Lifestyle Books

Wonderful story of Dale Evans, Roy Rogers wife, and excellent content, of a terrific topic... God! Easy read, lots of scripture references from the Bible. Hard to find book.

I read this book when I was running from the call to the ministry. It was a God send for me. The book contains many examples of learning through life's experiences to yield fully to God. The experiences and testimonies described in this book are real life, every day problems that all persons will face. If you realize that every person has a ministry to perform in their life and yet you simply don't want to submit to the work, this book is for you.

Thanksgiving. A time for friends, family, a long-awaited break from the pressures of school, and giving thanks for everything we have received over the past year. Or so it should be. For Waverly Owls, Thanksgiving is a time to kiss classes goodbye, party until the wee hours of the night, find solace in a long weekend, and avoid the drama of our oft-times bizarre and aggravating families. Just ask It Girls Jenny Humphrey, Tinsley Carmichael, Callie Vernon, and Brett Messerschmidt.

Jenny Humphrey never thought that Tinsley Carmichael would turn into someone she could call a friend, but over the past few weeks, the two of them have blossomed into bosom buddies who share secrets, give each other advice, and gossip about guys. Throw in Southern Belle Callie Vernon, and you've got yourself the Three Musketeers. Callie, Jenny, and Tinsley all think that they're destined to have a delightful three-day weekend in the city, but things go horribly wrong the minute they arrive in NYC. For one, Jenny's apartment is full of bald-headed, robed Hare Krishnas who are creepier than words can describe. Tinsley's parents have left town without any forewarning, abandoning her with no sign of an available hotel room anywhere. Callie, on the other hand, is destined for the time of her life. She's about to meet up with her beloved boyfriend, Easy Walsh, on the top of the Empire State Building. With no place to crash, the trio head to nerdy Yvonne Stidder's place to party like it's 1999. But partying isn't the only thing on the menu. Tinsley is determined to win back the affections of flirty freshman Julian McCafferty, Jenny is longing to put the memories of her relationship with Easy in the past, and Callie is simply eager to hook up with her soul mate once again.

Brett, on the other hand, is looking to simply stir up trouble for her new in-laws back in New Jersey. Spending the long weekend in her animal print McMansion, Brett knows that her Thanksgiving is going to be ruined, but when she discovers that she has the power to teach her future in-laws a lesson they'll never forget, she ceases the opportunity. Guess they'll soon learn that tangoing with an It Girl is never a good idea.

The closing pages of TEMPTED left me salivating to learn what would happen to our favorite It Girls - Callie, Jenny, Tinsley, and Brett. INFAMOUS picks up right where that storyline left off, providing new drama, gossip, and adventures for our favorite characters. As usual, Jenny is her typical naïve self; but with the assistance of romance expert Tinsley by her side, she may refrain from making the same "love" mistakes she's made in the past. Tinsley, while constantly trying to maintain a hard exterior, has finally met her match in Julian McCafferty - a boy who proves he may just be the one to tame our favorite wild child. Brett, having been exiled to Jersey, shows readers that, even when you're away from the city you can have a good time - at the expense of others. And Callie, with all her wild dreams of the picture perfect wedding to Easy is living proof that maybe, just maybe, distance doesn't make the heart grow fonder, but, rather, makes the memory of your current love dim with each passing day. Once more, Cecily von Ziegesar has penned a novel that is both delicious and sinful. With the IT Girls by your side, it's impossible not to have a holiday you'll never forget. A series addition you'll be thankful to get your hands on.

Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer

Infamous picks up where Tempted left off and Von Ziegesar doesn't disappoint. Just when you think you know what's going to happen next the complete opposite occurs. Several of the characters are changing, they're not who they used to be in previous books. Infamous like all the other books in the It Girl series does a great job of focusing on important story lines but also has enough balance so that no character is featured more than any other. I definitely recommend this book if you're a fan of the Gossip Girl and It Girl series. I can't wait to see what happens next.

This was one of the first Martin Waddell books that we got and we still read it over and over. It shows true to life family dynamics--and beleive me it happens that you think one or the other is watching the little one in a big family!

It was Sammy's day for minding John Joe but he got bored so he ran of down Cow Lane to his friend Willie Brennan he was meant to take John Joe but he took Splinter the dog instead.Mary was very mad as it was not her day for minding John Joe.she went down to brennan's house to find Sammy but he was down at the river.Mary couldn't go because John Joe was too small so then John Joe offered to mind himself while Mary looked for Sammy.After Mary left the brennans big hen came up to John Joe and John Joe was very frightened. He called for help but no one could hear him so he ran away from the hen. he jumped up on the wall and the hen followed etc. When Mary and Sammy returned they couldn't find John Joe so Sammy sent Splinter to look for John Joe.They eventually found him asleep in the corn. All ended well and mammy said there was no way she was ever going to loose her John Joe. The story is excellently illustrated every child I have read it to enjoyed it thoroughly

Juke Box is a picture book from France. My 5 year old son loves to look at the pictures. The Juke Box is located in a little restaurant. People come in with their money to play a song and the place is transformed into the scene in the music. Each person has a favorite and in many instances the person is defined by the music they like whereas other times the music the person will like is a surprise. The book shows the transformative power of music.

David Merveille's Jukebox is as much fun as a hootenanny. The fun all takes place in a little French looking café where the music brings people together. Each person puts his or her coin in the fancy, old jukebox and magically, wonderful music comes out. The words on each two-page spread are limited to the name of the type of music--cleverly drawn into the picture. One young man likes hip-hop and another gothic. The waiter likes marches and a quiet matron likes to sing Madam Butterfly. I can feel the styles of music from looking at the illustrations.

I do wish this came with a CD of music styles, but it could be a fun interactive activity to find music of the various styles in CDs already sitting around the house, from the library, or online. This book is a great addition to any music loving family's library.

i never have found a cook book that no matter what recipe i tried, the dish turned out amazing. 10 star rating. if it really is out of print, it is a shame. the beef fajita marinade, black bean soup and blue jalepeno corn bread are out of this world. i use these dishes for dinner parties and the guests are always very impressed.

i never have found a cook book that no matter what recipe i tried, the dish turned out amazing. 10 star rating. if it really is out of print, it is a shame. the beef fajita marinade, black bean soup and blue jalepeno corn bread are out of this world. i use these dishes for dinner parties and the guests are always vert impressed.

The entries, and average of four or five paragraphs long, are detailed enough to send the reader in the right direction should he desire a more in-depth treatment, and aquaint one with all of the fundamental points of any given concept presented. Very well done.

I think this is a very useful and enlightening reference book for many of the key and mind-twisting ideas in history. Reading this book is a real treat and I can lose track of time as I jump from one topic to another. Anyone who wants to build his humanities and to go on a journey to understand the society of his own time should learn from this book. The Key Ideas in Human Thought is really an amazing book and a jumping board for me in the way an intellectual should look at the world and his space in it.

You can see the joy on these kids faces. And the text seems to get to the heart of what dance is all about.

In images and words, photographer Jim Varriale has captured the essence of dance -- the irresistable urge to move to music with every inch of one's being -- in Kids Dance: The Students of Ballet Tech. His photographs capture Eliot Feld's scholarship students' infectious passion; their unselfconscious delight in dance as a means of personal expression; and their willingness to embrace the discipline and study that makes "jumping for joy" on stage a very real possibility. Attractively designed, the book is very well written. Varriale's text is both simply stated and engaging, offering just enough explanation and detail to complement the magical photographs they accompany. In repose and on the move, these NYC public school children invite the reader to share their hard work and dreams. This is a new kind of "ballet" book, a collectible for all dance lovers, regardless of age. I cannot recommend it too highly.

This was a ... sort of purchase. I bought this figuring I might find a few good dietary nuggets. To my surprise and delight, Natalie Savona has stuffed "The Kitchen Shrink" with loads of truly inspired advice and recipes. This is not the usual "stop eating xyz!" nonsense. Ms. Savona's guidelines--while not necessarily consistent--is nonetheless easy to read and easy to follow. Most importantly, her dietary suggestions just plain make sense--meaning readers are more likely to adopt them and follow them over a long period of time. In the recipe portion of the book, Ms. Savona really struts her stuff. There is an incredible variety of recipes here, and it would take years to try everything.

All in all, this is a pretty impressive volume. Well done, Natalie!

I had to admit that when I first encountered the title of this book, I succumbed to an abiding uneasiness. Who, I thought, knows better than anyone else what constitutes a healthy mind? What if there's some aspect of my brain that varies from the definition? What if I eat what she recommends and end up turning into somebody else? If I am what I eat, shouldn't I change what I eat only with the utmost care?

Further, in matters of nutrition, I am wary. I firmly believe that people do not have opinions on nutrition; they have convictions. Whenever I catch wind of a looming nutritional crusade, I run lest I be targeted as the infidel. There's nothing worse than sitting down to a meal you love and not being able to enjoy it because you're worried about what other people will think.

But Natalie Savona is not the kind of nutritional writer who thinks you should be burnt at the stake for eating burnt steak. She has attracted rather than repelled me with her concentration on the blood sugar/mood connection. In my case, she's preaching to the choir. I remember what all that ice cream used to do to me in my younger days.

The Kitchen Shrink is a beautifully produced, large format book, filled with Savona's food doctrine. Though Savona includes some interesting recipes at the tail end of the book, her writing on the food/mood connection is the gist. She comes to the point quickly. Blood sugar balance isn't the whole story, but it comes first for a reason. We've heard it before (but we can stand to hear it again): the "blood sugar seesaw" puts our bodies through an unnecessary daily workout. It makes our daily stress worse; it is itself stress. Stimulants like alcohol and coffee, sweet, sugary and starchy foods give us temporary highs, then more pervasive, longer lows.

Savona suggests adding certain foods to strengthen the adrenal gland and build up the body's ability to handle stress. "At least three times a week," she writes, "eat pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, hemp, and flax seeds and/or oil-rich fish, such as salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna, or herring." She follows with predictable advice about choosing fresh foods, then specific advice as to which foods, vitamins and minerals enhance levels of serotonin, dopamine, and other mood maintaining neuro-transmitters. She covers familiar ground in talking about good and bad fats, essential fatty acids, and the virtues of olive oil. But then she has an interesting section I found very useful: a complete strategy to use nutrients to give the body's "waste disposal" systems, like the liver, a needed break. Fiber and water are important here, but we should also avoid processed foods, too much alcohol, too many prescription and over the counter drugs, too much food in general. For the truly motivated, she lays out a complete 21-day body cleansing program.

After a short concession to issues of food sensitivity, Savona moves on to what I consider her most original work, individual sections on how to use food to alleviate specific mind/body complaints. She covers, in turn, energy deficit, premenstrual problems, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), insomnia, binge eating, brain fog, and depression. She indexes her back-of-book recipes to menus designed for each particular problem; for pre-menstrual problems, you'll cut down on salt and perhaps start your day with Savona's "Designer Muesli," an amalgam of oats, barley, rye, wheat germ, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, raisins and dried apricots, with soy milk or yogurt. Can't sleep? Have a "Baby Spinach and Goat Cheese Salad" for dinner, or perhaps "Quinoa With Roast Vegetables." For every mood, there's a menu.

Just as Savona was seeming too much the crusader for my particular taste, she presented me with a side bar, designed to get on my good side, that conceded the value of chocolate in maintaining good mood. She even admits that this "food of the gods" (as the Aztecs originally named it) "has been scientifically shown to have built-in feel-good factors, including mental stimulants such as caffeine and theobromine," as well as the important mineral magnesium. Even though chocolate releases coveted endorphins into the brain, Savona counsels moderation because of its high sugar and fat content. (We all know that with chocolate, moderation is more easily preached than practiced.)

There's plenty of material in The Kitchen Shrink to warrant a purchase, even if you've heard much of it before. The book is truly handsome, suitable for gift giving or displaying on your coffee table. My nutrition conscious sister has already appropriated my first copy.

Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

Barbara Boss has synthesized much complex information into a convenient little manual about living positively and purposefully in our world. By explaining in simple terms the current state of knowledge in physics and metaphysics, she gives us a picture of the makeup of the universe, how it works and how we fit into it. She puts into perspective current concepts and topics such as vibes, harmonics, meditation and self-healing and shows how integral these concepts are to attaining an evolved state of being.
She encourages us to get in touch with our metaphysical selves in order to strengthen our connections to the universe, each other, and our own "inner knowing." She made "mystical new-age" concepts make logical sense. There was one way in particular that this book struck a chord with me. The discussion of universal consciousness, the power of the mind, and "loving intention" uncovers what could be termed a "cosmic religion," one that fits all. It points up the similarity between prayer and meditation and shows the powerful potential of our minds, particularly when working in concert for the same end--that of universal harmony.

I believe anyone who reads this book will benefit from it. Dr. Boss will provoke thought, encourage the reader to find their purpose or refine their purpose on this Earth, and to pursue it with passion.

If you are curious about the low carb lifestyle, or have been living it for years, this is the book to read! Karen has done a fabulous job of putting together an easy to read, informative book that everyone can understand. From plan summaries to helpful tips, her down-to-earth explianations and experience are priceless. For only $5, no low carber should be without this book in their library.

"What can someone who's been living the low carb lifestyle for five years say about a basic book like Karen Rysavy's "Learn the Low Carb Lifestyle for 5 Bucks"?

BUY IT! This book is not only the absolute best short version of how and why low-carb works, but Karen's informal style and first-hand knowledge of the subject make this little gem a joy to read. It got me excited about low-carb all over again!

Whether you're a beginner, or a beginning-again dieter, you'll find "Learn the Low-Carb Lifestyle for 5 Bucks" a suprisingly meaty (LOL) and helpful guide to improving your health by controlling your carbs."

Andrea M. Mondello
Web editor, LowCarb Living Magazine Online
LCLmag.com