of herself, being a driven and strong-willed woman with goals of her own that needed fulfilling. She and Kareem inevitably split when he gave her an ultimatum to marry him, or else he would be marrying a Muslim woman who had already been prepared for him–and he would be marrying this woman on Pam Grier’s birthday of all days. Needless to say, she declined his offer, as painful as it was, because regardless of how open her mind was to the idea, the more she read the books Kareem had given her about converting and what would be expected of her, the more she thought that the religion was degrading and oppressive towards women and Kareem married a woman he did not know for his religion.

Pam Grier mentions a great deal about the importance of the women’s liberation movement and her mother sending her information on the movement and the advancement of women. She also mentions a cameo appearance Gloria Steinem made on The L Word, asking who has fought harder for womanhood than Gloria Steinem? But these statements in conjunction with one particular statement really left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Almost off-handedly, Grier mentions her sexual relationship with a man as a grown woman and says that women should wait to have sex until they can be with a good man because if they don’t and have too much sex at a young age, they will be too stretched out for sex to be pleasurable. This is actually rather offensive, since feminism has a great deal to do with sexual liberation, as well as liberation from the patriarchy. To warn that you will be too stretched out for it to be pleasurable feels more like a back-peddle from feminism and sexual liberation. While this may seem like a very tiny issue and may not even catch the attention of most who read her memoir, it is still embedded in my mind and it’s still rubbing me the wrong way.

Grier has been involved in long-term relationships with many men who had not been worthy of not just her, but of any self-respecting woman and after reading about her experiences watching boyfriends like Freddie Prinze Sr. and Richard Pryor fall down the long and dirty road of deadly drugs and self-destructive behavior, you have to respect a woman for following her logic instead of purely her heart and knowing that as much as she wished she could save the men she loved throughout her life, that sometimes you have to let them go and make their own decisions and having to be more of a mother than a partner to a man is something no woman should be expected to do. It was when she was in a relationship with Richard Pryor, who at the time had been doing so much cocaine that it was present in his seminal fluid, that Grier was told by her gynecologist that she would have to stop having a sexual relationship with him unless he wore a condom or she could die because the cocaine was showing up inside of her and was destroying her reproductive organs. Throughout Foxy, Pam Grier consistently proves to herself that she is stronger and more self-aware than she could ever possibly give herself credit for.

Pam Grier is a survivor. A survivor of repeated sexual assault, as well as a survivor of cervical cancer that she found she had when dating a man named Phillip who let his mother live in poverty, having to carry one light bulb from room to room when she needed to see around her house while he was raking in millions, and who also stood Grier up after she had come out of surgery. But Pam Grier consistently triumphed, throwing herself into winning the fight of her life and consistently shining in every finished product that emerges where we are able to see her dedication and hard work pay off. Grier is an underdog; a woman who came from very little, but with one dream and a great deal of hard work, she succeeded in what she set out to do in her life and she just keeps on shining.

Buy Used Books and Get a Free Tote from Powell’s

Holly — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:37:38 +0000

Powell’s Books is an independent book store with six physical locations and a remarkable online presence. They are always doing what they can to help authors, readers and the planet. They are partnered with Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit program that works with publishers, paper mills and printers to make positive and green transformations within the book industry, like using paper that is recycled and/or certified by the Forest Stewardship Council instead of endangered forest fiber.

But that isn’t all that makes Powell’s green they also purchase Clean Wind Power, offsetting 165,000 pounds of CO2 each year, they have been using bio diesel fuel in their delivery trucks that make daily rounds to Powell’s stores and warehouses since 2006, every Powell’s employee is awarded a discount on bus passes, available as a pre-tax deduction, encouraging all of their employees to use public transportation for their work commute or they can be given an annual bicycle maintenance subsidy. In October of 2008, Powell’s began work on a 100kW solar project at the NW Portland warehouse, which is one of the largest solar arrays in Oregon, with 540 photovoltaic panels supplying approximately 25% of the building’s electric needs. And that’s just the beginning because Powell’s has a whole lot more greening planned to take care of everything from waste prevention to purchasing recycled products.

Needless to say, Powell’s Books is a pretty awesome, green company you can feel proud to buy from.

So why don’t you buy from them tomorrow while an awesome Earth Day promotion is going on? That’s right–an awesome promotion to celebrate Earth Day!

Until April 22nd, buy any three used books at Powell’s and get a free reusable Powell’s tote!

Buying used books instead of brand new books helps the planet because publishers don’t have to keep printing new copies of books and you’re conserving the copies already in circulation. If no one is reading a particular book you want to get your hands on, why not get it and of course, when buying used books, you can get them for a fraction of the price they normally sell for, which is a huge plus! Another great thing about Powell’s is that I have bought several used books from Amazon and more often than not, they are totally beat up and I’m lucky I could even read some of them, but with Powell’s, I never received a copy of a used book that wasn’t almost new.

And who couldn’t use more books, right? So get to buying and get your free Powell’s tote!

Spreading the Love of First Periods–My Little Red Book Giveaway

Holly — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:10:52 +0000

This giveaway is now closed.

Back in February 2009, I was introduced to a book that broke rules and exposed secret lives. It was a book of acceptance and stripped away stigma constantly being enforced on girls and women today. It was a book all about first periods.

Have you ever noticed that all commercials for menstrual products focus on how discreet their product is and because their product is easier to hide than their competitor’s from onlookers and those you may be around who could possibly suspect that you have your period, is the reason why you need to purchase their brand instead of their competitor’s? It seems that whenever the topic of menstruation comes up in our society, we immediately are told that we must be discreet about it? It’s rather odd that something that happens within the bodies of (almost) every single woman in the world is still associated with something that needs to be shoved to the back of the closet and is still something that women are told by society is dirty or vulgar.

There is no shame in menstruation and when I had the opportunity to read and review My Little Red Book, an anthology of more than 90 short stories, essays and recollections from women and teens all over the world, I celebrated exactly that.

My Little Red Book has become a New York Times best seller, which is refreshing and exciting, knowing that there are enough people out there who are ready to give up the stigma surrounding menstruation and who are buying this book for themselves, for their daughters, granddaughters and friends; and now I want to spread the love. Thanks to Hachette Book Group, I have the opportunity to give away 10 copies of the new edition of My Little Red Book.

To win a copy of My Little Red Book, all you have to do is leave a comment telling us about your first period. [REQUIRED]

Don’t worry, I know that there are some people out there who don’t want to divulge that information or who feel out of their comfort zone in doing so, so feel free to provide as little or as much information as possible. You can say something like ‘I was 12 and I was skiing while on family vacation.’ See? Easy! Also, for those of you who want to enter to win a copy of My Little Red Book but have never experienced having a period (hello fabulous men out there!) just leave us a comment telling us who you want to give this book to if you win it, or of course, if you’re keeping it for yourself. There’s no shame in being a man and wanting to read this book, after all!

Because we are giving away 10 copies of this book to 10 different winners, there is only one method of entry into this giveaway.

This giveaway ends Wednesday, April 14th at 11:59PM EST. This giveaway is open to all US and Canada residents over the age of 18. The winner will be contacted by email and has 48 hours to respond with their necessary information. If no action is taken and I don’t hear back from you, another winner will be picked.

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Book Review: The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer

Holly — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:57:17 +0000

This review can also be seen on the Pajama Mommy Community.

College admissions counselor Eugenia “Genie” Michaels is in her late-thirties–one of only two women admissions counselors in the office of Thoreau College over the age of thirty-five–and has been the committed, unwavering rock for her boyfriend of four years, Hugh. Hugh Spencer is a cleaned up, bordering on downright prissy English man who, yes, does resemble Hugh Grant; he teaches English at Thoreau and is also an aspiring writer. Genie and Hugh, while not married, work much like a married couple, as couples who have been together a certain number of years often do, and while working feverishly through the night on his novel, Hopeful, Kansas, while keeping a day job, Genie did not bring up the possibility of marriage to Hugh and opted instead, to simply wait, thinking that her patience would pay off in the end, in the sum of a romantic proposal.

Hugh finally makes it big, becoming a celebrity while his novel, Hopeful, Kansas tops the best seller lists. While on a book tour he is interviewed on national television by Barbara Walters, where she prompts Hugh to propose to the love of his life. The only problem is, he doesn’t propose to Genie.

While still in shock after not hearing from Hugh after watching him propose to someone else on national television beside Barbara Walters, Genie’s best friend, the loud, mouthy Patty Pugliese, who no one in Genie’s family seems to be able to stand, comes to Genie’s rescue. Well, sort of. As Patty shows up with tequila in tow, Genie calls Hugh to get some answers and is faced with his awful truth; that he had never said he was committed to Genie for the four years they were together and worst of all, that he had never been sexually attracted to her. Getting very little answers at all, Patty edges Genie into The Sleeping Beauty Proposal; instead of having to go through the shame and embarrassment of telling those she loves and other inquisitive minds that instead of proposing, Hugh had actually dumped her, she would let people think whatever they wanted and not correct those who assume Genie and Hugh are engaged. In short: Genie will pretend to be engaged to Hugh; but before Genie can actually agree to this, Patty starts fielding phone calls coming in to congratulate Genie, telling everyone that Genie is thrilled and excited about her upcoming nuptials.

As her mother and sister rush to “help” Genie plan her upcoming wedding, her brother introduces her to a beautiful house he and his colleague Nick have just finished working on, before it goes on the real estate market. Throughout the book, Genie and Nick have a flirtation going on that you can’t help but root on and as we see Genie go deeper down the rabbit hole in regard to Nick, we see just how fast Genie’s charade of her faux-engagement may backfire.

Sarah Strohmeyer has successfully written some of the most compellingly real characters I have come across in chick lit, possibly ever. They are characters who often take themselves too seriously, who question themselves, who stumble and who struggle to pick themselves back up again. Genie is a character who can easily be any number of women I know; women who merely do not know what they are capable of or who are too afraid to dig deep within themselves to find out. Her best friend Patty is a best friend I firmly believe we all would love to have; someone who continuously pushes us, but is always there when you’ve stumbled, and Hugh symbolized that mistake every woman has made at least once that they can look back on and laugh about–and thank their lucky stars they got out when they did.

The Sleeping Beauty Proposal is an incredibly fast-paced read that will make you laugh out loud and shows women everywhere that they can do whatever they want; like purchase their own home, go for that big promotion (and get it!) and buy their own diamond rings without having to wait for a man to either do it for them, buy it for them, or give them permission.

Book Review: Devilish by Maureen Johnson

Holly — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:25:36 +0000

Jane Jarvis and her best friend Allison are true blue friends ’till the end who always have each other’s backs and who can confide anything in each other. Attending Saint Teresa’s Preparatory School for Girls, the two are used to sticking out in a crowd, but now in the most positive way, being quirky in both their attitudes, as well as in their looks, so when the school holds their annual Big-Little celebration where Bigs (upper classmen) pair up with Littles (lower classmen) with the means to be more or less mentors to these younger girls, super confident Jane is immediately fearful for her less-confident friend, who she knows gets very nervous in any situation, not to mention an entire school event that, in essence, is based on your popularity.

During the Big-Little celebration, Allison seems to have it all together after showing Jane that she had received a cupcake in her locker with a note asking her to be a Big to an unnamed freshman. But Jane’s initial fears for her friend are reassured after Allison, waiting for her Little to come up and introduce herself fails to show, she throws up all over one of the freshman girls coming in her direction after nearly every other senior girl had obtained a Little. After Allison runs to the bathroom, Jane runs after to be there for her best friend, giving up any chance of getting a Little of her own. While trying to console Allison, who has barricaded herself inside a stall, a new sophomore student named Lanalee asks about Allison and after Jane tells her that Allison did not get a Little, Lanalee offers herself up, saying that she wasn’t able to get a Big anyway.

Lanalee seems to have appeared on the scene at Saint Teresa’s Preparatory School for Girls just in time. She is cool, calm and collected and even the most popular of girls in the school are fascinated with her, after she tells them a story of coming from another school primarily made up of rich socialites. She instantly becomes a great friend to Allison and to Jane alike, but Allison is spending less and less time with Jane and Allison starts to worry about this girl who she thought she had known so well; especially after Allison comes to school with her usual unruly hair cut into a short, dyed-red bob and is rocking an entirely new, obviously expensive wardrobe with matching, equally expensive accessories. Allison’s entire situation becomes even hairier to Jane when she follows Allison out of a small cafe, to see her go directly to Jane’s ex-boyfriend’s Elton’s house, who is now Allison’s new boyfriend.

As a series of weird and random events take place, Jane is left wondering what has happened to her friend to have made her become this completely new person she hardly recognizes (or sees) anymore. As her curiosity grows, she meets a very strange and at first, even somewhat stalker-like freshman named Owen and after ignoring him for a while, she realizes quickly that she needs Owen–because he happens to know exactly what has happened to Allison and is one of very few links Jane has to piece everything together. It is with Owen’s help that Jane comes to find out that Allison has made a deal with the devil–literally and it all started with that single cupcake in Allison’s locker on Big-Little Day. Now, it’s up to Jane to save the best friend she knows is still hidden inside of this new, but not-so-improved Allison, even if it means sacrificing herself.

I had Devilish sitting on my bookshelf for a little while before picking it up to read. I thought it was yet another young adult beach read; something that I would read through in a few sittings and be done with, it not really leaving such a lasting impression. Needless to say, I was wrong. The cover of the book is superb, especially since it does hold a great deal of meaning for the story itself, but you don’t know that when you first pick it, giving it that intriguing feel before you read it and a much more complex, full-circle feeling after.

It is an intelligent, fast-paced, thrilling read that will keep you turning the page again and again. This is the first book I have read by Maureen Johnson, but I am beyond intrigued and very excited to pick up another one of her books. She truly has a gift for playing with suspense and keeps you thinking and laughing throughout the entire book. Johnson’s characters, even her evil, do-no-gooders, are fun and will keep you switching sides on who to root for because you really like these diverse and very well-rounded characters.

Devilish was very much aptly-timed for me, just finishing it right after Valentine’s Day and not knowing exactly why I was craving cupcakes so much; it took my partner asking me what I expected from reading a book every day with a delicious cupcake pictured on the cover. While Devilish did initially present itself to be a not-so-remarkable read that I’ve read a thousand times before, it was anything but. I surprised even myself with how much I truly enjoyed this book.

Book Review: Dream Life by Lauren Mechling

Holly — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:41:09 +0000

Although Dream Life is a sequel to Lauren Mechling’s first book, Dream Girl, Dream Life is the first book I have read in the supernatural journey that is Claire Voyante’s world. That being said, Mechling first and foremost succeeded in creating a book that you can pick up and jump right into, without needing any back story from the first publication in the series.

Claire is a typical high school girl with a not-so-typical gift; ever since her grandmother, Kiki, gave her an onyx and ivory cameo necklace, Claire has been having black and white dreams that are major tips in solving some pretty influential mysteries. To make Dream Life even more intriguing, Claire isn’t just solving mysteries around New York, she (albeit, mistakenly) aligns herself with a secret society of do-gooders called the Blue Moons, who give her quite the mystery to solve–find a missing pink iPod that holds the secrets of a new and absolutely huge project to save the Brooklyn Bridge from real estate developer slimeball, Sink Landon.

Admittedly, Dream Life was a little slow to start for me, which I attribute to not reading the first book and really not knowing the who knew each other so well. However, the book surprised me with its ability to catch–and keep–my attention to the end. Claire is a remarkable and rememberable heroine that you find yourself rooting for in her entire series of problems, not just with solving mysteries, but also rifts with her friends, her complicated boy troubles and dealing with her eccentric parents. Through reading so many young adult books and seeing the amount of quirkiness young adult authors portray in their parental characters, it is my belief that YA authors write parents with the exaggerated qualities they had in parents growing up, with a myriad of additional attributes they wished their parents had and Dream Life had that ten-fold with a Paris-crazed mother with a love of the Zodiac and her parents’ insane Paris-themed house parties. But most of all, I fell in absolute love with Claire’s grandmother, Kiki, who reminds me of every genuinely close friend I have ever had that I could divulge anything to without feeling a hint of judgment.

Lauren Mechling not only presents a fabulous mystery novel that captures the attention of young adults and older adults alike, but also is the first author since the creators of Sex and the City to turn New York City into a character in itself. Being the wannabe-fashionista that I am (read: If I had money, oh the clothes, shoes and accessories I would buy), I really enjoyed the fashion appearances in this book as well. Kiki’s hand-me-down vintage dresses Claire wears and the footwear described in her best friend Becca’s wardrobe are enough to make even the savviest of fashionistas swoon.

I loved being given the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in Claire’s life; from her stance as a Half Moon in the Blue Moon society, solving a mystery that proved me wrong when I thought I had everything figured out, to finally figuring out who she is as a person and knowing her own level of morality, which makes Claire completely and utterly real.

I would recommend this book to anyone craving a serving of hilarious, page-turning, on-the-edge-of-your-seat read that lets you breathe a sigh of relief when you think things can’t get much worse.

Book Review: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

Holly — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:20:29 +0000

I must preface this by saying that I know very little when it comes to cooking, never mind French cooking. I know enough to prepare something with very simple instructions, but for the most part my partner does the majority of any cooking that involves more than boil water, add noodles, wait until noodles are tender and cover with sauce. In addition to my lack of culinary expertise, I also knew very little about Julia Child when starting this book, so one could assume that this would not be a book that I would be interested in, if not having to force myself through. However, I surprisingly took to this book very well because you don’t have to know pretty much anything about cooking, French cooking or Julia Child to enjoy the humor and biting cynicism of Julie Powell and her ability to bring you on the journey, the upheaval, the frustrations and the victories that became her life.

Julie Powell was just a temp secretary working at a government office full of Republicans in a post-9/11 era where, among other things like filing, she answered phone calls about people’s ideas for the September 11th memorial that had not yet been placed where the World Trade Center towers once stood. Living with her husband, three cats and what one could assume to be a minor drinking and chain-smoking problem, she worked a thankless job and lived a mundane life in a crappy apartment. She lived the life so many people are currently and will continue to live–getting by without doing much of significance.

But that’s where we get Julie Powell’s life all wrong. Of course she did not mean to do something of so much significance, but she did strive to do something. While being told she had a condition that would make it difficult to impossible to have a child after the age of thirty, and being twenty-nine, she set out on a mission to restore her ambition, change her life and save her soul… by cooking all 524 recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I.

As she details her way through dish after dish, through long and excruciatingly-detailed pages on the insides of marrow bones and how to really go about stealing the lives of lobsters before turning them into delectable French cuisine, Julie & Julia is the kind of book you pick up on a rainy day when you don’t want to get out of bed in the morning, so you don’t and allow yourself to relax the morning and early-afternoon away in bed with a good book.

A memoir was the perfect thing for Julie Powell to write, being an honest and often self-deprecating woman who bears it all and isn’t ashamed of it. However, on this same note she did write in the author’s note that throughout the book she did just make things up but of course, does not touch on what is made up and what is true-to-life. That did not necessarily have a negative impact on my overall enjoyment of this book because as I found myself laughing during certain passages and then wondering if that had really happened or not, I realized that if it had, well, that would have been hilarious and if not, then Julie Powell is equipped with a great and witty imagination–And she is.

Her blog that inspired the book, the Julie/Julia Project gained a great deal of media attention towards the ending months of her project. She prepared dinner for newspaper columnists she had admired and even missed the last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to do it. Her blog garnered a great deal of attention from people whom she called bleeders that cheered her on and also pleaded with her not to make aspic-and-anything ever again.

More-so than the art of French cooking, I was more intrigued by Julie Powell the woman. I enjoyed her anecdotes and expletive-filled tangents about her boring and thankless job, her varied and equally satisfying and satisfied friends and of course, a husband in which she portrays to be the textbook definition of perfect. While I had seen the trailer for the movie before picking up the book, I was actually quite thrilled to see that the real Julie Powell was not as wholesome as Amy Adams portrays on the silver screen.

Julie & Julia is a satisfying journey of discovery full of laugh-out-loud tales and lists of foods I am certain I will never let grace my dinner plate.

C. Leigh Purtill’s Bookish Experiment has Kicked Off (and We’re Excited!)

Holly — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:31:12 +0000

C. Leigh Purtill, the author of both Love, Meg and All About Vee (both of which we absolutely loved!) has just kicked off a bookish experiment that we couldn’t be happier about. Purtill’s novel, All About Vee was not written to be it’s own short novel, Vee was actually just another character in a bigger book entitled Fat Girls in L.A. and it goes without saying that while we did appearances of the other characters throughout All About Vee, the book itself was just what you could assume from the title–All about Veronica May.

But now we get to hear the stories of all of the girls we were introduced to in All About Vee with Purtill’s bookish experiment which will release a part of the sequel, The Rise of Ginny Cooper every Monday in January. Best of all, especially for people who already spend way too much money on books, The Rise of Ginny Cooper is completely free and is available for download exclusively at The Story Siren, a huge website dedicated to young adult books, reviews, author interviews, contests and more.

Download your free copy of The Rise of Ginny Cooper part 1

The Story Siren is also giving you an opportunity to win a signed copy of the first book in the series, All About Vee. From now until January 25th, anyone 13 years of age or older can enter to win the signed copy of the book here.

Book Review: The Imposter’s Daughter by Laurie Sandell

Holly — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:39:01 +0000

Laurie Sandell’s The Imposter’s Daughter is very much unlike any memoir I have read before. Firstly, it is a graphic novel, which I hadn’t expected, having not read a thing about the book before opening to the first page, and secondly, her story speaks so honestly that quite a few times I re-read a page thinking ‘Did she really just say that?’

A great deal of daughters have complete and utter adoration for their fathers; coming from an unconventional, single-father home myself, I know the feeling very well. Laurie grew up hanging on every syllable her father told her about his life; from being a former green beret, to having studied law at NYU and receiving his PhD from Columbia University to serving as an economist and adviser to Henry Kissinger. To say the least, Laurie’s father was an entirely and completely important man; she obviously stemmed from pure greatness! But it wasn’t until Laurie was in college and when applying for her first credit card, she realized she already had one… she soon found out that her father had taken out several loans and credit cards in her name, ruining her credit when she realized maybe all of her father’s stories of grand achievements and a life lived hard wasn’t all he said it was.

While her father was the essence of the word ‘con man,’ Laurie’s life was indeed full of excitement. She spent four years exploring the world, traveling to Israel, Japan, Jordan, Paris, Mexico, Egypt and Thailand. She took on many roles including being a stripper in Tokyo, seducing a woman in Israel and she grew addicted to Ambien and found herself in a downward spiral which included passing out in the bathtub night after night after an Ambien/wine cocktail. She, understandably, also had many man troubles.

Sandell started working for the very famous women’s magazine Glamour interviewing celebrities and it was in Ashley Judd where she found a wonderful friend who also ended up saving her life, suggesting she enter rehab. And so she did. It was in rehab where she had the opportunity to address the problems in her life that stemmed from her father and his lies, figuratively and then personally and she has also been sober for some years now. She slowly but surely pieces her father’s life together, meeting with members of his family with whom he had alienated himself from years prior and seeing as much of his big picture as she could.

I could not stop reading The Imposter’s Daughter. I opened it, started reading and did not put it down until the next morning, when I was completely finished. I have read the book twice, both times taking me no more than two sittings and during the first time, I actually carried it with me to the bathroom a few times. It is a story that has yet to get old and I definitely foresee myself reading it again–It is that good. I really respect the course that Laurie Sandell has taken in her life, whether it be good, bad or destructive because she did wind up on her feet and rebuilding an impressive professional career. She had the nerve to air her family’s dirty laundry not because she wanted to have something over her father, but because her story is one that needed to be told and was a pleasure to experience however briefly and she did it successfully, with wit and honesty.

Join Grand Central Publishing in a Live Interview with Sherri Shepherd

Holly — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:25:14 +0000

Sherri Shepherd of The View fame and also star of her own multi-camera comedy series on Lifetime, Sherri, can now add ‘author’ to her resume.

In celebration of her new release, Permission Slips, Grand Central Publishing will be interviewing Sherri Shepherd live on Blog Talk Radio on October 29th at 1PM EST. You can listen in and/or chat with other people listening to the interview on the Grand Central Publishing’s Blog Talk Radio page and you can also call in with any questions you have for Sherri by calling during the show at 646-378-0039.

Mark your calendars and make sure to tune in!

Book Review: You Deserve The Royal Treatment by Stacey Joiner

Holly — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:00:23 +0000

Stacey Joiner is a Licensed Massage Therapist and Certified Yoga Instructor, but she only entered that line of work after realizing what her path in life was and what she, in her heart, truly wanted for her life. She wanted to help people and with the release of her book You Deserve The Royal Treatment, she gives the people who have the pleasure of reading her book the inspiration to do the same.

Women have this natural instinct to nurture those around us, whether it’s our husbands or partners, our children, our parents or other loved ones we surround ourselves with, although we often don’t make time to nurture ourselves. We make sure the people around us happy, fed, clothed, that our houses are clean and decorated, we bake cookies for our children’s bake sales and we strive to perform above-par in our careers and satisfy our managers and bosses. We lead very hectic lives and if there’s one thought that crosses our minds the most often, it’s that days need to include more hours so we can do more every day. Women are keen to putting more pressure on ourselves than we are often able to deal with. When I had first started to read Stacey Joiner’s book, I had felt this way. I was working for a person who did not appreciate the hard work that I put in day after day, many more hours than I had first agreed to work, and all of this was at the expense of what I truly wanted to do with my life career-wise.

Stacey Joiner cuts through every excuse every woman has ever used to not treat herself like royalty; to not make time for themselves, to not relax with a mug of coffee or tea and enjoy the fall leaves that are changing color and falling from the trees in your backyard, to not take a relaxing bath, to not take an hour before bed and read a book, to not treat yourself to a massage that could save your sanity. While living in New York City after September 11th and in the transition from corporate citizen to owner of a massage and yoga practice, Stacey Joiner experienced first hand what chaos ensuing around you could do to your stress levels and overall to your life; she also distinctly experienced what women think when they see another woman taking the initiative to take care of themselves, their well-beings and their mental stability; she knew that what the doctor ordered for her at that time was a massage to relax herself while all of her problems, obstacles and impending triumphs stayed exactly where they were. When she told her mother that she was going for a massage, she thought she was crazy, but Stacey knew exactly what she needed–and she was right; that self-care made it possible for her to perform greatly in her practice and tend to the other priorities in her life.

At the end of every chapter of You Deserve The Royal Treatment is a section entitled ‘Your Royal Duty;’ at the end of the first chapter are instructions to log onto YouDeserveTheRoyalTreatment.com for a free, two-minute audio meditation, which I strongly recommend you do. As for the rest of the Your Royal Duty Sections, she gives a yoga pose–it’s name, what doing the yoga pose will do for your body and for your mind, and bullet points instructing you how to perform the pose. However, even if you currently don’t do yoga or aren’t familiar with it, reading this book is still, as far as I’m concerned, a royal duty in itself.

Stacey Joiner hits the nail on the head again and again, but if you only take one thing away from her book, let it be that if you don’t take care of yourself first, how would you ever have successfully tend to all of the priorities in your life? When you neglect your own needs, illness, anger, resentment, disappointment and frustration invite themselves into your life. Joiner is changing the mindset and in turn, the lives of women for the better just by giving them sound advice that Joiner herself had learned throughout her life and is now spreading the good word to women everywhere. She stresses the truth in the fact that it does not matter how much or how little money you have in your bank account, if you live in an extravagant house or a studio apartment, if you’re single or married, if you have no children or have nine, nothing can stop you from making the most of your life and truly living royally. In case you were wondering, from the time I finished You Deserve the Royal Treatment, I have since ceased working for a person who does not appreciate the hard work that I put in to their business and I have begun working, albeit a little too much, but doing what I truly want and love to do.

Book Review: Tribes by Seth Godin

Holly — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:30:54 +0000

Seth Godin is the most popular business blogger in the world. He has authored several books, one in particular, The Dip, was a New York Times bestseller. His books have been translated into more than 25 languages. He is the founder and CEO of the social network Squidoo.com. Seth Godin is a real leader and up until a few weeks ago I had never heard of him. Sure, I had heard about Squidoo.com a few times within the past two years or so, but after looking at the social networking site I dismissed it almost immediately, as did a great deal of social media strategists. However, when someone is a true leader they are not going to reach each and every single person instantly; it takes time to build a fan base and eventually, when you create or come up with an idea that appeals to people in their own, personal lives, your fan base will continue to grow well after your book hits the New York Times best seller list.

Tribes was recommended to me by a business colleague of mine and the day I heard about it and about how inspired and motivated it made her feel after reading it, I ordered it that same day. After a mere to days I, just like my colleague, felt an immense sense of motivation to continue on the path I have been paving for myself in my business and also, I felt the validation that home-based business people sometimes need in order to keep doing what they’re doing. When people start to think outside of the box and start to initiate radical change within any field, those people are often greeted not with the support that they deserve for being creative and industrialist minds from the people around them, most often they are greeted with criticism that emerges from people when they think that the ideas of others are worthless or won’t work or are too obscure and out of the box. It is these people who often stop the people with remarkable and out of the box ideas. As Godin pointed out in the book, people are not afraid that their ideas are worthless or won’t work, they are not afraid of the so-called unknown of their future; they are afraid of the criticism they will receive from the people who doubt them.

Tribes is not laid out like your standard usually boring business book; it is more fluid and laid out in chunky prose. It is to the point, highlighting an assortment of advice, admonitions, case studies, experiments, quotations and anecdotal stories. It gives you snippets of absolutely remarkable achievements of people who have proved to be true leaders and in Godin’s terms, they are leading a tribe of people who all see one person (the leader) doing something right, something that inspires, motivates and resonates with them and they begin to follow that person and support that person in whichever way they deem appropriate.

Tribes successfully reveals the entrepreneurial mindset and what is needed in order to succeed in a market that is against you; determination, motivation and the positivity that you can truly and successfully build your ideas into something remarkable. It includes case studies and short stories about people who have truly made an impact on social networks like Twitter and how the amount of people they reach with social networks is impressive, but in actuality, they had built that tribe of people throughout the past months and even years.

If you are an entrepreneur of any kind, a blogger, a person with a different take on something or a new, completely radical idea that you think no one believes in or could believe in, I could not recommend a better book to get you thinking and feeling like the leader you know deep down that you truly are.

Book Review: Law of Connection by Michael J. Losier

Holly — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:01:35 +0000

This is a guest post by Allen Van Wert, professional musician, author of technical guitar and songwriting books, and student of NLP.

Law of Connection: The Science of Using NLP to Create Ideal Personal and Professional Relationships is from the author Michael J. Losier, the same person who wrote The Secret. He is an NLP practitioner and attempts to simplify verbal communication between humans into four types of speakers/listeners. The neuro linguistic programming (NLP) portions of this book consist of the authors own use of NLP to get you to believe in his system, tell friends about it and get you to “love all of the white space as well as childish illustrations in the book”. He is basically using as many NLP tactics or “tricks” as he can to get you to “buy” his idea and feel like you are in fact part of it. While NLP practitioners are amazing at selling people on ideas or thoughts. I, being a student of NLP, found the tricks contained in this book at first to be quite comical because they are applied in such a blatant fashion, and then quickly off putting. I was hoping the NLP was based around the system itself to gain skill in communication. This however, was not true. The NLP is used as a method to trick you into thinking it will work and that it is based around a valid judgment system for communication.

The only NLP within the system itself is the idea of making a conscious decision to use certain wording to best appeal to a specific audience. The rest of it is common sense that boils down to people liking someone who “mirrors” them verbally. While I can see how this does work, there are some problems with the theory.

Here is an example: Just because someone says “see you tomorrow” Does NOT mean they are a visual type of communicator. They will most likely also often say things like “talk to you soon”, “have a good one” or “we will touch base again soon”. This implies various communicator types at any given moment. Basically, there are very few people who use the indicator statements consistently enough in one “style” that would even allow an accurate judgment on their communicator type.

The second issue I have with this theory is that if you were able to analyze someone and decide what communicator type they are, you would end up being a false representation of yourself just to “get what you want”. This has a bunch of big red flags with the words “malicious, opportunistic, control freak” written all over them to me. Using tricks to make someone else feel at ease with you or tricking them to feel like you are just like them is on the shady side and is why I tend to personally not use NLP or social engineering for the most part.

He gives a very short run through about physical cues and rapport building via mirroring but it lacks the real in depth substance I was expecting.

The book and its ideas are NOT going to make you a better communicator. However, the simple fact that you will have to become more careful in listening to other people and how you word yourself WILL make you a better communicator. If you take time to listen to people in general it will make them like you more anyway, people love to talk about or hear about themselves more than any other topic in the world. When you take more deliberate care in anything you do, including speaking, you will often yield a better result anyway.

The book would be interesting for someone who has no knowledge of neuro linguistic programming. They may “love the white space in the book”, or “tell their friends to also buy it”. I, being someone who already happened to study NLP can see right through the trickery and feel that the content of the book itself is a little shallow and misguided. There are many parts of the short book that are basically copied and pasted over and over and then there were slight modifications to each section for each “communicator type.” There is even a test right after all of the authors own NLP tricks to get you to love his work. This test left me thinking that I may either have a multiple personality disorder or that the authors theory about communication falls flat.

I am led to believe that this work was solely an attempt to generate income and had nothing to do with helping people communicate. It feels rushed, copy-pasted, redundant as a children’s book (see Johnny run, see Johnny play) and above all, the beginning of the book itself being used as one big NLP tactic against the reader was the biggest indicator of greed.

This book could have been summarized in to this short paragraph and would hold the same merit:

Act physically how other people you are communicating with are acting, use the same types of phrases they do, speak at the same speed and really listen to what they are saying before speaking back.

Book Review: Kinky Gazpacho by Lori Tharps

Holly — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:11:11 +0000

Lori Tharps grew up in the white suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, went to private school, attended a prestigious college, and continuously never felt a sense of belonging among her own people and a part of her own culture. While her life may not be too unlike the lives led by thousands of other American people, her accomplishments and her journey through life makes for an intriguing and captivating memoir.

Tharps’ memoir starts off when she is in the third grade, listening to her teacher tell the class about an International Day bazaar where the students would be participating by sharing their cultures in the form of food, games, decorations, and dress reflecting their native countries. Being the only black girl in her class and one of only a handful in her entire private school, the prospect of International Day weighed on her mind and brought her to the conclusion that on that day, her classmates would realize that she was different than they were; that she was less than them. Deciding not to attend school in costume that day because she did not want to attend school dressed as a slave, she went throughout the day in a panic, hoping that no one would ask her why she was not dressed in a costume reflecting her heritage. Throughout the following school years of Tharps’ life, similar thoughts and memories arise very much like her third grade International Day bazaar. She was raised in a privileged household and attended private school and for a fraction of one particular school year when she was nudged into the public school system, Tharps was received as a snob who was trying to “act white” by the other black girls she had wanted to fit in with, was ostracized by other black young women during her college years, and that was just the beginning of the racial dilemmas she would encounter throughout her life.

From a young age, Tharps became infatuated with Spain; knowing that Spain was her destiny and that she would someday live there. While in college, she traveled to Morocco with the American Field Service, but later studied abroad in Spain, where she came face to face with the culture she never knew Spain to have. She notices that a great deal of products, such as something as simple as a chocolate bar, has racist connotations, but when she brings them to the attention of Spanish natives, they are quick to declare that Spain is not a racist place. But after falling in love with a Spaniard, getting married, and having children, she spends a great deal of time traveling to Spain and her memoir becomes a detective story on how Spain had been involved in slavery. Throughout her life in Spain, Lori Tharps had searched for where the kinky mixed with the gazpacho.

I absolutely loved this memoir; it was a simple and lightweight read that packed a punch of reality that is undeniable. I devoured her memoir in utter anticipation of what her next move in life would be and was overjoyed over her boldness and determination to uncover a black past in a country where most of its citizen were unaware of the world that had come before and still revolved around them. The only flaw with the book is that it leaves you wanting to know and experience more of her life and general thoughts. Kinky Gazpacho will bring you on a journey that is so much more than merely a life led by a woman who dares to open her mouth and question her surroundings.

Book Review: No Matter What! by Lisa Nichols

Holly — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:09:33 +0000

I usually stay very far away from any type of self help-like books; I’ve always believed that people who just so happened to become successful in their lives felt it was their right to write a self help book for the masses based on very little personal merit and rode on the coattails of the fact that the mass populace had heard of them before (ie: Dr. Phil.) I’ve also become very fed up with books targeted towards women that repeat the mantra of “You’re great and can do anything you set your mind to… As long as you have a man in your life.” So when I had heard of Lisa Nichols’ book, No Matter What!: 9 Steps to Living the Life You Love, I was weary. In fact, I was ready to pass on the book completely because to me, a self help book of any kind is pretty much interchangeable for the next supposed “big, self help phenomenon” on the market. But I didn’t pass on the book and luckily, Lisa Nichols didn’t present her readers with regurgitated bullet points and run of the mill anecdotes and advice to reaching your greater good.

To put it bluntly, Lisa Nichols is real. No Matter What! is full of Nichols’ true to life stories from relationship struggles, to thoughts of suicide, to becoming a single mother, to more relationship struggles, to knowing what she wanted to do with her life and her own struggle to get there. She shares with her readers the truth about her life and what she had to do to get to where she truly wanted and knew she had to be. She sugarcoats nothing, which is what appealed to me the most. I cannot tell you how many times I found myself rolling my eyes while reading a book that claimed it could help me and my life because the situations in the book were too small to really put my own life in the shoes of the author. Everyone has had relationship trouble and many people have weight issues and while these two life situations come up in most everyone’s life, an author will not get into the heads of the readers to really help me without touching on the fact that these situations can become increasingly difficult to deal with. These situations vary in severity from person to person, obviously, but an author must be prepared to handle the severity of the situation that may be present in a great deal of their readers lives. That is the reason why I enjoyed Lisa Nichol’s book so much. She shares uplifting stories from her life as well as the heartbreaking, angry, and even shameful stories of her life and throughout it all, she tells her readers that no, it wasn’t easy to get past those roadblocks, but she did it and she has the same hopes for the people that she reaches out to through her book and through her speaking appearances.

No Matter What! is not merely a book that is to be read once and then forgotten; it is a resource that can be used countless times throughout your life. In every chapter of the book there are a series of action steps to help hone your nine “bounce back muscles” that are imperative to have throughout life because with these muscles (The Understanding Muscle, The Faith in Myself Muscle, The Take Action Muscle, The I Know Like I Know Muscle, The Honesty Muscle, The Determination Muscle, The Forgiveness Muscle, and The Highest Choice Muscle) you can achieve what you want to achieve in your life… No matter what!

Admittedly, I enjoyed reading Lisa Nichols’ stories about herself rather than the sections where she gave advice on how to change your life. She is a great writer and can tell a great story that leaves you wanting more information about the situation and what she did afterward, which is understandable since she is also the co-author of Chicken Soup for the African American Women’s Soul. I am assuming I would have enjoyed the Lisa Nichols memoir even more.

Leslie Patricelli Offers Up a Series of Bright & Delightful Books for Children

Holly — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:12:07 +0000

Leslie Patricelli is the author and illustrator of a series of bright, silly, engaging, and delightful books for children.

Baby Happy Baby Sad is perfect for toddlers and goes through the two most definitive emotions a baby has every single day–Happiness and sadness. It is a thick board book, full of color, highlighting scenarios that may occur in a baby’s day such as playing in mud, which of course makes the baby happy and getting a bath, which makes the baby sad.

However, my personal favorite of the two books is Higher! Higher! Higher! Higher! is an adorable tale of a young girl on a swing pleading with her father to keep pushing her higher and higher. It is a particularly silly but charming book that truly takes hold of a child’s imagination and the little girl continuously goes higher and higher on the swing. She goes higher than a giraffe, higher than a building, higher than the mountains, into the sky, and lastly, she meets a little alien and they high five. I absolutely adored this book; it is a definite must-have for any young child.

What I especially loved about this book is the fact that the book involves a young daughter and her father, rather than her mother. I am a stepmother of two young girls and in the society we live in, we so often see images of children and their mother’s and while that is important, we often overlook the importance of a child’s father in their life.

These are not the only books by Leslie Patricelli; she is also the author and illustrator of other books for young children including Binky, Blankie, BIG Little, Quiet LOUD, Yummy YUCKY, and The Birthday Box; all of which are sure to be hits with your children. Patricelli’s books can be bought on Candlewick Press’ website.

Book Review: If Women Ran the World Sh*t Would Get Done by Shelly Rachanow

Holly — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:50:34 +0000

As soon as I read the title of this book, the first thing I thought of was ‘Damn straight!’ and I am sure many, many other women thought that to themselves upon first glance, but If Women Ran the World Sh*t Would Get Done is a great deal more than just a completely spot on, oh-so-true title; it is a collection of wonderful, amazing, stupendous, inspiring, butt-kicking things that women have done, continue to do, and your motivation and inspiration to do all of the butt-kicking things you want to do.

Women have done a great deal of amazing, awe-inspiring, and out of this world things to improve the quality of people’s lives everywhere simply by imagining the world as they would like to see it and creating it. But despite all that women have and continue to do to change the world, we are still often denied the respect that we have worked for and undoubtedly deserve. Most often, we are not taken seriously and even degraded and ridiculed for the work that we do because of society that has yet to overcome the patriarchy.

Even if we’re not making international headlines, in Rachanow’s mind (as well as in all women’s minds!) we should be given Nobel Prizes for friendship. We should be celebrated for what we do for our friends, for our families, for our jobs, for the world, and yes, even for ourselves. Self love and self care are what a lot of women have trouble doing because naturally, we are nurturers; we take care of our friends and our families and we stand up for and battle for the civil liberties and rights that we should undoubtedly possess for our determination and hard work at our jobs but when it comes to doing for ourselves, we tend to make excuses and we tend to think that we have not done enough yet in order to simply celebrate how much we have kicked butt that day. Rachanow gives us all that kick in the pants we need to celebrate who we are and what we do every single day of our lives and gives us the permission we so often deny ourselves to celebrate what we do as well as who we do it for.

Every page of this book is full of inspiration and motivation to celebrate what we do all the time and highlights the courageous, mind-blowing things women have done. Women created The American Legacy Foundation in efforts to build a world where young people can reject tobacco and help your friends quit smoking for good. Trickle Up is another organization that was created by the minds and hands of a woman sick of hearing about eradicating poverty and who actually did something about it. As we continue to learn more about exactly what women have done throughout the years to change the world, Rachanow tenderly reminds us at the end of every section that we too have the power to do wonderful, amazing, stupendous, inspiring, butt-kicking things equipped with lined pages to remind ourselves what we do for our families, how we’ve kicked butt that day when we don’t feel as if we have done quite enough, what we would do if we ran the world, what we will demand in our lives that we are not currently receiving and refuse to accept anything less, and of course, what we will get done for ourselves–Because we deserve it for all we do!

If Women Ran the World Sh*t Would Get Done is a no-B.S. book that will jump start your mind to begin thinking about the world you would like to see and the steps you can take to create it.

Book Review: Getting Naked Again by Judith Sills, PhD

Holly — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:54:06 +0000

Relationship expert and bestselling author of titles including Excess Baggage, Fine Romance, and The Comfort Trap, or What If You’re Riding a Dead Horse?, Judith Sills’ latest offering to women is a big dose of reality, compassion, and humor served straight up.

Getting Naked Again is for any newly-single (or not-so-newly single) woman easing into romance, sex, and/or a new relationship after a divorce or a death of a spouse, but mostly and especially for women emerging from divorce after a lengthy marriage. Sills’ language is fast-paced and hilarious and will undoubtedly make you think that she is not merely a relationship expert, but someone who has met you, spent time with you, and then wrote a book about you and your life through the past months or even years. This book reads more like a group of close girlfriends with the famous, no holds barred dialogue between good friends that every woman experiences at some point in her life, or if she’s lucky, throughout her life. Getting Naked Again exposes that dialogue women have either with their friends or with themselves because sometimes what women think to themselves is not something that they would openly share with other people. Why? Because women do not like and will sometimes even downright refuse to put themselves in a place of vulnerability that is able to be seen by other people. Instead of seeming vulnerable, we appear strong, put together, confident, and self-aware while inside, we sometimes feel not completely sure of ourselves and even scared, especially when it comes to easing ourselves back into romance after thinking of ourselves as a part of a couple for so long.

Getting Naked Again will ease you out of whatever comfort zone you have been living in, whether you’ve thrown yourself into grandparenting, your career, a new career, compulsive baking, or a myriad of other activities women have a tendency to rely on in order to keep themselves afloat or just busy. It will guide you into realizing and accepting your situation and even embracing your singlehood while you test and try on potential long-term companions. Not only does Sills make you feel comfortable in who and where you are in your life, she gives you the Lincoln Logs to build your own future where you decide what happens in your life and how you transcend into the next phase of your life.

Getting Naked Again is the ultimate resource for older women (around age 30 and up) who have found themselves newly-single and need that one friend who identifies with what they’re feeling and is always full of great advice.

Women Step Out of the Closet of Shame & Start Talking Openly About Periods

Holly — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:39:47 +0000

Most women remember their first periods and no matter what emotion or range of emotions they experienced on that day, they can still look back on it many years later and smile–for one reason or another. No matter what a woman thinks about her period, the bottom line is that it is with us for the long haul. It is one of our long-term relationships and even if we love it or hate it, it is with us for the majority of our lives; and if we live with our periods for the majority of our lives, why do women (in general) constantly feel shamed by it?

A great deal of women will give you an odd, ‘what planet are you from’ look if you ask them to tell you about their first periods. Many women (and especially men) will visibly become bothered if you dare speak its name during a conversation. Most men downright refuse to go on late-night or after work runs to the store to pick up a box of pads or tampons and all of these situations deal with the shame that is associated with menstruation. Sure, our lack of openness can be chalked up to menstruation happening to be an awkward subject, but it goes deeper than that, especially considering that it doesn’t have to be and it only is because our society has let itself become a woman-shaming society.

I have always been very open about my body, my sexuality, and the miracles that the body of a woman can perform in her lifetime. I honestly did not know where this openness came from, being raised by a single father, but I always had strong female role models in my life, one of which was my father’s girlfriend who became my mother-figure throughout my childhood. She taught me that the anatomy of a woman is beautiful and despite the abuse I had endured as a child from my mother (and the reason why my mother has not been in my life for more than a decade) there is nothing to feel ashamed about when it comes to your own body because it is yours and no one else’s and no one can tell you that you are not beautiful and that your body is in any way something to be looked at as vulgar or disgusting; including menstruation. For a while I thought that perhaps my natural-born feminism was something instilled in me from my upbringing, but from running this website (and hello, have you noticed the name of my website?) as well as paying special attention to the women who come from my generation, I am noticing that there are a great deal of women who are coming out of the shame closet; who are demanding that the awkwardness associated with the bodies and bodily functions of women are what is truly shameful and that the period is something that should be spoken about openly and honestly. That is exactly what Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, a young woman of 18, did when she started asking women to tell her about their first periods.

Nalebuff realized with her own first period and hearing the story of her Aunt’s first period that she had kept a secret for over 50 years, that people needed to start talking about this and the other events that happen in a young woman’s life that people are simply refusing to talk about openly. Something needs to be done in this society that would let this silence continue for so long and keep so many women captive in its process of women-shaming. And so she started collecting stories from women and girls all over the world about their first periods and now presents us with an absolute gem, My Little Red Book, for women and girls of all ages who are either just about to get their periods, just got it and feel awkward about it, or for women who remember their first periods vividly and celebrate the right of passage that we as women have to talk openly about it.

There are 90 short stories in all and several names we’ve come to know through their own books and activism work make appearances in this book, including Jennifer Baumgardner, Meg Cabot, Megan McCafferty, and Gloria Steinem’s 1978 essay, ‘If Men Could Menstruate’ which originally had appeared in Ms. Magazine also appears in this book. There are stories of how many women thought themselves to be dying when noticing the small stain in their panties, women who “faked” their periods when knowing that their friends had gotten their periods before them, and my favorite is a story about a mother who when her daughter first got her period and felt awkward about it, she had to do something to mark the day and so she bought her daughter a vase full of red roses and in another story, her daughter talks about how special those roses were to here and how she had kept the vase for years after that first period. Another one of my favorite parts of this book is that so many women talk about the Judy Blume book, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret a book that you would think comes with all little girls at birth due to how widely-read and coveted it is, albeit a bit out of date for those of us who have never seen these menstrual pad belts Margaret speaks of.

My Little Red Book is a must for all women who have ever felt shamed or awkward about their period and also for every girl’s first period kit.

All of the proceeds of this book are being donated to charity because there is a lot to be done as far as making the bodily functions of women something that can be widely spoken about. There is also a great need for activism in countries like Africa, where because of the lack of menstrual supplies, a young girl will not receive the education that she is entitled to because one week out of every month will be spent out of school due to her period.

In the back of My Little Red Book, there is a section of books to read about periods including, yes, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret and there is also a Do More section where your support for organizations like Planned Parenthood, who are the largest provider of sexual education and health services in the United States, as well as Choice USA, a youth-led organization that seeks to protect women’s reproductive rights, can tremendously help girls receive the sexual education that they too are entitled to. A company that I would like to add, is Lunapads. Lunapads are based in Canada and make reusable, cloth and fleece pads. Not only do they make a transition from disposables to reusable pads easy, their pads are completely harmless, unlike disposables that contain bleach and synthetic fibers. Lunapads also does great work for girls in Africa by giving them their Pads4Girls Kit and each pad has a lifespan of 5 years or more that will help African girls attend school when they have their periods.

You can find out even more about this book and even share your own first period story at MyLittleRedBook.net.

Book Review: Be True to Yourself: A Daily Guide for Teenage Girls

Holly — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:14:30 +0000

I can vividly remember my “awkward teenage years.” It’s no surprise, really; they didn’t happen that long ago and looking back at those years objectively now, I have come to one definitive summary of those awkward teenage years–They are terrifying.

I recently experienced what happens when teenage rebellion and teenage angst is not simply a phase that one evolves out of, but a genuine problem that requires a sufficient amount of help with my 16 year old sister. There are hundreds of issues that affect the average teen every day and one of those issues is most often parents. Teenagers simply do not feel comfortable talking to their parents about important life issues. While that is unfortunate, I believe that it is a part of the growing up process to withdraw from your parents and is not something that can be helped because very, very few parents have that text book “perfect” relationship with their teens.

One of the most prominent activities I have always had in my life is reading. I have always had a genuine love for the written word and thankfully that trait has also emerged in my younger sister. I read Be True to Yourself and because it deals with the hundreds (366, to be exact) of issues that teens face on a daily basis, I knew that my sister would gain some wisdom from the book.

While the sub-title of Be True to Yourself is A Daily Guide for Teenage Girls, it really is just that. The book tackles one issue per day and gives teenage girls a daily message and is easily the companion they need during the years they need it the most, offering encouragement and daring teens to look inside of themselves for the answers to their true problems.

Be True to Yourself is the perfect gift for any teenage girl, no other gift could help them more and instead of being presented in a step-by-step self help kind of way, the format is a lot more fun and appealing to even girls who don’t like to read.

Write, Collage & Play Your Way to the Life of Your Dreams

Holly — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:45:20 +0000

As we take our first few steps into adulthood we are often told that now is the time to “grow up.” To get serious about our futures, get a stable job that we are most likely going to hate in a few months yet still find ourselves there after 20 years, and make sure we can support ourselves and the family we’re supposed to start as soon as possible with whatever person who is willing to put a ring on our fingers. Before you know it, we’ve been living the “grown up” life for decades and forgot all about those dreams we had for our lives while we were growing up.

Life is fast-paced. Life is much like going 120mph in a 35mph zone. It waits for no one and if we don’t keep up, life is pounce all over us without a second thought. As an adult who is determined to live the life I’ve always dreamed of for myself, I look at my family and the jobs that they have and I wonder about the lives they wanted for themselves before adulthood happened to them. So few of us really get to do what we want with our lives and I find that so unfortunate that I often find myself urging the people close to me to do what they really want for themselves; to go after their true passions instead of just living a life that gets them by and that is exactly what the author of the Permission to Dream journal, Lisa Hammond, has done.

The Permission to Dream journal is all about giving yourself the permission to go back in time and think about the dreams you had when you were younger; before life got in the way. It is a spectacular journal that allows you to write, collage, play and get back in touch with the arts and crafts child, teenager and/or young adult in us and really fulfill our dreams. If you knew that you wouldn’t–couldn’t–fail, what would you do with your life? Would you go back to school? Start your own business? Become a dancer or a veterinarian or an archaeologist? We are the only ones with full control over our own lives and while some of us may forget that at times, the Permission to Dream journal reminds us.

The Permission to Dream journal is a one of a kind journal with sections like ‘Remember Your Dreams,’ ‘Building Your Dreams,’ and ‘Living Your Dreams.’ Each section begins with a wish list and a prompt that will get your in the mindset to really let your dreams take off. It brings you from simply thinking about your dreams and how you want to live your life and into thinking about what it would take to accomplish it. Not only is the sky the limit in this journal, but it will get you thinking in terms of doing and no longer just wishing.

Book Review: Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson

Holly — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:22:38 +0000

Breathe My Name is both an electric and terrifying story that you can’t help but devour in big, heaping gulps.

Frances Robinson is a quiet, mouse-like eighteen year old living in a beautiful house with a loving and devoted family. She has a great best friend and a charming (and completely cute) boyfriend named Nix who recently moved from Louisiana. Her life is the definition of a full and happy but Frances has a secret. A secret about her past; about her childhood, her three sisters and a mother and father she had before being adopted by the Robinsons. She and her childhood family lived in the country of Fireless, a country that was beautiful, mysterious and made up by her birth mother. But as much as Fireless was make believe, the lure of the country led Frances’ mother into a maddening depression until she one day, in the quiet of a morning like any other, she suffocated her children one by one with a pillow. Frances’ mother led her into the bedroom where she would suffocate her too and when Frances saw her three younger sisters laid out on the bed, their eyes open and their bodies limp with the life snuffed out of them, she began to fight. She fought until she escaped and she escaped all the way to Alabama with the Robinsons; states away from her childhood home, her deranged mother, her father who was hardly around due to working long and strenuous hours, and away from her three sisters who had been murdered at their mother’s hand.

Frances starts noticing a man in a car several times outside of her house and outside of her school and one day she comes home to find the man standing in her kitchen with her parents. He tells her that her mother, who plead out of jail time for murdering her children due to mental insanity, is in a halfway house and has sent a letter for her. When Frances opens this letter, it is filled with several blank sheets of paper–Except for one that simply says “I need to see you. Please come right away. We have to finish.”

Frances makes the decision to travel the few states away from her family in Alabama to the halfway house her mother is now located in. In typical “curiosity killed the cat” fashion, Frances needs to see what happened to her mother and most of all, what ‘We have to finish.” means.

Her journey leads her back to her childhood–The good times that she had with her mother and also the last day that she saw her. It sends her through a mix of emotions and also feelings she never knew that she could have. Breathe My Name is a beautifully written novel full of surprises that intrigues you with its story the moment you start reading it. I loved the story and found it to be better than I thought it would be when I first read the synopsis on the inside cover. It also brought me back to my own childhood, having been abandoned by my own mother after six years of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. It arouse feelings and thoughts inside of me that I didn’t know I could have and I found myself instantly sympathizing with Frances and the mixture of feelings she was having and the nightmares that awoke her night after night about her childhood.

Breathe My Name is a novel that will chill you to the bone and then console you.

De-clutter Your Bookshelf

Holly — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:30:59 +0000

If anyone is guilty of keeping books as a form of trophies or just has a genuine dislike and even a fear of getting rid of books, it’s me. I have bookshelves full of books, some of which I’ve had since my childhood and while I know I will most likely never read some of the books again, books to me are like lives that I once had, lives that I borrowed or tried on for the amount of time it took me to devour them. Books have always been my escape from the routine of daily life and while I may not read those books again, getting rid of any of them would feel like throwing away a part of my life. But you know that you have a problem when books start taking over your house and while all of your books may have a special place in your heart, sometimes it’s just time to let go and in the process, you have the opportunity to share the stories in the books you own and even get new books cheaply or even for free.

Book swapping is great for people who want to get rid of old books and make room for new books. Granted, with book swapping you will pay either shipping costs or a set fee for books you receive. However, you can book swap for free with friends, co-workers or family members, but when you don’t have that option, book swapping services are great.

There are a few websites that all works in the same way. With these websites there is no membership fee, but you pay for the shipping of each book you send out and for each book you ship you earn credits that go towards other books you want.

FrugalReader is a book trading service with free standard membership that works like the above book swapping websites do but also includes paid premium membership that comes with some extra perks.

Title Trader works a lot like the other book swapping websites but is unique because it extends not only to books but also CDs and DVDs.

Novel Action works a lot differently than the other sites. There is a membership fee of $25 per year, which comes to a little over $2 a month. There are no transaction fees, but you pay $4.80 for the shipping of up to six pounds of books.

For the UK book lovers there’s ReadItSwapIt which you can give and receive books and pay only for the books you ship to others. It doesn’t use a credit system like the other websites and you are free to refuse to send books requested by others.

These websites are foolproof in helping you de-clutter your bookshelves. Don’t be afraid to get rid of books you either didn’t like that much or are sure you are not going to read again. Books don’t have to be trophies of how well read you are or how smart you are when there are so many other books out there to indulge yourself in.

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