Book Description
Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) is pregnant! She couldn’t be more overjoyed–especially since discovering that shopping cures morning sickness. Everything has got to be perfect for her baby: from the designer nursery . . . to the latest, coolest pram . . . to the celebrity, must-have obstetrician.
But when the celebrity obstetrician turns out to be her husband Luke’s glamorous, intellectual ex-girlfriend, Becky's perfect world starts to crumble. She’s shopping for two . . . but are there three in her marriage?
Customer Reviews:
BEST SHOPAHOLIC BOOK YET!.......2007-09-23
I absolutely LOVED this book...I thought it was her best book yet! it kept me smiling and laughing throughout the whole book!
library material - weaker than the first books.......2007-08-23
In my opinion, this is not the best Kinsella's work, even though it has enough funny moments to keep you entertained. And it's not even because Becky didn't "grow up", as some other reviewers suggested. In the real life, women understand what had happened to them only after the baby is born, and so many of us just love to be not practical when it comes down to "baby stuff". So, I wasn't bothered by the fact that Becky continues to behave as if she is still 14 years old (that's certainly part of the charm, and one of the reasons for me to read these series).
It's simply that in "Shopaholic & baby" the humor of most situations wears down, the plot follows the main line of the previous books, with the variation of Luke's ex-girlfriend coming to the scene... and some of these "funny" situations actually made me cringe because of their absurdity.
In addition, I began to be annoyed by the fact that Luke is so absolutely perfect and understanding. Sophie Kinsella attempted to make him less perfect with all this "affair" story, but somehow it did not work for me - any normal guy that I know would immediately see the difference between friendship and flirt... and probably be more than a little upset about his wife's 16 offshore overdrafts!
I was able to re-read the first books in the series, when I needed to relax and rewind, but not this one. I suggest borrowing the book from the library and waiting for the next installment.
Shopaholic & Baby.......2007-08-23
Just finished reading Kinsella's latest enstallment for Becky Brandon (nee: Bloomwood). Was as funny and entertaining as all of the other books in the series. If you're a fan of Becky Brandon, I'd suggest reading this latest additon.
Typical for the series.......2007-08-16
I enjoyed the first few Shopaholic books. But this one I started to get a little annoyed with the main character. Hasn't she learned her lesson YET? How can anyone be that much of an idiot with money? Well, maybe there are people out there like that, sadly. Anyway, the book was entertaining at times. I am probably just tired of the series.
Nice read.......2007-08-13
I love the Shopaholic series, I like Becky. I like how she is obssed with shopping, celebrity OBGYN and La Mer products.
This book is no different than the former ones, very fun to read.
Average customer rating:
- Wow...
- If I could give this negative stars.... I would.
- Ambivalent Review
- Unwarranted criticism
- choosing motherhood, the best option
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Baby Love
Rebecca Walker
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
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ASIN: 1594489432
Release Date: 2007-03-22 |
Book Description
From the bestselling author whom Time magazine hails as one of the leaders of her generation, an insightful, moving, and entertaining memoir of pregnancy and the decision to conceive a child after years of uncertainty.
Like many women her age, Rebecca Walker was brought up to be skeptical of motherhood. A young woman's future was limitless, their mothers' generation told them. A child could rob one of independence, economic freedom, professional advancement, and just about everything else worth having. But all the empowerment and reproductive choice offered to this generation, Walker now realizes, may actually have led to a new kind of struggle.
For fifteen years Walker recognized a persistent yearning to have a baby but feared actually choosing to do it. As a result, she almost missed what she now knows to be the single most meaningful experience of her life. In Baby Love, Rebecca Walker tells the story of her pregnancy: not just the physical evolution, but also the emotional and intellectual transformation from ambivalence to certainty to unconditional love. It's the story of the birth of her son, as well as the tale of a generation-a wise, thought-provoking, and above all engaging memoir by a writer who has proven herself to be an important voice of her era.
Customer Reviews:
Wow..........2007-09-04
As I was reading "Baby Love," I kept going back and forth in my reaction to Rebecca Walker's brutally honest confessions. One moment I admired the courage it takes to tell what she sees as truth, and in another moment I was appalled at Walker's poor judgment and values. The vitriol aimed at her mother is disgraceful, especially from someone who claims to value the mother/child bond so strongly. (It is telling that she goes so easy on her father by comparison.) Her critique of gay families is so silly and hypocritical that I couldn't even get offended by it. She crosses the line completely in the section where, even before her son is born, she says that she knows she loves her blood kin more than her adopted son. She should be ashamed for revealing this... it is as bad as the things she accuses her mother of doing to her. More than any of these things, I find Walker's view of pregnancy to be overly romantizied. I've known a lot of mothers and none has ever talked about gestation in such hyperbolic terms. I sense this is at least partly yet another vindictive stab at her mother.
And, yet, I still have that small amount of admiration that someone could speak unpopular opinions. That isn't easy to do in this culture. And the book is a page turner -- I read it in six hours. So, if any of this sounds appealing, read it.
If I could give this negative stars.... I would........2007-08-11
Baby Love is filled with annoying musing by Walker that disappointments, discourages, and enrages me. As a feminist who supports motherhood, I expected a writing of personal reflection that would be both individual and collective, that would inspire as well as deepen the conversation on motherhood, women, feminism, parenting, family dynamics, and other topics. Instead, Walker's writing focuses on her financial fears, her elusive search for resolution and peace with her mother (that carries such an adolescent bent that it is difficult to read without hurling the book across the room), and her very inward, selfish focus on motherhood. I can not condone such a privileged woman complaining of financial fears, nor can I condone her attempts to reinforce male privilege (evident within her interactions with her male partner). Even with her references to a ex-lover who is female, she lacks a consciousness of the multiplicity of the definition of family and of the privileges she inhabits within her heterosexual relationship. I wonder how her experience would be different if she was not only shopping, watching Sex and the City reruns, writing in her diary, eating, and being pregnant, but actually working without the luxury of a secure bank account or without the comfort of having several homes to habitat. She appears very adamant about being the victim in her life-- with her relationships, her own mind/depression, her mother, her father, her ex-lovers, her medical care (from a variety of health care providers), her difficulties. I long for a more mature perspective that incorporates part of the core of feminism which is to have an eye that sees the injustices within and beyond ourselves. I expected better writing, a less selfish and whiny perspective, and a more rewarding experience.
Ambivalent Review.......2007-08-06
I read this book in two sittings and have meant to write the review for several days now. I can't decide if it mostly narcissistice drivel or just occasionally dripping with narcissism. I enjoyed some parts of the book, but my copy is filled with comments penciled in the margins. I'm still processing the book.
I will say that some parts of this book would have made more sense if the reader read her previous book, _Black, White and Jewish_ where she tears into her mother and offers a memoir that will make you vacillate between feeling sorry for her and then wondering how in the hell she could be so damn egocentric.
That said, this book is like the book end to the previous book with the diatribe(s) against her famous mother. She is obviously working through her issues regarding too much freedom that she was given by her parents. What has troubled me between those two particular books (and I have read her other books/anthologies and many of her essays) is the way that she places full blame or most of the blame for her ambivalence and sense of not being loved on her mother.
Is it easier for her to attack her mother or does she just make it easier? I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think that she is overly harsh or perhaps not harsh enough on her dad.
Granted, her mother has said some unbelievably cruel things to her. Her mother was trying to raise her w/ choice, independence, and in the process didn't give her enough attention. And, it appears that RW blames her ambivalence and failed relationships wholeheartedly on her mother. I could have done with less of the Alice Walker blaming and more of her musings.
What really troubled me w/ this book was the poor editing. The editor should have dealt with the tired cliches and woefully eyerolling colloquialisms that were nothing short of over the top. Many of her observations made me think: btdt as mother of two children, but also in terms of the myriad of other (better) written memoirs of motherhood or pregnancy.
I'll suggest this book to others, but w/ a caveat. What I'm really looking forward to is discussing the book with other feminist mothers. I'm RW's age and didn't have the ambivalence that she shares, well, and not the privileges of an Ivy League education and the vast world travelling! It's worth reading, but there are countless other books that are ten times better: anything by Ariel Gore, for instance.
Unwarranted criticism.......2007-07-31
Actually, I'd rate it a 4.5. After reading the many negative reviews posted here, I was fully prepared to hate this book. Now that I'm done, I must say that I loved Baby Love and I cannot understand why so many people had a problem with it. It may not have been filled with warm fuzzy musings about motherhood, but it was her experience and her truth and I respect Walker's courage to share it. As a woman currently considering motherhood after years of being certain that it was not for me, I found her story both familiar and encouraging. I wish her and her family the best!
choosing motherhood, the best option.......2007-07-21
After reading the first few pages of Baby Love in the aisle of a midtown Manhattan Barnes and Noble, I bought a brand new hardcover copy. In recent interviews Walker has said that this is the book she wishes she'd had to read when she was in her twenties. I thank her for writing it. While much of the memoir focuses on the minutiae of Walker's pregnancy- foods eaten, clothing purchased, websites trolled and unnecessary arguments had - her larger commentary on the absence of intergenerational discussions between older and younger feminists about childbirth - save the advice that we have plenty of time - is what most interested and inspired me.
Rebecca, now at 37, is the daughter of feminist icon and celebrated author Alice Walker. Their tempestuous relationship underscores much of the text, and the trials of motherhood - chosen (Rebecca's) and seemingly ambivalent (Alice's) - and illustrates the complexities of the discussion Rebecca wishes feminists were having both amongst ourselves and, indeed, out there with the rest of the world. "Fertility is finite" she warns, and she encourages young women to take heed and plan having babies just as ardently as her mother's generation urged us to plan careers and develop ourselves into whole people. Her musings on motherhood have gotten her a lot of flack in the press recently. Most infamously, the chapter about her relationship with her stepson, Solomon, has gained attention for her assertion that the love one experiences for a child one has carried to term and given birth to differs from that of a child who has become yours through adoption or marriage or family arrangement. Rebecca Walker is not comparing one love to the other, but is merely saying there are different kinds of love, and all should be valued equally, even in their difference.
Walker's second memoir concludes with the birth story of her son, Tenzin, named after His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the statement "I have no regrets." Ultimately, Walker is encouraging young feminists to be as decisive about our choices to mother or not to mother as we have been about other parts of our lives. In a time when birth in the U.S. has turned into such a profitable industry for insurance companies, hospitals and advertisers, women's reproductive choices - from abortion to the choice to give birth and mother - are as important as ever. Baby Love calls our attention to a hardly discussed topic among young feminists: breaking through the ambivalence around motherhood that is fostered through the constant conflict between second wave feminism telling us that we have plenty of time and the larger establishment pushing us to be mothers because we can, instead of because we choose to.
Average customer rating:
- Interesting read
- Depends on Reader's Expectations
- Good but not great
- Recommended With A Warning
- Took a Left Turn For the Worse
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Tropic of Night
Michael Gruber
Manufacturer: William Morrow
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Binding: Hardcover
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Two Minute Rule, The
ASIN: 0060509546
Release Date: 2003-03-04 |
Amazon.com
This debut thriller should come with a warning--do not pick up if you have anything else planned for as long as it takes to read it! Tropic of Night is a dramatic, stylish, smart, and very strongly plotted novel, mixing anthropology, ethnography, sorcery, mayhem, and murder in an intriguing and wholly captivating story that ranges from Mali to Siberia, Nigeria to Miami, and never lets up. Jane Doe is a smart but listless graduate student when she encounters Marcel Vierchau, a French scholar whose lover she quickly becomes, following him to the strange world of the Chenka, a mysterious sect of Siberian shamans in whose society she quickly loses her scholarly objectivity--and nearly her life. Returning without Vierchau to the comfortable world of her wealthy family, she meets and marries DeWitt Moore, a black poet who accompanies her to Africa on a field trip that turns him into a powerful shaman, awakens her own abilities to commune with the spirits of the Yoruba sorcerers, and again comes close to destroying her. Wary of Moore's new strength, she stages her own death and becomes a faceless member of Miami's underclass, but just when she believes she's safe from his reach, a series of bloody ritual murders of pregnant Miami women convince her that she is once again his target--and that anyone who comes between them, including her adopted daughter, will also meet a terrifying end. Michael Gruber delivers a fabulous, wholly original read that will linger in the reader's mind long after the last page is turned! --Jane Adams
Book Description
Not since The Secret History has a novel so flawlessly married the ferocious intensity of an unforgettable thriller with the depth, daring, and nuance of our most celebrated literary fiction. Tropic of Night is a virtuoso performance -- an unforgettably accomplished novel, a masterpiece of electricity and ambition.
Jane Doe was a promising anthropologist, an expert on shamanism. Now she's nothing, a shadow: after faking her own suicide, she's living under an assumed identity in Miami with a little girl to protect. Everyone thinks she's dead. Or so she hopes.
Then the killings start, a series of ritualistic murders that terrifies all of Miami. The investigator is Jimmy Paz, a Cuban-American police detective. There are witnesses, but they can recall almost nothing of the events, as though their memories have been erased -- as if a spell has been cast on each of them. Equally bizarre is the string of clues Paz uncovers: a divination charm, exotic drugs found in the bodies of the victims, a century-old report telling of a secret place in the heart of Africa.
These clues point Paz inexorably toward the fugitive, Jane Doe, and force Jane to realize that the darkness she has fled is seeking her out, hunting her down. By the time her path intersects with Jimmy Paz's, the two will be thrust into a cataclysmic battle between good and an evil unimaginable to the Western mind.
Download Description
E-book extra: Afterword by Michael Gruber Jane Doe is nothing, a shadow. Once a promising anthropologist, she's now hiding from an unimaginable horror. Miami police detective Jimmy Paz knows that Jane is connected to the ritualistic murders terrifying the city. Together, they must battle a psychopath whose shamanistic powers can alter reality itself.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting read.......2007-09-30
Why was it interesting? It was interesting to me in the suspension of belief sort of thing. But the anthropology was hard to follow and more than I cared to follow about west african mojo. Jane's journal was very personal in an unpleasant out-of-her-mind way. The olo, ifa, ulene stuff was over-detailed and forced me to work too hard to decipher the plot in all of it. The author's expression of Jane's mind was unsettling and the racism of the book was too guilt-ridden. It was a little scary when Witt would "come" for her - that's a good thing. But in the end I was disappointed that the entire story was just about the magic and suspension of western beliefs. Certainly an intelligent writer, and intelligence appreciated. But this book was not my cup of tea.
Depends on Reader's Expectations.......2007-07-21
The extent to which a reader will enjoy this book depends, I believe, on the expectations one has about it. If you are looking for a pulse pounding thriller in the vein of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon or Silence of the Lambs, this is not it. What you get here instead is a thoughtful, carefully researched meditation on good versus evil, reality versus madness, and the spiritual versus the physical worlds. The story is told, in part, from the dispassionate objectivity of a cultural anthropologist and draws heavily on anthropology's style and language. Alternating points of view shift back and forth in time as the story traverses the globe from Miami, Florida to West Africa and Eastern Europe. The rituals of the indigenous peoples of these areas are extensively described in long expository passages that make little sense until more of the plot is revealed. The alternating chapters and shifting perspective dilute the suspense, and I had to force myself to continue reading. The female protagonist was difficult to identify with as so little was known about her for much of the book. Gruber slowly doles out only the smallest bits of information. Jimmy Paz, on the other hand, is a fascinating character and the only redeeming feature of this novel. The story's slow, plodding pace picks up somewhat in the final hundred pages, but, by that point, I found myself no longer caring.
Good but not great.......2007-06-02
I was thoroughly engrossed by the details of the Santeria religion which is described very respectfully and with what seems like in-person research. However the motives for the actions of the main character Jane Doe remained obscure to the very end. One sentence it seems took care of the preceding 400 pages of "suspense of did she know or not". Paz the inspector also has immense time to ruminate and rut, and then suddenly in the last 100 pages stirs into action. The extended plot development takes places as present narrative, diaries, background stories which are well written . I recommend the book, but it is too long by about 100 pages. In fact I went from page 300 or so and skipped to the last chapter. I knew just way too much about these characters and needed the action of the last chapter to make the book worthwhile. But as I say the brilliant presentation of the Santeria religion made the book very worthwhile reading.
Recommended With A Warning.......2007-04-07
The first book I read by this author was his newest, The Book of Air And Shadows, based upon that work I wanted to go back and read other offerings by Mr. Gruber. This was the first work he published and as I was to learn part 1 of a trilogy. The book is very well done however if profoundly disturbing crimes involving pregnant women are an issue you would find too troubling, stay away from this book. The crimes are not gratuitous slasher events; the author minimizes and nearly eliminates sensationalizing the brutality of the crimes, as they are events in a much larger work. But they are there and some might find them a topic they would rather avoid. Candidly had I known what the book was about, Santeria, African Witchcraft and its decedents I would likely have passed by this work, as these are not topics I normally have interest in.
Credit is due to the author as he has written a work that is expansive, highly detailed and very engaging. He brings the reader from Long Island and a home of dynastic privilege to isolated villages in Africa and finally to the City of Magic located in The United States. As he did in, The Book of Air and Shadows, there are several different threads that eventually tie together as the book progresses, again they take the form of diary, narrative and in this case trips in to places readers will have to name for themselves. If you would like to stick with proper names the author has provided a glossary of what I would guess is unfamiliar ground for most readers.
If you like the clash of, "traditional science", and belief systems that are measured in millennia, the tale of Jane the anthropologist, her husband and their trek to very dark places of human behavior this book is for you. The author poses some challenges to what is scientifically acceptable and that which is written off as hysteria. He also shares with readers facts of quantum physics that are simultaneously as true as any fact you may cite and also border on the fantastic. Facts that easily would have been dismissed as fantasy or magic a few short years ago.
Took a Left Turn For the Worse.......2007-02-22
I slogged through the first 50 pages confused and not really seeing what direction this book was going. Then thouroughly enjoyed the next 300 pages thinking I'd just discovered a great new writer with an interesting recurring character, Dectective Jimmy Paz of the Miami PD. But in the last 100 pages the author took such a drastic left turn that it ruined the book. Gruber took an extraordinary amount of time steeping each character in realism by doing so much research on his topic that you really believed the the characters. But then he chucks the whole thing with an absurd ending that starts way too early. The final 100 pages are not based in reality making them just plain stupid. And for that reason this book deserves to be panned.
Average customer rating:
- Very Pleased
- Most Helpful for conceiving
- The Mother of All Pregnancy Books
- A great tool for conception and fertility
- Good, but not the best
|
The Mother of All Pregnancy Books: The Ultimate Guide to Conception, Birth, and Everything In Between (U.S. Edition)
Ann Douglas
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0764565168 |
Book Description
The ultimate guide to conception, birth, and everything in between.
Unlike all those otherbossy, tell-you-what-to-do titles, this funny, entertaining guide presents expectant parents with all the facts on such perennial hot topics as pain relief during labor, episiotomy, and circumcision, and empowers them to make informed personal choices. It's packed with tools you won't find anywhere else, including:
- Charts highlighting the risks of using various over-the-counter drug productsduring pregnancy
- Lists of the ten best -- and worst --baby products
- A set of emergency childbirth procedures
- Forthright discussions of difficult topics like infertility, high-risk pregnancy, and pregnancy and infant loss that other books are loathe to tackle
Customer Reviews:
Very Pleased.......2007-08-27
I Was very pleased with this item and would definately recommend it and the supplier as well as use the supplier again myself if the oppotunity presents itself.
Most Helpful for conceiving.......2007-08-06
I have picked up and read several books trying to get specific information about the fertilization process. Alot of books just have the same generalized, generic information that you would get in an average text book, but didn't clearly clarify whether it was best time to try before you ovulate or right after. This is the only book I found so far that really gave me down to earth and very practical information about the most effective timing for getting pregnant and why. I loved that it was both readable and scientifically detailed in its delivery of information. I wish I'd read this two months ago. Alot of pregnancy books including What To Expect When you Are Expecting and The Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy didn't even touch on the specifics of trying to get pregnant. In fact the first chapter of the Mayo book just spends a lot of time scaring women over 35, like me, of how risky and statistically challenged our pregancies might be. These two books might be fine once you get pregnant, but they weren't helpful for getting pregnant.
This book in my opinion bridges the gap between a general info baby book and an infertility book. In fact the book points out that a lot of couples who think they are infertile just don't know when to start trying and how to properly calculate their fertility window. My friend and I are trying to get pregnant and the same time, and when I read her the section on getting pregnant, she was like....this is fascinating. This book is great for people who want specific scientific information in a down to earth delivery.
The Mother of All Pregnancy Books.......2007-07-12
This is the second time I bought this book and everyone says it is so informative. Thank you. :)
A great tool for conception and fertility.......2007-06-27
In a sometimes frustrating struggle to conceive, this book was my bible and Ann Douglas my guru. I read and re-read the chapters on infertility and conception over and over - drifting to other books but always coming back to the "Mother". She doesn't get caught up in too much technical jargon, doesn't preach or offer judgment, and presents a very large amount of material in a straightforward, easy-to-read fashion. The charts are great, and although there is some scary info in here about miscarriages, ectopic, stilbirths, etc., it's important to include, and presented very well. I haven't found it quite as useful or comprehensive for late pregnancy and preparation for birth, but it's still a valuable part of my (large) stack of pregnancy books.
Good, but not the best.......2007-06-21
The conversational tone of the book was a little distracting, and I didn't care for the way it was organized, but I appreciated the positive attitude it portrayed.
There is some good information, but there are other books with more complete information and better organization. My favorites are "1000 Questions About Your Pregnancy" and "Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy & Baby's First Year". They are both extremely thorough, well-organized, and work great for reference. Both of these books tend to put things in perspective, maintain a positive tone and really present you with all the facts. In general, I think the pregnancy books written by doctors are the best.
Book Description
For thousands of years, Chinese women have trusted traditional Chinese medicine to help them conceive. A recent medical study found that women who augmented Western fertility treatments with TCM, traditional Chinese medicine, doubled their chances of a succesful pregnancy. THE INFERTILITY CURE gives women an effective, natural means of supporting their efforts to get pregnant. Based on techniques and remedies drawn from traditional Chinese medicine, this program shows readers how to increase their overall health and well-being, strengthen the organs and systems vital to reproduction, heal specific conditions that may affect fertility, and even support Western-based reproductive technology such as IVF and hormone therapy. Dr. Lewis' easy-to-follow program begins with diagnosis, using an extensive questionnaire to determine each reader's unique diagnostic category. The next three steps involve bringing a woman's body back into balance through diet, acupressure, and Chinese herbs. By following this program, women will be able to create a welcoming physical and emotional environment for what they desire most: a child.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Resource for Alternative Fertility Treatments.......2007-08-21
I just put my 6 week old son to bed-- the result of following a combination of this books' practices as well as an endocrinologist' testing and -- I believe-- just plain grace from the Lord-- While I am sure you could follow everything to a "T" and not get pregnant, I found her holistic advice to be a great counterpoint to Western medicine's sole focus on getting your eggs, uterine lining, and his sperm to behave-- But I DO think it is important to start any fertility journey by getting tested to be sure that all of your "parts" so to speak are in order. (ie HSG, ultrasound for ovaries and uterine lining, post coital test, etc) What she proposes isn't easy and involves reducing stress, radically changing your diet, and taking gross herbs, but I found all of the treatments would compliment Western medicine. In my personal case, I followed all her advice-- with the guidance of a licensed acupuncturist. (I would NEVER attempt to decide myself about the herbs, acu points, etc. ) from reducing stress to diet change. In addition, once I had naturally achieved pregnancy-- I continued treatment and monitoring from my RE for low progesterone.
Good information.......2007-07-23
I bought this book while I was struggling with infertility. I'm happy to say that I finally have a beautiful baby girl. It's been a while since I read this book, but I attribute it to me living a more natural lifestyle and really thinking about how the chemicals around us could have affected my fertility. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a way to help the process along, naturally.
Didn't cure me, but comprehensive nonetheless.......2007-07-18
I can't say that I was cured after reading or applying the information from this book, however, I still suggest this for people in the midst of struggling. One of the things that I really needed when I first began treatments was to feel that I had a sense of control over what felt completely out of my hands. Reading this book gave me that enpowerment. I worked through the surveys and learned an alternative way of thinking about my body. I was then able to take that information to an acupuncturist and have an intelligent conversation about my condition.
While I know very little about TCM, this book was comprehensive and carefully thoughtout. I did not feel overwhelmed by the material and it provided me with an education on an area of fertility treatment that has worked for many others.
The only downside to this book was that it tried to deal with too many possible diagnosis situations. Many of the chapters did not apply to my situation and therefore not necessary for my reading. I did, however, pass the book onto others, making the entire book worthwhile.
Buy before trying to conceive.......2007-07-16
This book is one of the best that I've read regarding fertility. Since it's marketed as "infertility", I didn't read until I had been trying for a while, but recommend this book as one to read BEFORE you start trying to conceive.
Wonderful book and resource!.......2007-07-16
This is wonderful book for both practitioners and laypeople alike. I initially found this book through a patient and have used it extensively with every fertility patient I've seen since then. Dr. Lewis has information that ranges from dietary changes that anyone can get started with immediately to Traditional Chinese Medicine patterns in infertility and acupuncture protocols that any practitioner who uses acupuncture can use. This is also a great book for patients to bring to their doctors, naturopaths or acupuncturists. Acupuncture and (sometimes) herbs are now being encouraged by many mainstream fertility clinics and this book allows me to have much of the information I need at my fingertips.
If you are trying to become pregnant or if you are a practitioner that uses Traditional Chinese Medicine with your patients, this book is a must.
Book Description
Sandra Jordan offers yoga as a way of developing self-reliance and calmness of mind during pregancy. Practicing yoga poses with quiet mindfulness developmes a strong, supple body and the ability to breathe deeply and relax completely. Yoga for Pregnancy provides ninety-two lyngar poses carefully chosen for their safety and effectiveness during and after pregnancy. Each pose is explained concisely, illustrated with a photograph, and clearly marked with a code that tells which postures are advised for each trimester. This is a supportive guide to safe, gentle stretches that can help pregnancy women adjust to the phsycial and mental demands of labor birth, and motherhood.
Customer Reviews:
stretching for pregnancy.......2007-10-10
An Ok book, but I believe there needs be more information and excercise on the pelvic floor,and its importance during pregnancy, labour and afterwards
a so-so resource.......2007-09-25
I teach yoga, and had a 6month pregnant woman join my 2ndlevel class.
I wanted to be sure to treat her tenderly.
This book does have suggested postures to use for prenatal, dividing them up into trimesters, but it was weak in theory.
I was hoping to understand the theory behind why she should not lay on her right side, or why she should not lower her head below her heart.
Overall, as long as you follow the photos, it appears to be safe.
Safe and effective.......2007-03-19
This teacher is of Iyengar background. The photos are dated, but content is excellent.
Not quite what I was looking for..........2006-11-03
This is a pretty good book if you are going to be doing yoga at home...I was hoping more for a book that would give me suggestions on alternate positions for poses that I shouldn't be doing in group classes. All in all though, not a bad book, just not quite what I was looking for.
Not for teachers.......2006-09-29
This is a handbook designed for students. I bought it to build my prenatal teaching library and am disappointed. The pictures are dated but the poses are classic. There are also poses for postnatal.
Book Description
Halfway to Forever brings back two of Karen Kingsbury's favorite couples -- Waiting for Morning's Matt and Hannah, and Jade and Tanner from A Moment of Weakness -- who once again face traumatic issues. Matt and Hannah risk losing another daughter as they invest their emotions in a risky adoption, and Tanner dreads losing Jade when brain cancer threatens her first pregnancy. Kingsbury's latest heart-wringing novel tells of two familiar, beloved couples learning to depend on God daily, regardless of trials and troubles that mark the path halfway to forever.
You wept with them as they were Waiting for Morningâ¦
You shared their Moment of Weaknessâ¦
Now watch them face the greatest struggles of their lives.
Matt and Hannah Bronzan have found a new life in the face of devastating loss. Together with Hannah’s daughter, Jenny, they are finally moving forwardâtoward the adoption of a little girl. A younger sister for Jenny, a daughter for them to love and raise together. But just when the dream seems to be coming true, disaster strikes. Can Hannah survive the loss of another daughter?
Jade and Tanner Eastman love the Bronzans. Matt and Tanner are partners in a successful religious freedom law firm, and the two couples share a great deal. Not the least of which has been Jade and Tanner’s struggle to have children. When they discover Jade is pregnant, their joy is boundless. Until the rest of the news hitsâ¦and suddenly what should be a joyous event becomes a threat to Jade’s very life. Will Tanner come through decades of loneliness only to face losing Jade one final time?
Caught in a desperate battle against all that threatens to derail their faith and sideline their futures, these four struggle together to depend daily on God, regardless of what comes against them, as they journey halfway to forever.
Download Description
Bestselling author Karen Kingsbury brings back two beloved couples, Matt and Hannah, Jade and Tanner, in the devastating throes of a foiled adoption and a brain cancer diagnosis.
Customer Reviews:
This won't be a popular review.......2007-06-20
Please understand that I'm not down on Karen Kingsbury as an author. When I first started reading her work I found her an incredibly refreshing addition to the genre of Christian fiction. She was writing about real people with real difficulties and trials. Followers of Christ know that the life is not all a bed of roses nor did Jesus say it would be. For this reason, Ms. Kingsbury's work was greatly welcomed. However, the more I read of her novels, the harder I find I'm able to get through them. They are becoming formulaic and predictable. I could honestly tell you after finishing one chapter of HALFWAY TO FOREVER exactly what was going to happen and this isn't the first time I've predicted correctly when reading one of her novels. I'm also getting a bit annoyed at the amazing coincidences that solve the problems of the main characters. There's a glaring one in this book - SPOILER ALERT! How often does a person yearning to adopt a child in the foster-adopt system have a newborn infant literally drop into her lap? Please. Especially one who's mother conveniently dies and has no blood connections whatsoever. Then she gives us hundreds of possibilies where a father is concerned so that no one person can be pinned down to be a problem when it comes time to adopt. This turn in the story literally made me laugh out loud. The storyline of the woman fighting cancer was more believable but couldn't make up for the predictability and fantastical coincidences that solve difficult problems. I think the problem with Ms. Kingsbury's work is that she's expected to crank out too many books in one year. For that, her publisher is to blame. They've obviously found a cash cow and are going to milk it for all it's worth. I'd far rather see her cut down the quantity and get back to quality.
A Reminder of God's Grace.......2002-09-14
Halfway To Forever is another of Karen Kingsbury's beautifully-written stories of faith and love. In this emotion-packed novel, Kingsbury takes the leading characters from two of her former books and weaves a beautiful saga of faith under trial.
Hannah and Matt Bronzan (from `Waiting For Morning') and Tanner and Jade Eastman (from `A Moment of Weakness') are good friends who attend the same church. Tanner and Matt are high-powered Christian lawyers who run a prestigious law firm specializing in religious freedom cases. Both men are happily married with successful careers and loving families. The two couples have struggled with their own issues from the past but now they are entering a new chapter of their lives. Hannah has come to the place where she feels it is time to move on after the loss of her former husband and young daughter. She and Matt decide to adopt a little four-year-old girl, trusting the Lord for the adoption to go through without any hitches and to bring healing to their hearts. Tanner and Jade, after almost giving up hope of having another child, discover they are to be parents. They trust God for a safe pregnancy and a healthy child. However both families soon find their faith under trial. Matt and Hannah encounter problems with the adoption and Jade develops a cancerous brain tumor that threatens her own life as well as the life of her baby. Troubles snowball and each character must individually face their worst fears as they struggle to overcome their doubts in the goodness and sovereignty of God.
This book addresses the question: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" It also deals with the subject of loss and the death of loved ones. I found the author's answers satisfying and realistic, and she brought her message across without resorting to preachy sermonizing or sentimentality. Kingsbury dealt with the subject of past sin in a manner that never justified its serious consequences, showing how anger can rob us of joy and peace and how fear can immobilize and cripple us in relating to others. However she also revealed how God's grace can heal and deliver and bring good out of evil in the lives of His children. The story ended on a note of victory and I truly enjoyed this reading experience.
I felt the author exercised sensitivity and wisdom in handling her subject matter and developed her characters with empathetic realism. I found I could relate to many of the issues and situations she wrote about and I was especially grateful for the way in which she pointed to God's unfailing grace and love despite our problems and imperfections.
I've always enjoyed books by Kingsbury and I wasn't disappointed in this one. I hear she is writing a new series with Gary Smalley. Should be good.
This is a really good book for anyone struggling in their faith after the loss of a loved one or after a major disappointment in life; also for the person who needs a reminder of God's faithful love and powerful deliverance in the midst of confusing and oppressive circumstances.
A Reminder of God's Grace.......2002-09-14
Halfway To Forever is another of Karen Kingsburyýs beautifully-written stories of faith and love. In this emotion-packed novel, Kingsbury takes the leading characters from two of her former books and weaves a beautiful saga of faith under trial.
Hannah and Matt Bronzan (from ýWaiting For Morningý) and Tanner and Jade Eastman (from ýA Moment of Weaknessý) are good friends who attend the same church. Tanner and Matt are high-powered Christian lawyers who run a prestigious law firm specializing in religious freedom cases. Both men are happily married with successful careers and loving families. The two couples have struggled with their own issues from the past but now they are entering a new chapter of their lives. Hannah has come to the place where she feels it is time to move on after the loss of her former husband and young daughter. She and Matt decide to adopt a little four-year-old girl, trusting the Lord for the adoption to go through without any hitches and to bring healing to their hearts. Tanner and Jade, after almost giving up hope of having another child, discover they are to be parents. They trust God for a safe pregnancy and a healthy child. However both families soon find their faith under trial. Matt and Hannah encounter problems with the adoption and Jade develops a cancerous brain tumor that threatens her own life as well as the life of her baby. Troubles snowball and each character must individually face their worst fears as they struggle to overcome their doubts in the goodness and sovereignty of God.
This book addresses the question: ýWhy do bad things happen to good people?ý It also deals with the subject of loss and the death of loved ones. I found the authorýs answers satisfying and realistic, and she brought her message across without resorting to preachy sermonizing or sentimentality. Kingsbury dealt with the subject of past sin in a manner that never justified its serious consequences, showing how anger can rob us of joy and peace and how fear can immobilize and cripple us in relating to others. However she also revealed how Godýs grace can heal and deliver and bring good out of evil in the lives of His children. The story ended on a note of victory and I truly enjoyed this reading experience.
I felt the author exercised sensitivity and wisdom in handling her subject matter and developed her characters with empathetic realism. I found I could relate to many of the issues and situations she wrote about and I was especially grateful for the way in which she pointed to Godýs unfailing grace and love despite our problems and imperfections.
Iýve always enjoyed books by Kingsbury and I wasnýt disappointed in this one. I hear she is writing a new series with Gary Smalley. Should be good.
This is a really good book for anyone struggling in their faith after the loss of a loved one or after a major disappointment in life; also for the person who needs a reminder of Godýs faithful love and powerful deliverance in the midst of confusing and oppressive circumstances.
A Tear Jerker!!.......2002-06-04
I loved this book. This book was about how one couple, Jade and Tanner, dealt with Jade's pregnancy and brain cancer, and about another couple, Hannah and Matt, who were trying to adopt a little girl. This book was a sequel to 2 other books. I liked how this book integrated the events from the other books into this book.
This was an emotion-packed book, with Tanner struggling over the possibility of losing his true love Jade, and with little Grace, who Matt and Hannah tried to adopt, but lost her. I was moved to tears at their loss and at how Grace went through so much with her mother. I was moved to tears when Hannah and Matt got to adopt Kody.
This was a fine Christian book that dealt with Biblical principals with getting preachy. Kingsbury has a knack for doing that in her books. This book discussed Jade's struggles with whether she committed adultery by remarrying after divorcing (and if God was punishing her by giving her brain cancer), and with anger & bearing grudges, like with Hannah after her loss of Grace. These issues were resolved in a very sensitive manner. And then there was the struggle that Tanner had in why bad things happen to good people. I think we can all relate to these struggles.
It is good to have characters who are Christians, yet, are flawed. It makes it so much easier to relate to these characters, to know that God loves us, despite are problems and imperfections.
I look forward to reading more from Kingsbury. I can't wait for her series with Gary Smalley.
Halfway to Forever.......2002-04-25
I have read In A Moment of Weakness, Waiting For Morning and then placed an order for Halfway to Forever before it was released. Karen Kingsbury saved the best of this series of books for last. She stated that we were saying goodbye to Tanner and Jade, Matt and Hannah in Halfway to Forever. I don't believe I have ever enjoyed a series of books any more than I did these. Superb in every way. Karen Kingsbury is one of the best writers of this time.
Book Description
Eat your way to pregnancy! The Infertility Diet is a nutritional approach to fertility enhancement and miscarriage prevention. Endorsed by infertility doctors across the country, this book is based on over 500 medical studies linking fertility and nutrition, and is a groundbreaker in the field. The essential diet for anyone trying to have a baby. A caring gift for all potential parents.
The Infertility Diet: Get Pregnant and Prevent Miscarriage supplies specific nutritional advice for couples with problems including sperm count, motility, morphology and clumping; miscarriage; candida albicans; cervical fluid; endometriosis; estrogen/progesterone balance; hypothyroidism; luteal phase defects; ovulation; PCO; elevated prolactin levels; and prostaglandin. Learn what foods to eat--and what foods to avoid--to get pregnant and carry your baby to term.
Customer Reviews:
Pregnant after 6 years.......2007-01-19
After 3 failed IVFs, countless other procedures (including surgery), a miscarriage, and seeing 4 infertility OBGYNs, all of whom were considered among the top in their field, (and over $35K spent), we were told that the only way we were having a baby was with a donated egg. My husband bought this book, said it was our last hurrah, and followed the basic principles, which he distilled into a group of foods to avoid and foods to eat every day. We followed the diet for five months (it's easier to stick to if you know it's not forever) and I got pregnant in the sixth month. Our son is now 14 months old. My OBGYN calls him the miracle baby. We ate a lot of yams, true, but they were not the wild type, just the regular Safeway ones, and my husband fried them in oil and garlic. I think the best thing about this book is that the author is so positive and upbeat and makes you believe that you can conceive against overwhelming odds, which is the opposite of what all the specialists had been telling us for years.
I did get pregnant after one month!.......2006-05-03
I did not follow the diet strictly, but I simplified the diet by buying Amy's brown rice and tofu bowls which had most of the ingredients she recommended. I ate one of these every day for lunch. I also ate yams, yams and more yams. I got them from the local International grocery in St. Louis. I would think it would be hard to implement this diet if you are not in an urban area. I had been trying to get pregnant for a year before I tried this, and when I tried the diet, I got pregnant within a month. I agree that the diet is confusing, and it was impossible for me to follow strictly. But I did do the best I could and it seemed to work.
This book just makes sense.......2006-01-19
The previous reviewer's comments seem very harsh, and I can only guess she was hoping for a quick fix to her own infertility. How can one blame infertility on a good diet? I think the author makes a very solid connection between diet and infertility and her recommendations are good, but of course, one needs to be ready to implement change. If you are not ready to give up meat, of course you may be put off by her advice as the previous reviewer was. Animal proteins (meat) are not the only, and definitely not the best, source for iron, zinc and calcium. Any quick search on the internet will provide you with a list of alternative sources for these minerals...plus most women who are trying to get pregnant should be taking a prenatal vitamin, which will supplemant their mineral needs. But one should always look to food sources first for their vitamins and minerals as they are most easily absorbed by the body. I for one agree that food has a connection to infertility, plus who wouldn't want to "detox" their bodies to ensure they have a health environment for a growing baby.
Worth a Try.......2005-05-13
I bought this book and went on the diet during my second IVF cycle--after 3 years of trying. I got pregnant for the first time in my life...Unfortunately, I miscarried at 11 weeks, but this was due to Down's Syndrome & my doctors have told me it was not related to my infertility problems (endometriosis) at all.
What I most took to heart was the author's qualification that though the diet has not been proven by traditional scientific trials, the worst that will happen is that you will eat nutritiously while you're on it. I don't know if this diet got me pregnant or if it would have happened anyway, but now that I'm embarking on another IVF, I feel strongly enough about the diet that I am going on it again, just in case it was what made things work for me last time. (BTW, I did not follow the diet strictly after becoming pregnant). I also just ate the yams I found in the supermarket.
Maybe it's one of those mind over matter things. It is an effort, but I just feel like it's worth a try. Who knows?
Best of luck to all out there TTC.
Yams are sweet potatoes.......2005-01-21
Hi - I am interested in purchasing this book, so I have been reading all the comments. I just wanted to let everyone know that yams ARE sweet potatoes. The difference is that "yams" are sweet potatoes that are grown in south Louisiana. Hope this helps out some of you.
Average customer rating:
- Eleven Days In August
- Wonderful writing, sad and fatalistic story
- Fine characterization
- Major but Flawed
- The book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with.
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Light in August (The Corrected Text)
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Vintage International/Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0679732268
Release Date: 1991-01-30 |
Book Description
Joe Christmas does not know whether he is black or white. Faulkner makes of Joe's tragedy a powerful indictment of racism; at the same time Joe's life is a study of the divided self and becomes a symbol of 20th century man.
Customer Reviews:
Eleven Days In August.......2007-08-12
This book has been touted as being Faulkner's most accessible. Although a bit easier to follow having less stream of consciousness it still requires some patience and appreciation for nuance. Further, if you take the story at face value you will be missing out on 90% of what it has to offer. The themes run deep and the characters symbolic. I'd recommend reading exerpts from One Matchless Time by Jay Parini who provides some good insights into Faulkner's life and his writings. I'd also read the review written by A.Mason (below). This was one of the more violent and sexual books that I have read of Faulkner. Although I was surprised, I was in awe of his tact and style in portraying these events in a subtly gruesome way that takes the reader off gaurd. The climactic scene of Joe Christmas's undoing was Faulkner at his best. I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves good writing and is fascinated with the tragedy of the post-Civil War southerner.
Wonderful writing, sad and fatalistic story.......2007-02-08
This book was my introduction to Faulkner, based on a suggestion by my well-read aunt.
It is certainly possible to recognize the skill of a writer without necessarily finding the story he tells endearing. That was the case here. Faulkner's prose is often like poetry and his use of the language is unquestionably masterful. He shows his talent not so much in the words he uses - the vocabulary is actually quite plain - but rather in the way he combines those words. Simple adjectives are used to create compelling scenes and even more compelling characters.
Faulkner strikes me as the consummate observer. He doesn't moralize, he doesn't become overwrought, he doesn't offer judgement. He simply observes the way things are, not the way we want them to be, and there is a sense that we are being propelled towards not tragegy but simply reality in his writing.
Light in August is ostensibly about Joe Christmas, a headstrong and mysterious drifter in the 1920s deep South, but surprisingly we aren't introduced to him until several chapters into the book. The book chronicles the intersecting people and events that surround Joe Christmas in Faulkner's fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi. However, the author introduces us to so many other non-incidental characters that it is often hard to separate the leading from the supporting cast.
If I had to describe the characters in this book in a single word it would be "trapped." There is an overwhelming sense of stuck-ness we get in observing their lives. One does not necessarily get the impression that they saw themselves as stuck and hopeless - indeed many seemed to exist in frustrating ignorance of reality. But for the outside observer to whom Faulkner tells this story using his rich narrative, it is obvious that to a person, every character in this book is indeed on a treadmill. Slavery may be over, but the people that populate these pages are in very real servitude to themselves and their pasts.
The book is a glimpse at the deep South immediately prior to the depression era. We're presented with a culture that still hasn't quite come to grips with life on the other side of the Civil War and racialism is so deeply ingrained that although slavery is no longer law, the caste system it birthed lives on in the arrogant attitudes of the whites and the subservient squalor of the blacks.
The loyalties and alliances and relationships in this book are complex, as are the characters, and more than once I found myself wanting to slap these characters into sense. Without exception, each was their own worst enemy and managed to almost single-handedly sail their lives into the rocks. Although many were admittedly pointed rock-ward via their upbringing, they had ample opportunities to change course but continued sailing directly for the cliffs.
Although I have not yet read other books by Faulkner, I'm told this is the most approachable of all his writing, reading the most like a traditional novel. There is plenty of tension in the story, as the saga of Christmas and the other characters unfolds dramatically. Consequently, most people will find themselves turning the pages in anticipation of what happens next. Faulkner takes the reader on numerous side journeys, showing how the characters came to be what they are, and those characters often share certain aspects of their history in common, not just their present circumstances.
As the book draws to a close, the treadmill keeps turning with characters trudging futilely into the sunset, still stuck in the same ruts in which the beginning of the story found them. I'll say little more. To do otherwise is to risk spoiling the plot.
I can perhaps describe the overall experience here as bittersweet. The writing sweet, but the tale itself thoroughly bitter.
Fine characterization.......2007-02-07
I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. It explores the questions of race thoroughly without hitting the reader over the head with it. The characters seem real, neither demonic nor angelic. The impact of race is ultimately devastating to Joe Christmas and many of the people around him.
Major but Flawed.......2007-01-20
Faulkner's was a self-indulgent, irresponsible, uneven gift. But at his best, as sometimes in these pages, he is a poet and rhapsodist without equal, and we continue to read him. As a rational thinker he was a nullity; he had no practical insights, no social program, no agendum, no framework that could serve as a starting point toward a solution of the problems he so tellingly describes. This became abundantly clear around the time of his winning the Nobel prize for literature, when he disappointed and exasperated followers who were looking to him for guidance as to a beacon. At least Faulkner had the self-knowledge to know that he did not know, did not in fact even want to know. For knowledge was inimical to his art, not-wanting-to-know a precondition for it. That, and bourbon. The bourbon released his inhibitions and silenced his inner editor (its voice had never been loud), unleashing a torrent of words, much of it bilge but some diamonds too. The result in Light in August is an exasperating novel that contains some thirty scattered pages of the highest poetic value and one potentially great character in the person of Joe Christmas. I say this as a man of 54 who has read the book five times in the course of his life, having been introduced to it in high school. Of course I didn't understand much of it then, but its inimitable style and voluptuous confusion have beckoned me back to it.
One is attracted above all by the descriptions of the simple processes of life in all their earthy particulars, the negro cabins, the town lights, the smells, everything rank and dark and elemental. Except for Joe Christmas and possibly Gail Hightower, the characters are all stereotypes, especially the women. Intellectually, there is little of substance in the novel, its appeal is entirely emotional. There is a clean, bracing no-nonsense description of hypermasculine elements and experiences to which Joe seems to gravitate naturally. For instance, of McEachern's harness strap ("clean, like the shoes, and it smelled like the man smelled: an odor of clean hard virile living leather") and Joe's rapt expression when being beaten by it; of Joe's preference for the clean, hard air of men. Given his latent homosexuality, one feels Joe would have done much better as a votary of the strap. But there was a problem. Biologically he was wired for pussy, and no mistake. Even as a child in the orphanage with the dietician he showed this susceptibility: "On that first day when he discovered the toothpaste in her room he had gone directly there, who had never heard of toothpaste either, as if he already knew that she would possess something of that nature and he would find it." He was still too young to understand what Charley was enjoying, but when he came of age he learned that it too, like the toothpaste, was not always sweet ("periodic filth between two moons suspended"). Unfortunately, Joe had no use for the rest of the package and never learned to like and appreciate women as people. This was the root of his troubles with women and by cutting him off from a source of life helped to seal his doom.
Several reviewers have stated that Joe had some negro blood. This is an error and is refuted by the evidence given in the book, although it suits Faulkner (if not Joe) to make Joe out as a possible negro and even to foist him off as one. I think Faulkner's device here, of using the negro as the ultimate symbol of the outcast, is a dreadful mistake, so serious as even to call into question his integrity as an artist and his understanding of his greatest character. Why? Partly because it is too easy, too cheap a shot. It's also overkill, since Joe's alienation has already been powerfully delineated by other, artistic means. But the main, the fatal objection, is that raising the N question does great damage by introducing confusion precisely where the novel demands clarity and restraint -- it entangles Joe's problem of identity with something completely separate and other. This other is a serious communal problem in its own right and certainly should not be abused as a symbol in the way that Faulkner abuses it (neither should the word Christmas). Faulkner is monkeying around with things bigger than himself, things he does not understand, in an attempt to endow his work with a greater significance than he was capable of developing on his own horsepower as a creative writer; this is what I mean when I say he is irresponsible. Joe's problem is in fact his alone. Damaged in childhood and partly cut off from the sources of life, he has to renew and rebuild himself to a degree not necessary to his complacent countrymen, who by virtue of their utter mediocrity are granted automatic membership in small, stultifying, inbred towns like the one in which the action unfolds. Faulkner's punishment is swift and certain -- it is precisely here in the book that he begins to stumble, to overreach for a grand synthesis that isn't there. The performance is increasingly over-the-top until eventually artistic control is lost. He doesn't seem to grasp the limitations of his creations, and the book becomes a stew. Faulkner was nothing if not confused, and here alas the confusion damages the work. Where was that inner editor?
After the murder, a building momentum sweeps the reader on to the end. However, there is no true catharsis and no real tragedy, only an overreaching for a grand synthesis that fails. The reader is struck by the feeling that something has gone wrong, and on going back finds he has been the victim of a swindle. The book closes with that sucker Byron Bunch in tow with his damaged goods in the form of Lena Grove and her bastard infant. Faulkner seems to be saying that in spite of some mistakes, life has returned to its immemorial path. But if this is salvation, one must be glad for Joe that he is safely dead and out of harm's way. Not everyone is cowed by the eternal feminine, and Joe himself would have no trouble giving the Lena Groves of the world what they deserve -- the back of his hand.
So after forty years and five attempts at this book, what of value can I take away? Perhaps some thirty pages of beautiful poetry, and the memory of Joe Christmas. He sought to rebuild and renew himself through the transformative power of hard physical labor and I would like to leave him there, continuing now and forever on the roads he freely chose for himself, that run "through yellow wheat fields waving beneath the fierce yellow days of labor and hard sleep in haystacks beneath the cold mad moon of September, and the brittle stars."
The book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with........2007-01-15
Light in August by William Faulkner is the book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with. The book is very readable. Unlike some Faulkner stories, the story line is easy to follow. His verbosity is not as apparent in this work as in some of his others where lengthy sentences and tangent monologues within the story derail the reader. The plot is more typical than any of his other works. The average reader will appreciate the book and get a hunger to dip into other works by this southern master writer.
Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler
Book Description
There is no doubt about it—when breastfeeding and pregnancy overlap, the questions abound! In this, the first full-length book ever on the topic of tandem nursing, Hilary Flower gives comprehensive and in-depth answers to a wide range of questions related to breastfeeding during pregnancy and tandem nursing.
Drawn from a great reservoir of mother wisdom, this book pools the stories of over 200 mothers from around the world. Extensive reviews of medical research and discussions with experts in the fields of nutrition, obstetrics, and anthropology have provided the author with a thorough understanding of what we know and what we can surmise on this important topic. Each mother's experience will be a one-of-a-kind adventure, full of surprises and choices. Adventures in Tandem Nursing provides an essential source of support, humor, and information for the journey.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Resource.......2007-09-24
I am so happy with this book. I am currently nursing a toddler and am pregnant. It answered all of my questions and really put me at ease. Instead of pushing you to continue breastfeeding during pregnancy or after it presents information for your family to consider. It has pictures of positions for nursing around a pregnant belly and nursing 2 or even more. It's also filled with scientific facts on benefits of extended breastfeeding and the safety of nursing while pregnant. A must read if you are considering breastfeeding thru a pregnancy and beyond.
To tandem nurse..........2007-08-28
This is both a great resource and a strong support for mothers considering nursing both a toddler and a newborn. It works for our family and I highly recommend looking at this book before you make a decision on the subject.
Great information!.......2007-05-09
I was so worried when I found out I was pregnant and still nursing a 9 month old, but after reading this book it put my mind at ease. It is a great book for anyone even just considering tandem nursing. I highly recommend this book.
Support and Community.......2007-05-02
This book truly gave me the confidence to nurse through pregnancy and let my first child determine when to wean. I am forever grateful! I knew no one who was tandem nursing when we were expecting our second child and this book truly gave me the sense of community that helped me continue. The book gives solid information on nutrition, return of fertility and positioning through the various body changes your child will nurse through! Tandem nursing is such a rewarding experience, I hope this book will give others the confidence to give it a try!
Inspiration and how-to in one.......2006-09-01
I first read this book while breastfeeding my daughter and hoping for another child. It was inspirational, yet factual at the same time. I always enjoy reading stories from real moms, such as those sprinkled throughout this book. Now that my second child is here, I found myself using tips from it during the 5 months we tandem nursed. Some ideas will be helpful even for moms who don't intend to tandem nurse or nurse through a pregnancy, such as about setting gentle limits and dealing with twiddling. Hilary Flower made tandem nursing seem normal and possible.
Books:
- Simply Natural Baby Food: Easy Recipes for Delicious Meals Your Infant and Toddler Will Love
- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
- Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems
- Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents (Revised Edition)
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Unabridged Audio Program)
- The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent 4-CD: Part II: Finding the Path to Joy Through Energy Balance
- The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide: What You and Your Family Need to Know
- The Boys and Girls Book About Divorce
- The Code: The Unwritten Rules Of Fighting And Retaliation In The Nhl
- The Complete Eldercare Planner, Second Edition: Where to Start, Which Questions to Ask, and How to Find Help
Books Index
Books Home
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- The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
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- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The General and the Jaguar: Pershing's Hunt for Pancho Villa: A True Story of Revolution & Reven
- Individual Income Tax: From Law to Practice
- Priorities for coexistence
- Biodiversity in Canada: Ecology, Ideas, and Action
Shopaholic & Sister
Shopaholic Ties the Knot
The Undomestic Goddess
Baby Proof
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan
